Herald of Steel



Alexander felt the concerns about the trading guild to be premature.

Whether they were a credible threat or not, they were years away, and so rather than decide their fate right here and now, felt he could wait and see.

So, instead, he turned his attention to figuring out how Perseus's failure to take Zanzan had affected Tibian society.

"About that….I did try to find out in a roundabout way. I asked the son if the people there would not like because of the recent war, and all the deaths."

"And his answer seems to be one of relative ambivalence, saying most of the people might not be happy to see me but would not be too aggressive either."

"It appears that though the nobles and the people are not happy with the loss, they are also not in any mood to rebel or even oppose the king."

"Most people seem to have never really thought taking Zanzan was possible, and so even when the king returned with only half his army, they just shrugged and accepted it."

"Also…apparently there are records of Tibian kings losing their entire armies trying to take Zanzan."

"So the people are used to it. I'm afraid there is no chance of using that to sow discord, doc."

The disappointment in Camius's tone as he said so was palpable.

"*Sigh*" And so was it in Alexander's regretful sigh.

It appeared that though through this defeat, Perseus lost a lot of prestige and could not wield the respect of the nobles as once before, it was still nowhere enough to make him topple from his throne.

Perseus still shined for his achievements against Amenheraft and his legitimacy to rule remained unchallenged.

Also, he had come really close to taking the city, only failing at the last minute.

So the nobles simply swallowed the bitter pill of defeat, chalked it all up to the gods and fate, and after Mithriditus used the last of the Kaiser family's funds to placate them. simply shut up and got back to licking his wound.

While Perseus, heartbroken by his friend's loss, decided to go into half seclusion, handing much of his duties to his successor Philips, and placed Mithriditus as his right-hand man to help the inexperienced boy out.

This act also unintentionally helped cool many dissatisfied voices, as they saw it as Perseus stepping down for his defeat, if not forever at least for a while.

Hence the court of Tibias went quiet for a bit but was still relatively stable.

Perseus would not need to sleep with one eye open.

Alexander would come to know about this later, once Camius had enough time to infiltrate deep enough into Tibian's inner circle to be able to access this information and both men.

"I see, that is not indeed regretful," But for now, Alexander was rueful that he could not cause any discord in the country, before posing,

"And what about their army? How is that?"

Alexander really hoped losing 20,000 men would be enough to cause some sort of effect.

"Doc, I just got there. I will need some time to know all this stuff, hahaha" But Camius reminded Alexander as such with a chuckle.

And this caused the other to blush a bit.

"Hahaha, sorry, sorry, I got ahead of myself a bit," Alexander admitted.

Camius would get this information eventually and tell Alexander that Tibias's army appeared to be badly mauled and was in the middle of rebuilding itself.

That they had lost a lot of officers in the wars and even going by optimistic time frames it would take at least a few years to even a decade to rebuild them.

"They seem to be afraid that we will attack them during their weak period. So apparently they have increased the garrison in the city by another 10,000, bringing the total to 30,000," Camius would add.

But currently, those were all the main points Alexander had to discuss.

So once this was over, the pair got to chatting over useless banter, with Camius at the very end also asking Alexander to also sell him some of his exclusive products in order to help him expand his business, but Alexander gently declined, replying that others had alread bought all his stocks and that he would have to wait a while.

Camius would nod his head with difficulty at this, but accept and once he finished his dinner there, the meeting finally came to an end.

The start of the following day was a very cool one, as it rained for almost the entire night and Alexander even woke up to the pitter-patter of heavy rainfall.

And as he enjoyed the soothing sound of rainfall kissing the earth, while eating a hearty breakfast of pancakes, with butter and honey, he could help but also feel a bit regretful that there was no tea or coffee.

'Ah, sitting on the veranda, enjoying a hot cup of tea while listening to the sound of rainfall..oh that would have been the life,' He said to himself.

But he had yet to find any tea where, whether it be in Thesos or Adhania, so if we wanted to have it, it was likely he would have to discover the new world.

And coincidentally, today he was going to check the site from where that exploration might start- The port and the shipyard.

The cloudy day finally began to clear up at around the time Alexander finished his meal, and by the time he was meeting Diaogosis at the port, the day was as bright and as scorching as any other day of August.

Alexander had been worried that some of the roads might have been water-clogged given last night's torrential rainfall, but it seemed that the sewers and the extreme heat of the sun worked together to make that possibility disappear.

Thus Alexander was easily able to keep his appointment.

"My lord, welcome," Diaogosis was there to greet him and after the usual pleasantries, took him around the site, showing him around.

The new port was very much a work in progress.

There were a few thousand laborers employed here, all toiling diligently under the scorching summer sun, the majority of them busy moving massive stone blocks quarried from the nearby hills to various parts of the site, each with a unique symbol and number indicating its destination, being transported on sleds pulled by men and animals.

It seemed ordinary wooden carts were too heavy for these multi-ton behemoths, hence the use of these slow-moving transport, which many times would have their paths lubricated with water to ease the sliding.

Or if it was possible, a few even had logs underneath them, effortlessly rolling over them, though the problem with that was that the logs at the back at to be constantly manually placed at the first by workers.

All this meant that moving anything was a time-consuming process, with speeds resembling a snail's.

Seeing which made Alexander wonder if he should build carts out of iron, but thinking of the challenges posed when shaping iron into that shape was enough to shelf that idea far, far into his mind.

"We at the moment are mainly building the underwater pillars which will hold the port. That's why everyone is dragging stones, earth, and bricks around," Diaogosis helped provide some commentary as they moved.

And along the way, Alexander saw exactly how they were doing it.

First, they had created a boundary around all the points of the sea where the pillars were going to be.

These boundaries were giant, about 3 meters in diameter, and made of strong timber.

And workers could be seen tirelessly working to fill these water-filled structures up with stone, earth, and gravel, as well as a mixture of concentre to bind them all together, slowly making the whole thing solid while all the seawater was pushed out.

And to help with that, there seemed to be quite a few giant pulleys installed close to these to be pillars as well, attached to the end of which was a giant wooden log, that was used to beat the earth and stone and make the whole structure more compact.

Sometimes workers could be also seen manually going at it.

It was a tedious, time-consuming process.

But a necessary one.

Because these pillars were the foundation upon which everything else would sit.

So currently this was the only thing that was happening all around the site, moving earth, mixing cement, and engineers directing it all.

"This here will be the basin which will serve as the core of the harbor, providing safe anchorage for the visiting fleet of ships." At one point Diaogosis said, referring to the middle of the crescent-shaped harbor.

"And there will be where the breakwater be…where the waves will crash against, protecting the interior and sheltering it from the sea's fury."

"We planned to use gigantic stones, but now are thinking of using huge concrete blocks to make the protective screen." He continued pointing to the arms that would be stretching from the crescent,

This breakwater was essential to ensure the safety of ships entering and exiting the port and had to be placed carefully.

Diaogosis showed Alexander around for a bit more, but that was it really.

The new port was really in its infantile stage, with the up till now construction existing mostly underwater, but Diaogosis reassured Alexander that despite the delays and setbacks, work was proceeding with speed and that once the pillars were completed, laying the 'floor' would be a trivial matter.