Herald of Steel-Chapter 1537: Lord Mirzah (Part-2)

Alexander was very surprised to hear Lady Inayah so accurately describe his state of mind, about how he might be thinking of ignoring Mirzah's slights if it benefited him. Alexander did not think Lady Inayah knew him that well.

But it seemed she did.

And thus she finished with a jeering chuckle,

"Heh, well sorry to be the bearer of bad news but Mirzah hates you. He hates your guts… because you are from Thesos. So if he gets the seat to Matrak, your alliance with the province ends right then and there."

"....." This was a heavy silence following Lady Inayah's words as Alexander's face lost most of its luster. If before he was only apprehensive about Mirzah, now he was seriously worried.

He of course did not doubt Lady Inayah's statement in the slightest, but still, it seemed all so sudden and illogical that Alexander struggled to make heads or tails of it.

Hence after a while he could not help but iterate,

"Perhaps my lady is overthinking this. I do not believe I have done anything to offend Lord Mirzah. And if I have done so unintentionally, I am ready to apologize. Beside, the alliance between Matrak and Zanzan should be too beneficial to both of us to dissolve so unilaterally, right?"

There was a touch of hopefulness to the words. Because there was no way for Alexander to afford to lose Matrak, not now.

Zanzan was still just getting up on his feet and he desperately needed that economic and political crutch from Matrak.

It was not only a major destination of export, but Pasha Farzah also had a huge distribution network that Alexander could use to send his products to all the other parts of the land.

Zanzan did not have the time or expertise to build up something similar yet. So if Matrak stopped giving transit… his exports would fall drastically.

While politically, just putting his name next to Matrak was a source of great deterrence for many troublemakers. He did not need to deal with many of the headache inducing shenanigans here in the court courtesy of Pasha Farzah taking the heat.

And lastly, just having an ally, even if only paper was a great source of mental comfort for him. Alexander could remain rest assured that even if he was struck by some calamity or unforeseen disaster, he would be able to call for some kind of help.

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Hence he really wished Mirzah was someone reasonable, even if he was not quite right in the head.

"Hahaha… the fact that you are still saying this really proves you have never met the boy!"

His colorful lens was however violently smashed by Lady Inayah, who chuckled the words with a very rueful sneer,

"Mirzah hates everyone who is not from Adhania. No. He has always hated everyone who is even not from Matrak. Those maids and that concubine he killed…. all of them were either from Thesos or the north of Matrak… the barbarian steppes."

"I even remember him saying to me once when he was young that the reason he is so eager to attack the barbarians is because he likes to kill and skin the womenfolk before their men, to watch them cry. He has little interest in actually protecting Matrak's borders."

Lady Inayah spat with extreme disdain and disapproval as if to show she was unwilling to even recognize the fact that she knew such a boy.

"As he has gotten older, he has learned better to hide his sadistic ways. If you see him now, he will appear very warm and friendly…with a big grin. Like I said before, a spitting image of his father. But when you dig just a bit underneath…." Lady Inayah trailed off with a heavy shake of her head, before letting out a deep sigh,

"*Sigh*... just trust me when I say this Alexander, you cannot talk to him. I know you think you have a silver tongue… but there will be no reasoning with him. He will hate you just because you do not look like us. So save yourself the trouble."

"I am somewhat glad he will not attend Mikaya's wedding. This would have caused such a scene. He has never approved of his father's alliance with you." The ebony lady then at last finished with a certain bitterness in her voice that struck Alexander quite hard.

Basically Lady Inayah was saying Mirzah was too racist to even be swayed by material wealth. The heir probably saw as already having enough, Matrak was after a major source of gems, timber and metal ores. So he could live without Alexander's products, or simply get them through other third parties.

"....." Upon learning this, Alexander found it really hard to add anything. He trusted Lady Inayah's judgment and after looking at the sincere, downcast face, he did not dare imagine anything optimistic about interacting with Mirzah.

"How was he chosen in the first place?" So after a while could only muse this out aloud.

"Farzah did not notice any problem at first," Lady Inayah replied quickly with flattened lips, her face once again clouding itself in a regretful gesture,

"He only noticed how good son his son was everything. Mirzah was a clever boy, very smart in his studies, and excellent with the sword and bow. He even won several large tournaments in his childhood. He was warm, cheerful, and really a natural leader."

"Like I already said, he was leading his own expeditions when he was only fourteen. And he started accompanying his father even earlier. He was even part of the campaign where Pasha Farzah captured Mikaya's mother."

"Due to all this, initially, Farzah was extremely proud of his son. And all those bad habits, he just glanced over… thinking they were either exaggerated or it was just a phase, that Mirzah would simply outgrow with time." Lady Inayah's tone turned even more regretful as if kicking herself for believing such a naive thing.

But then her pitch suddenly increased, full and angry and blame,

"Mirzah's mother is also a great culprit here. She not only never reprimanded the boy but even helped hide much of her son's flaws. Whenever he hurt or killed a maid, it was simply said the girl had left due to external difficulties, and the affected family was just paid to keep their mouth shut. So the true extent of Mirzah's perversion never quite did not Pasha Farzah's ears."

"What an evil woman! To not only not condemn but even condone such acts…. and then to have the gall to hide them…Pasha Farzah is so busy all the time. Does he have the time to look after all his children every second of the day?"

It was unknown whether Lady Inayah was more angry with the main wife for indulging her son's bad behavior till they became a part of him, or for deceiving her husband. Perhaps it was both.

But what was certain was that the lady clearly laid the blame on the mother and son, and not a touch on Pasha Farzah.

It visibly went to show the special bond this lady shared with the Pasha.

As for Alexander's thoughts on the matter… well, he also sided with Lady Inayah on this one. Because as a Pasha himself, he indeed could see how such details would slip past the man.

Being a lord in Alexander's experience was not an easy job. It might not be physically exhausting, but mentally, it took a lot out of one.

Administering the territory, checking the proper keeping of books, meeting with the nobles and ensuring their loyalty, resolving all sorts of conflicts between both the nobles and civilian populace, coming up with future policies…. these were only a few of the jobs to name.

Even keeping all the women in one's haram in check and not letting them burn the house down could be seen as a job.

Of course, not all nobles were that hands on in their everyday dealings. Most, in fact, were not, and they were more than content to leave the entirety of the work to their trusted retainers and subordinates while drowning themselves in hedonistic pleasure.

But Pasha Farzah was not like that. The old man ran a pretty tight schedule, keeping his nobles under very tight control.

This was one of the other reasons Mirzah was able to keep them silent so easily. He found the retainers to be already kept bound.

However, the drawback to such a way of ruling was that there was indeed a limited portion of the 24 hours he could devote to his family, thus making him susceptible to missing out on the smaller details. Even the usually extremely keen eyes of the man failed to detect this flaw.

This oversight was likely helped by the fact that no father ever wanted to think his son would become like that.

Just take Alexander for example- he imagined that even if Camius personally were to come to him with such a report regarding Philip, his very first reaction would be his close friend was plotting against him by trying to drive a wedge between the father and son.

He simply would not be able to imagine that cute, quiet, obedient boy with those fluffy, puffed up rosy cheeks could grow up to be something like that.

The same thought likely went for Pasha Farzah.

And lastly, there was an active cover up against the man by his own wife.

"So it was only much later that Farzah began to truly take notice of these flaws."