Herald of Steel - Chapter 1613: Pasha Farzah’s Method
Chapter 1613: Pasha Farzah’s Method
“… once you start this, there will be no going back.” Pasha Farzah made this statement not only as a simple warning against waging war with Ankoot, but also with far more hidden layers.
Alexander too understood it.
Hence, instead of hashing out the details right there in the open courtroom, he swiftly nodded with a light smile, “You are right, my lord! But let us take this somewhere else! Your Highness, would you also like to join us?”
Alexander made the invitation to Queen Mother with great alacrity, giving her a charming smile to.
“…!!!..” However much to his surprise, he found the pregnant lady sitting on her throne completely mute, like a piece of statue, stunned and silent. It seemed she was still stuck replaying the way Ptolomy had acted with her just now in her head.
Undoubtedly the way he had brushed her hands and stormed out was rude.
And, while the much more thick skinned Alexander, who was similarly treated like thin air simply let it slip past him like nothing, the regal queen could not. For her, the cut dove much too deep.
As the matron of the royal family, she could not believe she had been treated like this in front of everyone. She could not even remember the last time this had happened.
’What did I do wrong?’ She wondered in shock, unable to make sense of Ptolomy’s behaviour. She had advised him out of the best of her wishes. Yet….
Now, the reason the man acted like that was mostly just out of spite. He did not like how things went in court today and this was his way of letting others know- by throwing a small tantrum.
Now, if he were asked to nitpick about something against Seelima specifically, well then it would be the fact that she had spoken out of turn a few times, disregarding Ptolomy’s orders and also occasionally supporting Alexander.
Admittedly, it was very little in the grand scheme of things, but right now, Ptolomy was ready to fight over something even this petty.
Seelima would only come to understand this later in the day, whereupon she would be fully barred from attending court for the foreseeable future. However right now, she was only swimming in her confusion, such that she even drowned out Alexander’s calls.
“Your Highness! Your Highness!”
The Queen Mother only broke free of her mind upon multiple knocks on her ears, whereupon she spotted the two Pashas beckoning to her for a private chat.
“Not now. You go!” The regal lady however very curtly turned down the offer with a flash of her palms- right now, she was too irritated to care. Instead of having to deal with another round of political machinations, she wanted some air.
Thus abruptly getting up, she hurriedly left, only leaving a short side note, “Alexander, come to my room after dinner. I want to know… everything!”
“….” The young man’s lips half twitched at the menacing tone of the lady. But not wanting to poke the enraged tigress, only swiftly acknowledged the command with a small nod.
…
Alexander and Pasha Farzah quickly removed themselves from the court to a much more secluded part of the palace. Then securely out of any prying ears, they then began to work out the details of the attack.
“Brat! What do you plan to do now exactly? Are you really looking to finish off Amenheraft right now?” Pasha Farzah started with this, raising his brows with some concern.
“Of course not!” And Alexander understood the reason for the reaction, thus quickly negated the possibility by a swift wave of his hand.
“Amenheraft might be wounded, but his sons are still safe and secure in Ankoot. It would be quite hard for us to get them. And even if we could… let us not forget many nobles and commoners still see the whole family as part of Lord Ramuh’s blood. So I fear killing them so blatantly will only seek to anger them against us. Who knows.. maybe all the lords might even unite under Ptolomy just to smite us!”
“….” Pasha Farzah gave a tactful nod to the words, finding the answer so complete that there was little more to add, “Mmm… I am glad you have already considered it. Sigh! Is this what they call talent?”
The elder lord let out such a half sigh upon by the end due to comparing his sons to Alexander- even though the latter was of low blood and unknown origins, his talent was undeniable.
Pasha Farzah did not think even his most shrewd son- Mirzah was this clever- at least he certainly could not have thought of such an ingenious way to poison others. In fact, even Pasha Farzah did not remember being this swift at Alexander’s age.
The elder lord then added with a heavy tone, “Indeed, the longer this civil war goes, the better it is for us. Ptolomy and the other nobles will be more distracted by that rather than focus on us. So, how do you propose we do this- I lead my army to Bahu while you pretend to attack Ankoot?”
“That was my original plan. But now… with how the talks went…” Alexander trailed off with some reluctance at Pasha Farzah ’s question, furrowing his eyebrows upon remembering how the entire thing at the court really went up in smoke. He only managed to get back the whole thing in track by the skin of his teeth.
“Why does Ptolomy hate me so much?” Alexander thus could not help but suddenly veer off course, turning to ask Pasha Farzah with clear bitterness in his voice. He wanted at least an explanation for the out of the blue u-turn. He thought he had placated the man enough and there was no indication of such a thing before.
“Bah! Don’t let that bother you. That fool is like that!” However the experienced lord simply reassured the man with a swift wave of his hands, clapping his strong arms on his shoulder and grinning,
“The weak prince thinks he can bully you into submission. He thinks power comes from pushing people around. So when he saw you were not bending the knee… Snort! Fool!” Pasha Farzah thus repeated that word twice to show his disdain for the man as well as express his full support for Alexander against any further bullying.
This was to signal him not to think too deeply about what the king had said or done, chalking it all up as simple personal grievances,
Following so, he quickly added, “But what you said is indeed true. I do not know whether the nobles will listen if you suddenly call them to march towards Bahu instead. It is much farther from here, and not as rich.”
“The province has also been pretty neutral in the conflict- they might have been pretty vocal supporters of Amenheraft but they have done little action. In fact, they have even secretly treated the messengers we sent quite well. So many nobles might not feel justified in attacking it. They would simply see it as needlessly increasing the number of our enemies. ”
“Hmmmm….” Alexander quietly hummed at the point, stroking his chin in thought, and muttering, “*Tsk*! The previous plan of stroking the independence of provinces seems to be no longer possible.”
This off statement made the elder Pasha Farzah ’s brows perceptibly twitch, as he wanted to immediately boom, ’And whose fault do you think this is? If you had not sneakily poisoned Amenheraft without telling me anything, we could have handled the situation so much easier. Brat.. sometimes you…’
However given Alexander’s current mood and that there was little point in beating a dead horse, Pasha Farzah pushed his tirade down. Suddenly with a cunning flash of his eyes, he then smirked,
“Perhaps we can lure the Bahu army out with your force. Let it slip that the army marching towards Ankoot is actually a bait and its true target is…!”
“You mean a double bluff?” Alexander instantly realized the plan and grinned. If Bahu were to march out to counter Alexander and Pasha Farzah stuck from behind… It really showed that the old lord was not at all shabby- he too had talent as a general.
“Great! Great! We can even lend this idea to PZ. Let him call for help from there!” Thus the Zanzan lord added to the idea with a swift raise of his finger, eyes gleaming with cold calculated confidence,
“Amenheraft surely wishes to turn the tables with me. He can do this by attacking from two sides, Ankoot and Bahu. If he can defeat me in such an open battle…and with overwhelming numbers at that… it will surely do wonders for his men’s morale.”
Alexander was not unaware of the type of prize he was to his enemies’ eyes and in an extremely shrewd attempt, thought to use that very thing against them.
“….” Pasha Farzah’s eyes flickered with quite a bit of a complex look at the idea, not because it was bad, but because of how bold and ambitious it was. He was even ready to put himself in great danger, as bait, just so that the elder lord could get a victory.
“Sigh! Brat! I just married you to my granddaughters. Don’t die on them!” Thus the elderly lord simply warned with a cautionary shake of his head, all while a satisfied smirk curled up on his lips.
Needless to say, he was quite satisfied with his new grandson in law.
“But my lord, how will Kayvan get the credit then?”
