Herald of Steel

The general rule that the trio of Alexander, Philips, and Lord Theony came up with when it came to carving up the lands of the various Tibian nobles was this:

Noble houses who had surrendered to Alexander right after he took the capital lost either no or at most, very little, mostly useless land.

Their only real 'fine' was paying a lump sum of money from their treasury.

Next came the nobles who did not do so but had strong ties to Lord Theony.

Due to that association, they also received the same treatment.

But houses that had tied their knot with Philips and thus the royal family, lost 30% to 70% of their land by default, the exact number depending on individual circumstances.

And his blanket rule was applied to all, regardless of how big or powerful they were, with the best example being MM's family.

This once large and powerful family had almost overnight lost more than 50% of their land and if that did not sound bad enough, the plots that were taken away from them amounted to a staggering 80% of their economic productive centers, meaning they were only left with the bare scraps.

The leftover lands were so bad that Alexander even doubted whether the family would be able to just properly maintain the place, i,e.- paying the guards and administrator to look after the place.

Forget about sustaining their huge family's own, extravagant lifestyle.

It was so bad that Alexander thought there was even the distinct possibility that the family might simply disappear within a few decades, as more and more family members, unable to subsist from their lands, moved out to seek fortunes elsewhere.

And the reason why Alexander had decided to deal this heavy, mortal blow on this particular family was simple- because he wanted to make an example out of them for supporting Perseus, intending to discourage everyone else from even following in such actions in the future.

MM, one of Perseus's staunchest supporters, was the perfect candidate for this.

And while the Crown Prince Philips's heart retched seeing this unfair treatment of his mentor's family, in order to protect his own family, he did not intervene, signing off on the whole thing.

During this time, the prince also refused to see the new head of MM's family, MM's younger brother, despite the latter's repeated attempts, both due to feeling ashamed and because there was nothing to talk about.

The decision had already been made.

And while their situation was certainly tragic, they were a hundred times better than those in the last category.

For noble houses that owned land below a certain threshold and were found to be too small and insignificant to have powerful allies to call for help, automatically lost an unbelievable 80% of their land in the blink of an eye, in a classic example of Alexander unscrupulously preying on the weak.

And furthermore, if such houses were then also unlucky to have neither their current lord nor a clear successor, such as due to them having sadly died in battle recently, then they would be even more unfortunate, as Alexander would have them declared 'dead'.

Meaning they lost their noble title and with it their everything.

All their property and most of their possessions were divided up among the victors, while they were kicked out of their own very houses and demoted to ordinary citizens, or sometimes worse, turned into slaves by those victorious nobles moving into their territory.

These 'noble slaves' would be sometimes given respectable positions, like stewards and butlers, and then handed the responsibility of taking caring care of the lands they once governed.

The victorious noblemen being presented with all the new land obviously lacked the depth of knowledge needed to govern it effectively, so relegated the act to the previous owners, wishing to employ them in the service of their new master's behalf.

But other times, these fallen nobility would be taken as gifts and prizes, as pleasure slaves to enjoy with oneself or with others.

And it was not just the Zanzan nobles who partook in such pleasures.

There were even instances of many Tibian nobles participating in this macabre feast, throwing the fact that these people had been once their colleagues out like used tissue paper without a second's thought, knowing if their positions were reversed, the other side would have done the same, as the men fought for the collection of beautiful men and women.

Alexander too of course had been offered to take part in this division of booty, even being offered the chance at first pick, as Lord Theony had produced a line of gorgeous women before him, one that included every variety that a man could ever need to appease himself.

Large buxom brunettes in large, specially cut V gowns that revealed more than half their splendid mammaries.

Curvy, mature, married women in tight dresses that emphasized their wide hips, oozing fertility.

Chaste and modest women of medium build giving off an aura of purity and bashfulness.

Petite, lith teenagers with budding chests, in the spring of their youth, radiating an air of purity.

And lastly even underaged children who looked at Alexander with limpid innocent eyes full of fear and uncertainty, their underdeveloped bodies shivering at his sight, like he was some kind of monster.

And perhaps he was.

After all, it was him who had dealt them this very cruel fate, if not directly, at least through his hands.

And Alexander was certainly hurt seeing those particularly innocent souls being dealt the cards they were, through no fault of their own.

But although hurt, Alexander would never regret his act.

What was done was done.

There was always collateral damage in any conflict, and unfortunately, these young, innocent girls were one of them.

Alexander could do little but apologize to them in his heart.

In terms of the query of whether Alexander accepted any of these offers, the answer was naturally no.

None of the women there caught his fancy, and also the nature of the offering left Alexander with a bad taste in his mouth that made him unwilling to force himself upon them.

It was also a decision influenced subtly by Ophenia and Gelene, who tried to covertly sway Alexander from taking any such mistresses, as they intended to keep the number of their rivals to a bare minimum.

So they worked very hard to keep him 'dry'.

The two also had not come to the capital empty handed, but with various toys recreated from the memory of Ophenia's time at the temple.

And so Alexander was frequently kept distracted with those, in acts so lewd he would describe them as being depraved and immoral beyond most men.

The man even doubted whether the 'cultured' nobility of the capital Adhan got to enjoy some of the things he did.

And as if just the two of them were not enough, sometimes the girls would even arrange for high level courtesans from the city's famous brothels to come and help them, all in a bid to keep Alexander satisfied.

And to their credit, this worked.

But while Ophenia and Gelene got their wish, and the captured women also seemingly escaped Alexander's clutches, it could be argued that that was actually a bad thing for them.

For such a thing did not mean freedom for these imprisoned folks.

Instead, it simply meant that the ownership of their chain went to a much cruler master.

And in a twisted way, many of these women would have actually led a very good life if Alexander had chosen to take them.

But instead, since the man had declined them, now it just meant there was more for the nobles to enjoy, who were certainly not as understanding a master as Alexander.

And for the more beautiful ones, the tragedy was even more stinging.

Because a batch of them was prepared to be sent to Adhan as gifts from Alexander for Ptoloy, where their life would be very 'different'.

Many of them would be trained and made to participate in many of the 'parties' held there, as extras to entertain the nobility during those events, or be made into palace maids, serving the upper class and attending to their whims and desires.

Many younger scions of nobility there also had permission from their fathers to have such maids in any way they liked, as they practiced their skills in beds, putting to practice many of the skills they would be taught during their coming into adulthood training by the Ramuh priestesses.

And since these maids would be seen as such free practice materials, it was very common to see them get abused, even by those masters who were not considered sadistic.

It was just that many of these young people, who were only first getting into sex, simply did not know the dos and don'ts at first.

And their instructors usually did not care to correct them either, letting the boys figure things out through trial and error.

After all, in these priestess's eyes, who cared if a few, foreign heathen slaves that they looked down on with disdain died?

And if this was the general attitude, one could imagine what happened to the women unlucky enough to land in a cruel master's hand.

Alexander mourned at these turn of tragic events and was till now powerless to stop them.

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