Herald of Steel

Despite their closeness, Lady Parthia was still the fallen queen of a nation he had just conquered.

So although Alexander trusted and respected her, he also held a certain amount of weariness. It was an almost instinctual feeling.

He did not fear an outright betrayal, that would be simply being paranoid.

But being taken small advantage of here and there… Alexander wanted to avoid that.

"Heh!" While, as if sensing Alexander's insecurities through his shaking lips, Lady Parthia for a second let out a small mocking smirk, before quickly restoring her facade.

Following this, Alexander spent a little more while discussing a few more tedious details, such as when Lady Nanazin was to start, the features of the renovated mansion Alexander had prepared to be the main headquarter of the bank, as well as a few advertisement campaigns he had already arranged for her.

"I have asked the temples to spread news of the banks. Some businesses also have been told. I will give you 3 million ropals as your starting capital. Anything more and you will have to get by attracting new depositors."

Lady Nanazin's eyes firmly flickered with determination at Alexander's condition, giving him a promised nod.

….

By the time Alexander had finished discussing all his points, he found the sun had already turned orange, dying the sky in a dull, golden hue.

It was already getting close to dusk, and as he turned to gaze out of the window, he found that the light seemed to be fading much faster than anticipated.

Alexander only needed to look up at the rapidly encroaching ocean of dark and foreboding clouds to find the culprit, as the sun was soon entirely overcast and he even began to smell a slightly salty sea breeze drifting into the room from the oceans.

Zanzan was famous for its furious thunderstorms during this time of the year and from what Alexander could see, today was going to be a big one.

"Your Highness, the weather does not look too good outside now. Why don't you stay for dinner? I will escort you once the storm passes." He thus cordially proposed

And observing the rapidly deteriorating weather, with gusts of winds already strong enough to mess up their hair, the two ladies naturally took up Alexander on the offer.

"Then we will not be too polite. We accept." The elder of the two gracefully curtsied.

"Great, I will have the maids prepare the baths for you. I hope to join you for dinner."

Unfortunately for the ladies- the storm would prove to be an abnormal one, with no signs of it stopping or even slowing down even as Alexander finished his sumptuous dinner late at night.

*Rumble*, *Rumble*, *Rumble*...

In fact, the intensity of the rainfall seemed to be only increasing with each hour, causing Lady Parthia, who had finished her third serving of the boozy strawberry juice to worryingly comment,

"Hmmm, the storm is so strong… looks like this is not going to stop any soon. The last time I saw such heavy rainfall, half the capital got flooded."

Now, the Tibian queen had probably made this comment in a throwaway manner, not really meaning anything.

However unbeknownst to her, it immediately sent alarms ringing in Alexander, who now suddenly began to fear a typhoon or hurricane was hitting the city.

He had no way of truly telling if this was the case, but with Lady Parthia pointing in that direction, his mind could not help but instantly equate the strong winds and constant thunder and lightning to that one possibility.

Hence, putting down fresh the bowl of ice cream the kitchen had prepared just that evening, Alexander deftly made his way to a nearby window and looked out at the sprawling city with half a worried look.@@novelbin@@

He wanted to see if he could spot something wrong, but unfortunately, he saw nothing- just pitch black darkness.

Now, nights in this time period were usually very dark anyway.

However this time, the rain seemed to have consumed even the last ounce of light source out of the city- such as those from late night inns and drinking bars, truly showing how heavy the downpour was.

Thus, as befitting a slightly paranoid man, Alexander had Hemicus send out a few men into the city, to figure out the exact state of it.

And they quickly came to him with reports of some small scale flooding starting to appear around the city, mostly around the docks.

While seeing the frequency of these flooding reports, the captain of the bodyguards quickly met with Alexander and advised,

"Alexander, this seems to be only the start. The flooding does not look like it stop any time soon. In fact, it will likely only increase. We should move to the hills or some higher ground while we still can."

Hemicus's greatest fear was that all the rainwater might flow down from the nearby hills and crash into the city like a tidal wave, or even worse cause a landslide, sweeping away anything and everything with it.

And hearing the deteriorating situation, Alexander was half tempted to go with the man.

He also did not want to live in a house potentially to get waist deep in flooded water, or worse.

But as he thought about it a bit more-

"Go to the Cisran Hills… now? In this rain and absolute darkness? Where will we even stay even if we go?"

The simple logistics of just taking all his wives, mistresses, and children and taking shelter in some hill amidst this torrential downfall and freezing winds was already enough to completely put Alexander off.

He would have small kids and women with him. So where was he going to put them?

Did Hemicus know of a good house or manor there?

Or would he have to place them in a shed or barn there? Perhaps set up a tent? Your next read is at My Virtual Library Empire

And even if they found a good place, would it really be safer than here?

What happens if the winds pick up in the night? Would such an exposed place high above the hills really hold itself together?

And what if the water started to suddenly rise? Where would they go then?

Then there was the question of adequate food, water and warmth. He did not imagine lighting a fire there would be easy.

And worse of all, what if some sort of debris like a boulder or tree got uprooted by the ferocious winds and smashed while they were on the way or sleeping in their quarters?

At least here they were in the middle of the city, with few such 'projectiles' available. And even if something happened, help could arrive quickly.

But in the hills… they could just die without anyone even knowing.

In fact, just the simple act of reaching those hills would be dangerous given the absolute darkness, and the roads leading up to it mostly becoming waterlogged muddy swamps from the downpour.

Alexander was thus quickly able to relay these fears to the captain, and then made the firm decision,

"No, the situation has not reached that level of desperation. Going out in this weather is very dangerous… we won't be able to even see where we are going. It must be virtually impossible to even light a torch in these winds."

"Let us stay here for the night. The manor house is much bigger and stronger than anything we have in those hills. It is protected on all sides by many more buildings and worst comes to worst, they will take the full brunt of the flood."

"We can move in the morning if we have to. Hopefully, by then the storm will have passed away and this will be nothing more than us fear mongering."

Alexander's tone was however much more pessimistic than his hopeful rhetoric because he could feel the storm becoming stronger and stronger as time went on.

This told him it was no ordinary storm which lost their power the more they stayed inland.

Rather it was likely this torrential rainfall was being reinforced with low pressure from the sea.

And as if sensing this sinking feeling, Hemicus tried to convince Alexander to move despite his reluctance, promising his safety no matter what.

"I have 500 men with me. Nothing will happen." He promised.

But Alexander ultimately managed to bring the man down by claiming as a lord, it would look too bad politically if he was the first one to run from just a bit of rainfall.

"Like I said… let us wait till gets bright. We should not jump to conclusions just yet." He chimed, and then without giving Hemicus a chance to retort ordered in an imperious tone,

"You go mobilize half the garrisons. Have 4 battalions (600 men) each take a part of the city and let them move all the street beggars and vagabonds into the temples for the night. Also, tell them to keep an eye for people trapped in collapsed buildings or smoldering fires."

"Then send 4 battalions to guard the grannies and other warehouses. Since the docks are already flooding, I fear the granaries next to them might be next. If the water level starts to rise, have them quickly move as much of the grain to the barracks. Use all the horses and carts we have if you need to."

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