Herald of Steel

Alexander's division of land among the various nobles did not actually involve too much forfeiture of the free lands of Tibias, i.e. the lands that the Tibian royal family, and now the Pasha of Zanzan had default right over.

The reason for which was simple- almost nobody wanted those 'free lands' under Alexander's control.

And to know why, one had to only ask, 'why were those lands free in the first place.'

And the answer would generally be that those places were either too barren or remote or both, being neither suitable for cultivation of any kind nor for extraction of any.

And for an agrarian society like Tibias, that basically meant those lands were almost equivalent to a barren desert.

Who would want them?

It had to be appreciated that societies of this time period almost exclusively had large population centers only concentrated on good, fertile, arable land.

Which for Tibias meant around 30,000 to 60,000 sq km, depending on how generous you were being with the term 'arable'.

For instance, the farmers around the south of the country would have spat in disdain if they saw some of the lands the northern farmers, such as the ones around Thesalie, called farmland.

But even with the generous description, the total arable area would not exceed 20% of the entire country.

Meaning the rest of the 80% of the country went mostly utilized, consisting mostly of large, seemingly endless stretches of wetlands, marshes, bogs, and swamps, huge, all encompassing wooded forests that barely let any light in, and housed all kinds of ferocious predators such as wolves, panthers, and tigers, various poisonous frogs and snakes, many predatory birds like eagles and vultures, as well as other more innocent woodland creatures such as rabbits, deers, foxes, and badgers to name a few.

And where there were places that had not been overtaken by mother nature, she left many of them dry and uncared for- with stony, hard soil barely capable of letting weeds grow, much less arable crops.

Most of these types of places were mostly left to the wayside, letting the native populace there govern it for themselves.

Only perhaps once or twice a year there would be one or two magistrates sent by the royal court to check up on them, to see if these people still existed and more importantly to collect their taxes.

Because no matter how poor you were, there were two things you could not avoid in life- death and taxes.

And the only time Tibias's higher up's eyes would deign to glance at these neglected places would be when there came the time to raise levies.

These poor and sparse villages would be the first place they would start the head hunt, knowing the people here were dirt poor, even when compared to the already relatively poor peasants.

Which was good news for the military recruiters as it meant most of the men here were hungry, unemployed, and desperate.

Or in other words, the best kind of labor there was- cheap and obedient, thus willing to do anything.

But other than that particular use in times of war, these remote and barren unproductive patches of the country were mostly left to scavenge for themselves.

Thus as these places were in the complete loonies and undeveloped beyond comprehension, the nobles would have found it almost insulting if Alexander were to offer these to them as rewards.

Thus, instead, large portions of the gifted lands had to be actually taken from the defeated and dead nobles as compensation.

These lands, developed over decades if not centuries were the ones to possess truly great value and thus the most lucrative for the winners, who had been for months now salivating over the prospect.

But given many of these lands already had owners, such a thing needless to say created a whole host of complications.

Many of the defeated but still alive nobles naturally reacted at Alexander's attempts to take their land, as understandably they tried their best to protect their own interests.

Of course, this did not mean doing anything foolish like rebelling or arguing.

This course of action was not news to them after all.

They already knew this was going to happen as such a thing was par for the course of the time after losing a war- the loser had to endure loss while the winner got to relish gains.

But although they could not prevent losing some of their lands, that did not mean they could not try to influence Alexander's decision over which plots of their lands they would lose.

They certainly could, as they attempted to keep the most valuable part of their fiefs from being snatched.

And in that endeavor, these noblemen employed such a colorful variety of tricks that had to be seen to be believed.

Such as:

Trying to covertly and overtly send their daughters and even granddaughters into Alexander's arms to try and woo him, hoping they could become if not as his mistress then his maid, and if not even that, then perhaps at least his bed warmer.

Trying to sign various secret treaties with Alexander, ranging from the usual economic ones, to military ones such as offering a certain amount of men to the army each year, to even swearing to spy on the other lords on his behalf.

Trying to use the various dark and depraved secrets they knew about the other nobles as a bargaining chip to 'buy' one's fief back.

Promising to send one's sons and even grandsons to Zanzan to join the army or if they were unfit just 'visit the place', thus effectively handing Alexander valuable hostages.

And many, many more creative petitions that made their way to Alexander's desk.

There was even one nobleman, admittedly quite dashing with short curly locks and a square chiseled face, even offering to be Alexander's paramour in exchange for him reconsidering taking one of his gem mines.

It was such an odd offer that Alexander was actually half pleased by the valiant effort.

Although it of course went without saying that then nobleman failed on both fronts- neither getting the bed nor the mine.

But while Alexander was able to come to a very quick and decisive decision on that particular offer, the others proved much more challenging.

Because some of the offers these men were making were truly lucrative.

Meaning Alexander had to shift through many of them individually trying to figure out what was worth taking and what was not.

And then determine if the worth of that offer matched its intended price.

It took Alexander no small effort to come to any decision regarding all these, with the only silver lining here being that he was aided in his endeavors by Philips and Lord Theony, as well as some of the other Zanzan nobles.

And ultimately, Alexander did end up taking a few of the offers, particularly the spying and snitching ones, letting Camius and Laibak obtain greater sets of eyes and ears.

Along with that, Alexander also signed a few secret trade deals with those particular nobles holding land in key trading junctions in the country to let Alexander's goods and those from Camius's trading guild receive preferential treatment, such as less scrutiny by the guards as well as all the obvious ones- lower tariffs and sales taxes.

Alexander then even took a few deals that offered him annual payments in gold or in other commodities like food or other produce, although most of these were always against his own wishes.

Alexander did not lack gold or what other things they were offering.

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And so would have much preferred the land itself.

But due to political reasons he had to reconsider, as in almost all those cases, he was cajoled by either Philips or Lord Theony to give those noblemen a more favorable deal.

Those nobles were very close with these higher ups, being either close allies, good friends, or bound by the threads of kinship through various marriage relations, such as those who were married to Philips's sister.

Thus Alexander was forced to make some concessions.

But one type of noble that he did not make any concessions with was the ones who sent their daughter to sleep with Alexander.

He had rejected any such advances.

And it was not even because he disliked them for using this tactic.

No.

He could even respect it, as in fact in most other situations it would have been a perfectly viable tactic.

But it was just that Alexander thought he already had enough women to take care of and needed no more.

Besides, if Alexander really wanted to simply have a fun tussle in bed with raw, animalistic passion, these conservative virgins of Tibias would be a far cry from being his first choice.

They would not even know how to pleasure him.

Alexander had a far better option in Ophenia who had already arrived in Parthenigh upon his invitation.

And this otherworldly, lewd beauty was ready and more than willing to tend to all his needs, even the most depraved ones.

So what reason did Alexander have to go looking for other pleasures of the flesh,?

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