Herald of Steel

"That…I only…I didn\'t mean anything by …." The noble who never had to talk out of anything, a characteristic shared not by all but by many nobles was manifesting itself.

Neither Alexander nor Ptolomy was interested in any of his half-baked excuses and tired of the boy\'s incoherent mumbling, the latter soon silently witnessed with clenched fists as Alexander swung his sword and beheaded the screaming boy, staining the red carpet a dull rusty color.

As Alexander\'s guards started removing the corpse and cleaning the surrounding with practiced familiarity, Alexander cleaned his sword with a clean piece of rag and glanced at Ptolomy, "This is what the nobles really think of you, Your Majesty."

Ptolomy only clenched his teeth and his face hardened even more, his thoughts only known to him.

Many might feel what Alexander did for a frankly minor infraction was petty and excessive.

And certainly, without a doubt, Alexander with so much power in his hand was on a warpath, killing whoever slighted him, left and right.

But this was not the real Alexander.

Or else he could have survived ten years as a slave.

Alexander\'s actions were being dictated by the fact that he now had a relatively small window where he could do whatever he wanted he wanted without almost no repercussions.

He knew he would soon lose this power as the noble and Ptolomy would in the near future start rising their own forces and so Alexander intended to maximize his profits right now by killing as many political opponents as possible while suffering the least backlash.

This would make the king, stripped of his competent advisors, become more dependent on him and thus allow Alexander to expand his influence in the court more easily.

And those were not the only reasons he killed Fatrak.

Exposing the nobles\' true thoughts to Ptolomy was only a happy accident, but the real reason Alexander killed the boy was because he was not only stupid but powerful too.

A very dangerous, self-destructive characteristic to have.

Alexander didn\'t fear intelligent people, as these people usually acted on logic and thus could be predicted and countered.

But stupid people would not do these, but instead, perform acts detrimental to their self-interest just to fuck someone else.

For this reason. Alexander hated stupid, powerful people.

And Fatrak had made himself into the biggest, juiciest target why being both, topped off with him hating Alexander unhidden and undisguised

It was like he was begging Alexander to kill him and Alexander gladly obliged.

Putting this slightly unpleasant experience behind them, the group soon arrived at the heavy oak doors to the study.

Normally these gates would have been guarded by sentries twenty-four, seven.

But now, due to the recent coup, access to his huge repository of forbidden knowledge lay unprotected, though not completely defenseless as it was still locked with a heavy padlock, the key to which remained firmly in Ptolomy\'s hands.

The king quickly unlatched the lock and pushed open the huge, creaking door, managing to produce a small gust of dust through this effort, and the duo and their translators soon occupied the space called the study.

And Alexander, for the first time since entering Adhania was disappointed by the grandeur of the architect.

Up until now, Adhan had managed to impress him with its opulence and engineering feats for its time.

And for a two-thousand-year-old country, with a few centuries-old royal family at its helm, he had expected the study to be grand and imposing.

But it was tiny, about the size of a typical school library, with a few wooden shelves scattered about containing some dusty parchments.

What Alexander had missed here was that it was not the real library.

Because most of the valuable books and scrolls were stored in the Temple of Ramuh.

What was in the royal study was either of immense importance or of no importance.

The explanation for this almost paradoxical collection was that the information that was of immense importance were things like maps, secret messages, secret codes, various secret treaties, and deals, etc.

Things that were classified information vital to national security and thus should really not be available to some random priests in the temple.

The other category \'of no importance\' were basically things like love letters, amateur poems, short stories and other scribbles done by past royal family members.

Things that may be embarrassing but of no strategic or academic value.

As Alexander was taking in the view, Ptolomy walked up to a shelf and like he had done hundreds of times before, bought out a worn-out, yellow-tinged papyrus scroll parchment and unfolded the magnificent map of the whole of Adhania to Alexander.

Well magnificent for their time, as Alexander who was used to computer generated, color-coded maps found it to be akin to a map drawn by a child.

There were only the names of some cities, a long line, presumably a river running straight down the middle of the country, and some arrow-type squiggly bits that were most probably mountains.

Oh! And there was also Tibias on the map, which revealed to Alexander that the country he had heard so much about was a peninsula with the main body attached to a city the map was calling Zanzan.

"Zanzan." Alexander placed his finger on the map and looked at Ptolomy, "This is what the Cantagenans wanted?"

"Yes, they wanted the Zanzan province- which is the name of the city and the province," Ptolomy clarified.

"Hmmm, I\'m guessing all these other cities are also really the name of the provinces?" Alexander intelligently asked.

"Yes," Ptolomy nodded.

Alexander then started counting the number of provinces, which, including Adhan totaled twelve.

And amidst the counting, a very familiar name caught Alexander\'s eye- Matrak.

This made him think about how Ptolomy addressed that Farzah guy, always calling him Pasha Farzah.

"Are all the other eleven provinces ruled by their respective Pashas?" Alexander asked a second question.

"Yes, they each have their own land and army and are sworn to defend the crown," Ptolomy confirmed Alexander\'s deduction.

\'A classic feudalistic society, with nobles answering to higher nobles, to them answering to even higher ones, till the highest one answers to the crown." Alexander commented in his heart.

Then he made his demand, "I want to be the Pasha of Zanzan!"

As Alexander said this, he had expected Ptolomy to be horrified and then fuss and huss about his excessive demand.

But the king only calmly nodded and consented, "Okay! That was what Cantagena originally wanted, So you can have it."

The ease at which Alexander was made from a commoner to the european equivalent of duke surprised him and he began to smell a rat.

Alexander was a firm believer of the motto- If its too good to be true, then it probably is.

So he asked Ptolomy about the details, "What can Your Majesty tell me about the city and province?"

Ptolomy sent a sly smile towards Alexander as he informed, "I have never personally went there, but I am told that the city and the province as a whole is hilly and the soil is infertile. Not only that, but because it\'s right next to Tibias, there are frequent border clashes, and banditry is common. And this was before the drought."

After pausing for a second to take good at Alexander\'s face, hoping to see some regret and second thoughts surface on it, but ultimately disappointed by Alexander\'s nonchalant facade, Ptolomy continued, "I have heard the province has been hit particularly hard by the drought and when the army went to fight Tibias for grain, they most certainly had snatched whatever meager food the populace had stored to replenish their supplies, leaving then even more destitute."

Ptolomy was feeling generous with his tongues right about now, and so even gave Alexander some more information, "In fact, the situation had gotten so bad that the Pasha of Zanzan had moved his entire family to Adhan to escape the dire circumstances. He\'s that Pasha Muazz I told you about, and now he is either dead or escaped with Amenheraft."

"Hmm, I see. Thank you your majesty for telling me this. But I don\'t want to be greedy and so I still want that province," Alexander appeared adamant.

The reason for his decision was simple, he could use the Zanzan province to attack and take over Tibias, thus expanding his territory.

This expansion will not step on the feet of other nobles, or at least too much and so Zanzan became the only viable choice for Alexander.

This was added to the fact the city was a port city, highly advantageous to trading, not to mention the other provinces also had their Pashas still ruling over them and Alexander would need to fight and defeat them to replace them,

So Zanzan it would have to be.

(Adhania\'s map in the comments)