Herald of Steel

The practice of taking slaves when sacking a city was almost like an unwritten rule.

That did not happen when Alexander took Adhan or Zanzan because those cities had their own unique circumstances.

One was the capital and given Amenheraft was about to attack, turning the citizens into slaves was a moot point. 

As for the other, well that was Alexander's capital, and turning the citizens into slaves was also a moot point. 

But Thesalie was different and upon taking it, many citizens were captured to be slaves by the slaves.

In fact Alexander was sure that if he were to return to his camp right now, he would not only find every tent overflowing with gold, jewelry, fabric, etc. but also many beautiful girls and even boys.

The soldiers would enjoy them for a few days and then sell them off to slave traders for a profit.

And though Alexander hated this practice to his core, this was such a basic, fundamental practice of the time that he knew would be burned to cinders even if he just attempted to touch it.

This was both a reward for the soldiers and a crucial source of their income.

Because remember, each of them only got 50 to 100 ropals a month in cash after having all sorts of expenses such as food and equipment deducted from them.

This amount of money might be enough for a single soldier, but for those with a family, it would be really living on a shoestring, even with the rations Alexander provided.

So the soldiers had to supplement their income in other ways, like by acquiring loot and booty.

Thus if Alexander tried to stop the auction, he would be trying to stop these soldiers from putting food on their children's plates. 

That would lead to only one thing, a disaster.

The soldiers would either start stealing military supplies, take up a side business, or directly rebel.

Now, the remedy to this would be Alexander simply paying them more, but he simply did not have the capability.

And even if he did, it might not be a good thing for him.

Because if he gave them everything, the soldiers would be just content to sit in their camp and only defend their land.

Whereas Alexander wanted his soldiers to always be hungry for loot, to be eager to fight, to go out and conquer new pastures.

And for these pragmatic reasons, Alexander perpetuated this practice even if he did not like it.

The gathering ended in quite an anticlimactic way, with Lapitus almost scampering off the stage after making the announcement about the auction, not at all a dignified way one would expect a nobleman to leave.

But the crowd was not in the mood to judge.

For far more of their attention was taken up by the worry about collecting the money to free their kin.

Although had Alexander promised them a lot of free things, so much so that they would not have to worry about survival, but now came another issue.

And facing this predicament they began to scramble their heads how to collect the money.

The usual avenues of borrowing from friends and family were not available given they themselves had people to save.

So many turned to that one group of people -dreaded loan sharks, who facing this huge surge of customers felt like it was Christmas meeting 4th of July.

They jacked up their interests to values seen only a few times before, asking for returns not in terms of percentages but in terms of 'times', meaning they wanted their principals doubled or even tripled. 

But even then people were willing to pay these, so their desperation as such.

And among them perhaps the most desperate ones were the men who both had their sons taken as prisoner of war and their wives and daughters as slaves to be sold in auction.

Who would they choose to save?

They certainly did not have enough money to buy everyone back.

Would it be their son who could be another breadwinner alongside them?

Or their wife with whom they swore to spend the rest of their life?

Or perhaps the daughter who was the frailest and hence would otherwise suffer the most if turned into a slave?

Few men were tested in life with such a cruel dilemma.

And as the crowd dispersed such thoughts haunted many minds.

The ransom for the prisoners and slave auction would take place over the next few weeks, held outside the walls to accommodate the huge numbers.

A breathtakingly huge new market would seemingly spring out of nowhere to host it, and there the captured would be displayed in batches of twenty to thirty spread across various open-air stalls.

The captured prisoners of war would not be bound as one would assume but just kept in enclosed fences where they could freely move around.

Potential buyers would walk around these fences and look for any slave that might catch their fancy,

And to aid in that endeavor, the men were kept bare with only perhaps a loincloth, thus showing off their well-built physique.

That way the buyers would be able to easily spot the strong ones as well as ones with physical defects.

Furthermore, these slaves would be prevented from sitting or resting by their overseeing slavers or guards nearby, who would bark or beat them if they did so.

Instead, they were told to always keep walking or at least standing, to better show off their body. And though this sounded easy, it was not as easy as it seemed.

Not to mention the sheer exhaustion that came with standing on one's legs from dawn to dusk with little rest, but also given the entire market was set up right under the open sky, with no shade, the scorching August sun would soon begin to toast these men.

And combined with the dust and general crowd of the market, by the end of the day most of these men would be able to barely stand.

And that was if they remained in their enclosure until the end of the day.

For if any of the passersby liked what he saw, he could ask the nearby slaver who doubled as a salesman to bring that man closer so that he could get a closer look.

And if the subsequent inspection went well and a favorable price could be reached, a sale would be made and the slave would follow his master to his home, his past being left in the trash can of history. 

The entire place was designed much like an animal farm, where one could simply come and buy another human like any farm animal.

And the slaves were undoubtedly treated as such.

When buying a slave, like one would touch a horse to feel its pelt to ensure it had no fleas or other skin conditions, or look at its legs to see its muscles, or its stomach to see its fat before buying it, the buyer would too touch and feel the man's various places, such as his arms, shoulders, and thighs and for those who had the taste, even his butt, and lower parts with no shame or consideration for the other party.

Furthermore like how animals would relieve themselves in the open, the slaves too only had a bucket, where they would do their thing in view of everyone.

It was humiliating and degrading, but that was the only option.

And taking advantage of that there were even some perverts that ogled and enjoyed it.

But what were the prisoners going to do?

Find a private toilet?

Even the free slavers did not have that luxury.

They did their small acts at any roadside curb and the big act behind bushes.

And given this practice, as well as the number of people present here, who all needed to perform normal bodily functions, the stench created by all this open disposal of waste could be imagined.

And if they were to be combined with the sweat and spit of all the men as well as the huge amount of dust kicked up by the dry summer sun, it made sure that the slave market was no picnic. 

But it was a place that Alexander decided to tour, where he came into view of those very scenes, but more than being disgusted by it, upon seeing it, he vividly recalled his own past.

He remembered how shocked he was to see such practice for the first time.

He had read about it in books, but experiencing it for himself was whole another thing.

Especially when he was the product being sold, penned inside an enclosure like an animal.

He still remembered looking at all the passersby who passed him with great envy and disbelief, wishing he could switch places with even the lowest beggar.

At least that person was free.

And he remembered the long hours he would be made to stand or be beaten otherwise.

How he was fed food that was barely distinguished from animal feed, and how scared he was by some of the looks men used to give him.

Alexander knew what happened to young boys.

And he had felt that same fear when he was bought by Nestoras.

But look at him now, how fate had changed.

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