Herald of Steel

As Miss Linda thought about making her comeback to the grand stage and competing for power, she quickly found herself wanting more allies.

And who was it that came up to her mind at the very top of the list?

Her 'bosom' sister of course.

After how much they shared with each other in the past few months, Miss Linda naturally thought it would be a waste to let go of her just like that.

'Me with Lord Castell and her with Achillas… together…'

Undoubtedly Lady Adele and more importantly her husband would make a great ally, especially given the kind of feelings the warrior general held for his late lord cum lover.

Surely some of that affection would trickle down to the infant son.

Miss Linda was thus determined to get her sister into bed with her, both literally and figuratively.

As the scheming lady was already cooking up ways to make her comeback, from the other side, Alexander also opened up to offer his support,

"Although Lord Castell has several mistresses, my lady will have no trouble in earning his affection. You and he will be spending a lot of time here in Caira after all. There will be plenty of chances for you two to get to know each other.

I will even ask Lord Kite to drop some alluring stories about you into Lord Castell's ears. That should help further smooth out much of the misunderstanding he has for you."

This produced a grateful smile on Miss Linda's face, which then turned to an amused chuckle,

"Thank you. Any other advice you might have, oh great and knowledgeable lord?"

"Yes, actually!" Alexander replied to the small joke with a serious face, as he went on to list,

"The most important thing I would advise you about is pregnancy. In short, I do not think you should become pregnant… at least until your son passes the infancy stage and becomes a full child. So five to six years old. This will help your son avoid any unnecessary competition and also let Lord Castell develop true fatherly feelings for him."

The matter was grave enough for Miss Linda to wipe her smile a bit and let her solemnly nod her head, "I already intend to do that. I understand that men do not feel the same way about their stepchildren."

"Mmm…" The response pleased Alexander enough to hum, as he went on to add,

"I do not know exactly how Lord Castell feels about this subject but given he is officially childless, it should not be too hard. Still, I suggest that you tactfully approach it in your own time. It would be best if Lord Castell has no intention to breed…. to bed you.

"But if he insists and you cannot stop him… then tell me. I will send you some contraceptives from home. Take them before or immediately after to have done the deed and you should be fine."

Alexander was of course talking about the almost magical legummum herb.

And the mention of the salve appeared to pique even Miss Linda's interest.

"Oh? Are we talking about those famous medicines from Adhania?" She very charmingly raised one of her sharp eyebrows, "I have heard there you have a magic herb that can prevent pregnancy without any failure. Does it really exist?"

"Yes, it really works without fail. Otherwise, the nobles there would not have been able to… 'lead the kind of life they do'."

Alexander's euphemistic statement did not go unnoticed by Miss Linda, and as a curious itch formed, she swiftly piped with gleaning eyes,

"Then is it true what they say? The things about you people? That you and your wives… with all kinds…. of men….that.."

Alexander noticed that Miss Linda was struggling very hard to articulate all the rumors she had heard about his hometown without sounding too offensive or judgmental, causing her speech to become jumbled and awkward.

Seeing which Alexander smirked a bit inside,

'It is only during these times I remember the woman is still really young- a girl in her early twenties at best!"

"Hahaha," Thus he first gently chuckled as a way to reassure the lady, before pleasantly chiming,

"I do not know what they tell you about us, but I can say most of what anything the people say is one part truth, four part rumors, and five part total bullocks!"

Miss Linda seemed to become a tab bit offended at being called out like this, so Alexander quickly added.

"Let me give you an example of what I heard about your own selves, my lady."

"When your eldest sister and Lord Janus first came to me, one of my advisors advised me to execute them immediately as spies!

According to him, all Sybarians were foreign agents trying to infiltrate our realm.

You first disguised yourselves as merchants looking to do business before slowly bankrupting the place using deceitful practices. First local businesses are run out of business by your cheaper, lower quality goods.

Then you cause various wars and strife forcing the lords to borrow money from you at exorbitant interests to deal with these rebels.

Lastly, once things have reached a tipping point, you either arm the common masses or send your own army to dispose of the nobles, supplanting them with your own!"

"Apparently every country you visited has been turned to ruin in this way!"

"...*Pssssk*...:" As Miss Linda heard these ridiculous claims, she found it impossible to stop herself from letting out this small, very unwomanly chuckle and had to quickly bite on her lips to forcefully swallow it.

Now, this was not something that actually happened to Alexander per se.

But many of the nobles in Adhania did feel this way about engaging in foreign trade- according to them they were completely self sufficient and so did not need to deal with the rest of these 'barbarians'.

To those high nosed individuals, anyone not from Adhania was a barbarian.

Miss Linda appeared a bit embarrassed following her breach of her etiquette and as she tried to regain her composure, Alexander continued with a mirthful, light tone to his voice,

"So you see my lady, it is not wise to trust most of the rumors you hear. You should learn to take them with a large pinch of salt. The same goes for what you heard about us."

"Yes, many of our nobles do exchange mistresses and lovers… but very rarely their own wives. There is a lot of etiquette and customs involved in the whole thing. Plus, for as many nobles as there are who were willing to do this, there are many more who are not. It is really a personal perfect and… something that is really too long to go into detail here."

Alexander was very careful to sidestep this minefield without engaging too much because, for a monogamous society like Sybarsis, those practices were considered taboo too, something truly alien.

He did not want Miss Linda to have a negative of him just due to what some of his retainers allegedly did.

So he painted the Adhanian nobles in a much 'nobler' light, making the whole thing sound innocuous, like the choice of being vegetarian or not.

Whereas in reality, it was much more complicated, and instead of a purely personal choice, society and peer pressure played a much bigger role.

To many who were brought up this way, the act was as natural as the modern equivalent of pre-marital sex, drinking in public, or smoking pot.

While others soon found if they wanted to exist and stay relevant within the Adhanian noble circle, they had to suck up to their higher lords using such 'gifts'.

Thus many bent- willingly or unwillingly.

Only Alexander's province was spared from this outward pressure and that was largely because its most powerful lord as well as a lot of his closest retainers eschewed the practise.

This only left the original, much smaller and weaker lord to continue tradition among themselves. However, since they were unable to speak up in support of this or twist other's arms into joining them, this practice till now remained a marginalized thing.

The scale of those 'adult' parties held under Alexander's rule was perhaps not even a tenth of those produced during Pasha Muazz's reign.

But Miss Linda did not need to know the nitty gritty of such things. Alexander would rather she gave a very clear picture of his lands.

"Hehe, so it seems like that!"

And credit to him, Alexander seemed to have been successful in his efforts.

Miss Linda believed Alexander's explanation, although it was not only because of what he said, but also because it matched what her late husband once told her- at that time when the lady tried to seduce Alexander in the tea garden.

And as Miss Linda recalled that incident and all that transpired next, suddenly she began to understand how things suddenly changed with time.

When she had entered the room a few while back, she still saw Alexander as her enemy, but after getting to know him… she suddenly found the man to be quite charming,

So she turned to Alexander and let out a large grin out of nowhere, "We seem to have gotten quite close my lord!"

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