Herald of Steel

"Father! Father! Father!"

Just as Lord Nolan was resuscitated back to life, seeing the old man open his eyes and take a great deep breath, Lord Cassius began to instantly let out loud pants of great joy, quickly sprinting over and then kneeling down to clutch the man's withered hands in relief.

"Oh! Thank the gods! Thank the gods! You are alive! You are alive!" The man afterward broke off into almost tears, while Lord Nolan's still appeared a bit delirious, his eyes glassy and his mouth slack and loose.

And at this new presence, Lord Nolan turned to look at Lord Cassius suddenly with a look of surprised unfamiliarity, as if he was asking himself who this man was.

'Oh no!' And seeing this Alexander once again cursed in his heart.

The pasha was no doctor, but he had seen people like this before- people who became paralyzed and amnesiac after suffering a stroke, unable to communicate and sometimes even recognize their next of kin.

Alexander had no cure for this if that was the case.

And so could only pray this was the man just recovering from the shock and was only momentarily muddleheaded.

And that once he recovered, he would be able to once again retell his story.

Hence Alexander decided to step in to object to this happy union, loudly clearing his throat to draw attention to himself and then posing, "Lord Cassius, your father is still recovering. It is best not to disturb himself. Let us move him to somewhere quieter and more comfortable."

"Yes, yes, whatever you see, my lord, whatever you say. Yes, yes," Lord Cassius of course agreed to this at the drop of the hat, while also revealing the unique speech pattern of repeating the words he just said, a practice that he no doubt had picked up from his father.

Then with the help of a few of the men, Lord Nolan was relocated to another, quieter room, with Lord Cassius following quickly on toe, while Alexander and Lady Miranda stayed behind.

They still had many things to discuss, and this little distraction would not be enough to smooth out what Alexander was currently doing.

Neither forgot about it.

So with the slight detour removed, Lady Miranda formerly began the conversation in a placid but familiar tone, first offering a round of genuine praise,

"I have always heard of the great strides Zanzan has made in the field of medicine. But to see it for myself…. I must say its efficacy has exceeded even my wildest expectations. I had no idea you were such a miracle doctor Lord Alexander…. to be able to even give life to the death."

In Lady Miranda's mind, given Alexander had just brought back the breath of a person who was not breathing, it of course counted as a miracle- as resurrecting the death.

Heck, even to a modern person, someone with no heartbeat and no heartbeat would be called dead.

So Lady Miranda was certainly overjoyed by the precious life saving skill on display, using this to extrapolate that Alexander would be able to deal with even life threatening injuries.

After all, if one could give life to the dead, was even decapitation anything to get flustered about?

Alexander however, who knew better, of course knew Lady Miranda was placing a bit too much trust on him, and thus suddenly felt a bit embarrassed hearing such high praise, and was unable to stop himself from drawing comparisons to the Messiah Jesus, who was attributed to be able to do the same.

Now, Alexander did not know if the man was really capable of doing the things he was claimed to be able to do or if they were simply tall exaggerations by other people who had something to sell, but Alexander did know for sure that he could not do it.

So he produced a modest, humble chuckle, "Hahaha, Lady Miranda is being too flattering. Everything I can do, I can only do due to my Mother. She is the one who deserves all the praise."

Lady Miranda did not seem too surprised or flustered by this claim, but only gently nodded, "Mmm… the goddess Gaia must truly favor you. I'm glad to have such a powerful ally beside us in our time of need."

This reaction was quite different from how people from Adhania reacted, for there was no gushing or fawning, but only a calm and collected acceptance.

It was because according to Sybarian culture, a god favoring a mortal, although was certainly special, was nothing to lose one's socks over.

Per their beliefs, various gods favored different men throughout the times, in whatever ways they liked, but that did not mean their champions were blessed with any kind of aura of invincibility.

Many would fail in their mission, handing the triumph to other rival factions.

It was even thought that sometimes even a lowly mortal, if adequately clever and adept with his craft could best the gods in their own game.

Thus unlike the other times, here, there was no desire for Lady Miranda to convert to Alexander's religion, and certainly no desire to take him as her apostle.

Instead, calmly accepting Alexander's explanation, Lady Miranda went on to then add in a slightly apologetic tone,

"Also please allow me to express gratitude on both of our behalf for saving father. I know it should really have been Cassius who should have said this, but….he is an emotional man," Lady Miranda tried to find the nicest words to describe her husband's panicking antics, and finished with the plea, "So Ihope my lord will look at the way he acted with forgiving eyes."

Alexander brushed past such pleasantries with a light breezy wavy, both because it was very inconsequential to him, and also because he understood the other side was trying to belittle oneself now, to have the advantage in the later conversations.

And Alexander indeed was right, as with the small talk out of the way, Lady Miranda got straight to the point,

"So why have you done this, my lord?"

By now, Lady Miranda had gone from furious to hurt.

To which Alexander's answer was simple and curt, "Let me show you," as he stood up and then gestured the lady to follow.

Then for the next some time, the lady was shown various proofs of why Alexander did what he did, both physical, such as the dead bodies of the assasions that were still in Alexander's bedroom and the signalers with their step upas well as verbal, as Alexander recounted the whole event, from tip to toe.

Meaning starting from all the way back to what Lord Nolan had said about the old Lord Margraves, and finishing with the planned attack on his life as well as his lines, thus finally revealing his decision to act the way he did.

Then he ended with the words, "I know this might all be very hard for you to take it in all at once, my lady. But I swear by the gods that I speak the truth. That is also why I wanted Lord Then he ended with the words, "I know this might all be very Nolan's … help on the matter."

Alexander did not want to use the word 'confess' as it had a very negative connotation.

While Lady Miranda, after hearing all this, had turned pale and woody, her eyes glazed and unfocused.

The fact that the people so close to her, including her own grandfather whom she loved and respected so much, were plotting with such malice behind her back and for so long really felt like being stabbed by a dagger.

'These are the people I risked my and my son's life to save?' She loudly cried in her heart, knowing just how great a risk she had taken when initially traveling to Zanzan in her pregnant state.

The rocking and rough seas could have easily caused a miscarriage.

But even then she did it. All to save the lands her forefathers had built for her.

And this was her reward?

To be oh so conveniently removed once she had outlived her usefulness?

The thought infuriated her.

And fueled by such hatred, Lady Miranda thus spat through gritted teeth in a cold, deep voice that even sent slight shivers through Alexander, "So that's my the old crone was so afraid. No wonder he would rather die than confess!"

Lady Miranda did not doubt the veracity of Alexander's claims, both because of how he had backed them up with evidence, as well as how this new information let Lady Miranda connect numerous unconnected dots that she had previously found confusing.

She had indeed suspected this in some, deep, deep hidden corner inside her heart, but never dared to venture further with it, not even willing to believe it was possible.

She was deathly afraid of the thought like it was her nightmare.

But now that the game was up, Alexander suddenly noticed a change in Lady Miranda's demeanor, as the lady decided to shed all her indecisiveness, and turned to suddenly hand free reign of all the matters to Alexander,

"Thank you for all you have Lord Alexander. I am grateful. Please do whatever you think is necessary. But remember there is no turning back for us now. I leave my family's fate in your hands."

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