Herald of Steel

"Camelia, if you want to be favored by Alexander, you must always respect him. And never speak ill of your lord!" As Lady Parthia withdrew her hand from her daughter's head, she gave this pure sincere advise, wishing the very best for her daughter.

After getting to know the man very intimately, the queen thought she was in good authority to make such an assessment.

Alexander might seem like he did not care much for this such things, but Lady Parthia found deep inside the man remembered it all and would rarely let go of a good chance whenever it presented itself.

"Mmm…. my apologies mother. I… I was foolish to do such a thing back then." While sensing he mother's cautionary tale, the young princess replied swiftly with a nod.

Even the mother did not know, but it took quite an effort for the daughter to own upto her mistakes so easily.

Something that Lady Parthia was still very satisfied with.

However,

"By the way Royal mother, you seem to call the Pasha by his name. Are you two that close?"

Just as Lady Parthia was letting her settle herself, Princess Camelia suddenly made his remark, in a very pure and innocent tone.

For the young princess, she had not really put much thought behind this statement, she was simply stating an observation she had made because it surprised her.

Now, as a concubine, it was still highly improper for Princess Camelia to directly address Alexander by his name, she should have called him master or lord, and knelt when she met him for the first time each day.

The wives only had to bow.

However the princess did away with many of such practices because of her pride and bullheadedness, knowing full well that the man of the house did not put much emphasis on such material things.

However Lady Parthia was different.

She was no young and inexperienced girl who could get away with such a thing.

As the matron of the Tibian royal family, and currently its eldest member, the etiquette she displayed was immensely important, as her every action represented not only her family but that of the whole Tibias.

Hence by all account, Lady Parthia should have addressed Alexander by his full title- for that would be seen as her acknowledging his power over family but still displaying some cold and distance, making it clear she and by extension the Tibian nobles had not yet been fully conquered by the man.

Thus for Lady Parthia to address the man so intimately… like they were chums….

The gorgeous lady's face instantly fell at her daughter's question, the heart once again roaring back to life.

She could not believe she had made such a rookie mistake.

"Ahhh...hahaha… You are right Camelia. Hahaha, look at me, ahhh… how silly to have forgotten," Hence as an attempt to quickly cover it, Lady Parthia let such an exaggerated way of laughter, a kind that Princess Camelia had never really seen her mother show.

However before she could think more of it, she heard her mother also swiftly add quite valiantly,

"Besides, what is wrong with me calling Alexander by his name? He is even younger than your eldest brother. I wont certainly call him by his title even at home!"

"Do not worry Camelia, your Royal Mother is stronger than she looks… she is part of his inner council and holds a lot of influence. This bit of familiary is only natural. The brat won't mind! Hahaha…"

Lady Parthia's heart surged with a powerful wave of pride as she felt her daughter's worshipping gaze as soon as she finished. It was clear her daring to address Alexander by such a demeaning term had totally won the young princess over.

Even she did not dare call pasha with such names.

Not yet knowing this was actually an term of endearment for the man from her mother.

Furthermore, the strict address protocol was also really applied only in very formal settings.

Lady Parthia would neither follow nor she was expected to do so indoors- that would have tired even most diligent of aristocrats.

Thus her claims were not quite as far fetched as it might appear.

So believing her mother to have the pasha's ears, the young princess quickly rationalised the addresse and then even cleverly pleaded,

"Then mother, how about you ask Pasha Alexander to take him to the capital this time? He and I will be alone there. In this house.. there are too many other…."

As Princess Camelia meaningfully trialed off, she pulled a pitiful face, trying to implicitly say the competition here was just too fierce for her to fairly compete.

'Silly girl, you think Alexander will be alone there?' Whilst her mother only silently rolled her eyes inside, finding a million problems with the ask, 'That is the capital… even I do dare imagine the kinds of things you will see there. Absolutely not!'

The lady adamantly decided, as due to already revealed reasons, there was no way for this to happen.

However the clever lady did not oppresse the young girl externally too hard.

There was really no need as the mother quickly reiterated her previous excuses, before promising to talk to Alexander about this again at a convenient chance.

And when even that did not fully satisfy the young girl, Lady Parthia cleverly chimed,

"Silly girl, do you truly believe all those fantastical things written in those books? There is no golden palace there. Those are only children's stories… meant to entertain."

"Think about it, if the Adhanian king truly had a palace of gold, do you think your pasha would not have dug it out and brought it? And if there was a pool of honey and milk….you think Alexander would not have drained it all out?"

".....Hahahaha….." The young princess finally let out a small chuckle at the joke, as she then felt her mother's hand on her head once again, slightly caressing it,

"Trust me Camelia, your man is a lot richer than any king. He might even be the richest man in the world. So there is nothing to see in that city that is not here in Zanzan. Stay here."

There was touch of pride in Lady Parthia's voice as she said this, although it went completely undetected by the oblivious Princess Camelia.

The young princess was much more occupied by the soothing relief of knowing that her future being virtually guaranteed and she became completely placated when her mother promised,

"Let me ask Lady Cambyses to let you stay with me for a few days so we can discuss all this in detail. I am sure she would not mind."

The spoiled girl always loved to be with her mother.

...

Given this conversation had taken place at the dinning table, in front of all the maids, Alexander would of course very quickly come to learn of the contents.

And hearing the matter involved, he even suspected Lady Parthia had done this on purpose, to give him a heads up and spare herself the trouble having to bring up the topic out of the blue.

As for his decision on the matter- well like they had already discussed, he decided to wait till Princess Camelia came to age before making the verdict.

He was also a bit surprised upon learning of the princess' strong desire to be with him. He always thought she disliked him, at least that was the message she gave with some of those looks before.

But regardless of the young princess's thoughts and Alexander's final decision, this matter was soon shelved aside for a few much more important matters.

The first of which was of course the flood.

The torrential rain and roaring winds would stop a full four days later, and it would take around three to four for the flood water to finally begin to recede, thus letting Alexander at last assess the damage and send out relief aid.

And as the men and carts would wheel out, they would come back with a total tally of more than a hundred for casualties, with thousands more displaced and missing.

While the relief wagons would mostly consist of the usual item as suggested by Lady Parthia- dried food like hard biscuits, smoked meat and fish, grounded up grain, firewood, coal, salt, etc. as well as things Alexander added himself, like clothes, many common medicine and even a few doctors from the city's clinic, all of whom had the strict instruction to make the populace drink only boiled water

In addition to this, Alexander would also announce tax breaks for the next two years to all the independent farmers affected by the disaster, as well as giving each family 1,000 ropals in cash.

While for the people in the city, those who had their homes destroyed from falling debris or merchants who lost a significant part of their shop inventory, or even fishermen who had their boats washed out into the sea… everyone was also given various compensation and monetary rewards, thus letting Alexander's prestige once again rise to new heights.

As for the cost of this increase- well after looking at the account books presented before him, there was half a part of him who thought this had not been quite worth it.

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