Herald of Steel

Wishing to buy more time, Alexander pretended to have a serious conversation with Amenheraft referencing his daughters, vehemently defending his interest in them, “Princess Azira and Azura have already been given to me. So my lord would be best served by accepting it as is. Let us discuss their marital gift.”

“Snort! It is Your Highness to you, boy!” In response, Amenheraft first corrected Alexander’s address with great emphasis, for this was clearly Alexander’s way of rejecting Amenheraft’s claim for the throne.

Then, furious about the state of his daughters, the man flashed with eyes full of great anger, ʀᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛʀs ᴀᴛ novel·fiɾe·net

“As for what you have done… hmmp it is simply rape. Without ‘our’ permission they can never be married in the eyes of the Father. And for this heinous crime ‘we’ will surely have you tried and executed.”

The threat had virtually no impact on Alexander, he had already expected this.

He was only a bit surprised by the display of genuine anger by his counterpart because he did not think Amenheraft would care about it so much.

The former crown prince had not contacted his daughters a single time for five whole years so Alexander thought he stopped giving a damn- he originally figured Amenheraft would only see the news as a violation of his dignity.

But it seemed deep inside, the man still held some true love for his daughters, misguided or otherwise.

Hence seeing his chance and in the interest of dragging the talks on and making Amenheraft even more parched, Alexander smiled and chimed ahead,

“My lord… Your Highness, I fail to see your reluctance behind it all. Given my importance in the alliance, should you not be trying to tempt me to snatch me away from His Majesty Ptolomy? Try and cause a division? In that case, offering your two daughters seems to be the most obvious move, right?”

“….” Amenheraft pursed his lips even tighter at the suggestion, his face becoming now a lot more complicated.

“….Lord…Alexander.” While Lord Assazd, who was silently observing the exchange, felt his lips subconsciously twitch. He could not believe he was hearing such treasonous talks occurring right in front of him, especially Alexander’s address of Amenheraft as ‘Your Highness’- that really made his heart thump with a wild beat.

The Matbar (Marquiss) perhaps might not like Alexander, but his switching sides right now would be catastrophic. Ptolomy’s house would come tumbling down an instant later and even the shrewd lord was not sure he would be able to survive the aftermath.

‘He really has no filter!’ So taking a long sip of the delicious, sweet drink, Lord Assazd struggled to make up his mind on whether Alexander was a foolish negotiator or just too open and frank.

While the young lord himself was more interested in Amenheraft’s reaction, and seeing the man grimace, posed with a testing curve of his lips,

“Hahaha, could it be that your retainers are so incensed that Your Highness does not dare offer it even as merely a trap? Indeed, indeed, I have killed too many.” Alexander playfully shook his head like he was telling a funny joke.

The words made Amenheraft’s heart squeeze with discomfort, not out of anger but because he felt he was being seen straight through by his opponent.

This was not Amenheraft’s first time sitting down with Alexander, but every time he had done so, this regal man had found this slave mercenary to be a very difficult man to deal with.

It was something that both distressed and impressed him.

And if he could, he would have certainly tried to pull some shenanigans with him as Alexander suggested.

It was just too bad his retainers, like the likes of Pasha Muazz (former lord of Zanzan) was desperately opposed even the thought of such reconciliation and Amenheraft currently was running a bit low of political capital to do otherwise- yet another proof of what Alexander said- the royal family was currently the weakest as it had ever been.

The secondary realization made Amenheraft perhaps squeeze his heart even more tightly. So trying to calm himself, the mature prince slowly picked up the cool drink near him, and wetting his dry lips, took a small sip…

*Bang!*

It was right that moment, Lord Assazd suddenly lost all balance in his body and like a puppet whose string had been just cut, slumped forward like a drunk, crashing into the heavy oak table head first like a dull cannonball.

“Clang! Clang! Clang!” All the metal pitchers and glass utensils on it went tumbling down as the table got upturned, and an instant later, just as rehearsed many times over, “Kyahhhh!” Lady Ezaya let out a dramatic scream, thus dropping the wine into the floor.

The ear screeching scream similarly caused Alexander to pull a shocked face, and he jumped out of his seat in pretended shock, while Amenheraft’s eyes went pin sized, and the man immediately threw the crystal glass he was drinking from like it was burning coal.

As the crown prince and someone who had lost his father using the same method, he naturally understood what was going on and he immediately stopped eating and drinking.

Amenheraft even attempted to spit out the drink he had in his mouth, however

“Cough, cough, cough!” as quick as his reflex was, it was still not fast enough, for even the small sip he took contained substantial amounts of the nefarious drug.

The drink began to bubble out of his mouth like a frothy mixture and his throat began to itch so much that he began to lose all power in his legs, letting him heave over until he looked like the hump of a camel.

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!” The two bodyguards around Amenheraft rushed to their liege the very next instant. Yet as they approached, the bluish flush they spotted on Amenheraft’s face terrified them to almost death- it had lost all the natural color, and was starting to more and more look like Lord Assazd’s, a living corpse.

“Leveona!” Both men clearly recognised the sign and cried out in unison, repeating the name of a dreadfully toxic poison.

It was so deadly and infamous in fact that even the usually less caring Alexander’s lips twitched- he had also heard of it and his heart thumped at the thought he had drunk wine with traces of that fiendish thing.

He did not think he would have had the guts to drink that if he knew what Pasha Farzah had put in it and now that he was aware, consciously or not, his stomach began to hurt.

“My lord! My lord!”

Now, if this were the effects of only ingesting a slight amount, the result for Lord Assazd, who had been sipping away at his sweet drink for some time, could be easily imagined.

The man had died of a near instant heart failure, his soul possibly leaving his body as soon as it hit the table. Hence no matter how much his nearby bodyguards shook and called out, the poor man only responded with a torrent of foam flowing out from his mouth.

This was another symptom of the poison, and it sent Lord Assazd’s group into a pit of immense despair- this indicated that the poison had already spread to all corners of the body.

And when that happened, it was well known that the victim was past any hope of saving.

Yet, clutching onto hope beyond hope, Lord Assazd’s men tried their best to ‘wake’ their lord up, mimicking what Amenheraft’s men were doing.

“Go! Quickly!”

And amidst the immense confusion, Lady Ezaya in the back suddenly turned to her two siblings and whispered this, signalling them to get rid of the evidence.

Lady Elia was the one in charge of that, and upon receiving confirmation that all eyes had left her, she quickly dumped the poisoned ice from the box into the carpet just like rehearsed, and began to vigorously step on it, crushing it into bits and letting the thick fabric absorb the melted water.

In this way, even in the extremely unlikely event that some genius decided to check the ice, they would find nothing but a slightly damp box, with the leftover water barely containing any traces of the poison.

“Guards! Guards! Come quickly!” Lady Ezaya called out for the guards once all the preparations were done and, no sooner had her voice drifted across,

“Bang!” the door burst open as three groups of guards barged in almost simultaneously, looking very alarmed and alert

The men had all heard the commotion coming from inside and till now only stopped themselves from interrupting due to their training. It was forbidden for them to crash into a meeting without prior authorization.

But now that they were given the go ahead…

The sight of two men lying on the floor caused them a similar shock as their brethren, and they rushed to their respective sides, while Alexander’s group, equally shocked shot towards him, quickly forming a solid ring.

“They have been poisoned!” From behind that screen, Alexander then quickly shot a cry of alarm, ordering, “Lady Ezaya, call the doctor! Lady Elia, seal the place down! No one enters or leaves the place until the investigation is over.” The man even made sure to add some anger to his voice, and Lady Ezaya was about to obey when,

“Stop! Nobody leaves!” a noble looking from Amenheraft’s side roared like an enraged lion, stopping her on her tracks, “So this is how you planned to dispose of the poison! Guards seize her.”