Herald of Steel

Alexander was currently staring at what would be normally called an extremely ravishing sight- the voluptuous Queen Mother was sitting fully bare chested opposite him, readily inviting him to have a taste of her enormous, perfect melons.

Yet, right now, he found little allure in it.

Instead it seemed to fill him with some anger as he found the price tag Seelima set to touch them simply ridiculous.

Alexander had already spent quite a lot coming here- first, on the accompanying troops and their food and provisions and secondly, on the many expensive gifts he brought for Ptolomy. The latter was especially costly.

And all this was on top of another much larger debt they already owed him.

Hence sharply directing his gaze on the towering peaks, Alexander coldly reminded the Queen Mother, "The royal family has yet to close the credit on the goods they had purchased from me this year. So shouldn't I be getting that first? ...when can I expect those payments, Your Highness?"

Here Alexander was referring to the trade that occurred between Zanzan and Adhan. To save all the hassle, the provinces did not use cash in every transaction.

Rather it was a type of barter system- where Zanzan brought meat, food, clothes, ores, timber, etc. in exchange for iron, glass, sugar, etc.

But the one caveat was that this balance was not equal.

Adhan bought far more goods from Zanzan than it gave, consuming many of the place's unique luxuries for itself while reselling a large portion to others.

So the deal they put was that Adhan would, due to being cash strapped, buy those excess goods from Alexander on credit, and then repay him once they had made a profit from their sale.

This repayment usually happened once or twice a year, where ships filled with gold would travel from Lady Inayah's port of Agnirat to Zanzan under heavy guard, docking at his port and ultimately unloading the gold into Alexander's treasury.

However this year, the deadline was rapidly approaching and Alexander could still not sense any will in Ptolomy to repay him. In fact, given the kind of backstabbing the ungrateful man had just pulled today, the latter became highly skeptical of ever getting his money back.

Thus for him to put even more money on top of that as being asked by the Queen Mother…

Seelima outwardly met Alexander's cold ask with a firm gaze, outwardly not showing any weakness, but also lampooning inside, 'Sigh, this brat is too hard to control. He is clearly lustful…and still….why can't he just take the bait?'

Yet, with that same note of complaint, Seelima also felt great admiration for the man's level of self control. She likely would not have offered herself so openly if Alexander were any less than that.

Because if he could be swayed easily by her here, then he could also be swayed by others elsewhere. And she hated a man who did not keep his word.

Thus as a reward for Alexander's stoicness, Seelima decided to skip the excuses she had prepared and instead revealed truthfully,

"The royal treasury will not be able to make the full payment this year, my lord. 'We'... 'I' do not know the details… but expenses have been far greater than expected. So, 'we' will you pay the whole amount next time?"

Alexander's frown instantly went from bad to ugly at the words. Because if the royal family could not complete their payment this quarter, then how were they going to complete double the amount the next time?

Alexander very well knew in business that when a debtor said, 'I will pay you back later,' it was usually code for 'that money is now mine.'

And right now, the broke royal family fit that mold to the tee.

Thus he spat out a bit harshly with angry eyes, "...expenses? What expenses? Has Adhan gone to some war I do not know of? Or has there been a major natural disaster requiring relief? Has His Majesty started some major project?"

"No! Even then… given the amount of goods I gave you… by all accounts you should be rolling in gold. Your treasuries should be struggling to hold all of it! In fact, before coming here, I was even thinking of asking to borrow some money from you. But… how did this exactly happen?"

"..." The Queen Mother's eyes quickly shifted at Alexander's prodding and she even a bit defensively crossed her arms under her still bare chest.

Honestly she too was a bit embarrassed… to be so blatantly begging Alexander- a man so young and of such unknown blood. As a royal, and a woman as proud and haughty as her… well, let us just say if she and Alexander were not so close, this conversation would have certainly been a lot different.

In fact, this was one of the reasons Lady Inayah was absent from the discussion- she had wanted to come but Seelima rejected it, insisting on a one on one conversation.

Yes, the Queen Mother was even embarrassed to share the full extent of the plan she had about Alexander with her best friend.

'Sigh!' Seelima ultimately let out a small sigh inside her heart under Alexander's scrutiny, lampooning at how clear the man's thoughts were despite the distracting sight. Her failure to seduce him honestly hurt a bit.

"Hellma! Come here."

So she decided to switch to plan B!

And this abrupt change of tune certainly caught the man opposite off guard.

"...!!!..." Alexander had been eagerly waiting for the Queen Mother to explain where all the money had gone when the mature lady eschewed all replies and simply twisted her head towards one of the dark rooms at the back to call for her only daughter.

It only took a few seconds for the regal lady's order to manifest as slowly stepping out of the darkness, Hellma, Alozmer's youngest princess and Ptolomy's half sister as well as his lover made her entrance.

This was Alexander's first time officially meeting this princess since he got here- she was similarly pregnant as her mother and as her due date was soon, she chose to seclude herself in her room to rest and relax, keeping away from all the chaos and commotion and refusing any and all guests.

In fact, she did not even attend the annual Jtaama this year, receiving a direct pardon from Ptolomy- the son of Ramuh on medical grounds. The man feared for the 'son' she was carrying that much.

Although interestingly, the Queen Mother received no such adoration even though both were in near identical stages of conception, being still required to complete all the religious rites- many of which were physically quite demanding.

Even a blind man could tell who Ptolomy favored more.

As for the reason why, well there were several.

For one, Ptolomy did not appreciate Seelima trying to always advise and sometimes even vetoing his decisions. He saw this as too much meddling and even a threat to his power.

Secondly, there was the simple matter of attraction- Ptolomy found the young and youthful Hellma much more to his liking. In fact, he had always liked her more than her mother, as seen by how he had only taken her when he fled the capital upon Amenheraft's return.

And now she was his most 'new' girl, someone he had pursued from almost the time he first saw here and the one he had obtained only recently with the greatest difficulty.

Compare this to Seelima, who was always nagging and so easily available… that rare and exotic factor was missing for her.

In addition to all that, the Queen Mother for all her charms and looks was still considered somewhat old, by both Ptolomy as well as Adhanian standards in general. These men got to see girls get married in their teens and then become grandmothers by their mid thirties… so for them… Seelima was honestly a bit beyond her most charming point in life.

Now, this point did not much affect Alexander who was used to seeing women marry and have kids at much later stages of their lives and actually found their maturity an alluring addition. And as a matter of fact, Alexander's genuine appreciation for Seelima's looks was one of the reasons why the lady had mellowed so much to him by now, as compared to her initial extremely frosty reception.

But Ptolomy did not subscribe to that thought and instead found the much quieter and obedient Hellma more to his liking.

And the last reason for Ptolomy favoring Hellma more was that in some parts of Adhania, especially the capital- Adhan, there was a bad superstition that those women who gave birth to daughters first were cursed only to give birth to daughters.

Thus Ptolomy was suspicious of the Queen Mother's actual ability to fulfill his needs.

Now of course all this was nonsense- in reality an equal number of girls were born after their elder brothers as vice versa- the gender of the child had no effect on the following conception.

More pertinently, the sex of the child depended entirely on the male, even though it was always the women who were picked on.

But who was going to teach Ptolomy that? Who could even make him believe in this statement?

The extremely observant Queen Mother was naturally more or less fully aware of all the reasons behind her and her daughter's difference in treatment.

So in revenge, she decided to pull something with her daughter that even made Alexander's eyes widen in shock and amazement.