Herald of Steel

Facing the Queen Mother's out of the blue ambush, Alexander found it hard to effectively reply. Of course, he could deny it like before.

But he knew the woman before him was far more cunning than the fat man.

Saying anything but the truth would simply be insulting her intelligence. Even a subtle deflection was hard.

Thus facing the glittering eyes of the cunning woman and the entertained gaze of her ebony partner, Alexander, forced to think quickly on his feet, just decided not to answer her in the first place.

Amusedly rolling his eyes, he lightly curved his lips to muse, "Your Highness, some might say accusation without proof is slander."

"Accusation? Hahaha, when did I accuse you, Alexander?" The Queen Mother also seemed entertained by Alexander's wording, curving her beautiful phoenix eyes into a crescent, and pointing,

"I was simply stating a fact! Or did you think I somehow missed the fact that you never actually denied doing so when answering Ptolomy?"

"....." Alexander was thus caught red handed, and could only give a sheepish smile.

"It is nice to see you again, Lady Seelima. I see that your mind was not only dulled but gotten even sharper." He pleasantly bowed, graciously accepting his defeat, before turning to give the same gesture to her partner,

"It is also very nice to see you Lady Inayah. I see you are just as radiant as ever. I just met your father some time ago and I am glad to see he is doing so well."

"Hahaha, Alexander, you seem to have gotten even more handsome. Ohh… I am so jealous, I have only gotten older. How is your family? I hear you already have four little kids. Congratulations, congratulations."

The elegant, black lady was far more warm in her greeting than the regal and teasing Queen Mother, making sure to bring up the mention of his family at the first chance.

She even added with a small, grateful smile,

"As for father… yes, he is indeed doing better, in fact even much better than before. This is all in no small part thanks you, Alexander. Your goods have made him very rich. I see him smiling himself to sleep every day now, hehehe."

"You mean your family smiles themselves to sleep every day," From the side, the Queen Mother quipped the tease, something which Lady Inayah did not deny.

"Haha, they do say laughter is the best medicine. It is my honor that I was able to help, my lady. I also hope trade between our two houses only continues to increase every day." While Alexander gave a small courteous bow to the good news, finding the black lady just as beautiful and youthful as before.

"And let me add, you also look just as gorgeous as ever my lady. You have hardly aged a day since we last met." Thus he sincerely added, truly thinking her concerns about her age to be greatly exaggerated.

"I see your glib tongue has not changed one bit, kid. Good, good, even if it is empty sweet talk this old woman finds herself flattered, hahaha,"

While Lady Inayah gave a hearty smile to this, appearing truly pleased.

Thus suddenly curving her eyes with a teasing glint, she grinned, "I was not wrong to favor you. So fully enjoy this!

Saying this she then suddenly turned her head towards another room at the back, and loudly chimed,

"Girls, what is taking you so long? Come on out. Alexander is already here. Aren't you supposed to be serving him? What will he think of you?"

As Lady Inayah said this, there was a flurry of hurried shuffling of feet and even of something being knocked over. Clearly the girls there were startled.

Then swiftly emerging out of the dimly lit room with a few seconds were three lovely women of varying ages, from their early to late twenties, all of mixed color and wearing very revealing clothes.

It was a sheer black one piece that bared shoulders and only reached below the knees, while their chest had a very deep V cut, thus showing significant cleavage.

The clothes stuck to the trio's curvaceous body like it was one size too small, and thus revealed much of their contours, such as the exact shape of their full chest and wide hips.

Alexander was shocked to see them.

Not really because of their get up, he had actually seen far more scandalous outfits, but more so by who was wearing them.

He knew them all- they were Lady Inayah's daughters! The eldest of the bunch had even accompanied him to the capital just today!

"Th…this…" Hence completely stunned by this reveal, he turned to give Lady Inayah an incredulous look. The way the lady said the word 'serve' did not leave much to the imagination.

Because when a maid served a lord, the job description very clearly implied having to accompany him to bed and keep him entertained.

And it was especially true during such a time as the Jtaama, where nobles tended to be in a very festive mood. Hence for a mother to throw away her daughters like that…

Now, many small nobles did expend their daughters like this, so try and curry favor with a really high ranking noble like a Matbar (Marquiss) or Pasha.

However Lady Inayah was not like that- her house was not a small family to begin with.

In fact, Lady Inayah's line was actually very old, perhaps even older than the current Adanian Royal family by some accounts.

And they had served faithfully the royals for many centuries, acting as tutors and instructors.

And on top of that, her house was perhaps at the peak of their power right now, with its lord being in charge of the Royal treasury.

So there was really no need for Lady Inayah to use her daughter's like this.

It was perhaps guessing Alexander's thoughts that the black lady turned to give the man a small smile, and then chimed up on her own,

"Hehehe, Seelima did not lie when she said we all go to sleep with grins on our faces. And it is all because of you Alexander… you have made us a lot of money. I am sure you already know this if you have seen the changes to Agnirat. So as a small thank you, I want my daughters to serve you during your stay here."

The words truly filled Alexander with gratitude, as he could sense the pure sincerity behind the words. Lady Inayah might not be perfect, having flaws just like anyone else, but deep inside, she was a good person.

Alexander truly believed that.

"But…"

However even then he wanted to reject this, finding the line up too precious and his own contribution a bit exaggerated.

Alexander did trade out of his own motives, and it was not like Lady Inayah was profiting without any effort.

She also needed to spend significant resources to distribute his goods through land and various rivers to parts of the province.

This was a mutually beneficial relationship and they divided the generated profits as such.

So there was no need for Lady Inayah to curry favor with him.

"Do not reject, I will get offended."

However before Alexander could get his reasons out, the noble lady imperiously flashed her dainty hands, firmly shutting the man down.

And then with a bit of tease, added,

"There are also not many maids left in the palace. You got here too late and all the lords have taken the good one. So if you reject them… you will have to do all the work here yourself."

"....." And this threat was indeed quite useful in shutting the man down.

Because in this time period having maids and servants was as much as a luxury as a necessity. Since everything had to be done by hand, you needed a lot of pairs to just maintain a basic standard of living.

For example, if you wanted to light your room, instead of simply turning on a switch like in a modern hotel, you had to manually take a lit flint and light then tens or even more candles placed strategically all around the room.

And then you had to keep an eye on them, regularly replacing them when one burned out.

Same went for food and drink- instead of ordering something from the menu on the intercom and having it readily delivered, you had to personally go to the kitchen or at least the grand hall many paces away to fetch your meal.

Washing clothes was an even more hassle, as without running water, one had to go to the wells or nearby lakes and ponds to complete the work. And then once dried, you had to collect them by hand and then neatly fold and organise.

These were also only the basics of chores, forget more specialized like carrying messages.

Thus it was really not possible for Alexander to make do without a few helping hands who knew their way around the castle.

Hearing Lady Inayah, Alexander also understood why the head maid was so apologetic, with the man noting, 'Oh, so her name is Anna.'

However even if Alexander could accept them, there was one thing still bothering him.

"Isn't all of them married, my lady?"

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