Herald of Steel

As soon as Alexander had captured Miss Linda, there were naturally voices calling for her and her son's death, particularly by Lady Miranda.

But Alexander had held off on that because one, he needed the lady to split the Margraves, and two because he did not know how the Heeat family would react to having their daughter in law and grandson decapitated.

So Alexander got to work finding out.

He wanted Lord Kite to embellish the lady in a sort of negative light in front of her in laws, wishing to cause a fracture, hoping that a deep enough crack would see the young lady see her lose her biggest supporter.

That would then allow Alexander to covertly usurp her at a later time. Because he only needed here for only a short while.

And Lord Kite also had no problem wielding this ammunition because it conveniently let him shed all the battlefield failures onto this poor woman.

It was a win win, thus by the time the Heeat fleet commander put his foot on shore, he had a very bad impression of this new daughter of his family.

...…

"Lord Alexander, let me introduce you… This is Lord Castell Heeat, the younger brother of Stanne Heeat, the Duke of Lynica. Lord Castell… this is Pasha Alexander of Zanzan, Adhania."

Lord Kite acted as the mediator when the two parties finally met, introducing each other as they took seats opposite a long table inside one of the Margraves manor's guest rooms.

'Sure enough, they have sent a big shot to help Lord Parker,' Alexander muttered to himself while quickly scanning the man before him, taking a good look at his adversary.

He was of typical build- tall, well built, muscular, clean shaven with sharp eyes and a chiseled, handsome face.

A perfect example of how a well to do noble should look.

And likewise, he was dressed like how a noble should too, in an all black, heavily embroidered robe that was stitched with golden threads in fantastical patterns.

The whole fabric fit him like a glove and elevated the already handsome middle aged man into someone who exuded a great aura of sophistication and prestige.

This was worlds apart from Alexander, who was sitting opposite him almost looking like a pauper in his simple grey tunic under a common light red linen jacket that he usually wore at home when it got a bit chilly.

The difference between the two was similar to the difference of a man turning up to an interview in a full formal suit and tie while the other showed up in shorts and slippers with messy hair like he had just woken up from sleep.

The contrast was visually too striking.

And Lord Castell noticed Alexander's impoverished state too, hence could not help sneer, "Ahhh… so you're the famous slave. I heard a bit about you. Why are you digging your nose in places where it does not belong?"

Even the innate arrogance he spoke those words with greatly reflected his lineage.

While Alexander simply produced a light, placid smile towards the scornful gaze, as if had heard a funny joke.

What insults had he not heard after taking his seat? They were so many that by now these barbs simply slid off him like harmless water.

Not to mention, he had intentionally dressed so poorly.

It was a subtle way of insulting his opponent, to make the other side show that they were being forced with a beggar.

Alexander loved these ironies.

Thus not showing any reaction to Lord Castell's jibe, the young pasha moved the topic with a simple chime in his voice,

"Lord Castell, I understand we might have gotten on the wrong foot. But I promise you, I never had any intention of foiling your plan or harming your nephew. It was all the will of the gods."

"......" The handsome lord's face instantly flashed a dangerous chilly light the moment Lord Parker's fate was brought up, clearly showing he was very angry over the death.

And it was not only due to the familiar loss.

There was also fear of his elder brother's reaction once he learned of this.

Because Lord Parker was his most treasured son.

There was no doubt in that claim because it was something that the Duke clearly and openly proclaimed regularly, much to the two of his younger son's chagrin.

No one liked being constantly compared to their much talented and favored elder brother.

And not only did that, the father son duo even looked almost the spitting image of each other, just one a bit older than the older, as well as acting and behaving in very similar ways too.

This was also why the Duke sent Lord Parker personally to the island and oversee such an important matter.

But now that he had died… even though Lord Castell had nothing to do with the matter, he could not help but grimace at the thought of the scolding he was sure to get.

'You should have gathered the army quicker!' The familiar roar appeared to already echo beside his ears.

However, given how Lord Parker died, he was also unable to shift the blame or vent his anger.

Rather, he very arrogantly replied,

"My nephew died a hero bravely fighting his enemies. As his uncle, I can only be proud of him."

Sitting on the opposite side, Alexander could see the man was being disingenuous here but did not bother to poke that balloon.

Instead, he also started to agree with Lord Castell, nodding and praising Lord Parker's various battle tactics.

"Mmmm… your nephew once had he dead to rights. My water supply was cut off and food was running out. If not for the bad weather that concealed my escape, I would have been never able to leave Caira. Trapped here…. the outcome might have been very different!"

Lord Castell's eyes seemed to significantly soften upon hearing this, and thus with a few such tepid greetings that could be interpreted as barbed insults, the two parties finally got down to business.

...…

"Lord Kite has mentioned you have some of our men with you. As ransom, we are willing to offer 1,000 wesa for a noble, and 500 for the riders."

Wesa was the largest denomination of currency that the Sybarians used and it was typically 10 times the value of a ropal.

"Haha, I believe our offer was twice that. What you are quoting is the price of a regular slave, my lord."

Alexander amusedly shook his head as he declined the offer, expecting much more.

Naturally, there was some haggling when it came to price, but because Alexander had already sent Lord Kite with the range he was expecting, Lord Castell came here with a number in mind.

Thus after a few rounds of back and forth a succinctly agreeable amount was set.

Each nobleman was to be sold for 15,000 to 20,000 ropals depending on their rank and wealth, while the roughly one and a half thousand elite riders were sold off in bulk for 8,000 ropals a piece, plus another 3,000 ropals for their horse.

Lord Castell had almost spat out the water he was having when Alexander made that last demand, giving the man the same scornful gaze one would give to a greedy, unscrupulous pauper.

He could not believe he was being charged for something that was basically always implied.

But under signals from Lord Kite as well as the other officers accompanying him, the unhappy lord still complied.

Those horses were the best their region could produce and as already demonstrated earlier in Remus's attack up the hill, one should not neglect the bond between a horse and its rider.

Thus if the Heeats still wanted those riders to perform as an elite shock unit when they returned, they needed those horses.

'Paying almost two million wesas for a couple of wastes who could not even protect their lord! Bah!'

However although Lord Castell was willing to pay the money, that did not mean he was happy about it, and thus swore to himself, 'I will make sure this gets cut from their property!'

The reason Lord Castell said this was because these horsemen were not regular citizens or peasants.

Rather all of their status in society was very similar to medieval knights, not quite full fledged nobility, but also not negligible peasants.

They consisted of either sons of rich, common folks who owned a lot of land or businesses like workshops, inns, brothels, etc., and wanted to step into the ring of true nobility.

Or noble bastards who had no real position in their family and this was the best alternative for them.

The hope for all of them was that by joining such an illustrious unit they would be able to make enough military contributions to catch the eye of a high ranking noble who would then gift them some hereditary land for their services.

It was also because of their high status that Lord Castell even bothered to redeem them, as evidenced by how the lord did not seem interested in offering the same price to the infantry.

These men, although similarly well trained were socially too far down the ladder for him to care.

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

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