Herald of Steel

Alexander took note of Lady Parthia's guess with an agreeing nod.

Indeed, now that he thought about it, it made no sense for the Heeat family to force Vidiyan into such a suicidal attack.

Without Baron Lamp luring him to the ambush, an attempt on the life had virtually no chance of success.

Alexander did not believe a ducal family would be this dumb- to discard such a core force in such a reckless manner.

There were much better ways to plot against him.

So the much more likely explanation was some mid level bureaucrat had gotten these orders and then decided to follow it to the tee no matter what.

The order was to kill Alexander and it was Vidiyan's headache on how he was going to do that- through hook or crook, which baron died and which baron lived was not his concern.

Alexander let out a small snigger in his heart upon reaching this reasonable conclusion.

A small part of him was actually impressed by that man's loyalty, he had stuck to his order despite everything going to ruin in the blink of an eye.

But a much larger part of him only mocked the man for his intractable ways.

The only thing his blind obedience managed to do was hand the enemy of his family a free 'experience boost' and 'level' up.

"If what my lady says is true, then I should thank him, hehehe. If the attack had been called off, I would have remained grossly unaware of the plot. I really underestimated the Heeat family's speed and will for vengeance. *Tsk*, who knew they would they this determined?"

Alexander might not have shown it, but the comment was made with both praise and immense anger. Thinking back to how Lord Castell had made all those promises, he found that he was just being taken for a ride.

"Yes, that pirate could have also done a lot of harm to your convoys," And Lady Parthia agreed, suggesting with a thin, curved smile,

"I also think you should try to find the man who gave the pirates their order. He can surely lead to his other men operating in your territory."

"...." Alexander initially gave a slightly surprised look hearing this.

He did not think of this before because he thought with Vidiyan's defection that contact had been lost.

But now that Lady Parthia mentioned it, this was quite flawed.

The family did not yet know that their pirate captain had just flipped so at best they thought he failed or just disobeyed orders.

As such if they were smart enough, Alexander was confident there was still a chance to get hold of something.

"I will have him try. It should not be too hard." He promised.

"Mmmm. I am also interested to know who wanted to do this. It was so fast. They must be very decisive," Lady Parthia then chimed with an undertone of praise, analyzing each of the suspects,

"The Heeat family's motive is obvious. They want you dead a hundred times over just for that Parker boy. But what puzzles me is who helped them."

"Linda needs you, so it was unlikely her. The same goes for Miranda. And most of the Margrave elders seem to want peace. So how did the Heeat arrange such an elaborate ambush in just a few months?"

"Did that Baron Lamp say anything before you killed him?"

"....." Alexander produced a sort of forced smile at the query because when he had taken the man on charges of collusion, he did it only as an excuse.

He just wanted the man gone.

So at the end of the day, most of the charges were faked, and very few real questions were asked.

But Alexander did not dare reveal such oversight to her lady in front of him. He was sure to get a sharp scolding.

"He… he did not reveal anything about this attack with the pirates. I did not know I even had to ask those." Thus he dressed his answer a bit better, "The baron mostly confessed to the various ways he bullied the people and only claimed that he got some money from the Strauss family to cause some trouble for me." before lightly assuring,

"But now that I think about it, that might have been all a lie. He probably acted so brazenly because he thought I was going to die soon. Heh!"

That single smirk was filled with a myriad of emotions, from disdain to mockery to even a bit of relief.

Because if that baron was just a bit more level headed and patient, flattering his new boss's ego for just a few days, well, Alexander might not be standing there today.

He would not say he would have definitely died because did not know the exact details of the ambush, but given it was being led by an experienced pirate skilled in raids, Alexander was sure it certainly would have been very dangerous.

Even if he managed to scrape through it, many of his men would have died.

Lady Parthia's worsening frown also lighted up a bit hearing this, coming to the realization of how close her own life had come.

So she dropped the hard attitude and turned to a softer tone, "What do you wish to do about the Margraves and Heeat now?"

"Nothing. The deals with the Heeat and Margraves will remain as." Alexander succinctly replied, "This was likely their last chance to cause trouble. I have more pressing matters to take care of and don't want to escalate."

"I see." The Tibian queen did not express any objection to this plan, tacitly also thinking it was best to play dumb for now.

Although she also added this tart response, "I imagine you also want to keep those loans to the sisters. Heh, I very much want to see what becomes of them."

It seemed she was hinting for Alexander to walk back on some of his promises due to his attack.

But the man did not react.

He simply added with a gentle smile, "I wish to wait until I capture those who gave Vidiyan the order and learn the details before making any decisions, my lady."

He also kept his plan to finance those natives in the steeps to cause trouble for the family to himself, wishing to keep some cards hidden.

Lady Parthia could know about it like the rest of his council.

And hearing the decision, the Tibias queen also did not urge Alexander on the matter, only cooly remarking,

"I see. Then I wish you good luck. Hopefully, your fragile peace will not be suddenly broken,"

And then before Alexander could figure out if she was cursing him or wishing him, she extended the same bit of caution to the hunt for the spy,

"Also that man you are trying to catch… he might not be as easy to catch as you think. His actions might seem foolish to us, but it may also be that he forced the pirate captain because it was best for covering his own back."

"It might have been that the Baron's death was too sudden, so the man could not hope to receive new orders on time. He had to make a decision there."

"He might have thought about calling off the attack, but perhaps he has an unreasonable superior. Perhaps he feared that taking such a decision was too above him and could end him in the gallows. So he chose to go through it regardless! It was not his head after all."

Alexander strongly sensed that Lady Parthia was likely speaking from experience as she said this.

This was just that he was unable to determine if she was once that unreasonable superior or if her subordinates acted like that around her.

Either way, this also let Alexander detect a common flaw in the spy or in general any bureaucratic system.

In any government agency, you on one hand wanted loyal servants who followed your orders without many questions, thus maximing your hold on power.

But on the other hand, you also wanted smart people who could act as the situation demanded. Because the reality on the ground was rarely as it was on a paper report.

The trouble was these were two diametrically opposed ideals.

If the people beneath you are smart and resourceful and could the job done perfectly, well then the next logical question comes, why did they need you? Why should they be beneath you and not vice versa?

But if you had a group of blindly loyal men, well, then you got the example such as with the Russian Tsar when he ordered the construction of the Trans Siberian Railway.

The story goes that he used a ruler to draw the railway on a map to show its intended direction.

But the ruler he used had a small bump on it, which was then reflected on the drawn line.

And when the railway line was actually built, the engineers made sure to even add that small bump because they thought it was a design feature and were too afraid to ask otherwise.

Now, Alexander did not know how true this claim was, but given what he knew of Russian history and all the crazy things that happened, it was totally possible.

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

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