Herald of Steel

Alexander would admit he was a bit surprised hearing Lord Janus address him as such.

Sure he had expected they would know about the battle.

But being able to not only know about the Jahal mercenary’s participation but even more frighteningly their exact number while being 1,600km away was beyond impressive.

This truly astounded him.

“Haha,”

Alexander gave a light chuckle to hide this shock and then quickly got down to business,

“So, what can I offer you guys? Paper? Soap? Glass?” He asked.

“Iron.” The word was short and sharp, and let out by the lady whose lips quivered and shook as she spoke.

The answer was so quick and impatient that even a child would have been able to able sense they were in really great need of it.

And this sentiment was further reinforced by the grimaced face he noticed Lord Janus pull, making him correctly presume they had likely discussed how to handle the negotiations but the lady had jumped the gun nevertheless.

It seemed they were under a lot of stress.

And hence Alexander decided to poke around a bit, probingly saying, “We certainly have iron. But I’m sure Mister Harold has also told you that those cannot be made into weapons. So may I ask why?”

“We want it nevertheless. And we are even willing to pay 200 ropals per kg for it,” The lady again blurted out, avoiding the question, but still showing even more of her cards.

This eldest daughter might be a beauty, but she was no negotiator, as outright saying that one was willing to pay 200 ropals for iron ingots that went for 150 ropals was a very obvious way to tell they were desperate.

A fact well understood by the other two men, who clutched their fists in frustration and could barely stop themselves from slapping their heads.

While to Alexander this appeared to show that this lady was their leader, while the other two were very much down the pecking order, as they seemed too scared to stop her.

‘This is getting interesting,’ Alexander hence smirked, and then slouching back, very easily said,

“Okay. We can sell you the iron. How much do you need?”

The ease with which Alexander said this surprised the trio, as given how Harold had described to Lord Janus and Lady Miranda about Alexander’s refusal to sell iron to him previously, they had assumed much more negations would be needed.

But what they did not know was that Alexander’s stanch had changed from back then.

Back then Alexander had wanted to use the iron to open a cast iron pottery shop.

But now faced with a severe labor shortage and other priorities, he had decided to push that project several years down the line.

So Alexander was currently in the market looking for buyers of his iron.

And here they were.

Additionally, there was also the fact that Alexander wanted to build closer ties with these people to tap into their intelligence network, a thought he came up all from that almost innocuous greeting Lord Janus had given him.

“We want to buy all of it. Every last scrap,” Finally Lord Janus got to insert himself into the conversation, confidently demanding the entire stock.

When Harold had talked up Alexander, it only made the two nobles consider that Alexander may have around a few tons or at best about ten tons of iron.

So they could have never guessed what Alexander would say next.

“Haha, then by your price limit, that would come to 200 million,” He chuckled as Alexander had built up a month’s stockpile of iron by now, amounting to around 1,000 tons.

“What! Are you deaf? We said kg, not grams!” And even before Alexander could finish, Lady Miranda immediately erupted, almost jumping up from her sofa in rage, as she glared at Alexander hatefully.

The lady clearly thought Alexander was trying to swindle them.

While Alexander only raised an eyebrow at this discourteous behavior.

Sure the woman might be pregnant and have her hormones in overdrive.

But it was still not any excuse to burst like that.

“M..my lord, Lady Miranda did not mean anything by it. She is just stressed,”

“Yes, yes, my lady was simply surprised. She meant no disrespect” ｏｖ𝚕．ｃｏ𝚖

Immediately afterward, the two men jumped forward to try and douche the fire, providing various excuses and reasons.

“….” While Alexander appeared unimpressed, only pursing his lips and leaning back.

“Why do you need the iron? And why have you bought such an imminently due lady to the negotiations?” He at last frostily asked.

To which the two men glanced at each other for a bit, trying to figure out what to do, with ultimately Lord Janus deciding that it would be better to placate Alexander by answering his question rather than risk losing the iron.

Alexander’s tone did not sound too friendly right now.

“My lord, let me say it” He hence stepped forward, and explained,

“Recently the Margrave family has been charged with treason by the governor of Galisos. The reason is trading with Iyizarid, ”

“To that effect, a large naval fleet was sent against us, but fortunately, a hurricane happened to hit them right when they approached our city.”

“This was certainly a boon from the gods,” The old man nodded forcefully, but then his voice turned melancholic, “But that also destroyed our fleet that went to fight it. My lady lost her father, many of her brothers, and even her husband.”

“The waves then also destroyed our harbor and most of the walls there, flooding the city and causing great devastation. So much so that it forced Lady Miranda to evacuate with her remaining family members and citizens to my city.”

It was after hearing this that Alexander understood why Harold had introduced Miranda as ‘now the eldest daughter’ as opposed to just the eldest daughter.

It seems some of her sisters had also died in the subsequent flooding.

As Alexander connected these dots, Lord Janus was still continuing, “But even after his naval failure, Governor Straus was undeterred. And soon afterward, we got the news that a land invasion was being raised to attack our city and finish us off.”

“So we raced to raise our own.”

“And that was where our lack of metal ores revealed itself. For our large stockpiles had been washed away by the flood, and we are unable to mine enough quickly.” He let out a powerless sigh saying this, before going on.

“Thus the decision was taken to buy them from every merchant and vendor there was. And that was how we met Harold, who was peddling some of your iron.”

“We bought the ingots, and seeing their quality, asked him when we could get more. And that was how we got to learn that you had a large amount of iron ore.”

“But then we were told that you were unwilling to sell them.”

“And so, as currently the eldest member of the family, my lady chose to come here despite her advanced stage of pregnancy to try and convince you.”

The old man finally finished his long speech.

‘She could have done it better if she had not come,’ Alexander had to try very hard to not retort with this snarky remark after hearing the tragic incident, as not to appear insensitive, and ultimately managed to put on a solemn, understanding face,

“My condolences to you my lady.”

“I also apologize for my rude behavior. I let my emotions get the best of me.” Lady Miranda too seemed to calm down and even bowed politely.

Seeing the sense of civility return, Alexander decided to go back to the sales topic, saying

“I was not kidding when I said that it would cost 200 million if you wanted by entire stock. I currently have 1000 tons of iron ingots.”

He had a light smile as he said this, which drew bigger at the satisfaction of seeing the trio draw bulging eyes and look all confused.

Alexander always enjoyed seeing that expression.

While for the three there, they tried to make sense of the offer.

1000 tons of iron was close to 1% of Sybarsis’s annual consumption,

And this was for a country the size of the modern US.

While the same amount was claimed to come from a city that was basically another settlement in most’s eyes.

Anyone would have been not only surprised but likely called Alexander a liar hearing this.

‘Tha…that..how,’ And this was the exact emotion the three sitting in front of him were experiencing, who could not believe their ears.

But they also could not call Alexander a lair or prankster.

“That…we cannot afford that much. Maybe 10 tons.” So Lord Janus only chose this modest amount.

But Alexander offered a much better deal.

“As friends, I will offer you the iron ingot at 50 ropals per kg. So how much would you like to buy?”

He did not do this purely because of altruism, but more so because he wanted to sell more ingots.

To which Lord Janus accepted with a heartbeat, “Tha….then we will accept.”

In fact, it was so quick that he actually stammered, as he was afraid Alexander might change his mind, or even that he had misspoken.

And as for how Alexander could offer such low prices, that could wait.

The most important thing now was not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“So how will you buy now?” Alexander then asked, which made the two nobles look at each in askance.

They were now not sure themselves.