Herald of Steel

Alexander was indeed starting to enjoy the young princess’s body when suddenly the smell of her perfume distracted him- quickly, a hundred different thoughts raced inside him, and by the end of it, he found himself turning to the Queen Mother for answers.

’Where was all the money and how Ptolomy played into all this?’

"..." Seelima wrinkled her shapely nose at this, her amorous eyes turning cold and sharp. She was quite unhappy that Alexander had chosen to dig this topic up again- why could he not simply take the gift and enjoy it without asking too many questions?

Flashing a very professional smile, she thus tried to avoid him with an airy wave of her dainty hands, "My lord is worrying too much. ’We’ can talk about this more when ’we’ are... in a more appropriate setting. For now.... " she temptingly leaned forward, swaying her chest, "Let ’us’ enjoy ourselves!"

Alexander would have to admit even though it was old, old technique, the sight of those melons swinging naked in front of him was a mighty distraction. He already had his fill with Hellma, yet felt a great urge to bite into the juicy fruits.

Fortunately, the man had enough firmness in him not to be easily swept by the suggesting current. In addition, he also recalled a previous note he had made to himself.

Thus softly putting his hands over the swelling belly of the daughter, he directly met the regal queen’s gaze,

"Your Highness... I will ’contribute’ to you just as I promised... you do not need to worry about that. But I need to know where my money will go. Will it solely belong to you? Or will it get added to the royal treasury? If it does, will it be safe? Is Pto... is anyone spending too excessively from it?"

A dark shadow flashed over Seelima’s fair face at the query- as if she had just recalled some terrible numbers. But she swiftly buried these concerns inside her and promised again with an animated wave of her hands, "My lord, does not need to worry, the money will only belong to me."

"...." This simple sentence answer was however unsatisfactory for Alexander.

On one hand, he highly doubted Seelima’s ability to actually to this- imagine what would happen if Ptolomy got a whiff of the money and then, in the name of the king, insisted she hand it over.

As his consort and subject, she was legally obligated to fulfill that request.

According to Adhanian law, a husband had almost full right to a wife’s wealth... except for what she might have inherited from her father, and even that had several glaring loopholes and workarounds.

Hence, Ptolomy, as the lord of Seelima’s household, almost had limitless power to get his hands on that money.

Secondly, who was to say Seelima herself was not the spendthrift? After all, it was a well known fact that the Queen Mother had very expensive taste. Alexander did not yet know her well enough to guess her limits.

Now admittedly this latter option was a bit far fetched- if Seelima truly did have access to the money, she would not be begging him like so right now, nor would she have asked him for a stipend in the previous meeting.

So this was more of Alexander’s way of making the lady hand more power over to him. He simply kept staring at the lady with a set of cool, expectant eyes, invisibly pressuring her to add more constraints to herself.

And with him holding so many of the cards, he was indeed successful.

The Queen Mother understood the game and after a bit of tense silence, reluctantly promised with clenched fists, "I will also only use it through your discretion. Is that enough?"

"...." Alexander’s gaze finally softened at the compromise....but the sharpness did not go away fully. This was because he already considered this as part of the deal- his idea was that Seelima would suggest policies as the prime minister and then Alexander would use his funds to implement them. He did not plan to directly give Seelima a single ropal.

While the Queen Mother was under that exact misimpression- she thought Alexander would put a pile of gold at her feet and it would be solely up to her to dictate his utility.

Hence Alexander’s lukewarm reaction to her ’great’ compromise peeved her.

"Is my lord still unsatisfied?"

Alexander could almost hear the Queen Mother gritting her teeth in anger, eyes becoming chilly yet simultaneously blazing. According to her, she had already sold her body to him and was even willing to grovel like this...yet... there was still no sign of making him happy.

Seelima thus began to feel Alexander was only trying to take advantage of her weakness and bully her into becoming his puppet. As someone who saw herself as a blue blooded royal carrying divine blood, this was utterly incensing.

"Haha, no, no, Your Highness. I was just surprised by your magnanimity. Thank you, thank you. I am relieved to know that the money is in good hands!"

Alexander too sensed the noble lady’s rising temper, and given how mercurial the Queen Mother had shown herself to be, decided for now it would be best to simply back off. He could poke her with the details once the matter of money actually became a necessity.

Hence he answered her with a wide grin and excited eyes, only additionally chiming, "Only Your Highness... could you tell where you heard that the royal treasury is empty. I would like to find out its exact extent."

"...." The thought that Alexander was going to find out precisely how broke her family was made the Queen Mother a bit uncomfortable. But she swiftly overcame that feeling, realizing this was only inevitable. If Alexander was going to give them money, he needed to know their account’s health.

Thus lazily leaning back to her couch, the Queen Mother rearranged her legs with a sexy swipe and whispered, "I do not know the exact state... he, Ptolomy never told me. I only heard this from Inayah. She approached me a few days ago on behalf of her father... as you know Lord Iyizarid is in charge of the treasury and he wanted me to arrange a meeting between you and him. It seems wants to request some kind of loan."

"...." Alexander’s lips involuntarily twitched at this news, and his heart unconsciously thumped. His fear of being treated as a ’wishing well’ was becoming true alarming fast.

"...I see!" Taking a pause to reorient himself, Alexander was only able to summon a dry, curt response and not even bother to feign an interest in meeting the elder lord. Rather his head was now working full time on how to avoid the man and find some alternative ways to check the royal family’s account books.

Alexander’s low, unenthusiastic response was a telltale clue for the Queen Mother into his inner thoughts and it made her amusedly chuckle, "Hehehe... see, didn’t I tell you brat... you were going to have to part with that money regardless. So better you give it to me than him."

"..." Alexander would have been a bit angry about the Queen Mother being so flippant about his coin if not for how beautiful she currently looked. That wide, candid smile, pleased and vibrant, seemed to soak in all the light in the room and present itself as the only object worth observing.

The man would have to admit- Seelima might have the sinful figure of a succubus, able to tempt any men and even many women through it, but her most attractive feature was still her face.

Perfect, gorgeous and full of mature charm, it could make heads turn whenever it went.

Even Alexander was not immune to its effects as he right now subconsciously found himself becoming a bit smitten. A part of him even had the outrageous thought that it would not be too bad just to give her all the money she wanted... simply to please her. Then perhaps she would occasionally look at him with favor.

The Queen Mother did not miss the longing look Alexander was giving her- she had received the same from thousands, if not tens of thousands of men. But somehow getting it from this young man felt different- it made a certain part of her hot and flushed.

So producing a proud, victorious grin, she decided to take full advantage of this momentary lull in the enemy’s defenses.

"Do not worry, brat, your money will not go to waste with me. I will even help you clean up the mess you created." Seelima made the mysterious proposal with a confident lift of her chin, smirking at the man confidently, "You did not really think people would simply forget Lord Assazd’s death because of what happened at court today, right? Never! They are simply a bit distracted..."

"Now... that was a good job on your part, I concur. To move the attention from our petty squabbling towards the true enemy. Hehehe.... I expected nothing less from you, brat."

"But as brilliant as it was.... you would do well to remember this is only a temporary fix. What you did has made Ptolomy afraid and if I know that boy, he will see you punished."

"I am also guessing you are not really aware of how powerful Assazd truly was. His faction is not going to simply forget what you did. They might not have proof... but when has that stopped anybody? They will strike.. either soon or after bidding their time."