Herald of Steel

Before Alexander set off for his campaign, in the following six months Alexander mostly spent a leisurely life, spending a lot of the time playing with his daughter.

As for his son, well he mostly ate and slept.

And if you asked how Alexandraia felt about having a little brother, well seeing her mother's attention be occupied by another baby, made the one year old very hostile towards the newcomer.

And there were multiple times when the little girl was caught swatting at her brother.

But if she was going to be angry over having one younger sibling, well her mood was about to turn a whole worse. 

Because just like he had promised them he would after Cambyses conceived twice, currently both Ophenia and Mean were pregnant.

He did this by sleeping with them during their 'dangerous days' and by February, both of them were around four months old, their bellies just beginning to show.

And as they transformed, though Ophenia still looked okay,t for Mean who was much more, Alexander wondered otherwise.

Even her slightly swollen belly did not at all match her face face and body.

As for Gelene… well, at least she could not blame Alexander that he did not try.

Because Alexander tried very hard,

Especially when he saw the other two were pregnant, he took her almost every day regardless of the time, day or night, and even tried various exotic positions.

But it seemed the contraceptives Gelene had taken in her previous life had left too deep marks.

Up until now, she was showing signs of being barren.

And Alexander could go little more than comfort her saying they still had time to try for some time.

Outside his family, Alexander had also at last gotten his iron workshop going, and finally letting the blacksmith's Lady Miranda do something truly useful.

Alexander initiated the shop in the first week of January, and it started with only making various types of pots and pans.

But over the following months, more and more of the new furnaces were scheduled to be installed and come into operation, as supply chain issues were fixed, and the plant would start to make all kinds of other items, such as knives, farming tools, nails, decorative pieces like small statues, jewelry, and many other miscellany.

Alexander would leave all this as well as the overseeing of the day to day operations to an experienced blacksmith while he was away campaigning. 

Alexander also wanted to set up a few more things before he was away at war, such as a mint and a bank.

But his hands ran out of time before he could start those.

As for why he did not start those sooner, well it was because they were not critical to his operations right at the moment.

Originally Alexander had wanted the mint because he thought that he would be getting a lot of gold from the surplus trade he would be conducting.

But most of his customers traded with him in goods rather than in cash.

Meaning there was no little new gold to be converted to ropals

And this problem also nicely explained why he had yet to set up his bank.

Which was that due to a shortage of cash reserves, he could not lend out to people. 

That and the fact that there was already a shortage of labor in Zanzna, so it made no sense for him to finance the setup of even more businesses.

Thus facing all these challenges, with the date for the campaign imminent, Alexander decided those institutes could wait.

Hence as March rolled ever closer to April, Alexander quickly found his army was starting to gather, until the entire force conjoined at Zaznan, the total consisting of 40,000 Zanzan infantry, 5,000 mercenaries, and 3,000 cavalry.

And soon the day of the departure was here.

It was around 8 o'clock in the morning on a clear spring day, the temperature cool and refreshing, when standing on his porch Alexander turned to CM to say his short farewell, 

"Okay, I'm off. If anything happens, send a rider. I will be close." 

Alexander was very casual with his tone as if he was not going to war, but just going to his nine to five job.

"Mmmm," While CM lightly hummed with a nod.

Over the past two and a half years, the girl had gotten much more mature, shedding over her girlish features to appear much more womanly with softer, voluminous features.

And knowing Thesalie was only 90 kilometers from Zanzan, she was quite calm regarding the expedition, feeling not too worried.

Turning away from CM, Alexander said similar goodbyes to Opehenia and Mean, both of whom were just beginning to enter their third trimester.

"*Sigh*, I really do regret I will not be able to see the birth of my children,"  And seeing the expectant bellies, Alexander regretfully sighed as he bid them farewell, knowing the siege would be unlikely to be over in just three months.

And seeing his bitter face, the girls did try to cheer him up. 

"Master, please do not worry about us. By the grace of the Goddess, there will be no problem." Ophenia smiled comfortingly.

While Mean was much less diplomatic, showing her desire for Alexander to be there when her child was born, as she said, "Also, you will be close. So maybe you can take a week off to come see us then."

This was not a bad idea and hearing so Alexander felt it was certainly doable.

If he used an endurance horse, he would be able to cover that 90 kilometers in a day. 

And Alexander doubted he would have much to do anyway once he started the siege.

After all, a siege was a pretty boring affair, and Alexander even considered leaving the day to day operations to Menicus after the initial days.

"Okay, I will try." Hence Alexander replied comfortingly.

Next he turned to Gelene to promise they could try again once he returned, and with his women done, Alexander then turned lastly to say goodbye to his two children.

His son Philip was on the lap of one of his wet nurses, and too young to understand what Alexander was talking about.

But as Alexander pinched his soft cheeks and caressed his head, the young boy gave a wide smile in happiness, showing his soft gums where teeth were yet to grow.

As for his eldest daughter, she was standing on her two legs next to her brother, and dressed in a beautiful flowery one-piece with an elaborate silk hat on top, she looked like a pristine doll.

Alexander picked the little princess up on her arms, and kissing her cheek he said similar loving words, while the girl giggled and spoke with broken words.

"Da…da…soon…come back ….Dada.."

It was apparent she was able to understand Alexander was leaving, though she might have only thought he was just leaving for work for the day.

With these farewells done, Alexander finally got on his carriage, and with his entourage in tow, it took only a short journey to find himself outside the city, where his army was beginning to form up 

since the crack of dawn.

And by the time he arrived, the entire force seemed to have already gathered- all 48,000 of it, all arranged neatly into nine separate legions, flanked on either side by the cavalry.

The arranged frontlines stretched close to two kilometers, which was why Alexander had to arrange the meeting outside the city, and gazing upon it from his warhorse, the vastness of the sight made anyone think they would be able to conquer the world with so many men at his command.

Though in reality, Alexander really hoped the nearly 50,000 number was enough.

Because it was not going to be an easy fight. 

Though interestingly there were not only 48,000 men gathered around here.

No, in fact, there was literally twice that, at around 90,000.

All these extra people were scattered to the back of the army, and these were the noncombatants, also called camp followers.

The origins of these people were diverse, ranging from respectable people such as traders, merchants, and farmers, to morally gray people like slavers and working girls, to good for nothing like vagabonds and homeless, to even crooks such as thieves and bandits.

And they all had their various reasons for gathering here

Though the basic was the same.

To sell their wares to the marching army as well as take part in the loot and plunder that was likely to occur as the army moved through the enemy lands.

And as Alexander saw the huge crowd of civilians lined a few kilometers behind the army, he was actually glad.

Because it meant a lot of people were optimistic about their chance of winning.

And what Alexander meant by that was, if people did not think the land they were going to attack was particularly rich, then they would have bothered showing up as there would be little to plunder.

So the huge presence at least worked to put pressure on the nobles who were in general quite pessimistic about their prospects.

And as Alexander gave the order to march, it remained to be seen which side was right.

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