HERALD OF STEEL

If one were to closely look at what Alexander had said regarding his tryst with Lady Nanazin, they would find he had never actually denied sleeping with the regal woman.

Yes, he claimed the lady was never unfaithful to her spouse… and to a certain extent this was true. Despite everything that was done to her, Lady Nanazin still acknowledged Ptolomy as her husband.

But Alexander himself never denied this, nor did he seek to clear his name in the first place. Because he knew getting into an argument about this with Ptolomy would be futile.

It would have made him more guilty the more he tried to deny the accusation as Ptolomy seemed to have already set his mind up.

So instead he spun an elaborate story about the honor and prestige of the royal family, meaning to distract the man.

And it worked, the man instantly becoming blinded over the promise of brand new land over some woman he hardly cared for- especially as it was not like his wife had not slept with other men before.

In fact, she had done so right in front of him, and he even made her.

While seeing this, Alexander was partly a bit disappointed as having such a gullible boss, although another part of him felt ecstatic, for he understood his buttering up had worked.

Alexander’s lips thus curled up in glee, clutching his hands and rubbing them in a flattering way, then grinning in what some might say quite a vulgar way,

“Hehehe, Your Majesty should have seen how they treated Your Highness Nanazin.. standing and bowing in mass everywhere she went. These are all really low born people. They have never heard of the magnificence of Adhania, much less seen it. So seeing her was like seeing the mistress of a god for them.”

“If Your Imminence was there, the Sybarians would have surely freely knelt and kissed the ground!”

And hearing this Ptolomy felt both flattered and hurt, because he thought he had missed out on a great experience, letting it go that ‘woman’ of all people.

However Alexander fortunately had phrased it such that it showed the people were only respectful to him because of him- because she was the mistress of a ‘god’, hence the plump man felt his heart more soothed than hurt.

While from the back, the Queen Mother sent Alexander both an impressed and unimpressed look at this.

Impressed at how he had been able to neutralize the fiery situation so easily. It brought water to her heart that the situation had de-escalated instead of escalating.

But she was at the same time unimpressed at how many clear lies he had uttered. If she was in Ptolomy’s shoes, she would have definitely exposed him to all.

But for now and for the sake of peace she simply allowed her ‘husband’ to fall into his delusion, as his ears further perked up at what Alexander was additionally saying,

“In fact, it was only through your reputation and name that we managed to secure peace, Your Majesty. The feuding families only felt reassured when there was a guarantor from the Adhanian Royal family.”

“The Margraves family even gave up some of their territory as a sign of respect for you… which I have come to gift you. Congratulations Your Majesty, congratulations for being the first king to expand Adhania beyond the Mad Sea. Bards will sing ballads of your legends for centuries to come! Hahahaha!”

Alexander gave a very exaggerated laugh as he made the promise, and the sound of which sounded like heavenly tolls to Ptolomy’s ears.

It was enough to instantly mollify him, his angry face melting away like snow.

“Hahaha, great, great! New land, new land! Alexander I always knew you were my loyal man. Only someone like you will have the ability to gift ‘this king’ such a thing. Hahaha, I would love to see the faces of all those who called you names in the courts. Hahaha,” The flabs on the fatty man shook like rippling water as he let out a heavenly laughter, his eyes nearly tearing up in glee.

The man even slapped Alexander on the back a few times.

“Hahaha, yes, I would also like to meet your court Your Majesty!” While Alexander also joined the man in his celebrations, although his eyes were far less amorous.

Perhaps only the naive Ptolomy missed Alexander’s hidden innuendo, but everyone else could see how the pasha of Zanzan was very much looking forward to tearing those people a brand new one.

Tomorrow’s court would be a beauty to watch.

….

For now though, this bomb known as Ptolomy had been defused, and the rest of the evening went very smoothly.

Ptolomy first invited Alexander and the others inside the Grand Temple, and under the soft, bright glow of the torches and braziers, the group offered their evening prayers together.

In there, Alexander even spotted a smaller statue of the goddess Gaia next to the golden statue of Ramuh, her voluptuous and motherly figure made of marble contrasting with the muscular man.

The man was glad to see Ptolomy had lived up to his promise and made the goddess a close subordinate of the Father.

Following this, the group were invited to sit beside an artificial pond where oil lamps and candles had been left afloat as a whole host of beautiful priestess dressed in elegant white robes served them refreshments- various types of wine, pastry, fruits, honey, and small cuts of very sweet bread dipped in milk.

According to Ptolomy, this was a custom that had recently started in Adhan following Alexander’s ‘discovery’ of sugar. Nobles tended to eat various sweetened desserts just before or after their evening prayers.

Taking small bites of everything, Alexander found little to complain about their taste, they were after all created by the best chefs in the country.

If there was one tiny thing to nitpick, it would be that compared to their modern counterparts, they appeared a bit crude and slightly lacking in that tasty punch.

However this was too minor and having missed lunch, he actually had a hard time keeping his hands away.

A fact that was doubly true for the two princesses, who seemed to be really struggling to balance their hunger with the need to always appear elegant and proper.

Alongside this snack, the group also chatted with each other, exchanging pleasantries and other small non essentials, such as news of all the new developments of their respective lands, how Alexander and his family had been doing, the matter of Mikaya’s wedding, inquiring bout the Queen Mother’s health, and the most crucial question for the twins- where was their grandfather.

Because by accounts he should have been here accompanying Ptolomy.

The answer to the last question was revealed as the man being a bit busy managing the court currently in Ptolomy’s absence, although Alexander highly doubted that.

What court?

It was the evening… the courts had been dismissed hours ago!

Not to mention, even if it were the case, there was no way the elderly man was going to skip meeting his granddaughters for something so mundane.

He would have kicked everyone out, suspended the meeting for the day, and then rode off to meet his precious.

Thus Alexander guessed the much probable answer was that the man was simply barred from coming here.

Lord Iyazid passing mention of the fact that the Pasha had been quarreling about this with Ptolomy from the morning certainly alluded to such an outcome.

However Alexander naturally did not poke for any answer and simply pretended to play along, lowering his guard when Ptolomy promised to send for the Pasha to the twins’ room as soon as they returned to the palace.

It seemed the Prime Minister was simply put under house arrest for a short while.

Following this, the rest of the conversation proved to be quite mundane, where Alexander was not really able to glean anything much useful.

For example- he asked about Amenheraft, when he had come for the Jtaama, and how he was developing his forces?

The answer was a sort of vague description that showed Ptolomy was not really in the loop.

He was then asked about what he had done to help Zanzan recover from that drought, and it was also a very generic answer with no specifics.

This let Alexander understand that Ptolomy had not really done anything to help the farmers, such as giving free seed, tax exemptions or even reforming the land based on Alexander’s new techniques- the heavy plow, the horse collar, and the three crop rotation.

The Zanzan Pasha had to really exercise great patience hearing this, forcefully keeping his lips from twitching, and subtly sending a glance at the sitting Queen Mother.

‘You were supposed to keep him in check, what are you doing?’ He seemed to be saying.

Which although Ptolomy completely missed, the knee eyed lady did not, and in return sent a small, indignant glare, ‘Don’t accuse me in this!’

It was as if she was angry for Alexander to dump this on her, letting the man plan to pick this up with her at a later date.

In this way, the talks lasted until the light of the evening completely died down and the group found there was little more to talk about.

So they finally decided to break for the night, with Ptolomy offering to show Alexander his quarter personally, which the man tactfully denied, and added,

“Ahhh, I have also brought additional gifts for Your Majesty. I just have not had the time to bring them here. I will be sure to present them tomorrow.”

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!