Herald of Steel

Hearing Lord Parker refer to Lord Bernard as Lord, all of a sudden caused great disgust to swell up in Achillas's heart.

'What lord? He's a washed up loser of a dog!' He shouted to himself, as he found the man, who belonged to a family under threat of imminent obliteration to be so very much beneath him.

Which made Lord Parker's favor for him sting all the more.

Thus unable to bear it any longer, the general decided to break his silence on the matter, chiming in a slightly acidic voice,

"My lord claims this a battle between lords… but do I need to remind you of Alexander's background? Is he really a noble like us? Or would it be more apt to call him a barbarian?"

Calling into question Alexander's interest, Achillas then went on to quickly state in an almost accusatory voice,

"Plus, if we are really splitting hairs here, then cutting off the other side's water supply is hardly the work of a gentleman. So why are we expecting the other side will treat us with respect and dignity when we are willing to get down and dirty?"

"Once the Margraves are dying of thirst, do you think they will give one tiny hoot to what Alexander is doing? Of course not! They will more likely cheer him on as he wheels the Lady in front of us. And leading the crowd might very well be Lady Linda's eldest sister- Lady Miranda. She might even happily help Alexander tie her sister up…. as long as he promises the family that this will help them get them fresh water."

Achillas tried his best to paint the gravest picture possible if Lord Parker went with his plan, as according to him, this was the exact circumstance Lord Enofer had faced all those years ago, and thus the possibility lay high that Alexander would choose to follow in his footsteps.

Hence Achillas urged Lord Parker that regardless if the man knew of this history or not, he should not take the chance.

And then finished by turning to pose Lord Parker with a hard, charged voice,

"So, tell me, my lord, from exactly where are you getting your reassurance that Alexander won't act like Lord Enofer did?"

It was a very scathing attack and could be even considered quite rude.

And if it had been anyone else, Lord Parker would have by now surely dismissed him, or even simply court martialed him to the 'hanging squad'.

Thus it was quite fortunate that Achillas had the kind of privileged position he had within Lord Parker's heart, as instead of wringing him out, Lord Parker took to seriously contemplating the words.

Many of what Achillas had said stuck deep chords with him. And he could never fully extricate himself from the various 'what ifs'?

Alexander had not done all those things till now because it would be politically too unpalatable.

Such a crude tactic would greatly damage his reputation and even if he won, most of the Margraves would hate him to the core- just for humiliating their family like this.

And so the subsequent problems this would cause regarding the administration of the land need not be repeated, as Alexander could not of course keep the mansion under occupation for eternity.

And all this was not mentioning the most important point- that his closest ally and the sole person he was here for would most likely not approve.

Sleathily killing her sister was one thing. In the name of power and wealth, Lady Miranda had hardened her heart to commit this evil act.

But tying her up and making a spectacle out of her, for the entire city of 100,000 people to see, well that crossed a line.

Lady Miranda would not let Alexander cross it.

And neither was Alexander interested in doing such a barbaric thing.

For one it left a bad taste in his mouth- abusing the fairer sex like that.

And most critically, because he still wanted to resolve things mostly peacefully.

He understood the Margraves were fundamentally opposed to him, and so his taking over the mansion was just a means to an end.

It was done to secure his position, strengthen his foothold, and lastly, force the much more powerful side to come to the negotiating table so they could try and hash something remotely favorable for him out of all this.

Alexander still did not seriously think Lady Miranda could become the sole ruler of the family, as even if she managed to depose her sister, the financial and political problems of her family would remain.

Problems that would continue to make all her kin hate her, thus making her rule untenable.

At least without a constant and heavy military presence by Alexander, a precious resource that the man was unwilling to commit so far away from his homeland.

Hence by now, Alexander had readjusted his ambitions to a kind of shared, co-rule, the exact details of which were still being worked out in his head.

All of which meant that despite all her petulance, the beautiful lady and her son were safe… until now.

But all of it could change if the man pushed too far.

If Alexander thought he would surely lose.

It was not yet written, but certainly could.

It was considering such deduced and gleaned possibility thatLord Parker also found himself frowning, seriously reconsidering if he should really go ahead with the plan.

And this was when Achillas decided to strike, the exact moment when the lord's balance started to swing.

He cunningly chimed, "Of course, I am not suggesting we give up on the plan entirely. But that we just wait. Wait till we can devise a way to get the lady and young master out. Once they were safe and secure here with us… heh heh, then we can do that, force Alexander to surrender without any worry of retaliation."

Achillas's plan on paper did not actually sound too bad.

But the caveat was of course open for all to see, as stated by a woody Lord Parker,"And how do you suppose I get her out? Hmmm? If I could have done that, then we would not even need to have this talk."

Naturally, if spacing from Alexander's grasp was so easy, then not only Miss Linda, but many of the lesser guarded Margraves family members would have surely escaped.

But the fact that there was not a single instance of such a happening, went on to paint a grim picture for Achillas's plan.

It seemed Alexander had put a pretty strict hold on the place,

And this was indeed true, the air tight security rising by employing various measures, some seen, some never before seen.

Measures such as the fact that the Margraves family members could not roam around the corridor whenever they liked, but were mostly restricted to their rooms, with each section of the house being given a particular time of the day where they could interact with others in the nearby rooms.

Observant readers would find that this was very reminiscent of a prison system, and this was intentionally done so with the desire that the Margraves family would never be able to outnumber the surrounding guards by too much at any one time, thus stopping the possibility of a mass riot or break out event.

As for more precious captives, such as Miss Linda, Lady Adele, and the elders, they had the good grace to earn additional supervision, as such they would always be guarded by two guards, who would follow them wherever they went.

Also, their food would be served by these men, not the maids and servants of the place, in order to prevent them from passing any secret messages along.

The way this would work was the maids would usually come to the door with the food at their appointed time, and hand the tray over to the men, who would deliver them to its intended host, and after some time send the finished plates back to the kitchen.

Thus, in this way, none of the servants, many of whom had worked here for so many years and thus got to know its people, got to interact with any of the room's inhabitants.

And so, like these and various other mundane ways, such as the issuance of passcodes and security questions, Alexander tried to keep all these troublesome elements firmly within this vast house inside his control.

And although Achillas did not know the details of these byzantine procedures, he could certainly hazard a good guess given the results.

Or perhaps more accurately the absence of them.

Which was actually totally fine with the general.

No, even better, it was exactly what he wanted.,

Because in reality, he did not really want Miss Linda to escape, as that would mean the resumption of Lord Bernard's plan.

But had only said this to Lord Parker as a way to put a stop to the plan without actually saying those exact words out aloud.

Thus towards his boss's inquiry, the stocky general put on a pretending rumination face and chimed, "Hmmmm, it will be difficult on our end… but perhaps we can send a spy and ask if Lady Linda can escape on her. Or maybe she can even show any loopholes."

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