Herald of Steel

Alexander was surprised to hear that he had a private room here.

He did not know it even existed.

But before he could go visit that, Ophenia suggested, "Before we move on to master's room, let us visit some other rooms."

She seemed to want to save the best for the last.

Alexander nodded to this proposal, and so they were led out of the left-wing, and to the front door of the inner hall that was directly opposite the central staircase.

Here Ophenia introduced, "The girls are trained in this room." and then proceeded to open the large door.

Alexander peered inside the room with much curiosity and was somewhat disappointed to discover that the large room was only renovated with rows of small, cheap beds.

'Hmmm, that's pretty simple,' Alexander had assumed the training room would have chains and whips and various contraptions like special chairs and beams where the girls would be made to practice various plays and learn difficult techniques, similar to the bliss training.

But Ophenia explained the simple layout, "Here the girls usually practice serving a few lucky guards every day. And these men then comment on how she is and what to improve on. That's how they improve."

It seemed that Ophenia judged that the best and quickest way to learn this very physical trade was by hands-on practice.

'I wonder if the Shiva Temple did it like that too?' Alexander wondered, as he remembered that Ophenia's stories about the temple were mostly about how frequently people there would have sex, Ophenia being the sole exception.

None of the others commented anything extra about the training hall, and so after looking around for a bit, they were led to their next destination, "Let us visit where Lady Mikaya and her maids will stay."

Saying this they were escorted to the right wing of the building and after passing a few empty rooms, they arrived at a particularly large door.

"Here is Lady Mikaya's room," Ophenia confirmed and then unlocked the door, leading the group inside.

The room was huge and spacious, lit with numerous candles and heated with a fireplace, it was heavily and ornately furnished with expensive wooden furniture such as a huge bed, tables, chairs cupboards, etc, ornate vases and pottery, and intricate tapestry on the wall.

It was a room worthy of housing the Matrak princess.

"It was probably one of the Marquis's favorite rooms," Alexander loudly commented judging from the decorations.

To which Ophenia added, "Yes, this was most likely the room the Marquis enjoyed himself."

"Oh? Why do you say that?" Alexander asked curiously.

While such a thing was certainly possible, he could not understand how Ophenia could so definitively state that.

"Because there are two doors on either side of the room that both lead to the harem rooms." Ophenia simply and cleverly pointed using her hands.

It seemed that instead of entering with the girls, the Marquis would choose his girls after he entered the room.

"Hmmm, so the man liked to choose his girls based on the time of the day," Alexander smirked, imagining that in this way the nobleman would not have to choose a girl before entering but pick one based on his mood.

Or even change mid-way.

And this made Alexander certainly want to have one in his own house, wondering why that fatso could not have done that little favor to him.

"There is another motive behind such architecture," In a rare moment of seriousness Mikaya spoke up, and then actually gave Alexander some useful insight, "Rather than to make it easier for him to lay with the girls, the marquise probably chose to do so to hide the girls he favored. He could call anyone from the harem after all."

Alexander had not thought about the spy and whisperer angle and certainly found this reasoning credible.

After all, all noblemen had spies buzzing like bees over honey near them.

"Does Pasha Farzah too do like this?" He then asked with a light smile, guessing this was where Mikaya probably learned this trick.

"Yes," Mikaya answered with a single word.

"Does Lady Mikaya find her temporary abode to her liking?" Ophenia then decided to ask about the room itself.

"It will do," Mikaya haughtily answered and then proceeded to check ins and outs of the room, feeling the bed, and sofas, looking out the window to feel the winter's breeze, and then pouring herself a glass of wine.

Her actions exuded that she was satisfied with the arrangements and had made the room her home already.

"Lady Tayin, we like the room very much. Thank you," Contrary to her mistress's uppity answer, the natural diplomat of the group Nafia answered Ophenia politely, attempting to soothe this mistress of the establishment.

If Mikaya was not there, she would have directly said, 'Mistress is a bit of bitch. Don't mind her.'

It was shortly after this that Mikaya's surprised exclamation rang as opening the cupboards to see what was inside.

"Ohh, what's this?" She cried out as among the various colorful clothes that were already stocked inside, she noticed a huge black cloak and a wooden mask.

"Ah, that is what we call a 'standard garb'." Ophenia instantly answered, and then explained, "It is what we designed for you to wear on your way here from the manor. The huge cloak completely covers the entire body and hair, and is very baggy so no curves will show."

"There is also a veil to completely cover your face and below that, there is that wooden mask to hide your face if somehow the veil gets damaged." Ophenia seemed to have thought of everything.

In actuality, this clothing had been developed by the Shiva Temple after centuries of practice with the purpose of allowing married women to commune with the priests in bed without letting their husbands know.

Consequently, the regular working girls around the Shiva Temple too wore this, thus allowing the regular and even noblewomen to blend it.

"It's quite well made!" Mikaya inspected the heavy garment which had been made by Gelene and then decided to try it on.

"And it's not constricting. That's nice" She twirled around a bit saying so, finding it comfortable.

Mikaya had no problem with the garb.

Though Tajia seemed to find a small flaw, "Lady Tayin, I thought our goal was to be inconspicuous. But won't this garment be the exact opposite?"

Tajia had a point, as such type of clothing was pretty alien to Zanzan, and would stand out likely as a sore thumb drawing curious gaze from all the people.

This was the very opposite of the first rule of blending in, which was to become one with the crowd.

But Ophenia had seemingly already thought about this.

"This cloak will be worn by all the girls when they go outside for work. For example, when rich merchants and nobles will ask girls to be sent to them, they can wear them en route. In this way, after the first few times people will likely even turn their gazes away from these 'low dregs' of society." She cleverly predicted.

Ophenia made this prediction based on what happened in Cantagena, where like in Zanzan, prostitution was in high demand, but paradoxically, the people actually doing the deed were usually snubbed.

"Good. I will also make it a law that will ask that all brothels must use this clothing when moving their girls using working hours. That will make it even more natural," Alexander promised.

He would easily use the excuse of 'Widespread prostitution is destroying the morality of the youths' to enforce this restriction.

MIkaya on the other hand made a slightly different comment.

"Sister Ophenia seemed to know a lot about this prostitution business," She could not help but reamrk with a knowing smile,

Ophenia had shown too much in-depth knowledge about this kind of work for Mikaya to brush it off as just being really smart.

"Hahahaha," Ophenia simply gave an empty laugh to this, not bothering to explain anything.

According to Ophenia, Mikaya could believe what she liked.

But it was unlikely she could find much more about her.

Because the silver-haired woman knew almost nothing about her.

Even her name was fake and her characteristic hair was dyed black.

But Ophenia's answer seemed to only spur Mikaya's intrigue even more, changing it into deep curiosity.

'Now I'm even more interested to know this girl's past,' She said to herself, wanting to actively find out more about Ophenia, convinced that she was either once a prostitute or that she lived near such places.

Time would tell how far she could go in that endeavor.

But for now, this thought was interrupted by Alexander, who praised Ophenia for the costume, "It looks like you have thought about everything. Excellent work."

"Thank you, master," Came the reply, as Alexander proceeded to instruct Ophenia, "Tayin, then I will leave everything about Mikaya to you."

He listed, "You are to arrange her schedule and make sure the men she meets are safe."

"Then you are to manage the guards to ensure that she is bought here safely, that she stays safe and then leaves safely. I don't want any harm to fall on either three of them."

If had to be remembered that both Nafia and Tafia were also nobles and thus required similar protection to Mikaya.

"I will make sure master," Ophenia solemnly promised, while from the side Mikaya sniggered playfully, Oh, Alex, I didn't know you loved us so much. We are touched!"

"....." Alexander could not say that it was more out of fear than love.