Herald of Steel

"Heh! Who are you kidding Uzak? Shortage of men?"

"Bah! We all have a shortage of men!" Diaogosis shouted while Jazum chimed,

"That\'s right! And don\'t slander me! The cement plants have been working to the best of their abilities even through all the difficulties! You get more cement than you deserve."

It seemed there was some kind of internal rivalry between the various council members over the limited resources.

Because they believed the faster they could complete theirs, the more recognition they could get from Alexander.

And with Jazum opening the door of accusation, the others quickly joined in, all complaining how the others were hoarding resources, until Diaogosis cleverly added this,

"Bah!! If I had more men, I would have also finished building the port on time! But now! I will need one more year!"

"But do you hear me complaining?"

"....." Hearing which Alexander was speechless.

He originally thought that Diaogosis was taking his side to scold Uzak on his behalf, where in reality, the shrewd stonemason was using the latter\'s excuse to justify his own delays, while at the same time making him appear diligent.

\'Nice!\' Alexander could not help but begrudgingly admire.

And with Diaogosis\'s little trick revealed to the rest of the council members, they too used it to justify their own deals, using the same three reasons.

The aqueducts, apartment buildings, and sewage all seemed to have been delayed, with even Diaogosis\'s assistant, who was put in charge of building the roads across the province, connecting Alexander\'s fief to the other nobles reporting delays in the estimated time of conclusion.

And hearing all his chatter about the same thing, Alexander finally got a bit irritated and lightly snapped,

"Okay, okay, I get it. The war has disrupted your schedule. And you want more time."

"Fine! You will get it." He very casually declared with a wave of his hands.

He did not feel like haggling with them over this, especially when what they were saying was true.

The war had conscripted a lot of the workers, a lot of the workers had died, and lastly, during the siege, much of the construction was halted, both to husband resources and because many workers were put in the garrisons.

While the brick kilns were destroyed and the cement plant kept only nominally operational.

Due to all this, Alexander decided to give this concession, to which all the council members cheered with all kinds of praises describing his magnanimity.

While Alexander responded by commenting,

"In the coming years, we will need to handle bigger and bigger projects. Which will need more resources."

"So I want all council members to think of ways to increase production."

"More brick-making kilns need to be built."

"More hills suitable for establishing cement crushing plants should be discovered."

"And more people from outside should be made to immigrate to Zanzan to alleviate the worker shortages."

"Yes my lord," The council members gave a short reply.

And finishing this, Heliptos quickly jumped up to offer his suggestion,

"My lord, perhaps the other nobles could also be made to build the brick kilns. We will be building all those roads for them after all. It\'s only natural they should contribute."

HH was of the mind to make the nobles bear some of the labor-intensive brick-making process.

"Hmmm," And hearing so Alexander traced his chin at the feasibility, finding the idea quite attractive at first glance.

The roads did not specifically need bricks as they used stone and gravel as their base.

But bricks could easily be a substitute.

And it would help increase his production aiding in relieving the shortage.

But there were of of course problems with that as well.

First being that forcing his nobles to build the kilns, which many may not like, thinking Alexander was overstepping his boundaries.

It would also mean going into the muddy waters of who was going to finance it as nobles were famously stingy and could say they did not have the funds to spare.

Then there would be the discussion of manpower as most people under a noble were already employed, the majority tending the fields while the others were needed in other vocations.

This was especially true for shordars (barons) and talukders (viscounts) who were quite small and would most likely be unable to sustain large-scale production of the kilns.

And lastly there was answering the question of whether Alexander would buy the bricks from them using money or it would be some kind of obligation from them for the wider infrastructure effort.

But just because there were hurdles did not mean it could not be done.

Perhaps the nobles would need some greasing, but Alexander was confident in making them do it.

"That\'s a good idea. I will talk to them," So he promised.

And then the same suggestion was made for the cement plant, but which Alexander categorically rejected siting the strategic importance of cement, though, at the back of his mind, he did think back on the idea he already had, to sell the clinkers mixed with gypsum to the nobles for them to grind at their own wind or watermills.

That could certainly be done, as increasing the number of cement kilns would be much easier than finding suitable places for building waterwheels.

But for the time being, he lacked the manpower to even increase that.

So for the foreseeable future, it seemed that cement production would continue to be his main bottleneck.

And as for increasing manpower, well, though it sounded relatively straightforward, just taking people from other places and dumping them here, well Cambyses had some less-than-savory news to share.

"Ummm….there might be a problem with getting more people. Especially if they are not from Adhania," she chimed.

And as Alexander turned to face her with a raised eyebrow, she explained, "I know I should have reported it soon but I had not gotten the chance."

"Thing is both I and Batholomew have for some time been dealing with various small-scale disagreements between the native Adhanians and the Thesians."

"And Batholomew says both the frequency and scale have gotten a lot worse after the siege ended."

"We need to do something."

"Disagreements?" Hearing this Alexander\'s interest was piqued.

People bumping shoulders with each other during the day, especially in this congested city was inevitable.

So he was not really surprised by there being disagreements.

Disagreements, disputes, and quarrels were all part and parcel of living in the city and even life.

And usually, they were encountered, dealt it, and then swiftly forgotten.

But Cambyses did not sound like she was talking about ordinary disagreements and innocent rows between simple passersby.

Given how she worded it, it seemed much more systematic.

And as Alexander asked her to clarify, the girl nodded and said,

"Mmm, disagreements. Or discriminations I should say,"

"The examples are quite varied, but all of them can show the various discriminations many Thesians faced."

"For instance, some Adhanian shops seem to refuse to sell to Thesians. A few even famously have signs saying no Thesian is welcome."

"Some restaurants also refuse to let Thesians eat or force them to eat outside."

"While some shops sell everything at a markup when they see a Thesian purchasing it."

"And even the most tolerant shops seem to favor an Adhanian to a Thesian."

"For instance, there was one report from Bartholomew saying that a Thesian had complained to a passing patrol that even though he was the first to choose a vase, just as he was about to buy it, another Adhnaina came to buy it and the shopkeep sold it to him."

"There are many more such examples I could list, such as groups of Adhanian cornering lone Thesians in alleys and beating them up, throwing rubbish at them,…but you get the gist."

"There is a blatant bias, some might even say animosity between the two."

"And this type of thing had already caused quite a few brawls in the market, but fortunately the guards were there to snuff them before things could get out of control."

"But if it is not addressed soon, and if even more foreigners were to enter…." Cambyses produced an ominous outcome.

And as Cambyses said this, several angry scowls soon were detected across the table, which was very natural given many of the council members, especially the military ones were all Thesian.

They could not believe their fellow people were being treated like that, right under their noses.

While Alexander hearing so did not immediately react but began to think.

And once he had ruminated on it more sometime, he addressed,

"The discrimination between the two ethnicities is not anything surprising. This is something we had already expected."

"Adhanians have always considered themselves to be better than Thesians…ahh not all of them" Alexander quickly added the second part looking at the Adhanian council members, who blushed a bit, feeling embarrassed by what people of their own ethnicity were doing, and so quickly said,

"No, no, my lord. We should punish these people severely! Thesians and Adhanians are brothers!"

"Mmm," Alexander was pleased to hear this, and after a nod continued,

"That is why I wish to find out why Adhanians are targeting the Thesians. How they are doing it? And how we can stop it."

" And after knowing this we can come up with laws that fight this!"