Herald of Steel

860 Rewarding Lord Theony

The threat of being audited by Alexander was enough for most nobles to give the correct amount of tithe to him.

Too many nobles had too many skeletons in their closets that they preferred to keep hidden and did not want Alexander to go rummaging through them.

And besides, who knew if Alexander would swindle them of much more than half by underreporting the value of some product?

As for hiding the contents of the treasury somewhere else, well a big pile of gold and other precious metals and stones was surprisingly hard to hide.

And more than that, the ire they would have to face if they were found out made it not worth the trouble.

So the nobles bit the bullet and paid up, believing what Alexander promised would indeed come true.

Thus in total, by combining the contribution from the nobles with the royal treasury that Alexander took, which admittedly was quite minuscule, Alexander earned about 50 million ropals in total, combining the gold and all other goods together.

This was roughly 1 ton of gold, which was of course decent, though frankly, Alexander had expected at least 100 million given the wealth he had seen,

But it seemed Tibias's hard times had even affected those at the very top, and many had very dry cash reserves.

However, Alexander was at least happy that this was enough to recoup the cost of raising his army.

And to thank the main person who helped make this happen- Lord Theony, he asked the man to meet him in his study, whereupon he addressed,

"Lord Theony, your contribution to our cause has been nothing short of short. How would you like to be remunerated?"

At the straightforwardness, Lord Theony was both a bit surprised but also elated in his heart as he was glad to see Alexander not winding his words and looking for excuses.

'So it has come!' Lord Theony cheered at the chance at last, and then he did stand on ceremony.

He quickly recited the speech he had prepared and refined many times in his heart, speaking eloquently,

"My lord, I believe the matter of steward of Tibias is one of the most important moments of our lives."

"The decision of who is put in charge to oversee these lands on your behalf will surely have consequences that will reverberate through the annals of history for countless generations."

"I stand before you as one of the great lords in the country- a veteran of many wars."

"I'd like to think my experience has led to some small skill in statecraft and I apprehend that I am able to to command the loyalty and service many houses in Tibias."

"My loyalty to you has been tested and demonstrated many times and I swear if I were to be given the chance to demonstrate my devotion to you, Tibias will remain an ever peaceful and prosperous place."

Lord Theony was both humble and ambitious in his words, as evidenced by how he said 'Tibias would remain peaceful if he was made the steward', which also implicitly meant that if that did not happen, it would be vice versa.

"Okay. I will make you the steward of these lands!" Alexander's answer to this was almost instant, his tone flat and light.

He knew this was what the man always wanted, and frankly, there was no other candidate other than Lord Theony for this post.

The only two others who could have competed with him were Mithriditus and Perseus himself.

Towards such a quick answer, Lord Theony was at first a bit taken back, as he thought the other side would surely haggle a bit.

'Hahaha, thank you, thank you, my lord." But having gotten the answer so easily, Lord Theony let out a great, cheerful laugh, as he quickly got on his knees to swear the oath then and there.

Following that, Lord Theony would then make another request of Alexander.

"My lord, I have a son- Gnaeus. He is the current steward of my house but due to his illegitimate birth, he is unable to inherit my estate."

"I would like you to name him my successor. I would be ever grateful."

Given that there was a new sheriff in town, instead of forcefully making Theony abdicate which would no doubt cause some of his retainers to protest, Lord Theony wanted to use Alexander's influence to do it.

That way he could simply say it was Alexander's wish.

"Oh? Isn't Theony your successor? What's wrong with him?" At this uncommon request, Alexander naturally was surprised.

He still remembered Theony, the man who was exchanged in exchange for Laykash.

To his inquiry, Lord Theony then revealed what Theony had done and how he had let Philips escape, at last reasoning, "Thus I have trouble believing that he will be loyal to you my lord."

"Okay. A few days later I will decree that Theony has abdicated his position due to shame and name our other son as the successor."

And learning of the reason, Alexander felt convinced.

The fact that Theony had been impersonating the Crown Prince had gotten out once Alexander entered the city, and upon learning the full story behind how that had happened, and since the father was not simply depriving his child out of spite but had a true reason, he consented

Besides, to him it really did not matter who came after Lord Theony, as given any unforeseen circumstances, the man was likely to be at Tibias's helm for quite some time.

Anything later, he could deal with then.

"Thank you. Thank you." Alexander's quick reply naturally got him a profuse torrent of thanks from the man as Lord Theony felt glad that Alexander did not ask too many questions and thus even retook his oath, The following week Alexander would hold a feast to celebrate this announcement and in that party, he would even be introduced by Lord Theony to his three daughters, where the man made it clear he was in clear favor of Alexander choosing any of them as his mistress.

This in itself of course would not have been a problem, as this type of this was par for the course.

But the problem was the fact that all three of them were actually married!

However that did not stop the ambitious lord from trying to form a familiar bond with Alexander, as he figured given Alexander's young age, his future would be limitless.

So although he had no unmarried daughter, he proposed,

"My lord, you can choose whoever you like. Even all three of them are okay if they catch your fancy! I will ask their husbands to divorce them!"

To this Alexander was of course shocked but Lord Theony did not seem to see any problem with that plan.

And then for the briefest of seconds, Alexander did consider it.

A small reason was because looking at the three- one particular woman did strike a bit of his fancy.

She was the eldest of the three.

Mature, around her mid thirties- she did not have too beautiful a face, but instead gave a very motherly aura.

And in much contrast to Alexander's usual preference of slim and curvaceous, she was a bit plump with wide hips, heavy breasts that were apparent even through her heavy gown, and her most striking feature of all- rosy, fluffy cheeks.

Alexander thought she would be very soft to squeeze in all the right places and dreamed how she would sing in bed and what twisted face she would make while swinging her heavy hips as Alexander destroyed her from below.

He really wanted to know.

Surely the canal having that had given birth four times would be a bit loose- perfect for Alexander's girthy meat.

Even the evil thought of asking Lord Theony to let him first taste the three in bed and then choose invaded Alexander's mind, as like that he would be able to get the best of both worlds.

His lower half even felt hot at that thought.

But such lustful intentions only lasted an ephemeral second.

He would never take a mistress just based on his personal whims.

There would be no end of the line if he did that, and his harem number would probably swell to hundreds like that.

And if he truly found them physically attractive, at best, they would be like Lady Felicia, someone who he would occasionally hook up with behind her husband's back just to fill those physical attractions.

So the bigger reason why Alexander thought about accepting the offer was because of the reason Lord Theony wanted to.

He felt that marrying one of his daughters would strengthen Lord Theony's loyalty to him.

But ultimately he refrained, feeling bad about breaking up a happy marriage just for him.

'Dammit. I should have brought it up when I first went to meet him!' And hearing it, Lord Theony had felt he had missed his chance back them.

However, in truth, he knew that if he were to bring up such a large ask back then, Alexander would have most likely rejected him as the value of the information he had provided did not match the request.

And thus could only console himself that he had achieved two of his biggest goals.

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