Steel and Sorrow: Rise of the Mercenary king

Chapter 334: Day of reckoning

Chapter 334: Day of reckoning

The day had finally arrived. For over a month, Arnold had led a relentless war, crushing rebellion after rebellion , justice had been meted out, and the crown's authority was steadily being restored to lands that had long since fallen into disarray and defiance. Yet, as triumphant as these campaigns were, Arnold could not ignore the scars they left behind—scars etched deep into the countryside.

He had been among the first to witness the rebellion's grim toll. The charred remains of once-fertile fields, the hollowed shells of villages razed to the ground. Even the few cultivated plots that had survived the initial uprising now lay in ruins, trampled underfoot by the very people who had once tilled them.

Still, amidst the ashes of devastation, Arnold found an unexpected boon. Politically, the rebellion had worked in his favor , as much as he hating saying so , fortifying his reputation after the defeat he'd suffered against Egil, now known as Lord. The sting of that loss had been compounded by his younger brother's whispers, intended to tarnish Arnold's name. While the nobility had largely dismissed the rumors, attributing the failure to Lord Cretio's poor leadership, the stories had found fertile ground among the common folk who would never waste an occasion to spread gossip about the royal family.

But now, with victory upon victory, Arnold had rewritten the narrative. His relentless campaign had not only crushed the rebellion but restored his standing among both the nobles and the people, making his brother look like a fool. The stain of Egil's victory had been washed away in the flood of Arnold's successes.