Herald of Steel

"Do you think Pyanos would become captain without your father's help! He is the one who paid for that!"

This very interesting remark made by the matriarch of the house drew quite a bit of attention from all those present, who all sent her curious looks.

While her husband sent scorching glares.

Clearly she was not supposed to tell this.

And feeling this displeased glare, the realization of her mistake made the woman shrink a bit.

"Oh, what's all the secret! It's been years. And we are all family here." And then tried to brush the whole thing as being insignificant.

"Loose lipped woman." However, Jamiz's light muttering clearly showed he was not buying it, before turning his head and exhaling a bit in resignation.

"Well since it's out, might as well tell you." And then, feeling all the curious gazes shift to him, decided there was little point hiding.

So he began,

"When I first started my wine business using the booty from the war as capital, it was not going too well. Many of you brats might not remember, but Zanzan was in quite the mess. And people could barely afford grain, forget wine."

"But then by luck, one day Pyanos noticed my shop while walking by the market."

"He said by wine was too cheap and that he knew a new merchant who was looking for peddlers for his own wine business."

"Claimed the man was related to some noble close to the Pasha."

"Back then I was desperate. So I took the deal. And as a back door agreement, I promised to pay Pyanos a portion of our profits."

At this point of the reveal, Jamiz's voice suddenly turned from placid to a bit high pitched,

"Of course, I do not hate the man for this. In fact, I'm very grateful to him. I have made many, many times the profit I thought I even could with my family's own wine recipe."

"And using that, I expanded my business to selling many more things. So all my business would have been impossible without him. In fact, without Pyanos, we might all be living in the slums." While saying these, Jamiz's voice sounded very soft and pleasing, further revealing,

"And it was not like he was ungrateful either. Remember, it was actually him who allowed your eldest brother Niloy to dodge the levy by taking to the recruitment officers. If not for that, our business would have never grown so much in the last two years."

"Your mother is right, my old body cannot take all the work like before."

"Also, when you four brothers joined the army, he personally promised to look after you."

"And lastly, it was through him that we got this apartment floor. He introduced us to one of the officials handling these housings and we only managed to convince him to give it to us using Pyanos's name. Or there was no way we would have gotten the entire floor all to ourselves.

Jamiz's use of the word 'convince' really implied one thing and one thing only- bribe.

And no one present mistook it for anything else.

While the man continued,

"Now, fourth floor is indeed a bit high, making getting up and down it a pain. But still, we got eight flats. And we can all stay together. How is that less?"

"For helping this old man with all these, I will be eternally grateful to Pyanos. " Jamiz sounded very pleased, like a content old man,

But," However, then suddenly, Jamiz's tone cautionary, as his eyes turned to his sons,

"But,... I know that Pyanos became a sergeant using bribes. I know that without a doubt. Most of his squad mates know it too."

"And while I do not know if he used the same tactic to become a captain… I only got to know he was captain, my sons, if you choose to remain in the army, I would be careful of him."

"Pyanos is a lot of things. But he is not a good man. Be careful of him. The only reason he treats us so well is because we pay him so well."

Jamiz aired the caution in the tone of a wizened, wise old man.

While the sons nodded and smiled, showing they would indeed heed the advice.

Although how much of it was true and how much of it was just to please the old man remained to be seen.

Jamiz's retelling of the events also inadvertently exposed a glaring chink in Alexander's army and administration- the ever present, the ever sticky problem known as corruption.

The wine merchant in Jamiz's story was naturally Camius, and Pyanos bribed people very close to Alexander's spy master to help him become a sergeant.

As for the role of captain, well that had much more talent and capability involved since it was a very big post.

But there were still some shady dealings, such as embellishing the squad reports as well as exaggerating his own heroics.

Pyanos did this by acting as a sort of personal money lender to many of the soldiers, using the large amount of money he got for Jamiz to set up a sort of very primitive bank.

His biggest selling point was that he charged very low interest on his lending, charging less than 5%, whereas traditional loan sharks ranged anywhere from 50% to even 100%.

And if you know anything about soldiers, it was that they were always out of cash, drinking and whoring it away.

Thus, Pyanos's access to easy credit made him a very popular man.

And he used this popularity to subtly influence many things around him.

Such as those reports.

One had to give it to him, the man was very smart.

And such a similar type of underhanded dealing also happened during the allotment of the apartment blocks.

Where, although it was supposed to go to the artisans such as blacksmiths and carpenters, the men responsible for producing the most value to Zanzan's economy, the officers, through bribery and other promises, gave many to those that did not deserve them, such as wealthy merchants and levied soldiers whose pockets were overflowing with stolen loot.

In the latter case, the influence of the army was undeniable, with corruption reaching as far as the highest echelons, including the likes of Melodias and Menicus, whose rapid rise to nobility made them especially susceptible to 'gifts' from many hungry ants and snakes.

This was still not an endemic problem yet.

But one that Alexander would need to address eventually in time.

For now though, the man was busy celebrating his victory.

Yes.

Even after standing on a chariot all day, Alexander was scheduled to appear in a huge party to be held in the evening, taking place at a large open ground remodeled especially for this occasion.

Which was really normal considering that since the commoners were celebrating, it would be too uncouth for the nobles not to be.

If anything the Zanzan nobles knew how to do, it was to party.

Now, traditionally, a noble held feasts in his house.

But since Alexander's house was pathetically small to host the few hundred guests that would be attending, he had Cambyses instead arrange this.

The large, open ground was brightly lit with literally hundreds of huge burning braisers, while above, on ropes hung another set of bright lamps, turning the once dark ground into the most dazzling part of the city.

On stage, a large group of minstrels and bards played music, while opposite of them laid rows and rows of tables filled with every food and flavor one could desire in a buffet type feast.

There were many small private tents dotted around the premises, filled with luxurious couches and chairs for guests to rest and lounge, while at the very center of the ground, was a large, luxurious, round table reserved for Alexander and his family, as well as any guest he invited.

It was currently occupied by Alexander, Cambyses, Ophenia, Gelene, and Mean, with all of the girls holding one of Alexander's children on their laps.

Then there was the little girl Fabiyana who seemed very excited to be here and Alexander's latest mistress Camelia, who was at last given the respite of being allowed to have a turquoise headscarf and a fashionable red hat, making the cold woman appear like a ice beauty.

And accompanying her were her mother and brother, Lady Parthia and Prince Perikles.

These two were his trophies.

And the various nobles attending the feast would all flock to Alexander to view them, first congratulating him on his win, and then making various remarks about his two guests.

Some of them were neutral, but some were quite biting for the queen, such as the ones asking Alexander if he had any desire to 'show the queen a good time later', clearly alluding to the after party festivities the nobles planned to host later.

Such frank reveal of their proclivities really shocked Lady Parthia, as she did not think the Adhanian nobles were that depraved!

And Alexander clearly noticed how her lips twitched and her eyes pleaded to not allow this.

She would rather die.

Alexander would of course not give the queen, or even the prince, as asked by some noble ladies and even men.

But he did have a good them teasing both.

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