Herald of Steel

As Alexander emerged from his hiding room, he found that the two slaves he had chosen to sacrifice had actually survived, the bolts having only hit them on the arm, shoulder, and legs.

This was most likely because of the angle of the attack, as the assassins had shot from the side, not the front or back, thus missing the men's truly vital points.

And as the two fell, and became incapacitated, they must have not bothered to finish them off, instead choosing to focus to their true quarry.

It was just too bad that the following events did not go as planned.

Anyway, seeing the wounded men, Alexander succinctly ordered, "Move them to the infirmary," allowing them to receive free treatment, while he gathered his guards and started to match towards first Miss Linda and then Lord Nolan's room.

The few guards encountered on the way were dealt with with relative ease, with most choosing to flee rather than fight.

This was because they had already lost their most experienced members in the assassination attack, while Alexander's entourage still had a party of ten strong men.

And although this number might not sound like a lot in the grand scheme of things, in these cramped hallways, these large, tall, armored men appeared very imposing, almost filling up the horizon, thus leaving the Margraves family men with little hope of success.

So they wisely ran, leaving their mistress to deal with the

And banging open the door to the room personally, Alexander found the lady to be still awake and well!

Usually, Miss Linda would have been in her nightgown and fast asleep by this time.

However given the specialness of today, she was still in her formal black gown, cradling her son and sitting by the window. patiently waiting to hear the good news, while regularly peeking out of the glass to try and spot the promised attack by her husband's forces.

Thus she was caught completely off guard when the doors thundered open and immediately poured in a large number of men dressed in blue, causing her to jump up in fright.

And as Alexander revealed himself from the back with a sly smile, the man then very much relished the frightful screech that foul mouthed woman uttered as she turned to look at him with shock and incredulity,

"Wha… Ale… Alexander? Yo… How are you…? What is this!"

Upon seeing Alexander, the fair lady's expression suddenly went from being furious at the sudden invasion to shocked as she was certainly not expecting the man to be still alive, then to confused as she wondered how he had survived, and lastly to frightened as she finally understood why these men were here.

And facing so many men glaring at her, even the usually very spicy lady found herself subconsciously shrinking herself, as her heart started to unconsciously quicken and her voice lost all that vigor.

Instead, flashes of terrible things happening to her thundered across her mind, as just as she had fantasized about punishing MM and LC, this time she conjured various nightmarish scenarios for herself.

She first imagined Alexander tearing her son from her breast and smashing his head against the stone floor right in front of her, before crushing the infant's skull under his heavy, metal boots, dying the floor red and pink.

While at the same time, she saw herself being pinned down right there, her clothes being roughly torn apart, the men's filthy hands grabbing and twisting her soft flesh before she was presented to the leader of the pack in a spread eagled fashion- each of her limbs being held by a pair of strong arms, her shaved pink privates open for all to see.

However, despite inducing such a despair inducing scenario in her heart, credit to the lady, she did not kneel or grovel at Alexander's feet.

Instead, she only clutched her son even tighter, and then venomously stared back at Alexander, before clenching her teeth to menacingly threaten, "Lord Alexander, do you have any idea of what you are doing? Barging into my room at this time of night? What is the meaning of this?"

Alexander was frankly very impressed by the fact despite everything in front of her, this lady could still continue to keep up the act without breaking character.

'I really should introduce her to Felicia,' Alexander even amusedly chuckled so, easily finding the two to be of the same flock.

The lady however did remember to add 'Lord' before his name this time, so that was at least an improvement.

It proved that the lady was not delusional to her current state.

"Heh!" And thus to show his appreciation, Alexander gave a mocking, taunting sneer, not saying anything more.

Something that seemed to quite irritate the lady.

And then seeing that none of the men had the intent to harm her, she suddenly felt emboldened and taking advantage of it, angrily shot out, "Leave now! And I will pretend to forget about all this. Or are you trying to go war to with Duke Heeat's family?"

Miss Linda was sure this last threat would be enough to make Alexander think twice before acting.

It was a ducal family after all.

A family that in her mind, no one in their right head would ever think of crossing them. And certainly, no one who had a paltry force of only 5,000 men.

And according to Miss Linda, it was not empty boasting either. She standing here unharmed till now was proof enough that the other side did not dare to cross them.

She was their daughter in law and future duchess after all.

Thus imagine her surprise when despite feeling so assured, this happened,

"*Slap!* That's exactly what I want, bitch!"

An enormously large palm swatted across her face at meteoric velocity, making a sharp and crisp contact with the right cheek at maximum speed, as Alexander held back nothing, thus turning her face red and bloody, with multiple small pores opening up on the pristine face, that then began to quickly ooze out red, hot blood.

Alexander had hit Miss Linda while still wearing his metal gauntlets, and thus the bronze metal cut the fluffy, rosy cheeks like butter, filling the lady's mind with an unbearable stinging pain and her eyes with mist, as she began to tear up.

The pampered lady of course had never been hit in her entire life, and so both the pain of the hit as well as the humiliation of it, caused the lady to produce two streams of clear, salty water, as she lowered her head in shock.

While Alexander coldly gazed down at her like a god!

He knew very well that a man should never condone hitting a woman, under any circumstances.

But he would also admit there were some who really deserved it. And the lady in front of him was undoubtedly one of them.

Even after everything was under the sun, she still tried to continue to play this game.

Well, Alexander was not interested.

"That's for my wife."

And there was also this little payback that prompted him to act the way, one which got no response from the other side.

The lady continued to keep her head down and her mouth shut, both due to the humiliation of being hit by a man who was not her husband, as well as fearing Alexander flaring up if she continued to prod him.

Who knew what the man could recklessly do if he acted out of anger?

And this silence quite pleased Alexander, as he felt that after so many defeats, finally, he had managed to win back some of his pride.

It felt good to 'conquer' this vixen of a lady.

Now, was this the right feeling to have after doing such a thing?

Of course not.

However Alexander was only human, meaning he too was flawed, and this was one of his mistakes.

And whether he would come to reflect on this act or not remained to be seen.

For now though, with his dominance established, the man left the silent lady to her own devices, stationing two guards at the front of her room to prevent her from escaping and then sending for a nurse from the camp to help treat the noble lady's injuries.

With Miss Linda secured, Alexander then sought out Lord Nolan, and here too the scenario worked out in mostly a similar manner to the prior one.

Alexander unceremoniously broke through the front door to find the old man sitting by his desk, writing something, and as the party jumped up and turned around in panic at the sudden intrusion, the very first thing he saw was Alexander devilishly grinning, "Had fun swindling my money, old fart!"

As soon as Alexander said this, the old crone understood the jig was up and unlike Miss Linda who bravely fought on, this man pathetically fell on his knees, begging, "Spare me, my lord, spare me I had no choice. I had no choice. They made me do it. They made me do it. Please… spare me."

He did not want to die, and so thinking Alexander was for revenge, he had no problem groveling, forgetting all this status and standing.

Alexander felt disgusted seeing this.