Herald of Steel

The general would breathe a large sigh of relief upon finally returning to his camp right around dusk, suddenly feeling as if a great weight had been lifted off of him the moment he stepped into the impound.

It was only now he could at last put all the horrible scenario of Alexander capturing and detaining him to rest, as the mere knowledge of being in his own territory seemed to greatly please the man.

No longer did he need to watch his steps and tip toe around the place, but could stride around the earth as if he owned the place.

And it was with such boastful steps that Achillas immediately sought an audience with his lord, which was granted to him almost immediately, whereupon he frankly revealed the full details of his experience, leaving nothing out, or adding anything in.

No matter what the general's personal thoughts on this whole matter were, he did dare to lie and thus betray his lord's confidence.

Upon hearing his report, Lord Parker predictably broke out into a joyous chuckle, "Haha, excellent, excellent. That is so very like Linda. Hahaha, I knew she could find a way. Hahaha."

"...." To this Achillas only silently nodded with a hopeful face, not wishing to rain on the man's parade.

Personally, he was till now skeptical about how the lady could possibly escape.

This was because he was unable to figure out the way, as well as the fact that Miss Linda had acted all mysterious and refused to expand on it. So a part of him still thought the person was simply bluffing.

But Achillas chose to swallow all these opinions into himself and simply waited to see the results.

While his wife, and Miss Linda's elder sister, Lady Adele finally chose to break her silence all the way back in the mansion.

The well dressed lady did not mind at all that her husband had just ignored her the entire time he was there, even when she had been under the enemy's hands for so many days.

She had gotten used to it and now even preferred it.

Thus not keeping this matter in her mind for but a split second, the middle sister instead seemed more interested in how she and her younger sister planned to escape.

Yes, being Achillas's wife, even if only in name, Lady Adele too was considered to be an essential piece to rescue.

But to this, her young sister only uttered the name of their brother in law with great disdain.

And then turned to reassure not to worry about anything, that she had everything already planned out.

The next few days for Miss Linda and those in the city went by without any incident.

Alexander was waiting for reinforcements, Lord Parker was waiting for his wife, and the workers employed in the underground works were waiting for their supervisor's permission to resume digging.

The only one who could be said to be busy was Miss Linda! Busy plotting her escape.

And in preparation for her grand flight, in the following days, the cunning lady worked to spread rumors about what Lord Parker intended to do, mainly by using her meetings with the elders, thus creating quite a panic in the house.

Now, she of course did not show everyone the letter and make a grand statement while doing this.

That would have been too crude and surely caused Alexander to lock her up even tighter, perhaps even put a few manacles on her for good measure.

So instead, during the meetings Miss Linda very naturally bought out the innocuous matter about water, making innocent statements like how the water she was drinking felt foul and had a disgusting fishy taste, and posing the simple question of whether the underground channels had been cleaned properly.

It did not take long for the old crones in the meeting to get the hint, and as this poke allowed them to recall their ability to turn off water to any part of the city, including to their own mansion, many of them soon became alarmed.

Most of them accurately determined that this was perhaps the real reason why the Heeat family's general came to visit, to give them this ultimatum, and they despaired.

What were they going to do now?

Leaving the mansion was impossible while convincing Alexander to stand down was even more so.

"Let's revolt!" As for the few hot blooded 'young ones' who shouted this as the last, decisive alternative, well they were promptly and decisively squashed by the older, more cautious men.

'What are we going to revolt with? Our bare hands? Do we have swords? Or shields? Or armor? Or bow and arrows?"

"Never mind they outnumber us a hundred to one! We will be slaughtered before we even manage to get out of the corridors."

Although the language used here was a bit hyperbolic, the main point still stood.

Alexander really was too powerful for the current Margraves to be able to be ousted from their turf on their own.

The man had very systematically declawed them once he had taken over, leaving no such chance

Or else the Margraves might have already tried it if they thought they stood a chance.

Hence the group of clever men sank down into deep contemplation, trying to figure out a compromise or a way to escape.

And when they were unable to find either, some began to even slightly lament their cunning, wishing they had not deciphered the clue at all.

At least then they would not have to writh and pace in discomfort knowing death was approaching one step at a time.

Such great were the men's fears of death as well as their love for life.

Alexander of course remained oblivious to all these whispers and murmurs, mainly because they were too hushed to reach his ears.

The trapped Margraves produced rumors and consOriginal theories day in and day out on almost a cyclic basis, even more so now that they were under siege and Alexander had implemented food rationing as a way to conserve his stocks.

The absence of new food worked to create a general aura of trepidation and heaviness in the air.

Thus the one real threat got drowned out in the buzzing static of hundreds of useless chatterings, as in Alexander's mind, the people were already bitching about food, so what was so strange about bitching about water?

It was only normal.

Thus he never took that threat that seriously, but spent his days mostly waiting and looking out to the sea for any signs of the promised friendly fleets.

This was exactly what Miss Linda had been banking on, as with Alexander refusing to pay any attention to these baseless rumors, she was able to dig quite the deep and long tunnel for her escape.

Not literally of course.

But as the rumors spread and infected the people of the house, they began to grow restless.

They began to cause small-scale trouble, such as quarrels with the men, breaking and smashing things, or not just doing their tasks properly.

It was of course nothing the soldiers in the mansion could not handle.

But also at the same thing, it inevitably took up much of their time and attention.

While this initial groundwork was being laid out, Miss Linda was also able to meet with Lord Nolan, Lord Cassius's father, under the guise of discussing what they were going to talk to Alexander about, and there, she was able to reveal the entire situation to him in full confidence, showing him Achillas's letter and thus what were her husband's plans.

Also conveniently for her, in the letter, Lord Parker had not made any mention of Miss Linda and Lady Adele's planned escape.

That was what Achillas sent there for. To explain the nitty gritty which were hard to put into words.

Thus the parchment only read the plans and how they were going to implement it.

Hence when Miss Linda read the piece out aloud for Lord Nolan's ears, it sounded to him like this plan was about to initiate any day now.

It was mortifying for the old man, hearing that they were all going to be killed of thirst.

He thought of it as one of the most painful ways to go, and thus the ever fearful for his life old man shivered in fright.

And Miss Linda certainly managed to take full advantage of this momentary weakness, as she launched her most fierce attack.

Getting on her knees, the angelic lady clasped the old man's wizened hand and with real tears in her eyes pleaded, "Uncle Nolan, we need to escape! The Heeat family will not stop their plans just because of you, me, or even Quentin. I know Parker Heeat! He will hesitate at nothing to achieve his goals. Not even at his son's life. So if we want to live, we need to get up before the trap closes."

"But we cannot do it alone. Alexander guards us too well. We require help. And the only one who can help us is Lord Cassius."

"He is your son. And a good man. I am sure he will agree if you ask him. Please!"

A strategic single teardrop rolled off the delicate woman's cheeks as she made her plea.

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