The fallout from the meeting would last the following few days, during which Lord Janus tried hard not to feel too frustrated over his wasted efforts.
He had taken a great risk when contacting the northern, knowing if even a single word was somehow to leak of this, not only would his own reputation go permanently down the drain, but much more than that, Lady Miranda would lose even the last bit of support she had left.
Most of the nobles here did not take colluding with those natives lightly so it could never come to light until the very near the end.
And as luck would favor him, Lord Janus did succeed in accomplishing that, forming a secret, rudimentary bridge of contact between the two.
Only to have his lady refuse refuse to cross it.
This naturally made the old man very bitter.
But in defense of Lady Miranda, the situation was also not clear cut for her.
Even if one sidestepped the political ramifications of shaking hands with them for now, Lady Miranda still personally remained very prejudiced about colluding with them.
And it was something she was taught from a very young age, with her parents and grandparents using one very recent event to illustrate their point.
This was also something Lord Janus neglected to mention, and so during one of their free gatherings, Lady Miranda filled Alexander in.
"My lord, it is not as if I do not appreciate our predicament and your grave desire for more men. But I think allying with these barbarians is like inviting the tiger to drive out the fox. We will simply be inviting more trouble than it's worth." She chimed in a calm, neutral tone before lightly pausing to shake her head, emphasizing her point heavily,
"And I do not say this out of spite or short sightedness. I say it because this is not the first time these natives tried something like this. About fifty to sixty years ago, they also came to us with a similar proposal."
"Back then, we were facing a particularly large scale rebellion, formed in collusion with many of nobles. When we were on the back foot, they promised the same thing they are to you now- fighting for us in exchange for some land after the war. And we agreed to give them a portion of the traitors' lands after the war. But when the time came, out of nowhere they betrayed us mid battle!"
Lady Miranda's gaze suddenly turned very fierce as she said it, her pearly teeth becoming clenched with hatred, as if she was having a hard time containing her bubbling rage.
While on the other side, Alexander produced a very surprised look.
Because he could not fathom why the natives would do such a thing.
According to him, rebellions were high risk, high reward affairs where the winner took all.
So if the northern people really could help the Margraves win, it was very reasonable to think the fiefs of those traitorous nobles would indeed become free and available. There was little chance of the deal falling out.
It made no logical sense.
And unable to think of a reason why for himself, Alexander ultimately figured that the reason was perhaps only known to the tribal chiefs of the time.
"Heh... I bet Uncle Janus never told you that my lord did he?" He was then suddenly brought out of his ruminating thought by this light sneer, as Lady Miranda scoffed,
If Lord Parker decides to throw all caution to the air and attacks with every ship he has, I am afraid win or loss will be up in the air. Your reinforcements will be no good if you cannot reach them."
In this way, Lord Janus pointed out the risk of simply staying still and digging in, before further adding,
"Plus, Caira is not nearly as important as Miranda is making it out to be. Yes... it is her ancestral home and has been the family's seat of power for many years? But so what? The only thing that matters in this conflict is the winner. Who has what now is null."
Following this great announcement, Lord Janus at last finished his urgings by lifting his finger and cunningly posing,
"As a matter of fact, if we play our hands correctly, we can even turn this loss to our advantage. Many nobles will not like a foreign ducal family controlling this historical city. The loss of this city might even turn out to be a boon for us in the long run."
Alexander however was highly skeptical of the last claim, because it was not like the nobles were unaware of what was happening.
No.
They were fully awake to the fact that the Heeat forces were already inside the city and that they were even actively fighting there.
But even then they firmly supported Miss Linda and thus supported the puppeting, all due to their own personal benefits.
Hence there was little chance that Alexander's few words could produce even the slightest breeze, much less a gale to make them turn them around.
The pasha was however moved by many of the other points laid out by Lord Janus, as they indeed made sense to him.
Combining this also came a few muted whispers from some of the officers who claimed that it would indeed be better to replenish their supplies.
While at the same time, Alexander's negotiations with the rest of the Margraves family members also stalled.
He had originally wanted to have these men bend their knees to Lady Miranda and then have them swear the lady in as their new family head.
But the stubborn old fools vehemently resisted, even when Alexander threatened them with imminent death.
They shouted,
"We declare ourselves neutral in all this. We are willing to help the family continue to run its businesses as usual. But not anything beyond that."
Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!
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