Herald of Steel



Alexander would have likely sold his iron even if he knew about the technique.

Because he needed to sell his product.

And it would likely be the same product because he could only raise the amount of impurities in steel only so much before it because completely useless.

"Hahaha, thank you for your advice Lady Miranda. I will be sure to," Alexander hence lightly smiled, and quickly decided to steer the topic elsewhere.

Particularly towards the Margraves and Sybarsis in general.

"If you do not mind me asking my lady, seeing as the Margrave family is so powerful, why are you being attacked? Is there any truth to the claims?" Alexander curiously asked.

Though the latter portion could certainly be considered somewhat rude, as he was asking them to their face if they were traitors.

And surprisingly the nobles were frank in their admission.

"The reason for Governor Straus'sattack is not due to us trading with Iyizarid, Everyone doe that even though that is banned. Even he does it, the swine." Lord Janus cursed the man in a mocking, frustrated voice, before saying, "No, the real for his attack is because he wants our land. Simple as that."

Lord Janus could not reveal the truly real reason for the attack, the smelting technique, and the arms market, and gave this secondary reason.

This Alexander bought.

After all, expanding one's territory was an innate desire of every noble.

What was so strange about it?

"Oh? But why now? What changed? What do the other nobles say?" Alexander then followed up on his question.

And here Lady Miranda decided to give a detailed introduction to Sybaris.

She began. "The Straus and Margrave families have always been at odds over the rule of Galiosos. But the reason why they chose to attack us now has to do with some power shifts in our northern mainland. To be precise it is because we lost a few large battles against Iyizarid, resulting in huge territorial losses, but much more importantly for us, the loss of our biggest ally in the mainland."

Lady Miranda here paused to look at Alexander and posed, "As a Thesian, I presume you know Iyizarid? And how aggressive that nation is?"

And Alexander was quick to respond,

"*Nod*, yes, they are theocracy like Adhania, worshiping the dragon god Bahamut. And their core doctrine is an expansion of territory and bringing everyone under their belief." Alexander had learned this short suLady Mirandaary of the nation situated between Thesos and Sybaris who aggressively attacked their neighbors from his travels as a mercenary.

Though fortunately, he had never had to fight them

"Yes, that is correct. The red nation we call them after their red uniform" Lady Miranda returned the nod, and then continued, "Recently they have managed to win a great victory against such, and took three provinces, resulting in much losses for us."

"And with these losses sustained, some scapegoat had to be found. And it was, unfortunately, us," The pregnant lady out a helpless sigh saying this.

But quickly got back to the conversation, explaining why it was them.

"You see lord Alexander, Sybarsis is quite different from Adhania from its kings, or even Thesos with its senate."

"Instead the huge country is run by powerful merchant families, with the fourteen most powerful merchant families together forming the confederation council. And as you might have guessed, the heads of each family have a seat in that council."

"They control everything in Syabris and like your pashas, all noble families in Sybarsis and all business undoubtedly belong to one of these families. Naturally, this also includes us, who belong to the Marsh family. They are our ally and backer."

"While Governor Straus belongs to the Kaiser Family."

"And as I said before, the head of the Marsh family, Lord March has died under Iyizarid, 's attack a few weeks ago, along with a large part of his family's army."

"Which not only created a temporary vacancy in the council's seat but also weakened them quite a bit."

"In fact, it was so much so that the Kaiser family used this opportunity to proclaim that the loss Sybarsis suffered was due to us selling weapons to Iyizarid, saying only fine weapons like ours could have enabled Iyizarid to get victory in battle."

"And he then arbitrarily instructed Governor Straus to attack us, his real intent being as a way to drag the March family down. Because we are their biggest weapons supplier."

By the end of it, Lady Miranda sounded weak and helpless, while Alexander was not at all surprised by all the shenanigans.

Another name for politics was being thrown under the bus when it was convenient.

Instead he focused on something else that did not add.

"And the other council members just sat around and let it happen?" He raised his eyebrow in surprise.

"Hmph, they are all scrambling to find a scapegoat. The lands that were lost were fertile farmlands. So we fit it perfectly!" Lord Janus loudly huLady Mirandaed the answer, showing his anger and rage.

"Oh? Why?" But to Alexander that did not make sense.

If there was really only a need for scapegoats, families far smaller and less important could have worked.

If one was not enough, then they could have used a bunch, no problem.

"Because the many nobles who had lost their lands could be moved to Galiosis and the Margrave family's estate. It is a huge conspiracy." Lady Miranda's voice was sounding even weaker.

"I see. That is unfortunate." Alexander only lightly empathized with them, for they were not his problem.

And then posed a deep question, "So how does this end? If it is a conspiracy as you said, then will Sybarsis keep attacking you until they succeed? "

Alexander was basically asking them how long they could hold, and against how many attacks.

Because there was no way for a tiny earldom to defeat the colossus called Sybarsis.

"We have already sent messengers to the March family. They have yet to reply, but they should be getting ready to solve this. We just need to hold on against this attack," Lady Miranda was very quick to answer this, though she sounded more hopeful than certain.

But Alexander did not burst that bubble.

Because maybe everything would work out just as Lady Miranda said.

But as for himself, he much preferred to presume that the Marsh family might be unable to help, or even unwilling.

The former might be simply because of the losses they suffered.

If it was truly bad, even the Margrave family might not be told about it.

While latter might be because of what Lady Miranda had said, that the current head of the Marsh family had died.

And given that the usual custom of the successor taking his mantle had not happened, as evidenced by the confederation seat being vacant, it probably meant that there was no clear line of succession, likely caused by the grave defeat of their army.

This meant that the Kaiser family would certainly be able to interfere in the secession battle of the Marsh family and manipulate any of the candidates into giving up on the Margrave family in exchange for inheriting the family.

Now this was a completely baseless hunch on Alexander's part who had no inside information, but it was certainly possible.

Alexander felt he had heard everything there was to it, and decided it was about time to close up the conversation, so said, "I see. Then I wish you the best of luck in your battle." before offhandedly asking, "So how many troops do you have?"

"...." The duo held their tongue for a while at this sudden question.

This was militarily a very sensitive question after all.

What if Alexander sold this information to the other side?

And realizing this, Alexander quickly apologized, "Ahh, sorry, sorry, I misspoke…did not mean to pry."

But Lady Miranda at last sweetly smiled and said, "Thank you for understanding."

"But we see you as our friend. So we can tell you that we had originally planned to field 50,000 men. But now with your iron, we can recruit even more."

"So much? Are Sybarsis earl's so rich?" Alexander was truly surprised by the coated numbers as he saw such digits belonging to a Matbar (Marquiss).

So he asked, "Am I mistaken to assume that earls are equal to the Jamiders of Adhania? Or are they equal to Matbars?"

"Hahaha, no you are not mistaken, my lord. Jamiders and Earl are of similar peerage rank." Lady Miranda chuckled.

"But we are simply an Earl because if we wanted to go to the next stage- Marquiss, we would either have to defend a piece of territory either against Iyizarid in the north or the Numadian in the south."

"We simply do not want to do that."

"While becoming a duke requires acquiring enough wealth and the approval of a majority of council members. And as you have guessed, only the fourteen members have that title."

"So that title has too much behind the shadow politics and only the realistic way to get it is to kill one of the fourteen."

"As such, we are satisfied with being an earl. With this, we might not be politically too high but we are free-er."

"And in terms of land, men, and resources, the Margrave family can rival most Adhanian Pashas, hehe," Lady Lady Miranda sounded both proud and sad as she said so.

Proud of her family's wealth but also sad at what that wealth had suddenly brought them.

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