Herald of Steel

The room watched with muted intrigue as Remus made himself scarce, disappearing as quickly as he had appeared before them, the clanging of the chains soon disappearing far, far into the distance.

And it was only once the young general was out of earshot that Lady Miranda shot back at Alexander in a slightly offended tone, "My lord, all these… barricades you asked for in the streets. How will the people move about then?"

She did not openly counter Alexander but tried to poke in a diplomatic way.

The main point here was of course not people going in and out, it was only the excuse.

Lady Miranda mainly did not like Alexander declaring such large orders all by himself.

Especially when these 'constructions' would mean the roads would be ruined, the houses would be destroyed and much more importantly, the people living in those houses whose walls he just ordered to be destroyed, will be displaced.

And the blame for all this would likely land on both Alexander and her, spurring the public even more, even though the latter had no hand in ordering it.

Thus Lady Miranda did think this was a decision to be made while slouched back on the sofa, sipping wine.

In her opinion, they should have discussed all these with her father in law, and then had him put pressure on her younger sister, to stop her from bringing innocent people into their family matters.

Alexander however was astounded the lady was even arguing about this.

Here he had just saved hundreds of her ships, as he knew if he did not give Remus this concession, he would have surely gone on a raid on his own this very night, and Alexander would have little way of stopping him without causing a major schism in his army.

So in his eyes, Alexander had done the lady a great favor.

And yet she was still moaning. He really wanted to snap back at her for being this ungrateful.

But since he could do exactly that, he clenched in a woody voice, "I will instruct the soldier to keep a small, single lane passageway for the people to move to and fro the mansion. Will that suffice?"

"......" The anger and sarcasm did not escape Lady Miranda.

And she found little way to counter Alexander.

Not because she was happy with Alexander's concession, but because of Alexander's very clear displeasure.

And sensing this, she too very visibly pursed her lips, showing her dissatisfaction as well.

Hence the situation in the room suddenly turned tense and frosty.

And it was sensing this that Lady Nanazin, who had been an obedient spectator till now, decided to step in acting as a third, neutral party.

Clearing her throat, she thus addressed both, "Ahem! My lord, my lady, we already have enough enemies to deal with. Let us not quibble among ourselves. I have been sent here by my husband, the Ruler of Adhanaian, King Ptolomy, to represent the Royal family's full support for Lady Miranda's claim to the Margraves family's seat. And we are not going to be able to do this if we always hinder each other."

Alexander felt a great deal of gratitude for Lady Nanazin stepping in as she did, and then amusingly chuckled a bit inside at her bold claim.

While Lady Miranda too simmered down, although she rolled her head at Lady Nanazin's claim.

And this was not just because she received a very trusted report claiming the lady had spent the last two consecutive nights in Alexander's room, thus making her declared neutrality ring a bit hollow.

No, because frankly, Lady Miranda had much bigger concerns than worrying about another person's affair.

Instead, it was much more because Lady Nanazin had no official document to back her claim up.

You see usually when a ruler sent a representative, he sent some kind of proof that the messenger was truly his representative, be it a letter, seal, or even another person who was well known in the court.

But Lady Nanazin came naked, with nothing but her bare hands.

And her justification for this was that Lord Janus had come too suddenly and due to the weather, they had to come to Galiosos as soon as possible, thus losing the ability to gain the official document from the king.

And this was to Lady Nanazin's credit a very good excuse.

Which was also why Lady Miranda had not yet outright called her out, but gave her the benefit of the doubt.

But the fact still remained that Lady Nanazin was almost a complete nobody outside the capital, and so her being here, representing the royal family carried little weight.

However, since Lady Nanazin was speaking, Lady Miranda decided to maintain her courtesy and lend the curly haired lady her ears, who gently but firmly dictated,

"I am sure what Lord Alexander did was for the good of all of us. True, this will be a bit inconvenient for the people, especially those riding in carriages to pass through… but it should be also noted we are only 5,000 men, facing more than 20,000. So please trust Lord Alexander. He wants the best for us, and he was proved he can do it…. over many, many battles."

Alexander never knew Lady Nanazin had such a silver tongue, something that caused Lady Miranda to actually feel convinced.

And then with some honeyed platitudes from her husband, who reiterated basically a summarized version of why Alexander was doing this and what would happen if he didn't, the lady understandingly nodded, officially sanctioning the move.

To which Alexander cheered, "Great! So what also means my men will no longer have to disguise themselves as workers right?"

And at this, Lady Miranda once again had to stop the urge to roll her eyes, 'When did your men ever become workers in the first place?'

It had to be noted that when Alexander had mobilized his men yesterday, he did not bother to hide their numbers even though he had promised Lady Miranda.

And so now that the whole thing had taken such a turn, Lady Miranda saw little reason to haggle over such a trivial matter anyway.

Since the legionnaires were allowed to start building walls and palisades in the middle of the streets, what was the point of trying to make it appear as if everything was normal?

Lord Parker could have his head kicked in by a donkey and still not misunderstand the signs.

Thus with this decision made, the trio of Alexander, Lady Miranda and Lord Cassius, wasted no time in moving to their next task- meeting Lord Nolan.

It was Lord Cassius who led the way to the elder gentleman's chamber, while providing commentary on the way, "I'm sorry, you could not meet him sooner Lord Alexander. Father has been recently quite ill and only started to recover in the last few days. So please forgive any unintended slight he might have caused you."

The voice the large, rotund man used a very soft and very servile, something that made Alexander both flattered but also a bit sour because he thought Lord Cassius was too soft to be a noble under such trying times.

However, that was also only Alexander's personal opinion as externally he only made some polite platitudes and small talk, until they had reached their destination, an ordinary looking nondescript door at the very back of the mansion, a part of the house that was quite remote.

The decorations in the corridors here were quite sparse, and the walls seemed worn out, with even some mold seeping out, giving the entire place a general aura of abandonment and dilapidatedness.

Alexander looked around curiously, thinking why was the man who was basically the caretaker of the Margraves thinking in such abject conditions.

Because it was surely not because the others had decided to abandon the old man here.

And as if sensing this, Lord Cassius frankly revealed on his own, "When father got sick, he feared that he had caught the plague. So he asked he be moved here so that he does not affect us with his bad luck."

There was a hint of pride in the man's voice as he revealed his father's actions, feeling pleased at seeing his father's will to sacrifice himself for his children.

"Yes, we tried to protest at first…. but father in law would not have it." And alongside her husband, Lady Miranda too added her commentary, being in simpatico with the feeling.

While Alexander was more surprised that the people here actually knew about the contagiousness of the plague and even the way to stymie it, through quarantine.

They of course could not explain why quarantine worked, as they did not have germ theory, thus they dubbed it 'bad luck' or other similar supernatural things.

However this practice was still quite advanced compared to their next door neighbor Adhania, who did not have any of this, and thought plague to be simply a curse of the gods, and that the only way to cure it was through prayer.

And sometimes they would even gather in mass congregational prayers, which would only worsen the situation for all of them.

It was among such thoughts that Alexander heard the door be swung open and was invited inside.

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