Herald of Steel

Alexander would have to agree, the honey filled lure that Miss Linda laid out in front of him was mighty tempting.

She was basically offering to give him everything he wanted without the need for any conflict, only in exchange for siding with her.

Which might have been the only flaw in her plan.

Because the deal was so good that it in fact made Alexander feel it was a bit too good.

This lady in front of him was a bit too manipulative for his liking and would be almost described as 'slimey', while her eldest sister Lady Miranda was as easy to read as an open book, even perhaps a bit naive.

But at least she was honest, as evidenced by how she had not even once bought up the topic of canceling the trade agreement or even modifying it despite the hardships she was facing.

Thus instead of recklessly jumping into Miss Linda's deal, Alexander sought to keep her talking to glean more intel.

"If you did this, then what about the domestic guilds my lady? What will they do if you renege on your promise? Will they not protest?"

Alexander was certain that despite Miss Linda's claim that everything was fine, there were certainly cracks in the Margraves family's economy, cracks that the people demanded to be fixed.

She was just not admitting it.

"Snort! When did I promise them anything? And so what if they protest? What does it matter to us?" Towards Alexander pointed inquiry, Miss Linda however produced a very damned care attitude.

Like this was not even a problem to consider.

As shrugging her shoulders she smirked, "The amount of coin we will earn selling your product overseas will be multiple times over what we will earn from those paltry sales tax those urchins give us. So what does it matter if they protest and go bankrupt? It won't affect us one single bit! They can go to hell!"

Miss Linda planned to completely ditch her home market, and live off the dividends of Alexander's products.

It was a move that astounded Alexander, both for the audacity and the short sightedness on display.

'What if I just stop selling you my products?' Won't you be left in the dumps, with your exports gone and your domestic industry destroyed?' Alexander swore to himself, feeling incredulous that a side could even think to choose to give up all their self reliance just like that.

And then further added,

'And what happens when your people are driven out of their business and start going hungry? Won't they turn on you, the one who is hoarding all the gold? What good will all your gold do then?'

Alexander was beginning to see some truth in Lady Miranda's description of her youngest sister.

She might be very smart, but not nearly as smart as she thought she was, letting greed and her high birth status cloud her judgment.

From the way Miss Linda talked, it was apparent that she did not even seem to place the regular folk in her eyes, treating them as air.

Sure this was the prevailing thought among almost all nobles no matter the current part of the world, with even the Queen Mother and Mikaya getting to share ranks, as they viewed the peasants as little more than useful sacks of meat to do menial labor.

But even they rarely showed their contempt as overtly as her.

The cruelty the lady seemed to hint towards made Alexander feel very disgusted to even consider shaking hands with her.

Alexander did not of course go out of his way to point out the flaw in his enemy's reasoning, but in a roundabout way proposed a way to mitigate these foreseeable problems.

With a warm smile, Alexander pointed out, "I thought my lady would use some of the earned money to subsidize the local guilds…. as a way to keep your domestic industries running. This way you can have the best of both worlds… I keep my trade agreement, and the merchants keep their business. And you keep your word to both. So I guess it is the best of three worlds, haha."

Alexander was still trying to show Miss Linda a better way to do things, since he really wanted to make working with her a possibility, and thus ended the proposal with a chuckling rhyme.

"Subsidize? What is that?" Miss Lin, however, could not see the humor in that, as she seriously posed instead,

To see that the lady had no concept of subsidy surprised Alexander. Because this technique certainly existed in this time period.

But it seemed the lady was not that well versed in this business lingo.

So Alexander elucidated,

"Subsidy is paying the merchants a stipend from the government so that they can keep their costs low. Suppose if a sword costs 200 Paysas to make here in Caira, but my swords cost only 100 Paysas, then my lady can offer your blacksmiths a subsidy of 100 Paysas so that they can match my price."

"That way my trade deal will be honored, while at the same time, the guilds will not be under the threat of being driven out so will not cause trouble."

"Oh, I see!" Learning of this new hack, a look of understanding dawned on Miss Linda's face, just as Alexander had expected.

But that was also where the script went off the rails.

Because Alexander did not get the large grin and charming nod of thanks as he had predicted.

Instead, Miss Linda sneered, "Lord Alexander has an interesting sense of humor. Is this what they call giving free money in Adhnaia? Subsidy? Hehe, I guess you learn something new every day."

After this, Miss Linda lowered her long, beautiful eyelids and then curtly shook her head a few times,

"I do not know why you practice these strange customs in your land, but we certainly have no interest in following it. Why should we give our hard earned money to these greedy pigs?If they can't make good products, then they deserve to lose their business and starve! It's not my problem!"

Miss Linda once again very domineeringly blew Alexander's suggestion out the window, content to instead fill her treasury up to the brim with gold and silver.

While Alexander had the urge to slap his head in frustration, a very rude thing to do in front of anyone.

Thus instead he chose to only stealthily purse his lips and internally rebuked, 'I just told you why you should give money to the people, you greedy pig! To keep the people docile and prevent them from rebelling.'

'And what are you going to do with all that money anyway? What use is gold gathering dust in some dark, dank corner? Gold should circulate like the blood inside our body, or it will start to clot and rot!'

Hearing the foolish reply, the pasha for a moment considered educating the lady on some basic economics.

But ultimately refrained.

He was not her teacher or her friend.

At best, he was a neutral spectator, and mostly like her adversary.

Besides, he was also beginning to see the flaws in Miss Linda's characteristics.

She was a superb manipulator and a deft schemer but without much foresight of other worldly matters, such as effectively ruling a fief.

Alexander determined sshe would have thrived in any royal court, poisoning a king's ear and making him dance to her tune.

But would never be suitable to take that throne.

The lady thought herself to be the smartest person in the room and that everybody should shut up and listen to her.

Realizing this made Alexander come to the conclusion that Miss Linda was no effective lord and that letting her get hold of the Margraves would be a terrible deal for him.

So at this point, he already made up his mind to not accept her offer.

But that did not mean they could not talk.

The man still held out hope that perhaps a compromised settlement between the two sisters could be reached, such as one where Lady Miranda got to rule but Miss Linda got to share the treasures.

And it was this interest that Alexander decided to express next,

"Lady Linda, I confess your deal is very attractive to me. And I very much wish to take it. But I am still a bit apprehensive about breaking my word to Lady Miranda. Is there no way to reconcile the two of you?"

Alexander faked a pleading tone, adding, "Sisters are precious in this world you know. Especially when you have already lost so many siblings! Is there really a need to lose her too? Lady Miranda might not show it, but she deeply cares about you. And recall all that she has done for you. She is a good elder sister."

After saying all this to butter the lady up, then Alexander finally proposed his own idea, "So I was thinking how about your son- Quentin becomes the next family's head but until he comes of age, Lady Miranda stays the regent, ruling the family in his stead."

"Of course, you will be beside your son also, to supervise him and make sure Lady Miranda stays true to her word. That will get us the best of both worlds right?"

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