Herald of Steel

Archemedies's screw was essentially a large screw, open at both ends and encased lengthwise in a watertight covering that could be used to raise water up to 1 to 1.5 meters.

It was invented by, as the name suggests Archemedies around 280 B.C. and then extensively used ancient irrigation, such as to draw up water from the river into the surrounding elevated farmlands.

While its modern days were too numerous to describe.

Alexander was quite happy to be reminded of this vital equipment because it really was an extremely useful tool, especially for agriculture in mountainous areas.

Using it here could be revolutionary!

Hence he planned to have his smithies forge the product in vast numbers and send it to Thesalie.

That was why he simply asked the engineers to continue proceeding as they were, while also planning to undertake quite a few more irrigation projects around these lands after it was produced.

For now though, Alexander returned back to the meeting, as with this last thing ticked off the list, Alexander then got to talking to Lady Felicia about the various administrative affairs of the place, the challenges she faced, and how she planned to face them.

He asked her about the staff, and her monthly expenses, and even advised her to increase their numbers to keep up with the ballooning city.

But more importantly, Alexander made sure to stress the importance of street sweepers and garbage collecting, urging her to keep the city as clean as possible by enforcing strict littering laws.

"Butchers, dyers, and animal handlers should be especially heavily fined or even thrown out of the city if they are found dumping their waste on the streets or the river."

"While any house with garbage in their front streets should be made to clean it themselves."

Alexander proposed, and then turned towards the lady opposite of him to urge,

"Felicia, you must do all these, if not for no other but yourself. It would be a shame if you suddenly caught a disease and died. All that power… lost… without being able to savor one bit." Alexander half snickered as he tried to play to Lady Felicia's weakness.

And to his pleasure got a swift nod of the head from the other side.

After this Alexander then simply conducted some small talk as he somewhat familiarized himself with all the lesser powers dwelling in the city, most too insignificant to enter his eyes.

But one power that he was unable to ignore was the city's guilds, as Lady Felicia would inform,

"My lord, since the moment they knew you were here, people from there have been constantly petitioning me to set up a meeting with you. They seemed very eager to discuss various business terms with you. What should I tell them?"

"Terms…." Hearing that word, Alexander slightly trailed off, before locking his brows a bit and arrogantly saying, "What terms do they think they can discuss with me?"

Alexander did not have a good impression of the guilds.

Because he saw them as being anti competitive and restrictive to the flourishment of the economy.

Sure, they also produced some positive benefits to the society, such as looking after the orphans and widows of the merchants and helping those that ran into bankruptcy, as well as making it difficult for the local lords to forcefully seize all their property by sticking together, but they also fixed prices, determined working hours and punished anyone for working too long, as well as heavily influencing the market by determining who or who could not enter the guild.

Due to all this, Alexander determined these establishments were far more trouble than they were worth and very much wanted to dismantle them.

And although Lady Felicia would not exactly read Alexander's thoughts, she certainly got the memo.

Which was why she sounded a bit pleading as she voiced,

"My lord, I do not think you should dismiss these men. They might be low born, but they still hold a lot of money and quite some influence in the city. Thesalie's rapid prosperity is in no small part due to them. Perhaps you should at least hear them out."

As Lady Felicia advised so, it seemed a bit weird to her that Alexander disliked the guilds but was somehow pro business.

It was almost paradoxical.

But in Alexander's eyes, the two were very different things.

However he also knew that different or same, it was true that these organizations had a lot of merchants in their pockets.

It would be unwise to simply disregard them.

There were instances of entire noble houses becoming thoroughly destitute after aggravating the guilds, as the establishment could decide to entirely boycott those lands, meaning no traveling merchants, no peddlers, and no caravans for the residents, resulting in almost no sales tax revenue from the lands and sometimes much worse, even the disappearance of a critical component for every day life like salt.

That would be a nail in the coffin for anyone.

Thus everyone tried to be in their good books.

Of course, the above example was the most extreme response in their arsenal, the nuclear option so to speak, since it would also mean the loss of a large customer base and revenue for the guild as well.

So they only ever did this when the merchants were pushed beyond their tolerance limits by the local noble through sheer tyranny.

Thus mostly deserved what came to them.

Alexander was not like that and even if he were, the effect of a boycott would be far weaker with him due to all the unique products he had.

Thus in all likelihood, their response would be far more subtle.

But even then they could certainly make life harder for Alexander.

Such as by paying the street rats and gangs to make trouble and obstacle businesses not belonging to the guild.

Alexander preferred to avoid that.

"Do you know what they want to discuss?" Hence, rationalizing a bit, Alexander again posed the question, this time being serious.

And this tone sounded quite reassuring to Lady Felicia, as she let out a sigh in her heart, before hurriedly conveying,

"Yes. They said they wanted to simply meet their new lord. But really, they want to discuss various things- like the goods that were coming from Zanzan, their quality assurance, the tax rates, rents in the market districts, and… umm…. a few other things." By the end of it, Lady Felicia suddenly turned a bit quieter by the end, like she was embarrassed and slightly afraid to say the last part.

But this only intrigued Alexander, and as he sent her a inquisitive look, she finally squeaked out in a low, voice,

"Also, father… seems to have owed them a lot of money. They are now demanding that back."

As soon as she finished hung her head.

While Alexander was a bit surprised hearing so.

This was his first time hearing of this, and "Hmmm." he could not help but hum as he traced his chin.

If Lord Ponticus really had outstanding debts, then it would be quite a matter of headache for Alexander.

Because the debate of who owned the debts of a land after it was conquered was an onerous one.

On it, one side deliberated that the responsibility of the debts belonged to the lord who took them and that it should be they and they alone held responsible for paying them back.

'Why should one pay for the acts of another's of which they had no control of?' They reasoned.

And this type of thought was held, unsurprisingly, by mostly the conquerors.

While the defeated side, as well as the debtor side argued that these loans were given not to individuals but to the land itself, reasoning that without the land they would have never given so much money, that the money was used to improve the lands and some even claimed that land itself was the collateral for the loan.

Both sides had valid points, and which side generally depended on a case by case.

But more often than not, it was actually the second group that won, not the land conquering first group.

And this was because the guilds lending this money would be typically very rich, that was how they were able to finance the loan after all, and if the new owners did not pay, well similar to before, they could stop doing business with these conquerors, and even blacklist from doing business with any other associates.

But here, Alexander was not afraid of something this extreme happening to him.

So he was currently intending to lean more towards the first option.

After all, he did not like them in the first place.

But then again, he also did not stiff all the lenders too much.

It had to be remembered that Alexander sacked this city not even a year ago, but they were not coming to him asking for compensation.

Meaning they were showing quite a bit of restraint on their part.

So perhaps it would be wiser for Alexander to respond in kind rather than with hostility.

Thus musing a bit, he instructed, "I do not have the time to meet with them this time. But Tell them to send what they want to talk about. I will soon send a representative."

This representative would of course be Camius- the one with the large trade guild of his own.

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