Herald of Steel

Upon hearing the confident tone Miss Linda used to claim she had a way out, her elder sister Lady Adele, who was watching the entire thing from afar with a pallid, disinterested face produced an intriguing glow, as she finally shifted her eyes onto the meeting.

While Achillas found his lips suddenly twitching.

The general did not quite know how to feel about it.

The part of him that wanted to win against Alexander of course felt happy.

But an even larger part of him skipped a heartbeat.

And he hoped that Miss Linda was just being boisterous here, trying to put on a strong facade to placate him.

Thus revealing a buttery smile, the general's eyes lit up as he first greatly cheered,

"Heh heh, as expected of my lady, no one is better suited to be the next duchess. You truly are a lucky star made in the heavens just for my lord. There can be no doubt that. I am sure he will be greatly pleased to hear of your assurance."

Although not used it, Achillas felt he was able to sufficiently flatter the lady with his eloquence.

Before turning his tone a bit cautionary, "However, my lady I would once again urge you that you do not take unnecessary risks. There are guards everywhere. So escaping from this place undetected will be hard. Especially with the young master in hand."

Achillas sent a meaningful look towards the infant as he said this, reminding the mother of the difficulties of traveling with a baby who could break out into a loud cry at any time, and then finished with the fearful words, "If the gods are unwilling and young master was to cry out at an inopportune time then…. well it would not be good you were to land in Alexander's hands."

Achillas did not need to speak about the unspoken consequences of the failure of such an endeavor, as he subtly tried to discourage the act.

'Why take the risk when you can sit here and eat, drink, and sleep to one's heart content?' He seemed to say.

"*Snort*, so what? Nothing will happen." Miss Linda however only scoffed at the innuendo, brushing her dainty hands in an extremely dismissive manner as a way to claim Achillas was being only a worrywart.

Then she confidently declared, "Alexander would not dare hurt us. Not as long as you general Achillas have 20,000 men standing right in front of him. Even if we are caught, at worst, he will lock us back here and increase the guards. There are no risks!"

The lady saying this then lifted her beautiful face up, pointing her nose high up into the air as a show of utmost arrogance.

While hearing this Achillas very much wanted to contest this hypothesis and try and put some fear into the lady.

Both because her escaping was not in his own best interests, and also because he thought the lady was underestimating Alexander too much.

Achillas reasoned this from the clues he picked during the talks the general had with the man, where the pasha seemed to be quite frustrated and running out of patience with the feet dragging.

So who knew if he was going to snap and do something very regrettable? Especially when he found his most precious birds were trying to flee the coup.

The general thus questioned Miss Linda's confident facade and asked himself whether this was all simple bravado by an inexperienced lady, or was there actual substance behind it.

And if there was, what?

Could the lady know the young pasha character that well?

Did he promise her safe sanctuary no matter what?

Or was the lady using some of her 'more dubious' charms to honeypot the man and bring him under her thrall?

Given how seductive the lady could be in bed, the buff general could not put it past her.

However, despite such misgivings, Achillas of course could never hope to truly figure out the answer.

He did not have enough information or the required time to collect it.

And thus after a brief moment of rumination stopped trying.

Instead, given Miss Linda was determined to escape, another evil idea soon entered his thoughts.

Producing a warm smile, he thus nodded to first agree to Miss Linda's comment, "That is recurring, my lady. We are very much looking forward to your success," before his eyes turned curious and penetrating,

"Now my lady, if it is not too rude to ask, may I know how exactly you intend to escape? Perhaps we can also provide some assistance from our end. Instruct some of our spies here to aid you... help your path be smother."

Achillas offered with a sincere smile.

Of course in reality he did not want to really help the lady.

He only wanted to figure the way out so that he could leak this intel to Alexander and thus make the lady stumble in her pursuit.

And while thinking this, a small part of him even wished for an accident to happen that would get the lady killed, such an overzealous guard shooting his bow in the darkness to 'stop a thief from sneaking in.'

A man could dream, couldn't he?

The scheming general however would not get his way, as Miss Linda once again brushed her palms, smirking,

"You do not have to trouble yourself with that, my dear general. I already know the names of all the spies we have in the mansions." The lady sounded quite sarcastic as she said this as if she was offended at the insinuation that she would not know even this basic information, and barely stopped herself from adding, 'I do not need your permission to instruct them.'

Achillas flushed a bit hearing this criticism, while the lady went on to simply declare,

"I have my ways. And it is best I keep them to myself for now. I will let you know about it once I manage to reach your camp."

Achillas did not expect the lady to be so tight-lipped about it.

And it made him very curious.

How could she claim to be able to escape so readily the moment he asked when she could not do so for so many days since her capture?

It was highly suspicious.

And Achillas itched to go poking around,

However, although very curious, Achillas knew where his limits lay.

The lady in front of him technically outranked him in status and so it was really not appropriate for him to hound her.

Thus seeing the other side had no intention of budging, Achillas put on a warm smile and quickly nodded to comment, "Then I wish you all the best of luck, my lady. May the gods conceal you and master Quentin from all harm. Once you are at the camp gates, just show the men this letter with the lord's seal and they will let you in. I will inform them of it beforehand."

Achillas here was of course referring to the letter he came bearing, the one with all the plans written in them.

Miss Linda intentionally blinked to indicate she understood, while also feeling internally relieved that the man had decided to so easily back off.

She had been working on a way how to escape for quite some time now but had always felt he was missing something- a centerpiece.

And this letter might as well have been that last piece of the puzzle.

Thus with this in hand, she had a pretty good idea of how she was going to escape.

It was just now a matter of ironing out the details, as well as possibly doing some frowned upon things with some men to earn their favor which would help her escape.

And this was where Miss Linda felt reticent to divulge the details.

Because although she very well knew that her husband would most likely not care about the extramarital things she did if it meant she could escape, he would also not appreciate her flaunting such stories around.

The tacit understanding between the two was that such shameful acts should be at most an open secret, known but never admitted.

Thus Miss Linda cleverly declined to comment to Achillas's query and only promised to try her best.

With this, the meeting was soon adjourned and the general escorted himself out of the room, a smile hanging on his face, but a bitter pool bubbling in his heart.

He really hoped the lady failed.

And he really wanted to know how she planned to do this.

As did Lady Adele, who up until now had been little more than a decoration, a silent doll who lay witness to the whole meeting without uttering a peep.

The entire time she was in there, her husband did not bother to swipe her even a fleeting glance, such was his apathy for her, treating her as if she was thin air.

He only asked her once how she was when he had initially entered, and that too might have been more out of courtesy for the future duchess and the kinship with her, rather than his own concern for his spouse.

So Lady Adele only raised her voice after the man had left.

"Cassius." And the reply to her query was only this name, her brother in law's name.

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