Herald of Steel

"Lady Miranda, are you sure your impartial father in law is as impartial as he seems?" As Alexander accompanied the lady back to the main mansion, the frustration in his voice rang loud and clear across the empty corridors.

And both Lady Miranda and Lord Cassius flushed.

Neither thought the old man would be so obstinate, so they could only take it when Alexander further complained, "Forget everything else, he did not even agree to issue a night curfew. Surely that would have helped the people of the city."

Alexander seriously began to doubt the old man's integrity.

"I… I'm sure father has his reasons Lord Alexander," While Lord Cassius tried to defend his old man, quickly reassuring, "I'm sure he is just confused on the details. He has been in bed for so long that….bad actors have managed to muddle him. I will be sure to talk to him again. Rest assured, Lord Alexander."

"....." Towards this, Alexander had little choice other than to nod gratefully and hope that he was only overanalyzing things.

Because credit to Lord Nolan, he did make some good points while defending his actions.

And the only real thing Alexander could fault the man on was trying to play for time.

Then afterward, around noon, Alexander would become distracted by reports of the ongoing riots in the city, whose rising flames he could notice from even all the back here.

Alexander did not know whether he should be happy about how spectacularly the other side's plan backfired on them, or sad about the loss of all innocent lives there.

And his day would end for like that, while his night would be spent alone, as he would refuse Lady Nanazin's advance that day.

Even the thick skinned Alexander had a reputation to hold as it would look too crude if he were to pursue such a forbidden relationship so openly.

While the old man in question, Lord Nolan would call Miss Linda some time after Alexander and Lady Miranda had left, and inform her of all the things discussed.

And if Alexander and the others were here, they would have been shocked by how the man moved and acted as he addressed her, no longer the frail and bed ridden old man, but instead filled with strength and power.

He even paced back and forth across the room, chiding the sitting girl, "You already told me that this Alexander was troublesome. So why are you trying so hard to make an enemy of him? Even sending a rioting mob…. foolish girl!"

Luckily Lord Nolan did not yet know of the fires and chaos, or else the tirade would have been sharper.

Miss Linda slightly hung her head low towards all this, however, she did not seem too concerned. The prideful girl did not think she was wrong.

And then she in the subsequent conversations, managed to justify her action the same way she had done with her husband, i.e.- by revealing her plan to kill Alexander, and the mob's role in that.

Lord Nolan did a double flip after hearing this, as his acrid heart suddenly turned very pleased, chuckling out, "Hehe, I can see why your grandfather chose you, Linda. Okay! Do what you think is best. I will keep you informed of the things in the mansion."

Lord Nolan had pretended to be sick and hid himself all the way back here to be able more easily conduct such covert acts, and he thought his time had come.

However, as Lord Parker and Achillas covertly arrived at night, that joyous atmosphere appeared to dim, as they brought with them news of the massacre.

Raising the topic with his wife later that night, the two sisters, Lord Parker and Achillas once again regrouped and under the new developments had to reassess their strategy.

There, Lord Parker took the lead, first revealing the outcome of today's riot, the deaths and the fires, as well as the potential consequences of the cruel methods they had to use to bring everything under control, before clenching his fist up and firmly declaring,

"All this is taking too long! We should complete Linda's ascension to the Margraves family seat as soon as possible, lest even more unforeseen events come up. One Alexander is bad enough. We will be in even more trouble if the Kaiser family gets a whiff of this."

Lord Parker's underlying meaning here was clear.

But if it was not, then Achillas made sure to make it so, as soon as Lord Parker had finished saying this, the general chimed up with practiced ease,

"Mmmm, the lord said it well. Today proved that getting the public to riot against Alexander is almost as dangerous as getting them to riot against us. What if Alexander realizes what is happening during this time?"

"Lady Linda has already informed us how Alexander is trying to strengthen himself. Why take all this risk and not kill him tonight? We can even…. remove Lady Miranda and Lord Cassius along with him. This will solve all our problems in one go!"

The two men had not only made up after their little quibble but seemed to be in complete simpatico over how to clean up after the mess.

With blood.

"What! How can you even say that?" However, this obviously did not go well with the middle sister, Lady Adele, who almost jumped up from the couch in shock.

As said earlier, killing a guest in one's house was a very big no no.

And fortunately, this time the middle sister had her much more powerful younger sister's backing, who too nodded, "Sister is right. This is impossible. We Margraves have a reputation to uphold," as she then charmingly turned the eyes to her husband, taunting, "And besides, how would you propose to even do that? Saunter off into Alexander's room and throw myself over him? That whore of a Queen is already sleeping there."

It seemed even Miss Linda knew of Lady Nanazin's proclivities.

Although in her case, few believed her.

Even her husband merely thought his extremely haughty wife was just being jealous.

So he quickly chimed to placate her, "Of course not, of course not."

Although deep inside, he thought that if he could remove this thorn called Alexander, he would not mind letting his wife spread her fair, slender legs for him.

Both the spouses were very ambitious people, and usually, neither even registered such trivial sacrifices.

So what if another man's prick entered the wife's pink garden?

Will that part fall off? Or will it start to rot?

To either of them, neither chastity nor morality mattered that much, especially if the trade off was power.

However, that being said, Lord Parker still sensed his wife's utter revulsion to the act.

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So he did not chime yes to the rhetorical question.

Instead, he stayed quiet as Miss Linda expounded on her speech, once again firmly declaring, "There will be no killings in this mansion tonight. Neither of Alexander and especially not of my sister. This was one of the conditions grandfather made me swear to the gods in front of all the elders when promising me the seat, so I must honor it…. at least until the seat is mine."

The lady really was one of a kind, only willing to honor her words as far as it suited her or as long as she was forced to.

But even then, she at least managed to put that macabre idea to rest for now, and then suggested her own way to proceed forward,

"Personally, I think we can continue as is. Let the riots continue. Because it is working. Alexander visiting Uncle Nolan is proof of that. So we just need to keep it up."

Declaring this, Miss Linda then turned to face the two men, her voice now turning chiding, "And stop inflating the failure of the riots today. These are all low born peasants, so what if a few thousand died? Just give them a few scarps and they will forget everything today." She brushed away the incident, and then looked right at Achillas,

"General, capture a few well known thugs and hang them in the marketplace tomorrow. Say that it was them that incited the riot. That should be enough to shut the people."

"And then contact some of the gangs we have in the city. Have them loot the temples instead of your men directly. Then have them lead the riots around various parts of the city. They can keep an eye on the crowd that way."

The ever resourceful lady quickly let out orders like she had memorized them.

And towards this, the trio found little to complain about.

It was a very good plan, with the only slight hitch there being the compensations Lord Parker thought the people should be given,... to ease their acrimony even more and smooth their way back to the streets.

But he of course did want to pay out of his own pocket. So he asked for his wife's input.

To which Miss Linda first appeared displeased even at the suggestion, as she did not think those 'low scums' deserved anything, but then suddenly remembering a small clue, immediately agreed, producing a very crafty grin,

She had found the perfect way to swindle Alexander.