Herald of Steel

Hearing how Miss Linda's lies got an innocent girl killed made Alexander sigh in his heart.

Tragically, beating one's servants to death if their mistake was grave enough was a frequent occurrence in most parts of the currently known world.

This made the veracity of Lady Miranda's story very likely and caused Alexander to have second thoughts about the potential of working with Miss Linda.

"So how did Lord Janus find out at the end?" Thus listening to the story up until now, Alexander then posed this follow up question as it was clear the father had eventually come to learn about the injustice done to his daughter.

This was all the more damning because if Miss Linda had even the slightest shred of tact she would have stayed silent about it.

But it seems she did not, as Lady Miranda went on to reply with a sneer,

"Heh! The idiot let it out by mistake one day. And in front of father no less! She was caught threatening to have another of her maids killed… 'Just like I killed Naila' she was heard quoting. It did not take long for father to make her squeal after that."

"Linda was locked in her room for a whole month all alone. While father personally apologized to Uncle Janus, paying him blood money and even raising him from the steward of the house to a landed lord." With her story, Lady Miranda also revealed how Lord Janus had become a lord.

And hearing it, Alexander at first felt he might have judged Lady Miranda's father a bit too harshly initially. Sure he was flawed, but at least he had some guilt in him.

Unlike his daughter, who was proving to be much of what Lady Miranda had described as.

The reconciliation of the two sisters was looking more and more unlikely with each passing story.

"What about the guilds? Are they all with Miss Linda too?" Following the story, Alexander then decided to get back to the topic at hand, inquiring about this.

"Most of them have not taken a side. But at this point, they don't even matter. Those traitors!" Her voice was quick, sharp and curt as she dismissed them with an imperious wave of her palms

Alexander could easily detect there was a current of raging anger bubbling underneath her, especially as she spat out those last two words.

She was very dissatisfied with those guilds' behavior, believing they had betrayed her even after she worked so hard to get them cheap raw materials from Zanzan.

While Alexander focused more on the middle 'not mattering' part.

That kind of made sense to him as he reasoned,

'That's right! With the 20,000 troops in the city led by the Heeat family, there is little point in obtaining the merchants' favors. Gold might make the world go around, but not when you had steel pressed against your throat. Anyone who refused their rule would simply be cut down.'

Thus contrary to Lady Miranda's acrid feelings towards the guilds, Alexander was much more pragmatic in judging the merchants, feeling they were simply too helpless to control their own fate and bent whichever way the wind blew.

After all, all the gold in the world did not mean anything if you could not convert it into power.

Just like even if you have a spare 13 billion dollars sitting in your bank account does not mean you can simply buy a US supercarrier off the shelf.

So with Lady Miranda's urging, Alexander gave up on trying on trying to rally the people.

And at last, turned to the desperate option- "What about the Kaiser family? How do they feel about the Heeat family taking their business? Are they okay with another family meddling in their territory? Surely not right?"

Alexander's intention here was clear, use them to fight the Heeat family.

"!!!" And it was a blindspot neither Lady Miranda nor Lord Cassius had spotted, thus producing a shocked face.

With the latter then soon murmuring, "Now that I think about it, the Kaiser family has been awfully quiet about all this. You would think they would try to cause some sort of trouble for the Heeat family here."

"Right! I think so too!" His wife was also in simpatico with him, furrowing her sharp brows to state, "They have been trying every trick in the book to oust us from our land. So by all accounts, the entire Kaiser family should be up in arms about this. The Heeat family is putting its paws in their lunch. So why the lukewarm approach?"

Lady Miranda's face turned into a slight scowl as she could not figure out why the latter had not done something about it.

It made no sense.

"Perhaps, they do not know." So Alexander here interjected with his own theory, pointing his finger to the two pairs of curious eyes,

"Perhaps this is the exact reason why the Heeat family introduced Parket Heeat as the duke's illegitimate son. To fool the Kaiser family into thinking this was just a fight between the in-laws of an insignificant family member. And crucially not an overt effort to swallow the Margraves family. Those elephant riding fools must not be even aware of the conspiracy happening right under their nose!"

Alexander's sneering words made Lady Miranda and Lord Cassius bludgeon their eyes in alarm as a slight shiver then ran down their spine.

Because they finally began to see the complicated layers of techniques the other side had used to deceive the rest of the world.

Trade tensions, a plague, the death of the current successor, rampant piracy, and a nearly bankrupt economy.

All these were genuine reasons.

Used ingeniously to hide the one and only true motivation of that ducal family- swallowing the Margraves family- an earldom, into their sphere of influence.

All from right under the nose of another ducal family with it being none the wiser.

It was a genius move!

And Alexander felt like tapping his hat to the one who designed this.

Because he himself did not think he would be capable of pulling such a complicated trick.

The mastermind was proving to be such an accomplished schemer.

It made Alexander feel both appreciative of the techniques used and also produced a deep foreboding dread at the thought of potentially facing them.

Alexander would not want to face such an opponent even at the best of times.

Thus turning to face the couple, Alexander quickly proposed,

"Is there any way we can inform the Kaiser family? Reveal the Heeat family's plan to them. Surely they will side with us then right?"

"That…" And for a brief moment, Lady Miranda appeared tongue tied.

Because the couple was too surprised, appearing slightly agape.

In their minds, the Kaiser family was always the enemy. So shaking hands with them never even crossed their mind.

Hence it took a while for the duo to process what Alexander was exactly suggesting, before finally Lady Miranda chimed up with some difficulty in her voice, "I... I do not think it is prudent, my lord. It will simply be like driving the fox out to invite the wolf in. At the very least, the Heeat family does not desire our land too. They just want to incorporate us into their family. We can still continue to enjoy the fruits of our land under them."

This reminded Alexander that the reason for the Kaiser family's beef with the Margraves was due to the former losing a lot of land to Iyizarid.

So they wanted to drive the latter out and take this part of the island for themselves.

Whereas the Heeat family only wanted to place one of their own as the family's head and puppet them.

A much more acceptable compromise in most of the Margraves family's eyes- especially when they considered that that child was related to the Margraves family's main line.

So according to Lady Miranda, it seemed siding with the Kaiser family was impossible, as the members of the Margraves family would never accept her if she were to climb the stairs to the family's throne through them.

However Alexander was still not convinced, as tracing his chins he insisted, "Miss Linda is using the Heeat family. So what is wrong with us having the aid of the Kaiser family? It seems only fair."

But Lady Miranda once again pointed out that Miss Linda was married to one, while the Margraves had been turned into bitter enemies with the Kaisers.

So while the former could interfere using grey tactics, the latter really could not.

This inflexibility of the couple however somewhat irritated Alexander.

"I know my lady might have a personal distaste for the Kaiser family, but this is no time to be picky about allies. Especially when we have so few left," Alexander scowled a bit, chiding the lady,and then with a small wave of his hand proposed the following compromise, "Okay! Since my lady is so reluctant, we do not have to ally ourselves with the Kaisers right now. Let us simply inform them of the plot."

"If I recall correctly, the other half of the island is overseen by Straus the family. Please send a message to them. Then let's wait and see how the ducal family behind them reacts."

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