As the master and slave celebrated over their dreams imminently about to come true, with Mohshin even sneakily partaking in some fine liquor given his young master was down for the count, neither did for once doubt Perseus's conviction.
'He has sworn to the gods,' Both thought.
Sure the sharp Mohshin did doubt for a second that Leosydas had accepted his demands too easily.
But he only chalked it up to them being that desperate.
After all, what was one noble title in exchange for conquering the city of their dreams?
And thus as the days rolled by, they patiently waited for the events to unfold as they hoped.
While Perseus's scouts over the next seven days worked tirelessly to scour a part of the Cisran hills and try to find a potential path through all the meandering paths along the western side of the city.
And completing their rigorous survey, presented their summarised report to Perseus, which was read out aloud to him by his adjutant.
"My lords," The man began by addressing the war council, and then unable to control his emotions, let out a great, big smile as he said, "Good news! The scouts indeed have found that there is a trail that leads all the way up to hills and into the city!"
And just this confirmation was enough to make many eyes become wide with joy and smiles blossom in stony faces.
It was truly good news and they knew it.
And so the adjutant paused here to let others enjoy that feeling, before continuing,
"Aheem, the scouts have indeed found a way up, but there is a lot of foliage and woods along the way, which they could not properly survey given the winter and the short time frame."
"Plus they could not also get too close to the enemy in fear of alerting the enemy. So we could not chart an exact path." Here the adjutant highlighted some of the uncertainties with the findings before quickly reassuring the room,
"But if the information given to us is true, and we will just have to climb up the hill to reach the city, we believe we have found the exact hill to launch the sneak attack from."
"In conclusion, it is indeed possible to catch the city from the west side and catch the enemy unaware!"
The adjutant very formally finished reading out his report, though he was still unable to hide the glee and excitement in his voice.
The siege had been going nowhere, but if they could take the city in one fell swoop just like that…the possibility of this made it so that these were very exciting times.
And naturally, his enthusiasm was shared by almost all those present at the war council.
With the biggest one being Perseus's.
"Hahaha, good, good, excellent excellent." He seemed unable to stop adding superlatives to the news, evidence of how overwhelmed he was.
And he even began to feel a twinge of regret at having to deceive that good man who had shown him the way.
But this moment of euphoria was quickly reigned in, as they had yet to capture the city.
So with that reality, and knowing they could celebrate after taking the city, his surge of elation subsided, and he turned to his best strategies, Leosydas, to hear his plan about how to actually accomplish this.
And sensing this gaze, along with the numerous others, he gave his per-prepared answer, "First and foremost we should call Mohshin. And have him draw us a map of the parts our scouts could not survey. That will help eliminate much of the uncertainty."
This naturally got a unanimous nod.
So Leosydas continued, "Then we will need to decide on the time of the attack."
"And I personally prefer a night attack!" He opinioned, reasoning,
"Because if we do it during the day, with so many men moving around, they will be easily noticed from miles away. Especially given the mansion sits atop the hill and overlooks the entire surrounding."
"So we should do it at night when most of the maids and servants in the manor will be sleeping. And given the cold, most of the guards will likely be too. So sneaking up will be easy!"
Leosydas had certainly given his plan a lot of thought, and further showcased this when he reasoned,
"Also, most of the people we want to capture alive should be asleep in the manor too at that time. So we should do then."
His detailed thought process really went to show why Perseus relied on him so much.
And many of the members in the war council who had wanted to rebuke him when they heard Leosydas planned to do a night attack felt their minds being changed hearing this.
As for the ones still ambivalent, one raised, "Night attacks are hard to do even at the best of times. So is it wise to attack through an unknown terrain that we cannot properly see through? Is it not too risky?
The man saying this was very diplomatic in his objection, his tone light and breezy, because he knew he was talking against the king's favorite.
And finished with this,
"What if the soldiers become lost in the darkness? Then the whole attack might fail. Remember, the scouts did say there was thick foliage. "
The man pointed out some really good points as it was indeed very easy for soldiers to become disoriented and lost in the dark.
Especially in unknown, dark woods.
In fact, becoming lost in woods was sarcastically easy for soldiers given their equipment, or specifically the helmet they wore, which grossly limited their visibility.
"That's why we will use the map. That way they won't get lost," But Leosydas rebutted the point with this, further adding,
"And besides, the scouts have already figured out which hill to climb up to reach the manor. So the soldiers will just have to gaze at the lights of the manor and keep going up. I have keenly noticed at for some reason the lights in the manor never go out for some reason."
"So it will act as a lighthouse, attracting its own doom!" Leosydas ominously predicted in a poetic fashion.
His sense of observation was exceptional.
Now, it was indeed strange for a house to keep its lights on all throughout the night, especially one bright enough to be seen from so far away, but CM did so simply due to a psychological issue.
She always felt that the house was empty without Alxx and so as if to fill that void, had all the lights along the hallways and large hall rooms be lit at all times.
Who knew such an innocuous practice could bring her potentially so much harm?
And so, with both sides submitting their arguments, it was ultimately left to Perseus to make the final decision.
And to no absolutely no one's surprise, he chose to go with Leosydas's plans, reasoning,
"Leosydas indeed has made some great points. It will be easier to catch the enemy off guard at night." And then added,
"While the thick foliage will help to hide much of the light of our torches. So by the time any sentries see us, it will be already too late!"
Perseus felt that the location of the mansion would have been a perfect forward watchtower, and it was a grave mistake by the enemy to build a mansion atop such a position which was both advantageous and disadvantageous.
Advantageous because one could see all around the surrounding from it.
Diaadvantatgeous because a watchtower was meant to observe the enemy and alert others about it.
Meaning watchtowers many times were placed at the very frontlines and were not very defensible.
And the original planners of Zanzan did have exactly that in mind when they had discovered the place.
And for many years that place indeed had only a watchtower.
But over time no enemy attack was detected.
And when once a scion of the Muazz family was placed there as part of his military services, he fell in love with the scenery here, and given Tibias had not launched any attack along that route for a hundred years, dismantled the watchtower and built a hunting lodge there.
Which over time slowly grew to become the mammoth mansion seen today, as a few generations ago, the patriarch of the Muazz family decided to permanently move his entire family to his place.
And now it was up to Alxx, or specifically his family, who had unknowingly inherited this series of bad decisions and somehow made it worse by making his mines better that would have to try and deal with his problem.
A problem where if they failed, they could die or end up worse.
And it was a problem Perseus wished to thoroughly exploit.
While for the council member inside the Tibian tent, since the king had spoken, and the plan sounded reasonably good, none of them had anything to object about.
They understood that though there were some risks, but all attacks had risks involved with them.
Without risks, there could be no reward.
So as the king had spoken they wholeheartedly began to support the plan, and started to get down to the nitty-gritty of it all, such as when to attack, in what weather should they attack, clear or foggy, and which unit should get the honor of being the vanguard, leading the way forward.
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