Herald of Steel

It was no secret that neither Ser Ballmer nor Anoon spared an ounce of love for each other, being frequently at loggerheads with each other.

And this mostly had to do with their personal characters.

Ser Ballmer was an open and upright man who blindly followed his given orders without ever questioning or second guessing them.

While Anoon was the complete opposite, an openly amoral and opportunistic man who cared about his skin much more than anyone else's.

And thus the two had come to butt heads from an early point on, where Anoon had challenged and even defied some of Ser Ballmer's orders, after finding them not conducive to his own safety.

It was from these interactions that Ser Ballmer came to understand Anoon's true nature and determined that the other would betray the family at the drop of a hat if it ever suited him in the slightest.

Thus the veteran man looked to find faults in every little thing that Anoon did.

And in every single such engagement, it was Ser Ballmer who always came out on top time courtesy of his much, much higher status.

Meaning even if Anoon did not do anything wrong, he would be asked to redo the task nevertheless, just because Ser Ballmer did not like the way it was done.

And if he did commit a minor foible here or was just a bit absent minded in his work there, well, then lord help you, for Ser Ballmer would see to it that Anoon was met out with the harshest punishment, the scars and lashes on his back lay certain testament to that.

Now, Ser Ballmer was not like this to everyone.

In fact, he was the complete opposite, usually being very fair with all the men.

It was to the point he even once court martialed one of his sons, for the crime of stealing from camp supplies. And then even went as far as to personally chop the man's head off to carry out the verdict.

This to many had seemed a bit excessive, because although theft in any military was always seen as a grave crime, with the listed punishments being very severe, such as either chopping off hands or heads, most of the time however, such infractions were dealt in a much milder manner.

Unless the volume of the goods swindled was too great or too precious, extra guard duties, more menial chores, corporal beatings, decreased rations, and wage cuts were the usual methods of punishments instead of the by the book rules, as it was kind of accepted that soldiers were going to steal from their supplies,

This was seen almost as an inevitable truth.

However, after knowing the one who had committed the deed was his son, instead of trying to save him, the weaponsmaster had blown up in rage in a manner he had possibly done only one other time in his life- when the Kaiser family backed by the Sybarian council had declared that opportunistic war on them.

He might have been able to come to terms with it if it had been some poor, destitute recruit who was trying to make ends meet because these grunts really did not earn enough to lead a comfortable life, especially when they were starting out.

But his son was different.

Although Ser Ballmer was not filthy rich like the nobles, his pay was well enough, and combining that with the various free benefits granted to him such as a huge house with all the slaves and servants included, enabling his family to lead a very decent life, the modern equivalent of an upper middle class.

This was not luxurious by any stretch of the imagination, but they were also far from being so needy and poor that it warranted his son from stealing.

Meaning the boy had stolen out of greed.

And it was because of this detestable fact that even though the stolen amount was nothing too special, the boy's father chose to be very, very strict.

He saw this behavior as an affront to his abilities as a military commander who was unable to maintain discipline among his ranks, an affront to his honor as a father who was unable to teach his son the proper moral values, an affront to the Margraves family who were his benefactors and had given him so many things, and even an affront to the gods.

Thus instead of showing any sort of leniency, Ser Ballmer did the exact opposite- going ahead to carry out the verdict by the book.

And it happened despite some very high level interference, with even the former Head of the Margraves family speaking out for the boy, asking Ser Ballmer to look past this small incident.

"The boy's a kid! His hands probably just wandered without him even realizing it. Look over it, Ballmer. It was a small amount." The regal nobleman went to provide the excuse for the father.

However Ser Ballmer was adamant, claiming, "What he stole was definitely not insignificant. This is my failure as a father, And so it is I who must rectify it. I pray my lord will not interfere in our family affairs."

By claiming as such, Ser Ballmer made the entire thing personal and went on to show that he made no exception for anyone- not even his son.

In this way, although he lost a son that day, he gained immense respect among all the men that served him and it could be said that without that incident, he would not have gotten the position where he was now.

Thus his treatment of Anoon was all the more shocking, his one weakness where he was unable to separate personal feelings from his profession.

Ser Ballmer truly believed that Anoon was a menace to the men, a plague that ate at the morale of the unit and thus did everything he could to get him kicked out.

The veteran weaponsmater would have certainly seen Anoon buried, if not at least exiled if not by sheer luck he had managed to befriend Ser Robert, who, due to being the old Margraves lord's personal bodyguard was able to bring the mighty lord's attention to the case.

The head of the Margraves family found the black man's talents in warfare and tactics to be of much value, thus, with just a bit of help from the outside, Anoon not only managed to survive Ser Ballmer's restless hounding but even rise from the post of a mere captured slave relegated to sweeping the decks, being a coolie and carrying out other menial takes, to a free man, then a commoner and then to a bon a fide military officer.

Sure this was nothing like Alexander's who went from rags to riches virtually overnight, but still, given only the primitive tools he had to work with, only his own brains and brawl, Anoon's rise was quite impressive.

"Agggghhhh!" And now, as the man stabbed his large dagger into the neck of his long hated nemesis, the black man could not help but twist his lips into a cruel, relieved grin.

This was something the man had dreamed of doing for not years but literal decades, but never thought would ever come true.

One because the man was too high ranked and two- frankly he was jsut too skilled.

Any assassination would more than likely be turned on its head.

So Anoon did not dare.

Until that is today.

Due to the circumstances, Ser Ballmer had been unarmed, and much more than that, he was threatening to get in his lord's way, thus drawing the ire of many around.

How could Anoon let go with prime opportunity?

Thus the ever opportunistic man jumped at the perceived chance like a crouched tiger, claws drawn and maw open wide, driving his weapon in with an immense bout of ecstasy that he had rarely felt in his life.

The strike cut the major arteries instantly and Ser Ballmer plopped down to the floor moments later, blood rushing out of his wound like a gushing lake, his body twitching like a dying fish due to the ebb and flow of the crimson liquid.

Ser Ballmer had an incredulous look on his face even as he died, eyes snapped wide open in utter shock, still unable to comprehend how he could have been got.

This was not how a man as skilled as him was supposed to go.

And his shock was shared by all those around him, who could believe one of the best warriors in the land had just been killed in such a sneaky way.

It brought quite an unpleasant taste to their mouths.

"Anoon… you… this…" Lord Bernard was the first to break out of his trance, turning to look at the culprit in equal volumes of fright and surprise.

The man was not as much afraid of what the man had done as he was of what he was showing he could do.

The dashing man rightfully feared for his life.

"We had no choice. He was going to alert Lord Parker." The accused on the other hand was very composed, and retrieving his dagger only pronounced so in a cool, light voice.

Then quickly urged, "Call the other ship. We are short on time. Hurry"

Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!

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