Herald of Steel

Chapter 1072

Alexander was admittedly caught a bit off guard by the sudden change in Lady Miranda.

Honestly, he had braced himself for a long tedious nagging contest with his counterpart even after showing all the proof, as the lady of the house had shown herself to be like such a person,

Alexander had even made several mental points about all the things he would say to justify what he had done.

But it seemed the young lady had taken the news of her family's betrayal a lot harder than he had anticipated, completely flipping out on her family after coming to know the truth and deciding then and there to make her bed squarely with Alexander.

Currently, Lady Miranda no longer cared whatever Alexander did- be it his storming of the mansion and taking everyone here hostage, burning all those ships in the harbor down and ruining their relations with the rest of the people, or even the fact that fire had largely gotten out of control and was threatening to swallow the entire place in flames.

Yes, Lady Miranda had seen the fearful fires raging outside from the windows of the mansion.

But Lady Miranda chose to blindly ignore all this and decided to put all her trust in Alexander regardless.

And who could really blame her?

While the people in her own family were actively trying to harm her, it was only this man in front of her who had stayed beside her, traveling more than a thousand kilometers with 5,000 men to come to her rescue.

As they say- Actions speak louder than words.

While Alexander, having obtained such a surprising boon, was quick to express his gratitude, "Thank you for understanding my lady. I promise to surely ensure that you take your rightful seat at your family's table by the end of all this."

He felt that now that he was given such free reign over the city, he would be able to maneuver with much greater tactical flexibility, setting his heart at a much greater ease.

"Mmmmm, I will leave you to it then, Lord Alexander," Lady Miranda's reply to this enthusiastic response however was a lot more stony and anemic than one would expect, as if her mind was somewhere way else.

As further proved by the fact she then decided to finish their meeting with the curt phrase, "Goodnight then, my lord."

"...." Alexander watched the noble lady leave towards the room Lord Nolan was situated with a muted silence, assuming that the sudden news must have shaken her greatly and that she required some time to clear her head.

So Alexander decided to put this mind to the other tasks at hand, such as receiving reports about the state of the other ongoing operations, be it the capture of the mansion, the fight on the frontlines, and most importantly of all, the attack on the ships.

The young Pasha very much looked forward to how Remus would describe this kerfuffle, especially when this was originally all his idea.

But at the end of the day, once Alexander would get to know the details, the young general would be let off with only a few strong words and some light childing, as Alexander would only warn the man to be more careful next time.

In the grand scheme of things, this was little more than a slap on the wrist.

It would take Alexander the whole night to get through all these tasks and he would be only allowed to go to sleep after dawn broke and the mansion was fully secure, closing his eyes around the same time the fire in the city was starting to flicker out.

The man would then wake up at around noon, feeling refreshed and revitalized.

Then, after a good lunch, would once again sit for talks with Lady Miranda and Lord Cassius.

Because they of course had many things to discuss, the main one being how to proceed forward now that all the things Alexander did had happened.

So the group started quickly, initially beginning with the pleasantries, as Lord Cassius spoke up first to offer his gratitude,

"Thank you for what you did yesterday my lord. We back there witnessed a true miracle. My father's life belongs to you. We are forever in your debt."

Alexander only swept past these words with a polite nod and a few placating words, feeling more intent on getting to the main point.

As was Lady Miranda, who thus cut through her husband's polite demeanor to instead sharply pose to Alexander, "We understand why you did what you did yesterday, my lord. So what now? How do we proceed?"

And here Alexander would freely confess to himself- he did not have a ghost of an idea on what he was going to do next.

Sure he had Miss Linda and the elders in custody … but then what?

How was he going to so use them to get what he wanted?

When Alexander had taken the moves he did, he had not thought so far ahead, mostly because he did not have the time to consider everything.

At the time, he thought to leave the solution to the problem to his future self.

And well, his future self was here and he had to find a way out.

Because do not forget there was still an army of 20,000 right inside the city, and it was not like they were going to give up and go home just because they had been unable to break through yesterday.

"We should try to use Miss Linda and Quentin to try and negotiate." So although skeptical about it even himself, this was still the best idea that Alexander was able to produce.

And Lady Miranda's frowning face said it all about what she thought about this idea, as she commented,

"I doubt Lord Parker will sue for peace just because we had his wife and future heir. In fact, they might very well fight even harder, trying to retrieve this prize possession- the very opposite of what we want to happen."

And Alexander deep inside was also in simpatico towards this hypothesis, as he doubted some ink on paper would have an effect when you had 20,000 armed men with you.

Might make right as they say.

"....." So Alexander for a bit seemed stumped, as the room entered an uncomfortable silence aseveryone got to thinking,

Until, Lady Nanazin, who was also part of the group, decided to opine, "Perhaps we can force Miss Linda to abdicate. Make her swear to the gods that she will relinquish all her claims to the family seat. What about that?"

"Hmmmm, yes."

And this plan did not actually sound too bad to Alexander, as he could see him forcing the lady under duress to relinquish her contention.

Such coercive methods did work in this period of strong belief in the gods and promises.

He thus frankly commented on the feasibility of the move while tracing his chin, pointing out how it could be done,

"If we can get the elders on our side… and then get Miss Linda to promise in front of the gods …. hmmm, with so many witnesses…. even she must think twice before going back on her words, right?"

Alexander thought that sheer peer pressure might be enough to make her comply.

"Mmmm, this is not bad." And to nod in agreement with Alexander was actually Lady Parthia, who too was present, and who added, "We can even offer Lady Linda some type of compensation. Some suitable position within the family's business where she will be able to live her life comfortably. Perhaps we can even promise a union with Lady Miranda's eldest daughter to her son."

The suggestion here really went to display Lady Parthia's own life experience.

The Queen of Parthia was no stranger to rebellions and had seen up close quite a few ones, as well as how the numerous ways her husband as well as the Royal Court dealt with them.

Outright execution was of course the most popular method, but it was not the only one.

Placating the other side with comforts and luxuries to soothe the grievances was also a time tested method.

So many times one could buy your enemies, turning them from enemies to friends with the allure of gold, women, and even some share of power.

And Alexander was of course aware of this, as he recalled one of the most examples from his previous life.

After winning his coup in 1957, the Soviet Premier Khrushchev did not purge his opponents and send them to the gulags, but instead gave them positions of power and prestige, asking them to rule the country together.

Which came as an earth shattering surprise to the defectors, as up until then, it was practically an unwritten law of the country to kill all those who rebelled against the victor.

One need not read too much about Khrushchev's predecessor, the infamous Stalin to know what happened to detractors under him.

So in gratitude for being saved and not being sent to the gulag, these rebellious men stayed mostly loyal to the Premier up until the end of his rule.

And recalling this, Alexander hoped that such a thing could be replicated here too.

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