Herald of Steel

Alexander’s eyes lifted in surprise at Mikaya’s sudden request, his thoughts almost stumbling over themselves. He had difficulty making heads or tails of the request.

If she wanted to abort, why did she come to him? He was no doctor, nor was abortion particularly a difficult matter for her- it happened so regularly among nobles that it was hardly worth discussing.

Not to mention the question of why she wanted to abort in the first place anyway.

“What?” So with a slightly cramped smile, Alexander twitched his lips, confused how to respond.

“You heard me correctly.” Mikaya repeated herself in a somber tone, showing a side to her that was a first for Alexander, “I do not want to bear Shahel’s child. But he will also not let me have any medicine. So help me.”

“…..” The man fell even more silent hearing this, his eyes producing a sort of glazed, blank look- there was a lot to unpack there in those short, succinct sentences.

“What exactly happened?” It took a while for him to finally break the silence, as slouching his back with a slight frown, he at last asked this.

‘Whew..’ Mikaya did not show but up until then, Alexander’s muteness had her back dripping with sweat. But now that he had taken the pains to ask this question, it made the cornered girl breathe a great sigh of relief, reassured that she had not been outright rejected.

With a fluffy heart, she quickly recited,

“He wants me to give a son as quickly as possible. But I do not want to have a wedding with a swollen belly. Lord father, he… ” Fear glazed over Mikaya’s beautiful eyes as she trailed off over the obvious point, only returning after a while, “Anyway… I have talked to Shahel about this… but he has refused to listen. So, Lord Alexander… I only have you.”

Mikaya gave the most pleading, puppy dog eyes as she finished, and upon meeting her gaze, Alexander immediately felt he had been hit in the heart by an arrow. That big, beautiful, doleful look was really something else.

She also made a really good point, because in Adhania, it was indeed a great taboo for a bride to be pregnant even before the wedding. With the availability of the legummum, no girl would ever even consider this.

“….” However, as logical as it was, Alexander still did not appear impressed with the excuse.

Rather, he frankly shook his head in a sort of rejection,

“No! Your father even sent his most precious granddaughters to me before the official ceremony. And you think a bit of premarital pregnancy is going to do anything?” The man lightly snorted, waving his hands dismissively,

“Your marriage is currently too valuable to be disrupted by such trivial concerns. Even if you are nine months due and cannot walk, your father will look over it like it was nothing… only chuckling over that Shahel was unable to keep his hands over his new bride. The alliance between Matrak and Rusti is far too valuable.”

Firmly declaring so, Alexander turned his eyes sharp and penetrating, “So Mikaya… tell me the real reason why you want this to be done.”

“…..” Alexander thought he spotted a brief shadow of panic glaze over Mikaya as his eyes met hers, it was an emotion he had never seen before. It was almost like the girl was cursing Alexander for being so perceptive.

“Will you not help me if I do not answer?” She gritted out with some bitterness in her voice, turning her face small and forlorn.

And the flushing look was such a beautiful sight that Alexander’s heart instinctively leaped a bit, ‘God, she is stunning!’

Those crystal blue eyes, fluffy, rosy cheeks, thick, cheery lips, silvery white collar bones, and that deep, snowy ravine bound by only a red lacy bra- no man could resist the alluring sight.

Alexander completely understood why Shahel was unable to keep his hands off of her… even Alexander’s loins almost stirred to life despite being fully satisfied.

That is also why although Alexander initially wanted to threaten an answer out of Mikaya, upon sensing her sullen mood, he decided to take a small breath and cleverly change it,

“I never said that. I am simply curious. How did you… get to this situation in the first place?”

“….” Mikaya once again turned silent, furrowing her beautiful eyebrow. It was as if she were unwilling to recall the events.

However she also understood she really could not expect the man’s help without at least giving some context. Thus curving her plump, red lips, she gritted,

“Like I said, he says that he wants to have a son as soon as possible. That way the alliance between us will be truly secure.”

And Alexander subtly nodded to this, fully agreeing. His mind only turned a bit sluggish when Mikaya went on to add,

“I do not want to. I do not have an exact reason why… but call it a woman’s instinct. I simply do not want to have his child.”

“…..” The room suddenly turned dead silent after this. Because Alexander struggled to add there.

He understood there was a reason Mikaya was so previously reticent with her answers- she did not really have one.

If it were any other time, he would have simply ended the conversation then and there, figuring the girl was simply being selfish and willful. After all, once she had a husband, it would firmly put the lid on her ‘free and open’ lifestyle.

However, recalling the great service he had given him just now, and relishing the current sight of the stunning girl dressed in only her red underwear, Alexander decided to extend the talks a bit longer, “Did these feelings come before he bedded you, or after? Why did you even let him bed you if you were having second thoughts?”

“He… I thought I could charm him. So I took him to bed. Who knew…who knew he would be so insistent on making me pregnant. He… does not listen to anything I say.” Clear drips of bitter regret seemed to flow out of Mikaya’s lips as she turned to give Alexander a very difficult face,

“You will not believe how hard it was to get me to meet you like this. I had to make father almost have a fight with Shahel. So please…”

Mikaya suddenly grabbed Alexander by the hands, the gesture making the man slightly pursed his lips at the difficulty. For a moment he even felt like this was all karma, that Mikaya had finally gotten what she deserved for all her immoral activities.

But then also remembering his role in that, particularly that infamous ‘wall’, Alexander’s heart softened and he could not help but reassuringly chime out, “Okay, okay. I will help you. Do not cry!”

The great grin Mikaya instantly gave seemed to vanish all the headaches forming inside his head, half smitten by that flushed and excited face.

Hence lightly lifting his back, Alexander was about to get up, “I have some legummum right here. Let me…”

“No. That will not work.” He was however quickly pulled down by a quite distressed girl, her eyes filled with quite a bit of apprehension, “Before I came here he expressly forbade me to try anything like that. It…cannot be so obvious.”

It was finally at this point that Alexander’s ears seemed to perk up and his attention turned to firmly focus on Mikaya. Until now, he simply thought the girl was being willful and rebellious, not wishing to be laden with a child.

But now looking at her, Alexander found her to be truly troubled or even scared, something he had never seen before. In fact, given how arrogant and dissive Mikaya usually was, Alexander did not even think this precious princess of Matrak had any fear.

This made Alexander realize there was certainly more to this story than what met the eye. Thus turning to face his gorgeous counterpart, he hummed while slightly tracing his chin,

“Hmmm, so Shahel knows you do not want to have his child? Now you want me to find a way for you to covertly give you the medicine without anyone noticing?”

“*Nod!*” Mikaya vigorously nodded, her eyes twinkling with great anticipation.

It was out of sheer luck that she got to overhear her father and nieces discussing Alexander and spending the night with him. And she immediately jumped at the opportunity, asking Pasha Farzah to let her accompany them to make sure nothing went wrong.

This, the old lord agreed, knowing these two granddaughters of his lacked many of the common senses, as well as suffering from perhaps a bit of overprotectiveness.

But this was a one time thing.

Mikaya knew she was never going to get such a perfect opportunity ever again. Hence she was extremely eager to convince Alexander here and now. This was in fact the main reason she ‘serviced’ him so well.

While the man, with regards to the tough job description, got his gear grinding and fortunately, managed to quickly make a connection to the conversation he just had with Pasha Farzah. They had actually discussed something very familiar.

“Okay, I can do that. But you have to swear on the gods you cannot reveal this to anybody.” Alexander’s eyes then flickered with a mysterious light, to which Mikaya’s face immediately turned hard and solemn,

“…. Alexander, I might be a lot of things, but I am not ungrateful.” It seemed the girl was in no mood for jokes.

“Hahaha, okay… okay. Here it is.”

Alexander then quickly proceeded to reveal the technique of poison ice cubes just as he had done with her father.