Herald of Steel

The loss of control of the military as confessed by Lady Miranda sent a great blow to Alexander.

What he had feared most had ctrue.

And worse it was an unimaginable mismatch.

5,000 vs 22,000!

More than a four fold mismatch, with 2,000 of that being cavalry.

Even if the 5,000 legionaries were the famed warriors of Sparta, and they were only facing 22,000 green peasants, Alexander would not be hopeful of his chances.

Heck, even if those 22,000 were mere pigs, he would be hard pressed to win.

Alexander at best could fight as much as twice his numbers in a pitched battle and still hold hope to eke out a victor by relying on the use of clever tactics.

But anything more than that, and he would be hard pressed to do anything other than defend and hold on.

Quantity had a quality of its own as they say.

Thus for a moment, Alexander regretted not bringing more troops, even if there was the risk of them mutinying.

But what had been done was done, Alexander could not change the past.

So refusing to cry over spilled milk, he decided to forward to dealing with the challenge, putting his trust in his negotiation skills as his only option.

Finding himself 'out muscled' thus Alexander quickly got to preparing his tongue, wanting to know more about the situation he was in.

First and foremost starting with the biggest contender,

"What can you tellabout Miss Linda exactly, Lady Miranda? When did your sister start harboring such thoughts about you? And when did you find out?"

"Snort! Linda has always shown great ambition in life. Even as a kid, she used to say she would marry the successor of a ducal family… even being a mere third daughter! That's why she pretended to love to suck that stray cur of a bastard so much!"

Alexander was surprised by the sheer amount of venom Lady Miranda displayed towards the couple, her tone crass and disdainful, not at all befitting a regal lady.

It seemed that the death of his son and the current developments had driven the lady to eschew all such formalities, as she went to add with clenched and gritted teeth,

"It's just too bad she is not nearly as smart as she thinks she is. An idiot whose ambition exceeded far more than her abilities. She doesn't even understand that she is only being used as a pawn by that two faced husband of hers to gain control of our family. Mother must have dropped her on the head the very day she was born to turn her this stupid!"

"....." Alexander at first watched with slight amusement at the animated way Lady Miranda was cursing her sister, as he never thought the prim and proper lady would be this colorful in her language.

The lady in front of him was very different from the one he had met back in Zanzan all the way back.

But then quickly recalling the precarious situation he himself was in, Alexander decided it was no tfor entertainment, and quickly further inquired,

"Has my lady attempted to reveal these suspicions to Miss Linda? What did she say?"

"Of course I have! A thousand times I have!" Being reminded of all those loud and screeching discussions she had, with almost all ending with her storming out of the room, Lady Miranda appeared to beceven more inflamed than before, going off in a tirade,

"But did she listen? No! Of course not! She only thinks I'm only trying to trick her. The greedy pig has always been like that. Foolish and blind! I should have never trusted her."

This last line reminded Alexander that Miss Linda and her husband had seemingly given important positions in the family.

So Alexander could not help but ask, "If my lady knew Miss Linda so well, then why did you give them access to such power."

"*Sigh*, it was because of me!" The owner of the answer was surprisingly not Lady Miranda, but the man sitting next to her, her husband Cassius.

Letting off a slightly mournful breath, this large man had a melancholic tone to his voice, as he then went on to say in a gentle voice,

"Miranda had always been hostile to Linda from childhood. I thought that was why the two sisters were on such bad terms. So I convinced Miranda that if Linda was allowed to have spower and responsibilities, she would becsatisfied with her position and stop causing trouble. *Sigh*, clearly that has not worked."

Seeing the man shake his head in regretful lampooning, Alexander fist had the urge to roll his eyes at this naive thought.

He was right in thinking this man was soft.

Now, a point could indeed be somewhere made that an oppressed person would continue to struggle until they received their rightful treatment.

But Miss Linda was clearly not any ignored or neglected child.

Giving power to either was clearly a big mistake.

And not something a competent lord would do.

Thus Alexander wondered how this man was chosen to be the consort of a woman who was tasked with navigating their family through the most perilous tsince its inception.

You would think Lord Margraves would choose a much more accomplished lord to aid his granddaughter in her endeavor.

But then Alexander reasoned to himself, 'Perhaps Lord Cassius was the best available candidate, the one with the closest claim to the family's seat after Lady Miranda. Thus by marrying them, the elder lord killed two birds with one stone- remove the biggest rival and strengthen his position at the stime.'

And then quickly thought of a second reason, 'Or it could be that the previous patriarch of the family felt that Cassius was soft and malleable, which was exactly why he chose to hand Lady Miranda over to the man.'

'Reasoning that marrying a soft man would let Lady Miranda keep him under control and never let him influence her decisions, such as if one day he wanted to replace Marcus with his own children.

Lord Margraves IV might have even thought the infant Marcus would be safer under such a man.'

Alexander did not directly ask the couple about why Lady Miranda chose her current husband, or about his capabilities and deficiencies.

But he did judge the man.

And so did Lady Miranda, who being reminded of the mistake, quickly pointed to her husband, and shouted,

"Yes! We are in this much trouble in no small part to you. How could you believe Linda was anything but a snake! Even before Marcus's death, she was eyeing my seat like a vulture. Don't you know anything about her?"

"Lazy as a pig, dumb as a rock, yet as ambitious as the devil. Wants to do no work, but wishes to take all the credit." Lady Miranda's beautiful face once again twisted in anger at the thought of her usurping sister, while Alexander was more surprised by how imperiously the lady talked to her husband.

This was a first for Alexander ever since coming to his world almost 15 years ago!

Such talks might be commonplace in modern times with even conservative coupes, but in this tperiod, it was rarer than a phoneix's feather.

No wife talked to their husband like this, not even privately.

Forget it being in public, in front of another man.

The humiliation was such that it would be unimaginable.

This srule applied even in the case of Alexander's closest wives Cambyses and Mean.

In their day to day interactions, they never spoke to him like that, instead possessing a differential undertone that was produced simply by the ambient social circumstances.

They of course still argued with him and even shouted and screamed but even then they never dared to act like Lady Miranda was.

Which also let Alexander glean that Lord Cassius was likey solidly Lady Miranda's thumb- further proved by the fact that the letter he had received from Lord Janus only had Lady Miranda's seal, but not her husband's.

Thus perhaps the decision to give Miss Linda was not an arbitrary decision made by one side, but instead likely initiated by Lord Cassius and sanctioned by Lady Miranda.

The reason why Alexander thought this was also because he remembered the letter Lord Janus had presented to him only had Lady Miranda's seal.

But not her husband's.

This was certainly very unusual as a man's position in a family was always high.

While Alexander tried to filter out the biases, Lady Miranda suddenly turned to Alexander to recount,

"Gods! Did you know Lord Alexander, that when I first returned from Zanzan with those metal ores, she actually tried to take credit for it! Saying it was all due to her because she introduced Harold to me? Can you imagine?"

"Bitch if you trusted Harold's words so much, why didn't you go to Zanzan yourself? Why leave it toto make the journey? I was five months pregnant then!"

"....." If what Lady Miranda was saying about her sister was indeed true, then Alexander would have to admit, that this was a problematic woman

I