Herald of Steel

Lord Parker would celebrate his wife's return long into the night, drinking and feasting heartily with his officers.

There he would regularly toast to her magnificent intellect, toast to their imminent victory and most of all retell her brilliant escapade, which was of course heavily embellished.

First of all, there was no mention of Lord Cassius or Lord Nolan in it, making it all Miss Linda's singular brilliance, garnished alongside extreme inadequacies on Alexander's part, such as his guards supposedly returning to their quarters during the afternoon to take naps.

That's how Miss Linda had managed to escape, according to her own recount.

It was a claim that no one of course dared to question, nor did someone like Lady Adele deign to speak up to disapprove it, the lady being more than content to sit in a corner and drink herself to almost death.

Thus she also did not hear the death bells toil for all those in the mansion when during the celebrations, Lord Parker at one point turned to order Lord Bernard to restart work on the underground water immediately, wanting the task to be finished by the very next morning, saying he wanted to end this tedious stalemate once and for all.

Lord Bernard was of course more than pleased to obey, bolstered by the loud cheer from the men around him, for they too were eager to see this boring seige conclude.

The only one with an acrid heart was Achillas, but given the direction of the surging tides, he too was forced to eventually accept the result.

He never thought that the lady, her son and sister, all three would be able to safely escape, and escape so soon, it was a miracle.

'Perhaps it is divine providence,' Hence the general could only chalk it all up to the gods favoring such an outcome and bitterly swallowed his drink.

As the joyous party went on, the subtle absence of two particular people who were very much supposed to be there went mostly unnoticed by everyone, save for in the mind of one particular Miss Linda.

The lady would ruminate why Lord Cassius and Lord Nolan had not joined them yet when they were supposed to be there many, many hours ago.

The lady even had already planned how to deal with them when they got there.

By not receiving them with thanks and gratitude, but accusing both of them of forcing themselves on her in exchange for helping her escape, and then having Lord Parker promptly execute them.

Yes, even Lord Nolan, as she saw this old crone too slimy to trust.

Miss Linda had deliberated on the matter for a bit, as it was true that the old man was one of her greatest supporters.

But Miss Linda at last found him not as easy to control as the others.

So after a bit of going back and forth, the heartless lady determined he had to go.

And thus as the lady lay next to her husband, feeling quite tired after a particularly steamy session, she wondered what could have happened to them.

Well to know what happened to tell, one had to go back a couple of hours back in time. A time around the late afternoon when Quilis and his partner were finally starting to get suspicious of all the servants and maids hanging about the room.

"Hey! What's taking so long? How long does it take to change a single carpet?" They shouted in annoyance, and the moment they entered, suddenly the entire facade came tumbling down.

"Wha… what? You are not the lady! Where is she?" The pair, who perhaps knew Miss Linda a little more than they would have liked, was able to quickly tell the maid apart from her mistress when they got closer.

The silhouette became much sharper and more distinct, thus revealing the inconsistencies and causing the two to suddenly feel a deep sense of dread like they had never felt before.

'What have we done? Letting her escape!' Quilis despaired deep inside, while his partner almost leaped forward and swiped at the 'infant' the maid was holding, finding it to be nothing more than a folded up blanket.

It was only while they stared at the piece of blanket lying on the ground, limply and without a hint of life in it, that the men truly understood they had been really duped.

"Wha… what now?" And knowing very well what the consequences of this reaching Alexander's ears would be, Quilis's partners stammered out of the query in a tone filled with utter horror.

"They… these… these are all spies. Spies *clang*!!" And Quilis, who too was overcome with unadulterated dread, screamed like this while suddenly unsheathing his weapon, "Kill them! Kill them all! Offer their head to Alexander."

His partner instantly understood what Quilis meant by this.

Since the mistake had already been committed, their only hope to save their necks was to wash the floor with the blood of these criminals and hope Alexander accepted their acceptance.

"Right! *Clang*!"

And thus, scared out of their minds by what they had let happen and what Alexander was going to do to them once he found out, these two half mad men suddenly bared their silvery weapons and leaped onto these defenseless men and women without a second thought, madly hacking and slashing them apart.

The two really had no plan here.

They did not bother to ask or interrogate any of them about what had truly happened or even where the lady had gone, but in their fear and rage, they sought to just kill everyone in sight, and then go apologize to Alexander for the blunder, offering all these bodies as trophies like he was some kind of evil blood demanding blood sacrifice.

It was like this that the possessed men hoped that this would be enough to show their 'sincerity'.

Fortunately for the servants, these two men did not get to go far with this kind of thinking.

They were only two while the other side numbered in the high twenties, so even though the men tried their best, they could only claim so many lives with their cold weapons.

Instead, their dreadful screams and frightful laments were enough to quickly draw the other nearby guards, who rushed to the scene and upon seeing the unfolding carnage, quickly worked to put a stop to it.

And then upon seeking clarification about what the hell was going on, the men quickly became alarmed, arresting everyone in the room, including Quilis and his partner, while at the same time sending a messenger bolting towards Alexander's room.

*Bang*, *Bang*, *Bang*,

The man's dreadfully loud and rude knock was quickly forgiven once the sleepy Alexander was informed of the unfolding incident, as he instantly snapped his eyes open, finding his sleep being knocked out of the park.

He could not believe his most prized possession as well as her son had managed to flee, despite all the precautions he had taken.

"Lock down the mansion! Get everybody into their rooms. The family members, the servants, the cooks, the maids, I mean everybody! Everything stops! The only people I want to see walking are blue and in armor!" Alexander thus instantly shouted the order at the top of his voice, his tone suddenly shaking.

Somehow he had a deep dreadful feeling about all this.

Alexander did not know why and he could not put it into exact words, but somehow he felt that Miss Linda's escape might not be as simple as just simply running away.

Thus as this messenger ran out to relay the order, Alexander turned to Hemicus to order,

"You go and bring Quilis and the other idiot to me. I want to know exactly how they fucked up this time. Fucking imbeciles!" Before shifting his gaze towards another part of the corridor and chiming, "I will go check up on that old fart. I won't ever believe the old coot does not know anything about this."

The old coot was of course Lord Nolan, and when Alexander said that word, he unconsciously clenched his teeth with anger.

With Lord Nolan and Quentin gone, Lord Nolan now had the pleasure of being Alexander's most valuable captive.

And Alexander was determined to secure and then thoroughly interrogate him.

Thus the two men split, each headed on their own paths.

But while Hemicus was easily able to bring the two culprits back to Alexander, unfortunately for the latter, Lord Nolan was long gone.

Upon entering the room, Alexander had found the place to be devoid of any life, causing the man to let out a small howl, "Dammit!" before lifting one of his legs into the air in frustration.

But all was not lost for him.

"Where did he go?" Alexander was able to at least make his query to the two guards stationed by the door, who promptly let him know,

"It… It was Lord Cassius. He claimed that his father was suddenly feeling ill and wanted to go for a walk. They went that way!" One of them was able to provide a concrete direction, while the other, seeing Alexander's scary face added,

"We… wanted to escort them, but the lord… he would not let us. They have just left! We can catch up!"

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