Herald of Steel

While Alexander was perusing the various perfume shops, he even met one of his noble retainers there, who was at first uncorking the mouth of the several displayed bottles and taking short whiffs of the scent.

Then apparently having taken a liking to one, turned around to start haggling with the rich merchant, his coin purse jiggling with the body's subtle vibration.

And the man definitely needed to carry such a large amount of coin because the scented oil he had chosen was stored in a crystal glass bottle.

Thus, given the cost of the container was included in the prices, that tiny bottle was sure to be in the range of thousands of ropals at the very least.

"Lord Pasha… what a great fortune meeting you here, hahaha. I…." Noticing Alexander approaching, the gentleman with a big mustache hurriedly turned to give a loud boisterous greeting, before cheerfully exchanging some small pleasantries.

During the talks, he revealed he was in the market to gift the perfume to his new favorite slave- and even introduced him to Alexander.

Yes, it was a him.

And more accurately, it was a young boy, of eight or nine years, dressed in very beautiful yet somewhat effeminate clothes.

He looked at Alexander with clear, undisguised admiration and then similarly bowed and greeted in a very refined tone.

All the while Alexander had to try very hard not to show his lips twitching with disgust.

He did dare imagine what 'favorite' meant here.

But then again such relationships were a dime a dozen not only here, but perhaps in most parts of the known world.

Young boys as paramours were the accepted norm.

Society did not see anything wrong with it, because the lens through which they saw this relationship was very different.

People of the time period really did not care who or even what one slept with.

They only saw the status of the pair involved.

So if a nobleman bedded someone lower in status, as long as he was the dominant partner in the relation, there was nothing wrong with it.

As for the families involved, well many times the wives of these noblemen actually preferred such relations over traditional girls.

After all, these boys could not ever threaten the madams' positions, being of lower status and unable to give birth.

Instead many times, they would even grow up to be very loyal servants.

Due to all these advantages, there were times when even Cambyses wished Alexander to have a few such relationships, preferring this over him constantly sleeping with various girls- she was afraid he was going to slip one day and knock one up by mistake.

Thus, as this practice was so ingrained in Adhanian society, Alexander also did not dare to think about banning it. It would only cause a lot of chaos and dissent among the traditional nobles without any result.

'I will have to slowly wean them off this over time. As society matures, they will surely see their errors.' Alexander hence could only console himself for the time with this very optimistic mumble.

.....

Approaching the end of the luxury section of the market, Alexander spotted shops selling soaps and other hygiene products next.

"Soaps! Straight from the lord's workshops! Hand soaps, get it cheap!"

"Shampoos, water soaps, detergents! We have it all."

"Best soap in the city! Just take one smell! Lavender, roses, camelia, nightstalk, come, come! Only 15 ropals a piece."

These stalls sold products of all quality, from fake homemade soaps that were advertised as made by Alexander to the actual thing.

And although Alexander was a bit peeved at having his name used like this in his own city, being used to sell subpar products, honestly, the former was so shoddily made that Alexander did not think it was worth the effort to try and ban them.

In fact, looking at them, he only laughed.

These soaps were crudely made, with uneven, crooked sides, sold out in the open with no packaging,g and possessed a not so pleasant smell.

The last characteristic was likely because cheap, discarded animal fats had been used as the fat, and they had not been properly cleaned or processed with the appropriate chemicals.

Hence there was no reasonable person who would mistake it for being from the lord.

Especially not when there were examples of Alexander's products right next to them.

Beautifully made in various shapes and sizes and wrapped with colorful paper packaging, these sweet, aromatic soaps inherently gave off a luxury aura, attracting many bees.

But very few dared to actually taste the honey.

Alexander's soap was considered premium even among the luxury line up and as already quoted earlier, the price drove away most.

15 to 20 ropals was already reaching the heights of rich, high quality meat and for that, you got 1 kilogram of it.

What did buying soap get you?

200g of emulsified fat that maybe lasted a week if used by everyone in the family? Buck for buck, this was multiple times more expensive than even meat.

Clearly this was an impossible expense for even most middle class.

So the vast majority of the populace simply ditched soap, opting to use ash from firewood for cleaning their oil and grease- this was basically the same thing, just a lot more strong and caustic, leaving one with callused hands.

And even those who wanted soap, they mostly bought that low, quality cheap soap for a few ropals.

That was also one of the reasons why Alexander did not try to ban their sale.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

At least the people were using some soap.

Hence the only time these people got a taste of Alexander's soap was if they were gifted it, or brought it during some occasion, such as religious festivals, marriage, or birthdays.

Otherwise, only the rich and powerful were privileged enough to partake in such luxuries.

And to cater to them were a series of retail shops present right in front of him.

Large and magnificently, each one was made of stone and brick, clearly showing their status and wealth.

These shops would buy from Alexander's workshops wholesale and then re sell the product here as well as the surrounding lands, targeting nobles and the middle class.

As Alexander perused the grounds, he suddenly stopped at one of the largest soap in the vicinity, as their collection suddenly caught his eyes.

It was truly huge- and more than that, consisted both of local and foreign brands.

There were various types of beautifully wrapped soaps stacked into small pyramids, colorful glass, metal, and earthen bottles of shampoos and bathing oils displayed on the shelves, incense like opobalsamum, sandalwood and resin shown in ornate incense boxes, and even ordinary powdered detergent sold in open sacks.

Interested by the size and scale of the shop, the pasha would get to chatting with the shopkeeper who introduced himself as being originally from Matrak, Pasha Farzah's fief.

Apparently, he would buy the luxury soaps that Alexander imported there and then ship them back to Zanzan, along with all the other stuff.

"You can still make a profit?" Alexander was naturally surprised that such a convoluted trade was actually lucrative. "Are the margins on these soaps that high?" then added incredulously.

The thin, shrivelled like gentleman gave a hollow chuckle at the stunned man,

"Hehe, yes my lord. You will be surprised to know that every single person in the world believes imported goods are always better. Everything we make here, the other side of the world can make better, hahaha. Look, that's why I have all my harbor pass and tax details displayed there."

The man grinned while pointing at a wooden board where a few pages were pinned using nails.

And indeed Alexander found it to be administrative records of the man paying docking fees for his ship in Zanzan, then another fee for a port in Matrak, and then returning again to Zanzan, along with all the tax receipts for the goods he purchased during this journey.

The dates, the seals, and the products he was now selling, all matched, leaving not a single person in doubt what he was selling was absolutely genuine.

"I can sell my soaps for five times their buying prices and everyone still them, hehehe." The man additionally chuckled very proudly.

And since he said 'five times the amount' Alexander took it to really mean 'ten or even twenty amount' because there was no a man as clever as this one was going to reveal his true markup.

But it was not the profit that truly impressed Alexander.

No, that distinction went to the display board the shopkeeper had used to build up his credibility.

This was something totally novel in this time period. Even in Alexander's previous wold, this was quite rare.

It really went to show that genius salesman ahd always existed, no matter the time period.

Thus using his talents in advertising and taking advantage of the people's perception of imports- i.e. if they shipping something from all the way from overseas, incurring such costs and risks, it must be good, the man was able to make money hand over fists.

Alexander was so intrigued by how the man had managed to come up with such an intricate business plan that he could not help but talk a bit more with the man.

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

Please come Here!

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