Herald of Steel

“Does your elder brother know about Shahel?”

Alexander’s out of context question caught Mikaya off guard, especially because she knew this man before her did not speak without reason.

“…. Why?” So she tentatively asked with a cautionary lift of her eyebrows.

“No…. I was just thinking of… some things.” Alexander however seemed to become uncertain of himself, producing a thoughtful, ruminative look.

“Ehhh… what is it?” That exact thing made Mikaya even more curious because from her experience, whenever Alexander put his thinking cap on, it was time to be stunned or amazed.

“Come on, if you have something to say… say it.” So clutching Alexander’s muscular arms, she gently shook it like a playful girl, squeezing her bountiful assets into him.

“Lady Mikaya, you have not yet answered which you would like to do? Keep the baby or…”

She only stopped when Alexander turned to press her for the previous answer, letting her produce quite a bit of hesitant look.

“….”

While in response to the silence, Alexander tried to urge her to choose the latter,

“You should really give it some thought. If you do ‘that’… your son will become the Pasha of Rusti as soon as he reaches puberty. And you will easily have a much higher status- the mother of the Pasha, the Lady regent. So…”

“…. Stop Alexander! I do not want to think about it!”

Suddenly, in a very rare example, Mikaya lost her temper, snapping in a harsh, sharp voice. The thought of killing her man and on top of that, the possibility of sacrificing her daughter to adopt an unknown boy, greatly affected her.

It seemed Mikaya, for all her flaws, was not heartless or without basic morality.

“….” Realizing this, Alexander wisely stepped off, nodding coolly, “You are right, it was my mistake. It is your decision and I should not interfere.”

At least he pretended to be as such, as proven by the following exchange.

Giving some time for Mikaya to let this stone off her chest for the moment, Alexander then suddenly made another seemingly unrelated question,

“My lady, does your to be husband know about your… previous experience?”

“No.” Mikaya’s eyes instantly flashed a chilly glint, the answer devoid of the slightest emotion. Yet at the same time, it was apparent she was quite offended, especially because Alexander had brought it up so openly, just within earshot of the twins.

She did not want her naive nieces, who respected and adored he,r to be aware of this- the silver haired princess, despite all her pruriency, usually worked very hard to maintain her pure image.

Thus her body language clearly indicated she preferred for Alexander to move on from this distasteful topic.

Alexander however only gave a light smile at the slightly defensive answer, seemingly unfazed.

“You misunderstand me, my lady.” He at last chimed, gently explaining himself, “I never meant to hurt you. I was simply curious if your ‘future to be’s’ vehement desire to keep you locked up was due to some.. rumor he heard before? Maybe he is not as smitten with love as simply guarding and protecting his treasure.”

“….” Mikaya’s hard face softened almost like butter at the words, anger becoming swiftly replaced with confusion and even a hint of fear.

“Impossible! The people who know it would never….” She quickly blurted out in alarm, wanting to say a lot of things to Alexander- such as the fact that the things she did were all done inside closed doors, among safe and trusted circles.

Few would leak them, one because they were kindred spirits and more importantly, two, if leaked, they would be similarly affected. And without the presence of photography or film, it was virtually impossible to prove anything without a large number of the men coming out to testify.

If it were only a game of he said she said, this favored princess of Matrak was sure could even take on the Crown Prince, accusing him of slander instead.

‘No! Calm down! It is impossible for him to know anything. I made sure to keep myself between only Matrak and Adhan. So at best Shahel will know I went to a few of those parties. This is nothing.’

Thus, believing her tracks to be covered, Mikaya was pretty confident that her secret was safe. She tried to confidently relay all this to Alexander, but was curtly cut off mid way because the man felt this was more Mikaya trying more convince herself than anyone else.

“Have you considered your eldest brother having a hand in it?” He sharply posed with a grave tone.

“???” And immediately all the words Mikaya was just about to say got stuck in her throat like a poisonous thorn.

“I recall Lady Inayah saying it was you who turned Pasha Farzah against Mirzah. And from what she told me, he seems quite the vindicti… not the type to easily forgive. So are you sure your brother did not say anything? Do they know each other?”

“….” Mikaya’s face turned paler and paler the more she looked at Alexander’s raised brows, unable to even answer.

Of course the two men knew each other.

Given that their fathers were good friends, and they were each their heirs, how could they not? They would have met even if it were due to only political necessity.

Hence in practice, the two got along fine- with there being some exaggerations of them even being called best friends.

As for the other question- whether Mirzah was aware of Mikaya’s misdeeds… that too was a staunch affirmative. As earlier said, Mikaya was quite famous among certain circles in Matrak, possessing many male ‘fans’.

So someone as smart as Mirzah hardly needed to prod the ground.

He even tried to expose her once, in revenge for her betrayal. But by sheer bad luck, he grossly mistimed it, meeting with his father not only after he lost much of his favor but more so while he was in a particularly bad mood.

Hence when Pasha Farzah heard her precious young princess being ‘slandered’, and by his most hated son nonetheless… Mirzah lost two teeth from the slap that day.

And worse than the red handprint, he lost all opportunity to bring this topic up ever again.

Mirzah understood after this, his father would never accept any proof he brought… he would have to get the old man to attend the party himself and see Mikaya in action with his very own eyes.

“….” Mikaya was aware of all this history, and suddenly, connecting all these unconnected dots… her heart skipped a terrible beat. A lot of seemingly random and mad things about Shahel now began to make sense, such as his particular vehemence towards her meeting Alexander or any other similarly young man.

Such as how he wanted her to have a child as quickly as possible, regardless of the social consequences, and even some words she heard him say during their secret time, like- ‘How does it feel to have a proper man? and ‘That face you are making… I will not ever let anyone see it again.’

Until now, Mikaya thought these words were only that… aggressive love words uttered by a virgin thinking he could tame her by sheer dominance.

But now…. Mikaya began to more and more think that Shahel was not smitten with her but more obsessively possessive due to jealousy and suspicion. This made her feel even more repulsed than before.

Thus Alexander soon noticed Mikaya’s beautiful half bare chest speed up, and he slyly curved his lips in amusement. He of course had no original basis for anything he said, but had only haphazardly joined a few seemingly close enough related points to make a skeletal argument.

Who knew it would hit the mark out of sheer luck?

Mikaya, fueled by her own experience, let a seed start to grow in her and soon, it no longer mattered whether Shahel was acting on Mirzah’s behalf to try and bind this rebellious girl or was simply a lovestruck fool.

The haughty, unrestrained princess would always see his actions at the former.

“Do you know much about him? How is he as a person?” And then, Alexander attempted to further fertilize this horrible seed by poking Mikaya like so- by bringing Shahel’s character into question.

“…..” She did not explicitly answer, but Mikaya’s eyes clearly flickered with even more unease.

Because without any sort of modern technology, it was virtually impossible for a wife to really know her husband. Thus everything Mikaya heard about the Rusti heir came from hearsay… and that too mostly from his side.

This was hardly a trustworthy source.

“Does he have any wives or concubines? How are they treated? Do you know if any maids serving mysteriously disappeared?”

“….” Mikaya’s eyes flashed another chilly light, the heaving of her bountiful chest speeding up. Now, as far as she knew, Shahel did not have a wife. Mikaya was to be the first as well as the most powerful to ever come.

As for mistresses and lovers, well Mikaya did not care. Their status was so different that they were not worth the arrogant princess’s time to even hear about.

And if that was her attitude towards the concubines, it would easily be imagined how disdainful Mikaya felt about the maids or prostitutes Shahel might have bedded. They might as well not have existed in front of her.

At least that was the thought until now.

But with Alexander stoking the fires of doubt and confusion….

“Haha, well, I am sure there is nothing to worry here, my lady. Please forget my babbling.”