Herald of Steel

Lady Miranda's ask for the 3,000 prisoners to be freed caught Alexander somewhat off guard.

That soon turned to quite a bit of anger as he understood what the lady was really asking.

Lady Miranda did not want to pay anything for them, be it in coin or other ways, she just wanted them as gifts!

Alexander found it too incredulous to even consider.

'A gift of 15 million ropals! Are you kidding me? When your sister came to me she at least had the courtesy to spread her legs and let me do her in the ass!'

Even if Alexander was going to reject Lady Miranda no matter the offer she made, he at least wanted her to bid seriously.

Alexander chimed with a difficult tone to his voice,

"The matter of your family's prisoners has yet to be finalized, my lady. One of our points of contention with the Heeat family even lies here. They want us to release all of them as part of the peace negotiations."

"No! I need those men." Lady Miranda however seemed to insist, "Our forces were destroyed once in that tsunami. Now they have been destroyed once again, leaving only the 3,000 behind. I need them… they are good seeds."

It was apparent Lady Miranda planned to use these men as the core of her newly built forces.

'Hmmmm, this does not seem like you talking,' Alexander on the other hand found the wording a bit too different to be Lady Miranda's own and figured there must be someone else dictating her moves.

However he did not press her on his suspicions, and simply warned,

"Even if it means the Heeats not honoring their full ten year peace treaty?"

"...Yes!" With a pause, Lady Miranda still insisted, much to Alexander's surprise, "Linda has taken the lands where all my best men live! I have been left with nothing. So please find a way for these men, my lord."

It seemed she really, really wanted or even needed the men.

This put Alexander in a difficult position, as he struggled to come up with a way to satisfy both his 'clients'.

Until he at last slouched back on his chair and proposed with a thoughtful gaze,

"I think I have a better solution for you lady. Those 3,000 men loyalty is highly subject. We should not give Miss Linda any more chances to spy on us."

"Let me give you a 500 garrison of my soldiers instead. They are much better trained and equipped than your men. And they have actually won wars. I will have them train up a 5,000 standing force in a year… at my cost!"

"....." Although Alexander's disparaging the quality of her family's men hurt Lady Miranda a bit, hearing his offer, she was unable to instantly refute him.

She mentally calculated- '6 months…5,000 no 5,500 men when the garrison is included… about 25 wesa in food, and equipment each….. that's close to a million!'

Needless to say, that was a huge amount of money to Lady Miranda, especially now.

This promise also made Lady Miranda notice her 'partner's' hidden difficulty in handing over the prisoners.

'Hmmm… clearly there are some backroom shenanigans going on with the Heeats. Alexander seems to be implying that he is not going to antagonize the ducal family to get me those 3,000 prisoners. Did those old coots move to ask the Heeat to rescue the men on their behalf as part of the peace deal? Hmmmm…. I would not put it past them!'

Lady Miranda came up with her own hypothesis behind Alexander's strange actions but ultimately did not poke her nose to try and verify any of it.

Because Alexander wanted to compensate her with 5,000 newly raised, loyal troops in return.

Lady Miranda thought she would have been a fool to not keep her mouth shut and take the deal.

Alexander and the Heeat family could do whatever they liked with the soldiers as long as she got her legion.

"Okay! Then we will do it your way!" Hence she quickly promised.

...…

"Great! Let us toast to it!"

Seeing the thorny issue resolve itself so quickly, Alexander flashed a big quick grin, going over to personally pour a drink for him and the lady in celebrations.

Anything he could solve with money was not really a problem to him.

"Ahhh! Perhaps my lady should not drink." He only stopped pouring upon noticing the large bulge on his guest's belly.

Experience more on empire

The ill effects of drinking on pregnancy were considered a credible myth by people of this time, pronounced in various allegories by philosophers and poets.

Thus putting his glass down too, Alexander flipped over to the next topic he had in mind,

"There was another thing I wanted to discuss with you, my lady. My land here…the one I got… I am having trouble deciding who to have as the steward. Could you advise what type of man I should have? Are those lands peaceful or do you expect there will be… problems?"

The problems Alexander here alluded to included everything from local resistance by peasants, merchants, and guilds, to social troubles like the prevalence of pirates and bandits, to of course the biggest one of all- political backlash from the surrounding nobles and elites.

"It is your land, my lord! Why ask me? Go see it for yourself" Lady Miranda however proved less than helpful in this regard, providing a very curt, bitter answer.

"....." While Alexander was actually more surprised by how quickly this mercurial lady's mood turned, going from happy and over the moon to depressed and extremely bitter in the blink of an eye.

He thought that with all the promises he made and all the benefits he had just given her, she would at least try to show her more diplomatic side.

But on the other hand, since they were speaking frankly, Alexander also thought it made things easier for him.

"I take it my lady is unhappy with how your family lands were divided?" Alexander hence got straight to the point of the issue, posing in a cool tone.

"Darm right, you are! How could you do this to us, Alexander? I invited you to my home as an ally! And you… you… at least you could have had the decency to tell me about it beforehand! You…you… you gave too much!"

Lady Miranda spat the last words with great anger and indignation.

Initially, she did not even want to bring this matter up because it hurt so much. She saw it almost as Alexander betraying her.

And so Alexander's words now felt like a trigger causing all the grievances she had buried deep into her heart to come bursting forth like a volcano.

*Gulp*, *Gulp*, *Gulp*,

She thus suddenly grabbed the nearby fully filled wine cup and began to chug it down in one go, as if to numb that pain.

Lady Miranda needed this, otherwise, she felt she would just start screaming.

While from the other side, Alexander watched the lady drown herself in the comfort of alcohol with a complicated look.

'Think of the baby! Don't drink so much! And not so quickly. It's not going anywhere!' He lampooned, thinking the worst nightmare for him now would be if Lady Miranda suddenly choked and died.

But in fear of startling the poor lady, he also did not dare to speak and warn her of the danger.

"Bah! Good wine!"

So He was quite relieved to see the lady at last get off the glass, although her face by now was flushed red, a slightly intoxicated look shading her eyes.

Her eyes only regained their clarity when they heard Alexander defend the way he did things,

"I am sure my lady has already been advised on why your family's lands had to be divided like they were. The Heeat family has already set their sights on your lands and many in your family support them… including your grandfather! Their claim here is… too strong to ignore."

In this way, Alexander attempted to show that given the circumstances, this was the best possible outcome, adding,

However,

"But… but we won! Who cares what they want? We won a crushing victory! The Heeats lost all their soldiers including their general and commanding lord here. If we wanted, if we had pushed harder… we could have had all those old coots by the balls! We… we could have ruled by force!"

Lady Miranda refused to buy Alexander's explanation and seemed to think he had given in the Heeat's demands too much.

The young pasha disdainfully snorted at this inside,

'Who's this 'we'? What did you do? I won the war! It was my victory. While you did nothing but complain and cause obstacles!'

If Lady Miranda was not so much pregnant and if he did not think this was one of her emotional outbursts made in a drunken state, then Alexander would not have simply monologued these thoughts, he would have let her have the full earful of it.

But in the interest of keeping good relations, Alexander only gently but firmly pointed out,

"I'm sorry. Such a thing would have been impossible. My forces here are not strong enough to quash all the resistance and keep you on the chair by force. Remember… we simply won one war with the Heeat family. We have not destroyed them."

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