Herald of Steel

"No! There is no problem!"

Lady Miranda answered Alexander's query about abandoning the city fast as lightning, giving herself no time to think.

And this speed made Alexander a bit surprised. He had assumed the lady would be the most against leaving her father's home.

It had not been easy to hold his place after all. Thus he gave Lady Miranda a curious look.

"If my lord thinks it will be more advantageous for us to abandon the city, then let us do so. We can always take it back after we have won."

Sensing Alexander's gaze, the plump lady replied in such a hard voice, her clear, limpid eyes making it clear that she did not care about the political implications anymore.

As long as it helped the military get an edge, she was willing to give up her ancestral birthplace.

And Alexander frankly felt impressed by the determination Lady Miranda was showing. It was clear that recent circumstances had fully transformed the lady in front of him

"..." However, regarding leaving the city, Alexander was still cautious.

Because such a thing would be irreversible.

And he did not want to regret letting the bird out of his hand afterward.

He also felt Lady Miranda might not be in the best state of mind and was worried that her desire for vengeance against her sister and the Heeat family might be clouding a lot of considerations.

Considerations such as what to do about the captured Margrave's members residing in the manor.

Surely they could not be left here since that would mean they would simply land in the other side's hands, where they would very willingly swear their fealty to Miss Linda.

The ramifications of such a thing would be disastrous.

Now, Alexander could indeed take these people as hostages with him, but even then, simply the city falling would be a great blow to him.

His soldiers who had spent so much blood and sweat in holding out would surely become aggrieved, and much more than that, the enemy soldiers would become undoubtedly re-energized, seeing the fall of the city was a validation of all their efforts.

'We might have lost the battles, but we won the war!' Alexander could already see them cheering.

He was reluctant to let go of this jewel if for nothing but this lone fact.

Not to mention there was also the fear of ML using the capture of the city as a propaganda piece.

Most of the people were already on her side and if she were to also capture the city, it would definitely fully complete the legitimation of her rule, putting the final jewel in her crown so to speak. 𝐑άNO͍ＢËṢ

All these cons made it so that Alexander was unable to be as cavalier about leaving the city as Lady Miranda was.

Of course, there were pros to this as well, as listed by Lord Janus.

His men would certainly enjoy the lifting of the siege as well as the access to fresh supplies. Because although Lord Janus tried his best, there was only so much that could be shipped from so far away amidst dangerous waters.

It would also let Alexander prepare his men better and at the end of the day, was that not what truly mattered?

A strong argument could be made unless LP was defeated in battle in full force, there was little point in holding onto that small part of the city.

And if LP would indeed be defeated, the prior ownership of the city became a moot point. It would belong to the winner.

Experience tales with m v|l -NovelFire

Hence for the following two days, Alexander found himself oscillating, unsure whether to choose politics or military.

The man even covertly talked to his men about it and found that the men were not as much opposed to abandoning the city as he thought they would be.

They even seemed a bit eager to leave his cold, 'barren' place.

But it was ultimately Lord Janus who managed to convince Alexander to leave the city, as he came to him to claim,

"My lord, before I came here, I was covertly in talks with some of the northern barbarians. I am sure you heard of these exiles. Now, some of those tribe's chiefs are expressing their willingness to fight for us…."

Saying this, Lord Janus trailed off a bit, taking a knowing gaze towards the lady of the house who was also present.

And just as the elder man had predicted, the mere mention of those northern folks was enough to draw the noble lady's ire, her crescent brows quickly locking together to form a frown.

"Why did you talk without those barbarians? They are nothing but greedy devils!" Lady Miranda spat out with intense disdain, speaking in an acrid tone that was much different from her usual way of addressing the elder, "Do I need to remind you how many of my family died in their hands? How many of my uncles and granduncles? They are nothing but treasonous liars, cheats, and backstabbers!"

Lord Janus's lips slightly twitched at the intense response and caused him to sigh in his heart- '*Sigh*, I knew this would happen. The bad blood between her family and the natives really runs deep.'

The history of the Margraves, the natives, and how this island came to be as it was now was all steeped in deep, red blood from both sides, and by the looks of it, it seemed neither side was willing to give up their grudges.

On the other hand, Alexander was very intrigued by Lady Miranda's attitude, as this was the first time he saw her be so harsh towards the elder lord.

Usually, the lady would be quite defferential.

But now hearing Lady Miranda's words, he felt that Lord Janus had touched on a nerve.

Thus turning to the man, Alexander gently chimed, "I am aware of the friction between the northern natives and the Margraves family. However, I am not too sure of the specifics. Can my lord enlighten me?"

Lord Janus first produced a slightly difficult face at this ask, looking at Alexander like he had just asked an embarrassing thing.

"Ahem…" However, quickly considering the identity of the other party, as well as his own wants, Lord Janus knew he could not brush past it.

So he decided to answer, beginning with a large disclaimer,

"My lord, what I am about to say is a series of complicated events that happened a few centuries ago. I hope you will not be too critical of either party."

And hearing this Alexander instinctively sat up a bit straight, his senses tingling with the sensation that he was about to hear something really juicy.

Because whenever anyone said something like this, it meant there were indeed many hidden skeletons in the closet.

And noticing this, Lord Janus let out a small, helpless smile, before quickly beginning his recount in a gentle, neutral tone,

"To know about the bad blood between the northern and the family, my lord you first need to know that the Margraves are not originally from here. They are originally from the Sybarsis mainland up north.

They came here at first as traders, opening up a series of docks and ports along the coast. As you can already guess, this soon proved extremely lucrative… natural given how strategic the island is.

It is prominently placed around many critical sea routes and made this few hundred thousand square kilometers of land much, much more valuable than what its raw natural resources suggested at the outset.

And the head of the Margraves family back then soon began to realize this. He knew if could set up his fief there, just the port fees from merchant ships stopping on the way to replenish and resupply their stocks would be enough to make him among the richest nobles even in Sybarsis.

Hence he decided to attack the interior island, wishing to drive out or subjugate all the locals, and make the entire island his own.

This was a disaster for the original people of the place. They had originally lived a relatively isolated life, following a type of shamanic belief system that emphasized oneness with nature and forbade materialistic gains.

Thus, while the rest of the world traded and developed better and better bronze and even iron weapons, these barbarians restricted themselves mostly to wood and leather.

They still traded with us for goods like timber, gems, incense, and glass, but they very, very rarely took weapons.

It was too big a taboo and anyone found trading, possessing or even assisting in such a thing was severely punished.

I remember my great grandfather telling me that his grandfather had once seen a hunter skinned alive and hung by his neck from a tree for simply possessing a small iron dagger.

But this restraint also meant when the family attacked, these natives suffered tremendously.

Most of their hand made weapons were too crude and too blunt to dent our shields, while their stone arrows simply bounced off their bronze armor.

Worse still, these natives were not unified into one entity.

Rather they were divided into many competing tribes and clans, and we also made use of that. The result of such tactics would be easily imagined… *sigh*...." As Lord Janus, he shook his head, lamenting.

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

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