Herald of Steel



Alexander's strategy here was pure and simple.

Be a nouveau rich and throw money at the problem.

And in keeping pace with his tune, as soon as Alexander finished his speech, Lord Prantik, one of his earliest converts quickly stood up to say, "That's right! Lord Alexander is very generous. I can personally attest to that."

"All the various new things you saw were made in his territory. And he has agreed to sell a lot of them to us very cheaply."

"If you join us it will surely benefit you!"

He was then quickly joined by a few other nobles who too chimed the same tune, offering to tell all the details about the deal to those interested.

And as this enthusiastic wave permeated across the room, it was a turn of events that certainly was not favorable for Manuk.

So he smirked and taunted,

"Heh! You think the esteemed nobles are like you, lowly mercenaries that can be bought and sold?"

"These men have something an outsider like you will never have! Dignity!"

Manuk wished to appeal to the present nobles' inherent pride to reject Alexander.

But was quickly countered by the following, as Alexander put on a mirror smirk and taunted in the same tone, "You mean dignity like yours where you said you would defend the nobles of Zanzan, but then tucked tail and ran when many really did call for your help?"

"That kind of dignity?"

Alexander was of course referring to how after he defeated Djose's forces, Amenheraft did not have the army to stop Alexander from subjucatung his neighbours.

And this reminder stung Manuk almost as much as it reminded all the nobles about their current standing.

Which ultimately caused Jamider (Earl) Yuusiq to stand up and be the very first one to declare,

"I stand with Lord Alexander on this one. Regardless of our personal differences, it is Tibias who is our main enemy. And I intend to heed his call and fight them with him!"

Now, to recap this lord was the only one of the 12 nobles who had refused to bow down to Alexander, and chosen to be only neutral.

So Alexander was pretty surprised to see him be the first one to join him.

But it was not really a surprise given how close his fiefdom was to Tibias, his family's feuding history with Tibias, or how zealous militant of a man he was.

The man loved fights, a trait that served him well given his land's geographic position, and so it was really a no-brainer that he would ally with Alexander to fight with Tibias.

But still, even though this was a predictable move, seeing a great lord openly express his support for Alexander did cause a somewhat of a domino effect as many neutral and semi-neutral actors too promised Alexander, or at least promised that they would think the matter over.

Seeing all of which Manuk could only put on a sour face, as his original had indeed been to make the nobles and Alexander bicker and fight, and subsequently let Tibias destroy both of them in the process.

For the archpriest saw Alexander as perhaps the greatest threat to his lord, even more than Pasha Farzah and the Queen Mother, and thus very much wanted his dangerous card gone.

But it seemed the opportunity this time was gone.

"Thank you, my lords. We will leave in two weeks. Please join me by then." As for Alexander, he was more concerned about acquiring more nobles for his rescue operation and gave this deadline to those who were still on the fence.

And with this done, Alexander said a few concluding pleasantries, and the meeting was at last concluded, one could quite successfully indeed.

And for the next two weeks, Alexander really focused on the journey ahead, as he sent ahead scouts to survey the roads, prepare provisions for him and his men, and also hold regular talks with the nobles to discuss how they would raise an army to attack the enemy once they reached their destination.

Because calling up levies and organizing them took a lot of time.

The weather also cleared up enough for Alexander to send a message back to CM, the small note reading,

"Defend the city to the last man."

"Do not surrender. Do not accept any peace terms."

"I'm coming within 2 months max!"

"Cooperate with Menes. Take care of the twins."

And as Alexander watched multiple birds carrying the same message flying off toward Zanzan, he could not help but worry he had been late in his reply.

Because the date of CM's message was about a week old and he feared how much things had changed by now.

With the only consolation being that CM had not sent a second message pleading to him again, meaning the situation was likely not that desperate…yet.

So with that hopeful thought, Alexander then turned his attention to the next matter, which was meeting with Pasha Farzah and the Queen Mother to discuss his current situation and discussing many important details.

First of all, he concluded a deal where he secured emergency provisions for his city in case it needed extensive rebuilding, which included both materials and grain, as well as a loan if things became that bad.

He then asked for advice on some of the diplomatic matters regarding how to proceed with Tibias in the future, like how to punish them for taking his money and attacking him anyway, and how to conduct prisoner exchange with them if it came to be.

Additionally, he also asked them if they could spare some men for his upcoming campaign, but here the Queen Mother regretfully said she really had nothing to give, which was natural given she was no military commander.

Whereas the aged pasha did, albeit begrudgingly, hand him a thousand of his elite men, but with a threatening caveat attached to them at the end,

"Brat! If anything happens to them, these very men will very much…you…." Pasha Farzah did not finish the sentence, but the implication was clear.

If something happened to Azura and Azira, while it was unlikely Pasha Farzah would truly fight Alexander, at least their cooperation will undoubtedly come to a screeching halt.

"I have told you before, your granddaughters will share the same roof, same food, and same fate as my family."

"I have already written to CM to take care of the princesses' safety. There is no need to remind me."

At this latest threat/reminder, Alexander replied the following in a wooden voice.

This was not the first time the worried man had raised this issue, as at one he had even asked Alexander to evacuate Azira and Azura by sea to another city belonging to one of his retainers.

And each time Alexander gave the same above answer.

Because he knew as long as he had Azira and Azura, he would be able to undoubtedly able to fleech some kind of benefit from Pasha Farzah.

And that 1,000 men was his proof.

"Hmmp, we will have a very serious talk about Azira and Azura after all this is over brat."

And how could the shrewd pasha not detect this?

So he made this throwaway remark, alluding to his intention of moving his granddaughters away from Zanzan given its frequent proximity to danger.

Alexander said nothing to this because he first had to make sure that they got out of this alive first.

It was not only the Queen Mother, Pasha Farzah, and the nobles that Alexander met with.

He met with Ptolomy too in the meantime.

But not to discuss his city.

Instead it was to discuss the things he was originally in Adhan for.

Those had been put on hold due to the recent bad news, but before he left, Alexander was eager to get at least something done.

Or he felt that his trip would have been totally wasted.

It would be like he had come to the capital, spent some time there, lost a load of men back home in the meantime, and then scampered back home empty-handed.

Alexander did not want to do that.

He at least wanted to show his retainers he went to Adhan for a reason, and despite all the difficulties had come back with something.

Hence to that effect, he sat down with Ptolomy to get at least one of his deals done.

But then the question became which one?

Well there was convincing Ptolomy to equip the northern barbarians and attack other provinces

But Alexander figured that would need a lot of greases, both personally for Ptolomy and for also the court.

Because this was a very dangerous double-edged sword tactic.

So the next option was opening up Adhania to outside trade.

But again that too needed a lot of talking and time to convince others.

The general aversion Adhnaia had for trade with the outside world was made very evident to Alexander during his exchange with Amenheraft.

So that only left Alexander w with two options.

One was him wanting to buy a lot of street urchins and low-class, neglected people of the society from Adhan to his city Zanzan to repopulate that region.

This option naturally was rejected given it was unknown whether he might have a city soon.

Hence the only real deal Alexander could realistically make with the time frame was the coinage deal, and so he sat down with Ptolomy to discuss his right to mint the ropal, in exchange for him transferring some technologies, particularly how to make brown sugar and paper.