Herald of Steel

As the string of questions were laid bare right in front of Lady Felicia, she suddenly felt the room around her turn surprisingly cold.

And she could tell that she had not been called here to lay with Alexander.

This meeting was clearly designed as a trap and she had been got!

The queries being so openly targeted showed it.

And then she heard Alexander repeat, "Tell me the truth, Felicia. And nothing will happen. I simply want to hear you say it."

The voice was very impatient and accommodating.

But how could Lady Felicia believe it?

This was a favored technique of those wishing to extract an answer, to show hope, to show that it would only get worse if they hid it, and thus coax the other party into revealing what they knew.

Lady Felicia herself had sometimes used the technique to get something out of her half brothers and sister.

But once she had the information, well then it depended.

She could do whatever she liked, but most of the times, she acted based on the revealed intel.

And Lady Felicia very much feared that what her confessing might cause Alexander to do.

For she knew what she hid.

Thus she came to this conclusion, 'Since he already knows, there is no need to add insult to injury. I will simply shut up and pretend to know nothing. Anything I say will simply add to his knowledge.'

"My…lord… this… I… what is this paper! I have never lied to you." Lady Felicia pretended to be shocked and even added that artful stammer.

And seeing it Alexander was astounded as ever.

Even now, when he made it so clear to her, this woman refused to bulge.

This reminded him of a famous from the movie- Diary of a Wimpy Kid- 

Deny, deny, deny. Even if they find out, never ever admit to anything! Deny, deny, deny.

This woman truly had grit, Alexander would have to give her that. 

But grit or not, Alexander was determined to break this woman one way or the other.

However, before he got physical, Alexander gave one last warning, "I will give you one last chance, Felicia. Tell me the truth!"

"Did Lapitus really hurt you?" He began with this small question.

"Of course! I swear by the gods! Why would you ever doubt me, my lord?" And Lady Felicia did not have any hesitation in violating even the taboo about the gods, as she lied through her teeth.

"......" And seeing this, it took a lot of effort on Alexander's part to not simply walk up and slap the woman unconscious.

For although Alexander abhorred violence against the fairer sex, he really believed the woman before him deserved it.

But ultimately exercising great patience, Alexander clenched his teeth to only frostily add, "Really? Then how come I saw no marks on your body? And I saw you naked."

"You might not know this, but I know a woman who really was abused by her husband. And even till today, she bears some scars." 

Alexander was of course talking about Lady Nanazin who even after two straight years of using the legummum salve was still unable to get rid of some of the more grievous types of wound marks, such as the burned, branded patches.

So for Alexander, to see someone whose skin probably had not ever been even pierced claim the same experience, incensed the man.

"Surely if Lapitus was the insane monster you told me he was, you should bear some scars. Can you show me one?" Then he cleverly asked.

But seemingly not clever enough.

For Lady Felicia seemed to yet have an answer ready for him.

"Of course, I cannot my lord." The woman first appeared to frankly answer Alexander, but then quickly pointed, "Lapitus is a military man. And very talented in torture at that. He did not dare leave any marks in fear that I would show them to my father."

"So when he would beat me, he would always put a pillow or thick rug over my body. That way, it would hurt just as much and sometimes even break things inside my body, but there was never any evidence." In an instant, Lady Felicia had managed to think of a plausible answer.

And then quickly cried in a wounded voice, 

"Lord Pasha! Please stop this! Please do not doubt me! You are the only one I ever told you this.

Because I trusted you. Please do not leave me!"

"You cannot believe anything that monster that told you. He's a total sadist and a born liar! You must believe me!"

As Lady Felicia cried with literal tears streaming down her face, Alexander looked down at the quivering lips, the impassioned, sobbing eyes, and heartfelt pleas with not scorn, but amazement!

He really could not help but be astounded by the level of natural born acting skill on display.

Alexander did not know about much acting but he did not know that being able to cry on command was a skill as rare as a unicorn horn. 

And he felt that if he had not been able to get Lapitus to reveal everything but know everything, but instead came here looking to simply try and fish, hoping to break Lady Felicia through trickery, he would have surely failed.

He might have even questioned his own hypothesis!

Heck! Even now a tiny, tiny part of his brain was stabbing him with queries of doubts.

'What if you are wrong?'

'Maybe she really is telling the truth?'

'Maybe there is more to it than you thought!'

And sensing all this, Alexander again understood how Lady Felicia had been able to continue an affair in this day and age for over a decade without ever getting caught.

He predicted that surely there must have been times when Lapitus had grown suspicious of Lady Felicia's movements, but was likely always hoodwinked by this siren's treacherously beautiful voice and impassioned cries.

Even the reply the woman had given about the torture was very, very good.

For there was indeed such a method, and it really worked as Lady Felicia said.

The original technique involved taking any cloth, say a sock, placing the part of the victim you wanted to break inside it, sometimes torture chambers had giant, specialized sock just for this purpose, and then filling it up with sand.

At that point, you could hit over it as much as you, and even though the insides would turn to mush, the outer skin would remain pristine.

Alexander wondered where the woman learned of this, for this was not something a woman of this time was supposed to know. 

But that was perhaps what made it all the more impressive.

But impressive or not, Alexander still had to break her.

"*Sigh*, oh Felicia!" And upon realizing that the soft, easy way was not going to cut it, Alexander could not help but at last ruefully shook his head, saying, "I really did not want to do this! Do not say that I did not give you enough opportunities."

Snap.

And before Lady Felicia had that really meant, Alexander's fingers suddenly snapped, and immediately, as if like a magic summons, from the adjacent room four burly men, dressed in full armor themselves emerged.

Lady Felicia did not need to wonder the reason for their appearance, for as if already rehearsed, the four then started to beeline towards the woman with great purposeful strides, radiating a very menacing air.

"Lord… Pasha! Alexander!" 

It was a move that caused Lady Felicia to at last scream out in alarm, as she quickly stood up from the chair in an attempt to resist whatever was going to happen to her.

But how could one, fair lady contend against four strong men?

Even if Alexander were to take her palace, he would not have been able to escape their grasp.

Thus these athletic men caught Lady Felicia even before she could start a fight and made her return to her seat.

All the while Lady Felicia squirmed like a fish caught in a net, screaming at the top of her voice, 

"My lord! Pasha! What are you doing? This… please stop this! Have you gone insane?"

But Alexander paid no heed to this, as neither did the men, for then they proceeded to make Lady Felicia stretch both her arms out and place them on the long table, just like they had been instructed to.

While from that back room finally came a small team of nurses, recognizable by their white attire, who stopped to stand beside Lady Felicia, holding a large metal bowl filled with ice water.

"Lord Pasha… you…" And with so many people surrounding her, Lady Felicia finally understood there was no point in pointlessly struggling.

 So she stopped, instead turning her efforts to try and negotiate.

"Are you wishing to torture me to get a confession," The lady's voice was cold with a tinge of mockery.

Seeing the bowl of water, she guessed Alexander was trying to waterboard her, and she felt determined enough to be confident that she would not break.

"Heh! Something like that!" And Alexander did not deny it, as he produced a disdainful scoff.

"......." To which Lady Felicia only produced a fiery look in her eyes.

One could withstand a lot of torture if they had something to believe in.

And Lady Felicia believed she truly had a lot to hide.

Even when everything was already in the open, Lady Felicia still refused to admit it out of her own mouth.

She was that stubborn.