HERALD OF STEEL

A lot of the customs and beliefs of Adhania were indeed influenced by the preceding pagan ideas of the land, with perhaps the most famous one being the current practice among the nobles regarding their women folk.

That certainly did not come from the Ramuh faith, which emphasized chastity, but like was a watered down version of the original view that girls should lose their purity as soon as possible.

A view still held by those extremists.

But fortunately, by now these ‘heretical’ beliefs had been mostly pushed out of the common populace, with only a few, minor nobles indulging in them for their own hedonistic desires.

Thus in the majority of cases, these older, unmarried women were allowed to continue their lives.

It was just that given all the other rumors about them, they were generally treated quite poorly by society at large.

They were avoided and shunned, almost boycotted, and called various names behind their back- such as ‘tailless’- meaning they had no descendant and thus their line was cut off, and ‘scarred foreheads’, which meant unlucky in Adhania. It was believed luck and fortune was written on the forehead.

As a side note, women who were infertile and unable to give birth were also treated similarly – making their livelihood very difficult.

Thus lamenting the creeping age of her daughter, Lady Nanazin frankly added,

“That is why I asked Lady Cambyses to intercede on my behalf. I even offered my daughters as her personal maid for five years if she could convince you. Hehehe, did you think I kissed her ass for no reason, hmmm?” She added the last part jokingly with a smirk.

To which Alexander also gave a slight smile, but his eyes turned complicated.

This additional condition surprised him, he thought Lady Nanazin had only struck a one time deal, letting Cambyses enjoy having two queens under her foot for one night in exchange for saying some favorable words into his ears.

But to propose to even have the girl brought up as princesses to become maids…. and for so long! It really went to show the Adhanian queen’s desperation.

As for the matter of Lady Nanazin revealing all her tricks to Alexander before Cambyses would soften the ground, well- Lady Nanazin thought it would be better to not hide anything from her man.

Alexander would know it anyway if one day Cambyses was to suddenly bring up this topic out of nowhere.

So since he asked, Lady Nanazin decided to take the opportunity and appeal directly, guessing Alexander would have a lot harder time rejecting her face to face rather than using Cambyses as an intermediary.

And if she failed here, well the main wife could still try later.

While rapidly churning his head regarding how to respond to this, Alexander at last opened his mouth with a somber tone,

“Hmmm, Nanazin, it is not I am against taking your daughters in principal. They are your daughter… of course I would favor them. It is just that they are a touchy subject now. If it was just one, I still could somehow accommodate. But three… *sigh*!” Alexander very lightly shook his head resting on the lap, briefly closing his eyes to hide his ruefulness.

In Adhanian, identical twins and triplets held special religious significance, thought to share the same soul.

So they were always treated as a single being and never allowed to split up. They were thus given the exact same clothes, food, bedrooms, etc. They always traveled together and of course, they shared the same husband.

Splitting them up for any significant length of time was thought to bring very bad luck to all those involved.

While if they stayed together, it was thought to be sort of a blessing, as their soul was thought to be very powerful and special- that was why the heavens had split them in the first place, they reasoned.

Hence there were even a few special religious rituals that used twins and triplets to perform them- for greater efficacy.

The temples were even known to buy such children from peasants and slaves for exorbitant prices just to meet demand, making it also the only case where parents did not ever kill the child for being a girl no matter what.

Also, if you were interested, yes, the same thing happened with male twins too- meaning it was the only instance where a woman was allowed to have two husbands.

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Lady Nanazin stayed quiet hearing Alexander’s ‘complaint’, also knowing the number was a problem. She could of course see the number of his women in his haram already ballooning, turning officially to six and unofficially eight or more in just five years.

So to add three more at once…. Alexander, at the end of the day, was one man, and from what Lady Nanazin could see, he liked to spend some time with all his mistresses, not just throw them into his haram and forget about them.

So from his point of view, this made total sense.

However at the same time, how could Lady Nanazin as a mother just accept it? Even if it was very selfish and inconvenienced the man, she still wanted her daughters to get hitched with him. That would set them for life.

So turning pitiful, she gave Alexander a sort of wounded look, as if saying- ‘I raised my three daughters by myself. So why are you calling them a burden?’

And this gaze was indeed effective, as it hit Alexander hit in the middle of the heart.

For a second, he was even at risk of simply blurting out, ‘Okay, okay, don’t cry. They can start as maids.’

But thankfully, he held his tongue and like many times before, swiftly swerved the topic, “Tell me, is the secret of who is their real feather well known or hidden?”

“…..” Alexander keenly noticed Lady Nanazin’s face instantly turn from pitiable to gloomy and depressed as soon as he said this, as for a second, he suspected he might have carelessly stepped on a landmine.

He wanted to quickly explain himself but,

“It is irrelevant!” Lady Nanazin suddenly gritted out the answer with a dark glint in her eyes, coldly chiming, “No matter who knows or not, the only one that matters is Ptolomy… and he definitely is aware. I even mocked him about it.”

Lady Nanazin’s eyes slightly swam as she said, recalling the time when in one of those night parties she had taunted the man while being unnaturally taken.

Now, she half regretted that, thinking the brief satisfaction had not been worth it. It had not even achieved anything back then as it only caused her partners to increase her ‘enjoyment’ and make her sing the world’s most pleasant cries.

But what was done, was done, and quickly bringing herself back, Lady Nanazin added,

“Hmmmp, I am even a bit surprised he has not done it. No, I guess the bastard is probably waiting for the best opportunity… just so that he can shatter me at the best time. I guess the moment he hears of your intention to marry my daughters he will reveal it to the court. You will be humiliated and be forced to cancel it!”

Lady Nanazin’s face once again turned bitter as she revealed her thought, but surprisingly, it got restored at an unnatural pace.

This was because Lady Nanazin had by now figured there was no point in crying over split milk- if she was the type of lady that let herself wallow in regret, her entire life would have come to a halt a long time ago.

What was going to happen, happen.

While hearing the answer Alexander also gave a very concealed and spooky sigh, knowing this would indeed be a fatal blow for the triplets. The absolute scandal would basically ground these three innocent souls’ reputations and futures to dust.

As for the man who was revealing this….

‘Does Ptolomy not care about himself? What will the people say to him as the supposed father?’ Alexander wanted to ask, but quickly figured as king and a god like figure, this would hardly be a challenge for him to withstand.

Sure some of his detractors would snigger and laugh, but what of it?

They were already at war with most of the country and as opposed to the labels of an usurper and rebel, the title of a ‘green hat’ was frankly an insignificant and even humorous one.

“Does your daughters know about this?” So Alexander changed the subject of his scrutiny.

“I do not know.” And Lady Nanazin’s answer came as fast as a lighting, crisp and clear.

This Alexander could also guess… the mother did not even want to think of the aftermath of such a revelation.

How was she ever going to explain herself to them this?

But just because she did not like it, did not mean Alexander could just leave it and thus insisted, “Do you suspect they know?”

“I do not know.” Once again came the same, cold answer.

So with a small sigh, Alexander decided to tone down his edge, “Listen Nananzin, I will be going to Adhan for the Jtaama this year. There I will talk to His Majesty about your daughter. In the meantime, I ask that you reveal their true lineage.”

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