Herald of Steel

Chapter 1037

Once Lady Miranda finished with her toast, Alexander was asked once again to do the same by Lord Cassius, such impressed was the man with Alexander's self control.

And his appreciation might have been more if he knew the one to offer her breasts had not been really Miss Linda's personal maid but her elder sister- Lady Adele in disguise, someone who had a much prettier face.

But even the current levels were more than enough to make the couple have a brand new respect and trust towards Alexander.

Thus they listened carefully to Alexander's answer when he finally replied to Lady Miranda's initial query, "Since the people are rioting, we should have additional security around here. Let me move my army from the Royal harbor and station them around the mansion here. Their presence will surely deter any fools in the crowds from trying anything foolish."

This…" However, although Lady Miranda listened to Alexander's proposal, she had a hard time recommending it, as evidenced by the 'difficult' and troubled face she had.

The reason?

It was stated by Lord Cassius, "Lord Alexander, we fear that such a move will antagonize the other side. What if Lord Parker is alarmed by seeing all your soldiers and thinking that you are going to forcefully take over the mansion and decides to mobilize his own army? That will mean war!"

"An war where we will be outnumbered more than 4 to 1." Lady Miranda was quick to add with a worried voice, thus revealing her reluctance to sanction this.

As then, having had the time to make up her mind, turned to Alexander to state her decision in a clear, crisp voice, "I'm sorry, Lord Alexander but I cannot allow you to do that. We must not give Lord Parker any excuse to march his army towards the mansion. It took us too much pain and effort to convince him to move his army once to the southern part of the city. We cannot give him the excuse to return." The fact that Lady Miranda repeated that line twice went to show the kind of shadow that man's army had left on her, as she produced an almost whimpering face towards Alexander that seemed to say, 'You were not there, so you would not understand how hard it was. Please do not make us face it again."

And then ended with her own proposal, "Let us meet with Linda and talk. I'm sure she will have a good explanation. Perhaps it was some other miscreants, some… other unknown."

The lady could have made her appear less credible even if she had tired, as it was clear as daylight who was truly behind this.

It was too telegraphed and too targeted.

Something that was of course instantly caught by Alexander, who then rolled his eyes and clenched out with gritted teeth, "So you are saying there are some other miscreants in the city that we have no idea about who also want me dead? And it was them who sent an angry mob after me once they were finished looting various temples….in a city guarded by 20,000 active men? All in one night? And not a single one of these 'miscreants' has been caught?"

Alexander made sure to clearly increase the taunt in his tone with each sentence although there was not a trace of humor in it.

The fact that he was not impressed by this decision was evident.

"....." And facing this displeasure, Lady Miranda could only purse her lips and lower her head a bit in shame.

When Alexander laid it out like that, it really laid bare the whole situation in the open.

Alexander was not impressed by this decision, nor was he moved even by the tiniest grain of sand by Lady Miranda's reasoning.

Instead he was incensed, and made him genuinely wonder how people could be this blind.

Hence he spat in his heart at the lukewarm, cowardly reaction, 'You fools! Don't you realize it? They have already declared war! How can it be any clearer when they have already looted the temples? Stolen from the gods themselves! If this is not war, what is?'

The couple's indecisiveness and inability to see the situation for what it really was even now utterly infuriated Alexander and he felt like jumping up and throttling both of them.

But ultimately, no matter Alexander's personal feelings on the matter, he had to restrain himself.

This was their house and their land.

So no matter how much he disagreed with them, he had to take into account their sentiment.

Their infuriating sentiment, as although Alexander did not outright object to the decision, the whole room could sense Alexander's bubbling frustration at this, at being denied the use of his army.

Many even understood that the young lord's emotions were threatening to boil over any time, with Alexander being this close to flipping out and shouting,

'You two! Have you grown up eating grass? The enemy is this close to slaughtering us and you still want to just keepThen what do you want us to do? Suck our thumb and do 'mum-

mum-mum'?'

However just as Alexander was about to start a huge row with Lady Miranda and mobilize a part of his army regardless of the wishes of the mansion's hosts,

"Why not let the soldiers enter the premises disguised as workers? That won't alarm the Heeat family right?" Suddenly Lady Parthia's crisp, sweet voice blew across the room, instantly soothing the red hot tension.

And the whole room instantly turned around to face the Tibian queen in pleasant surprise.

Lady Parthia had surprisingly come at the same solution that Alexander had used to hide his 5,000 mercenaries in his personal estate- by making them conceal their armor bywearing plain clothes.

'Genius!' And Alexander instantly leaped in his heart at glee at this simple but effective solution, as he chimed out with great alacrity, "Great! Let's do that!"

While internally, as well as feeling ecstatic, Alexander also lightly slapped his forehead in rebuke, 'Dammit! How could I not think of that? Stupid! I even did something like that just a while ago. The pressure must be getting to me,' before reciting the mantra- 'Calm down. Calm down. Do not let your emotions get the better of you.'

As for Lady Miranda, Alexander's strong response left her unable to counter the plan in time, as she found the man to be too forceful to counter.

And her situation turned for the worse when Lady Nanazin too joined, so as to not be left behind by her rival, as she clearly expressed, "Lady Parthia has spoken of a great idea. We can have a thin line of soldiers as a deterrence force outside, while much of the garrison hangs back in reserve within the mansion, disguised as slaves and workers in plain clothes"

The Adhanian Queen was showing to have a good grasp of what Lady Parthia was proposing, the quickness of her comprehension impressing Alexander, as he heard her then make the benefits crystal clear to the other side,

"That way most of our men will be hidden away from Lord Parker's scanning eyes and won't alarm him as Lady Miranda fears. But at the same time they will be available to quickly reinforce the frontline if the enemy decided to attack."

"Remember, the distance between the mansion and the royal harbor is not insignificant. If the men are in their current camp, they won't be able to join in time before our lines break."

Alexander could not have put it better himself.

And it was so well presented that neither of the couples could straight out object.

But they still held some reservations regarding this, especially on the finer details, such as letting a foreign army enter their estate.

However since they could not outright deny Alxx's ask, the ever resourceful Lady Miranda thus quickly took the second best option, first nodding to show her approval for the move but then also adding one condition, "Okay, my lord. As long as there are not too many soldiers and they do not enter the mansion premises itself, we can allow… agree to it."

The lady was at least self consciousness enough to understand she was not powerful enough to allow anything, she was simply agreeing to Alexander's move.

'Heh!' However Alexander treated this condition as little more than a light fart.

What was the point of mobilizing his army if he did not have control of the mansion? That was the headquarters, the main nervous point, where Alexander himself resided!

And besides, legally speaking what was the 'not too many soldiers' that Lady Miranda spoke of?

I.e.- the exact, specific number.

Because 'too many' was a relative term and Alexander could let in all his 5,000 men and claim it was only 5,000 men, nothing compared to Lord Parker's 22,000.

It was because of these glaring loopholes that Alexander had no problem ascending to Lady Miranda's request, very enthusiastically nodding his head, "That's great! I will simply have a few of my men block the nearby streets to prevent any mob from assaulting the mansion. While the rest hangs back around the back. They won't be a bother to anyone I promise."