NOVGO.NET Chapter 1600 - 1600: Fateful Drink
Silence once again descended upon the court as Alexander finished explaining himself, all parties lost in their own thoughts.
The Queen Mother had a very conflicted look, the two royal brothers’ hearts thumped with anger and reluctance while the pashas and their representatives quickly tried to balance the idea.
“Court is adjourned for today!” And seeing this, as well as even feeling a clear headache coming over himself, Ptolomy decided to end the day for now, breezily flashing his palms like he was dismissing everyone.
The normally very rude gesture was overlooked by all this time, as all the lords and ladies instead eagerly made towards the door, a chorus of opinion bursting out of their mouths.
They had not been able to make much noise while in court but now that they were dismissed, they could no longer hold themselves back from expressing their shock, disbelief and amazement at all the incredulous things they had just witnessed.
Among which the greatest was how the nobles were saying to each other, “I cannot believe he was able to say all this and still live!”
Yes, the majority of the lords were of the consensus that even more rare than Alexander’s call for independence was his living to tell the tale. They would have never believed such a thing was possible if they had not seen it for themselves. And the fact that it had happened also showed how right Alexander was about the royal family- they had truly become weak.
The realization caused another round of shock among the nobles’ hearts. So they sped up their steps even more, eager to tell their friends and family all about it, as they could not wait to see how the story unfolded.
The last to leave the court with his entourage was Amenheraft, but before he left, he left with this very deliberate message, “Snort… the pashas of Adhania are more loyal than the clouds in the sky. They will even break the oaths they have sworn to the Father.”
The clear religious reference was meant to very explicitly dissuade the Pashas from betraying him. And much to the once crown prince’s glee, he was glad to see looks of confusion and rumination surface in many who were seriously contemplating the opinion.
However on the other side, Alexander also had a response ready, and he instantly chimed,
“The Father will not punish anyone from his family. All the pashas have to do is marry the daughters of the royal family and they will be alright. Just like I have Princess Azura and Azira.”
The words made the father pull an extremely venomous look, like he could not wait to tear Alexander limb from limb. Even if he outwardly stopped caring for them, the thought of his daughters marrying someone as low as Alexander incensed the man. In fact, this rubbed Amenheraft even more than the fact that Alexander was his sworn enemy.
But Amenheraft right now had bigger fish to try- such as ensuring the loyalty of his pashas.
“Snort, without my permission there is no marriage.” Hence he simply left with this throwaway line.
…..
Ptolomy and the others too were in no mood to chat with Alexander after what he had pulled, thus the man was sent to his room without any pleasantries. And he stayed there for the whole three days, under complete house arrest, unable to meet or see any guests.
All while the Adhanians pulled off a figurative storm discussing his proposal, to the point that many skipped their annual Jtaama altogether.
Alexander’s words had opened the pandora’s box and with the trick revealed, the royal family was unable to completely cover it as much as they tried.
Many pashas were very apparent in their wish to follow Alexander’s suggestion and even those more loyal wish to extract much more concessions in turn for their support, such as the points about great autonomy as raised by Alexander
It was finally against this backdrop that on the fourth day that Lord Assazd, and Amenheraft finally decided to sit down with Alexander, wishing to try and come up with a more favorable outcome with regards to the chaos, and perhaps even sign an extension of the current treaty.
They met in secret around the afternoon, in one of the many unanimous guest rooms in the palace- two men representing the two broken halves of the royal family while Alexander was seen as the leader of the breakaway movement.
And after they had made themselves comfortable, they got talking almost instantly.
“Lord Alexander, His Majesty Ptolomy has gifted you so much. He has even made you a Pasha, someone who was a mere… someone of unknown origins. So how can you be so ungrateful to do this?”
Lord Assazd was the one to start it all off, widening his eyes with fake incredulity as he perfectly hit Alexander with the morality card. In this age, this was far more effective than a gunshot.
“….” And Alexander actually took a while to respond, which gave the impression to the other two that he was feeling hesitant and embarrassed.
Whereas in reality, his mind was currently occupied by something else- particularly he was pointedly looking at Lady Ezaya who was putting the dry ice on the drinks to be served.
He furiously wondered what decision she was going to make about Amenheraft, and if she did decide to spare him, how would she even go about it.
This meeting was really all about that and nothing else.
‘No, I’ve got to concentrate!’ The man fortunately managed to tear himself back to the conversation, realizing he risked drawing suspicion if he continued to stare.
So turning to Lord Assazd, he quite rudely waved his palms and sneered, “Oh? Is that so? Then my lord, remind me, when am I getting my province of Zanzan? His Majesty had promised it to me in return for my help… yet five years in, and more than three quarters of it lay in the enemy’s hands. So when will I get my land back?”
“That is a…” Lord Assazd eagerly lifted his back, ready to show Alexander the challenges involved there, yet before he could get past the first few words, was curtly cut off by an impatient flash,
“Or even in a more simple case- what has the court done with regards to my complaint that Matbar (Marquiss) Kyuam intervened in my battle with Tibias. Has he been reprimanded? Has any imperial decree been sent stripping him of his title and summoning to the capital? Has the court promised to send me troops to cut this rebel down?”
“….” Lord Assazd lightly frowned at the ask, not because it was a hard question, but because he was searching his brain for the best way to answer it.
The shrewd lord had of course come here with a strategy and currently, he was of the mind that it would be best to promise Alexander more support to reclaim Zanzan, in exchange for greater loyalty to Ptolomy.
Although the man did not express any interest in breaking away from the royal family, as the originator of the daring plan, how could he also not think like that?
*Clink*, *Clink*, *Clink*,
Just Lord Assazd was swimming in his mind with these thoughts, Lady Ezaya, having passed the taste test approached the three men with crystal cups, serving each with a cup filled to the brim with sweet drinks.
And seeing the cool, ice cubes floating at the top in this hot and humid weather, the parched lord could not help himself.
Gulp, gulp, gulp,
He eagerly snatched the beautifully made glass cup and took a few large gulps, draining the cup by half before setting the glass down with a contented look on his face.
And watching him, Alexander also quickly followed, draining the whole cup in one go. The reason for him doing it was of course he was afraid of the ice melting too much. So he only drank to cement his alibi.
The others however did not understand this reason.
Thus, as Lady Ezaya refilled his cup, Alexander got a very disdainful look from the two- especially Amenheraft who saw it was a very uncouth act.
It was the modern equivalent of chugging straight from the bottle and it ready made Alexander look like an unsophisticated, country bumpkin in his eyes. The regal man was thus content to let the drink sit and the ice melt, appearing as if he were too good for it.
And this was actually something that Alexander was rather content to see, as it gave the poison time to slowly spread.
So wanting to draw it out longer, Alexander decided to open a conversation with the man with a frank grin, “Your Majesty Amenheraft, thank you for taking the time to see me. I am sure Azura and Azira will be very glad to hear it.”
“Snort!” The mention of his daughters made the father instantly flash a chilly light, and he coldly gritted out, “Darn brat! I am only here because of them.”
Indeed, Alexander had to use the excuse of the twins’ marriage to get the man here, otherwise, Amenheraft would have never deigned to come and talk to Alexander face to face. He had competent subordinates for this type of thing- just like Ptolomy.
“Hahaha, well, how much dowry are you expecting?” While Alexander was left just content to keep dragging the conversation on, and they soon brought up some numbers.
And as the talks got heated… the parched regal king at one point unconsiously took a large sip of his cool drink.