Herald of Steel



The deal reached here put Alexander in quite the good mood.

He had not even considered that such an offer would be on the table.

And this alacritous mood seemed to be easily noticed by Lady Inayah.

"Haha, I'm glad my lord likes my idea," The noble lady hence pointed out, and then asked the critical question, "So have you decided which products you want to sell the secrets to?"

"Hmmm," And this made Alexander subconsciously hum.

This was indeed a point to ponder on.

Paper was the first and easiest choice to choose to sell as it was a low-value but highly labor-intensive product to manufacture.

And for all that effort it would not even one that rich as there was not enough demand for papyrus anyway.

But as for all the others, Alexander was very reluctant to sell any.

The value of glass and sugar did not need to be said, but even the lingerie and soap had secret technologies that he was reluctant to part with so soon.

Inventions such as the spinning jenny and the chemistry of the soaps were something he still wanted to get some good years of use out of.

Not to mention all of them were all luxury products with high-profit margins, in much contrast with the paper.

As for his other industrial inventions like steel and cement, they were strategic resources that Alexander would not consider.

While Adhan had all the salt they even wanted, and Ptolomy would not be interested in the mass production of bricks as it was useless without the cement to effectively use it.

"...My lady, would it be possible for me to use the recipe for the brown sugar?" Hence Alexander made this request, putting on a coy, shy face similar to the one Seelima had made.

"Hah!" And this got a short guffaw from the Queen Mother sitting next to them, almost mirroring the reply Alexander had given her regarding trading his gold for coins.

Oh, how the tables had turned!

And this little reply particularly pleased Seelima because when Alexander had given that reply, she had made a note in her mind to one day surely repay the favor.

But she never imagined the chance would come so quickly.

While hearing the reply Alexander only shook his head as the expected result.

It was only natural the Queen Mother would try to take as much advantage as she could.

And Alexander quite regretted making that prior promise.

But he had only done that because he felt hoarding all the secrets to himself would alienate him even from his allies.

And because he could have never even predicted that such an offer would be even made.

But denied the chance to retract his previous promise, Alexander now got to thinking which products he found the least attractive.

"Lord Alexander, perhaps I can help!" And it was in this great time of his need that this saintly voice of Lady Inayah chimed beside his ear, who cunningly pointed out, "Remember, although you have sold us the brown sugar recipe, you have not agreed to let us sell it to the other nobles."

"So I believe you will be able to sell that to much of the court and buy their consent that way."

"And then His Majesty will be much more likely to agree!"

Lady Inayah pointed out a loophole that Alexander had simply not thought of, mostly because it required both Lady Inayah and Pasha Farzah to play along.

And this advice pleased him almost as much as it irrigated the Queen Mother.

'Ina…Inayah you! Do you like this brat that much?" She spat out.

The Queen Mother felt this was one of the prime opportunities to swindle as much as she could from Alexander, most notably the white sugar recipe.

In fact, when she said she agreed to the proposal, it was said mainly with this product as the prize.

But none of it would work if Lady Inayah and Pasha Farzah did not cooperate.

And the reason why Lady Inayah did not wish to do so baffled her.

Clearly, she would also benefit from Alexander sharing his secrets.

While the lady in question, facing Seelima's accusatory and even somewhat angry look put on a light, angelic smile to say,

"Now, now Seelima. Alex here is our ally. And we should not try to scam him just because we have a chance here."

"What if he makes something even more amazing in the future and then refuses to share?"

"Now wouldn't that be a tragedy?"

Lady Inayah knew the Queen Mother held some prejudice against Alexander, and felt she was being blinded by that emotion.

Now, this statement also showed that Lady Inayah was quite the visionary as many would feel the pinnacle of Alexander's inventions had to be the white sugar.

Or they would be like Seelima, temporarily blinded by the value of the current thing in front of him to not adequately consider the future.

But in defense of the Queen Mother, there was indeed a reason behind the imperial lady's rashness.

"If he does make something like that he can keep it. I will keep that 100,000 ropals a ton white sugar and be happy." Seelima brashly said out aloud, revealing her plan.

They had not yet discussed which products each side wanted.

And for a moment, this revelation caused a bit of an awkward silence.

Alexander even noticed the Queen Mother go a bit red.

She could not remember the last time she had made such a rookie error.

Perhaps never.

But the fact that she had made it also went on to show how much she wanted that secret.

Because according to her the value of this sugar was so much that she would rather take this guaranteed prize rather than wait for some illusory fruit that Lady Inayah was alluding to.

'Who knows how long that will be?' She justified.

And in many ways, she was correct in her assessment.

Because Alexander really did not have any inventions which could match the sugar's worth pound for pound.

Thus, hearing this desire, Alexander also made his desire clear with a casual wave of his palm, "The white sugar recipe is out of the question for now. You can keep your ropal."

The offhandedness with which he said it fully showed his stance.

And seeing it, after a while the Queen Mother could only reluctantly nod.

'Perhaps in a few years.' But that did not mean she had given up on it entirely.

Only temporarily.

While Lady Inayah seeing this saga come to an end flashed a consoling smile to Alexander and said, "Alex, take your time to make the decision. The meeting is in a few months away."

This made Alexander nod and say, "Thank you."

And these two words showed more respect and sincerity than a whole book could.

For Alexander felt that this noble lady had really helped him out here.

She could have easily joined Seelima to pressure him but she didn't.

And whatever her reason was for doing so, that did not change the fact that Alexander had greatly benefited from it.

"Hahaha, oh Alex, you cutie. Don't be like that! You're making me blush," To Alexander's serious demeanor, Lady Inayah replied only with a breezily, casual tone, and then pronounced, "Also, I do have other reasons I want you to come to Adhan."

"One is because I hope that you can entice some of the more neutral nobles to our site using your new things."

"You can decide what you will use to entice them and the price."

"And secondly because of that thing you mentioned to Pasha Farzah. I think it could be done if approved by His Majesty."

This cryptic sentence naturally drew the Queen Mother's attention, while even Alexander was confused by what Lady Inayah was referring to.

Until she refreshed his memory.

"Oh you know, that idea of yours to secretly arm the northern barbarians with your steel weapons and have them attack Rahu and Saibad!" She said placidly.

"What!" And the instant Lady Inayah finished saying her sentence, the Queen Mother almost jumped up from her chair and then turned to look at both of them like they had lost their minds.

In fact, she was so shocked that her lips were trembling with disbelief, and struggled to find the words to describe her emotions.

Rahu and Saibad were Adhania's two of the three northern provinces, and along with Matrak, they had always acted as the bulwark against the northern steep barbarians who would launch regular raids into Adhania to loot and plunder.

So to even suggest that they cooperate with those heathens to attack their country's own territory was not even a thought that had crossed the Queen Mother's mind.

It was beyond an absurd thought, like the US cooperating with a known terrorist group.

"That was just us spitballing. I wasn't serious," And seeing this violent reaction, Alexander quickly tried to calm the engaged woman.

He knew how much the Adhanian nobility hated those tall, white men, and when he had bought the idea of secretly arming those nomadic horsemen with heavy iron weapons, something they seemed to lack, and then pointing them toward their enemies, it was really him throwing out ideas and seeing which stuck.

"That may be, but Farzah and I think the idea was merit." While Lady Inayah did not appear at all fazed by the smoldering volcano sitting beside her, only turning to her to say,

"And Seelima, let us wait to hear what His Majesty has to say."

Now Alexander had three reasons to go to Adhan.