Herald of Steel

"My lady, please" Opening the door, a guardsman offered a small wooden portable step to help Mikaya get off, and in this way, once the carriage was vacated of all the ladies, Alexander himself exited the inconspicuous wooden traveling box and looked ahead to lay his eyes on the establishment in front of him.

He could not see all the details very well in the dark, but the size and architecture was…well,

unimpressive and ordinary.

Those were the two adjectives that came to Alexander's mind as he inspected the building in front of him, chosen by Ophenia to be his arguably most dangerous business.

Of course, it had to be pointed out that the building was not shabby or anything like rundown, in fact, it was a perfectly nice-looking large house that obviously belonged to a person of quite a status, but it was also not anything head-turning like Alexander's manor or some of the other structures in the city like the Temple of Ramuh.

It just looked like a generic, posh looking three storied building, the likes of which could be found in many parts of the city.

And this was what pleased Alexander about this external appearance.

For it was exactly what he had asked Ophenia to do, make it discreet among the many rich houses so that few would look twice at it in their day-to-day.

According to Alexander, this business of his would be kept mostly hush and hush, as it was mainly designed to help Mikaya meet her urges and get her to write nice letters to her father, all so that Alexander would have a reliable partner to trade with.

And thus Alexander's goal was not to earn money from this, nor did he intend to do such for fear of drawing rich clients like nobles.

And if they somehow recognized Mikaya,...Alexander did not dare think of the shit storm that would raise.

Hence the dull, inconspicuous exterior matched Alexander's needs just fine.

A sentiment that Ophenia wanted to confirm as she asked, "Is master satisfied this the building? It's not too gaudy is it?"

But before Alexander could express his approval, a sharp, curt voice retorted, "Looks like a dump! Will anyone want to come here?"

This all too familiar voice was of Mikaya's, who, having the preferences for not the finer, but the finest things in life, thought her work abode's appearance was too beneath her.

Seeing the haughty look from the spoilt princess, Alexander could barely stop himself from clenching his teeth as he cursed, 'This girl is such a pain in my ass. I can't dump her. I can't bear with her.'

Ophenia on the other hand handled this accusation much better, by politely smiling and softly soothing the disgruntled beauty, "Lady Mikaya, I'm sorry that we had not had the time to renovate the outer walls. But I promise you that the inside will live up to your refined taste. We spent a lot of effort on that."

This seemed to placate the girl, and seizing this moment of silence, Alexander quickly diverted the group's attention as he urged, "My ladies, it's too cold outside. Let us hurry inside."

And then turned to Hemicus and instructed, "Have the men stay outside and guard all the exits and entrances. I will be fine on my own."

This command produced a slightly conflicted look on Hemicus's face, as he attempted to persuade his lord, "But, my lord, going into an unknown building all alone, that's not safe….So please allow us to accompany you."

But Alexander did not want even Hemicus to know the true purpose of this building.

Sure being around Alexander, he might be able to guess what was happening.

But Alexander did not want the man to know everything explicitly.

And so insisted, reassuring the bodyguard, "Don't worry, it is a place Tayin knows very well. And besides, I'm armed, *slink*," Alexander then showed the sword hanging by the hips by unsheathing a bit of it.

Seeing Alexadner's forceful resistance, Hemicus relented, saying, "Then please take care of yourself." but then added an addendum, "And I will check on you every hour."

Alexander did not think the whole visit would take that long, and so accepted with the single-worded reply, "Sure."

And so the group of five made their way to the front door, which was opened by the two guards standing in front of the large oak door, and was then immediately greeted by a deafening, enthusiastic chorus, "My lord, welcome."

It seemed all the residents of the building were waiting by the door to greet Alexander in two rows and they fully bowed at their master's arrival, with the leader being none other than Kalopi.

Alexander lightly smiled at this reception, as he then slowly raised his right hand and said, "Haha, I'm sorry to have troubled all of you so late. Please, please rise your heads, everybody."

"No, no, my lord, coming to visit us can never be troubling us. Honored! We can only be honored!" Kalopi humbly replied back, and after a few more niceties, escorted the group to a private saloon where they were served drinks by the woman appointed in charge of the building herself.

Alexander took the served cold wine as he took the time to finally notice the changes that had occurred to the former subordinate of Cambyses.

| сom Whereas previously Kalopi was unremarkable with gaunt cheeks, loose skin, bad teeth, and various spots on her skin, currently she appeared to have rosy cheeks, fair skin, and a heavily powdered face to hide all the imperfections, letting Alexander marvel not at her beauty, but at the transformation.

'Hmm, never trust a girl with her makeup on,' Alexander drew this thought, as he opened the conversion, "Kalopi, it is nice to see you again. How are things going?"

"Great, master, thanks to mistress Cambyses great!" The older woman did not forget to praise her benefactor as she very animatedly answered Alexander.

"Mmmm," Alexander wordlessly only hummed and as it was already deep into the night, got to the meat of the business as he asked, "So I was thinking of meeting the girls. Will that be possible?"

The reason for this impatience was because Alexander was dead tired after touring all the workshops the whole day and wished to finish the tour as soon as possible and return to his warm comfy bed in his manor.

"Of course, my lord. At once my lord," Kalopi immediately bolted straight at the request as she then strode over to open the door, and then as if summoned by magic, a group of exactly seven girls walked inside the room in unison.

It seems they were just outside. waiting for Alexander's words.

The girls were scantily clad, with clothing that would at best be considered adequate as a negligee, with all their assets laid out in display for Alexander to inspect, standing shoulder to shoulder in attention with their heads held high and hands clasped to the back.

It was a beautiful sight to behold, but the first thing that Alexander noticed was some of the girl's skin being slightly blue, likely caused by standing in the cold, almost freezing hallways in such bare clothing.

'Well it's good the room at least has heating,' Alexander could only lament that such was the value of common folk.

If Kalopi wanted she could have asked the girls to undress once inside, but such was the general worldview of the time.

Alexander decided not to heckle Kalopi with this for the time being and instead turned his focus to the fleshly delights being shown off to him, as he took some time to scan the girls and their assets.

The girls finally having had some much-needed warmth quickly had their skin return to a healthy reddish glow, while Alexander inspected the large range of options he was being offered, ranging from one short petite girl to mostly medium-built gals to two a bit busty women.

'I can see why most dictators have so-called pleasure squads. The allure is almost irresistible,' Alexander could not help but comment as he scanned the faces of the girls which ranged from being alright, to cute to one heart sharped that Alexander found to be charming.

This procedure particularly reminded Alexander of how so many dictators even in his modern times would have scores and scores of women attending to him, ranging from the North Korean Kippumjo, or pleasure brigade, to Gaddafi's infamous Amazoness Brigade, to Fidel Castro reportedly having slept with 35,000 women.

And this was not even mentioning the exploits of ancient and medieval kings and warlords, with the most famous, or perhaps the infamous benign Gengis Khan, who violated so many women that 1 in 200 people could trace their origins back to him.

And while Alexander reviled such acts in his previous life, once presented it to him in actuality, he found the act to be very addictive.

As Alexander thought these obtuse thoughts, he noticed that all the girls were trying to flash the best smile of their life as they gazed at him, their lips curving upward almost unnaturally. Perhaps because they were trying too hard or maybe because they were afraid of offending the all-powerful person sipping wine in front of them, their smiles appeared cramped and forced, almost as if they were holding back their tears, causing Alexander to lampoon, 'If feels like I'm holding a gun to their head and forcing them to smile. I'm not that scary am I?'

But this display also made Alexander understand that with these novices, the opening might take a few more weeks. as he noted, 'Hmmm, they need more training.'

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