Herald of Steel



Although a bit disjointed in his explanation, Laibak managed to present a very coherent picture of his plan.

And to say Alexander was very impressed with his story would be an understatement.

The story was a masterpiece and appeared air-tight to him.

First was the tale of a fire breaking out.

This was something common, in fact, it was a constant threat to a city, especially at night.

This was because most of the houses kept the hearth in their homes burning all throughout the night.

They did so both for its use as a source of light, for the alternative- candles were very expensive, and also to use it as a source of heat.

There was also the fact if a hearth was allowed to go out, re-igniting it from scratch was a nightmare.

This meant that all the households would have an open, burning fire inside their houses even while they slept.

They would even have to regularly wake every two to three hours to feed the fire to keep it alight.

And with this kind of arrangement, anyone with any kind of foresight could easily guess the number of fire hazards it posed, so although the people tended to be usually very careful, accidents did happen.

Hence Laibak's rhetoric about there being a fire was certainly plausible.

And as for his wife conveniently being at her father's house, well, when Alexander first heard it, he was a bit surprised knowing what it represented.

It was a common tradition between people who were couples but were not legally married.

But as far as he knew, Laibak said he was.

And feeling his curious look, Laibak felt there was no use denying it.

"You guessed correctly my lord. We …my wife and I are not strictly married, my lord. We …..:" 

At this point, Laibak's face turned a tinge bit bitter, and he seemed to hesitate, deliberating on whether he should explain himself. 

"Anyway…that is how is it. We live together but are not legally husband and wife, haha" 

But it seemed he had decided not to share his circumstance, as he brushed past it, the short chortle seeming to contain a lot of resentment.

So Alexander decided not to pry on another man's private affairs.

Instead, his mind dived into the strange tradition which existed due to many couples wanting to stay together but did not want to get married,

Which was mainly due to legal issues of inheritance as Adhanian laws stated that if a woman got married, all her property would be instantly transferred to her husband.

There was also another ruling that stated if a man and woman spent a whole year together under the same roof they would automatically become a couple in the eyes of the law.

So to get around that, and maintain her financial freedom the wife had to stay away from her 'husband for at least one single day every year.

This usually means going to stay at her father's house for a few days, typically three, ensuring this did not happen.

And through all that hassle the girl would then remain a 'bachelor' meaning her properties would belong to her, or in the more general case her father.

Yes, because in reality a girl would be urged to do so by her male kin,

And though Laibak had not revealed it, Alexander could make an educated guess that that was the case with him.

Alexander felt that since  Laibak was not from Zanzan, his father-in-law likely did not want his daughter's property to go to an outsider.

He must have much preferred that the wealth stayed with him, inside the family.

And that was why Laibak, by the slightest technicality, was not married.

As Alexander thought about this, he always began to be somewhat fascinated by this law.

Because anyone with half a brain could see the loophole here.

The ruling stated that the couple had to spend one whole continuous year under a roof.

Meaning if there was even a single day the two did not sleep in the same house, the count would have to restart.

Whereas a far more logical cal ruling would have been to calculate the aggregate.

So the question was then why was it never patched?

It was not as if it was an unknown loophole.

In fact, it was perhaps the most well-known loophole. 

So Alexander would do a bit of research regarding it.

And find that the reason it was never rectified was never due to how popular it was.

The regular Adhanian citizens very much supported this loophole because it enabled them to retain their properties.

And the support came from both sexes.

Which might seem a bit weird, as from the perspective of the husband, he was being cheated out of a lot of free property due to this.

And one would think he would try hard to close it.

But these men did not just think about the now, they also thought of the future, about the possibility of having daughters of their own.

If that happened, then closing the loophole would be like axing their own feet.

And so the loophole was kept.

Of course, a far better solution would have been to give the women equal rights in owning property. 

That would make everything so much simpler and would have even enabled the couple to enjoy certain rights and perks that only a married pair could be granted.

  But Alexander feared if he were to actually propose that, he would likely be politely asked by his council members to take the rest of the day off, as they would be worried that he might have overworked himself to a bit of muddle-headedness.

So that law seemed to be here to stay for a while.

Now although Laibak's plan was very well thought out in its intended efficacy, the problem lay in its execution, i.e.- setting fire to that part of the town and making it seem the already dead men died then.

But although this would have been very hard for anyone else to do, for Alexander it was absolutely possible."

  "Okay. Let's do it your way." And so he promised Laibak.

Thus, a few days later, all the people around the inn were visited by the army, who told them that they had been selected to move to the newly built apartments, and they were to move right now.

And this was not an offer they could refuse. 

They could not say things like this was their ancestral home and they wanted to stay.

No, they had to leave.

In this was everyone was evacuated, and then on one auspicious night, the houses were set on fire in a controlled way.

And once a few of the houses burnt down, with the inn particularly fully turning to ash, the nearby city guards standing ready with water quickly worked to douche the fire, preventing it from spreading.

After that, a few fake charred bodies were very publicly taken out of the rubble and a public statement was released saying that a fire had somehow started from the inn and then spread to a few adjacent houses, claiming a few unfortunate lives.

All the bodies were too burnt to be identifiable and were thus cremated, while their possessions were taken by the authorities.

And that was the end of the act.

Or so one might think.

Because after a few days of that,  Alexander, having second thoughts, decided to send those 'neighbors' out of the city completely, splitting them all up.

Some were sent to Jabel to start a new life, others to work the fields far away, and a few were even sent to other nobles to work as serfs there.

This way, not even the most determined bloodhound of an investigator could track these people down and know the correct sequence of events.

Now if Alexander had been even more cruel, he would have killed all of them instead of going through all those troublesome hoops.

But he at least had that bit of a conscience left.

He simply could not bring himself to kill so many innocent people, feeling he would be losing a part of his heart if he did.

And so he basically exiled them to different parts of his land. 

And with that, all four of Laibak's request was fulfilled.

A plausible story for both the dead men and him was established.

There were no neighbors to tatlle.

The inn was burnt to a crisp to remove any clues.

And Zanzan's own higher-ups were told to shut up about this.

But what was the ultimate result of all this scheming and planning and theatrics? 

Well, fortunately for Alexander, with all this set, Laibak was indeed able to start a 'double agent' spy ring.

It took a bit of effort and some heavy convincing, but he was at last able to hoodwink the people Matbar (Marquis) Kyuam sent.

So Laibak led a very busy life now, cooperating with the enemy spies on one hand, while also running his own counter-espionage ring at the same time.

And to make sure his own Zanzan men did not suddenly shank him out of misunderstanding, or the enemies did not suddenly get wise and try to off him, Alexander formed a ten-man bodyguard squad for him, disguised as one of the new local gangs.

In this way, Alexander had finally managed to get an ear in his enemy's camp.

And though this ear was currently very young, still in its infancy, Alexander had great hopes for it.

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