Herald of Steel

Alexander's new invention drew the amazed stares of his bodyguards, their eyes sparkling, except for Hemicus who kept a flat, poker face.

Seeing the apprehensive man, Alexander passed the paper on to this trusted man, and asked, "Hemicus, what do you think? Give me your honest opinion."

"Hmmm," The guard captain took some time feeling the product, bending and folding it, and then said, "Forgive my ignorance pasha, but this looks like a lot of work to make a more expensive papyrus or parchment."

Hemicus's frank and honest reply made Takfiz jump in fright, as he would never even dream of talking to Alexander like that.

And so looked at Alexander with an apprehensive face, fearing even the always gentle lord might not like his inventions being discredited.

"Hahaha," But it only drew a burst of boisterous laughter from Alexander who could understand where the muscular, chisel-faced, bearded man was coming from.

So he decided to show his point of view, "You are right that papyrus is much cheaper and more available. But it is also hard to write on using some ink and ruins too easily when exposed to water and even air. The reason for the latter is because the wood fibers in papyrus are kept intact, unlike in our paper,"

Alexander then moved on to show the problems with parchment.

"And as for parchment, to get that you need to slaughter an animal like sheep, deer, or cow, and then process its hide. And if killing a few thousand ropals worth animal just to get something to write on is not the epitome of waste, then I don't know what is. And this is not to even mention that leather has a million other uses.

"That's right, that's right. As expected of the all-knowing, all-erudite, sagacious lord master," Takfiz's eyes shone like the sparkling sun at Alexander's victory over Hemicus, praising him to high heaven using lavish words.

'Heliptos can learn from this guy,' Alexander was lightly amused by the old man's depth of vocabulary used in flattering him

Alexander then said, "I want to try making a sheet of paper, can I?"

Of course, Alexander was not asking for permission as there was no one who could deny him such, and so Takfiz hastily replied, "Yes, yes, please, please," he endeavored to arrange it as fast as was humanly possible.

"You! Move, lord master is coming. Get out," The old man immediately turned from a meek little kitten to a ferocious tiger as he addressed the slaves working the molds, spitting and waving his wizened arms to emphasize his point.

But Alexander wanted this worker and so he softly said, "Let him stay. I want to listen to his advice."

"Ohh...yes, yes, of course, master," After a moment of shock, Takfiz quickly retracted his order and "You! Why have you not thanked master yet?"

And so after another round of bowing, during which Alexander found it hard to keep a straight face, Alexander was finally handed the mold.

"What's your name?" Alexander asked the worker.

"Azijak, my lord," The lean man quickly replied.

"And what did you do before being captured?" Alexander inquired.

"I was a papyrus maker, my lord. Before I sold myself during the drought," The worker answered, his story nothing special.

His employment here was certainly no coincidence, as Alexander had specifically instructed Takfiz to place such types of people here.

Alexander afterward asked, "Hmm, can you tell me the technique you use to make the paper sheets?"

"That..it is hard for me to tell in words, " Azijak began and then said, "but there is a specific technique to taking the mold out of the water with the paper pulp on it so as not to form bumps on the surface, the depth the mold was to be placed in the water, the speed at which it was submerged and taken out and the amount of shaking done to spread the fine fibers all around." Azijak tried to give Alexander his answer.

And then summarized it, "Basically, the technique is moving the wrists quickly but not too much."

"Umm, then let me try," Alexander with a nod then tried it and found it not easy, with the end result being amateurish.

"Amazing! Amazing, lord master," As soon as Alexander dumped the paper on the dry cloth, Takfiz jumped up in empty praise, saying, "To produce such an excellent piece of paper on your first try, you truly are divine!"

And following his boss's example, Azijak, too joined in puffery, "Yes, yes. It is truly a great piece of paper."

Alexander of course did not buy this flattery but neither did he care to stop them.

Instead, he was busy thinking, 'Hmm, skilled workers.'

It seemed that he would not be able to just scale up production as he wished, for he would be constrained by the supply of skilled papermakers.

"Azijak, do you have any suggestions about ways to speed up production?" Alexander asked the expert.

And understanding this was his chance to shine, Azijak's floodgates for words came loose, "Yes, my lord, I have some," He replied with alacrity.

"First," He pointed to the dry cloth and said, "Master, using the cloth takes too much time. Sometimes we have to stop making paper, because of shortage of clothes."

"Instead we can just lay the sheets on top of one another and use a cheap tree sap coating to stop them from sticking together."

Azijak then pointed to the roller, "Also we can use mallets to beat the water out of a stack of sheets, instead of using the roller which is very slow."

"And lastly, I feel like the pulp-making can't keep up with my sheet-making. If I had enough pulp, I could make much more paper a day," He eagerly expressed.

Alexander was very impressed by this man's insights and since he was lacking a dedicated individual to oversee the paper production, he said, "Umm, okay, let's do it as you said. And I'm appointing you as head of this workshop!"

"Thank you, master." Immediately after Alexander said this, Azijak was kneeling in front of him as he answered, "I will produce all the paper you desire."

"Um, good," Alexander with a regal bearing lightly nodded, and then added, "You will be given a monthly quota and be expected to fulfill it or provide proper reasons why you could not."

"Rest assured, master. As long as my heart beats, you will get your papers on time," Azijak had a slight tone of martyrdom to his voice.

To keep his position, he was willing to die.

Alexander then turned to Takfiz and instructed, "Try to fulfill all reasonable demands of Azihak. Like if he wants additional men and materials, give it."

"Yes, master," Takfiz quickly nodded, though not before sending a cold glare at the mentioned man.

The slave that was invisible just minutes before that now won Alexander's favor and this naturally stung the old man who saw it as an encroachment on his territory

Of course, the old man did not have the guts to say it was Alexander's fault, and thus his anger could go only toward the man who was slightly in similar authority to him.

But the old man was also clever enough to know that if he tried to make difficulties for Azijak and cause him to miss his quotas, it could cause Azijak to tattle on him.

And so the old man begrudgingly decided to give Azijak everything he wanted.

Alexander was naturally unaware of this little rivalry and neither would he care if he knew.

Instead, he gave Azihak his last instruction, "Azihak, look here," He called out.

And then under the lean man's careful gaze, on a piece of paper, he drew what was the picture of a modern scissor.

"This is a new kind of scissor," ALexnaer said and briefly described the drawing, " The two bronze blades are like swords, with the inner edges being thinner and sharper. The two pieces are crossed like this," Alexander formed a cross with his fingers to show the alignment, "and then a small hole is drilled through and a metal peg is driven through them.

"And then using the finger inside these handle holes, one can easily move these small blades like shears and cut stuff, like plant fibers," Alexander gave the basic gist of the tool and then at last added, "Ohh, and make sure the handles are covered with leather, or it will be very uncomfortable."

"Does master want me to order them?" Azijak cleverly could deduce why Alexander was showing and telling him this.

"Yes, you will be in charge of explaining this to the blacksmiths, ordering the required numbers, and then disturbing them to the workers." Alexander gave him his first task.

"Yes master, I will show it to you as soon as possible," The workshop head promised,

And with all these done, Alexander then said a few more words and decided to move on to the next shop.

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