Herald of Steel

Hearing the supposed condition behind the money lenders as well as other shady practices, Alexander deeply frowned,

"I did not think even the temples would get into the money lending business. Aren't people of the cloth supposed to be clean of such human desires?"

There was great anger vibrating in his voice as he felt disgusted at the revelation.

"Hmmmp! Where do you think those bastards get the money for all those extravagant things? Meat, wine, and whores every day…. that one tenth of a tithe would never be enough!"

Lady Nanazin however seemed to only snort at Alexander's naivety and seethed in even greater anger,

"Those bastards would offer money to the devil if they thought it could make them richer! The things they did to me….just because of money!" Lady Nanazin gritted her pearly whites until her smokey eyes seemed to be set ablaze with hatred.

While that first throwaway line also managed to answer Alexander's question about why the temple of all places would want to support Ptolomy.

The nobles sure had their reasons, but Amenheraft and his father actually treated the temples very well, giving them a lot of power.

Alexander now had his answer- pure and simple greed.

Then cleverly side stepping the mine that was Lady Nanazin's experience in the palace, Alexander simply noted to himself, "I see. It seems the temples and royal family has financial sources I had no idea about." before musing out aloud with some sarcasm, "And here His Majesty has been repeatedly asking me for loans. It should be me squeezing him!"

It was a very well known fact that the temples and the royal family shared the same pool of resources, as the king was also the head of the temples. So Alexander thought Ptolomy was quite laden from all the interest payments.

"No, his money problem is probably very real! Hahaha," However interjecting Alexander's thought with this flirting laughter, Lady Nanazin very pointedly disagreed with Alexander, a wild grin appearing upon hearing the 'good' news.

"Hahaha, so he is asking you for money? Hmmm… yes, with Amenheraft still alive, a large part of the tithes should be now going to him instead! Hahaha, great, great, he deserves it! I also remember you looted the Grand Temple Alexander. Hahaha, great job, great job, you will not believe how happy I was when I heard that! Hahaha!"

She had always suspected him to be tight on money after Alexander snatched the entire bird coop right from underneath him, but the Pasha's confirmation seemed to still elicit an uncontrollable amount of joy within her.

She could not stop laughing.

Thus Lady Nanazin let out increasingly loud, unrestrained chuckles, her eyes turning from just amused to nearly crazed.

And this reaction was so intense and sudden that it admittedly caught Alexander a bit off guard.

He did not think such an innocuous line of questioning would cause the regal, usually reserved queen to abruptly break down like that.

This caused him to suspect she had been holding back a lot of hidden trauma and this small, casual tap had expectedly led to this outburst.

….

"..."Alexander wisely decided to leave Lady Nanazin alone for now, letting her blow off some steam on her own.

While he turned his attention to Lady Parthia instead,

"My lady, I wonder how your country handled things like loans and stuff? If what Lady Nanazin said is true and Adhania is truly not suitable for this sort of business, I can still take my business to your people right?"

There was a heavy tinge of hope in his voice.

However, contrary to Alexander's expectation, Lady Parthia also deepened a bit of her frown, and advised in a slightly hesitant voice, "I would suggest you do not, my lord. Loan sharks are not looked at favorably by the common folk there. Interest is seen as a sin and more than that too many have been hurt by those greedy pigs."

"That is why we do not have strong nobles or priests engaged in this filthy act. Instead this… criminal act is monopolized by the strong trading guilds and unions. I imagine they do virtually the same things as the Adhanian priests and nobles, possibly with as much backstabbing and politics as them…. something I believe Lady Nanazin amidst her outburst forgot to mention."

The stunningly pretty, mature lady added the last phrase with an icy glance towards Lady Nanazin since the latter was still chortling away in the background, plastering her face with a large grin as she danced to Ptolomy's misfortunes,

Lady Parthia was usually very strict about proper manners and such, hence greatly disapproaved of such callous behavior. This was no proper way for a noble lady to be acting like this in public, especially not in front of another man.
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'You are a noble! Act like one!' Lady Parthia wanted to shout out, like chiding her 'rebellious daughter'.

However picking on suspicious phrases like 'burn marks' and 'payments', and in general how the curly haired lady described her husband, Lady Parthia felt there might be more to the story.

She was of course unaware of the feud between the husband and wife but Lady Parthia did know Lady Nanazin long enough to understand she was quite mature and usually very conscious of how she appeared.

Hence Lady Parthia decided to give the former the benefit of the doubt and controlled her tongue.

'Hmmm, I will try to ask Alexander what this was all about. It should not be too hard to get the stinky brat to open up!' Lady Parthia noted to herself, although instantly remembering the exact time when she planned to ask Alexander about this made her subconsciously blush a bit.

She could not believe she was looking forward to 'that'. She quickly tried to move her thoughts elsewhere.

However the problem was the human mind had a surprising tendency to think about things one did not want to think about.

So the more Lady Parthia tried to suppress it, the more those pink images began to flood her mind, making her remember how Alexander had bullied every part of her sensitive body and how she joyously cried while letting him do that.

The sights quickly made the regal queen become angry at herself in shame, and to distract herself, she decided to vent her anger at Alexander, the chief culprit of it all.

Turning her eyes sharp and questioning, she thus coldly chided,

"Why are you thinking about starting this business anyway? Are you short on money? Did the Margraves wars cost you that much? I told you not to loan so much money to them! Now look at what you did! Begging me to start something so shameful! This is not something any respectable noble… any respectable man does. Hmmp!"

Alexander listened to the harsh judgment from the other side with a slightly agape mouth, having no idea what he had done to anger this usually mild mannered queen.

Eyes widened, cheeks flushed and nostrils flared, the only times he saw the Tibian queen like this was when he pressed her for some adult time and she was playing hard to get.

"Is money lending considered that bad in Tibias? Then how does anyone borrow money? Everyone has some sort of emergency in their lives, right? Did the Royal family ever not need to borrow money?"

Unaware of Lady Parthia's real thoughts, Alexander thus assumed she was truly angry over his new business, finding it dirty and beneath him, kind of like how a mother might object to a son's chosen profession.

And certainly, this was another part of why Lady Parthia was angry, as being reminded of them seemed to incense her even more.

"Yes, we did. That is why we tolerated those guilds instead of outright hanging each and every one of those bastards! But we never condoned it. We always see them as the lowest rung of the society, preying on the desperate and vulnerable."

As Lady Parthia gritted this out, Alexander looked up to see her with flaring nostrils and clenched teeth, letting him understand the lady was indeed truly angry, not the playful kind like the other times, but genuinely so.

Thus regardless of whether he agreed, Alexander quickly quipped to back her up,

"Indeed, loan sharks do deserve their reputation. They offer rope to a drowning man only to bind him into a slave. They deserve to be condemned. It is not a respectable profession."

He seriously nodded his head as he said so, seeming to completely agree with the lady.

"Mmm, at least slavery is a decent profession... it's good that you know." And this support was finally enough to assuage the angry queen, her heavy heaving finally slowing down.

Alexander had to try very hard from his lips twitching at the ridiculous statement she just made.

However, Lady Parthia's words were indeed a product of her time. Slavery was seen as part and parcel of life here, even a natural phenomenon.

Hence unable to detect Alxx's reaction, the queen finished by sincerely advising,

"So given you know all this, I suggest you find some other way to raise money. Many of the Tibian nobles are still angry with you. They will not certainly look kindly if you get into this morbid business."

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