Herald of Steel

While Alexander was ready to depart for the capital Adhan, one inconspicuous morning he was suddenly informed that a small merchant fleet bearing the Margrave Family's sails had docked at the harbor.

This news surprised him a bit when he got it first because he had gotten no prior letter to their arrival, which was the usual custom of the times.

Thus, given this anomaly, Alexander quickly set up a meeting with the dignitaries that very afternoon, curious to know the reason.

"Lord Janus! What a pleasant surprise! It's so good to see you are well. How is Lady Miranda?"

The Pasha initially greeted the lone, elderly man dressed in a colorful blue and gold robe with a warm smile in his guest room.

While internally he was a bit surprised to see the elderly man alone, without the matriarch of the house accompanying him as was always the case before.

But he quickly thought that he had found the reason himself.

The Lady had gotten married during his while, so it was only natural she could not leave her house like before.

"Haha… forgivecoming to you unannounced my lord. It was a …spontaneous trip." Lord Janus seemed to reluctant to start discussing the reason why he was right away, as he then quickly turned the point,

"Well first letcongratulate you on you successful campaign against Tibias on behalf of the Margrave family. We all at Galiosos have been in awe of your triumph! Please accept Lord Margrave and Lady Margaret's regards!"

This return greeting from Lord Janus was quite sincere and cordial in tone and words but Alexander keenly noticed the smile that the white haired man's mind seemed not to be here at the moment, like he was struggling to keep the jovial facade.

This, coupled with the strange, untimely visit made the Zanzan lord suspect that things might not going so well on the opposite side.

"Thank you, Lord Janus. It was in no small part to the weapons and armors you supplied us. Is everything going well in your part?" Thus Alexander decided to lightly probe.

"Hehe… we... we are getting by my lord, " And the anemic reply proved his doubts.

"....." Thus for the next while, an uncomfortable silence descended on the room, as Alexander waited for the man to reveal his intentions.

While he took the tto take a closer look at his counterpart, causing him to spot weary, droopy eyes and a screen of unease and hesitation underneath the elder man's normal countenance.

Like he was trying to compose himself.

And finally, once the aged lord felt he was ready, Lord Janus finally revealed his circumstances,

"*Sigh*... as my lord has probably guessed there is indeed a pressing concern why I'm here. You see, a few months back the Lord of the House, Lady Miranda's grandfather Sir Margrave IV sadly passed away."

"My condolences." And hearing it Alexander almost instinctively replied this out of habit.

"Thank you," While Lord Janus accepted with this short nod and then continued,

"The lord was already getting on his years, and sadly last year the city experienced a plague. The gods seemed to have deemed it was his time. We at the family are all still mourning. However, that was not the real tragedy."

"*Sigh*, a far bigger misfortune befell us when Lady Miranda's son- Marcus suddenly fell to the sdisease too a few weeks after that. He was the named heir to the house and worryingly, Lady Miranda and her current husband, Lord Cassius Margrave are heirless. This has caused a succession crisis in our family."

With the revelation of the disaster, Alexander sighed in his heart melancholically, especially feeling bad after first hearing about the death of that child.

He had met the kid the last tLady Miranda had visited and remembered him being very chubby and cute.

They even joked at the tthat if the then Cambyses gave birth to a girl, the pair should get married.

Along with this, Alexander also could not help but worry about the sthing happening to his own children.

Any one of their death would certainly hit him hard.

He also knew that despite the advancements his clinics had made in medicine and surgery, they were nowhere close to being able to tackle the complex problem of child mortality, which still remained very high.

Solving that would require the discovery of high quality antibiotics and complicated vaccination processes.

Thus for now, infants aged from one to five were still in quite the vulnerable stage, with the situation being much worse for boys as they had relatively weaker immune systems than girls.

Thus he lampooned at the child's tragic, untimely death.

And also cursed the dilemma it was bound to put himself in.

"Is Lord Janus here because you wantto cmeditate on the matter?" Realizing what Marcus's death meant for Lady Miranda and her control over the Margrave family's throne, Alexander was able to quickly deduce the reason for the man's presence.

"Yes, my lord. I have indeed cto invite you to our fief." The elderly man with a thatched head was glad that Alexander was so adroit, as he quickly nodded.

"As my lord knows, Lady Miranda's father and most of the other male scions of the family died in that horrific storm five years ago. This huge loss of so many potential successors at once caused great confusion in the family about who should really succeed the family."

"The matters then beceven more muddy when many of the remaining candidates were suspected of being in collusion with the Kaiser and other ducal families. Their disqualification has added even more to the kerfuffle." As Lord Janus said this, Alexander detected a great deal of bitterness in his heart, like a father would seeing his children fight with each other.

Alexander was naturally able to deduce what was coming next- that those disqualified were unhappy at the turn of events and now that the biggest pillar of the family was gone, wanted to once again contest the seat.

'I wonder how many of those allegations were real and how many were fabricated to fit the narrative?' Alexander as a matter fact of course also suspected foul play in those eliminations.

Lord Janus however was naturally not aware of these skepticisms and continued,

"Things were still fairly stable when the Lord was alive. He held great authority in his family and with his support Lady Miranda was able to put Marcus as the heir. Then the win against Governor Straus further worked to solidify the family's position. All seemed to be going well and we thought we were out of the woods… until…*sigh*..." Lord Janus did not feel like repeating the sad news as he let out another deep, sad sigh- his heart aching.

"....." Alexander only carefully listened for now, not commenting, and soon, after the pause Lord Janus once again began,

"After the lord and Marcus's death, it was Lady Miranda's younger sister- Lady Linda who rose to oppose her. She has recently given birth to a son and is married to Lord Parker Heeat."

"Heeat?" The utterance of the nsuddenly caused Alexander to interject, as he was familiar with that name.

"Heeat as in that Duke Heeat of Sybarsis?" Alexander recalled Lady Miranda mentioning the nto him.

"Impressive, my lord. You have a fantastic memory." Lord Janus was quick to confirm Alexander's query, nodding, "Yes! The very sone."

This made Alexander wonder how could the second daughter of a mere Earl could get to marry into a ducal family?

It had to be noted that Sybarsis was a monogamous society, so there was no official way of taking a mistress or concubine like here in Adhania.

Fortunately for Alexander, Lord Janus was there to elucidate on that without needing him to pry,

"Lord Parker is only very distantly related to Duke Heeat, and is himself illegitimate. He was sent here as part of a delegation to Galiosos. We are currently trying to ally ourselves with the Heeat family now you see." Lord Janus casually revealed the family's intention to switch from the Marsh family to this ducal family, before adding, "And that was how he met the young miss. They seemed to have both caught each other's eyes and with the Lord of the House's blessing they got married just last year."

Up until now, Lord Janus's voice had been jovial, if not at least neutral.

But upon approaching this point, Lord Janus's tone suddenly turned angry, "Initially the couple were very supportive of Lady Miranda. So much so that the lady even let them handle a lot of the family's business. And they even proved themselves to be quite good at it."

"That was until Marcus's death. All of a sudden, even before the child's body could go cold, the pair started to stir up trouble."

Not only they claimed themselves as the legitimate successors, but they also brought your name, my lord! Saying that the free tradesmen that you made them sign was destroying our economy! And that if they got the seat, they would annul it!"

The moment Lord Janus said this, he had Alexander's attention. He could not let that happen.

If you are not reading this at .com, then sorry, the content you're reading is STOLEN!

Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!

Please cHere!