Herald of Steel

It went without saying that it had taken Alexander a herculean amount of effort to walk out of that room without taking the offer.

It almost felt like he had manacles attached to his feet, to which were bolted large iron balls, making each step a torture to make.

And how could he not feel regret- there was a lady bent over, fully naked, spreading her legs, begging to be fucked.

Never mind she was not just beautiful, but one of the most stunning women in the lands, if not the entire world.

And yet he had still refused.

Even a three year old would call Alexander a pussy.

While most would take the offer even if it was laced with cyanide, leaving all the damned consequences for after they had eaten the prime piece of meat and pumped both the canals good and full.

However, Alexander was not like most other people.

Despite being quite lustful, Alexander was actually quite picky with the kind of women he slept with.

Notably, he never laid his eyes on women who were contested by other men.

Just think about it- Lady Nanazin was hated by her husband, Lady Parthia's man was in a coma, while Lady Inayah, Queen Mother Seelima, and Lady Felicia were all one night stands that were initiated by them out of goodwill and done in a hidden room with no witnesses.

Alexander did not have a mistress who was the wife of another noble, unlike how many European monarchs had mistresses of high standing who themselves were married to various lords in their court.

Alexander did this both because he found this too much hassle to be worth the trouble and because given his elevated status and identity, he could not be so willy nilly with his acts.

Especially such acts, which would have so many unintended adverse effects.

So crushing all his desires, Alexander painfully shifted his glance away, fearing if he were to keep looking at it he would fumble midway, and then in a deep, voice declared,

"You have shown great sincerity today Lady Linda. Much more than your elder sister has shown me. I will be sure to keep that in mind. Let us celebrate properly once we reach a deal."

Quickly giving this excuse, Alexander snapped on his heels and whirled around without waiting for Miss Linda's response, exiting the premises as hurriedly as a sudden gust of air, thus leaving the lady with only the words, "Have a good day."

Alexander would breathe a sigh of relief upon quickly closing the door, but at the same time reflect on the missed opportunity with some slight rueful contemplation.

But fortunately, he would not have to agonize himself too much over the missed opportunity as his attention would suddenly be taken away by the sight of the two guards standing by the room door, causing Alexander to quickly recall Miss Linda's claim.

He had to get to the bottom of the fact of whether they had truly done it with the noble lady.

"You two. Follow me to my room. I require how some extra hands." Thus using this excuse, Alexander replaced the two men with two of his bodyguard substitutes and invited them to his study.

Whereupon entering the center of the room, he immediately turned to face the and imperiously ordered,

"I will give you one chance and only one chance to confess. You know what you did. Kneel!"

The question was very broad and by framing it like this, Alexander gave the men plenty of rope to hand themselves, as now the men would be forced to reveal any and all their wrongdoings, not just that one.

This way of interrogating his men was one of Alexander's favorite techniques.

"....." While hearing this accusation, the two men instantly went pale, as they looked at Alexander with a genuinely horrified face.

When Alexander had ordered them to follow, they thought it was to receive some great reward or important mission.

Not be essentially court martialed.

They had always feared that Alexander would get to know what they had done but prayed that the noble lady would keep her mouth shut due to feeling ashamed.

After all, she was a married woman, who had a threesome with two lowly guards.

Although the only reason they thought like that was because they did not know Miss Linda.

"Alex.. Alexander we…" Thus at being caught like this, one of them stammered as such, trying to weasel his way out.

These two were from Alexander's original mercenary group and could even be said to be acquaintances as they had occasionally met and chatted.

And now it seemed they hoped to skip past this disaster using this relation.

"Hop! Who is Alexander? This is your lord! Learn your manners Quilis." However that plan was instantly torpedoed by this heavy rebuke from Hemicus, who was standing right next to Alexander, and whose eyes suddenly began to blaze with rage at this insubordination.

Thus he then fiercely stated in a very grave voice, "The crime for a commoner to call a noble by his name is a hundred lashes! And that's only a regular noble. For a pasha, it can be death!"

"So if you do not want me to cut you down here and now, reveal what the lord has asked of you."

Having made the threat, Hemicus then began to reach for his sword, as if he was preparing to really cut the unruly men down.

Plop!

And seeing this was finally enough to make the other man surrender, as he lost all strength in his knees and bowed down, before lowering his head to shout, "Forgive me, my lord. We let ourselves get carried away."

Plop!

And as soon as his partner broke, Quilis too saw no reason to keep fighting the futile battle and immediately relented.

However, although physically compliant, the man had a different story to tell, as dropping down, unlike his partner who kept his mouth shut, this man quickly raised his head, and then tried and defend himself, saying,

"But… but it was not our fault! It… it was the lady… She made us do it. We could not resist! She… she forced us."

Alexander's frozen stare instantly turned furious as the raging sea heard this, as he then venemously looked down on the pleading man possessing a desperate pair of eyes, finding not a shred of sympathy in him for them.

What he had done was too grave, even if not morally, then very much so politically.

It should be noted that Alexander had not yet managed to come to any conclusion regarding this matter with Miss Linda, and had ultimately decided to leave it for later.

The strategy being that they would come to terms on what they could agree on first, and once those were sorted, they would address the disagreements, such as Miss Linda's 'rape'.

Which Alexander was pretty sure he would have to pay a heavy price for even in the best case scenario, such as trade considerations.

All because these two idiots could not keep it in their pants.

Thus the thought of at least tens of millions of ropals made Alexander's mind boil, especially given he had already been swindled 30 million ropals in this campaign.

He definitely wished to strip these two men naked and hang their corpses by his bedpost, if for nothing but to placate a small part of his heart.

While his counterpart Hemicus seemed to be already on his way to do exactly that, as firmly grasping his sword, he barked, "What! What did you say? Which lady? What did you two idiots do?"

Hemicus was of course not so stupid that he could not understand which lady and what act these two men were talking about.

But it was just that he was too shocked to believe it.

The consequences of taking a lady like Miss Linda were evident even to this man usually far removed from politics.

Thus turning his fury from rage to mockery, Hemicus sneered, "You said the lady forced you? Heh, oh pray tell how? Did she jump you? Force you under the threat of a blade?"

"My, my, two grown armed men could not stop a poor woman from raping them? Should I order a pair of skirts for you? Or maybe better yet, I should let the camp hear this? Let them decide?"

"No!" It was Hemicus's last threat that proved to be the most effective, as revealing such a thing would mean absolute social death for the two men.

According to the conventions of the time, men could not be raped.

Thus Hemicus telling this to their colleagues would ruin the two's career, as they would be subjected to unfiltering scorn and mockery.

And once seeing that Hemicus had properly marinated the two fools, "Tell me how it happened, Everything!"

Alexander decided to strike, gritting out the order in a cold, grave tone.

And the men terrified instantly squealed.

The story was just as you imagined- just replace what Miss Linda did with Alexander with the two men and you would get the picture.

Of course minus all the flirting and sexy poses.

For there was no need. These two idiots broke with only a curl of the finger and a sweet smile.