Herald of Steel

Alexander was initially interested in hearing what Lord Kite had to say when he asked for a meeting.

Who knew it would be pleading on behalf of the nobles and asking him to put pressure on Lord Castell?

Alexander was not interested in doing all that tedious work for free.

Not to mention he also did not think Lord Kite's suggestion of swindling the Margraves for more money was worth any merit- they were even more broke than the current Lord Castell.

So with a gentle scoff, he gently shook his,

"My lord is only saying this because you do not know the true state of Lady Linda's finances. There is no way she can help you even if she wanted. I suggest you and the nobles give up here…Victory and defeats are natural in battle. Take it as part of losing the war. A debt paid to fate." Saying this Alexander paused a bit as a way to put pressure on Lord Kite and then finished by saying,

"Losing even a single battle is sometimes enough to bankrupt even ancient noble houses and even entire countries. The main thing here is to learn from this and grow. I insist you focus on that."

What Alexander really was asking Lord Kite was not to push it.

Lord Castell had made it clear that his family's coffers were not a charity 'bursary' and by now, Miss Linda's stuff was basically his.

Thus for all intents and purposes, the defeated nobles were left to themselves, requiring to rescue the people they valued out of their own pockets.

"....." And hearing this Lord Kite gritted his teeth in frustration.

He had originally hoped Alexander would be more malleable to his persuasion given their previous collaboration.

But despite the objections, Lord Kite was unwilling to back down. The various nobles had promised him perks too lucrative to pass up provided he could get them out of this bind.

Hence with a pleading face, he chimed, "My lord, I do not understand why you would be so against this deal. It helps you too. These people will sell for far less in the slave market than they will get you as ransom!"

"I'm sure that if you insist, Lord Castell will relent! The Heeat family is far more prosperous than what you actually think! And he really can't afford to antagonize so many of us at once. So you should push Lord Castell more." Lord Kite repeated his line as a way to emphasize his point, believing that as the victor of the conflict Alexander had been too lenient in the negotiations.

He wanted him now to squeeze Lord Castell down to his true bottom line, thus extracting the most amount of concessions possible.

"...." While hearing this, Alexander did not know where to laugh or cry.

'Why are you pitting against your own ally? Aren't you supposed to serve them?' He mused, although recalling how Lord Castell had thrown the lot of them under the bus, it was hardly surprising for them to try to repay in kind.

But despite Lord Kite's bait, Alexander was not interested in biting.

The fact of the matter was he was hardly moved by the allure of 'only a few more million ropals'.

When Lord Kite said Alexander did not know how rich the Heeats were, the same thing could be said for him. The man had no idea how rich Alexander was.

Hence the young pasha found the whole thing too tedious to consider.

Not to mention Lord Kite's gross underestimation of the value of the captured men and women.

Given they were the entourage of noblemen fighting so far away from home, undoubtedly they were among the best their households had, they would not have been selected otherwise.

Hence Alexander would have no problem putting these skilled prisoners to good use.

The beautiful women could be given as gifts to his retainers and military officers.

The same could be done with the servants, who were well trained in not only their job but their etiquette and speech as well, thus highly desired as mid level employees, in charge of looking after a group of lesser maids and slaves.

The bodyguards could be sent to join the army or if they were deemed untrustworthy to the fields or mines where their good, strong bodies would be put to good use.

If there were any experts in a rare field such as military engineers or cartographers or the like, they would be of course snatched up without a second thought.

And lastly, there was a class of people who most might have overlooked yet were surprisingly very sought after- cooks!

This might sound strange or even weird but many nobles highly desired good chefs.

This was because they were always looking to expand their taste buds with new and never before tasted flavors and without the existence of virtually any cookbook, each chef from a region was truly unique.

No one outside their own very small, eligible by only birth, exclusive circle would know the techniques that were developed and refined over centuries by their ancestors, thus leading to all kinds of brand new dishes.

And the nobles always highly appreciated these delicacies because they knew if they were able to show off such never before seen dishes to their peers during a feast or party, they would become the main topic of conversation for at least a few months.

This was a great honor even dukes and kings would be unwilling to give up.

It seemed the concept of celebrity chefs existed as much in this time period as it had in the modern 21st century.

It was even something that Alexander had experienced himself given his 'bold' idea when it came to cooking, coming up with dishes such as ravioli, ice cream, carbonara, pasta, and various barbecued and smoked meats to name a few.

The nobles who were able to attend and taste these never before seen foods would become the envy of their peers while those who could not had to hide their faces in shame for weeks on end.

According to the gossip Cambyses sometimes shared, being invited to Alexander's party was a very prestigious thing even when putting aside his inherent status. The spectacle of new food and flavors carried formidable weight in itself.

Thus many close to Alexander would occasionally plead to him privately to let them 'hire' his chefs whenever they were hosting a banquet of their own.

'We have a chef from the Pasha's kitchen,' was apparently the way to advertise your party in Zanzan.

Hence it was very common to gift or lend these culinary to various powers as goodwill gestures.

All in all, these captured men were hardly the burden Lord Kite was making them up to be.

Thus with a firm face, Alexander re-iterated,

"I'm sorry my lord, the treaty has been signed. We are both happy with it. And I would feel disingenuous to bring it back up again with Lord Castell. A gentleman does not break his word."

If Lord Kite was drinking, he might have spit his water.

'You swindled your own ally of more than half her land even when you won and you talk about credibility…' The lord sneered at the back of his mind incredulously, barely stopping his tongue from wagging a bit too much.

Then he wanted to argue how Alexander was wrong about the entire thing and how it could be done without changing anything in the treaty. Lord Castell just needed to pay Alexander cash for the men and women and then retrieve them from the camp.

But soon understood he was missing the main point- Alexander was not interested in discussing this with Lord Castell.

".... then my lord how about we buy them directly from you?" Thus quickly thinking on his feet, Lord Kite proposed with gritted teeth, although his voice sounded a bit hoarse.

The reason why he had not done this before was naturally because they lacked the funds.

And when that dilemma was quickly pointed out by Alexander, he first pleaded,

"Please give us some time to gather the funds, my lord! It will not take long."

But this was quickly rejected by an impromptu snort, "You want to wait as you go all the way back to Lynica, gather the required funds, and then come back once again? Who knows what will happen in the meantime? Am I to house, feed, and cloth so many men and women till then for free?"

There were many examples in history when prisoners were sold or even simply executed to save costs.

"My lord, we are willing to make up for that cost in the subsequent ransom price," And Lord Kite knew this, which was why he was quick to add that cause.

But Alexander was not buying it, posing, "Heh, how many of you can afford your own ransom? Worry about yourself first."

Now, what Alexander was implying was actually not accurate because even though these nobles might not be that rich, they at least could afford to redeem some of the men.

And that was especially true given the 'discount' Alexander was giving them, his asking price was quite reasonable.

Lord Kite was also about to argue when suddenly, Alexander smirked, "Although…. There is something I want!"

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