Herald of Steel

Regarding Lady Parthia’s counterarguments about the merchants, Alexander thought he could not really blame her for it.

Yes, she was a bit prejudiced, but the merchants were hardly the innocent opposed party here.

It was also a fact that they had a lot of blood on their hands, using very dirty tricks in the book in the pursuit of profit.

Taking advantage of people in their most vulnerable moment, selfishly profiting during natural disasters, causing trouble during wars, theft, murder, kidnapping, arson, cheating…. if there was a crime on earth that could be committed, it was fair to say the ’merchant’ class a whole was guilty.

However even then… Alexander tried to be diplomatic, calmly explaining in a soothing voice,

"My lady you should know that every group has its black sheep. Take even the nobles for example- the class you are a part of. I believe I do not need to tell some of the shameful things a handful of them get up to. But should we paint all with the same color just because of that? Of course not!"

As Alexander said this, his tone turned more reassuring,

"Do not worry, I will have various laws passed to stop their foul plays. They will not be allowed to roam as freely as before. In exchange, I hope that you will defend my money lending with the Tibian nobles and also urge Philips to do the same." Explore more at NovelBin.Côm

"..." Lady Parthia’s lips visibly curled up in a very, unlady like fashion at the request, still finding the idea unappealing.

However by this point, she had softened up a lot more, and thus she did not outright reject Alexander.

She also began to understand that the man had mostly made up his mind on the matter and it would not be really possible to make him abandon the topic.

"Hmmm!" Thus the regal queen only snorted in a sort of apparent disgust before suddenly it melted away into a sort of helpless smirk

"Hmph, I said it before, and I will say it again brat… you have the smoothest tongue I have ever seen. So glib!"

Alexander could not help but break into a thin smile at this teasing compliment, understanding he finally cracked her!

"Hahaha, thank you, thank you, Your Highness.’ He half bowed with fake modesty, slightly amusing the queen.

In her lifetime, she had seen a great many eloquent speakers, but none like Alexander- so smooth yet so deep.

Everyone was either one or the other.

"Well then if you claim to understand money so well brat, then tell me How much money do you have?" Lady Parthia hence decided to test Alexander a bit more, crossing her dainty arms under her abundant chest to enhance her posture, "I heard you talk a lot and I liked some of it… but I hope you have some actual proof to back up your claim."

"...." Alexander instinctively produced a slight smile at this sensitive question.

Clearly, Lady Parthia was using this as an excuse to fish for his ’bank balance’.

And Alexander was naturally secretive about the exact size of his treasury as a whole lot of things could be gleaned from it.

"Adequate my lady." He thus decided to reply in a vague tone, reassuring the queen with a mysterious, confident smile, "We have enough funds to give out quite a few loans to the various merchants and still guarantee Zanzan’s operations for some time." ꞦᴀΝo͍฿ƐＳ

However this diplomatic answer did not seem to strike very well with the inquiring queen, who scowling her forehead into a great frown, snarled,

"Stinky brat, what are you being so coy about? I suck your smelly cock every month. If you want me to support your business, the least you can do is tell me how much money you have!"

"Pfff!" This out of nowhere vulgar outburst made Lady Nanazin spit her drink from the side.

"*Cough*, *Cough*," And Alexander with bulging eyes almost choked on his own tongue in surprise and had to quickly stand up to readjust himself.

Needless to say, Lady Parthia was usually very refined and sophisticated in her everyday life, being extremely regal in her royal demeanor.

Thus for someone who never uttered a crass word in public to say something like this… the gap was too big.

"Hahaha… hahaha…" Thus realizing what he had heard, Alexander could not help but crack up in boisterous laughter, small beads of tears forming around the corner of his eyes. "That… hahaha, I did not expect that, hahaha."

"Hahaha!" Even Lady Nanazin from the back joined the fray, unable to fight the infection.

The best she could do was to try to purse her lips as much as she could to appear a bit more elegant.

Alexander finally got himself under control a while later and shaking off the last chuckle, gave Lady Parthia the info she wanted,

"We have close to a billion ropals in the treasury. We have another near billion waiting in outstanding credit from our various suppliers- so Pasha Farzah, Lady Inayah, His Majesty, the Margraves, other small foreign buyers, etc. They have yet to finish their payments for last year."

Now what Alexander meant by this was that naturally when dealing in the kind of bulk quantities he traded, most buyers did not pay the full price outright. They would just not have the cash on hand to buy everything at once, not even filthy rich men like Pasha Farzah.

So as in modern times, the standard rate was 30%, i.e.- the bulk from the supplier would be brought at a third of the price and then the rest would be slowly paid as profits from these bought goods started to come in.

This helped smooth many business instances and helped produce very large volumes of trade among the two, although naturally such favorable conditions only existed for close friends and allies.

"....."

The two queens however were in no mood to hear of Alexander’s business practices.

Because although Alexander had made the revelation about the size of his treasury in quite a nonchalant voice, to their ears, it was like a stun grenade had just gone off.

This was an impossibly large amount to them.

Thus eyes widened to nearly impossible proportions, the two regal barely stopped themselves from gaping out wide, barely maintaining some semblance of sophistication.

"Hahaha, well at least sucking all that cock was worth it!" Until that was very comprehensively shattered by Lady Nanazin’s vulgar curse. After all, if Lady Parthia would make the joke, why couldn’t she?

"That much? How is it possible? Is sugar that profitable?" While the latter was far too stunned to care for Lady Nanazin’s base talks, and only sought to confirm the veracity of Alexander’s claim.

The man felt a surge of pride seeing this reaction- at being able to genuinely shock two such women who had enjoyed the highest lap of luxury since almost their birth.

So in a tone that was very much showing off he broke down his earnings,

"Sugar is one of your most profitable exports indeed but the biggest one is actually steel. We make about 30 tons of iron a day. At 50,000 ropals a ton, that is about half a billion in ropals. The other half billion comes from glass, soap, paper, and as already said sugar."

This was of course a very simplistic count because remember Alexander also sold a lot of his goods to other nobles at discounted prices.

But at the same time, he also made various refined metal products like knives, pots and pans, plows, hoes, etc. which cost a lot more than their raw metal components.

So overall it was a fairly accurate number.

"Did you say 30 tons of metal a day! Not a month?" While the announced number was yet again enough to stun Lady Nanazin, her lips a bit quivering.

Lady Nanazin, as a Royal queen, she well acquainted with some of the local ladies.

So although she did not go out much, she still knew of Alexander’s blast furnace due to the stories the husbands of these ladies told them.

And apparently, the blast furnace was supposed to be this ’miracle tower ’ that somehow produced ’magical steel’.

At least that was the most popular version. There were also far more mundane as well as harrowing tales, such as it needing the skills of children to operate.

Of course, all of the stories were exaggerated and all the noble ladies sharing this knew this…

But still… it was a fun way to pass the time.

It was not also difficult for most Zanzanians to spot the huge plumbs of smoke coming out from atop the hill where the steel foundry was located and this unusual sight naturally gave rise to plenty of speculations about the place.

However, Lady Nanazin felt even the most absurd rumors would not have prepared her for such a claim. She even felt going a bit slack jawed.

"Yes! Many think sugar is our most profitable product. But no… it is actually steel. That place alone produces around ten percent of Adhania’s entire iron demands!" And seeing this, Alexander flaunted his industrial capacity, unable to conceal his dripping pride.

"Hahaha, now I see why you are so eager to lend money. You have too much just sitting there!" While Lady Parthia let out this frank chuckle.

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

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