Herald of Steel



According to the treaty Alexander had signed with the nobles, there was a clause in there that stated the nobles were required to send a representative to Alexander to present their viewpoints during meetings.

That had been signed almost a year ago.

However, due to various reasons and kafkaesque bureaucracies, it had yet to be implemented.

And so given that so much time had passed, it was only very reasonable that they would want this.

After all, at the moment, there was no noble in Alexander's inner circle to represent this powerful group's interest.

Alexander had no problem acceding to this, saying, "Yes, I planned it such anyway. The official council building is under construction for just that purpose and should be finished before winter."

"At that time, you can all send your representative, or even yourself might attend it."

The ease with which Alexander accepted their demand surprised the nobles because they had assumed that Alexander would try to haggle a bit.

They thought that the nobles would pick one or two of their own to be in the council seat during Alexander's meeting, who would then try and protect their interests.

So Alexander's frank admission of all of them into the group made many feel refreshed.

The reason they previously thought as such was because they were unfamiliar with the type of government structure Alexander was trying to achieve.

Higher nobles rarely sought the opinion of their subordinates on most decisions other than wars, with perhaps a rare few trusted ones kept as advisors.

And the reason for this was simple, most nobles were feudal, meaning they lived their lives as kings inside their lands, allowed to do almost whatever they liked.

So why would a pasha or matbar (marquis) implementing policies on his own land waste time listening to the opinions of other unrelated parties?

It had nothing to do with them after all.

Of course, there were exceptions to this general rule.

For instance, nobles would sign trade deals, alliances, or treaties with one another, then they would be asked to come and weigh in.

While other times, they could band together to protest on some policies their lord was or wanting to enact, such as economic ones which might drive away their influence on the market, political ones such as changing allegiances to the kings, or social ones like restricting or allowing people to move between the various noble's lands.

But those were usually done on rare occasions and with only the parties involved.

So Alexander's type of governance where everyone sat together and discussed things as a whole was a novel and unfamiliar idea to them.

Alexander of course did this so that everyone could pool their resources and work together to better everyone's circumstances, but the feudal lords who jealously guarded their lands never thought like that.

And this archaic mindset was still very much engraved into them even now, as evidenced by how many seemed to be dragging their feet when it came to the construction of projects such as cleaning the roads, broadening it, building a proper sewage system, etc, even with Alexander's urging and furthermore with his funding.

Many did not see the point in it, or at least were skeptical of the value of the investment.

Many thought Alexander was wasting 100 gold to get 90 back.

But despite the difficulties, things were still progressing, even if they were not as fast as Alexander wished they were.

The copious amounts of gold and goods Alexander had used to grease the wheel worked to convince the nobles to accept these demands, though it had to be remembered it only happened because these men, defeated in battle and then abandoned, were relatively weak and had little other choice.

So if Alexander wanted to rope more nobles in with similar deals, where a centralized form of power would be allowed to exert force on lands the nobles saw almost as sovereign, Alexander knew he would have to both use force and show the benefits it could bring to the ruling class by following this deal.

And one of the many ways of showing this was by promising each noble a seat at his table.

The efficacy and sagaciousness of this idea would have to wait until later to be evaluated.

But for now, all the nobles were quite pleased, and so the topic that many thought would be

contentious was very quickly resolved.

Though regrettably, the time they saved on that, seemed to have more than made up for discussing the next issue.

"My lord, many of us also wish to join the army. Fight Tibias ourselves! How can we join?"

The voice was young and eager, evident of the 'energetic young blood.'

"Of course, you are welcome to any time. Having trained men of your caliber is a blessing to our whole army." To this Alexander first appeared very enthusiastically.

But then added,

"But you will need to train for some time before joining the combat ranks."

"The Zanzan army does not use the usual phalanx formation, so I think you will need some months to get used to this new formation."

"Spend some time getting acquainted with the new tactics we use and the novel weapons we have invented."

After saying this, Alexander then went on to very briefly list the things they would be required to learn, by the end of which the nobles seemed a bit peeved.

Now, the fact that Zanzan used a different formation was not news to the nobles.

They knew that much.

But they were not sure just how different it was.

Many thought it was just a kind of variation of the phalanx, and so felt Alexander was being pedantic.

'We have been training our whole life. Who does this pup think he is,' Some older veterans appeared to think.

Furthermore, they were also a bit dissatisfied with Alexander wanting them to train in infantry tactics.

"My lord, we are nobles. We ride on cavalry!" Many cried as they urged Alexander to relax the requirements.

With one young noble taking a particularly aggressive stance,

"My lord, why you are asking us to train with the recruits! Those are peasant greenhorns who have never touched a sword or spear."

"Whereas we have been training since birth. My hands are all rough and full of calluses from gripping my sword for too long!"

"See! See!"

"Do you think these hands need even more training?"

The man or perhaps more accurately the boy then even spread out his palms for Alexander to see.

And as Alexander moved his gaze to the thick, rough arms bearing remains of a lot of small and shallow cuts, no doubt due to the skin breaking many times during training, he lifted his eyes to look at the adolescent boy with no facial hair and bright blue eyes as he recalled the information regarding him.

This very enthusiastic 'boy about to turn adult' was a small shordar (baron) owning a relatively useless scrap of land, about two days walk from here.

His grandfather was a neta (knight) who had served as the captain of the royal guards during his time, and when Alozmer (Amenheraft's father) came to power, near the end of his rule, he elevated them to a shordar (baron).

But sadly, his father never got to fully enjoy the fruits of their accomplishments.

Because he died, slain in battle during Amenheraft's fateful attack on Adhan a half year ago, which claimed not only the boy's father but also all of his elder male relatives, his uncles, brothers, cousins, everyone, leaving him as the oldest male heir.

This way Ismale was forced to take the heavy burden of running a fief at the tender age of 13.

And as he took the reins of the family, or tried to, he was suddenly asked to swear fealty to the commander against who his father had died fighting.

And though he resisted that at first, after a bit of time, he was surprisingly pretty cool about it, saying to Alexander, "My father followed his oath, and you did yours, my lord. There can never be any question of revenge or even discontent because of this."

This was the of course typical mindset of the time period.

Something Alexander doubted he could do.

He was not sure whether he could forgive a commander who killed his father.

As Alexander reminisced this, his focus ultimately returned to the hot-blooded youth standing so eagerly in front of him, and could not help but ask,

"Ismale, why are you so eager to army? Don't you have a fief to oversee?"

Alexander thought that given almost half his family died due to war, the boy would be averse to it.

But Ismale clearly thought differently, saying,

"Of course it is so win battles and earn glory. I must make my father and grandfather proud!"

"Lillan can look after the lands."

Lillan was the boy's half-sister, 16 years old, and someone Alexander remembered seeing once or twice at parties.

At the boy's 'matter of fact' answer, Alexander momentarily felt unable to retort back.

It had no reason with which he could argue against.

"My lord, Ismale is right. We nobles ride on the horse, we are cavalry."

"Don't you think it is a waste of our time to be learning about the infantry?"

Compared to Ismale's very loud and aggressive tone, this one was soft.

And it came from Jamider (Earl) Tikba, perhaps the most influential noble in Alexander's retinue.

It seemed making the nobles comply with him would not be easy for Alexander.