Herald of Steel



Alexander would later look back on this day, the day he almost dismissed 3,000 of his soldiers with morbid shame.

It seemed like this was one of those days where his head was not in the game.

And seemed to be not thinking clearly, so upon hearing Menes's report, he had jumped the gun using own assumptions.

Alexander thought he had the money, and with his spending habits, which some would describe as generous and others as loose and spendthrift, had all of a sudden decided to arbitrarily spend it to get rid of this slight headache.

Worse still, most of the council members did not seem to mind either.

Meaning if not for Menicus's stern intervention, Alexander's order might have gone out and even before he could have realized it, he would have unwittingly crippled himself.

Because by the time he would have tried to rescind, it might have been already too late.

If the land had been given or money gifted, Alexander would have been embarrassed to ask for them back.

Hence for his services to the army and helping Alexander avoid this imbroglio, it was really not excessive for Alexander to offer a peerage increase to Menicus.

"Thank you, my lord, thank you," And hearing so naturally caused Menicus to break out into a smile as soon waves of praises and congratulations started pouring in from all sides.

They contained happiness, respect, and some even a tinge of regret that they could not have been the ones to discover the flaw, with some like Heliptos even lamenting that they were so enthusiastic about such a wrong thing.

It took a while for the festive atmosphere to finally die down, at the end of which Grahtos posed the last question of the day,

"My lord, you said that we will have new recruits. But from where? We already have a shortage of men!"

And he was right, as a lot of the meeting had been about that topic.

This Alexander was prepared for.

"I have already asked the nobles to contribute. They said they will send some of their men."

And then informed,

"Also some want to also join the army, along with their sons."

"We need to be prepared for that. Soon the Zanzan army will not only made of us."

What Alexander implicitly meant was that the nobles would soon start to compete with them over the council members over high-level positions and that the council members should not get complacent.

"Will they join as officers?" At this sudden announcement, Menes was understandably a bit concerned that the pampered men would be incompetent and so posed the question it was a slight scowl.

"The details are yet to be discussed. But I will try to make them start as low as possible," While Alexander simply made this promise.

And with that, after Alexander said some pleasantries, finally the long meeting ended.

And the council members were finally relieved to be able to get out of that one.

Save for one- TH.

He was asked to stay behind.

"So how has the temple been going?" Alexander asked his head priest, feeling he had not checked up on the temple for a while.

"Our followers are increasing. Every day more and more people are joining us. Most of them poor folk we give assistance to." TH quite enthusiastically reported, adding,

"Also when my lord chose to give that 50 million ropals to the city people, many came to appreciate your generosity and our followers increased. In fact, we are thinking of building a few more temples!"

It seemed Alexander's religion was a growing one.

"Hmmm, so how many people do you think we have?" Hearing this Alexander asked for a number.

"Ummm….about ten to twenty thousand," TH guessed.

Which caused Alexander to muse, 'A bit low,' because he thought it would be much bigger.

He had been hemorrhaging money on this and had at least thought it would be closer to fifty.

But he kept it to himself and tried to think of new strategies that would attract new converts.

'Perhaps I should give some sermons to attract more people,' He thought.

After all, no matter how hard the priests worked it could never be equal to the lord of the city and the messenger of god himself showing up.

So Alexander decided to make a plan to give weekly sermons at the main temple from now on.

And when he let TH know this, the man was naturally ecstatic.

Following this, he spent the next few hours talking and getting to know how the temple operated as well as the things TH thought he needed.

And at the top of the list was the usual, more funding for more shrines and temples, as well as more acolytes.

According to TH, there currently was a chronic shortage of them, and they even had to borrow some from Ramuh's temple.

Alexander tried to fulfill these requests to the best of his abilities and promised to do more.

He said,

'I will open more apothecaries and hospitals under the temple's name. More people are likely to come under our wing if they are healed under the goddess's grace."

"I will also ask the Zanzan Clinic to collaborate, and have some of their doctors visit these places, while priests and priestesses of the goddess can go to them and bless the sick, staying beside their bed and saying words of comfort."

"And lastly for your problem regarding the shortage of priests, I will open a few new schools. It will be free for the students, along with food and lodgings, so make sure to choose promising boys and girls, preferably orphans when that happens."

Alexander had in one breath promised a huge load of things for TH.

And the priest appeared to be over the moon hearing this.

"Thank you! Thank you my lord," He cried, struggling to express the full extent of his gratitude.

If Alexander really did all that, it would be immensely helpful for Gaia's faith.

"Mmmm, don't worry. Continue to work hard," While Alexander in a stoic manner befitting a divine emissary cooly replied.

And with that promise and the day nearing dusk, finally, Alexander's long day came to an end, and he was just as relieved as anybody to conclude it.

But the next week proved to be just as hectic as that day.

Because this was the week he met with the nobles as promised, discussing the ongoing progress of the land,

Here the infrastructure projects were again reviewed and the deadlines revised, the last year's taxes they owed to Alexander were calculated and lastly, the deal Alexander had promised regarding cheap rates of his products was fulfilled.

And as the nobles saw the product being loaded up to their carts, ready for transport, all could not help but cheer.

There were literally millions of ropals of profit to be had.

Alexander even invited the nobles who were not under him but had promised to fight Tibias with him, similarly giving them the goods as promised, even when they did not fight.

"Your forthrightness is praiseworthy my lord," And seeing the huge amount of goods Alexander was giving to them at such a watered-down price, without even a shred of haggling, many developed favorable views of Alexander.

All these issues took a full week to complete, all along which Alexander also had to host multiple grand parties and balls to entertain the men.

Which proved to be a bit of a challenge given the lack of venue.

Previously he would have done it at his mansion, a no-brainer, but now he had to hold in one of the larger vacant noble houses.

But those were minor inconveniences, nothing Alexander could not fix.

So as Alexander mingled there, many nobles came up to offer their daughters to Alexander but was tactfully declined.

He was a pasha and these nobles' peerage were a bit too low.

Alexander might have considered if the offer was from a Matbar (Marquiss) or a powerful (Jamider), but none such came.

And so with that issue finished, he started the next phase of his negotiation- Getting more people from the nobles.

As Alexander sat behind his desk, he began, "My lords, as I have already told you, Zanzan's old enemy Tibias has reared its head again. And will again attack soon."

"So we need to grow. Especially after suffering losses from our previous encounter."

"So how many men can you contribute?"

Alexander had asked each of them this before already, and so the nobles were able to individually give their own estimate.

And predictably Alexander haggled for more, while the nobles laid out all kinds of various difficulties they were facing, like their shrunken pool of men due to the drought, the men Alexander was already using for construction, the manpower required for the brick kilns Alexander wanted, and much more.

With the two sides finally coming to an agreement that Zanzan would add another 4,500 infantry and 500 cavalry permanently to its rosters, beginning the total up to 9,000 infantry and 1,200 cavalry.

Furthermore, the number of levies was also decided, and the nobles promised that they could spare 20,000 men from winter to late spring each year, with each levy getting 120 ropals a month for their service.

And as these details were being ironed out, two predictable requests were made to Alexander.

The first one was obvious.

The nobles wanted to be allowed entry army and serve.

While the other was them asking to be allowed a few seats in Alexander's council.