Herald of Steel

Alexander found himself in a bit of a pickle with the request made by Menes.

Because technically Gelene- the ebony beauty was not his, she was Cambyes's, as he had promised the girl her freedom to own property.

Though it would be hard to explain this to Menes, who might think Alexander was just making excuses, as legally, in the eyes of the law, Gelene was Alexander's property, as was Cambyses.

So, Alexander thought of a different plan, "Menes, it seems you have not understood my question."

"When I meant was, do you love her so that you will respect her wishes and let her decide if she decided to be with you? Or will you keep her as a slave? A sex object to vent your lust?"

"I…." Menes appeared stumped by the question as he asked himself, 'Do I want her as my willing wife or slave?'

Gelene was always 'nice' to him, so up until now, he had assumed she would just come when he called her.

"You think if you free her from me, from slavery that she will be so grateful that she will just marry you, right?" Alexander hit Menes's thought with pinpoint accuracy, which made the giant speechless.

"Haah," Alexander sighed after looking at Menes, "As your friend let me tell you some things you were not privy to."

"Haven't you wondered how I could know so many things about Octavius, things even you a close slave to him did not."

"Don't tell me…Gelene.." Menes seemed to understand where Alexander was going.

"*Nod*, yes," Alexander confirmed, "She has been working for me for quite some time. You can confirm it with Camius if you don't believe it."

"And she in return for her spy… cooperation Gelene has asked for many things, things like the freedom to choose the men she sleeps with."

Alexander was telling Menes in a roundabout way that Gelene had chosen Alexander as her man and not Menes.

"*Plop*" Menes, understanding this clenched his fists so hard that a few of his knuckles popped.

He was devasted by this as one of the reasons for his acquisition of power was to free and then marry that girl who had so tenderly shown him the best night of his life.

So, right now he felt as if nothing else mattered.

Alexander noticing the mournful look on Menes's face, a face that seemed to say that his heart just died, with great reluctance decided to extend a lifeline to him, "It seems you are truly in love with herm huh."

"*Sigh*, what kind of a friend would I be if I let you leave my tent with that face," Alexander said shaking his head exaggeratedly.

"Okay, you win. After we reach Cantagena, I will break my word to her and give her to you, if you should still desire her."

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This made Menes feel torn about if he should be happy about getting his girl or sad and ashamed about making his commander, nay friend, break his word.

And luckily for Alexander, the latter won, as among the people of Theocles, keeping one's words was seen as a sign of a human, and breaking it a sign of a breast.

? Menes would gladly become a beast his love Gelene, but his heart could not bear to let his friend become one for him.

"Alexander…you…I," Menes stammered for a while as he found it hard to pronounce the correct words, but at last he regained his composure and said, "No, as long as she is happy, I am happy."

As Menes said those brave words, Alexandre did not fail to notice the sadness in his tone.

'Ah, first loves. So bittersweet,' Alexander ruefully thought.

But Menes was not done, "I hope you can treat her and her children fairly." He added as he was afraid that Cambyses, as Alexander's main wife, might bully Gelene and her children.

"Children? What children? Didn't you know Gelene can't have children? She's barren." Alexander exclaimed in surprise, amazed that Menes did not know this about his lover.

This was not a particular secret among the higher-ups.

"Barren?... She's barren?" Menes repeated the same words stunned, his mouth full agape.

He never imagined such a scenario even in his wildest dreams.

"Yea..why do you think she could sleep around so much and not have a single child?" Alexander pointed.

"According to her, the brothel she worked in fed her a poison that made her infertile. That was also why Nestoras paid so much for her, forty-three thousand tustas, and that's after intimidating the owner a lot. Because one could release inside her all day long without all the worry and hassle."

Menes stood thunderstruck at this revelation, 'So, that's why she let me finish inside her. And here I thought she loved me, hehe.'

In Thesos, usually, only couples and lovers finished inside, while casual 'get-togethers' finished outside.

And so, with this single piece of information, Menes's undying love for Gelene turned to apathy and even a bit of hatred as he felt betrayed by the girl.

"Thank you, commander, for telling me this, And thank you, Alex, for what you were willing to do for me as a friend, I will never forget it. But you can keep that slave." Menes now felt even saying the name Gelene revolting.

He then quickly excused himself, "I have lots of things to do, so I will see myself out."

As Menes stormed out, Alexander asked himself if what he did was truly necessary.

And the answer he came up with was, 'Yes, absolutely.'

This was because Gelene was an extremely ambitious and manipulative woman,

If she wasn't, she would not have been able to become a high-class courtesan within a mere six years and likely would not have survived till now.

'',

So, Alexander, quite rightly feared that Menes would not be able to resist her charms and become a puppet between her finger, turning from Alexander's most competent captain to his most treacherous one as Gelene would push her 'husband' to gain more and more power and influence.

But although Alexander had managed to stop the worst-case scenario, he was struck with another bad one.

One where he was the one who had to deal with the ambitious, manipulative woman instead of Menes.

'Huh, so I somehow latched myself to that poisonous snake, eh?' Alexander lampooned at the thought of adding Gelene to his haram.

And he had to add her after his talk with Menes, as he would likely have to frequently be in contact with Menes at least for the foreseeable future, and thus would be vulnerable to any scrutiny by Menes.

Even if Menes detested Gelene now, Alexander was afraid of the mercurial nature by which Menes had decided to change his feelings and feared that once the black giant had calmed down he might change his stance again, especially if his girl was still available.

'Well at least she's pretty,' Alexander understanding there was still he could change, decided to look at the bright side of things- things like Gelene's succubus-like figure.

And that thought immediately produced some raunchy images inside Alexander's head, which, understanding it was far too early in the day to be thinking about such things, he forced down and got to work.

He first rechecked the various reports, re-reading them so as to make sure that he did not miss anything, redid the various maths, had breakfast, and then decided to go on a camp tour.

He first visited the Cantagenan camp, which was huge, bigger than all the mercenary camps combined, and witnessed the collection that was going on.

Literally, thousands of people were there, running through the rain and mud as fast as possible to get everything of value out of the Cantagenan camp and into theirs.

Along with them was a large number of armed mercenaries who were stationed there, to keep discipline and more importantly protect the loot.

Alexander had gotten the report that many of the Cantagenans and people from its sister cities were, predictably, not very happy with the 'reallocation of resources' being carried out by the mercenaries, and had attempted to stop them, resulting in even a few brawls, though no one had been killed.

Alexander witnessed mountains of fabric, carpets, and drapes, carts full of china, shiny piles of gold coins, and many other wondrous treasures adorn the Cantagenan camp and he drooled at the thought a significant part of that would be his.

He then spent some pleasant words with Menicus and Theocles, and then with some of the soldiers there, asking about their day-to-day and other mundane stuff.

Then he located Camius who was gathering the servant and slaves to be made into new units, asked him about his day and next went on the huge military drill that was taking place in the same camp and cherished the sight of how the formation using his reform of placing the captain at the back on a horse crushed the traditional phalanxes.

This was because the captain, now at the back and free from the burden of fighting, had better decision-making capability and the horse gave them greater mobility and an elevated vision, thus allowing them to make rapid, accurate changes to the formation, enabling them to more effectively open and exploit gaps in the opponent's lines.

Pleased that he had managed to convince the nay-sayers, he exchanged a few words with Heliptos and Petricuno, who seemed over the moon at this new tactic, and then Alexander moved on to his camp where the cavalry practices were happing.

Here Melodias greeted him and informed him of some three hundred Sycarian who had fled the battlefield had returned to camp once again and were teaching others how to ride.

Alexander praised Melodias for his quick thinking and after some pleasantries moved to his last destination, the Cantagenan training ground where he met Menes.

By the time he was done with that, it was already dusk and thus Alexander's busy routine ended for the day.