Herald of Steel

In the days following Lord Janus's visit, Alexander mostly spent his time reacting to the new developments.

First and foremost, he discussed the matter with his retainers and all of them unanimously seemed to agree that an intervention was necessary.

The various nobles expressed their intentions as such,

"We have just taken over Tibias. It still needs a lot of gold to restore the war-torn lands. Losing a huge market like Galiosos in this critical moment will be too detrimental. We must stop it."

"Right! Lacking a proper navy, it is through Galiosos that we export our goods to the rest of the regions. It is vital that we help the Margraves family on our side."

"Yes, my lord spoke the single most important word- navy. We still need the family's expertise on that… if nothing than to combat the pirates."

"Mmmm! Or else we will get stuck relying on only Adhania's market. That would not be prudent. Not only can the various hostile nobles attack our caravans, but the country might not even be big enough to absorb all of our products!"

The noble who said this was one of the rare few who had a good head for business.

Listening to the nobles stepping up themselves, Alexander was glad he did not have to spend much time dealing with too much opposition.

Because of course, there were indeed some.

There were a few who were a bit alarmed by the mention of Alexander's intention to provide relief aid in the magnitude of 50 million ropals to Lady Miranda, thinking it was too much.

That group was led by the 'economic minister'- Heliptos, and according to that now portly man, this would put the province in even more debt to Alexander.

Something that he was instructed to reduce by the lord himself.

Hence he first tried to make the money be treated as a personal expense from Alexander, and not the part of the state.

But that was shot down by Alexander who argued his intervention was for the benefit of all of Zanzan and Tibias, and thus the people there should too pay.

Hence the second choice was adopted- Alexander would pay half of the total loan requested by Lady Miranda- 100 million ropals, and the rest of the nobles combined would pay the other half line of credit.

And if you were thinking that the entire thing went too smoothly and it smelled fishy, as if the entire show was staged by Alexander and Heliptos- you bet it was.

It was something that Alexander had come up with as a way to try to swindle money from the ever tight fisted nobles, the success of which left even him a bit surprised.

He did not think the group had 100 million ropals to lend out even when considering the entire class.

Aside from the economic objection, there was also a bit of militaristic objection.

And it was led by Menes of all people, who groaned that the army might be feeling a bit exhausted at being sent to campaign again just after six months of returning from a two year long grueling war.

But Alexander simply countered, "This is no campaign of conquest. They will be simply going for my protection. As my bodyguards. No what is there to be feel exhausted about?"

Then enticed the generals, "In fact, this will more be of a vacation for them. Seeing new lands, eating novel foods, and meeting all kinds of women. I heard the women from Galiosos are quite promiscuous and love to go behind their husbands' backs. Especially for strong, foreign men."

This was of course a blatant lie, as from how Alexander had seen Lady Miranda act, guessed the people there were quite conservative.

But it was nevertheless a suitable enough story for the officers to placate their dissatisfied soldiers with, as hearing tales of the many wonders that lay there for them, many even began to look forward to it.

While Alexander, from this exchange, also understood that taking more than a legion- 6,000 total men, might not be politically viable, as many of them were still laden heavy with their loot, and thus wanted to enjoy spending it, be it on themselves and their family.

They currently had no inclination to go on a conquest to some far flung island they did not even know the name of.

With the councils and nobles giving their 'blessings' to Alexander, they began to quickly help him prepare for the journey due in just two weeks!

This involved quickly reading the army, rapidly requisitioning the appropriate number of ships, and hurriedly gathering the appropriate supplies of grain, fresh water, and other essentials, along with the all important gold coins.

All of which was fortunately possible due to Alexander having a standing force nearby, enough ships already in port that Alexander had plundered them from Tibias, stocked and filled granaries, and a treasury piled with heaps of looted gold.

As these resources were being loaded for the journey, Alexander himself was busy writing a letter to Ptolomy explaining his situation and profusely emphasizing how regretful he was that he could not attend the annual pilgrimage- Jtaama.

And for once, Alexander did truly feel sorry, although not the reasons Ptolomy would think.

There were a lot of things that Alexander had wanted to discuss at the court, so he lampooned at how new circumstances had developed, making it so that he would have to wait at least six months, if not more to get back to it.

But there was also no way around it.

Going to attend the festivities in Adhan and then returning back would have taken too long.

Especially given that to get to Galiosos, Alexander would need to pass the Mad Sea, which became very rough during the approaching winter, making traversal in those small, wooden 'dinghies' very treacherous.

So if he missed his chance now, he would have to wait till spring or even close to summer, which was six to eight months away.

That would be too late- Lady Miranda needed help right now.

In fact, Lord Janus seemed to imply such urgency that Alexander did not even have the time to wait for a response to the letter.

He could only send a messenger bird with a short message,

'Your Majesty, I have received a delegation from Sybarsis today. They came asking our help in a matter of their dispute, with the promise of aid against Amenheraft in the future in exchange. Pray forgive me for being unable to attend the promised Holy Jtaama. I'm running out of writing space here. So I have sent riders with the letter detailing the circumstances.

Your Ever Faithful, Loyal Servant- Alexander of Zanzan.'

He received the reply just a few days before his departure, its contents extremely curt, "Okay. Go! I will pray for your success."

Judging from the handwriting, it was apparent to Alexander that it was Pasha Farzah who had actually responded to his writing.

In fact, going by the tidbits of rumors and hearsays Alexander sometimes heard about the going ons of the court, he doubted Ptolomy even read the rolled original scroll.

At best perhaps he heard it in passing from the prime minister and told him to do as he saw fit.

Because according to most sources, the king nowadays seemed much more interested in spending time in his room with the mother-daughter pair of the Queen Mother and Hellma.

It was also why Alexander intentionally left the mention of taking Lady Nanazin to Galiosos on that short scroll, only bearing its mention in the long letter.

And even then it was only one very vague line, quote- 'The delegation asked for a representative of the royal family to accompany them, so as to best represent Your Highness's interests. And I have agreed."

There was no exact mention of even her name, but just an implicit indication that the Queen would be traveling with him, because at the moment, there was only one viable royal candidate with Alexander.

He did this as a way to not trigger the king, fearing that just reading the name 'Nanazin' would cause Ptolomy to object, out of nothing but spite.

This was requested by none other than the Queen herself, whom Alexander had chosen to consult prior to writing the letter.

As for Lady Nanazin herself, she of course had no problem with going to the island with Alexander.

In fact, she felt over the moon just at the opportunity of being able to travel with Alexander and thus said yes even before hearing what the man wanted from her.

It was also she who helped Alexander solve the matter of witness required by the Kaiser Family.

Initially, the man was of the opinion to beat the confession out of the ducal family once his army was strong enough or use Lady Miranda's army to extract some confessions.

But Lady Nanazin proposed a better idea, saying that they could take Queen Parthia as living proof.

And it quickly made sense to Alexander.

The only people whose words would have weight in front of the accused ducal family would be the man colluding with them like King Perseus or his successor Philips, or the partner of the family's patriarch- The Queen, who would be privy to all of her husband's secrets.

And when this was proposed to Queen Parthia, although initially reluctant to leave her husband for such an extended period of time, a bit of arm twisting and honey words got the woman on board.

Thus around mid August, Alexander set sail for the island of Galiosos.

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