Herald of Steel

The backstreets of the Eastern District were littered with illegal gambling dens, entertaining a significant part of the city's men every single day.

The occasional gamblers made up the bulk of the clientele, men who simply went out once a month with their friends for a good time.

They were there to drink, eat, smoke and just have a generally good- the winning was simply the icing on the cake.

It was a rather innocent pass time.

It was just too bad that for many, this relatively harmless hobby soon turned into a full fledged addiction.

They became hooked on the thrill of the game, one where winning or losing was secondary.

Some of them, even if they were to win a million ropals, would come the very next day to try and win two million.

These were the gambling addicts, people who could not get up in the morning without the thought not going to the dens.

And many of them would soon become the next type- the desperadoes.

Men who had lost it all to the house and now their only hope of salvation was to bet on a miracle.

'Just one more roll! One more and I will surely get my money back!'

They were like in a sinking ship, but instead of abandoning the vessel and saving themselves, these men would only keep digging, hoping for a lucky breakthrough.

Then soon, their losses became so huge that it became almost impossible to pull out even if they wanted to.

They might have lost their life savings, their house, their land, or even their own family's freedom to the predatory houses.

So having no realistic way of earning that much money, their only escape seemed to be to keep gambling, to keep hoping for a miracle.

Alas!

For ninety nine percent of these poor suckers, their holes would only get bigger and bigger, until they were swallowed whole by their vice- 'The house always wins!'

As for the ones who hoped to be in the ultra lucky one percent, well they still needed to compete with the last types of players to try and earn back their freedom.

Players who were desperate in need of money for other things like buying medicine for their sick son, getting their daughter a good dowry, trying to keep a struggling business afloat, paying back some other loan, and many more.

Some even tried to raise the taxes they owned from their lords from these gambling dens!

This was because one could have had a particularly bad harvest or the lord's demands for the year might have been unreasonably high due to wars, foreign campaigns, or even simple greed.

Whatever the case, the peasants were required to pay the demanded tax no matter what, or…. well not paying one's taxes was not a wise move.

They did not just throw people in jail for it.

Retaliation was far more brutal, coming in the form of beatings, seizure of personal property, and even enslavement.

So left without any way out, the men were forced to resort to these illegal ways.

Now such nasty events were rare in Alexander's fief.

He was quite reasonable with his tax rates so most peasants had no problem paying his share.

In fact, most peasants did not even pay taxes per se as most of the farmers in Zanzan were his employees- i.e.- tenant farmers.

They worked the fields for a fixed salary and were required to contribute a certain amount of produce.

Any remaining excess would be split 50-50, while any shortfall would have to be explained by the working farmer, such as whether it was due to bad weather, pests, diseases, blights, or even bad seeds.

Alexander was usually understanding towards these claims, because they were very easy to verify- if there were indeed some adverse outside effects, then it would be widespread, affecting not just one field and its lazy workers.

What he was not tolerant of was slacking off, or worse stealing from the farm.

These were usually drunkards and wastrels with bad vices and Alexander left old man Menicus to deal with them as he saw fit.

….

Alexander would receive all types of weary looks, greedy scans, and some even angry glares as he walked past those tiny, darkened streets, and at the moment, he was glad he had such a large entourage with him.

It might be a bit conspicuous but he felt much safer when surrounded by a few rings of men in this really shady part of town.

As for using these men to raid or stop these illegal establishments as the nearby bouncers were afraid of, well that was not Alexander's intention today.

Today he was there to only observe and figure out the true extent of the 'infection'.

He was afraid that carelessly touching this area would lead to only chaos or even a sudden riot as many of these gamblers were hot blooded soldiers and war veterans, just coming back from the barracks for some relaxation.

Similar protests about the food stalls had made Alexander wary about haphazardly stirring the pot.

So he decided to straighten this mess out later.

Discover stories with empire

For now, he turned to the many buildings that were adjacent to these gambling places, which from the outside looked like perfectly reputable inns and restaurants, with wide open fronts serving various piping hot dishes, the delicious aroma wafting out of them being only marred by the sharp, stinking stink of the surrounding filth.

The proof that Alexander needed to increase the number of sanitation workers and get those aqueducts done as soon as possible was once again made very clear.

While making note of that, Alexander once again turned to these nicely built inns, bars, and restaurants, knowing they however hid a much more sinister side, a side that alluded to the district's darker era.

Because many of them were really illegal brothels!

Alexander could tell because many of these places had way more women servers than it made any logical sense.

At one there, he even counted there were eight 'servers' attending just four tables.

What sort of food business was this? Who was the shop owner trying to fool?

And if that were not enough clues, many of them were also dressed quite proactively, showing off their bare shoulders, large portions of their ankles and legs, and the boldest ones even some cleavage.

The last one was enough to drive most men into uncontrollable nosebleeds, as they could not believe such sultry views existed.

Adhania was generally a conservative society, where women were expected to cover everything from the elbow down to the ankles. They also wore loose, flowing clothes that did not reveal any of the shape of the body.

Hence in the eyes of most men, these waitresses wearing tight bodices and short 'miniskirts' might as well be walking naked.

No, in fact, they were perhaps even more attractive than fully nude because the clothed parts left the main things up to the men's tantalizing imagination.

Alongside these mixed establishments, there were also buildings that fully ditched any plausible deniability and outright advertised themselves as brothels.

Pimps and small girls waved at passing men openly on the streets, asking them if they wanted to have a good time and cordially inviting them in.

Also, to clarify, those small girls did not serve as courtesans. The people of Zanzan at least had that much decency.

Aged around seven to twelve, these girls were usually employed by the brothels as servants and chore girls, as well as 'makeshift billboards'.

They would use their innocent smiles and youthful looks to draw passing men to the real business, sometimes even tugging and pulling their sleeves into the red light building.

These girls were really clever, with the most clever ones even having the chance to become ladies in waiting for high class courtesans, tasked with getting their mistress new customers.

As for the working girls who were not that skilled, or their brothels were too poor to effectively advertise their wares, well, then they would have to get down to the streets and do the job themselves.

Alexander even noticed many of them on his tour.

The sun had by now turned soft and completely orange, and with the signal of the imminent approach of the night, many of these women were eagerly looking for work.

Sadly for Alexander, he did not get a single call from them.

In fact, the moment he appeared, these women fled like he was the plague, running into the building and shutting all their doors and windows.

As already said earlier, Alexander and his huge entourage stood out like a sore thumb.

And operating in the grey area of the city for so long, these working ladies were very experienced in detecting trouble.

So it took but an instant for them to know whoever had the guts and power to move around this shady part of the city like they owned the place was not good news.

It might not necessarily be the pasha, but it had to be someone at least close to him.

Whoever he was, they wanted nothing to do with him.

"Haha…" Alexander gave a hollow chuckle seeing this.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Prostitution was a touchy subject in Zanzan and it was right for the ladies for the

Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!

Please come Here!

=>Link to the original site: