Herald of Steel



The tour of these two major projects, both of which were aimed at finally making Zanzan a clean, beautiful, city to live in, had taken Alexander the entire day.

And by the time he was finished, Alexander noticed the sun slowly dipping down the horizon, turning the sky from blue to a shaded orange hue.

Dusk seemed to be settling in and he noticed that the workers were all finishing up their work for the day, both exhaustion and relief evident on their faces.

He also did not notice when they had come, but a few opportunistic hawkers seemed to have suddenly apparated around the perimeter of the work site, selling all kinds of refreshing fruits, hearty meals, and delicious snacks to the hungry people, their smell and sight making everyone salivate.

There were a few who even sold groceries such as vegetables, eggs, and meat.

The idea here most likely was to catch the men such as the supervisors who might not feel like going all the way to the market if they wanted to buy something for their family and would much prefer to buy from them right here to save the hassle.

Alexander could not help but marvel over this practice and felt that shrewd businessmen existed everywhere across time.

Alexander even noticed a wheeled cart selling all types of wooden and earthen toys, such as dolls, carved horses, small pottery sets, etc. all targeted toward men who have kids at home, tempting them to take something back as souvenirs.

And even Alexander, remembering there was one about to come into this world, felt like buying something.

So acting on the spur of the moment, he did, buying a beautiful wooden doll painted in vibrant red, black, and gold, for if he had a daughter and a similarly beautiful toy horse with a cart attached to it for if he had a son.

And it was with these souvenirs that he finally felt it was time to get back and finish his tour for the day.

While the next few days proved to be a fierce one.

Every day, as dawn rolled over into morning, Alexander would almost feel his skin burning as the intense heat wave would descend upon the city like the sun was waiting to burn the city down.

It appeared Zanzan was experiencing a heatwave.

And given the scorning temperatures, Alexander decided prudently to stay inside the shade and comfort of his house for the following days, content with fooling around with his girls who too decided to play hookey from their work.

Alexander especially enjoyed himself in a giant wooden bathtub with them, using water and soap to play all sorts of naughty games with them.

He cleaned the girls' all the nooks and crannies, paying particular attention to their flowers, using his turgid tool to scrape off any dirt much to their delight.

This dry spell lasted a few days, with the relief coming on one particular late afternoon.

On that day, the sun had finished baking the city with its intense radiation like the preceding ones, but suddenly the unbearable heat began to slowly die down around the later part of the day, replacing it with a cool, refreshing breeze, and slowly a darkening sky.

Weather in Zanzan during the summers was generally unpredictable and it was very natural to have unbearable heat like this during the morning, but torrential rainfall followed by a slight chill during the afternoons and night.

And because Alexander had been cooped up in his house for the last few days, seeing this refreshing weather, he decided to sit outside on his back porch, wearing a light, blue tunic and feeling the comforting cool breeze carrying the smell of salt from the sea flow over his skin, as the bright sky got supplicated by a cloudy, almost threateningly dark cloudy, indicating the imminent arrival of a massive storm.

And as for the company, well he was currently entertaining a guest.

Dressed in fine, colorful clothes, with expensive shoes, and fingers adorned with sparkling jeweled rings, making him look like a bonafide merchant, it was his spymaster- Camius.

It seemed even when he was visiting Alexander, he worked hard to keep his disguise as a rich and successful merchant, with the backstory of his visits being that the pasha really liked his new wine.

"Things inside the city are pretty calm. Some people were a bit frustrated with all the wars and the siege, but with the grains and money you have given, people have mostly forgotten about that."

Camisu casually reported while taking a bite of the pear from the fruit basket served in front of him as he slouched back on the comfortable chair.

"Hmmm! They better be. I spend more on them per head than I do on my wife,"

Hearing the good report Alexander replied in a playful tone, though it was somewhat true.

Alexander would be confident in claiming that there was no lord not only in Adhania but even in the whole world who spent more on his subjects per head than him.

Although he did not know the exact figure off the top of his head, Alexander would say he spent at least half a billion ropal on this city alone, counting all the war reparations, the free food and medicine, the infrastructure projects, the new industries he set and everything else.

So if after all that the people were dissatisfied, well tough luck, Alexander could do nothing about that.

Hearing this Camius lightly smirked, while Alexander being in a good mood, threw a few large black grapes that were in front of him with a certain spring to his wrist, taking them one after another into his open mouth.

He found them to be very sweet and juicy.

So juicy in fact that some even spilled out onto his lips.

"This is good. Where did you buy these?" Alexander could not help but ask offhandedly.

Camius had bought these as gifts when he came to visit.

"They are good… aren't they!" Camius readily answered with a nod, saying, "I use them to make the wine. I buy them from a good merchant who brings them from Tibias."

"I first met him when he came to sell grapes…he's got a good vineyard…cheap…oh some people were complaining about the price hikes of….."

While answering Alexander, Camius started to trail off on his own, meshing in some of his intel in the process, while occasionally pausing to clear his mouth of the fruits.

And Alexander like a diligent audience listened attentively, sometimes stopping him to insert his own comment or casually inquire about some details.

The men appeared to be very comfortable around each other and in fact, this type of gathering between the two was not anything rare or uncommon.

Alexander would almost monthly, if not every fortnight invite Camius to his house, having him for lunch or dinner while listening to the various domestic and international issues that the man had managed to dig up.

Of course, all this reporting would be buttressed by light-hearted banter like this.

"Anyway, how was your trip to Tibias? How did it go? More importantly, how did you manage to get in so quickly?"

And at last Alexander to the real meat of their conversation.

The real reason why they were having this conversation.

Because Camius had managed to enter the fortress city of Thesalie, that one which stood at the mouth of the entrance from Zanzan to Tibias.

And since that city would be Alexander's first obstacle, he was eager to know everything there was to know about it.

"Hehe, well answering your last question first, you actually answered it yourself, hehe," Camius first said in a mysterious voice, which drew an intrigued look from Alexander.

He did not get it.

"You know… this grape. You asked about this grape," Camius tried to nudge Alexander towards the answer, even picking up the large, black berries to show them to him.

But Alexander could not connect the dots of how his innocuous comments about the fruit could get him the answers.

And even if he could, he was not in the mood to go through all the mental gymnastics to try and guess it.

Not when the far easier method of Camius simply telling him existed.

"....." So Alexander only flattened his lips and looked placidly at Camius.

While Camius, seeing Alexander not be in the mood for these games, brusquely shrugged his shoulders and gave him the straight answer that he was looking for.

"I got inside Tibias through these grapes."

"Remember that wine recipe you gave, it needed grapes. And while I was looking for suppliers, I met a certain merchant who was selling them."

"I bought a bunch and after liking his quality bought a few more in bulk purchases."

"At that point, we got to talking."

"I told him I really liked his fruits, said why I was buying grapes from him, and lastly asked him if he could give me these grapes in really large numbers."

"Unfortunately the man shook his head saying his vineyard was tiny."

"But fortunately, the conversation did not end there. He did give me a silver lining. He said that his son who had a vineyard in Tibias which could be big enough for any needs and that he could get us in contact if I wanted to."

"So a few weeks later I met the guy."

"And after a couple of talks, and liking my wine, the man finally asked me to come see his vineyard."