Herald of Steel

As Lady Felicia excused herself out of that room after her conversation with Alexander, her mind was filled with the talks they had just now.

'Does he know? But how? Who spoke? Was it that idiot Lapitus? Or did they get to Zulkain? Or someone I forgot to think of? An old maid working here? Did those men tailing me suspect anything?' 

A thousand such thoughts crossed Lady Felicia's mind as she very well understood what Alexander was implying back then.

Her personal nature had been called into question by the highest authority around here and the very first thing her mind tried to do was locate the culprit and stop this leak.

And as she tried to form a list of her suspects, she got a very long list of names indeed, one which went from the obvious- her husband, to her maid Zulkain, to other maids, to many, many others connected to her through the web of connections.

And yes, those men that Alexander or rather Camius sent to tail her were detected by Lady Felicia before even the first day up.

It barely took her till the afternoon.

And it was not because Camius's spies were necessarily bad.

Instead, it had more to do with Lady Felicia.

For if one thought about it, if this woman was not hyper mindful of her surroundings, she would not have been able to continue a decade long affair right under her husband's nose.

So from that perspective it only made sense.

And when she detected those spies, she did not think too much of them, as instead of being alarmed, she reasoned, 

'I thought those were just men covertly checking up on my work. To evaluate me.' 

But it was only now that Lady Felicia was starting to understand those tails were not so innocuous.

Perhaps they were fishing for the skeletons in her closet.

And she indeed had many of them.

And it was simply not her affair, for she had added a few more very recently.

Skeletons which were certainly even more damning than her decade long affair and the true father of her child.

Thus, alarmed and paranoid, Lady Felicia tried to sniff out the rat- the person or thing that had set such a powerful man on her tail.

A man whose might made her feel utter despair.

'He has not found me out yet. I need to find who talked and shut them up. And I need to clean up my act.' The lady very alarmedly reminded herself. 

But try as she might to scour her memory for any potential suspects and even coming up with a few names, her biggest leaker remained obscured to her- her daughter Fabiyana.

The little girl was seen as being too young to understand anything, and Lady Felicia underestimated her observation power, especially because Fabiyana was quite immature and even a bit silly. 

But perhaps more than that, it was the simple case that being her mother, the very thought of suspecting her own child, her very own flesh and blood did not even occur to Lady Felicia, as simple as that.

Whatever the case was, in the following week, LP would not be able to find any clue which led her to this predicament, and it would drive her nearly mad, even to the point that she contemplated murder!

With her very first target being- Alexander!

And do not think this woman was daunted by that name alone.

For in this ambitious woman's mind, 

'A man is a man. What difference is there between a Pasha and a homeless beggar? Aren't they made of the same flesh and blood? Once they drink the poison, both will end up as the same- a rotting pile of shit.'

And one should not underestimate this sort of mindset, for given the time period it was extremely virulent.

The societal nature of the time made everyone revere and respect nobles to the utmost degree, as for an ordinary person, even the mere thought of being disrespectful to them was seen as almost sacrilegious. 

With even the nobles following this convention, as they themselves also respected one another, 

So the way Lady Felicia was thinking here, it was truly a difficult mindset to cultivate.

The modern equivalent mindset would not be like a 21st century person thinking of assassinating a nation's head of state but more like possessing a thought process where you subconsciously call your parents my name inside your head.

It was such a departure from social norms.

And at first the only thing that stopped Lady Felicia from truly trying it was the security around Alexander, as the woman cursed to herself, 'Dammit! I wish I hadn't shown him that trick. Or I bet I could have killed him already.'

Here the woman was of course thinking of that storing poison in her locket and tucking it in her cleavage.

But this was really the nuclear option for Lady Felicia, to make Alexander go down with her, as she was totally unable to predict what Alexander dying would mean for her, and for the territories he had.

His successor was too young and his allies too few after all.

Perhaps everything of his would be gobbled up by others and Lady Felicia would not even get a bone.

So as she calmed down, Lady Felicia stopped trying to think of ways to kill Alexander but concentrated her efforts on others.

But although she indeed possessed the ability to claim all the lives she suspected, they all shared a glaring problem.

Alexander would be alerted.

Nevermind the spies that kept even a watchful eye on her, even if she were to be able to evade, which she was fairly confident she could for the required time, the mysterious death of any people close to her would surely raise Alexander's suspicion.

For as the woman had revealed her proficiency with poison, such a trick would surely draw that man's attention.

And without her signature weapon, her greatest boon would be negated.

And then trying to think of an alternative murder method proved very difficult.

Not only was time not on her side, with she having no idea when Alexander would be getting the smoking he needed, but given Lady Felicia was after all a woman, she also lacked the physical strength to brute force the deed.

As for hiring someone else to do it, that was deemed too risky.

In Lady Felicia's mind, someone had already talked, and hiring an assassin was simply digging a bigger hole.

And even if she could do that, Lady Felicia did well to remember that she had found Alexander to be very insightful.

So no matter how she killed them, even if she avoided poison, and even Alexander had no proof, Lady Felicia was sure the man would place his eyes squarely on her.

And Alexander really needed no proof to deny her governance of the city.

He could base it entirely on his whims and desires. 

It was not like Alexander was answerable to anyone for this.

Thus even the perfect crime was not good enough for Lady Felicia.

Hence, ultimately, seeing the writing on the wall, Lady Felicia decided to forego the bloody route and came up with an alternative strategy- she decided to seduce Lapitus.

So donning that dress, she showed off her curves one night to her husband, much to Lapitus's heated lustful gazes, as she explained, 

"Lady Gelene gifted me this. She is the owner of the largest clothing store in Zanzan, that one's clothes I always tell you all the ladies wear- Dhara." 

"She said she had it made for here in secret, It's a gift from Lord Pasha to you." Lady Felicia cupped her hands around her lips to whisper this in a sensual way.

And Lapitus instantly understood what she meant.

Since Alexander giving such a type of clothing to Lady Felicia directly would send a very wrong message, the pasha had instead chosen to deliver it through his wife, thus keeping that veneer of modesty, while at the same time letting Lapitus enjoy his time with his wife.

At least that was how Lapitus construed it, although it was as misconstrued as it could be.

So taking this gift at face value, as Alexander simply thanked him for getting the city, Lapitus asked no more questions and simply praised Alexander as well as Gelene for their generosity before enjoying his husband's rights.

It was a level of enjoyment that the man would say was the best he had ever, making him comment times about his wife's usual enthusiasm for the act.

To which Lady Felicia moaned salaciously, pointing out how her dress had gotten her all worked up and made the man work harder, with the intense mating lasting for close to two hours, by the end of which Lapitus was literally shooting blanks.

And the only thing that stopped him from begging for rest was his pride, as well as the fear that if he was unable to perform here, his wife would be disappointed and she might never let him experience this blissful pleasure ever again.

Thus eager to prove his worth in bed, the man persevered with all his willpower, while his little brother helped by this sexy sight soldiered on, trying its hardest.

Although for Lady Felicia, the action surprisingly proved dull!

For after tasting Alexander, there really was no going back.

And although Lapitus was no 'micro' down there, it was really not fair to compare his natural organ with Alexander's artificially enlarged one.