Herald of Steel

Alexander, for now, felt very relieved that help was soon on the way.

So lightly slumping his back on the couch in happiness, his mind turned to the last matter in his mind.

Hence he posed to Lady Miranda with curiosity,

"So Lord Parker has been already informed of the happenings? How did he react?"

Alexander had not had enough time to send delegations to the other party yet, so given that the siege had already started, the man must have been informed somehow, and the most likely candidate was of course none other than Lady Miranda.

Alexander was quite interested to know the man's mood after knowing all this, so as to try and glean how he would react next.

"Hehe, as my lord could already guess, not well." Lady Miranda was frank to reveal the incident, producing a happy chuckle as she did.

The lady was glad to be able to poke the other side for the first time after so long.

So she then revealed, "It is said that upon first hearing of your success, Lord Parker had flown off into an unbridled rage, letting of profanities few had ever heard the man utter."

"And when the matter of Linda and Quentin's imprisonment was brought up and he was asked to surrender to ensure their safety, he threatened to execute the poor man on the spot then and there. He was only stopped when General Achillas stepped in. Pity."

Lady Miranda had a rueful tone to her voice as she shook her head, not because her messenger was killed but because he was not.

And Alexander would actually guess why she wanted the poor man dead- because in Sybarian culture, messengers had the same status as divine envoys, thus considered to be under the divine protection of the gods.

The consequences of killing such a person could easily imagined.

Lady Miranda would be able to easily paint Lord Parker as an apostate if he were to do such a thing, especially if he were to do so right in the middle of Caira.

Thus Lady Miranda felt that General Achillas preventing that was a great loss for her, as she then finished her recount by noting,

"Our current siege is in part a protest of what you did to Linda and Quentin my lord. Lord Parker has declared that as long as you agree to release his wife and son, he will immediately lift it and allow food to come in."

"Hmmmm!" Alexander only snorted in disdain at the ask, not even deigning to give an answer.

There was no way he was going to give up his most precious goose and saw this for all that it was- a negotiating ruse.

So instead Alexander cleverly pointedly out,

"What is the point of starving us? If we starve, his wife and son will starve with us. Surely Lord Parker too must know it. So what is the point of all this?"

Alexander repeated the first and last line to emphasize his reasoning, his voice carrying a clear disdain for the man's tactics.

In his mind, this siege was little more than a temper tantrum thrown by an inexperienced lord who did the easiest and most convenient thing that was available to him in the heat of the moment without thinking about the consequences.

And thought that as long as he held out and showed no weakness, the man would eventually buckle, if for no one but his family.

This was also what Alexander revealed to Lady Miranda, emphasizing on the pressure Lord Parker must be feeling regarding Miss Linda and Quentin's well being, and using this to reassure her that the other side would not be able to maintain the siege for any length of time.

"Lord Parker will break before we do. He has to if he wants to save his wife and son." Alexander confidently claimed and then buttressed all his argument with the remainder,

"And even if the worst of the worst happens and Lord Parker decides to hold on, there is still no need to worry. I have already written to Zanzan, asking for 20,000 men. They will be here by the earliest time possible. And once they get here, we will be able to easily lift the siege within days."

Like Lady Miranda, Alexander too was not above inflating his numbers to placate his allies, and his exaggerations were perhaps even greater than his ally, magically turning 10,000 soldiers into 20,000.

And with this reassurance, lastly urged Lady Miranda,

"Thus right now, the only need to do is tighten our belt a bit and hold on. We have come so far, so we cannot falter now. None of us must show any weakness."

Alexander had a very firm, confident tone as he made the ask, in order to eliminate any indecisive doubts Lady Miranda or her husband might have.

And looking at the poised demeanor, Lady Miranda did feel relaxed, her heart settling at the news of the imminent arrival of such a large force.

The lady of course bought the fib, since she was no expert at warfare.

Plus she knew Alexander had wielded forces far, far bigger before, as much as four times bigger, and so had little reason to distrust him.

The meeting then ended for the day with this, and as Lady Miranda and Lord Cassius went off to try and make the elders turn over to their side, Alexander went out to meet with Remus, staying with the men until the fall of dusk.

There he got to know about the state of forces- inquiring about the details of last night's attack, how effective they were in fending the other side off, the strategy they used, and most importantly the casualties they inflicted as well as suffered.

Which was as expected quite low on both sides.

People rarely died during the actual attack, so Lord Parker had a tally of about 20 to 50 dead and wounded, while Alexander had no deaths but around 10 wounded on the front lines.

To either side, this was as big a deal as a simple mosquito bite.

Furthermore, during this time, Alexander also tried to see the extent of the damage the fire had caused and learned through some accounts that the fire had reached all the way to the great bathhouse and was only stopped there due to the huge amount of water stored there.

Alexander had yet to see the 'Great Bathhouse of Caira' as he was mostly trapped in the Margraves mansion for all the time he was in Caira, and so could not really comment on the veracity of the information but judging by the tone of the man, it sounded like quite the impressive feat.

And regardless of the how, Alexander was glad to hear the fire was put out.

He had no wish to burn the city down.

As Alexander and his group hunkered down and planned their own move, completely unbeknownst to him, the enemy too began to try to figure out their next move.

As soon as they received news of Alexander's triumph at the mansion, they became very busy raking their brains to try and think of a way to unlatch the enemy's defenses and rescue their madam and future lord.

And the two men who spearheaded this endeavor were naturally General Achillas and Lord Parker, who were further joined by many of their high ranking officers, among whom there was one whose status was much higher above the others, almost being comparable to l General Achillas.

Tall, handsome, with a clean face and very well kept shoulder length, oiled hair, this man could be said to be the embodiment of the ideal dashing prince that a dreamy girl might conjure in her mind.

And when garbed in his full set of decorative armor like he was now, he was indeed very fetching, to both genders some might say.

This special man was called Lord Bernard and the reason for his exalted status among the officers was that he was the one officially in charge of the 10,000 Margraves men that were stationed in the city, having received the official seal personally from the old Margraves IV himself.

Meaning even if it was Lord Parker who wanted to deploy the Margraves family's forces, he would require this man's prior permission.

Of course, this was only on paper, as in reality the man sat and stood at Lord Parker's command, complying with the lord's every desire without the slightest objection

But even if the position was purely ceremonial, the respect and prestige it wielded was still certainly tangible, as evidenced by the differential and even slightly jealous looks the other officers were giving him.

They too wished to have their lord's ear just like this man had.

And this was something that the young man actually found very pleasing, as he felt flattered.

It made him feel powerful.

"Lord Bernard, what do you propose we do now?"

It was amidst such musings that the man was suddenly snapped out of his daydreaming thoughts by this loud query from General Achillas, who seemed to be looking at the spaced out man with a bit of irritation in his voice, annoyed that the man was not paying attention.

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