Herald of Steel

Alexander would decide to buy Darrus despite the man's slight problems, believing he could develop the trust over time.

So giving the slave merchant relevant instructions on how to collect the money from his manor, he turned to the nearby magistrate and ordered,

"Cyrus, I am leaving you in charge of arranging for Mister Darrus's accommodations. He will also start working under you as a junior magistrate starting tomorrow. This should fulfill your request for more men I presume."

There was certainly a reason why Alexander appointed Darrus to this post, he thought this was the best way to quickly integrate the man into his circle.

Magistrates in Zanzan worked with both the lower and upper levels of society, interacting with the former and reporting to the latter, thus letting them observe all the large and small details of the city and understand how the entire bureaucracy works.

The post was also quite suitable in terms of the hierarchy ladder- neither too high nor too low.

Magistrates in Zanzan had much reduced power than their capital counterparts, such as they could only arrest and keep someone in lock up for three days without cause, they could only beat people up to 50 times with a stick and they had to submit a detailed report on the charges they made on any defendants.

Hence few would blame Alexander for favoring the former priest too much.

While Alexander hoped to let Darrus gain some administrative experience, the large, rotund Cyrus receiving the instructions produced a complex look his heart thumping at the dreadful thought of being potentially replaced.

The meister had already shown he was very, very competent.

But despite his misgiving, he knew he could only smile and nod obediently, "Of course my lord. Rest assured, I will see to it right away."

...

"Then, mister Farshat, I will be taking my leave. Thank you for your hospitality over the following days and I am sorry for the trouble I caused you."

These were Darrus's final words as he accompanied Cyrus to his home, much to the slave merchant's delight.

He was almost as much as happy over the large sale as he was over the departure of his hot potato.

He never said it outright, but he had always been afraid that some greedy noble would go insane and secretly kill him after being tempted by the thought of owning an enslaved meister priest.

He could now finally breath a sigh of relief.

He thus hurriedly went back to the tent to write to the Head Priest of Adhan to let him know of the sale, because of course the Grand Temple wanted to keep tabs on who Darrus served.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Farshat was even specifically arranged by them to peddle Darrus to a suitable buyer.

How could they otherwise guarantee that the disgraced meister would not run to Amenheraft?

And judging by the way things turned out, Alexander- one of the court's strongest allies, buying the priest was probably one of the best outcomes for them.

So the merchant passed on the letter with much satisfaction, sending two of his men to ride to the capital as soon as possible.

However unbeknownst to the small, ignorant slave merchant, this information would be read by one of the high ranking priests at the temple before reaching Head Priest Ollosh.

He would scan the information and pass it to a mysterious rider set for another province, with the ominous comment- 'The cuckoo has entered the sparrow's nest.'

….

Cyrus would take the recently purchased meister to his home for the night, while Alexander would continue his tour.

Darrus's purchase had taken quite a bit of time and the sun was very close to setting but he was assured by Cyrus that there was also only a bit of the eastern district left.

That was also why the fat magistrate desperately wanted to accompany Alexander for the remaining part, saying that it was neither easy nor safe to navigate all those narrow dank alleys, but the pasha insisted on seeing it for himself.

"You take care of Darrus. I can take care of myself."

There was another reason why Alexander wanted to be left alone.

He had reports from his spymaster Camius that things in some of the nastier parts of this district were far worse than what he was being told by his magistrates and city guards.

So he wanted to check it out for himself, without Cyrus trying to influence his route or offering excuses.

…..

It was unknown whether the Chief magistrate knew of Alexander's thoughts or simply wanted to accompany his boss till the end, but either way, producing a slightly sullen face, he bowed and then left while wishing for Alexander to take care of himself.

The Pasha too quickly left the bustling slave market through the many nearby open alleys and began to drift deeper into the bowels of the city. Continue your journey on empire

And here, his large entourage of almost twenty men finally began to draw some attention.

Until now, they had been able to easily mix in with the crowd, with many civilian groups actually rivaling his numbers.

For example- a family of five or six brothers coming out to eat with a few of their uncles and cousins could easily swell to a fifteen plus group.

But soon, Alexander was properly in the sketchy part of the district, where naturally the volume of traffic was significantly less. Nobody wanted to advertise visiting these establishments.

As for what these 'establishments' truly entailed, -

Well, one of the most famous types there were gambling dens where people could lose their life savings with a single throw.

They appeared exactly like the legal one, the only difference was that the latter had several laws safeguarding the players.

For example- there was a limit to how much one could bet each round to try and prevent some poor drunkard from losing everything in one go.

One could not use their family members as collateral during bets, thus risking selling them into slavery.

Customers could complain if they suspected foul play such the owners using weighted dies or other cheating methods, and if one became bankrupt and was unable to pay back, the gambling den could not outright buy the man.

They had to sell the man to the authorities who would buy the man for the market sum depending on his physical and educational attributes, like how Darrus was bought.

When Alexander had read these laws, he was frankly surprised by how 'advanced' they were for the time. For context, such protection rarely existed in the ancient civilizations of his timeline.

And he was even surprised by who first passed these- if there was one good thing the nasty Pasha Muazz did in his life, it was this.

It was said in his early years, the man had arbitrarily decided to pass these laws after losing a particularly large gamble.

The only problem with these laws was that they lacked any sort of teeth.

There was little enforcement, and so, as there was little fear of repercussions, it was only natural for most gambling dens to operate illegally.

This way they would not have to pay any taxes on their income, which was classed as a kind of sales tax, and more than that, they would not have to follow any of the regulations.

All gambling dens wanted their patrons to bet as much as they wished, they wanted to be able to sell the man to the highest bidder if he was unable to pay, and if his sale alone could not cover the cost, they wanted to be able to sell his entire family along with him to make up the difference - the boys as farm hands, the girls as maids and the beautiful mothers and daughters to rich nobles or worse prostitution.

But perhaps the most important of all, they wanted to be able cheat!

It was an open secret that all gambling houses cheated.

In fact, that was one of the core tenets of any gambling enterprise, be it past or present, if the odds were truly 50-50, how were they ever going to make a profit?

The laws of statistics determined they would at best break even.

So the saying, 'The house always wins' was a requirement for them to stay in business.

However Pasha Muazz refused to bulge even the slightest inch on this front, pushing many gambling dens to the dark side.

While Alexander, who was left to deal with the mess, watched the many small gambling shacks disguised as inns and restaurants along either side from a distance with a sigh.

Gambling was considered a vice like alcohol in Adhania, rather than being directly illegal.

And thus like alcohol, there were many frequent abusers of it.

Some went in there just for the money, the desperadoes, but many did not.

They played more to fill a yearning in them than winning. It was like a calling.

The thrill of getting that call right and the pain of losing both tasted like the sweetest of drugs, being as much as part of the game as winning.

So if Alexander wanted to clear this place, he understood he needed to strengthen his bureaucratic rule over the place first.

Without that, simply passing a law would be the same as howling at the wind.

Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!

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