Herald of Steel



The shops that the group visited until now were all the interesting shops here in the northern marketplace,

There were also a few shops beyond that, right next to the northern gate, but those were small permanent shops selling the usual daily necessities like grains, firewood, etc.

Not worth visiting.

And so after the tailor visit, the group turned around and decided to grab lunch at the eastern district where Alexander had also planned to showcase a series of military demonstrations to Pasha Farzah and Lady Inayah, mainly the crossbow, and the instant bow.

Now, as a side note, Alexander's city market, though certainly very impressive and bid, was actually missing two types of shops, one was the horse or animal market, and the other was the slave trading square.

The reason for the former was because there were no horse merchants currently residing in Zanzan, as any and all who had come here had their entire bulk of the stock brought up by Alexander to shore up his chronic shortage of draft animals.

While the reason for the latter, the slave market was exactly the same, the existence of a large shortage of manpower which caused Alexander to buy off every slave trader nearby.

Though Alexander's haul for his efforts in this endeavor could be said to be petty.

The group traversed the distance between the northern and eastern district quite quickly, while Alexander noted there was a whole lot more activity here, without a doubt due to the recent additional presence of 25,000 Thesians who took refuge in the former hotels, inns, and gambling dens, quickly transforming them into homely quarters.

The part of the city seemed to be in a transitionary period between growth and decay, as while many parts of it were full of vibrant life, right next to it lay demolished structures, for Alexander had ordered the full remodeling of this part.

Thus many busy workers, many of them soldiers who were recruited for manual labor could be seen tearing out the old congested structures and making space, while others laid roads, built aqueducts and constructed sewage systems.

It was a busy, busy part of the city.

"Lord Alexander, what are those? I have seen them several times on my way here?" And while they were passing across a series of wooden sheds, the Queen mother pointed to and asked about them.

And Alexander replied, "Oh, those are the public restrooms for the peasants to use. It's free to use and the latrines are connected to the sewage underneath which washes away the filth. Everyone uses them."

And quickly from the opposite end Lady Inayah nodded appreciatively, "Oh, so that's why the streets smell so nice. Very smart," as she then pondered if she should do the same for her city.

The reason for the comment about the smell was because whenever Lady Inayah would leave her part of the city quarters and travel to the commer parts, a perpetual slight stinging smell would keep assaulting her, which she found very unpleasant.

And if Alexander could provide a solution, she would certainly consider it.

Though it was not if Agrinat was the sole example.

In fact all cities she had visited up until now had that pungent, ammonia smell to varying degrees, and she remembered Zanzan as having a particularly bad odor that assaulted her when she had raced in her carriage from the harbor to Muazz's mansion.

And the source behind this unpleasant smell was very evident.

For people would regularly dispose of their garbage by simply tossing it out of their windows or doors onto the streets below, causing the accumulation of a significant amount of waste, including food scraps, animal excrement, and other household refuse, both from residential and commercial use.

At Lady Inayah's inquiry, the 'proud of his work' Alexander was eager to show off his city's management skills, as after his reply, he elucidated, "You see my lady, in Zanzan it is a punishable offense to throw garbage into the street. They can be fined up to 20 ropals for it."

"So instead we have trash collectors who go around the city every day at dawn with special carts to collect all the trash and dump it outside the city or into the sea."

"Or the people can drop their trash at special trash places we have in the city."

"And lastly, we have about 300 street sweepers whose job is to clean any trash which might have escaped the collectors."

"That's why the streets are so clean."

Alexander's explanation produced both impressed and intrigued looked.

Impressed at the organizational cleanliness, and intrigued by the intention.

"Why go so far for these people? Sounds like a whole lot of money for nothing," And the ever-pragmatic Farzah posed exactly that with knitted brows.

Sure enough, the man's thoughts first ran to the question of budgeting, which to be fair was not insignificant.

By Alexander's own estimates, he found it would cost him around 2 to 3 million ropals per year to maintain the sanitary department, or the tax amount of around 5,000 to 6,000 peasants.

And it was because of this great cost that most cities did not take care of their garbage problem.

But it was a cost any modern person with the minimum of knowledge of hygiene would have found worth it.

So Alexander first chuckled, "Well firstly it's easier on the nose. Have you tried walking in Adhan, haha?"

Alexander had certainly seen the filth the so-called divine city possessed.

And then gave the serious answer, "The main reason is because these unclean things cause diseases. So by spending money to clean them, we stop people dying. Which can also include me or my family. After all, death does not discriminate."

And then lastly added, "While it also means the people can keep working and pay more taxes. So actually we make money back through this by longer tax repayments."

Alexander said the last sentence because he hoped the utilitarian pasha would find this reason more convincing.

As he then gave a preceding example, "I still remember when we first arrived at Zanzan, plagued and filled to the brim with full of filth. And once we cleaned the plague, voila, no more plague."

"Coincide? I think not!" He grandly declared.

And these talks managed to put Pasha Farzah and Lady Inayah in a thoughtful mood, as they weighed the pros and cons of replicating Alexander.

"Oh? Does cleanliness cure plagues? Is this one of those pearls of wisdom from your goddess?" While the Queen mother asked this to Alexander, her tone so flat and neutral that he was unable to determine if she was was genuinely asking or simply taunting.

This was because currently there were several theories regarding the causes of disease, with the two prominent ones being firstly the supernatural theory. which posited them as being curses from the gods or the work of the devils.

And secondly, there was the natural one, which said diseases were caused by natural factors.

And these two theories then branched into many sub-sections of their own, with the supernatural group arguing which god caused which sickness, and how to best exorcise which devil.

While the second theory branched off into discussing which natural factors caused the diseases, and they ranged from reasonable conclusions such as healthy living practices like eating good food and exercising.

To the weird such as not cutting nails and hair because they are all part of the natural.

To the well-intentioned but misguided ones such as not letting a person suffering from cholera drink water because they thought it was excess water that caused the body to discharge it in the first place.

To lastly the insane such as blood-letting, which was the practice of cutting a wound and letting the blood flow out, with the thought that the disease would flow out with it.

Though such a practice usually caused the victim to die even quicker.

But perhaps the most famous natural germ theory was the theory that diseases were spread by bad smells, as evidenced by how most bad things smelled bad.

This was true.

But the people here, unfortunately, misread the clues.

Diseases were not spread by bad smells.

But smells that the body recognized as bad were usually emitted by harmful sources spreading diseases like refuse and wastes.

So in this case, the people read the warnings completely backward.

Now, Alexander did not know which of the many branches of medicine Seelima believed in.

He knew she certainly hated the previous king, so perhaps the natural branch.

But she also saw herself as above the others, having sort of a god complex.

So it could be either.

Thus Alexander decided not to engage with his powerful woman over the belief of diseases and sickness,

And so only smiled, and gave a blank stare, as coincidentally, his eyes spotted a rather inconspicuous building that was part of the red light district and a particular favorite of a certain noble lady.

And this made Alexander almost guffaw.

But he managed to quickly swallow it as he was abruptly interrupted by Pasha Farzah, who posited, "So that's why you are building so many aqueducts," and then as suddenly something caught his eyes, pointed a large two-story wooden building to his right side and asked, "What is that? Why are so many people there?"

And this made Alexander turn his head to see a long queue snaking out of the pointed building, as he then answered, "Oh that! That is the public clinic."

While this announcement made Farzah want to visit it.