Herald of Steel



Alexander for the first time got to know the families of his retainers as he oversaw the disembarkment around the docks.

For instance, he found that Grahtos had a wife and five kids.

Melodias's wife had died and was left with six daughters and three sons.

While Heliptos surprisingly had a few mistresses and many children.

But the most impressive would have to be certainly Menicus, who did not disappoint as the most senior of the group by having thirteen sons!

Yes, enough to form a football team, a referee, and even an audience.

While what truly moved Alexander was his wife's luck at winning the gender chance so many times.

Menicus's sons ranged across the whole age spectrum, going from middle-aged men with their own impressive families rivaling their father's, down to teens who were just starting to enter puberty.

It seemed that Menicus was old but not cold.

And lastly, it was Hemicus who introduced his wife, young son, and two teen daughters to Alexander, a smile hanging on the usually stoic man's face.

Alexander paid attention to entertain all these men and their misses, after finishing which he finally managed to meet the captain of the ship.

It appeared that the man had stayed on his ship until every other ship had docked, making him one of the last ones to get off.

"It is a pleasure to meet again Lord Lord Karvish. I can see your journey has been safe and successful!" Alexander cheerfully greeted the man who had also gotten him here from Adhan the first time.

"Ahhh…safe, I guess you could say so. Being alive is being good after all," The old man with a gruff voice replied, sounding somewhat rueful.

To which Alexander only nodded and said, "Yes, Mithras did mention some kind of disaster, although he did not elaborate," before lightly adding,

"But so many ships are here, right? That means it can't have been that bad. So let us please rest first."

Alexander could wait to hear the bad news.

"Yes, I guess," Was the somewhat tired reply as the men then at last returned to Alexander's manor.

And thus the unloading and placement of all the people was finished in a day.

The next day, due to working until midnight the day prior, Alexander skipped breakfast and directly woke up at around lunchtime.

Since it was a holiday anyway as many of the council members were taking a day off to spend time with their families, it was no big deal anyway.

So, Alexander lazily woke up, got refreshed, and only after a grand feast with the guests that he finally got down to asking about their journey and what had happened.

"So, what is it you guys are so down about?" Alexander said the question in his study, where Mithras and Lord Karvish sat on a coach, slipping a cold milkshake flavored with strawberry, Alexander's latest invention

Summer was knocking at the doorsteps, and the temperature was already causing some discomfort, hence the advent of this item.

Hearing the question, Mithras quickly removed the metal straw from the mouth, and in a said tone reported,

"Because we had to collect people from so many places, we had decided to split our fleet into many groups, each given in charge of an area."

"And in one of those areas, there was a sudden storm that sunk all the ships. We lost around 10 ships and 3,000 to 4,000 men."

Alexander had long expected such news, both from reading between the lines and more so because he had counted about 90 ships when he had clearly sent around a 100.

He had even double-checked to make sure he was not wrong.

So took the report with a nod, solemnly saying, "That is indeed a tragedy. But that is the risk of sailing, for the weather at sea is in the hands of the gods. Let us pray they will be let into Elysium." as he then pious clasped his hands like as he saying a prayer.

Alexander's reverence towards the gods might have been fake, but he did genuinely feel bad about those people, both for the drowned and those still living in Zanzan who had lost everyone they knew.

But that was the inherent risk associated with sailing these days and it was even something people had somewhat grown to expect.

So Alexander could only thank his lucky stars that the people who died were not anyone related to people he was close to, like his retainers.

"That is not the worst thing." After Mithras, Lord Karvish quickly spoke up in his gruff tone, adding, "Unfortunately those ships also carried a lot of our gold. We planned to use it to pay the ports there and also bribe the officials to get some seals that would let us easier access to the subsequent ports."

"All that went down too." Lord Karvish again produced that rueful voice.

"Yes, and after that, we debated whether to turn back." Mithras picked up the conversation, saying, "But knowing why you sent us there, decided to continue. Captain Lord Karvish even decided to forego the salaries of him and his crew to enable us."

"And by the grace of the gods we somehow managed to shoehorn the finance of the trip by asking the various families to contribute. Thank Opkus!"

The ending of that sentence both had relief and also a hint of expectation.

"But you promised everyone I would pay them back?" Alexander easily understood where they were angling, and produced a knowing look.

He also kind of understood that unusually loud cheer yesterday when he had promised to pay for the dock workers.

It seemed that the people that came here were really penniless.

And he got a positive, sheepish nod in return.

Alexander then flattened his lips at this, not understanding who he should be angry towards, Mithras and Lord Karvish for losing the ships, or the storm for being there.

But ultimately Alexander knew he would have to just suck it up.

This might be the first time he lost some ships, but it would certainly not be the last.

Not if wanted to have a maritime trade network.

"So much how did you lose?" Alexander thus placidly asked.

And Mithras put in head down and lowly squeaked the astronomical number, "Ten million."

This huge number cause Alexander to instantly exclaim in fright, ".....what! I gave you 15 million ropals, and you lost two-thirds! Why did you put so much into a few ships?"

Alexander had of course foreseen the dangers at sea, which was why he had told them to distribute the money among many ships.

"We did that because the ships were reaching port, and we intended to buy lots of grains from there for Zanzan," Mithras could only mewl out his excuse.

He knew this was a blunder he could be held culpable for, for the money he had lost was truly huge.

10 million ropals was equivalent to 200 kg of gold, or two whole Alexanders.

"......." Alexander silently kept his lips pursed for a while, a long, long while hearing the excuse, until finally letting out a sigh and saying,

"Fine, I will pay for everything. The ships lost, the due salaries, and the coin spent. You will all be reimbursed."

Alexander could only take the L here.

"Hahaha, the lord is understanding. Excellent! Excellent!" And as soon as Alexander had said this, Lord Karvish's mood relaxed tenfold, as he slouched back and even started sipping his beverage.

It seemed the real reason why he was so sad and tense was not because of the dead men, but because of the lost money.

While Alexander worked on his next economic package inside his head.

Out of the 1 billion ropals he originally had, he had traded with Ptolomy and Pasha Farzah goods worth 600 million ropals.

Then he spent another 70 million paying the salaries of his men and developing Zanzan, introducing ropals into the economy when it originally had almost none.

And now lastly he was going to have to spend around another 30 million on the Thesians and their transport fare.

Meaning Alexander had already burned through 70% of his savings in just five months.

For context, this was an amount even the top 0.1% of the top 0.1% of the world would never get to own.

And if this spending spree went on as usual, Alexander would be broke within the next two months.

'*Sigh*, I really hope I know what I'm doing,' Faced with this statistic, even Alexander felt apprehensive and really hoped Zanzan would be able to pay for itself.

And pay for itself soon enough or he would be broke.

But even with this potential bankruptcy on the horizon, Alxx knew he would have to cough up the aid, be it to help the Thesian get up on their feet, boost the economy, or placate Shordar Karvish, who answered to Lady Inayah, and one who was a powerful ally for now.

So the next day Alexander announced 5 million to the ship crews, and 10 million to the Thesians as compensation, pleasing everyone but himself.

But Alexander would soon get to please himself with some good news, and it was good news about money nevertheless.

For the second good news had come in the form of Harold, the rich merchant from Sybarsis.

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