Herald of Steel

The prosperity and well-being of that part of the city was certainly among Alexander’s considerations,

But not the most important consideration.

For when Alexander conceived this plan, his priority for the eastern sector was to eliminate all the actors there and make himself the sole owner.

And Alexander did have some good reasons to want to be such, as he felt apprehensive about these people.

And the justification for this caution could be understood when one studied the history of the place.

Because through these very recent booming businesses, the disagreeable parts of the society had managed to accumulate quite a fortune for themselves, which was evident by the fact that this part of the city was in quite a good condition even after the city and province had been ravaged by disasters for such a long time.

These heavy weights took care of the place they lived and worked in and this could be seen in the surrounding architecture, most of which were of stone instead of the usual wooden buildings, with grand spires, domes, and minarets on top, as per the artistic style of this era.

The hotels, inns, and pleasure houses owned by these people were also of quite high quality, some even better than the ones in Adhan, which was not too surprising given the amount of money being thrown around there, and it was this display of affluence in such a part of the city, nicknamed the underbelly, was what had drawn Alexander’s attention to it in the first place.

And this curiosity had turned to first unease and then apprehension as he got to know more about the place.

He had always known gangs, drug lords, and organized crime was associated with many of the shady and objectionable ways of income, whether it be in the twenty-first century or in this time period, but always imagined the places they operated in to be like the image one conjures up when one hears ‘the city’s underbelly’- a shabby, rough, and dilapidated place, with thugs ready to snatch your money around every corner.

This was certainly wrong as these people wanted repeat customers, something that was hard to get if one tended to rob them every time.

And so, they set up various establishments to fleece one’s money not just once, but multiple times.

Hence the articulate architecture.

But Alexander had missed these considerations because of erroneously superposing his previous life experiences on this life.

In his previous life, it would be the poor and less privileged neighborhoods that would usually have gang problems, where many times poverty, destitution, and a lack of opportunity would lead one to gravitate toward that life.

And so, though individuals in that community might be very rich, in general, that neighborhood would have a low level of income on the whole.

But here it was quite the opposite.

In here, many a kid’s dream was to join a gang and rise through the ranks.

This was because here many of the gangs and street rats were not scums of society in the eyes of the laws, but part of the ruling class!

For generations, the rulers of this city, Pasha Muazz, and his predecessors would employ these

kingpins and gangsters as guards and law enforcers of the city, making them not rogue actors or enemies of the state but under the payroll of the crown.

So this eastern district was really the home of the former city guards and their associated businesses.

And to supplement their incomes, these busy bees would even sometimes triple as mercenaries, offering fantastic services such as killing, looting, burning, kidnapping, and all other manners of macabre hospitalities.

A service that seemed to have an inexhaustible demand.

They serviced clients from all walks of life, ranging from the lowest dregs of society like a beggar jealous of a corner piece of road that is occupied by a widow and her starving children, to merchants wanting to remove a competitor by burning their shop down to all the way up to the nobles, who fought with each other over everything, from simply being jealous of the other to liking a woman who might have caught both their fancy to having conflict over tangible benefits like a lucrative real estate for shops in the market place.

This gave rise to the culture of many nobles having their own small city gang as hired muscle to protect their property and investments and as a way to attack others, thus resulting in regular clashes between various groups becoming a commonality.

Hence it could be seen that these people that dwelled in the eastern part of the district were armed and dangerous, and though they might appear weak right now due to having their strength eroded and eaten by the drought and war over the last three years, one would be very foolish to underestimate their power, for once given the breathing room they needed, their recovery would be rapid and violent.

But of course, it was also important not to overstate their danger.

Alexander was not afraid that these human-shaped rats and snakes would be able to harm him directly in his own city.

He had eight thousand (8,000) trained men at his beck and call after all.

But what he was afraid of was that these men, spurred on by the nobles from the outside and the temple from the inside, both of whom they had served for generations, and motivated by the fact the new owner of the city had no intention in employing their services and was even actively trying to cut their business of gambling, extortion, and prostitution, would be able to pose as a significant thorn in Alexander’s eyes, like a fishbone that’s stuck inside oneself, not fatal, but hard to dislodge and extremely uncomfortable to live with.

And their area of expertise certainly allowed them to possess that capability, acting as partisans and saboteurs to undermine Alexander’s authority by protesting and rioting, providing refuge to criminals, obstructing people’s work, strong-arming businesses into bankruptcy or preventing their set-up, spreading lies and rumors or even just relaying intel to hostile forces.

All such acts would weaken Alexander’s hold over the city and hamper the peace and order of the state.

Alexander could never let that stand and gasping the prime opportunity the current times presented, with almost all the actors absent- being either dead, missing, or running from the plague, Alexander, in the name of renovation, decided to take over that part of the city.

But what did Alexander mean by ‘take over’?

Didn’t he already control the city?

It meant that he would take these private properties and the land they were on and remodel them to his own wish.

And he intended to do this remodeling by knocking down most of the buildings here.

Thus the more appropriate word would have been demolition.

This was a drastic measure and had expectedly generated some flack from his council members who were understandably reluctant to see such high-value pieces of property be destroyed and reduced to dust.

But Alexander was adamant, citing, of all things, the issue of safety, saying that if a fire were to ever catch in just one of the buildings, due to the close proximity of all the buildings and many of them being made partially or entirely of wood, it could rapidly fan out in all directions, endangering thousands or tens of thousands and even causing a city-wide disaster in the worst case scenarios.

He further reasoned that due to the congested nature of the streets, firefighters would not be able to come to the rescue in time, and so, by saying, quote, ‘Thus considering the safety of the city and its residence, I have decided to demolish the eastern district’, he overruled his advisors and went ahead with his plan.

And seeing Alexander be so adamant about this, the other council members could only hide their exasperation and accept, powerless to stop their boss in this endeavor.

Alexander did later tell them what he intended to build in place of the destroyed structures, which made many of them pleased, but still, this example went on to heavily illustrate the distribution of the power dynamic between Alexander and his retinue.

For though Alexander on the surface appeared very diplomatic, and would usually heed his advisors’ suggestions and advice, and change strategies accordingly, the reality was that he did not really need to listen to anyone.

He had the right and power to unilaterally run the city and there was really no one to challenge him of he did choose to do so.

This was because, firstly, having been granted the title by the king himself, he was basically untouchable, at least by his advisors, who did not have even a morsel of legitimacy to Alexander’s seat.

Secondly, because he enjoyed widespread support among the general populace.

Alexander’s policies and generosity and even his supposed ability to catch criminals had won the hearts of many, thus making a popular uprising not possible.

These people might not jump up to defend Alexander, but making them turn their torches and pitchforks against him was also unlikely. ｂ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟ｌ.

And the third reason was that Alexander had the support of the army.

Although a significant bulk of the army was made up of former Menicus and Melodias’s loyalists, but Alexander too had his personal forces from his mercenary group and the Cantagenans, led by Grahtos were squarely on his side, thus balancing out the equation, and making any armed take over not possible.

Thus Alexander could have ruled the city as a tyrant if he wanted to.