Herald of Steel-Chapter 1568: Alexander’s Proposal (Part-2)
Alexander had whispered the small sentence almost absentmindedly, gazing out into the Life Sea as he did, his eyes calm and unmoving, his lips curved into a sardonic smile.
"????" Yet that murmur, merely the equivalent of a fly flapping its wings, was enough to send tsunami waves raging into the hearts of all three of his new maids.
The youngest of them even had the urge to cover her ears and run away, her heart filled with such terrors at the sensing of these blasphemous words.
Even Lady Ezaya and Lady Elia could not even believe such words were being said out loud, that the air, earth and the walls were being witness to this. They too unconsciously felt their hearts pound against their chest.
On the opposite side, the experienced Pasha Farzah fared a bit better.
But not by much, as judged by his quivering lips and absolute silence.
"What, my lord? You had the guts to kill the god king! And you are afraid of a mere prince? Seeing this stunned state, Alexander could not help but sneer, sending him almost a mocking glance.
"... Do not utter such rubbish, brat!" However the old man instantly spat back with great venom, his eyes bulging and sounding very offended,
"Alozmer was a mad crook. The whole nobility was glad to see him go. If Amenheraft did not exist, they would not have bothered to even fight me. At most, they would have sneered. However if I touch Ptolomy…." He trailed off, clenching his fist in anger.
"You are afraid your retainers will rebel!" And Alexander helped the old man finish his sentence, sending him an understanding nod.
He seemed to empathize with the old man's dilemma.
Yet, contrary to his expectation, this only earned him a greater scowl- because Pasha Farzah was peeved that Alexander had made the comment despite being aware of this knowledge.
He thought the boy had a lot more tact.
While this example made Alexander truly see just how sacred the royal family actually was to the Adhanians- he had of course seen it before with other landed gentries, but he thought the rebellious Pasha Farzah would be a little different.
After all, he controlled the court at one point.
But it seemed he was as much reverent towards them as the rest of the people.
Killing a god's representative on earth was not something he took lightly… even under perfectly justified reasons.
"Then how about making His Majesty abdicate and put the crown prince in his place? Her Highness can rule as regent in the meantime." So Alexander turned down the severity of his proposition, his tone becoming a bit more expectant.
"Snort! And what will Ptolomy do? Suck his thumb and do 'mum, mum, mum' all day!" Yet that was shot in the face as soon as it appeared in front of Pasha Farzah. The old man could easily see the power hungry Ptolomy never standing for this. As would neither his retainers who had invested so much money and time to sway him over to his side.
"Mmmm… I guess the Queen Mother does lack the same prestige and authority." And realizing the flaws to his own plan, Alexander quickly acceded.
"....." Following this came a sort of uncomfortable silence, as both sides fell into a ruminative spell, thinking what to say.
"Maybe you can talk some sense into him, instead of me. Put that bastard Assazd in his place by offering Ptolomy something!" Until Pasha Farzah at last broke the silence to suggest this.
It did not take a second for Alexander to guess what the old man was truly asking, and in response, he quite imperiosly snorted,
"You gave him the throne, yet he is not grateful. And you think me selling a few trinkets will fix that? Heh, mark my words… the next time I see him in court, he will demand I hand him over something just because he is king. Glass or sugar, or even only paper. Snort, I wonder that lame, wort ladden excuse he will come up then!"
Alexander moved his body officiously and his eyes blazed with anger as he made the solemn prediction.
And as proof of its veracity, Pasha Farzah did not strike back, but only produced a thin, rueful smile, "You young ones are so full of energy. Back in my days, if a king asked you something, you gave it with a smile and asked if he needed anything else."
Then turning his voice much softer and pleasing, asked,
"Try to please Ptolomy as best as you can, brat. This is sincere advice. We cannot afford to tear ourselves apart when the sharks are already circling us!"
"..." Alexander at first did not want to reply either way to this.
Because he felt there was too much of a 'generational' gap. Pasha Farzah might be pleased with bending the knee, but he was not.
Hence he arrogantly mused to himself,
'You have already had your greatest revenge Farzah. And now you are old with one leg already in the grave. So you see anything more the heavens give you as a bonus. You are content to simply be where you are.'
'But I am not like you! I have far, far greater ambitions. Ambitions that if you were to know of, would probably have a heart attack. Hehehe, you think becoming merely a Pasha and conquering Tibias was the end of it? No, no, no! I am not even 25 years old. I have my whole life ahead of me. What would I do with it if I simply stopped here?'
Fueled by these thoughts, Alexander's heart began to imagine how Pasha Farzah would react if he were to know of a slave like Alexander's intention, and after a while, found he could not stop himself commenting with a curled smile.
"I believe Lord Farzah has already tried his best with that. And you are far more shrewd and competent than me. So to think I would be able to single handedly change His Majesty's mind… is frankly overestimating me a bit."
"Of course I will still try…" He flashed his palms quickly before the overzealous Pasha Farzah got to urge him to be patient, then also added, "But I think we need to look at other options too. Most importantly I want to figure out what is Lord Assazd's play here. Is he here solely to mess things up? Is he part of Amenheraft's faction? And does he hate Ptolomy or only you?"
Pasha Farzah's eyes widened slightly at the pointed questions…for people in Adhania were usually not so direct with their queries.
In fact, as lovers of literature and poetry, the more winded they were with their words and the more sophisticated they sounded, the better everyone praised them for their speech.
"....I think it is a bit of all three to be honest!" The old man finally gave the answer with a slight smirk on his lips,
"He certainly hates me. And Amenheraft is without doubt giving him some support. But I do not think that support is serous… that waste of a son in law just wants to cause trouble for me."
"And that the reptile Assazd is more power hungry than anything else. He wants to once again become the king's father in law and this time, also have the court under his thumb."
In this way, Pasha Farzah spoke about the Matbar (Marquiss) in a very demeaning tone, implying the man had no honor.
Thus to confirm his observation, Alexander quickly posed, "How did he react when Alozmer killed his daughter?"
Pasha Farzah mockingly grinned the answer, "Hehehe, you are sharp as ever, brat! Yes, you guessed it right, I also thought he would be the perfect ally. But when I went to him with the plan, the snake almost exposed me."
"Tsk! Like I said, if you promise the bastard enough power… you can shit on his face and he will still lick your asshole clean!"
Pasha Farzah ended the sentence in a very, very vulgar way, spitting out this with extreme venom.
Yet hearing it,
"Pffff.." The youngest Lady Anisha could not help but blurt out a tiny chuckle.
She had tried to really hold herself in, as it was considered extremely rude for a maid to interrupt while her master was entertaining guests, but somehow, the words and the way the old, posh Pasha said it made it really comical to her.
She was unable to stop herself despite her best efforts.
This instantly got her a glare from her two elder sisters, and the lady quickly excused herself from the balcony, "Hahahaha….hahaha… hahaha," however her uproarious laughter was so loud, it could soon be heard drifting out from her own room.
And upon hearing this, Alexander also got a bit infected as did Pasha Farzah.
Both their lips twitched with a jerk, but then suddenly it died down as out of totally nowhere Alexander curved his eyes to propose, "Can we kill him?"
"...." The amusing atmosphere instantly shattered, Lady Ezaya's heart once again leaped, and Pasha Farzah nearly spat out his drink.
"Brat, you really need to learn to be more tactful with your words!" Then, slamming down his glass with a shout, he proceeded to give Alexander an actual earful
"Why are you so eager to even bring up this word? Kill! Kill! Kill! Has taking Tibias and a bit of that island made you feel that invincible? You think you can't lose. Don't you remember it was this very thing that got Djoser at your doorsteps! Stop saying stupid things!"
The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆novelkiss
