Herald of Steel

To say that Alexander was caught off guard by the old man's ask to grease the wheel would be a lie.

Because he came to the island with the full expectation that at one point or another, he would have to butter the butts with gold and silver.

After all, this was the fastest and easiest way to buy one's loyalty.

Money made the world go around.

Alexander had even bought the 50 million ropal with him for basically this.

And it could even be said that he had been only waiting for an opportunity like this to use it.

It was just that Lady Miranda had not been able to provide him with such an offer even when Alexander asked for it because she could not even get him into contact with the right people.

They would simply refuse to even see her, much less take Alexander's money, as they did not trust the other.

Hence when the much more powerful and reliable Lord Nolan made the offer that Alexander was so asking for, he happily jumped to latch onto the bait- hook, line, and sinker.

In his mind, this sudden offer actually made perfect sense.

In Alexander's eyes, Lord Nolan appeared like a pragmatic man who was fishing, someone who was willing to sell himself to the highest bidder, all in order to save his family.

And Alexander actually found himself sympathizing with the men to some extent.

He thought that if he were in his shoes, he would most probably do the same- try and acquire as much money as possible to save his bankrupt family, no matter the tactics used.

And Alexander was actually fine with this game proposed by Lord Nolan.

Because he believed he had the absolute advantage in such a contest.

He did not know how rich the Heeat family was, but Alexander did not think there was a single noble living around the Central Sea who was richer than him.

Sure some countries might be richer than him, but an individual house or lord is impossible.

He had a complete monopoly on the iron and sugar products and few could imagine the gold these bulk goods generated for him every year.

Since he was the sole producer and the market was still young to such unique delicacies, all the people were still in their honeymoon period with them, buying every available lick crazily.

And given that there were around 300 million people living around the vast Central Sea, even if they gave Alexander just 5 ropal per year, meaning just one day's worth of earning out of a whole year, that would still get him 1.5 billion ropals.

Of course, this was a very oversimplified and even somewhat erroneous calculation containing many mistakes, but it still showed how quickly Alexander was able to get too filthy rich.

And with his heavy pouch under his belt, the young lord could be hardly blamed for being a bit free with his wealth.

Thus feeling elated inside at the chance to contribute, he prodded Lord Nolan in a cautionary tone,

"Oh! And the others are willing to switch sides just like that? I thought it was the earlier lord's direction that Miss Linda be made the seat ruler? What about Lord Margraves IV's decree?"

Alexander was certainly not a fool when it came to money, and would not just throw it because he was asked to.

So given Lord Nolan was begging, Alexander wanted to fish for the man's sincerity.

"Hehehe, who told you?" While Lord Nolan produced a frank chuckle, his wizened eyes emitting an amused but cautious glint.

He did not believe someone had betrayed the old lord's decision to a third party.

Because the ones who knew about it were a handful of very, very trusted people whose integrity was beyond reproach.

"Hehehe, you did!" While Alexander also tried to appear smart and mysterious, giving an enigmatic answer.

"Me?" And predictably, this got a bit of a flustered reaction from the other side, as Lord Nolan turned his sharp gaze on Alexander.

He could not think of such an instance for the life of him. The old man was generally very tight lipped.

"Hehehe, yes! You. Just now confirmed it."

It was only now that Lord Nolan understood the joke- the fact that he did not deny Alexander's claim was likely enough to set the man off.

And thus his fluster turned into a blush in shame.

Then through clenched teeth, he reluctantly spat out, "It seems Lord Alexander is a very accomplished wordsmith. To even trap this old man. Impressive, impressive, I did not expect such a young man to be a man of so many talents." Lord Nolan seemed genuinely impressed by Alexander's skill.

And to this, Alexander expressed his pride despite posing to be humble, making up the story, "Hehehe, my lord is very too modest. My suspicions were only raised by the fact that none of you wanted to blame Miss Linda for anything. I only became sure now."

Only the last part of his speech was actually true.

But the elder Lord Nolan still could only ruefully shake his head at this.

While Alexander pushed ahead fishing for more, asking, "I'm curious, why did the former lord want to remove Lady Miranda? And how did he intend to do if Marcus was still alive?"

Alexander had always found the timeline of these events a bit confusing because Miss Linda had obviously married Lord Parker much before the plague hit and killed the old man and his grandson.

Meaning the old coot must have been planning this for quite some time now.

'So how did he originally plan to deal with Lady Miranda?', Alexander wondered.

"I'm sorry…but that is our family's secret." However old man Nolan seemed reluctant to divulge any of these, which was frankly natural.

If Alexander was in his shoes, he would not have either- after all according to official reports, Lord Margraves IV had formally promised the family to Lady Miranda and her son.

So to then covertly plot to break it, certainly did not paint him and the rest of the family in the most favorable light.

But Lord Nolan did add this addendum, "But I can promise you that the old lord never intended to harm either of them. I would have never let him!"

Alexander had nothing to base this on.

True Lord Nolan might have been Marcus's paternal grandfather but given he was also fully supporting the side actively fighting his son and daughter in law, so Alexander had every reason to be doubtful.

But at this point, it really did not matter anyway.

And so with this 'testing the waters,' Alexander got to the meat of the issue, "So how bad are the family's finances?"

"We would like to take a loan of 100 million ropals, my lord."

Alexander almost spat out the wine he had in his mouth hearing this.

Talk about being greedy.

When Alexander asked how bad the family's business was, he did not literally mean how bad the family's business was.

He meant how much they wanted as a bribe.

And 100 million was of course a bit too far.

So far in fact that Alexander even considered getting up and leaving.

However, Lord Nolan managed to quickly get the man back, shouting, "We are haggling, we are haggling," as the two then got to discussing the matter more seriously.

And after a lot of back and forth came to a much more reasonable sum of 30 million ropals!

To be paid in cash as soon as possible.

However, in reality, all that Lord Nolan was offering was a lie. There was no will among the elders to betray Miss Linda.

In fact, this was all done under the instruction of Miss Linda.

Remember when Lord Parker asked for compensation money for the people, and Miss Linda promised she would arrange it?

Well this was her way of arranging it! By swindling Alexander.

And given the man was backed into a corner, he fell for it.

Hence over the following days, Alexander transferred a great deal of the money he had brought with him to Lord Nolan, all of which was stealthily transferred to Lord Parker via small boats which were used to supply food to the mansion from the Great Harbor to the Royal Harbor, thus bypassing Alexander's checkpoints.

And then seeing the piles and piles of gold filling up his tent, "Hahaha, great! Great! As expected of my wife. Great!" the young lord had rejoiced.

All the while the things Alexander had been promised never materialized.

The riots in the city still continued unabated and the various elders continued to drag their feet, not even willing to verbally denounce Miss Linda, much less express support for Lady Miranda.

And they all gave various excuses, "We are trying","We are investigating", "The people are too angry", "We are not feeling that well", "We have other considerations", etc, etc.

Alexander grew increasingly frustrated by this, as did the rioting people, who started to become more and more violent.

Until the day, in a small room under darkness, a group of men and one woman met-

"The people have trying been riled up. I believe we can kill Alexander without any repercussions. Let us go it tomorrow night!"