Herald of Steel

Lady Nanazin of course understood why Alexander bought up her daughter's lineage. If they were truly Ptolomy's, no doubt he would have married all three of the princesses without a second's thought, becoming the king's son in law and a branch of the royal family.

Alexander would have never let the girls marry anyone else even if they wished otherwise- they were politically that precious.

Free will be damned.

However the truth was very different… they were actually of quite low lineage, with basically no family background to speak of.

The father had in all but name disowned them while their mother's family ceased to exist in their minds for more than two decades.

This made it quite difficult for Alexander to justify this 'expense'. His wives would certainly object to such 'wasteful expenditure'.

Of course, if Alexander was willing to bear the cost no matter what, he could still take them. At the end of the day, his womenfolk could only advise and protest against his actions, they lacked any hard power to force him to do anything.

But as expected such nuclear options were rarely without massive fallout.

So the core issue arose- Why? Why would Alexander go through all that trouble for them?

It was not like he was in love with the three girls.

In fact, he hardly knew them, only occasionally meeting during parties and large get togethers.

So Alexander made it clear through his body language that he was not going to have them.

While Lady Nanazin shivered at the mere thought of bringing this topic up with her daughters, feeling dreadful darkness overcome her.

She very much did not want to be the one to tell her daughters that instead of princesses, they were really little better than the palace maids, if not somehow worse.

At least those girls were not bastards and born out of wedlock in a cheating scandal.

"How do you expect me to say it? What do I even say?" Lady Nanazin's voice thus nearly choked as she objected to Alexander's 'unreasonable' ask, eyes suddenly turning watery.

"..." Meanwhile, the man underneath produced a pensive face, choosing to remain. This was a rhetorical question and Alexander knew anything he said would be used against him.

"...." And Lady Nanazin too did not insist after a while, knowing deep down she would have to find the answer herself.

The three sisters would certainly not believe anyone else.

But once they came to know… Lady Nanazin very much feared being hated by them.

'You deceived us!'

'How could you hide such a thing?'

'You mean our whole life was a lie!'

Lady Nanazin's ears began to already ring with thoughts of such accusing screams and the queen even began to feel a bit lightheaded.

As for explaining herself and telling them how much she suffered to protect them… she too felt ashamed.

Not only about the adult nature of the things she did, but more so the fact that as a mother this was something she simply was expected to do for her daughters. Thus to use her sacrifice in such a way…it felt cheap and manipulative to her own self.

Lady Nanazin could not in good conscience say to them that she had greatly suffered to protect them and so they should just accept it.

In fact, she felt her daughters had every reason to be angry as a creeping cold, dread began to spread through her arms and legs.

"Do not worry. The worst is unlikely to come."

It was Alexander's sudden somber voice that broke the worried queen out of her speeding thoughts, as she heard him reassure her,

"Ptolomy won't do that to your daughters. It will be embarrassing for him too. As a king, how can he openly admit that he raised another man's child for twenty years? I am sure I can talk him down to a more reasonable deal."

Lady Nanazin's eyes momentarily flickered with hope at this, but then,

"No, you underestimate that spineless bastard!" she chimed the objection against Alexander's optimistic look, her voice suddenly turning cold and hard, very different from the meek and wounded tone just a second ago.

It seemed just the mere mention of her husband was enough to stir her heart ablaze, as gritting her teeth, she spat, "He hates me and my daughters to his guts… he will do anything to hurt me. The cost does not matter,"

"And it will not even be that damning to him. He can just shamelessly say as a poor, powerless prince, he was forced by his family to accept this humiliation. Or else his father would have left the sickly man to rot." She frowned, clenching her fist in anger.

"....." And as Alexander processed this different viewpoint…. indeed he could see those loyal to Ptolomy just glance over this 'little crack' with a mere glance and instead focus more on praising his union with the Queen mother's daughter- Hellma.

'Lady Nanazin and her daughters are just bastards His Majesty was forced to put up with due to extenuating circumstances. The king's true consort is Princess Hellma.' They could claim, and then even demand the four be put to death for deceiving the son of god.

"....." Alexander once again sighed a bit in his heart at the realization, thinking about the complicated mess he got himself into.

"*Sigh*, why does he hate you hate you so much?" He mindlessly muttered to himself.

"....." Lady Nanazin of course could not give any answer to this- because there was none.

Alexander could understand Lady Nanazin's dislike of Ptolomy- given what he had done to her, it would have been more weird if she did not.

But the reverse was hardly that obvious. Lady Nanazin had done nothing to gain such contempt.

In fact, she was an extremely loyal wife, much more than the typical spouse, working tirelessly day and night to please her husband.

She followed all the royal protocol to the tee, never giving anyone the slightest chance to ridicule her man because of her shortcomings and never even objected to her lord's commands no matter how unreasonable or depraved they might have been.

Whatever he asked her to do, whatever time he asked her to get up, in whatever ways he asked to her spread her legs, and whatever he told her to say during those times… she did it all without question. Stay connected through My Virtual Library Empire

She even played a significant role in the success of his rebellion. So Ptolomy got where he was today in large parts due to her.

Yet for all her efforts and loyalty, what did she get?

Absolute scorn, unbearable pain, and relentless bullying.

Alexander at first thought Ptolomy was loathing his wife for simply what she represented- him being forced into an unwanted marriage and made to take care of her bastard daughters as his own.

However, even if that was the case, this was hardly the lady's fault. All of it had been arranged by her father.

So if Ptolomy should hate anyone, it should be Matbar (Marquiss) Tareeq.

But like they said- hatred did not need a reason.

Ptolomy hated Lady Nanazin simply because he could, simply because of what she reminded of him, and even simply because of her face.

And against such pure hatred, Alexander figured it would be difficult to make any meaningful deal just based on the threat of reputation.

"Sigh*, you seem to know a lot about His Majesty." So he turned to give Lady Nanazin a playful smirk.

"...." To which Lady Nanazin only sent Alexander a small glare, before clenching out through her beautifully arranged teeth, "Of course I know the bastard. I hate him as much as he does me! I can simply guess everything he will do just by putting myself in his shoes and asking what I would do."

This was very much a case of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer, as after staying together for so now Lady Nanazin had developed almost a sixth sense regarding the man. And Alexander even wondered if the inverse was also true.

While the lady's eyes kept blazing even after she said this, suddenly turning to snap at Alexander, "And stop calling him His Majesty. When did you gain this new fetish, huh?"

"....." Alexander amusedly pursed his lips at the harsh tone, finding it more cute than offensive.

As a man, he would admit he found excellent enjoyment in Lady Nanazin badmouthing her husband while he enjoyed her mature, curvy body. It stroked his ego and drowned his guilt.

"Then what about your father? If His… if Ptolomy reveals your secret, won't his dirty tick also come to light. I believe such a scandal from an honorable Matbar (Marquis) house would be too damning!"

"Honorable… heh!" Lady Nanazin produced the deepest frown yet at Alexander's mention, muttering the words with great disdain.

Yet she did not rebuke him.

As she thought about it, the image of her ruthlessly ambitious father flashed before her and she found it hard to imagine such a man would take any of these 'nasty rumors' too kindly.

"I am completely estranged from my family. I do not know. But.."

"Great! See, I told you we could find a way if we just thought about it!" That slight doubt was enough for Alexander to cheer and break the lady out of her nadir.

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