Herald of Steel-Chapter 1538: Lord Mirzah (Part-3)

Alexander listened to Lady Inayah's explanation of how Pasha Farzah got blindsided by his eldest son's habit with an understanding gaze.

The old man's nature was indeed like so- a family man and a hopeless romantic. The fact that he married against his father's and all his retainers' wishes and then launched a full scale rebellion against the god king just to avenge his daughter proved that without a shadow of a doubt.

Hence when the first reports about Mirzah started coming in, he probably thought he would rather believe the whole world was wrong than stomach the fact that such an ill fruit had been born of his own loins.

Mirzah was his own flesh and blood, someone he saw grow up right in front of his eyes, so could any father stomach such a thing?

As for the matter of catching and rectifying it at a young age, well this was where Mirzah's mother came to sabotage the efforts. She was afraid if her husband became aware of this, he would dismiss her son for another one of his.

Hence she and her family worked very hard behind the scenes clean up after the boy.

It took a lot of effort, but given she was able to become Pasha's main wife, her family was naturally quite strong in Matrak, so, using their vast influence, they were indeed able to pull the wool over the willing Pasha Farzah.

"It was Mikaya of all the people who finally convinced her father of her brother's ill deeds." Lady Inayah then finally revealed the name of the whistleblower, her lips curving up with a sort of sardonic smile, before continuing,

"That girl was likely the only one who could have said this without being outright dismissed by her father. And fortunately, after some pleading, Farzah actually listened this time. He personally had his own men investigate the matter and it was indeed confirmed exactly as Mikaya said. He was absolutely livid."

"I heard from her that the moment the report was revealed, Pasha Farzah wanted to rush out with his sword and behead the boy right then. Only with the captain of his bodyguards objecting and Mikaya and her two maids literally grabbing him by the legs to stop did he restrain himself."

"It simply would not have been possible for him to kill Mirzah then. At that time, we were at a very critical stage of our rebellion. Mirzah was heading talks with Cantagena trying to convince them of a possible invasion of Adhan, and everything would go down the drain if he died."

"Pasha Farzah could not have taken over. The Cantagenans did not know him and he was being watched too closely by Kefka's men. They had by then begun to suspect him as the chief culprit stirring up trouble in the court.

"So if he suddenly left Matrak for Thesos with no reason whatsoever… we all would have been instantly discovered and then…." Lady Inayah visibly shuddered at the thought.

She did not just shiver as she had done so many times before, but literally shook her body in a way Alexander had never seen before.

The reason was she recalled the nightmarish things that happened in the dungeon to those trying to defy the god king. She of course did not know the details, and she did not even want to know.

But even the scant few whispers that filtered through was enough to make her stomach churn and lose sleep.

In fact, during the entire period of their rebellion, this lady had carried with her a vial of deadly poison tucked into a secret pocket sewn in each and every one of her dresses' sleeves… just so that if she thought she was going to get caught, she could instantly take her life.

Lady Inayah was that afraid of her former husband.

But the fact that she still decided to go along with the plan despite her natural instinct really showed how brave and courageous she was at heart.

While on the opposite side, these succinct sentences brought a myriad of emotions within Alexander. Because they were really packed with a whole lot of information.

First of which was of course the matter of Mikaya's tattling.

Alexander wondered why she had done so. Because from what he knew about the girl, this was not like that.

Now, Mikaya was no devil like Mirzah. But she was hardly a paragon of virtue either. Her heart hardly ever surged with morality or ethics.

But rather similar to her brother, the girl saw peasants and common people as little more than 'things' that walked and talked, far beneath her to be even worth a glance. Even the nobles she had frequent 'interactions' with were little more than toys to her.

She would discard them the moment it suited her with a heartbeat.

Thus Alexander could not in any way see her simply getting up one morning and then after finding the weather very beautiful, deciding to tell on her brother.

Perhaps she and Mirzah's mother have some beef. One is the favorite concubine, the other the main wife…' So unable to find an apt answer, Alexander rationalized this to himself, coming up with the most cliche reason.

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An upstart concubine could indeed use such damning evidence to drag down the main wife, thus obtaining a better standing in the house.

After making this educated guess, he moved on to Mirzah and was surprised to know he had such an important role in deposing the former king.

Without Cantagena and by extension Alexander's own involvement, Pasha Farzah and his allies' fate would have been indeed very tragic.

In fact, when Amenheraft had taken over the capital after defeating the invading army, and it seemed the fight was all but over, there were many who had chosen suicide.

Even Lady Inayah seriously contemplated it. Or at least getting on a ship and setting of for Thesos. Only the fact that Alozmer was dead and his son Amenheraft was a lot more reasonable kept her from fleeing. Perhaps this was another reason why the lady favored Alexander so much. She saw him as saving her life.

And lastly, there was one name Alexander had not heard in a long, long time- Kafka, Amenheraft's youngest uncle, the one who was in charge of the country's intelligence as well as Ophenia's biological father.

That man's name brought back a lot of memories, the most notable of which was the man's intelligence network, once one of the most formidable ones in the world, and now was said to have been shattered into nothing with his untimely death.

On the other side, after extracting her thoughts from the horrifying possibility that could have been, Lady Inayah chimed up once again with a small sigh,

"Now that I look back on it, I wonder if it would have been better if Farzah had simply taken the chance and finished off the boy. Because once he calmed down, he found it too hard to believe his own flesh and blood was such a monster. So he began to hesitate about immediately taking action."

"He began to regret putting Mirzah on a such high pedestal, so tried to pull him down a bit, but by then it was too late. Mirzah's talent impressed many of his peers and he was seen as the next pasha by the vast majority of the nobles. He was too competent, and too popular, making Farzah apprehensive about simply replacing the boy on his whim."

"In fact, he did not even know how he could remove Mirzah. As you already said Lord Alexander, Adhania does have very strict laws about inheritance. One cannot simply remove the eldest son of one's main wife on a whim. In fact, this choice might not even be up to the noble lord to make."

"There is a popular saying in Adhania that the seat of the house belongs to the main wife's eldest son… this is a right bestowed by the 'Father' himself. No mortal can change it. Not even the father. Not even if he hates his son to the guts."

"If a lord is truly determined to deprive his eldest son of his birthright, … it requires him to meet with his retainers and first prove to them without a shadow of a doubt that his son is incompetent and will lead all of them to ruin if he is allowed to rule. The nobles then need to give a majority consent to this. After that, this decision has to be ratified by the royal court and then the king himself. Only then can the boy be legally deposed."

"Needless to say, this is not easy even in the best of times. I can name literally on one hand the number of times this has happened over the past few centuries… Forget Mirzah. Even if Pasha Farzah could now make His Majesty Ptolomy give out such a degree, the nobles of Matrak would vehemently resist it."

"And back then, he did not even have someone to replace him in the first place. His other two sons were mediocre and Kayvan was still a toddler, sucking his thumb. Putting him next to Mirzah would be like trying to replace a sun with a candle."

"There were some talks about his fourth son challenging his brother… but those talks never really got to start. The boy died in a freak horse riding accident just as he was starting to reveal himself as a contender. In fact, to this day, we do not exactly know how it had all happened!"