Herald of Steel

(*Edit*- I posted the wrong chapter)

At Lord Janus's inquiry, Lady Miranda had this to say, 

"Uncle Janus, Adhania is a polygamous country. And ours is a monogonous. I'm afraid we have too different a way of thinking."

"For me personally, I think I will never be able to stand the idea of my husband sleeping with another woman so openly."

"Now, the men in Sybarsis are not too dissimilar. They also keep mistresses and fools around frequently." 

"But they at least try to do so in secret, away from their wife's eyes, behind a curtain so to speak."

"Even if everybody knows, they at least try to keep that veneer of modesty." 

"But in Adhania it is all open and legal. And they have so many types of women too! God!"

"Wife, main wife, concubines, maids, servants, whores…. the list goes on!"

"Ah! So filthy and debaucherous!" Lady Miranda seemed genuinely appalled at the thoughts, as she then flashed her palms and declared in a final tone, 

"I'm sorry, but I am unable to accept such prurient behavior."

"Even if Lord Alexander is a charming man, even if I find him attractive, unless he gives up all his women, I cannot agree to this."

"And given how close he and Lady Cambyses are, that is impossible to happen."

It seemed Alexander and the noble lady had too far a differing ideology to be able to come to terms.

At least for the moment.

"I see. Then forgive this old man for asking," And hearing Lady Miranda's answer, Lord Janus very differentially replied.

Though internally he posed, "Why did you then do that last year?' 

He was of course talking about that small kiss she had given Alexander.

And the simple answer to that was that at that time, facing the predicament she was in, Lady Miranda was willing to do anything to ally herself with anyone.

Even if meant seducing a much younger man just to win his support.

But now that things had changed, her thinking too had flipped.

Given they had just won the war and were safe for the foreseeable next few years, Lady Miranda no longer felt desperate to ally herself with a power no matter what.

Especially through marriage if it meant she would have to share her consort with other women.

Furthermore, she was no longer the widowed, doe-eyed girl from a year ago, helpless without her husband and one who could not even properly negotiate a proper business deal.

No, currently she was the most powerful person in the Margrave family, its matriarch, seeing over vast swathes of territory and in control of the fate of millions of men.

And with this change in status, came a change in her mindset so.

So felt given her status her husband should belong only to her, and only her children should be the legitimate ones.

It was because of all these reasons that Lady Miranda rejected Alexander.

And hearing of this, grandfather Earl Margrave IV would approve of Lady Miranda's rejection, saying in addition to all that, many nobles would also not like having an outsider, especially someone of such low-born status like Alexander, to be their leader's consort.

Instead he then quickly arranged for Lady Miranda to get married to one of her elder cousins.

This was done hastily, with the intention to not only close all discussions over this question as soon as possible but also to strengthen the Margrave family's hold over their territory.

This would happen because with this union, the branch families would be more accepting of Lady Miranda's rule, for one of their own would be at the family's highest levels of power, meaning they all could now have a greater share of the pie as well.

As for the implications of this move, whether Alexander would be offended or brush it off as nothing well that remained to be seen.

But for now, the young lord was currently busy overseeing the fall harvest.

And it was as bountiful as last year's. 

In fact it was much more overall because in addition to Alexander's, the surrounding nobles too had the time to implement his policies.

And now they were reaping his dividends.

So during this time, vast swathes of land covered in golden grains swaying gently in the breeze all around Zanzan and its vicinity was a common sight to behold.

And seeing their whole year's hard work pay off and in such huge quantities, there were huge smiles across the faces of everyone, from the farmers to their wives, to the general populace to even the nobles themselves.

The huge volume of harvest represented huge sums of money for everyone.

And after experiencing the recent droughts, everyone was over the moon that they now had so much to eat.

But before they could do that they first needed to first harvest it.

So everyone was extremely busy during this period, frantically trying to get these crops into sheds and barns before the fall rain could come in and ruin them.

So it was one of those special cases where even though currently a blistering heatwave was sweeping over the region, yes, the same heatwave Lady Miranda had encountered, most people did not wish to see the weather turn cooler and a bit more comfortable but even enjoyed the heat, wishing it would actually last longer.

Because then they would have more time to get all the crops out.

To aid in that effort, Alexander even temporarily disbanded a large part of the army, switching their sword for scythes and ordering them to go help the farmers with the raking in harvest.

Alexander would later get the report that his lands had managed to produce around 50,000 tons of grain, and another 30,000 to 40,000 tons of fruits, vegetables, and condiments, as well as tens of thousands of beetroots.

This was an amount absolutely unheard of for such a small farm area, and it even resulted in the happy problem of some nobles running out of proper silos to hold all this grain.

Which meant that if the fall rains were heavy enough, the produce would be in danger of being ruined.

To solve this Alexander then quickly emptied many of this storage warehouse for other materials, such as stone, bricks, limestone, coal, and iron, and for the moment filled them up with grain.

After all, those rocks and metal were far better resistant to the elements than food produce, and leaving them in out for a few months would not completely destroy all of them.

And unfortunately for Alexander, this move worked as all those huge warehouses were all big enough to hold all the harvested grain for the moment, 

And as houses, after houses got stacked up to the roof with the golden seeds, seeing which filled his heart with the same amount of glee, Alexander did some maths.

He calculated that with this current harvest, and combined it with the food stock Lady Inayah and Pasha Farzah had already sent, it would be just enough to feed his population of 300,000 to 350,000 and the tens of thousands of draft animals for the next year.

Furthermore, both of them had also ordered a similar amount of goods as they had done this year for next year too, as Kayvan let Alexander know a few days ago, meaning he would be getting tons of new food and draft animals in the future.

So he would not only have enough seeds to sow for the proceeding year but even have large stocks of leftover grain which could be used to open up a lot of the unused farmlands for additional cultivation.

This also meant the 50,000 tons of grain Alexander had asked from Lady Miranda could be purely kept as reserves, perhaps to be used as supplies for his army when he attacked Tibias.

And this realization finally put Alexander's heart at ease over his food supply, as up until now, he was unable to produce enough to feed his own population, having to always rely on Pasha Farzah and Lady Inayah to make timely delivers to him to make sure he did not starve.

But now, if everything went well next year, he would be finally able to have a little bit of wiggle room, able to survive a few months without any outside aid even if any unforeseen disaster, both man-made and natural struck. 

It felt very good to have this comforting little nest of eggs.

Now, Alexander did not simply store the grain in his warehouses, 

He also made sure to buy up a lot of the free grain in the market.

This applied to mostly the nobles, as all the farmland in Alexander's private lands was owned by solely him, with very, very few private farmers working there.

So in exchange for being allowed to store their grain in his city and use its facilities, Alexander made them sell about two-thirds of their grain to him.

And given Alexander made sure to give them a fair price- 1,500 ropals a ton, the nobles were glad to.

Alexander did this because one, this way he could have control over the population's grain supply, and thus their food stocks, giving him great power.

But mainly because he feared the flood of new grain entering the grain would water down its price and result in the farmers encouraging a loss.

It could even drive many out.

Which Alexander did not want to see.

So in this way, the supply in the market was controlled and everyone benefitted in the long run.