Herald of Steel



The possibility of violence about to be done to her did not deter Lady Felicia, for she believed it was all worth it. 

But then suddenly, as she braced herself, things did not proceed as Lady Felicia expected.

That is- the men around her did not simply grab her by the head and dunk it into the chilly water bowl.

Instead, *clang*, suddenly the odd shiny glint of steel reflecting the nearby candlelight caught the woman's eyes, and her body subsequently shivered when she felt the sharp steel be placed right onto her left ring finger.

This was a new sensation for her, for in reality, Lady Felicia had never had as much as a paper cut in her entire life.

Thus faced with the possibility of getting a body part of her cut right in front of her, proved to be a very daunting challenge.

She did not think Alexander was going to start hacking off bits right at the start.

She thought that like any interrogation, Alexander would start with some light slaps and then move on to more bloodier stuff from there.

That was the basic pattern.

So seeing Alexander eschewing all the 'niceties' right from the start, finally a creep of fear began to bloom in the fearless lady.

"My lord… this…. are you sure? My husband still has some influence in the city you know." And it manifested like this, as Lady Felicia subtly threatened Alexander, urging him to reconsider.

But of course, Alexander had considered all this while coming up with the strategy.

Although it was true that Lapitus, with the officers under him, could indeed cause some disturbance, but through his interactions, Alexander found that most of the men under him were not loyal to death subordinates but more like convenient beneficiaries, following him out of profit.

For Lapitus's low birth status almost naturally made him excluded from being a leader by his own merit. 

Hence with this reassurance, Alexander confidently barked, "Heh! So now you remember Lapitus is your husband? Wasn't he a monster just till now?"

Before turning to glare at the 'by now a bit afraid' face, as he revealed with strangely an appreciative tone, 

"I will give it to you, Felicia. You are among the smartest women I have met. And certainly the guttiest by leagues and away."

"Your ability to stay calm and not break even when under these conditions is truly remarkable."

"Heh! Even some of my spies could learn a thing or two from you," Alexander half chuckled at this additional information, though given the surrounding atmosphere, it sounded strangely menacing.

But Alexander was unperturbed, as he continued, "And if I really was just trying to get to confess without evidence, I admit you might have fooled me."

"But unfortunately for you, someone talked! Lapitus talked!" As Alexander said this, he very strategically turned to look at Lady Felicia's reaction and found her eyes to flicker menacingly for the briefest of seconds.

Seeing which Alexander chucked dreadfully, "Haha, are you regretting you did not try and kill him when you had the chance?"

This rhetorical question naturally got no response.

 But Alexander was not bothered as he was sure the next thing he said was bound of get some.

So he continued, 

"Lapitus must have never told but before he killed Petrino, he made the man squeal. And that lover of yours talked. He talked a lot. Can you guess?"

And as soon as Alexander said this, just as he had predicted, he saw the proud woman very visibly shake.

It was only for a moment, and credit to Lady Felicia, she did quickly hide it, but Alexander was certain that she did.

And pleased with the reaction, Alexander continued, 

"As luck would have it, I then somehow got to know what that Petrino said."

"And unfortunately for you, I'm not so easily trusting, unlike that lovestruck husband of yours."

"So… are you gonna talk?"

Alexander finished with this menacing line,

While Lady Felicia, knowing how great the amount of ammunition Petrino had on her, at first cursed both Petrino and Lapitus to high heaven, before finally becoming convinced that the ruse was up.

But that did not mean she broke.

Because recall the motto: 

Deny, deny, deny. Even if they find out, never ever admit to anything! Deny, deny, deny.

Hence only clenching her teeth defiantly, Lady Felicia shot, "If my lord already knows, then why bother with the theatrics? Do you enjoy tormenting others?"

And then she scoffed in a disdainful manner, 

"Heh! All you men are like this. You will always believe your own kind rather than whatever we defenseless women have to say."

"How many of us girls have died just because you did not believe her?"

Here Lady Felicia seemed to have used Alexander to represent all the men in the world.

And hearing it, the very first thing that Alexander felt was incredulation.

Inexplicable levels of incredulation.

Because he could not believe what this woman was saying.

"So you are saying Lapitus and Petrino framed you?" Alexander asked in disbelief.

"That's right." Lady Felicia snapped right back.

"........."

And then for the following few moments, there was pin drop silence, as Alexander's mind registered a new level of shamelessness he did not think was possible. 

This then at last prompted him to reveal something he was originally not willing to.

"I'm afraid you are mistaken here, Felicia. Haven't you wondered how I came to suspect you? It was not Lapitus or any other million people you might think."

"It was your daughter- Fabiyana! It was her who told me that you were seeing other, strange men." And the moment Alexander revealed this, he sensed Lady Felicia's facade finally fall shatter, as he finished, 

"You were always cautious of everyone around you, never letting your secret leak."

"But not her. Your daughter proved to be your oversight."

"......" And as Lady Felicia finally found the 'culprit' who had tattled on her, she found her mind to go blank.

'I might have filled my list with every single person in the world, but still, Fabiyana would not have been here.' She said to herself.

And then, as if something crumbled in her, Lady Felicia finally stopped resisting, turning to face Alexander and asking, 

"Tell the man to unhand me, Alexander. I will tell you everything."

A request that was promptly granted despite the rudeness.

And then picking up the paper with all the questions voluntarily, Lady Felicia began to rapidly answer them only pausing to add commentary when asked by Alexander.

It was here that Lady Felicia truly revealed herself, by the end of which Alexander was, though not speechless, but certainly stunned.

"You slept with Petrino because Lapitus could not afford you. You had Fabiyana with your lover because you wanted more favor. You kicked your mother away for a better life. You want to rule Thesalie to live in the lap of luxury. And lastly, you lied about all this to me because you thought I would be easy to control and feared that knowing the real you, I would destroy you." 

Alexander gave a very succinct summary of the newly learned information.

Nod.

Lady Felicia's sunken, fearful face did not seem to have the strength to utter any words and only gestured the validity.

"........." Following this the room then descended into a dreadful, stifling silence, both man and woman seemingly lost in their own thoughts. 

"Where is your mother?" And it was some time later that Alexander finally spoke, asking this as the very first question.

"I do not know. When she left the city, she did not tell anyone where was going." Quickly came Lady Felicia's answer, being as monotone as ever.

If she was feeling sorry for what she had done, she was not showing.

And Alexander did not harp on for you, proceeding to the next question, "Did your father really have no other children?" 

Thump!

And this secretly got a terrific bump in Lady Felicia's chest, one that if she had been connected to a lie detector would have surely revealed the woman's real thoughts.

Because there indeed were.

But the fact was that Alexander, by frankly revealing how he came to figure out Lady Felicia, made a mistake.

Because now the lady was sure that Alexander did not know about them, for neither Petrino nor Lapitus nor even Fabiyana for that matter knew them.

Lady Felicia had made sure never to invite these people to her house because their status was too low.

But that was not the real reason for her intense internal reaction.

It was because in around the very first days when Alexander captured Thesalie, Lady Felicia had all of them secretly killed!

Poisoned!

For she feared that Alexnder might find a more suitable candidate than her.

And she timed it too in such a clever way that because of the sheer chaos at that time, even such a large scale homicide did not raise any waves, with the time frame also meaning it was luckily far ahead of the spies Alexander put on her.

This was Lady Felicia's biggest collection of skeletons in the closet and something she had managed to keep hidden from Alexander.

Thus sensing an opportunity, and a gap in Alexander's knowledge, she lied and answered negatively.

Truly a crooked tail does not straighten itself.

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