Herald of Steel



The guard captain had envisioned a lot of things before coming here.

He mostly presumed he was about to get lambasted for the chaos around the docks, to which he had whimpered in his mind,

'Sure the dock is a bit rowdy. But I'm already trying my best. There is little more I can do.'

In fact, the man had been so busy and overwhelmed with dealing with the current situation that he had not even had the time to meet with Alexander even after knowing the leader of the city was there.

And in the few instances in which he thought he had found the opportunity, another crisis would suddenly erupt that required his attention, with the very last one being an order from Alexander himself, which was to clear the docks of the boats.

"Ye..yes, my lord," Hence seeing Alexander let him off without any rebuke, the captain quickly performed a salute, relieved and ecstatic, before quickly excusing himself.

And soon Alexander began to see the group of about a hundred guards blowing their wooden whistles and swinging his sturdy arms, indicating the crowd to disperse.

"*Whistle*, *whistle*, Leave. Leave. The pasha orders you to leave."

"Go on, go on. Why are you simply loitering here? Don't you have jobs to do?"

"Move, move, the people here were invited by Lord Pasha, nothing to see here."

"Make way, make away,"

The guards yelled, shouted, and barked various phrases as they almost herded the crowd out of the harbor.

Even the shops were forced to be closed, with the simple excuse being given that it was Alexander's order.

The guards were surprisingly efficient in their work, as they had managed to mostly clear the entire premises of undesirables within a short time, and with it the congestion.

As this went on, Alexander was posed with another problem.

And that was the problem of where to house all these new men?

Each of the Thesians residing in Zanzan had bought about 6-7 family members, mostly women and children, but some also their younger brothers and sisters, and thus this frailer group could not be left out to the elements.

Alexander had originally thought he would be able to place them in the public house he had planned to build, but that had not worked out due to all the interruptions and material constraints.

So, given that was not an option, after considering it for a while, he decided to move them to the eastern district and let them stay near the barracks.

There were a lot of empty buildings there, and also, letting the newly arrived people stay close to their loved one would help ease them into this foreign land.

A land that was so different from their home.

"Hemicus, get the Sycarians out of the barracks to meet their family members. And also tell Menes I'm looking for ihm." Alexander thus ordered.

While he got in front of the nervous crowd to address them.

Since they had just gotten here Alexander was of the mind to make a good first impression.

"Gentlemen, I'm the lord of this place, Alexander. And I'm very glad you have made it here safe and sound." Alexander loudly proclaimed, drawing almost all pairs of eyes on him.

This happened not only because of his identity or his entourage but because he had spoken Thesian.

And seeing that the ruler of the city was one of them and had actually come to meet them in person, it calmed many agitated hearts and bloomed favorable feelings towards him.

While Alexander, seeing he got their attention continued, "I'm sure all of you had a long journey. But rest assured you will be well taken care of here."

"Your loved ones have been already informed, they should be arriving shortly."

"And as a personal present to you from your lord, I will bear the cost of unloading all the cargo for all of you."

The last one got a loud cheer from the crowd who saw Alexander was being a generous man, and then quickly many started to demand the money they had given to the dock workers.

While the dock workers, as they did not speak Thesian, did not understand what Alexander had said and simply looked at the people demanding his money back like they were an idiot.

"All workers will be paid 10 ropals for loading the cargo from ships. Now give back the money you have taken," So Alexander helped clarify the situation in Azhak, which got a second cheer, this time from the dock workers.

This amount of money was usually earned by them working for the whole day, not just the few hours they would have to work as dusk was settling in.

Hence the dock workers were seen quickly giving back the money, and then returning to their work with even more enthusiasm.

Alexander had done this primarily to help boost his image, while also solving the problem of congestion around the ships, thus solving two problems with one stone.

After all, he had already spend around 30 million ropals to get these men here, so a few additional thousand was of little consequence.

But Alexander's little economic package did have results in other areas, as the dock workers, without having to haggle prices could work much more efficiently.

Thus even before dusk could arrive, about 60 ships had been unloaded and emptied.

Money truly could solve most problems.

In the meantime, the Sycarians and other Thesians had also managed to present themselves to the harbor, and the group then quickly fanned out, as each man started to look for his family.

The total number of Thesians in Zanzan was around 10,000.

But not everyone had family in Thesos, as about half of this population were freed slaves and servants, and these people either had their families with them or had lost connection with them a long time ago.

This only left the other 4,000 to 5,000, and it was them who were present there.

And soon, these people began to meet their intended loved ones, which was a heartwarming moment to witness, as when they would finally spot them, the men would rush up to hug and greet them.

The men would rejoice at having finally reconnected with their family, laughing and kissing their children, while the women and kids would many times even cry tears of relief at having met the person they were here for.

Many had been terrified that they would be told that their man had died and they would find themselves all alone in this foreign land after coming all the way.

And unfortunately, this nightmare was the reality for some, as seen by a very few who stood around the wharf and dartedly looked around in all directions, even craning their necks to spot their man.

An endeavor they were destined to fail at.

And a while later Alexander even spotted a few women and children let out mournful cries, most likely because they got to know about their husband or father or brother's fate from other neighboring soldiers.

For them it felt like the sky had crashed, as now not only were they all alone, but many would not be able to get back to Thesos even if they wanted to.

For a lot of them had come to Zanzan after selling all their land back in Thesos.

Hence, many envisioned begging as their only future.

Seeing this certainly made Alexander a bit sad, perhaps more so because he felt that they were his men and as their supreme commander it was his responsibility to get his men safely to their home.

But on the contrary, he had lost quite a few Thesians in his two battles, especially with the latest one where the fight had been brutal, making him lose around 94 Thesians killed and 265 wounded.

"Have these people take residence in the eastern district. And then reassure the widows they will be given a stipend every month." Alexander ordered Menes.

He had thought about these problems before, and even allocated separate funding to deal with them,

"Yes, my lord," Menes readily replied as he then instructed his men to quickly arrange the living quarters for all these people.

In the meantime, the unloading continued unabated even when dusk had settled, much to the surprise of the dock workers who had assumed they had gotten a quick payday.

Instead, they heard Alexander say,

"Use large torches. I want the unloading finished by today."

And since the lord wanted to have the unloading done by today, by jolly god he would have his unloading by today.

Hence quickly huge blazing brazers were set up, and the workers worked without even having the time to release a breath finally the entire docks were cleared before midnight.

The workers were gonna feel that tomorrow.

But at least they were paid in full and on time.

So the workers left pretty happy.

While Alexander stayed until the entire thing had been finished, most of the time meeting with the families of his retainers.

This occurred as almost all of Alexander's military leaders, such as Grahtos, Menicus, Melodias, and Heliptos had come to retrieve their families from the dock, after which they took them to Alexander to introduce them.

Then there were some captains to took the same this opportunity, followed by even some of his bodyguards who brought their families.

Alexander made small talks with each of them until finally, he got to meet the man he had been truly waiting for, the captain of the fleet- Shordar Karvish.