Alpheo realizes that a quiet escape through the desert is a death sentence during an active military campaign, forcing him to pivot to a far more dangerous plan—a full-scale camp mutiny. Armed only with kitchen knives, cleavers, and hardened bread used as clubs, the freed slaves overwhelm the thin garrison guard while the main Romelian army is away fighting. But the true battle is not against the guards—it is for the minds of the five hundred survivors. Once the camp is secured, the freed men gather around the fire, their newly won freedom already threatened by the cold reality of starvation and incoming imperial riders. When a giant veteran named Jarza questions Alpheo's right to lead due to his youth, Alpheo does not strike back with anger. Instead, he uses Jarza as a willing foil in a rehearsed debate. Alpheo strips off his shirt, exposing the raw, angry welts on his back, and demands to know who among them has bled more for this opportunity. He turns his scars into a symbol of divine right, letting his friends Clio and Egil whip the crowd into a chanting frenzy. By forcing these broken men to make their first choice as free individuals, Alpheo binds them to his will, forging a desperate mob into his first personal army. Yet, this victory is fragile. They are still outlaws in a foreign land with only three days of food, forcing Alpheo to lead his starving company south toward the civilized principalities to find a master willing to buy their swords before the imperial scouts hunt them down.

The company marches into the princedom of Yarzat, where Alpheo negotiates a lucrative contract with Prince Arkawatt, a desperate ruler losing a war over a disputed bride-price. Alpheo demands double the standard wage and a prepayment of warhorses, demonstrating a cold understanding of noble desperation. He is sent to garrison the border city of Aracina, the sole shield protecting the capital from the invading Oizen army. Here, Alpheo introduces a revolutionary defensive strategy, forcing the local population to dig layers of deep moats and stockpiling debris to turn the town into an impenetrable trap. But the greatest threat comes from within. Fahil, the demoted local captain, conspires to open the gates to the enemy in exchange for a promised lordship. Thanks to Asag's silent surveillance, Alpheo uncovers the conspiracy. Instead of executing Fahil, Alpheo drives a dagger through the captain's hand, pinning it to a wooden table, and forces him to play his part as a double agent. When the Oizen vanguard under Shamla enters the open gates in the dead of night, expecting a bloodless coup, they find the torches snuffed and the streets silent. Alpheo drops a massive boulder-weighted net to seal the gate behind them, trapping the elite knights in a narrow bottleneck. The defenders unleash a devastating rain of stones, arrows, and burning jars of pig fat, turning the gateway into a literal furnace. The entire Oizen vanguard is annihilated, and Shamla is forced to surrender. This brilliant defense secures the city, but it also paints a massive target on Alpheo's back, as the main Oizen host now prepares to crush his mercenary company in open ground.

The Prince of Oizen brings his main army to the plains, outnumbering the Yarzat forces in both steel and horsemen. In the war council, the proud Yarzat nobles demand a reckless charge, but Alpheo convinces the prince to let his mercenaries hold the critical left flank. He deploys a revolutionary pike-square formation, known as the Reislaufer, to counter the heavy cavalry. When the Oizen knights under the young heir Sorza launch a thunderous charge, they expect the common infantry to scatter in panic. Instead, they meet a forest of four-meter pikes braced against the earth. As the charge falters, Asag orders his men to drag the warm carcasses of fallen horses into a gruesome barricade. The smell of their own dead kind terrifies the oncoming mounts, causing them to rear and throw their riders in panic. Forced to dismount, the heavily armored knights are easily butchered in close quarters by mercenaries wielding war hammers and maces. Sensing the enemy's confusion, Egil unleashes his hidden light cavalry from the eastern forest, slamming into the exposed Oizen flank. The rout is total. Sorza is captured alive, giving Alpheo the ultimate bargaining chip of the war. But this triumph triggers an immediate, deadly reversal. When Prince Arkawatt arrives, he demands the custody of the royal heir, directly violating the loot clauses of the mercenary contract. When Alpheo refuses, the prince's elite guards draw their steel, launching a chaotic, fratricidal skirmish in the middle of the victorious camp that threatens to consume them all.

The camp degenerates into a bloody brawl as Alpheo's veteran mercenaries clash with the prince's royal guards. In the middle of the melee, a stray javelin pierces Prince Arkawatt's chest, killing him instantly. The sudden death of their ruler leaves the royal guards leaderless and broken, forcing their commander, Robert, into a desperate, failed charge before he is disarmed and captured. Alpheo is left in a logistical nightmare—his employer is dead, his employer's men are his prisoners, and he holds the heir of Oizen in chains. Realizing that fleeing will make them hunted outlaws, Alpheo makes a daring choice. He marches his victorious army straight into the capital of Yarzat, taking control of the city under the guise of returning the prince's body. He enters the silent, terrified keep to confront the widowed consort-princess and her daughter, Jasmine. Standing before the grieving family, Alpheo offers his condolences while secretly calculating how to use the young princess as his puppet ruler. Jasmine, who once tried to seduce him in the garden, now looks at him with a mix of fear and cold ambition. With the prince dead and the male line extinguished, the state is ripe for a coup, but Alpheo must navigate the web of court intrigue and the impending threat of the Oizen army to secure his place as the shadow ruler of the principality. He knows that one wrong step in this palace will lead him to the gallows, but the reward is a throne of his own, a prize far greater than any mercenary contract. He must act quickly to win over the local garrison under Talek, Robert's son, before the news of the prince's death spreads to the neighboring lords, who would gladly use the chaos to carve up the principality for themselves.