Herald of Steel

Hearing the characteristics of Miss Linda from Lady Miranda, Alexander felt that if what she was saying was indeed true, then it would be hard for him to come to a reasonable resolution to the whole affair.

Not only would he not be able to let Miss Linda take the Margraves family seat, but even letting her share power with Lady Miranda would be a difficult prospect to swallow, for even half a a rotten apple was still an inedible apple

Of course, Alexander also made sure to take Lady Miranda's words with just a touch pinch of salt, for there were bound to be some biases in her account.

For instance, Alexander also recalled Lord Janus saying Miss Linda was quite successful in her new role, something Lady Miranda conveniently forgot in the midst of all her 'beautiful' expletives when describing her sister.

But Alexander did not harp on those matters for now,

Instead, having gotten all that he wanted on this matter, he swerved around to the next matter,

"What about the rest of your family? Surely they too know about your sister right? Why are they supporting her?" Alexander switched his attention to her largest supporters- the members of the Margraves family.

"...." Lady Miranda was not able to instantly give a reply to this question.

But instead turned to look at her husband with a difficult face, as if she wanted him to give the answer.

And Lord Cassius seemed more than happy enough to take the fall for his wife.

He thus began with a slightly reddened face, "Ahem… Lord Alexander, you should be aware of the great financial difficulties we are having. And Miss Linda has promised us relief from them. This has allowed her to gather quite a bit of support from the family. Many are willing to overlook her past mistakes, convinced that she has changed."

And hearing so Alexander lampooned in his heart, 'Money does make people blind.'

He could also understand why Lady Miranda was reluctant to say it herself- because the financial difficulties were in turn caused by Alexander's agreement.

But both sides cleverly decided to swerve around that matter, as Alexander instead inquired, "How much debt is your family in? I have brought some coins with me. So it might help."

"It will! Of course, it will! We are very glad that you did, my lord." At the mention of mere money, Lady Miranda instantly lit up to express her gratitude, before quickly promising, "With this, I'm sure we will be able to swing the tides in our favor. We are very grateful."

Alexander was a bit surprised by such an enthusiastic response, realizing that the family was really that cash strapped.

He previously had not expected the problem to be this bad, instead assuming that Lord Janus was just exaggerating the story to win Alexander's sympathy.

Thus sensing the problem to be truly dire, he decided to prod a bit, asking in a surprised voice,

"Has the ongoing piracy really affected the family this much? Surely it can't be that bad right? They are just small scale pirates. And you are a mighty family!"

"I'm afraid it is, my lord." Lady Miranda's tone however was bitter, as then bringing her brows closer together, the slightly plump lady informed Alexander,

"The reason for this is mainly Sybarsis. I don't think my lord knows this about our country, so let me tell you. There is a very specific way we protect our trade routes."

"All the ducal families contribute together to form a grand navy, which patrols the Central seas, guarding all the large, popular routes, and discouraging piracy. These routes are known as safe routes, and it is through these that most Sybarian merchants trade."

"Of course, as you can guess, all these routes required a premium to access. And the commission is determined by the amount of sales one makes."

At this point, Lady Miranda suddenly turned angry, as she then revealed,

"However, those rates started to change in the last few years. The amount of sales we have made in the meantime has drawn too many envious eyes. So those greedy pigs at the council started to demand an even higher and higher cut! Bastards!"

While hearing the curse and seeing how infuriated Lady Miranda was starting to become, Alexander was easily able to piece together the rest of the problem puzzle.

And his thoughts proved to be on the dot as he heard the lady further delineate

"At first, we tried to appease them thinking they would lay off. But…. By the gods was that a mistake! It was like inviting a wolf into our house. We could never afford to sate it." Lady Miranda loudly exclaimed in a high pitched cry, and then in fury and regret finished by saying, "We should have never given in. That only worked to show our weakness. Dammit!"

Alexander noticed her eyes becoming glazed at the mistake.

This was the classic case of giving an inch and asking for a mile and her inability to see such an obvious development left Lady Miranda clenching her pearly whites in anguish.

"You did not try to protest?" While Alexander wanted to know how the Sybarian council was able to raise the rates so easily.

"Of course we did!" And it was instantly answered by her husband since Lady Miranda chose to take a pause to self reflect.

And then he began to unravel the rest of the narrative, revealing, "Towards these unreasonable rates, we complained to the council, showing them that charging us tens times the usual amount was clearly unreasonable. However, those bastards refused to listen."

"They only justified their price by claiming that because the goods we were carrying were so valuable, the navy needed to fight off much more pirate attacks than usual. Bullshit! What pirates! Those are just excuses because the bastards are drolling over our money. Thieves! Robbers! Craven… leeches!"

Given that even the gentle Lord Cassius was starting to curse so loudly and crudely really went to show just how livid he was about the whole affair, further laying evidence to the extent of Sybarsis's extortion.

As for Alexander, hearing up until now, he felt he could fill in the rest.

Thus clasping his hands, he nodded understandingly, "So you have stopped paying for those privileges and started to use 'unsafe' routes. And wouldn't you know it, the council was right. The waters were truly teeming with pirates, who begun to attack your ships like sharps smelling blood." Alexander's tone near the end was quite sarcastic, easily being able to see through the 'fishy' affair.

"You are correct my lord." And Lord Cassius gently nodded his head with a light, aggrieved smile, "If we use the safe routes, we risk being attacked by the patrol ships. And if we use the other routes, we risk being attacked by the pirates. We are stuck between a rock and a hard place."

And then turning to look at Alexander, the man additionally informed,

"In fact, it is even an open secret that those pirates are actually sponsored by the various ducal families of Sybaris, used to commit acts that would be deemed too dirty for the honorable families."

"They attack our rivals, keep rival pirates in check, and even make sure all the lesser merchants of Sybarsis follow the rules. Hell, they sometimes even double as patrols if you can believe it!" The man sounded astounded.

'Of course, I can believe it. Pirates and patrols are two sides of the same coin.' While Alexander found the man's surprise more surprising.

What Lord Cassius said Sybarsis was doing seemed only natural to him and it was the fact that the man was surprised by this that caused Alexander to start seeing Lord Cassius in a different light- As a good man, who had few knots in his heart, and appeared simple and easy to dupe.

He might be a good human but not a very good leader.

While towards the Sybarian council's method, Alexander thought what they were doing was actually quite normal- using the carrot and stick method to keep all those greedy merchants in check.

Alexander was fully able to appreciate the difficulties the ducal families would have keeping all the lesser merchants in check and making them pay their dues.

After all, it was in a merchant's blood to try and maximize profits, through hook or crook.

As a lord himself, Alexander knew that very well.

So by making the entire sea unsafe save for their retainers save for a few select lanes, the Sybarian dukes offered all of them either obedience to them or destruction in the hands of the so called pirate, thus always retaining an effective leash on them.

It was quite a good strategy.

It was just too bad that Alexander found himself on the opposite side of this strategy.

As lampooned by Lady Miranda too, who was in simpatico with her husband, "Hmmmp! They cannot legally take our trade, so are trying to strangle us! Bastards!"

From the last sentence, Alexander also understood that there might be legislative barriers for the ducal family to be able to simply snatch the food from the Margraves.

Thus they instead resorted to these pressure tactics, to make the family break.