Herald of Steel

"Margaret, you are back!" A small crowd greeted her as she enter their temporary residence, led by an old gentleman in fine clothes, but weak health.

This was the current head of the house- Earl Margrave IV, who had temporarily taken over after his eldest son and eldest grandson\'s death.

A blow that the old man had taken pretty hard as evidenced by how much weaker he had become since before and how he had to clutch his cane with all his strength to stand.

"Grandpa! Why are you here? You should be resting!" Lady Margaret ran up to hug the old man with a large smile, while the old man kind of rebuked himself,

"Nonsense! Whereas my 7-month pregnant daughter is running around trying to save these old bones, here I\'m rotting away in my bed, This is the least I can do."

The Earl was a strong man before the disaster but had suddenly suffered a few consecutive strokes following the disaster, thus making him unable to move around much.

After greeting her grandfather, Lady Margaret moved on to complete her pleasantries with her other family members, which included her surviving siblings, cousins, and close retainers.

All of whom had been very worried that she might not even return.

While Lady Margaret was happy to see her family members and these greetings should have been a pleasant affair, but unfortunately they were not, for they once again reminded her of the people she lost.

There were a lot of people missing from this lineup after all.

Her elder brothers, sisters, cousins, and parents, to name just a few.

Lady Margarent was in fact the third youngest daughter by birth, but the hurricane had not only flooded her city and killed tens of thousands, but it had also crashed an entire tree into a wing of her family house, caving it in, and killing a lot of people there.

And unfortunately for her, many of her siblings lived in that quarter, most of whom died as a result.

And the main reason Lady Margaret escaped relatively unscathed was because she and her husband lived in a separate manor a few blocks away.

But this survival was bittersweet.

For with her father and most of her brothers dead, and the ones still alive being children, she was left to take up the helm, and to her it felt as though even if she was not killed, she was thrust into a pitch-black nightmare.

A fate she sometimes felt was worse than death.

And this nightmare had started right after the devastating hurricane came and the ensuing tidal waves destroyed her whole world, which now to her seemed like a blissful lie.

When the waters started entering her house, she first ran to the second floor, and when even that started getting flooded, her servants had fashioned a makeshift raft out of some wooden planks for her to get out.

And as she had sailed out, she still vividly remembers with uncomfortable clarity how the streets were filled up to her hips in water, and dead, rotting bodies of humans and animals were seen floating all around her like they were the vengeful ghosts of the deceased, blaming her for all their misfortunes.

People had lost their everything in the swirling tide and now were destitute, with no food or access to clean drinking water, as they simply looked up into the sky with utter helplessness.

They knew they were on their own as it was unlikely any aid was going to come to them anytime soon.

While for Lady Margaret, when she had arrived at her family homes, she found the place to be in total chaos, with houses destroyed, trees uprooted, and the servants running around without knowing what to do.

It took her three days to get everything under control, after which they quickly evacuated the city, because arguably the worst event was about to start- the plague.

This was typical as the bloating, rotting corpse and the lack of fresh water was the perfect starting condition for starting an epidemic, one that would last for months if not years.

But for the Margrave family, this escape would provide little relief, as soon after reaching Hamson, they would get the news that the governor had initiated a general levy.

It was evident he intended to finish the job once the water had receded, and his family was ready to march.

Which left the Margrave\'s little time to prepare.

And with her grandfather suffering several strokes in the meantime, it was left to the green lady who was totally out of her depths to try and navigate the murky water of Sybarsis politics and save her family.

A task that she was handed over almost overnight.

And given how poorly she had handled the negotiations with Alexander, though she managed to get the goods, if not for someone like Alexander, who had his own consideration, she would have ended ending up losing her family even before Straus could march on them.

But it seemed luck was on her side, so she lived to fight another day.

And after the pleasantries and dinner, she met her grandfather in his study to slowly tell him about her journey.

".....and so he says he wants a free trade agreement with us," Lady Margaret finished

"HLady MargaretLady Margaret, you did well getting so much iron, Margaret. It will greatly help up restart our industry," The Earl first heaved a sigh of relief at obtaining the stockpile of iron.

Their most productive mines had been flooded, and who knew how long it would take for the water to recede.

So, Alexander\'s iron would greatly help them in that regard.

And then the old man turned his interest to Alexander\'s request.

"Getting a free trade agreement is not possible." And he iLady Margaretediately shut it down, pointing "Say nothing of having never signed one in our history, just the political ramifications of signing something like that with Adhania of all places is a political fiasco we cannot even imagine."

It seems Alexander was wrong about the presence of a jealous uncle.

In fact, it had more to do with Sybarsis\'s general trade policies, which were simply biased against Adhania due to history, and so any kind of trade agreement with it had national security concerns that required it to be approved by a majority of confederation members.

And these were just trade agreements.

Say nothing of the free agreements, which were almost impossible to get, as there was another great factor at play, which was that every single import in Sybarsis had a kind of VAT attached to it.

This amount would directly go to one of the fourteen families, and so signing any free trade agreement would be a great loss for them.

In fact, these families were so protective of their income that they even had men in every major of their empire, whose job was to tax all the goods coming in, meaning Alexander\'s chances of getting a free trade agreement were nil.

Which was the real reason Lady Margaret had rejected Alexander\'s offer and then stayed quiet when asked about family troubles.

Not out of shame, but because she feared that if Alexander knew that it was a national thing rather than a family trouble, which would have been much, much easier to solve, it was likely he would choose to back out.

"But Grandpa! You saw all the things I bought! They…" Still, Lady Margaret felt that Alexander was different and wanted to say he was an exception, but was cut off with a sigh from the Earl.

"*Sigh*, yes, I have seen all the new things. And will admit they are very nice. Just one or two would have been already very impressive, never mind all at one once." The man nodded, before continuing,

"And any merchant will want to form a good relationship with them. Even if it means twisting a few laws."

Up until now, he seemed to be in the same camp as Lady Margaret.

But then his tone shifted to a kind of prescient one, "But so many valuable things coming out of such a small place will undoubtedly bring the attention of jealous eyes."

"So, trying to ally oneself with someone who might not exist in a few years is not prudent Margaret."

"You cannot just look at the money pile now. Instead, you should be able to look at deals from a few years in the future." He advised.

The old man was of the option that Alexander would be destroyed like how a beggar is killed for possessing a pearl necklace.

"But he has won that great battle! And so many more before that! How else can a slave become a pasha? Lady Margaret cried this in her defense.

But the old earl was not convinced.

Even if Alexander won so many times, it would take just one loss for him to lose it all.

He thought

But seeing his granddaughter so agitated, he did not outright deny her, but said, "Okay, though we cannot make a formal trade agreement, if you can get us the permission to produce that new bow, we can discuss it further."

And then quickly finished the conversation by feigning weakness and saying, "Let us wait and win before discussing this further."