Herald of Steel

Upon reading Lady Miranda's letter Alexander knew he had to intervene in Galiosos whether he wanted to or not, regardless of his personal opinion on the matriarch of the house.

The potential losses his inaction would cause were too great- be it the forfeiture of the huge market, the sacrifice of the naval ships or even the disappearance of the money Lady Miranda still owed him.

And yes, Lady Miranda did still owe Alexander about half of last year's purchases- which she had brought with credit, not cash, promising to repay him once she sold the products.

Thus the question here was not whether Alexander should help Lady Miranda, only how.

And the first solution that came to Alexander's mind was the simplest one- using force.

Thus tracing his chin, Alexander posed to Lord Janus, "In the letter Lady Miranda has asked for military intervention from me. How big an army does she want? Is Lady Miranda intending to initiate a purge? Who controls the family's army now? Can Lady Miranda still command the military?"

Alexander felt that if that was fortunately the case, then everything else would be really smooth.

But at the same time, Alexander also doubted that could be the case, or else things would not have been able to develop this far.

Miss Linda and her husband would already be lying in some ditch somewhere.

"..." Lord Janus could sense Alexander's skepticism on the matter of the military and thus he made a difficult face.

Then the elderly lord skipped Alexander's last question to quickly putting on a forced smile, "The lady does not want to turn her city into a battlefield. She only wants to scare Miss Linda. The troop that she has asked for is only for show! So my lord need not exert himself too much."

From Lord Janus's words, it seemed his side still wanted to resolve matters peacefully and was only asking for a token force as just a status symbol.

To show that they had the muscles if need be.

"Who do the officers and the nobles support?" But for Alexander, it was much more imperative to know this answer.

Because in a coup or rebellion, usually the side these two forces sided with, won.

".... the army has not sided with anyone yet, my lord. They have chosen to remain neutral, claiming this is the family's internal affair and that they should resolve it themself." Lord Janus had a hint of relief in his voice as he said so, because if these heavyweights had chosen to throw their lot with Miss Linda, then the entire thing would have been already over.

Lord Janus furthermore spoke up to add, "In fact, this is also why my lord need not bring too many troops with you. I believe that such a presence of so many foreign troops will cause the elites to react negatively."

"If they see a foreign power intruding in the family's affairs, then they will also not have any reason to stay neutral. The entire thing will develop into an armed conflict! We must avoid that. So I believe it will be best if the lord could restrict your numbers to at best a few thousand."

"........" Alexander initially stayed silent on this proposal.

He would have to admit, the logic was there.

Him coming off the ship with a huge army might cause Miss Linda to also do the same, turning a situation capable of being resolved with negotiations into a bloody affair.

However even when the situation made sense, there was a strange itch in his heart every time he thought about being able to bring only a single legion.

It was an instinct honed by years of fighting and tackling political intrigue.

He also recalled Lord Janus saying that the army had not taken any side 'yet'.

Meaning they might have in the two to three weeks it takes to come from Galiosos to Zanzan, and Lord Janus would still be in the dark.

In fact from a purely pragmatic point of view, it made sense for the army to take Miss Linda's side.

She not only had a stronger claim to the seat from Alexander's perspective, but her husband might also be able to access the vast resources of a ducal family, the same family the Margraves were trying to buddy up to.

And if Alexander could think like this, undoubtedly so could the army.

In fact, the fact that the army and the nobles did not try and stop Miss Linda from contending against Lady Miranda was proof enough of their internal thoughts.

They might just be waiting for an oppotune time to depose Lady Miranda, making the entire thing quick and painless.

Or it might very well be that Alexander was just being hyper-imaginative, and things were exactly as Lord Janus described.

The army might really be just waiting for the family members to solve this among themselves, happy to obey either one of the victors.

'Hmmmmm….' It was amongst all these considerations that Alexander hummed in rumination, trying to evaluate how much of what Lord Janus had said was true, and how much of it was sugar coated, trying to present Alexander a favorable picture to get him to come to their aid.

Because if both the nobles and the army were on Miss Linda's side, then Alexander might as well launch a naval invasion and take the Margraves's territory for himself, before perhaps placing Lady Miranda as one of his retainers to oversee the lands there.

"My lord, regarding the negotiations, I have a suggestion," Just as Alexander slumped back on his chair lost in such thoughts, suddenly he heard Lord Janus's smooth voice interject with a small smile.

And he raised his eyebrow in curiosity to hear,

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but Adhania's Queen Mother should be staying in Zanzan right? I was wondering if it would be possible to bring Her Highness to Galiosos. It is this old man's humble opinion that the presence of Adhania's royal family would greatly help our case."

Alexander's single raised eyebrow suddenly turned into two hearing this, his interest fully piqued at this, as Lord Janus went to point out,

"Such a thing would be favorable to both of us. The presence of such a high ranking member of the royal family would show that it was not just the Pasha of Zanzan that was behind us, but the King of Adhania, representing the full might of the superpower Adhania. Your words will have far greater weight in our court."

"And then in exchange, once the negotiations are successful, I'm sure we will be able to convince a few of the ducal families to aid His Majesty Ptolomy when needed against the pretender. What do you think?"

"..." At first, Alexander did not quite know what to think.

He was not surprised by Lord Janus's knowledge of the country's civil war, or his mention of the Queen Nanazin, whom he must have mixed up with the Queen Mother Seelima.

It was no great secret that the Ptolomy's better half was currently residing in Zanzan.

Lady Nanazin and her daughters regularly appeared at the various feasts and parties to meet and greet with the surrounding nobles and were even seen by the public during the triumph celebrations, where the people claimed she was sent by the royal family to honor their lord's success.

That was not the surprising part.

But the idea of using her in such a way.

Alexander had not really thought that.

Because after bringing the lady to Zanzan, he had mostly forgotten about her, letting her do as she pleased.

But now… 'Using her as a delegate and ambassador….hmmm,' Alexander hummed, finding the idea very attractive.

There was no harm in trying, especially since it was not like Lady Nanazin was doing anything nowadays.

Thus he turned to Lord Janus to nod, "Okay. Let me see what I can do. I will take her if I can."

He could not make any promises on the spot without Lady Nanazin's and much more importantly Ptolomy's consent.

Because even if the lady had basically separated from the king in all but name, that piece of papyrus claiming them as husband and wife still existed.

So it would be too rude for Alexander to take someone's wife to another country without her lord's permission.

With the matter of the army and how Lady Miranda wanted to do the negotiations basically wrapped up, Alexander then turned to the last matter on his list- the Kaiser family.

Raising his head, he addressed Lord Janus, "Regarding the matter of the Kaiser family with respect to us… what is your family's stance? When reading the letter I noticed Lady Miranda use some interesting phrases… like 'if you can provide proof'.… What does that mean?"

By the end of it, Alexander had slightly furrowed eyebrows, clearly unhappy with the wording.

What more proof did they need when Alexander had captured a dozen elephants bearing the family's standard?

"Ahhh!' And hearing this Lord Janus first and foremost gave a short embarrassed cry, before elucidating with twitching lips, "Regarding my lord's complaints… we certainly confronted the Kaiser Family. But they vehemently refused everything…saying they would not put into ear anything without credible witnesses. Shameless!"

It seemed that despite the evidence the Margrave family had, they were too weak to prosecute the ducal family.

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