Herald of Steel

Chapter 906

Facing Philips's unfaltering demand, Alexander did at one point consider relenting and taking one of the Tibian princesses as his wife as a compromise.

He in hindsight had felt that turning both unmarried princesses of a royal family into concubines might have sounded a bit too extreme.

Especially given the royal family was still alive and still held some power.

When Alexander had first revealed his intentions some of the nobles too had expressed a bit of dissatisfaction.

But back then Alexander had not cared.

However, right now, after thinking about it for a bit, Alexander was beginning to have some doubts about being so pushy as he then began to seriously consider marrying one of the princesses.

'I can just throw her this title and forget about it. This will solve all my problems. I don't even have to favor her or anything.' Alexander even began to try and convince himself like this at one point.

'No! I can't do that!' However, a sudden reasoning abruptly intruded into his mind that made this line of thought instantly retreat.

He found that even if he were to ignore his pride and take a princess as a bride, the resulting union had the potential to pose a threat to his own son Philip's succession as some of the nobles in Tibias might see the other child as more legitimate.

This was absolutely unacceptable to Alexander.

And even if this did not happen, Alexander quickly found out that he could write in gold that Cambyses would not take kindly to a princess of a defeated country becoming his wife.

Alexander's win had been too decisive to make it logical sense to her.

Meaning it would appear to Cambyses that the only reason Alexander was taking her as his wife was due to having favorable feelings toward the woman.

This Alexander knew would not sit well with his main wife.

Like any human being, Cambyses was a person possessing her own selfish wants and desires, and she very much desired to have Alexander all for himself.

Alexander also knew that although Cambyses might not show it, the young 22 year old girl still had a sort of inferiority complex when it came to dealing with other girls of inherently higher birth status.

So if Alexander was so take this princess as a wife, Cambyses would likely be very intimated by this gesture.

In fact, the duo had even discussed regarding such a possibility beforehand and even reached a tacit agreement.

"I will turn a blind eye to any and all the girls you sleep with but in return, I want to have a say on any new wives you choose to have." Cambyses had proposed once, before airing her arms and adding,

"Concubines are fair game, I am not too worried about that. But when it comes to wives, who can sire legitimate children, I want to have a say."

Cambyses had an unusually serious look on her face as she said this.

And to this, Alexander was quite happy to agree to it.

Loyalty and sacrifice went both ways and Alexander reasoned that it was naturally not fair to expect Cambyses to put up with everything for Alexander, while the man reciprocated much less.

For his love, Alexander was willing to put up with this restriction.

He even thought it to be a good way of forcing himself to keep the number of his wives as low as possible.

Because although there was no restriction to the number of wives one could take in Adhanian tradition, it was generally advised to keep it to a minimum to foster harmony in the harem.

That would mean trouble for his family.

Due to all these personal and familiar reasons, Alexander knew he could accept the princesses as wives.

Which then caused his brain to try and rake another solution.

Until finally, after churning the gears there for quite some time, he at last found it.

Another candidate.

Suitable enough to be his replacement.

Menes.

"General Menes?" Hearing Alexander's proposal about his sister's groom, initially, Philips could not help but subconsciously furrow his eyebrows.

He of course knew of Menes- once a black chattel slave, now made a noble and elevated to the position of commander of the Pasha of Zanzan's army.

It was a meteoric rise with few examples in not just Adhania, but perhaps the whole world.

But being a born royal, Philips could not only care where the man was right now.

He also had to take into consideration where he came from.

And when taking that into consideration, the Crown Prince could not help but have second thoughts.

Thus he posed to Alexander with the intention to haggle, "Lord Pasha, Commander Menes is certainly a fierce warrior. But if I recall correctly, he is only a shordar (baron). I'm afraid this is far from being suitable to take a princess as a wife. We would like…."

"I think he is plenty suitable." Philips did not get to finish his case as Alexander suddenly intervened midway, his voice imperious and even a bit annoyed at being hounded over such a trivial detail.

So brushing his hands the pasha reiterated,

"Menes is the general of my army, practically my right hand man. This alone makes him high enough status. Who cares if he is a small noble or even a commoner?"

"He is also unmarried and best yet Thesian, not one of those deviant Adhanians who you think will treat the princess as dirt."

"What more do you think will be good enough for you?" Alexander sounded a bit exasperated by Philips's nitpick, as he then went off on a small tirade,

"And even the two sisters you so hung up about..... Why? They are not even the only princesses. You have four other sisters! I believe I have been very lenient towards the four of them! Would you like me to change the terms for them too?"

Philips slightly flinched at Alexander's threat, before he heard the young pasha slouch back on his chair and peremptorily declare,

"Okay! You want an even better deal."

"I will make Menes a Talukder (Viscount) before the marriage ceremony, and he will take Princess Amelia as his main wife, not just a wife."

"How about that? Any objections now?"

To say Philips was completely happy even with this decision would certainly be a lie.

General of the army or not, Menes was still by birth a slave.

For the proud and legal royal family, this was and would always be a sticking point.

In fact, this was a sticking point even when it came to Alexander, but Alexander was different.

He was a Pasha and more importantly their conqueror.

To say they would not marry their daughters to him because of his once slave status would only work to humiliate the Tibian royal family since that would in a roundabout way mean acknowledging they had lost to a slave.

However Menes could not naturally be put on the same pedestal.

More so as there was also the matter of his skin color.

Philips did not explicitly say it, but members of his family as well as the vast majority of the Tibian nobles did not look at that complex with much favoritism.

And lastly, Menes's darker pigmentation also meant that he was not technically a Thesian, as the cold climate of Thesos did not naturally produce this skin color

Meaning he was either born of slave parents or brought from overseas.

This made Alexander's point that Menes was a Thesian and thus much better than an Adhanian a lot weaker.

However, despite all these objectives Philips was still moderately happy with the results.

Changing fate from being a mere concubine to the main wife of the general, as an elder brother, Philips certainly could not be faulted for not having tried to get the best deal for his sisters.

Or perhaps more accurately sister, singular.

For his youngest sister, Camelia still was bound to be basically Alexander's maid.

And even though Philips wanted to discuss her fate too, when came the actual time, the words suddenly got stuck in his throat.

Because judging my Alexander's voice and body language, this veteran politician understood the Pasha of Zanzan was already tired of this topic.

He was not going to give him a better offer, and if he brought it once again, might even backtrack and propose a harsher deal.

So knowing to count his blessings when they came, Philips decided to be satisfied with half of his accomplishments.

50% was still pass marks after all.

'I'm sorry Camelia, I really tried.' So shedding a silent tear for his youngest fourteen year old sister in his heart, outwardly, Philips gave a large grin and an accepting nod,

"Thank you, my lord. This is something both us and the nobility can accept!"

However the former part of his sentence would be a lie.

Because when Philips would go to tell his sisters of the deal, while one side would squeal and jump in joy, the other side would first shed tears and then scream and shout at her older brother.

"Why? Why do I have to be a lowly maid? Why couldn't I be the main wife? Amelia is the elder! She should go to the Pasha."

Philips would be able to do little but pull a forlorn face.

This was the tragedy of a loser.

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