Herald of Steel

"What?" He felt he must have missed something as he muttered.

To him, all this did not make any sense.

Why go through all that trouble?

"Indeed I\'m afraid so," But Lady Felicia worked to ensure that he did not hear it wrong as she clearly revealed in a hushed, bitter tone, 

"I was told that if the city gates are not opened within ten days, it will mean the 10,000 men Lord Ponticus requested from the capital has arrived and Lapitus has no intention to surrender."

"He would then start to organize the defenses of the city or escape depending on the circumstances, while I would leave the camp with the excuse of wanting to visit my husband and rejoin him."

"But if for some reason the 10,000 does not come, after knowing of our defeat or something as such, well then Lapitus will indeed launch the rebellion and open the city for you my lord."

"Afterwards he will act like nothing had ever happened."

"This is why I was told to come here. So that no matter what happens, his family will be safe."

"This way he intends to have feet on both boats, my lord!"

Lady Felicia\'s voice was sharp and pitched, her face very pitiful, like she was a helpless pawn under her cruel husband. 

But contrary to her plaintive countenance, her misty eyes still remained sharp, keenly observing Alexander\'s face as it slowly transformed to become ugly.

The man obviously did not like being played like this.

No one would.

And it was something she was very pleased to see, for Lady Felicia very much wanted to pit the two men against one another, and if possible have Alexander kill the other.

While Alexander\'s mind was much more occupied with the message than the messenger.

On the surface of it, he found everything he was told not possible to outright deny.

For although he had no proof Lapitus would do so, there was also nothing to indicate Lapitus he would not.

In fact as Alexander thought about it, the balance of scale in his heart began to drift towards what Lady Felicia said. 

One reason was of course due to Lapitus\'s own wife providing testimony against him, which Alexander could not just brush away.

Another reason was that thinking back on Lapitus\'s original request, his original asking for three weeks did seem awfully long.

Back then Alexander did not think much of it, only chalking it up as Lapitus just haggling, shooting for the moon, and then negotiating to a more reasonable time frame.

But if this was what Lapitus was aiming for, it made far more sense.

Of course being the naturally cautious man he was Alexander did not immediately swallow Lady Felicia\'s information and take it as gospel.

He instead ruminated, 

\'Hmmm, she said she was instructed\\ to leave the camp in ten days. Meaning if the reinforcements come, they will within ten days.\'

\'Looks like I will have to send my scouts around the river and keep an eye out. 10,000 men entering the city on boats will not be hard to spot.\'

As Alexander internally decided this, he turned to the lady opposite of this and posed the obvious question, 

"Why reveal to me this? Isn\'t Lapitus your husband?" 

And hearing so Lady Felicia was actually more surprised that Alexander did not press her for more information about the 10,000 men.

That was 10,000 men you know.

This would not be an insignificant number of men anywhere.

Nevermind all of them were meant to bolster a city\'s defense, a stronghold such as Thesalie.

You would think as the attackers, Alexander would be more concerned about that.

 But in reality, Alexander knew those ten thousand men could not stop him from taking the second wall, just as they had not been able to stop him from taking the first one.

And once the walls were taken, there really was no way to defend the city.

So Alexander was not angry over the fact that Lapitus intended to wait for these men.

That would not matter. 

In fact he could even empathize with that feeling, with a patriot wanting to fight for his land.

But what he was mad about was that if what Lady Felicia was true, then the man would have had blatantly lied to him.

Alexander was of course not fond of liars.

But Alexander ultimately kept his emotions in check.

He knew harping on this to a woman who frankly would only know what her husband told her did not really matter.

And instead, Alexander seemed rather more interested in knowing why one\'s wife was betraying her betrothed.

Because as much as Alexander disliked liking, he disliked traitors perhaps even more.

"Husband?" However at Alexander\'s mention of the word, Lady Felicia suddenly curved her lip in a weak, mocking smile, like she had heard a bad joke. 

"Surely Lord Pasha has noticed I have stopped calling Lapitus husband. Do you want to know why? Let me show you…" Saying this the lady then suddenly started to unhook the simple locket she was wearing.

And once that small ornament was in her hand, she slowly opened the latch, causing a tiny puff of white powder to escape in the process, as she then pushed it towards Alexander to let him see the insides for himself.

"Look at this, my lord! This white powder is called the Lady\'s Favorite. Called so because a Tibian noble lady once used it to kill six of her husbands!"

"It\'s tasteless, odorless, and dissolving perfectly in water or …wine." The melodious pause with which Lady Felicia said this made the innuendo very clear, before finishing, 

"Just mixing this much into a drink will make death all but guaranteed"

"I was told that if I got the chance, I was to use this …by my so-called honorable husband," Lady Felicia sneered the last two words, as she then dumped the powder onto the carpet and repeatedly stomped on it, scattering the tiny amount harmlessly into the wind. 

*Sweat!*

And seeing the action, though Alexander did not show it, a few large beads of sweat had already formed at the back of his neck, for it suddenly felt so much chillier for him.

He could not believe there had been such a huge oversight in his security, so big in fact that someone was allowed to enter his tent with such a deadly amount of poison.

Now of course Lady Felicia could not just waltz into Alexander\'s tent whenever she liked because she was a guest.

It was not that easy. 

Alexander, being the conscious man he was had of course set up proper protocol to guard against such a thing. 

Thus before she was allowed to enter his tent, like most others, Lady Felicia had to go through a security check.

And because Lady Felicia was a woman and Alexander\'s bodyguards were men, he had even specifically asked for two female slaves from the medical clinic to conduct it.

This pair had diligently patted the lady\'s body any small weapons or pouches that could carry any contraband and naturally found nothing of the sort.

But they had missed that simple gold locket she was wearing for it was seen just as an accessory.

And to make it even harder, Lady Felicia had cleverly hidden most of the ornament underneath her cloth, with the actual locket actually strategically placed deep into her cleavage.

There was no way two slave girls were going to insert their hands there, not if they wanted to keep their hands, if not their necks.

It was something even Alexander might not have suspected.

Which made the oversight even more damning.

Hence he made a solemn note of himself 

\'Darm. from next time, I will ask the guards to make all guests take off all their ornaments and accessories. Even their shoes! Ugh! What a blunder!\' As Alexander rebuked himself.

But the good thing about this was that there was no real harm done.

The would-be culprit had revealed her trick a long way before implementing it and Alexander could let a breath of relief at that.

Hence, recovering himself from the small shock after a while, Alexander then posed, 

"That position….how would you have done it? How would you have slipped it into my drink? That\'s not easy to do." 

Since the thief had revealed one of her tricks, Alexander intended to learn them all to better guard against them

And once again, the poor lady revealed a helpless smile, "I was told to seduce you and get into bed with you my lord. Then try and slip it into your wine at an opportune point while you were distracted," 

"Or if that did not work …. *ruffle*," At this point, with an utterly forlorn look, suddenly the proper lady pulled the upper part of her gown down, revealing her large, bare bunnies to Alexander, "Smear it here and let you lick it off!"

If Alexander really knew how this lady was spinning her webs around him, and playing around him, he certainly would not have had the time of mind to be distracted by the sight of the juggling melons.

Thankfully, the lady had no plans to harm Alexander…yet!

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