Herald of Steel

"Do not worry, Alexander, I will even have the men construct some wooden barracks for the officers. Not a single man will catch a cold or fall ill under my watch," Wishing ally all of his lord's fears, Menes confidently thumped his chest, firmly replying with a sharp gaze.

And seeing it, Alexander felt a major worry leave his heart.

However that hardly meant the man was at peace as his attention was soon turned to another grave matter- the fact that there had not been a peep about anyone coming to receive him from Ptolomy's side.

The abnormality of such a thing did not really need to be spelled out- Alexander had told the man he was coming long ago, and more glaringly he had been right under the king's nose for days, with an enormous entourage to boot.

The man could have been unconscious and still felt the steel thuds of his 6,000 men.

Yet… he was so muddleheaded that it seemed he wished to see Alexander knock on the gates of Adhan all alone by himself.

'Snort, you wish to have me enter the city like a stray dog, the city I got you! Dream on! I would rather spend the night here! And then if you still do not meet, I will turn back!'

Watching the orange hue of the sky overtake the blue, Alexander thus swore this in his heart, determined to play this game if Ptolomy was truly willing.

Alexander was usually a very easy going man, and rarely picked others on any type of breach of etiquette. Such as many of Alexander's old mates from his mercenary days occasionally called him directly by his name, simply out of habit.

And Alexander always pretended to not notice and simply carry on the conversation regardless.

The only times he put on airs was if he felt someone was trying to take advantage or to establish authority in order to stop chaos.

And similarly Alexander understood Ptolomy was intentionally disrespecting him here.

Thus even when the twin black beauties approached him, curious and more obviously irritated, asking,

"Alexander, what is taking so long?" and "Why are we not entering? I want to see grandpa,"

The pasha remained adamant, turning to give the weary girls a light, insincere smile the first time,

"Your Highnesses, my profound apologies. But there have been some problems with the gifts I brought for His Majesty. We seemed to have misplaced a few of the items. Ah, please be a little more patient. I have sent my best men to search for the wagons. I am sure we will have in no time."

Then once as the sun turned from orange to almost red, the girls came again, even angrier as they were also getting very hungry, asking what was taking so long, and Azura evening wished to go on ahead without Alexander, feeling the present problem was Alexander's problem, not her's.

However Alexander still stood his ground,

"Your Highness, it is getting very late. And there are too many unknown men in the city. Many have come for the pilgrimage but there are quite a few scoundrels as well. It would not be wise to move. Let us stay the night. We will enter first thing tomorrow morning."

"Come, my men have already set up camp. Food will be served shortly."

And although he set up the words as an invitation, the girls felt an unusual level of strength in his words, unlike anything they had ever heard before.

Alexander was not asking. He was going to stay the night here.

While the girls, especially the fiery Azura also refused to go down without a fight, claiming this did not make any sense. That the city during this time of the year was more safer than at any other time.

"My lord, we never expected you to show up with such a huge entourage."

Fortunately, both Alexander and the strong headed princesses were spared the possibility of spilling any blood as close to the time of the sun setting, a few riders dressed in red and holding Ptolomy's banner met up with Alexander.

Fortunately the king had not become that foolish to the point of fully antagonizing one of his strongest allies.

Although that hardly did anything to assuage the currently simmering Alexander, who directly mocked this clean, shaven, middle aged nobleman, "Did not expect it? Heh, I have been here in Adhan a week. Yet you do not know the size of my entourage? Has everyone in the capital suffered leprosy and turned blind?"

"....." The man's joyous eyes quickly dimmed and his cheeks visibly flushed at Alexander's open disdain. He very well understood the game being played here, that a pasha like Alexander should not have been greeted like this, so late and after making him wait so long.

But what use was telling this to him?

It was all Ptolomy's decision- he was just a minor player, a pawn.

So the poor, relatively minor noble tried to make do with whatever tools he had at the moment, "My lord, you misunderstand. His Majesty was just a bit …"

Quickly hoping to extricate himself by coming up with a believable explanation, the flustered man raised his palms and began to chime in a flustered tone.

Too bad he was interjected mid air in an imperious 'hurramph' from Alexander,

"Forget it. I already know your excuses. He was busy with the Jtaama. He was busy with Lady Mikaya's wedding. He was busy entertaining the nobles. He was with the recently conceived Queen Mother and Princess Hellma. So which type of busy was he?"

Alexander was too impatient to be in the mood to hear any such drivel, thus angrily flashed his palms.

"..." And the nobleman felt the words had been snatched out of his mouth, unable to make even a peep.

"Unless there is an active war going on inside the city and the palace is under siege, there is no explanation on why I kept out here waiting for so long!" Alexander then lastly spewed out like a hot, flaming breath, causing the man, despite being much older than Alexander, to appear many times smaller and diminutive.

He of course had nothing to counter with.

"....." Thus a strange, uncomfortable silence descended upon the place, where the guest vehemently rebuked his host for not being courteous enough.

And soon, the whole air appeared to turn stagnant, making it quite an unpleasant place to be in.

"Uncle Iyizard. We came a long way after an extremely long day's march. Are you just going to watch and make us wait even more?"

When suddenly, Azura of all people decided to step up, turning to give an elder looking black man dressed in modest clothes at the back a sort of angry look.

This gentle looking man had positioned himself in a relatively innocuous corner, and by making the other middle aged nobleman at the very front wear very flashy armor and thus letting him stand out, he was able to mix himself into the accompanying entourage without drawing any curious eyes.

Then as the angry Alexander quickly focused his gaze on him at the mention, his heart instantly shook a bit, and all his anger appeared to melt away like snow.

"Lord Iyizard," He clenched out with a slightly embarrassed face, his lips awkwardly twitching.

The man was the current coin master of Adhania, responsible for overseeing the economy and at a crisp age of sixty plus, he was one of the most experienced and senior nobles at court.

But much more importantly, he was Lady Inayah's father.

"I… I did not see you there…" The Pasha of Zanzan thought he had hardly ever felt so much embarrassment as he was now, the sense of it becoming more and more intense as the sight became more and more clear.

To have lashed out like this in front of one of his genuine allies and towards such a senior man at that…

'Tsk, such a cheap trick. The old fox knew I was boiling with rage. So he let this poor fool bear the brunt of it. Making him play the jester.'

'And I also was also stupid enough to fall for it, thinking Ptolomy had sent a low level delegation to escort me. Tsk, my head must have been kicked in by a donkey!' Alexander heavily rebuked himself upon figuring out the trick.

Especially as Lord Iyizard's small 'prank' was not anything sophisticated.

In fact, it was pretty straight forward with just one component- letting a gullible noble think he had been given the honor of escorting a pasha, perhaps currently the most dangerous pasha.

But perhaps that was what made the whole thing so effective.

Alexander fell into the trap- hook, line and sinker without even considering any other alternative.

Thankfully Azura was there to notice him.

The twin princesses might not care one bit for politics but that did not mean they were also blind. They were actually quite sharp and because they did not wish to watch Alexander's tirade of chewing the other man out, they had turned their gaze elsewhere, where they suddenly detected this anomaly.

From this it was just a small jump in deduction and…viola they got to 'outperform' Alexander, quite a rare feat indeed.

Hopefully this was a one time thing.

"Hahaha, it is nice to see you again, nephew. You have grown up quite a bit."

While lightly stepping forward with springy step, Lady Inayah's father gave a gentle chuckle, his wrinkled cheeks parting to reveal a cordial smile.