Herald of Steel

Alexander felt the towering presence beside him before he even properly opened his eyes, and it seemed to be absolutely fuming

Indeed, as he groggily turned his head up, he was met with a frankly livid Pasha Farzah.

Words could have hardly described the absolute rage the elder lord was feeling right now- with puffed up cheeks and burning, blazing eyes, he had such a terrifying countenance that Alexander almost feared he was going to get his head ripped off right here, right now.

He had never seen the usually loud but good tempered man so furious.

“Lord Farzah!” Alexander’s smile hence slightly cramped up, “I hear you are looking for me, what is the emergency?” and he decided to play the greeting with some tact.

“Hmmp!” However the man only gave an enormous snort, not moved by even the soft, cordial greeting

“Brat! Do you think you can do whatever you want? Have you reached the top of the world? Nobody is above you, right? You… you…” He instead roared in a very crude, crass tone.

“….” And Alexander only obediently shut up.

He clearly remembered the warning Lady Ezaya had given him as she pushed him awake, thus very well understood Pasha Farzah’s current state- he was in no state to play dumb.

“My lord, why don’t you sit down? Let me get changed and we can talk properly.” So Alexander cordially pointed towards the couch, before slowly getting up from bed.

Or at least he attempted to, as….

“Brat! I want answers! Now!” Pasha Farzah was so impatient that he literally grabbed Alexander by the collar and lifted him up towards him, until the warm, furious breath hit Alexander straight across the face.

“Lord Pasha! This is too unbecoming of you!” The gesture finally caused Lady Ezaya to let out a cry of rebuke from the side, “Not only have you barged into a Pasha’s residence without our permission, yet now you are assaulting him. Please act as it befits your station.”

Her words cut through the air like a cold shrill, and…

“….” The familiar voice finally caused some hesitation to surface on Pasha Farzah’s livid face. The old lord had seen this lady grow up right in front of him and given who she and her mother were, also understood this was indeed not how one acted.

He hence quickly jerked Alexander aside, although he still kept his lips pursed, showing he had only restrained himself, in no way had he forgiven Alexander.

On the other side, the young man in question appeared not to mind this type of behavior at all.

Rather, upon slowly straightening himself up, he turned around and directly meet the elderly lord eye to eye, “I understand my lord is here for the death of Amenheraft and Shahel, and why I did them without consulting you first, right?”

“…..” Pasha Farzah’s nostrils only flared in anger. Despite how cool and pleasant Alexander’s voice sound, it did nothing to smother the fire in his heart. Just the reminder of the events making it rage with vehemence.

“I did not tell you because I thought this would be the best way to throw away all surrounding suspicions. I knew then your reaction would be truly genuine if you were not aware.”

“….” Alexander’s cool, simple reply made the anger in Pasha Farzah’s face finally disappear, becoming supplanted by confusion and doubt,

“What?”

“Indeed!” Alexander swiftly nodded towards the frowning giant man, elucidating, “The fact that you raged and stormed into my room was seen by all. The anger and disbelief you displayed was no doubt genuine. So nobody should be able to suspect you by now.”

“Even those that would have tried to hang you by pointing at how you poisoned the former king will now lack strength in their voice.”

“…..” The shocking words caused a brief sense of confusion and muddiness to appear in even the shrewd lord’s eyes. Pasha Farzah went from livid to almost feeling grateful at Alexander’s great scheme.

Almost….

“Snort! Then what about you?” The elderly lord was still clever enough to be able to break out of Alexander’s web of sophistries and quickly pointed out the great flaw in his rhetoric,

“If your scheme was to truly remove suspicions, then why did you make me come to you? Does it not all but confirm to everyone that I know you are the main culprit?”

“Everyone already considers me the main culprit.” Alexander however only nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders, sheepishly chuckling, “They just can’t prove it.” Latest content published on novelfire(.)net

Then with a very easy brush of his palms, declared “I have an army with me. They will not dare touch me without absolute proof. But you are different. What if the crazy king decided to imprison you under false charges.. using past precedence?”

“….” Finally some of the fire in Pasha Farzah’s eyes subsided. If Alexander indeed had acted with thus thoughts, the elder man had to be grateful.

“Why did you poison Ameneheraft? And how did you kill Shahel?” So when he circled back to the main topic, his voice was a lot softer- although that still did not mean Alexander would be allowed to say whatever he liked.

“…..” Alexander also understood this, hence he decided to take a pause here, giving himself some time to think how best to answer this.

He finally began after a while in a deep, somber tone,

“With regards to Amenheraft, it was frankly half an accident. I only got the news that he would be accompanying Lord Assazd the day before the meeting and by then… I was afraid if I suddenly changed the time, they might start suspecting thing.”

“I was also afraid of the weather suddenly becoming cooler if I delayed it too long. So I hosted both men together and…well I could very well not serve one of them ice and the not.” Alexander pretended to be very rueful as he shook his head in apparent sadness, “As for why I did not tell you about this.. well I knew you would never approve!”

“Damn right I would not! Didn’t we already talk about why… you brat….I” Despite the long monologue, Pasha Farzah erupted the moment he was given the chance, clearly not buying Alexander’s excuse.

And he was about to tear an earful to the man, when,

“Yes. I remember all that you said. But I do not think that is the real reason.” Alexander very bravely cut off the angry bear before he could go off, interjecting with his own thoughts,

“I suspect you said all that to deny the fact that you still think Ameneharft as a part of your family. No matter how much you curse and scold him, he is still your son in law. And I think you are reluctant to…”

“Bullshit! How dare you brat dare to say what I think. You…”#

Simply the allusion that Pasha Farzah had any sort of love left for the former crown prince drove the elderly man up the wall, so much so that if not for the three female witness, he might have been even gotten physical

But Alexander stood his ground without any fear and firmly iterated,

“If that is the case, then why are you getting so angry over this? Yes, killing Amenheraft has its drawbacks. But he is our chief adversary. Killing him was always going to have drawbacks. The only questions, if the pros outweigh the cons. And I certainly believe it does. Don’t you?”

“…..” Pasha Farzah was finally turned tongue tied. He knew he could not argue with some as sharp as Alexander for something that was clearly false.

“Anyway, what is done, is done!” And seeing this, Alexander very graciously gave the elderly lord an off ramp to exit with, enabling him to save face.

Pasha Farzah however was not a man to so easily admit defeat.

“And what about Shahel? Did killiing him also have its pros?” Thus casually brushing aside the escape ladder, he turned his eyes to this.

And Alexander replied with great confidence and serenity,

“That was a personal request Lady Mikaya made to me. She caught me the night I was with Azira and Azura…and…well basically she said she was being abused. And asked for my help.”

“… What?” The news that this favorite daughter was being ill treated instantly made Pasha Farzah temper boil like hot oil in water… to the point Alexander thought he could see his silver whiskers stand up.

Such was his absolute rage.

“Mmm…” Alexander casually hummed the affirmation with a small nod, slowly recounting, “She claimed she did not dare tell you because of the political implications. She knew you would certainly call off the marriage then and… well she knew Rusti’s value. She could not let that happen in good conscience. Thus Lady Mikaya came to me…”

Pasha Farzah produced a very complicated face hearing this, his heart really burning. It was immensely hard for him to swallow the fact that his most cherished daughter was going to another man for help instead of him.

The only silver lining was that she had gone to Alexander, who was the Pasha’s son in law, and her brother in law. Thus he was technically part of the family.

If that had not been the case….

“So she just told you this and you gave the poison to kill her husband?” Pasha Farzah however still did not forget to interrogate Alexander, intent to confirm all the details.

“No! She told she was also pregnant. And even assured me that a fortune teller has told her it was a son. Lady Mikaya wants to become the regent as soon as Pasha Osman dies. And given all the provinces are likely to split up… I committed a mistake.”