Tyranny of Steel

While Berengar continued to oversee the immediate transition of the Japanese Empire from a military dictatorship where feudalism thrived, to a semi-constitutional monarchy with a middle class. Alexandros had travelled to the ancient capital of the Byzantine Empire. 

His father had been away from home for quite some time, and as a result, his half-sister Zara was starting to become quite a problem child. As a daddy's girl, the young princess of Iberia could not stand the fact that her father was currently on the other side of the planet and had been gone for quite literally months now. 

Zara had been too young to remember when Berengar would frequently march off to war for months at a time, and as a result, she had grown accustomed to her father being around nearly every day of the year. For Berengar to suddenly fuck off to Japan, and spend the majority of the year there, it was a mental blow that Zara couldn't easily handle.

In order to avoid the temper tantrums thrown by the girl, Alexandros had opted to make his bi-weekly visits to his mother's homeland, a weekly thing. As a result, every weekend for the past eight months was spent sitting in the office of the Byzantine Palace. Currently the young Prince was looking over the expense report regarding the reformation of the Byzantine Army. 

Cash had begun to flow into the borders of Byzantium as a result of Alexandros' initiative to secure foreign investors. And by foreign investors, this actually meant the wealthy elite of the Reich who had too much wealth to blow.

While most of these funds were going towards the reconstruction of the Empire, a small portion was diverted to the Byzantine Military, which had been thoroughly obliterated during the past wars with the Golden Horde, the neighboring Sultanates, and before that, the Catholic Church. 

As a result of these military reforms, Alexandros had revoked the right of each Strategos to keep and supply their own army. Instead of forming one National Army, which had a united chain of command. Normally, this would spark a rebellion from the various Strategos, and the factions at play in Byzantine politics, but this was not the case. As a result of the ruthlessness that Alexandros had shone on that fateful night when Constantinople itself was burning in the flames of riots, there was nobody left to resist the new order. 

Thus, the Byzantine Army and Navy were slowly being reconstructed. In order to properly command this new unified Army, Alexandros had selected to establish a Military Academy in the city of Constantinople, and over the past eight months, this building had been under construction. 

While the formation of new career officers was underway. Alexandros had also ordered the conscription of the Byzantine Empire's massive unemployed population to compensate for the lack of volunteers. These men were paid a proper wage, and taught how to effectively use the weapons which were purchased from the Reich. 

By now, the stockpiles of obsolete German arms had begun to dry up, what with the continued armament of the Indian, Majapahit and Joseon Armies over the past few years. Any and all bolt action rifles and semi-automatic rifles had been refurbished and sold off to the aforementioned nations.

The stocks of hand cannons and arquebuses were far from modern enough to deal with Byzantium's enemies and because of this, Alexandros had approved the acquisition of modern arms and munitions from the Reich's armories, specifically the ones who specialized in export.

Semiautomatic rifles, magazine fed light machine guns, water cooled heavy machine guns, and 7.5cm hydro-pneumatic field guns were the primary armament supplied to the Byzantine Empire. Unfortunately, even though Alexandros was Berengar's son, he was forced to pay full price for these weapons, specifically because he was acting in the interest of another state. 

Meanwhile, the uniforms that the newly improved Byzantine Army wore had been fashioned in their own lands from cotton. With only the Stahlhelm, and load bearing equipment being supplied via the German surplus. 

After reviewing the expense report with critical detail, Alexandros confirmed that not a single solidus had been embezzled, and as a result he personally signed his signature on the document. In doing so approving of the sale.

With such detailed work out of the way, Alexandros sat back and sighed heavily as he tried to relax his weary eyes. By tomorrow morning, he would be on the first flight back to Kufstein, and would undoubtedly have to endure another one of Zara's temper tantrums. Still, that was almost preferable when compared to the fresh hell which the young prince was forced to endure during his weekly visits to Constantinople. 

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. For the moment, Alexandros was thinking about this very topic. The door slowly crept open. It was just loud enough to catch the boy's interest, which caused him to dart his eyes back behind his seat, and towards the intruder. A young girl who was roughly his age, had once again forced her way into Alexandros' study while he was trying to work. 

Because of this, Alexandros pulled his feet off the ground and hugged his knees to his chest, while holding his breath in an attempt to conceal his presence from the predator which was now stalking him. Luckily for him, he preferred working in the dark, and because of this, he figured it would not be easy for Zenobia to see whether he was still inside the room.

However, Zenobia's eyes were almost catlike, and she could easily see in the dark. Noticing the fresh ink staining the documents on the desk, the little minx deliberately made a remark in the hopes of coercing her young fiance to let his guard down.

"Oh? I thought for sure Alex was in here... Looks like he has already fled further into the palace. I guess I will just have to search for him elsewhere."

Having said this, the girl deliberately made some steps, which sounded like she was leaving the room before closing the door in front of her. She then silently stalked over to a corner and hid behind a rather large chest. After believing the girl had indeed left the room, Alexandros placed his feet on the floor and began searching around the room in order to confirm if Zenobia was truly gone. 

The panicked look on the boy's face was simply adorable from Zenobia's perspective, and when he had finally turned his back to her and sighed in relief, she pounced on him. Tackling Alexandros to the floor, and smooching his cheeks, which she knew only further aggravated the young prince. 

"Alexi! I got you!"

Alexandros struggled to get out from under the girl, and did his best to use the grappling knowledge that his father had taught him over the years. Thus he successfully managed to shrimp out from under his fiancee's mount, while tossing her aside, causing the girl to fall back on her small bottom. Once he had climbed to his feet, and wiped the spit of his cheek, Alexandros immediately began to chastise his young fiancee for her actions. 

"God dammit Zenobia, I thought I told you not to call me tha-"

In the next moment the boy's eyes were instantly drawn to the girl's panties, which were visible as a result of her skirt being tossed up during the scuffle. At first Zenobia did not know what had caused Alexandros to suddenly become so stupid, but after noticing the direction of his gaze, she looked down and saw that her panties were on full display. As a result, she quickly concealed her undergarments with her skirt and ran out of the room while screaming at the top of her lungs. 

"You pervert!" 

It was only after the little minx had scurried off did Alexandros finally snap back to reality, causing him to sigh in relief while he expressed his thoughts aloud. 

"That ought to teach her a lesson..." 

Meanwhile, Zenobia had not run far, and instead was on the other side of the door, blushing with embarrassment. She could not believe that such a thing had happened to her, and right when she had Alexandros exactly where she wanted him to be.

She felt so bad that she began to cry in silence. However, like the clever little scamp that she was, a certain thought appeared in Zenobia's mind, which she expressed in a voice so low that nobody could possibly hear her, all while smiling something sinister. 

"Now he will have to marry me!"

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