Herald of Steel

There were only a few moments in life when Alexander found himself to be stunned.

And after listening to Lady Miranda's story, he felt this was one of those times.

"Your grandfather… gave Lord Janus two fiefs?" Even Alexander could not be that luxurious with his land division.

And the example of the extravagance was also not lost on Lady Miranda, whose plump lips helplessly curved up a bit, as she expounded on the previous succinct reply,

"Hamson was the original fief grandfather gave Uncle Janus. Then a few years back, Lord Janus gave this over to his eldest son- John because apparently he found ruling it too tedious. It's said that Uncle Janus wished to enjoy the openness of the countryside, rather than be cooped up in the city."

"However about two years ago, Brother John… ahhh… I guess it's Lord John hahaha… suddenly married an unknown commoner out of the blue, breaking off his marriage engagement with Adele!"

"This shocked and infuriated Uncle Janus perhaps even more than it did us… to the point I heard the moment he saw the couple, he tried to charge both with his sword drawn, wanting to end it all then and there. Luckily the surrounding guards stopped him."

"So he then petitioned to grandfather to allow him to disown his eldest son and let his second son take over Hamson."

"But who could have expected that grandfather would deny it! Not only that he even rewarded John, making him a hereditary baron. It shocked our entire family to the core. And Adele.. *sigh*... Adele… I heard from her handmaid that there were times in those days that she even contemplated suicide."

Lady Miranda here paused a bit to ruefully shake her head.

And although Alexander was touched by this tragic recount, he was not really surprised.

In this time period, and in a society like Sybarsis, for a woman to have her engagement broken like this went way past a social faux pas and became almost taboo.

No matter what really happened, society would always see it as the woman's fault, branding her unfit to marry.

Of course, as a bone a fide Marquis's daughter, Lady Adele would not have suffered such a great shame, but still- it hurt her.

As for the reason why her dear grandfather did her dirty like this, even going as far as to reward her unfaithful 'fiance', well-

"We of course asked grandfather for an explanation, demanding justice for Adele. But he only brushed it aside saying Brother John deserved this much leniency. He was one of my father's squire and apparently once helped fend off a bandit attack."

"That was… even if true of course wholly insufficient. Everyone could see this was only a contrived excuse. However, no matter how much we pushed, grandfather remained adamant to the last day."

"He even gave Uncle Janus his ancestral fief to convince him to forgive his son. I heard Giant City once long, long ago belonged to some relative of his… although the details on that are really muddy."

"While seeing grandfather become this bullish… the others simply had to accept it."

At this point of her monotone recalling, Lady Miranda's face suddenly turned complicated,

"Of course, grandfather's actions made it quite obvious that that girl was someone special. And we all had our guess. The most probable one is that she is one of my illegitimate aunts! Grandfather must have had her with a whor… a low born common woman while grandmother was still alive. So he had to hide her. Hehe…. You see if my grandmother knew… well it's not good to speak ill of the dead. So let's skip it."

'It's not speaking ill if it's the truth..'

As Lady Miranda flashed her palms in a dismissive manner, Alexander lightly snorted this comment in his heart.

He could easily guess how the legitimate noble wife would 'cut down' on the peasant chaff.

Such infanticides sadly were all too common in all parts of the world, and especially true here given Sybaris's strict monogamy rules.

If the wife had a formidable enough background, many times a husband would not even be able to do anything about his children being harmed.

Because technically he was in the wrong for having an illicit affair.

And illegitimate children throughout the nation were considered nearly at the level of slaves- as objects with no status.

So it was not a crime to abuse them.

Alexander sighed at the sad state of affairs, and then let Lady Miranda finish,

"Our guess is that it was grandfather who probably arranged the whole thing. He wanted John to marry the young girl and promised him a title in return. *Sigh*, It really makes me want to know who the mother was…. for grandfather to favor her child so much." Explore more at empire

Lady Miranda at last ended her long speech with a curious and anticipated sigh.

"It seems your grandfather was old but not cold, hahaha."

Alexander attempted to break the heavy atmosphere with a small joke, referring to the fact that Lady Miranda's 'aunt' was likely younger than her.

This got a small guffaw from the other side as a sign of agreement.

"Do you know of any other illegitimate uncles and aunts?" Alexander then posed, hoping to glean if there was anything special about this girl- like if she was the only one of her kind,

"Not really. We know some of them exist…. but they are basically nobodies. Bastards in Sybaris are just that… bastards. Otherwise, I, a young widow would not have been chosen as my father's successor after the disaster. Grandfather would have summoned them instead."

"Hmmmm…" This made the young 'aunt's' situation even more mysterious to Alexander.

As for asking the girl herself- well Lady Miranda added that they naturally asked her and found that she did not know anything.

So all these inconsistencies swiftly made Alexander quite interested in the mysterious origins of this young girl.

However, as much as he would have liked to poke at this, he had much bigger fish to fry.

So turning to face the still reminiscing Lady Miranda, Alexander posed the most obvious question,

"So how are you going to get married to John if he already has a wife? As a mistress?"

However, the way he posed the question was perhaps the worst approach Alexander could have taken.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

It struck an enormous nerve in Lady Miranda.

"*Snort! I am a Marquis's daughter! Not some common street whore you find laying by the road!"

She spat with blazing fury, as the mere illusion that Lady Miranda could be anything but a dignified, proper noble wife was enough to send her eyes burning.

Recognizing this, Alexander was just about to apologize, but never got the chance as suddenly like the mercurial summer noon, that dark cloud on Lady Miranda's face abruptly disappeared, to be replaced by a cold, cruel smirk,

"Grandfather is dead!"

That three worded answer was more than enough to let Alexander understand the whole story.

"So the 'love' is dead too." He instantly rhymed the reply, finding great pity for the poor girl.

Her 'husband' was only using her.

And now that he had what he wanted…. and her guardian angel was dead… Alexander could only helpless smirk.

"..." While Lady Miranda returned that with a sneering silence, her eyes sharp and pitiless.

It was very clear that 'aunt' meant less than dirt to her.

Alexander quickly put this matter at the back of his mind, no matter how sad he felt for her, and turned to instead address Lady Miranda's condition,

"I see. So Lord Janus has patched things up with his son and wishes to strengthen his house by combining with yours. This is indeed a good move. As expected of a steward with decades of experience running the house. But tell me, my lady, are you not afraid Lord John will 'divorce' you like he did your aunt once he has what he needs?"

Alexander squinted his eyes as she asked.

"Snort! I am a Marquis's daughter! Not some common street whore you find laying by the road!"

However, the rhetorical question was blasted apart in the blink of an eye by this arrogant repeat of the remark.

Indeed, the difference in status between the two women was so large it was basically night and day.

There was no way Lady Miranda was going to get divorced like her aunt.

If anything, she would be one to initiate the divorce, kicking Lord John out of her bed in favor of a better suitor.

So if Alexander's intent was to try to cause a chasm in the deal using this argument, it was quite a low yield effort.

And he understood this.

Hence clearing this throat, he offered her exactly that-

"I will be frank with you my lady. Given what I am giving you in terms of land and privileges, I would prefer if you married one of my men instead. I believe this will be better for you in all kinds of ways in the long run."

"In terms of status, they are all viscounts or even counts, much better than a mere baron. If you marry them, Zanzan will have another mouth to speak on your behalf. Lastly, I am willing to give you a 40 million ropal line of credit."

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