Herald of Steel

Listening to Cyrus's excuse, Alexander was half of the mind to suspect the man of being in cahoots!

Thus he threw away all the man's former arguments out of consideration, and growled with suppressed anger,

"You call this meat? Do I need to spell out to you what 'meat' this is? I… Let's go and look under one of these shops! I will show what meat this is!"

Saying so began to tug the man towards a nearby stall.

"Hehe, there is no need. Really no need, my lord!" Cyrus however pulled back his arm and then in a very uncharacteristic manner let out a weak chuckle,

"It is not as if the people do not know what it is truly there. All those stories the stall merchants tell are just smokescreens to hide the inconvenient truth and help them justify their prices." Read exclusive chapters at empire

"And the people also like them because it helps them stomach the meat, makes them believe what they are eating is genuine…. meat from the lord's estate!"

"...." Alexander finally felt some of his anger subside hearing this, as he slightly turned his head to look at the skewers.

He had not taken that part into account.

Because he never faced this problem, even as a slave

As long as they had it, Alexander got to eat the same cut of meat as the rest of the mercenary group. His everyday struggles lay elsewhere- in actually surviving the deadly battlefield.

But the people here were in some ways unluckier. They had a stable life, but very little prospect of making any real advancement in life.

And given how rough and short many of their lives tended to be, well, they tried their best to make use of whatever limited amenities they had.

If they said it was beef, and everyone believed it was beef, then it was beef, reality be damn.

Thus, as Alexander took a closer look at the skewers, he found that the outside was heavily charred, and then generously salted and spiced with chilly, possibly done so to hide any foul odor and make the meat so tough it was impossible to distinguish it from any known animal.

…

Alexander ultimately decided to drop the whole thing for now, noting to look into this at a later date with greater insight.

So for now, he turned to instead ask Cyrus in a cool voice,

".... Those soldiers who stopped you and told you to never come back…. did you get any of their names?"

"I am sorry!" Cyrus unfortunately only slowly shook his head.

"Then can you recognize them if I bought them before you?" Alexander lightly chimed.

"Ummm…."

"...Fine, forget it!"

Seeing the man already close to a breaking point, Alexander at last brushed his hand in dismal, deciding to step off the peddle for now.

Instead, he made a note to dig out the true reasons behind the army's protest by himself.

Because in his eyes, it was absolutely unacceptable for the military to intervene in a magistrate's work.

He thus suddenly became very in favor of relocating the army, while also wishing to see actually how far this hole went.

Now, it could be that this participation was purely voluntary and done at the spur of the moment love for the food.

Or it could also be something much more sinister- such as the stall owners giving a cut to the soldiers as 'protection' money.

Alexander's later investigation would reveal a mixture of them.

There were soldiers who indeed acted spontaneously, finding it unacceptable to have their favorite stalls closed- the meat they got there was the very blood they needed to power through the various exercises and training they had to do in the barracks.

There were also soldiers whose family or friends owned those stalls.

And lastly, a few of the officers indeed collected 'rent' in exchange for shielding them from the officials.

Receiving the report Alexander would act accordingly, but the details of that would have to wait for a later time.

….

For now, Alexander dove deeper into the district, until he reached the largest slave market in the city.

This market used to be part of the southern district, but with a flourishing naval trade, the space there soon proved inadequate.

There was hardly any place to house the swelling number of slaves and with all the mushrooming shops, Cambyses had the entire market moved to this part of the city.

And currently, the market seems to be in full swing.

In the large open space, slavers displayed their products in horizontal rows in front of their shops, with the most attractive wares placed in front to attract eyes.

These initial lines consisted mostly of men, although beautiful women and children were also sometimes dotted around, all of various races, wearing all types of utilitarian, spartan, or even sensual clothes.

They also wore various expressions on their faces.

Some were vacant and listless, some dejected and rueful, some on the verge of crying out but most were simply nonchalant and accepting.

After all, slavery was as normal as the concept of eating and drinking to all the people here.

Thus there were actually very few who were truly angry and rebellious about this great injustice, and most of these people consisted of men who were once free men but were kidnapped or taken captive in wars, raids, etc, and sold into slavery.

However, despite their anger and potential to cause harm, their masters did not seem to bother to bind any of them in any way, rather just let them walk around freely around the shop.

Now this was not because these slavers were benevolent or anything, they were slavers after all, but more so because there was really no need to shackle them.

Where would these escapees go anyway?

Most of them were foreigners- i.e.- coming from overseas or other parts of Zanzan and Tibian. They hardly knew this unknown city or how to escape.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

And since a runaway slave was the equivalent of a modern day fugitive, it was a criminal offense punishable by death for any commoner to shelter or give aid to a runaway slave.

On the other hand, the slavers could use the full force of the local lord and garrison to hunt them down, not to mention their own significant garrison.

So why waste money on shackles?

As those who were locals and knew the nooks and alleyways of the city to hide and escape with, well, it was not like such flights never happened.

But in the grand scheme of things, it was rarer than a phoenix feather, a one and ten thousand occurrence.

And many times, this even backfired on them, as the slavers would go after the fugitive's family nearby- wife, son, daughter, etc. and take them to make for their loss.

All this was common knowledge to even a slightly grown child.

Thus, well aware of their place, all but the most foolish slaves chose to obediently accept their fate and corporate with any and all their slave master's orders.

Orders such as showing off their physical traits to any potential buyers whenever they came close.

The large slave open space was currently a sea of men, as many of them having just gotten off work and after having a bite to eat in the many stalls, decided to take a walk around the place.

This was their equivalent of window shopping, hence many could be seen accompanying their wives and children as they simply perused the market, looking at all the 'beautiful wares' for sale.

Young and strong men, deemed the most valuable of the bunch almost always got the front rows, dressed in only a simple, very short loincloth that was just enough to hide their shame.

They were garbed as such to better show their arms, pectoral and thighs muscles, indicating their ability to work the farms and mines.

The buyers would then walk up to any man that caught their eyes and check his condition, such as by lifting arms to check muscle tone, pressing down on the various muscles to check of mass and density and even inspecting teeth for signs of health.

They did this because natually the slavers had ways to fake any physical check ups of their products, hiding any flaws and flaunting their strengths.

Take the muscle for example- many times the slave masters would put really large, tall, and powerful looking warriors with puffed up muscles in their front lines, as a way to draw in the crowd.

However, these men would really be a glass cannon, with a lot of burst strength but not a lot of stamina.

And if you needed one to work the fields or mines, you wanted the latter, one who is able to work tirelessly and constantly for hours.

Not someone who is unable to stand up just after a few pulls of the plows.

Only bodyguards and shock troopers needed that kind of sudden, violent burst of power, to crush any opposing foe in the shortest time possible and instantly neutralize the danger.

But as it could be easily guessed, the demand for such slaves was very small.

So this kind of flaw could be detected by touching and pushing the muscles down because, under pressure, any puffed up light muscle tended to sink a bit.

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

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