Herald of Steel

Lady Parthia could guess why Lady Miranda told the white lie about the number.

So realizing it, the lady too decided to keep up the act, one because Lady Miranda and they were right now allies and it would be not polite to poke holes in the other party's credibility, but much more so because she was not willing to shatter the hopes of the man sitting next to her.

Alexander really looked like he could really use this good news, even if it was not true.

Thus Lady Parthia too played her part in letting Alexander enjoy the brief respite and allowing him to immerse in the thought that his situation was about to imminently improve and by a scale of two at that, thinking that young man could deal with the disappointment later.

Although such tender consideration did not really help Alexander that much as Lady Miranda was quick to inform him of some other dire news, shattering his gleeful, relieved state.

She informed him, "However Lord Alexander, your move last night has created some unforeseen consequences that you likely had not considered. I'm here referring to the matter of supplies. I just got confirmation this morning that Lord Parker has blocked off all routes into the mansion. No vendors can enter the premises. Meaning we are basically under siege!"

Lady Miranda revealed the news with a slightly shaky voice, as that single word brought much dread to her, as did it to the other two ladies.

The two words people of this time were most afraid of was 'plague', followed closely by siege.

Both of them were brutal.

And it was also enough to shake Alexander a bit.

Because just as Lady Miranda had claimed, Alexander indeed did not consider this, being solely of the mind to secure the mansion, taking everyone hostage, and burning the ships.

Nothing more had mattered back then.

"How many days can we last?" Thus with gritted teeth Alexander quickly posed the question, his heart trembling in trepidation.

If they had no stock of supplies and the threat of starvation was real, Alexander was of the mind to seriously start considering betraying Lady Miranda outright and going back to Miss Linda crawling on his knees.

It might sound extremely shameful, but Alexander did not care.

Pride was certainly important, but to him staying alive was much, much more so.

And it was not even because he loved it so much.

But more so because Alexander was highly doubtful whether his wives and children would be able to live past even one year after his death.

His foundation in Adhania was simply too young and tender, and without him there to firmly place the roots, he feared his family would be swept by the strong current of adversaries and infighting, turning all his loved ones into fertilizer for some other man to take advantage of.

Alexander did not want to end up like Alexander the Great, all his family murdered and his empire split up among his generals.

Thus it came as a great relief when he heard Lady Miranda reveal,

"I have checked the mansion's pantry myself and fortunately we have enough to last the winter…."

Although that relief was only ephemeral as the lady of the house cheekily went on to add, "For us and the servants that is."

Meaning there was only enough to feed a few hundred people for about three months.

But then what about Alexander's 6,000 men? The men who were defending the lines?

Alexander cursed Lady Miranda for such cruel wordplay as he attempted to calm his raging heart, an endeavor he found very hard to accomplish.

Because like an expert computer he calculated- 'If there are 300 people in the mansion and each consumes 1 kg of wheat a day until the coming of spring which is about 100 days away, then the same food will last 6,000 men….. 5 days.'

Due to Alexander's previous experience dealing with food shortages, like when Zanzan could not produce enough to feed itself, the man was surprisingly adept at this kind of mental math.

It even made him wonder if he switched the 'pie with salad' like in that show whether he would be able to still do it.

But right now, the man was in no mind to be having such frivolous thoughts.

5 days was certainly not enough to do anything.

And while his men had brought their own grain supplies, it was quite limited, mainly due to the haste with which they had come.

The legion consumed more than 6 tons of grains every single day when accounting for both the men's and the draft animals' needs and if you multiply that by any significant number of days, such as even a modest- one month, well then just the loading and hauling such huge volumes over long distances easily became very difficult and time consuming.

You needed many men to load them, needed many ships to transport them, and needed many guards to protect them.

All of which took time.

Time which Lord Janus did not have back then and thus had advised Alexander to skip all these tedious safechecks and instead assured him that the Margraves family would take of all his needs.

And without knowing of the full situation, Alexander had agreed, thinking if the worst came to worst, he would be able to snatch the food from the people.

Thus he came with only about 40 days of food with him, out of which about 15 days worth had been already consumed, all in the coming trip.

Then when he had landed, he found the family was quite forthcoming with their supplies despite the ongoing tensions.

Even when he blockaded the streets, Lord Parker did not use his men to try and starve Alexander, but let the food freely flow, probably because he was afraid that such a thing might inconvenience his wife.

But now it seemed the gloves had come off, and left Alexander wide open for a solid sucker punch.

Due to all the previous positives, and in the rush of it all, Alexander had simply forgotten about the whole affair.

Until Lady Miranda reminded him of it now.

Which caused his heart to beat rapidly and he began to wish to be able to roast Lord Janus and eat him.

Then, since Lady Miranda revealed her numbers, Alexander too frankly revealed his situation to the lady.

"My men have only enough grain to last them 2 weeks tops." He intentionally underreported his numbers, and then turned to ask, "So what would my lady suggest I do? Is Lord Janus about to come with more grain?"

He really hoped the answer to the last question was yes.

Which fortunately it was, as Lady Miranda revealed the incoming ships would indeed have quite a bit of grain with them, courtesy of it being winter, and thus right after the harvest season.

The granaries were currently filled to the brim.

And the lady then went to further add, "Also my lord, with the ships in the Great Harbor no more, your men can also sail out to forage around the city's suburbs if need be. Since it is winter, they are surely to have enough stocks."

Alexander felt like slapping his head after hearing this, as he rebuked himself, 'Right! How dumb can I be? Why didn't I think of such an easy answer, Ahhh! All the pressure must be getting to me.'

He was honestly embarrassed at missing such an easy solution and then even felt a bit ashamed at having considered abandoning his ally just because things got a bit tough.

The proverb 'It is easy to share good times, but no hard times' was manifesting itself right in front of Alexander, and tragically the man himself was the example.

The man sighed with a breath of relief that the example ended when it did.

And then wanted to know, "How long will it take for Lord Janus to answer?"

"Two weeks!" Was the answer.

Which Alexander did find a bit too convenient since it was also the exact number his soldiers had enough grains for presumably.

It was like Lady Miranda was stretching the time limit to its utmost limits.

Now, it should also be noted that Alexander had more than 25 days of grains with him because this time was for his own supplies.

The Margraves also regularly supplied the army and they of course did not deliver exactly 6 tons of grain every day. Such a trip every day would be too much of a hassle.

So instead they delivered it in batches, about two weeks of it in total.

Thus Alexander could hold out for 40 days given his supplies- or even 80 days if he rationed this food to one meal a day.

And as his quartermaster would inform of this, it would naturally come as a great relief to the man.

Although this sigh of relief would not last long.

As not content with depriving Alexander of his food, Lord Parker would turn his wrath to something more primal, something much more important- water!

The Margraves mansion was supplied by a series of underground cisterns and using large boulders, the man would be able to cut off some select sections and thus deprive drinking water to six and half thousand people!

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