Herald of Steel



After taking his throne, Ptolomy had begun to see Nanazin and the three girls as more and more of an eyesore.

Or more accurately he began to take action against these people whom he had already seen as eye sores, as he could not even send them to the military as they were not boys.

And so when Pasha Farzah offered to take them off his hand, and even promised to get the two women he loved in exchange, Ptolomy felt Christmas had come early.

While Alexander who was at the receiving of the deal also considered it to be a fruitful exchange, as he felt the problem he was having about who to put the bank in charge of was also likely solved.

Alexander had wanted to look for a reliable, trustworthy, and educated person to oversee the bank, a search that he thought would have been very hard as checking all three criteria was quite tough.

But seemingly that was very easily solved.

Nanazin was certainly educated and given that the woman had no one but Alexander to rely on, it meant the lady was very unlikely to betray him.

And so given that she agrees, Alexander was of the mind to put her in charge of the banks.

But that decision was for a later time, as currently Alexander was still with Pasha Farzah, and decided to move on to other topics.

Pasha Farzah first asked about Mikaya and the twins, and whether they had been well, to which Alexander replied with a light smile, "They seem much happier now than they had been in the past," which carried a double meaning Farzah was unable to understand.

And only returned with a smile, "Good, good. I'm particularly glad that you managed to get Azira and Azura reinstated into the temple."

He then proceeded to ask about a whole host of things, starting from the challenges Alexander faced when he first came here, to knowing about how he solved the plague, to the various challenges he faced in administrating the city, up to the new things produced in Zanzan, and lastly about the battle itself.

Alexander answered some, avoided some, and flat-out lied about others.

Particularly when asked about the inventions, Alexander gave the convenient excuse that he found everything in the books from Muazz's library.

This was very convenient because if anyone wanted to ask to see the book, he could simply say that it was Zanzan's secret and deny it.

Hence nobody could ever prove or disprove its existence.

"So….about all the new things, how much are you selling?" Pasha Farzah at last got to the main point he had been circling around, as he pointedly posed the question.

While Alexander only laughed and asked, "Which ones?"

"Everything." Came the quick reply, as the Pasha Farzah looked at Alexander with greed.

He had read about all the new things Alexander had made and even seen with his own eyes a lot of the things mentioned in Mikaya's letters, and he could not wait to get his hands on them.

"Haha, then I will give you a list of all the prices. You can go over them in your leisure," Alexander lightly smiled the reply, and with a few more light pleasantries, decided to end their talk for the day, as it was already approaching dinner time.

Pasha Farzah would get his list soon after the meals were finished, as Alexander had prepared the list beforehand, which read the following:

Iron ingot (per kg) - 30 ropals

Steel ingot (weapon) per kg- 60 ropals

Paper (5 sq m)- 15 ropals

Glass- Weight in Silver or gold depending on the type.

Soap (per piece)- 100 ropals

Salt (per ton)- 1,000 roplas

Sugar (per ton)- 100,000 ropals

Fabric- Negotiable

The listing that Alexander gave was truly meant to skin Pasha Farzah off, it's just that the man did not know it.

Because for reference, these were the costs of each of the products:

Iron ingot (per kg) - 1.5 ropals

Steel ingot (weapon) per kg- 2.5 ropals

Paper (5 sq m)- 4 ropals

Glass- Few ropals per piece.

Soap (per piece)- 10-20 ropals depending on the type of soap

Salt (per ton)- 30 ropals.

Sugar (per ton)- 3,000 ropals.

From here it could be seen that Alexander had decided to price the goods on average 15 to 20 times the original cost, with the smallest being with paper at about 4 times, and with sugar being the biggest at 33 times.

So in percentage terms this was an average 1,500% to 2,000% markup.

Alexander clearly was not the type to live and forget.

Rather he could be described as a petty, vindictive man by many, intent on making the other party pay for whatever injustice was done to him when the situation provided itself.

And though Pasha Farzah likely knew about Alexander's pettiness, he was still unaware of the extent of it, for if Pasha Farzah knew about the ridiculous markup Alexander was suggesting, the old man might have had a heart attack.

So it was quite fortunate that he didn't, and so Farzah would seriously muse over the listed pricing over the night, and then again meet with Alexander the next morning to discuss it further.

But this time this meet-up would not be in Alexander's study.

"Today I was thinking of taking your lordship out into the city. Let you give a tour of the city and see all the new things being made." Alexander suggested, adding, "And perhaps you can even give me some suggestions on how to make it better."

Alexander said this, but what he really wanted to do was show off Zanzan's progress.

"Oh? Does that include that restricted area at the back of the house? Because I'm really interested in all the new things being made there." While Pasha Farzah was very direct with revealing where his true intentions lay, which was something that made Alexander's lips twitch.

That was a place only two people could go in and out without restriction, him and Cambyses.

Alexander would not even let Ptolomy enter.

"I can see Lady Mikaya is a filial daughter," Alexander dryly replied, while Pasha Farzah let out a huge roar.

"Hahaha, it seems that place really is your soul forge."

In Adhania, the soul forge was the concept of where the soul was housed inside the body, and it basically meant a weak point.

"....." Alexander only gave a placid smile, at the request he understood to be now a joke, as he then gestured the burly man to follow him to the outside.

And once the duo was outside, right past the door was waiting for them an open-top carriage similar to the one used in Alexander's wedding, pulled by four, graceful white beasts.

"Your Graces, are you heading to town?"

But just as they were about to approach the carriage, the graceful voice of whom Alexander recognized as Lady Inayah called out to them from behind.

And when Alexander turned, he noticed that she was being accompanied by the Queen Mother and Nanazin.

"Good morning, Your Grace, Your Highnesses," Alexander referred the former to Lady Inayah, and the latter to both Seelima and Nanazin, before addressing Lady Inayah,

"I'm sorry I've been too busy to keep you company. Work is no excuse to fail to entertain guests."

"Haha, no worries, no worries. I have been entertaining myself with that card game you made," Lady Inayah only replied with a candid laugh, before asking,

"If Your Graces are leaving for town, may we accompany you? I've had not had a chance to see the city and been dying to."

"Of course, of course," Alexander felt he could not really decline the request, and so enthusiastically replied, as he then turned to Pasha Farzah to ask, "That is if that's all right with you, my lord,"

Pasha Farzah naturally did not have a reason to object, and so soon the five people sat comfortably in the spacious open carriage, being pulled by the best horses of Zanzan, and guarded by Zanzan's finest.

And within a short time, the group was racing through the western residential district, which was the mouth of the exit from Alexander's mansion.

And as the four-wheeled transpired moved across the smooth road, Pasha Farzah was the first to comment on the surface they were traveling over.

"Alxx, what is this road made of? I noticed the same white stuff was in the harbor" He curiously asked.

Alxx's road was made of primarily stone but had a thin upper layer of cement as a kind of varnish to give a nice finish, and as the road was brand new, having been laid just a month ago, the cement layer was still visible.

"That's right. I noticed it too. At first I thought it was marble, but it's not," From the opposite side Lady Inayah too wanted to hear the answer.

And it made Alxx ponder on how he should answer.

Because discerning readers might have noticed that Alexander had not listed cement for sale.

This was both because he needed every ouch of the stuff for himself, and also because he saw cement was the greatest invention out of everything out there.

Alexander knew that using Portland cement, building fortresses even impregnable by all gunpowder cannons was possible, and so he was of the mind to never allow that recipe to fall into anyone's hand, not even his allies.

Alexander would sooner give up the recipe of crystalline sugar and even glass before he gave up that recipe.