Herald of Steel

Chapter 1369 Planned Response

Alexander took note of Lady Parthia's guess with an agreeing nod.

Indeed, now that he thought about it, it made no sense for the Heeat family to force Vidiyan into such a suicidal attack.

Without Baron Lamp luring him to the ambush, an attempt on the life had virtually no chance of success.

Alexander did not believe a ducal family would be this dumb- to discard such a core force in such a reckless manner.

There were much better ways to plot against him.

So the much more likely explanation was some mid level bureaucrat had gotten these orders and then decided to follow it to the tee no matter what.

The order was to kill Alexander and it was Vidiyan's headache on how he was going to do that- through hook or crook, which baron died and which baron lived was not his concern.

Alexander let out a small snigger in his heart upon reaching this reasonable conclusion.

A small part of him was actually impressed by that man's loyalty, he had stuck to his order despite everything going to ruin in the blink of an eye.

But a much larger part of him only mocked the man for his intractable ways.

The only thing his blind obedience managed to do was hand the enemy of his family a free 'experience boost' and 'level' up.

"If what my lady says is true, then I should thank him, hehehe. If the attack had been called off, I would have remained grossly unaware of the plot. I really underestimated the Heeat family's speed and will for vengeance. *Tsk*, who knew they would they this determined?"

Alexander might not have shown it, but the comment was made with both praise and immense anger. Thinking back to how Lord Castell had made all those promises, he found that he was just being taken for a ride.

"Yes, that pirate could have also done a lot of harm to your convoys," And Lady Parthia agreed, suggesting with a thin, curved smile,

"I also think you should try to find the man who gave the pirates their order. He can surely lead to his other men operating in your territory."

"...." Alexander initially gave a slightly surprised look hearing this.

He did not think of this before because he thought with Vidiyan's defection that contact had been lost.

But now that Lady Parthia mentioned it, this was quite flawed.

The family did not yet know that their pirate captain had just flipped so at best they thought he failed or just disobeyed orders.

As such if they were smart enough, Alexander was confident there was still a chance to get hold of something.

"I will have him try. It should not be too hard." He promised.

"Mmmm. I am also interested to know who wanted to do this. It was so fast. They must be very decisive," Lady Parthia then chimed with an undertone of praise, analyzing each of the suspects,

And hearing the decision, the Tibias queen also did not urge Alexander on the matter, only cooly remarking,

"I see. Then I wish you good luck. Hopefully, your fragile peace will not be suddenly broken,"

And then before Alexander could figure out if she was cursing him or wishing him, she extended the same bit of caution to the hunt for the spy,

"Also that man you are trying to catch... he might not be as easy to catch as you think. His actions might seem foolish to us, but it may also be that he forced the pirate captain because it was best for covering his own back."

"It might have been that the Baron's death was too sudden, so the man could not hope to receive new orders on time. He had to make a decision there."

"He might have thought about calling off the attack, but perhaps he has an unreasonable superior. Perhaps he feared that taking such a decision was too above him and could end him in the gallows. So he chose to go through it regardless! It was not his head after all."

Alexander strongly sensed that Lady Parthia was likely speaking from experience as she said this.

This was just that he was unable to determine if she was once that unreasonable superior or if her subordinates acted like that around her.

Either way, this also let Alexander detect a common flaw in the spy or in general any bureaucratic system.

In any government agency, you on one hand wanted loyal servants who followed your orders without many questions, thus maximing your hold on power.

But on the other hand, you also wanted smart people who could act as the situation demanded. Because the reality on the ground was rarely as it was on a paper report.

The trouble was these were two diametrically opposed ideals.

If the people beneath you are smart and resourceful and could the job done perfectly, well then the next logical question comes, why did they need you? Why should they be beneath you and not vice versa?

But if you had a group of blindly loyal men, well, then you got the example such as with the Russian Tsar when he ordered the construction of the Trans Siberian Railway.

The story goes that he used a ruler to draw the railway on a map to show its intended direction.

But the ruler he used had a small bump on it, which was then reflected on the drawn line.

And when the railway line was actually built, the engineers made sure to even add that small bump because they thought it was a design feature and were too afraid to ask otherwise.

Now, Alexander did not know how true this claim was, but given what he knew of Russian history and all the crazy things that happened, it was totally possible.

Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!

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