Herald of Steel

Miss Linda poured her heart out when she made the request about Lord Nolan trying to convince his son to basically betray his wife for them, going as far as to slander her husband to make the matter go smoother.

Because she knew this was because it was a tough cookie to sell no matter how you looked at it.

How could any husband possibly agree to this? Especially when the stakes were this high.

This is why the lady put her utmost effort into it.

And the results showed, as was evident by how the old man had not immediately scolded her for making such an absurd claim and stomped the idea down as one would logically expect.

But only turned to look at the woman with a shocked, almost pale face, as if he was questioning whether he was really hearing himself correctly.

However just as Lord Nolan turned around, suddenly his attention was grabbed by the moving sight that lay in front of him, so beautiful that for a moment he even forgot what he wanted to talk about.

Because right by his bedside, kneeling on the ground was the young lady, her eyes pooled with crystalline tears, at the center of which lay a pair of dark onyx jewels shimmering with fear and hope, like small stars in a moonless night, flickering on and off, as if they were in danger of being snuffed out momentarily.

The outer white portions were inflamed and reddened, while her beautiful cheeks were puffed and rosy, and her lips slightly twitched and quivered at irregular intervals.

Miss Linda's alluring charm was no joke and any man who could lay his eyes upon her would feel his heat tug.

And even the aged man here was no different.

So seeing the frail, delicate look of this angelically beautiful girl so powerlessly kneeling before him, he too longed to hug and support this frail and weak angel whose wings had been clipped.

The sight even made both his inside ache and a certain part feel warm.

Yes, the old pervert, for a brief moment lusted after his own distant granddaughter, showing Lord Nolan might be old but he was not cold.

He even cursed his age, instead wishing he had a bit more vigor left in him.

But it seemed after the stroke, although he had managed to eventually recover, thus managing to avoid turning into the worst case scenario- becoming a vegetable as Alexander had feared, his body was still found to be lacking.

It felt like suddenly half of his strength had been robbed, forcing him to spend a lot of his time now genuinely in bed.

And it was due to a combination of these circumstances that when Miss Linda used to describe their predicament, Lord Nolan found himself unable to think clearly and instantly decline.

Instead, he put his thinking cap on and wondered how of all the people Miss Linda could bring up on their list of potential helpers, his son got the top spot.

How could that be?

Thus with a bit of confusion in his voice, Lord Nolan reiterated with widened, sunken eyes, "My son? How? Cassius he…"

The old man trailed off, feeling that going into the problems of choosing this particular son for the task was moot.

Any child could figure it out.

But Miss Linda insisted on her idea, heavily nodding and pointing out,

"Yes, I am talking about Lord Cassius, my brother in law. Hasn't Uncle always been saying how obedient he is? How filial he is. Well when the Heeat family shuts our water supply, what will happen to his father? His aged father? Can he stand by and do nothing?"

Accurately pin pointing the man's weakness, Miss Linda then once again grasped Lord Nolan's withered hands, before lifting her large, dark eyes oh so melancholily to bleed out the words,

"Just talk to him about this, Uncle! I'm sure he will listen to you. Lord Cassius is a good man. Surely he will not stand by and do nothing as his family faces such peril."

"With his help and the spies we have in the house, we both can escape. Achillas showed me the way when he came that day! We just need a mall… push. A helper to distract the guards. You want to live too, don't you?"

That last sentence was perhaps the most potent of all the sentences Miss Linda had spoken up until now.

That's right- Lord Nolan wanted to live.

He desperately wanted to live.

Despite being so old, he wanted to live ever and ever longer.

In fact, while the old man already used to love life before, after recovering from his heart attack, this obsession seemed to reach even higher heights.

He did not want to die no matter what. Thus being reminded of his own potential demise, the old man almost instantly buckled.

"Okay. Let me see what I can do." He clenched his teeth and thus the fateful promise was made

"Great!" And it of course received a very enthusiastic response from the young lady, who immediately jumped up to clap with both her hands, before grinning and going on to discuss the plan in further detail, "So I was thinking something like this…."

The old and young duo then spent the rest of the afternoon plotting how best to bend their man.

".... so my son this is the deal. We require your help."

The very next day, Lord Cassius found himself inside his father's chambers, listening to what sounded like a horror story.

Lord Nolan very frankly revealed everything, in great detail, with Miss Linda being there to provide proof.

And as the recount ended with his father openly asking him to betray his wife, the large man suddenly found himself shell shocked.

When his father's caretaker had come to inform him that his old man was suddenly feeling very ill, the portly had come zooming past thinking the worst.

But he could see that all of was a massive lie.

And while he had breathed a great sigh of relief back then, feeling very pleased to see his father healthy, now, a small part of him actually wanted that to come true.

At least it would be easier to deal with than this, he felt.

"Wha… what are you saying, father?" The man could only clench out this, his eyes visibly angry.

Even the usually very temperate man found himself incensed at the favor he was being instructed to do.

How could he possibly betray his spouse like this, he asked his father to justify.

But to Lord Nolan, this was not even a contentious point. For it seemed that when his own life was on the line, no low was too low for the old crone.

Thus initially putting on a grave face he venomously cussed his son for trying to defend his wife, swinging his hands to declare,

"Miranda is a fool and a traitor to our family. This is the only reason she could have for inviting a scoundrel like Alexander here. We were so close to allying ourselves with the Heeat family.And now all of that is ruined. All ruined because of her. And her greed!"

Lord Nolan wasted no words in his vocabulary to paint Miss Linda in the most negative light possible, his own daughter in law, as he went on to produce a disgusted face.

Before quickly turning his poison towards Alexander, lifting his fingers directly towards Lord Cassius's large nose, and barking,

"And look at what that barbarian she let in has done to us. Captured us! Locked us in our own rooms. Threatens to starve us. Kill us of thirst. When we invited him in with open arms! Been the good host. How dare he!"

The senile old man seemed to have quite the knack for making history up, as if you recall none of the elders deigned to even meet Alexander when he came to Caira.

So who were these 'good hosts' that Lord Nolan was referring here?

But of course, there was no one here to correct the old fool, certainly not the soft, weak minded, and ever malleable Lord Cassius, who just listened to the tirade with a sunken and dried face.

He was never the eloquent man, nor one to think on the spot and defend himself.

And thus encouraged by this passivity, Lord Nolan let himself continue, now narrowing his eyes towards his eldest son, and calling him out by name,

"Cassius, it is disgraceful for you to even share the same bed with Miranda. Leave her aside. Your wife has been hoodwinked by that foreign devil. You must wake her up. And the only way to do it is to help us escape."

"This the time for you to step up, son. Now, when your family needs you the most. Now, when your kin needs you the most. Now, when father needs you the most."

And it was this part that most mattered to the old lord, who then ended with the promise,

"Do this, and all this death… this pain… this suffering… all this will end. Peace will return to our home. And we promise we will convince Lord Parker to show leniency to both Miranda and Alexander will be treated leniently. Trust your father."

Lord Cassisus was unable to stop the nod.

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