Herald of Steel

In keeping with her desire, Alexander had granted Lady Felicia the chance to showcase her ability in administering Thesalie by letting her oversee many of its day to day operations for the last six months.

And he had asked to meet her basically to do an evaluation report of her.

"Is there any problem with the temples?" Hearing Lady Felicia's evasive reply, Alexander asked for clarification, leaning a bit forward.

"It's… nothing." And Lady Felicia again gave the same reply, shaking her head to emphasize the point.

"If it's nothing, then don't mention it." 

And seeing this Alexander seemingly did not push the lady as he waved his hand, but then added with narrowed eyes, "However if it is something and it turns out you cannot handle it…it will be your neck."

"So do not hide anything from me and regret it later Felicia!" 

Alexander sounded very domineering. 

And facing his ultimatum, Lady Felicia decided the little matter was not worth concealing, quickly speaking out, "A few weeks ago, some of the priests along with a small mob protested in the main temple, welding sticks and damage wanting to demolish Estemmed Goddess Gaia's statue."

"But the temple guards and city militia quickly stopped them."

"No one was killed."

Lady Felicia did not want to reveal this previously because any such event reflected poorly on her management of the city.

And she really wanted to rule it.

"...Hmmm," And hearing of this disturbance, Alexander only lightly hummed and nodded.

He had not received any such news from neither Ophenia nor the Gaia priests who had begun to preach in the city, meaning the news was likely suppressed and was not deemed important enough to grace his ears.

Besides, he had busily around the time frame Lady Felicia mentioned, carving up his spoils among his retains and cementing his control over much of the land. 

"Did it happen only once?" So Alexander wanted to confirm that it was a one time thing.

"Yes! Only once my lord. We have already captured all the leaders. There will never be anything like this." Lady Felicia was quick to nod her head like a chicken, further reassuring Alexander, 

"Most of the people do not care much about the statues my lord. We have made sure to let them know why it was done and the six priests were made an example of."

"And the gold we gave to the various priests made them all shut up."

"These last men were just the few remaining dregs." Lady Felicia sounded disdainful, but her body language made it clear that she was trying very hard to show Alexander that she was competent enough to hold the post.

"Okay. I understand." And Alexander nodded so, commenting in a gentle tone, "This type of resistance is to be expected in the first few months."

"It will all be over once I take the capital and they understand there is no point in resisting." 

"Yes, yes. I'm sure the people will soon understand how benevolent of a lord you are." Lady Felicia of course had every incentive to agree with Alexander, as she then revealed,

"Trade and commerce in the city are also starting to pick up. Merchants and peddlers are starting to return and the various goods your territory makes have started to flow here. The new sugar and the various cheap iron utensils have been especially a large hit."

"Just the sales tax of this month came to more than 1 million ropals. I felt like I was dreaming when I first got the numbers, haha." As Lady Felicia said so, her voice turned high pitched and excited, while her face revealed an absent minded ethereal glow.

This was an amount of money that seemed almost magical even to her and it was clear she was moved.

'1 million in a month… 12 million in a year… Just from selling two things… And this when the city is not even recovered….' 

Lady Felicia would occasionally mutter these types of phrases following the day she had seen the numbers.

In fact, when Lady Felicia had first gotten those numbers she had slightly jumped from her chair, and then double and re- double checked the calculation to make sure she did not add an extra zero or something.

But once she confirmed that indeed the numbers were legit, the rest of the day, the buxom lady had spent with a large grin on her face, daydreaming about all the insane things she would be able to do with that much money. 

And then to her shocked realization, she found that even if she were to engage in all the extravagances known to her, she might not be able to spend all that money under any reasonable circumstance. 

"That is good." While Alexander, unaware and even uncaring of Lady Felicia's personal thoughts, only breathed a small breath of relief hearing trade was starting to get going.

For this alleviated Alexander's biggest worry, a stagnating market.

He knew that as long the economy kept improving and the people's lives kept getting better, they were unlikely to rebel.

He was also happy to see that the 25 million ropal aid package he had inserted into the economy was finally having its effect as people were taking this money and going out there to spend it.

Since most of the people had their houses repaired for free, they were able to skip that large expense.

So they first concentrated on stocking up on food and other essentials to last the winter.

And with Zanzan having a bumper harvest as well as Alexander transferring large grain surpluses from the warehouses to the city, these essentials quickly appeared in abundance in the market, letting people buy it without any fear of shortages.

So then the people, having experienced the tragedy and loss of many loved ones and with still some money to spend splurged on things like furniture and pottery, things which were lost in the war, as they tried to build the life they had before again. 

This had led to a huge booming demand for the cities around Thesalie, including Zanzan as carpenters and potters all around worked day and night to try and fill these orders, earning significant money in the process. 

But perhaps the biggest demand amongst all of the goods that the Tibians had was brown sugar from Zanzan, one that to them tasted like honey but was tens of times less the price.

Hence, fueled by the enticing release of dopamine, almost every family in Thesalie tried to savor that good at least once, hoping to forget the pain they suffered with these sweet treats. 

The volume of sugar sold was followed in tow by the many cheap iron products that came flooding into the market- like pots and pans, good knives of various sizes, nails, hammers, etc.

But perhaps the biggest seller was the heavy plow which the farmers were flocking to, trying to switch their bronze and sometimes even light wooden plow for this shiny new equipment which cost less than their inferior one.

The poor men were elated to find such good quality products at half the price of any of its competitors and were very eager to make this investment. 

In cultivating that desire, Alexander also had no small part to play, as it was under his instruction that old man Menicus had held multiple demonstrations around January and February, showing all the nearby farmers the full merits of the new equipment using various ways.

So it was only natural for iron products to rise in demand as Lady Felicia pointed out. 

The rapid trade between the two cities was also greatly aided by the fact that there was a pristine, wide, flat, concrete road from here to Zanzan that Alexander had built to aid in his attack on the city.

But now played a crucial role in helping to move the huge quantities of goods Zanzan produced quickly and easily to Thesalie regardless of the weather or season, from where using the River Diannu, these goods could be transported to all parts of the country, cheaply and easily. 

And while on this lucrative 'silk road', these merchants would often stay at the many new roadside inns, motels, and other rest houses, gamble and 'sleep' at the few pleasure dens, and make use of the horse stables.

All the increased trade and large traffic volume moving between the cities had caused these new establishments to pop up almost overnight, laying testament to a select group of people's inherent instinct to smell money and opportunity as they designed their businesses to cater to these peddlers who needed at least three to five days to make the trip.

In this, simply by facilitating trade between two points, many additional jobs and businesses were created, establishing a sort of positive feedback cycle.

Also, interestingly, if one looked a bit into the identities of many of these new entrepreneurs, they would find a lot of them knew someone who had participated in the conquering, or at least the looting of Thesalie like the camp followers.

And it was from those ill gotten gains that they had gained the capital to set these shops up.

Wars were truly lucrative for everyone involved, possessing the possibility of changing one's life unrecognizably, if you could win them that is.

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