Herald of Steel

Alexander's seven day feast consisted of various activities, most scheduled to take place on that same ground.

Now, you ask what the nobles did to celebrate for seven days straight.

Well, the first day was the general pleasantries and celebrations, where the nobles once again toasted to Alexander's success.

This had seemed largely irrelevant to the man since they had done it literally not even two days ago.

But it was seemingly important for the nobles.

They wanted any and all opportunities to have a drink together.

It was a cultural thing in Adhania- to drink with everyone.

And thus Alexander obliged.

But this time, to save himself from the unpleasant pain of a bloated belly, he also made Cambyses sometimes drink in his stead, mostly when he was being toasted by lower ranked nobles like shordars (barons).

The tactic worked wonders in saving his body, although not so much his marriage, as he felt Cambyses occasionally send deathly glares towards him, clearly not a fan of being made to drink so much.

Because it caused her to regularly excuse herself to relieve herself, and doing and undoing all the complicated lacing so many times was very irritating

But she also could not deny Alexander's request in fear of being called an unvirtuous woman.

Thus she had to content herself with sending angry glares at each and every opportunity.

Ones that Alexander chose to ignore with a 'steely, determined but still thumping with fear' heart, and attempted to distract himself by focusing on the festive banners, and good food being served.

The festivities of the first day soon rolled over to the next day, and the second and third days were filled with various competitions and prizes.

There were quite a few duels among various nobles and those landed elites owning property, kind of like the Adhanian version of knights.

Much of these fights were equal parts exhibition and competition, with most of the participants fighting in grand, flashy ceremonial armors with dulled swords, making especially flashy and impractical moves to impress the loud cheering crowd of lords and ladies.

The audience sat on wooden raised platforms, made specifically for today, the elevated position giving them a prime view of the makeshift circular arena as expert warriors tested their mettle.

Duels were not also only the things that happened in the following two days.

There were many other contests too.

For example, there were several archery contests, each showing off a different trick.

There was the most common one of shooting a bullseye from a certain distance.

Then there came the challenge of shooting pottery like small vases.

And then simply how far someone could make the darn thing travel.

Following that came the equestrian contests, designed to show one's prowess at handling a horse.

Here too were many different types of competitions.

The most common was a simple race, with participants going around the grounds for several laps on their horses.

There were also chariot races on the same tracks, the wooden vehicle drawn by a single horse.

Then there were spear and javelin throwing contests where contestants tried to hit wooden dummies arranged in rows while traveling at a gallop.

That particular contest was quite difficult given the skill required.

It was also one of the most popular contests as Zanzan nobles and even the entire Adhania, in general, were very proud of their cavalry and loved to show their expertise in them.

And lastly, introduced on the third day, was a special contest introduced by Alexander.

It was basically an obstacle course with elements of horse archery thrown in.

In there, challengers had to shoot a variety of targets using the 'Instant bow' while navigating an obstacle course designed by the man himself.

It consisted of various sharp turns and bends, rough ground like sand, deep mud, and even caltrops, and just to mess with them, also a few solid dead ends.

The nobles had to navigate this confusing layout in the fastest time possible while trying to accomplish certain objectives with the limited amount of arrows given to them or fail the challenge entirely.

These objectives included successfully hitting various dummies and other targets like hanging pottery dotted along the course while also avoiding shooting a few selected dummies, jumping over various barriers, making tight turns, and to finish it all off sprinting over a bed of smothering coal.

Upon finishing it, they would be timed, with a man keeping count by starting from number one and going on until the noble finished.

A simple solution to the problem of having no stopwatch.

The contest and the complicated race course were a big hit with the nobles, as evidenced by the electrified cheers that were emanated each time one of the contestants ran the course.

"Shoot! Shoot there!"

"No! Don't go in there. That's a dead end."

"Fucker! Why are you shooting that? It's clearly painted blue. Shoot the red!"

"Reload! Reload your bow quickly. You are almost there!"

Excited people from both sides, both men and women could be heard shouting these words, their ruddy faces clearly revealing their investment in this game.

And thus, as the evening came to an end, the nobles could not help but come to Alexander to sing his high praises.

"My lord, this was such a great idea! How did you come up with it?"

"Yes. it was so fun to watch. Adhania does not really use horse archery. So to see it in real life was a great eye opener for this old man. Praise Ramuh for that new bow you created."

"Hah hah. I can't remember the last time I had this fun riding with my horse. Twisting and turning and looking over my shoulder at each turn. It was exhilarating! Those simple races now feel dull."

"Heh heh, right, right! My lord, I hope you do mind me stealing it for my own party."

Alexander presented the victors of all these contests with various rich rewards, ranging from cash prizes, to medals made of solid gold or silver, expensive jewelry, beautiful horses, glass products and many other things.

He had at first thought of introducing the pratices of jousting, i.e. the medieval sport every knight played, where armored opponents charged each other with lances on decorated horses.

But then Alexander thought better of it.

opponents charged each other with lances on decorated horses.

Because for one, the armor of the time was still under development.

It was nothing like the solid, almost impenetrable plate armor of medieval Europe, and so if the men really charged at each other at those speeds, Alexander feared it would tear like scrap paper and transform the contest from just a mere competition to a killing field.

And two, even if Alexander did introduce plate armor, would not be like the dangers would not be the danger would be completry migtate.

Some inherent risks would always remain.

Risk like having broken wrist and ribs, which in this period could turn fatal.

It was even said that one of the reasons King Henry VIII went mad was that he fell of his horse and hit his head during a particularly nasty joust.

Due to all this, Alexander decided to keep this deadly sport to himself,

Instead, he focused on the events of the next day, the fourth day.

That was reserved for poetry and storytelling, where various nobles recited and some even acted parts from classic Adhanian literature, showing off their memorization skills- a skill highly prized in at the time.

The topic of the poetry usually was religious, all glorifying the God Ramuh, an admittedly dull topic that made Alexander's ears almost bleed.

But there was one particular piece that sounded quite pleasing to him, being recited by a portly noble with a very nice, deep voice.

The poem went something like:

'God Ramuh, you are always beside mine;

God Ramuh, you are my gold mine;

God Ramuh, it is you who mark us with wealth;

God Ramuh, mark us with honey and gold;

Taking your name, birds sing songs;

Taking your name, roses blossoms;

Oh great Ramuh, he blesses us all.'

The poem was not only rhymed but also incorporated one of Adhania's specialities into it- 'rose', which was the country's national flower.

The second most popular topic after god was warfare, where tales were sung of various famous battles and the deeds of victorious kings and commanders.

It sang of foes vaniqushed, how the victorious king returned home with his men, and how they brought with him women and gold.

And lastly, with only a few entries, was the topic of love.

Which might come off as being a bit surprising given how much the Adhanian nobles 'loved' each other, especially at night.

But it seemed such base deeds were not seen as worthy of serious literature.

Thus most of the poetry being recited were from small nobles 'self publicing' their works.

And most of them were not good by Alexander's standard, as the topics mainly revolved around describing how handsome a man was and how a woman became smitten by him at first sight.

Although his wife, Cambyses seemed to greatly enjoy herself, finding the romantic topic very tantalizing.

That was the daylight portion of the day, while at night, a few of the more enthusiastic nobles put on a play for everyone, donning the appropriate customs under bright torches and braiser, and reproducing a famous play from the capital- the founding of Adhania.

According to the play, it happened when a small tibal chief, driven out of his land took refuge near the Life Sea and was then blessed by Ramuh, thus enabling him to unite all the lands.

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