HERALD OF STEEL

The relationship between the nobles and clergy in Adhania was a complicated one, with both sides vying for ever greater power, land and influence.

But if taken in a much simpler form, it was a transactional relationship where nobles protected them and paid them ‘taxes’ in the form of tithes, while the priests made sure not to curse them, thus guaranteeing the gods were on their side through prayers and rituals.

And among one of the many rituals involved was the priests conducting a noble’s marriage, hence ensuring the best chance of the Father responding to their wishes.

Because naturally, not every small, tidbit noble got to meet the king and receive his blessings. But they did have the right to demand a priest from the Grand Temple serve as a witness, that too free of charge.

Because they were already paying the tithes.

And sometimes, a particularly powerful noble might even have a clergyman be escorted to his fief all the way from Adhan just to administer his wedding.

If such a call came, that priest would have no other choice but to cancel all his other appointments, pack up his bag, and head off. The laws of the land made it such that his obligations to the nobility always trumped any commitment to the commoners.

Due to all this, it made it difficult for priests to earn money from the commoners.

As for the other part of the marriage expense- selling quota to enter and bathe in the Life Sea, well, given the place was the spiritual ‘black stone’ for the Adhanian, entry naturally around it was restricted.

The entire ‘sea’ was the personal property of the king by law and given it was where the precious legummum was cultivated, which was a major source of revenue for the palace, for a time, the place was absolutely forbidden for the general public.

Only the nobles were allowed access, and even most of them faced several restrictions.

But thankfully, some clever merchants and commoners through various lobbying had managed to get the king to issue a limited number of special passes every day, in order to let his ‘less advantaged subjects’ also gain the favor of The Father.

However predictably, many of the coveted seats were by now monopolized by powerful syndicate rings, who sold them on the black market for astronomical prices, going anywhere from thousands of ropals during normal times to even tens of thousands of ropals during peak season- such as during the annual Jtaama.

….

“By the way have you heard anything about when the Seelima or Hellma are getting married?” As the topic of Azira and Azura came to a close, Lady Nanazin suddenly brought this subject next, curiously raising her brows.

“???” And Alexander instinctively turned his eyes bigger, “No, that completely slipped my mind. Are they supposed to get married?” He asked uncertainly, although deep down he already knew the answer.

Something that Lady Nanazin sought to quickly verify,

“Hmmm… It is certainly very suspicious that both of them are pregnant and there is no talk of holding the wedding. If the children are born out of wedlock… they will certainly be of lower status in the eyes of the court… regardless of how that bastard treats them. I cannot imagine Seelima ever agreeing to this!”

Indeed, in Adhania, bastards were seen as almost half cursed existences. Very few were treated well by their birth parents.

Now, it was a different thing if that woman was a mistress or concubine. Their children were still considered legitimate.

But if a woman gave birth out of marriage and then became a wife, that elder child was deemed to have a lower position than even the progeny of the other mistresses, not to mention any younger siblings he/she might have after the ceremony.

There was such prejudice that some noble families even made the younger legitimate sibling call his elder sibling ‘step brother/sister’ even though they shared the same mother.

Because in their eyes, the younger of the pair was the true heir.

This set of circumstances was clearly something not even a regular woman accept, forget someone as ambitious as the Queen Mother. Never mind when even her daughter was involved.

Alexander imagined she would take Ptolomy to the altar even if she had to drag him by the throat before that happened.

“Are you sure you did not miss it?” This was also what Lady Nanazin thought, hence she made the repeated ask, said with a clear tone of suspicion.

The gaze that met Alexander’s showed very visibly that she was questioning his commitment to the information inside his head. Given he did not even remember Mikaya’s arrangement with another Pasha, Lady Nanazin reasoned she could not rule this out too.

While sensing her internal thoughts, Alexander for a moment felt slightly embarrassed.

The two things were very different. How could he miss such a huge event? And even if he missed it, how could the rest of the country miss it too? The wedding of a king was no small thing.

However he did not argue knowing Lady Nanazin was simply chiding him for his previous misses.

Instead quickly turning defensive, he firmed up his voice to insist,

“…No, I did not hear anything. Are you saying Ptolomy is so angry that he did not even invite me to his wedding? No, that is not possible! No matter how well concealed this would be, the other nobles would no doubt know. I would have surely heard it!” Alexander very decisively shook his head, convinced of his logic.

The plot was too big to carry out with any sort of secrecy.

“No, you are mistaken!” However, Lady Nanazin seemed to vehemently disagree with her man, clenching her teeth, “I know that bastard! I know him better than anyone. And I can feel he might really do this. I just can!”

This was a woman’s institution at work and as the lady in question insisted, her thoughts soon got to work trying to figure out what she was missing.

And luckily she soon found it, as narrowing her eyes in anger, she turned to pose,

“You say the wedding preparations would be too large to hide…. but what if he arranges the wedding in the Jtaama? That would be the perfect cover. The entire capital is festooned from top to bottom during this time of the year as nobles from all over the country gather.”

“Also, do not forget Mikaya is also getting married. So even those nobles would not normally attend but send a substitute would come personally this time”

“That is the perfect cover! How easy would it be to hide his own wedding preparations among all this? Easy! Too easy!”

“…” Alexander felt his heart being rocked hearing this. Especially as he really could not counter any of that. Theoretically, all this was extremely possible. Continue your saga on My Virtual Library Empire

So glancing up at the excited pair of smokey eyes, he suddenly frowned and turned sullen, “But then what is the point? What does Ptolomy wish to get by doing this!”

“… I don’t know! I am not a mind reader!” Contrary to the expectations, Lady Nanazin only shrugged her shoulders in a very anticlimactic way, frankly admitting her limitations.

“…..” And then turning to give the dumbfounded man beneath her a playful smirk, helpfully added,

“However given that neither Mikaya nor Seelima has written to me about this… does seem to indicate there might be some sort of trouble.”

“I cannot guess the exact reason but the best I can think is that perhaps that basta…. that Ptolomy wishes to use your failure to adequately honor him as a way to discipline you. Maybe demand some land. So he has forbidden them from telling you anything.”

“…” While hearing this hypothesis, Alexander did not jump to explicitly reveal his thoughts on the matter.

Rather he put his thinking cap on and got the gears in his head grinding.

Indeed this was a very plausible scenario and maybe even the most likely. But it could be also that he was simply overthinking it.

There might be some other unknown political reasons which had risen unbeknownst to him causing the king to delay his union. Maybe people in the court objected to the son marrying his father’s concubine and his step sister.

Or it may even be that the man had already taken the two as wives but had not declared to the world. After all, in Adhania, you could get married just by having a priest and the girl’s guardian as two witnesses.

All these and many more were not yet considered possibilities were possible, although they were also much more unlikely.

Hence after a bit of thinking, Alexander opened his mouth to ruminatingly chime,

“Hmmm… so you are saying that Ptolomy might be laying a kind of trap for me Nanazin. Indeed, my taking of the whole of Tibias as well as parts of Galiosos has drawn many covetous eyes. Those snakes and rats must be drooling to take a bite. I can imagine him wanting to make me share some of my spoils.”

“Okay, thank you for your advice Nanazin. I will be sure to be careful. I will take a lot more soldiers as well as some more expensive gifts. Hopefully, Ptolomy will not cause much trouble.”

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