Herald of Steel

Now the volume of weapons he ordered was still too much for Alexander to consume by himself.

Never mind, he also had his own production, which too was churning out these out.

So why want so many?

Well, for one, he thought of selling some to his allies, Ptolomy and Pasha Farzah.

But more than that, Alexander hoped to send some of these to Iyizarid, as a way to egg them to attack Syabarsis.

He did not know if it would even remotely work, but hey, no harm in trying right?

But he did not reveal this to the two nobles.

Because well they had just been almost destroyed over false charges of colluding with Iyizarid.

So if Alexander were to honestly open up and say that he wanted to buy weapons they manufactured and then sell them to Iyizarid to encourage them to attack the duo's country, well then he doubted they would be very forthcoming in their delivery.

It had to be iterated that most of Sybarsis till now ambivalent about the Margrave family.

But if weapons made in their workshops using their unique smithing technique were to make their way into the hands of their most hated enemy, and then, if it was somehow identified, well, then the entire country of Sybarsis might turn against it.

  No sane group would make such a dangerous transaction.

So they didn't.

At least, the Margrave family was not aware that they did.

All the weapons bought from them would be under Alexander's name who was an unrelated third party, free to sell weapons to whomever he liked.

What could Sybarsis do to him anyway?

So Alexander was pretty looking forward to trying it. 

As Alexander made his requests, naturally Lady Miranda and Lord Janus upon hearing the huge orders felt their eyes bulge a bit.

"Wha…t?" They half excamied.

This was almost an order equivalent to asking them to equip an entire army.

Which was not unprecedented for the Margrave family. 

But certainly very rare.'

They were also stunned that Alexander was asking for so much in exchange for the deal.

If they accepted, a significant of their blacksmiths would be occupied producing weapons for only him.

Something they were reluctant to do as they themselves were in the process of rearming themselves.

So Lady Miranda tried to haggle, "My lord this much…."

But Alexander had at last run out of patience, so flashing his palms said in a stern tone, 

"If you cannot even give me this much, then let's reduce the goods. I believe I have been far more than accommodating," 

Alexander made it clear he would no longer negotiate.

"..." And this made the two nobles produce a difficult smile.

"This amount of weapons….is my lord expanding his army? Will there be a large campaign soon?" 

Following this, Lord Janus then asked Alexander's reason why he wanted so many weapons, and got an affirmative nod on both.

But Alexander did not reveal why he was doing so and who was his target going to be.

And Lord Janus did not ask.

These plans were usually kept secret and it would be seen as prying into other's business if asked.

"Hmmmm, 30,000 crossbows will cost 100 each, so 3 million ropals."

"!0 million crossbow bolts will be 8 to 10 million,"

"The sword and halberts will be 5 million total."

Instead, Lord Janus loudly gave out the cost, and then turning to Alexander said, 

"My lord, the cost of the weapons is not too much. It is quite within the budget."

"But I'm afraid it is the quantities that are the problem, especially given our current circumstances."

"Delivering all of them by the end of next year will be hard. We might need another six months to a year."

Lord Janus was very frank and simply said they currently did not have the spare capacity to accept and deliver this massive order on time.

"Okay, then focus on the bolts and crossbows. I want at least those by the end of next year." Hearing so Alexander compromised as such.

He was not maddeningly desperate for these weapons and could afford to wait.

In the meantime, he could also try and open diplomatic talks with Iyizarid perhaps.

"Haha, good! I knew Lord Alexander was reasonable!" While Lord Janus hearing Alexander's concession naturally cheered.

And it was as such another round of trading with the Margrave family was concluded.

Then over the next week, all these agreements were finalised and ratified, while the council members as well as the nobles were informed.

The minor details were also worked out over several more meetings, such as the question of what would happen to Alexander's shipyard now that a lot of them would be going to Galiosis.

And the answer to that was that it would still be open, but the scale of the operation would be truncated. 

Also, there was the problem with transporting the 50,000 men, women, and children as raised earlier, and Alexander gave the Margrave two years to move them instead of the initial one.

And with all these work done, Alexander's busy week ended in the blink of an eye, and suddenly he found himself at the port, standing in front of a huge ship.

"Well then my lord, till we meet again," The gruff voice of Lord Janus rang out.

Yes, Alexander was here to see off his two guests.

"Lady Miranda, Lord Janus, I would have asked you to stay for a few more weeks. But fall is approaching and I fear soon the sea will become very rough."

"If you do not leave soon, I'm afraid you will not be able to return for a few months." 

"It is truly unfortunate that you have to leave so soon." Alexander's face was warm and sunny, his voice cordial, but laced with a bit of bitterness.

It was as if he truly regretted that they could not stay a bit longer.

And standing next to him, a heavily pregnant Cambyses also chimed in, 

"Yes, it is truly regretful we have bid you goodbye so soon. Lady Miranda. I had hoped we could have spent a bit longer."

"Please take care during your voyage. I will pray for your safety."

It seemed that over the past few days, the two women had grown very close.

This was not something orchestrated by Alexander, but simply due to their respective status.

Both were the matriarchs of their respective families and given they were currently allied, it was only natural they would get to know each other.

And apparently, In the last few days, Cambyses got a lot closer to Lady Miranda, especially after getting a few critical advice from Lady Miranda regarding her pregnancy.

Advice which helped her tremendously in calming her nerves.

Cambyses had been acting out more and more frequently the closer to her delivery date and she was really grateful to the noble lady for helping her deal with all the stress.

At Cambyses's goodbyes, Lady Miranda too replied very fondly, holding Cambyses by the palms, and sweetly saying, 

"Yes, I too will pray for you and your child's safety. I believe that the gods will surely bless you with a beautiful healthy baby."

"And next time I come, I will be sure to come with a lot of time on my hand."

"I bring Marcus with me as well. Then our children can play together, hehe." Lady Miranda warmly giggled.

And it was with such cordial words and warm goodbyes that the two guests finally left Zanzan.

Lady Miranda and Lord Janus stood on the bow of the ship until the port disappeared into the horizon, finally at which point, the elder gentleman turned to cautiously ask, 

"My lady, why did you not take Lold Alexander's marriage offer? I think he suits you very well."

Lord Janus of course did not buy Lady Miranda's excuse of mourning her husband.

The lady did not hate her former husband, but she was never madly in love with him either.

The couple was mostly apathetic to each other most of the time.

So in the mind of this aged man, he felt Lady Miranda rejecting Alexander to be a grave mistake. 

He saw Alexander as being well-mannered, rich, smart, having unfathomable potential, and best of all currently weak.

Yes, he thought of Alexander as being relatively weak, with a tiny territory, but with an enormous possibility of becoming something huge.

A perfect suitor in his books.

It was something akin to discovering facebook, or google, or amazon during these companies' early years.

Anybody who knew of these companies' potential would have been foolish not to invest in them.

And in that same vein, Lord Janus felt that if Lady Miranda did marry Alexander now, her words would carry much weight even later through the year, which would ultimately benefit House Margrave tremendously.

Lord Janus especially eyed all the new stuff coming out of Zanzan, which Lady Miranda being his spouse should have been able to pry some bits and crumbs out. 

Hence he felt it was a great pity that the lady had rejected him, and even done so decisively that it left Lord Janus no way to intervene and try and salvage the situation.

Thus he hoped Lady Miranda had a really good reason to not accept the offer.

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