Herald of Steel

Before coming to the party, Philips had thanked his lucky stars a million times that Alexander was such an understanding lord.

Any other man in his place would have surely blown up and broken the engagement right then and there, and then heavily punished the woman as well as her family.

But he didn't.

So he had spent the whole night admonishing his sister Camelia for her actions, giving examples of how generous Alexander was, and urging her to play ball, all to capitalize on the good nature of this man.

But it seemed that had been all for naught.

'To hell with her.' So Philips decided to cut the toxic part out as he wished to hand the reins to this unruly daughter.

But strangely enough, such a drastic action did not get too great a reaction from the princess.

Because not only she had already expected this, but in fact she had expected worse.

In this time period, it was not unheard of for fathers to heavily punish and even directly kill their daughters for disobedience.

And in his absence, the power got passed down to the brothers.

Thus in princess Camelia's eyes, she was getting off lightly and hence only glared defiantly with no fear.

"Sorry. I'm afraid that would make the whole point moot." But regardless of the other party's thoughts, Alexander's reply seemed to indicate he was not excited by the offer.

Although handed the rein, he was not in the mood to tame this wild horse, especially one that was so high maintenance and low reward as this one.

What was the point of him catering to this defeated yet foolish princess?

If this was someone like Mikaya, or someone by marrying whom Alexander could get a critical ally perhaps he put in the effort.

But not here.

So with a wave of his hand, Alexander said, "I wanted to take a concubine as a way to form a kinship of blood with you. But since your family has proven incapable of offering me a suitable candidate, then let's forget it."

"Let us be only lord and retainer. And I will simply send this unruly girl to the capital to be properly educated."

Alexander might not have shown it in his speech, but he was certainly quite upset with the drama unfolding in front of him.

'What a waste of time, *tsk*.' He even ruefully commented.

"No! Please, Lord Pasha…I beg you…!" However hearing the dreadful fate Alexander wanted for his sister, Philips once again interjected with a plea, clearly showing that although the man said the fate of his sister was Alexander's to decide, in reality, he yet much cared for her.

More than even his other sister it seemed, as Philips then quickly posed, "Lord Pasha what about Amelia? We can …"

" Watch yourself! You will 'not' humiliate my general Philips!!" However, long before Philips could finish, he was ruthlessly stopped on that line of thought as Alexander almost shouted this, putting a particular emphasis on 'not'.

The fifth princess had already been promised to Menes and although fully within his power, Alexander was never going to snatch something that he had already bestowed.

And the mere fact that Philips would suggest this irritated him.

So in a fit of frustration, Alexander decided to end the meeting there, waing his hands dismissively.

"I'm tired of all this. Leave! We are done here!"

"I will support you on that punishment regarding those nobles my lord! Please accept Camelia!" However, Philips, instead of leaving, shouted this, his voice sounding desperate.

His promise here was of course alluding to the nobles who had deserted Alexander and the ones the CP had helped to protect.

To protect his pillar of power.

And now he was willing to throw all that way and throw the men under the bus, all for his little sister.

It was both touching and lamenting.

"Oh?" And the offer was so lucrative that Alexander found himself forced to consider it.

Just when he thought Philips had nothing better to offer, the man decided to lure him back.

Thus a few seconds Alexander found himself tracing his chin, his mind deep in thought.

Alexander was weighing the challenges of taking this troublesome kid with the advantages of making his army stronger.

"Master, agree. I can handle her." When suddenly, Ophenia decided to break the silence as such, the unexpected 'intrusion' causing the entire room to turn their heads toward this beauty.

And even though they had all seen Ophenia before, all of them once again could not help but admire her looks.

With even Philips, who was gay, commenting in a heartfelt wonder, 'I remember mother as being this beautiful in her youth.'

While Alexander was more intrigued by her words.

Which then soon turned into understanding as he remembered her past, that temple, and what she had experienced there.

Given the temple's history, surely they had to have one or two rotten apples like this princess here.

And given the temple was still standing, surely they had found a way to break these girls.

So hearing Ophenia's confident tone, Alexander felt quite reassured that this princess could be tamed.

"I want to have them executed!" Thus turning towards Philips, Alexander curtly declared this condition for accepting Camelia.

"As you wish!" And Philips dutifully bowed in agreement, a seemingly great weight being lifted off his heart.

As an elder brother, he had done the best he could do. And at least he managed to avoid the worst fate for his sister.

It seemed at the end of it, no matter how much a brat she was, Philips could not fully discard her.

While next to him, Queen Parthia felt a stream of bitterness course through her heart.

It was of course not due to the result. She was quite happy with the outcome.

No, it was because of the price her eldest son had to pay for her own parenting inadequacies.

The price of supporting all those nobles' executions was surely going to cause greater deterioration of their already faltering royalty base.

But Queen Parthia could not decide if her son had done the right or wrong here, as her material instincts fought viciously against her regal queen mindset.

Until in the end, the love for her child won, as Queen Parthia wordlessly too presented a bow to Alexander in appreciation.

While princess Camelia remained mute, like a sculpted statue.

She hated that her fate was decided just like that, and her heart screamed in agony.

To her, it seemed everyone else treated her like she did not exist.

But since her fate had been decided and as a girl being powerless to stop it, the princess decided to take one good at her 'captor.'

Thus she woodily turned to face the man.

Placing her limpid eyes on Alexander, Princess Camelia found the face quite handsome, to be honest.

Clean shaven, with bright eyes, a strong nose, and a muscular square jaw with short hair neatly brushed back, the girl even thought for a second she would not mind calling such a man husband.

'No! He is a scoundrel. He is the one who killed daddy! I will never forgive him!' But just as those positive thoughts started to bubble up, it was instantly douched by this great wave of hatred.

For as it was said, Camelia was really loved by Perseus and she really loved him back.

So to see him go, or at least sink into a coma, really broke her heart.

And there was the man sitting right there who did all that.

Smiling, laughing, cheering?

How could Camelia bear to like him?

Could you do it?

To smile and nod to a man who took everything from you?

Could you do it at the tender age of fourteen?

Camelia was not an unruly girl by nature.

Otherwise, she would not be so loved by Perseus, and her rebellion would not have come as such a surprise to the rest of them.

But the loss of her father really hit her hard.

And it was in ways her family seemed to miss.

For instance, many times, unbeknownst to them, Camelia would sit beside Perseus's sleeping body for hours and simply cry her heart out.

While at other times she would make one side conversations with her unconscious father,

The reasons for her doing so were twofold.

One because she terribly missed her father.

And two because to her, it seemed that the rest of her family had simply forgotten about this patriarch of the family and she felt it was up to her to keep him in her mind.

This was of course wrong as Queen Parthia too very much cared about her husband.

But to Camelia, that claim rang hollow.

For she was horrified seeing just how easily her older brother whom she had once idolized so much, and the mother whom she saw as a role model both simply roll over their back and bow their head to this tyrant without an ouch of shame, the same tyrant who had destroyed her family's legacy and put her father into eternal sleep.

It both shattered her heart and made her lose all respect for them.

And it was because of that Princess Camelia was being so unruly.

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