Herald of Steel

Ophenia was still looking at Alexander expectantly, waiting with bated breaths for his answer.

And so Alexander decided to elucidate, “The goddess has spoken to me and decreed all other branches of this faith is null and void from today. Only our faith and our faith now is the one true path and through the revelation of Her Ten commandments She has ordered the creation of the holy scripture,” Alexander grandly declared.

This new information produced a variety of reactions from the three surrounding humans, intrigue from Camius, surprise, and a bit of sourness for not telling her about it first from Cambyses, and naturally ecstasy from Ophenia

“That….that…has the goddess really sent her revelations down? May..may I see it?” Ophenia’s body was literally shaking in excitement as out of sheer delirium, she was having trouble even forming coherent sentences.

“I have given the text to Theocles, but it said this…” Alexander then repeated his ten commandants.

“Ahhh, so the goddess has really spoken. And so clearly! Ohhh, master, you will be the ruler of the worlds,” Ophenia cried in ebullition, her face flushed and her eyes glowing with fire, her heart ablaze with absolute conviction for her new religion.

Cambyses and Camius were also very surprised by the detailed instructions and by how the rules were simple and easy to understand and follow.

Usually, religious scriptures would be winded and vague, with their laws being scattered all over the place.

Thus such clear and concise commandments also impressed the two.

“So, can you write the book using them?” Alexander smiled as he asked.

“Yes…Yes, this is enough. No, more than enough. I had thought that I would have to write everything from scratch. But with this, with the ten commandants, I can write ten books no problem,” Ophenia spoke so quickly that she was almost foaming out of her mouth, her excitement being almost infectious.

“Good, there are a few more details I want you to include,” Alexander said, which made Ophenia immediately give her utmost focus to the man.

“It’s mainly about the prayer time and ritual.” He began, “People are to offer prayers twice a day, just after dawn and just before dusk. The prayers can be offered at home but praying at the temple in congregation should be encouraged. And a grand mass will be held every Thursday at dusk,” Alexander detailed.

“Does master have any specific phrases you want them to recite?” Ophenia wanted to know.

“Nothing particular. The usual exaltation of the goddess and her deeds will do.” Alexander wasn’t particularly interested in the exact text.

But then Alexander suddenly remembered something. 𝘦𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘦𝑙．𝑜𝑟𝘨

“But don’t make any mention of me, it’s not time yet.” He warned.

And Ophenias immediately understood the implications and cleverly added, “Yes. We can add it in later editions.”

If Alexander was to publish a book that so blatantly made himself equal to Ptomoly, by that point, Alexander was just asking to be struck down.

“Umm, I will also show you how to perform the ablutions and prayers later,” Alexander promised.

“Ablutions?” Ophenia understanding was that ablutions were done during only ceremonies, by only priests and priestesses, so was confused by Alexander’s wish to place them before prayers.

“Yes, ablutions. The goddess is pained by the frequent recurrence of the plague, caused by uncleanliness, and general lack of hygiene, and thus has decided to advocate ablutions for all her followers.” Alexander covered his own reasons using the name of a god.

“Praise the goddess and her benevolence,” Ophenia crossed her arms in reverence.

Her faith in Alexander had already been boosted when he cured an incurable disease like the plague so easily, as she believed only the blessed of the goddess of life could know how to treat such a deadly disease, so it seemed natural to her that the goddess would want to eradicate this pestilence.

“Praise the goddess and her benevolence,” Alexander too repeated the phrase.

Later that day, Alexander showed Ophenia how to perform the ablution, which was just simply washing one’s hair, face, mouth, nose, and ears, the back of the neck because it helped one drive away fatigue and drowsiness, and the arms and feet.

He also decreed that followers would need to take a full body bath at least every three days and girls needed to take one every day during their period.

Alexander then went on to show Ophenia how to perform the prayer, how to stand, sit, bow, and kneel before the goddess, and how to lead a congregation.

But these were done later, as for now, finished instructing Ophenia, Alexander turned his attention to Camius.

“How are things in the city?” Alexander asked his chief intelligence officer.

“Stable. The people have food, medicine, and work, so their moods have improved.” Camius gave a concise report.

“That’s good. When we first came to the city, they seemed one step away from rebellion,” Alexander recalled.

“Yes, the gangs and street rats are also mostly quiet. It seems they too want the free food and medicine,” Camius knew Alexander what topics Alexander wanted to know about.

“The free food and medicine will not last forever. What then?” Alexander had a small frown on his face.

“*Sigh*, I tried approaching some of them. But it seems they are not much interested. And from what I can gather, they want their old job back,” Camius let out a heavy sigh as he recalled his small failure.

“Their old job is gone. The city has a new ruler and he will appoint new law enforcers,” Alexander curtly made his position clear.

“So, how does the lord intend to deal with them?” Camius probed.

“…..I intend to make a brand-new city guard, called the Police Force. You will be in charge. And your first job will be to arrest these hooligans!” Alexander ordered.

“That….executing so many natives might cause some problems,” Camius opinioned.

“Execution? Who said execution? Why would I execute good, strong men?” Alexander asked incredulously, as he wondered where Camius got the absurd idea from.

“Huh? Ummm, aren’t we going to kill them after capture?” Camius was also a bit confused.

Locking up men and giving them free food made no sense to him.

“No! We will send them to the mines. Harun is complaining to me every day that he has no men, so we will give them to him,” Alexander waved his sturdy hand as he said this.

“Ohh. Well if it’s only enslavement then there should not be much unrest,” Camius breathed a sigh of relief.

“Unrest? What unrest? We are giving them free food, medicine, and housing, Which lord has ever done for them? Why will there be unrest?” Alexander pointedly asked why the populace would still want to rebel after he gave them so much.

“That….there have been whispers that you are the devil, and that’s why you could cure the plague. And they say the food is dead human meat magically transformed to look like grain.” Camius avoided eye contact with Alexander as he said this.

‘Wow, human meat magically transformed to look like grain, that’s some creativity,’ Alexander didn’t know whether to laugh at this absolutely bonkers claim or be impressed by the sheer outrageousness of it.

“Is it the temple?” Alexander lowly growled, his eyes turned dark and menacingly.

Words like ‘magic’ and ‘devils’ were almost trademarked and copyrighted by them.

“That…I’m not sure. I am still new to the city,” The time Camius was in Zanzan was too short to form a good spy network.

But quickly added, “These are just rumors and murmurs. Crazy talks by a few lunatics. You know how people like them always exist. It’s nothing.” Camius attempted to brush it off as nothing.

And it could very well be nothing, just some harmless grumbling.

But it could also be that the temple of Ramuh and the various gangs with affiliations to many of the surrounding nobles, were trying to stir up trouble.

And for Alexander, he had to assume it was the latter.

So he went silent for a while, his face cold and expressionless.

And everyone at the table understood that he was thinking up a new scheme.

“Hmmm, I have changed my mind about your appointment,” Alexander said after a while, looking directly at Camius, “I will create a spy agency named National Intelligence Agency or the NIA for short. And you will lead it.”

“Na… National Intelligence Agency?” Camius could understand the essence of what Alexander said, but still not grasp its exact meaning.

“Yes, this intelligence service will be responsible for domestic and foreign espionage, including both civilian and military, and will be directly under me.” Alexander intended to make his own all-in-one spy plus secret police force.

He hadn’t intended to set this up so soon because he thought that he didn’t need so immediately.

But it seems he was wrong.

He had barely settled in and yet, the snakes were already bearing their fangs.

“Sure,” Camius gladly accepted his new assignment.