Herald of Steel

Chapter 1406 Meister Darrus

The slave owner was able to spot Alexander's high status from his relaxed demeanor instantly.

In the following days, he was peddling this remarkable slave, very few even dared to approach him after hearing that astronomical price.

Then there was of course the powerful entourage of fully armed guards around him.

So eschewing any beating around the bush, the slaver instantly got to the point, producing an iron badge from his pocket to introduce the enslaved meister, and handing it over to Alexander to verify its authenticity.

It was a solid silver circular disc coated in aqueous blue and engraved with beautiful carvings.

In the middle, a golden inscription read-

'By the power of the Eternal Father of Rain, Thunder and Storm Ramuh,

His Divine Son- His Majesty Ptolomy grants-

Darrus of Adhan, the title of Priest Meister, 001 AY.'

That last number was the man's graduating year, and it was such a convenient number because after Ptolomy took the throne, he had the old calendar scrapped and created a brand new one.

So the current era was only 006 AY, six years into his rule, with AY being an abbreviation for New Adhanian Year. All the previous events were recorded as AR.

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Alexander touched the heavy medal with a slightly curious face, he had rarely seen fine metalwork by the Adhanians.

Then after a time of time, he internally smirked a bit upon reading the text because this thing was supposed to be a certificate for the meister who completed one of the hardest graduations in the known world.

Yet two thirds was filled with singing the king's praises.

Now, this was not to say Ptolomy was a narcissist or anything.

This was just how things went in this time period. In fact, the meisters were probably more thrilled to have the king's name on their 'certificate' than their own.

After all, despite their high status, very few commoners would know of them.

But the king.... well that was different, having the king's name next to oneself was almost the same as being him in many cases.

Alexander played around with the badge for a bit, and ultimately found very little reason to suspect its authenticity.

In fact, he was being overly overcautious here.

Not even a madman would dare to forge an imperial item and then parade it around in one of the main cities of the empire. The punishment for such counterfeiting was very creative and even more horrifying.

Not to mention, such an item was also very easy to verify.

The back of the badge had a unique serial number. And this number and the corresponding information were recorded in the meister books back at the capital.

Alexander even recognized some of them- whips with leather barbs were distinctly different from metallic ones. There were barbs also made of hair and even plant thorns. And these were only the most common kind.

Combine this with all the various shapes and sizes available and you had a versatile weapon really capable of delivering any amount of desired pain.

From short stings meant to only last a few minutes, to cutting the skin and making it bleed like a flood, to large gnashes meant to tear flesh, to even whips meant to cause death- one could fine tune this dreadful weapon to one's absolutee heart's desire.

Alexander knew about all of this from his time in the world and watching others getting beaten up.

He himself was rarely beaten, one because he was very competent and rarely made mistakes, and two because he was too precious to risk losing to some kind of infection. The mercenary leader Nestoras has a soft spot for the boy in his own way.

As Alexander himself applying it after being a pasha, well by law thereweres only three uses for it.

One he tolerated- which was for stealing.

Alexander did not condone the severity of the law because he thought the punishment was too broad, applying the same scales to petty crimes such as stealing an apple or a single ropal to highway robbery.

So he was in the process of trying to phase it out, intending to come up with a more robust set of guidelines. It was just that all the campaigns and other military affairs kept his attention too busy to concentrate on such civil reforms.

The other two however he wholeheartedly condoned.

For they were, one- a gross violation of military discipline such as falling asleep during the night watch, a mistake punishable by death in the Roman military.

And two- treason.

Alexander had no intention to change them in any way because these two acts attacked right at the heart of his power.

Which was also why it produced littlesympathyy in him seeing the state of the meister priest's back.

"Hmmmp! Serves you right, play stupid games,and win stupid prizes. What did you think was going to happen?"

Alexander's snigger was replied with that same frank chuckle, as the man robed and turned around.

"Hehehe, indeed my lord is right. But I only said this when we priests were called to swear our allegiance to the new king. Many of my brothers did. But I refused."

"I told the king I had already taken vows for His Majesty Amenheraft in the name of the Storm Father Ramuh. So how could I take a second oath?"

At that point, the man narrowed his eyes into a slit as a sort of amused glint surfaced in them, "I would have been indeed dead right there if not for Pasha Farzah and Head Priest Ollus."

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