Herald of Steel

Alexander's heart raced a bit in alarm upon hearing Darrus's deduction, his eyes widening in realization.

Indeed, he regularly addressed Ptolomy by name in private, and this bad habit caused him to slip up even in public. This was not a good look.

Fortunately, it had only occurred with a minor character who was on very bad terms with the king. Alexander would be able to avoid all the consequences.

'I should be careful next time,' But he still warned himself as such.

Then curling his lips, heartily chuckled "Hahaha, so that's how it is. Indeed with Mesiter Darrus's intelligence, it would not be hard to make such a guess, hahaha."

Then squinting his eyes chimed, "But I believe you also missed another clue- my accent. My azhak is barely passable. Nothing like you nobles!" It sounded as if Alexander was self deprecating,

"No, no, my lord, your Azhak is quite good. Almost equal to a native," But whether true or not, Darrus seemed to vehemently deny it, heavily shaking his head.

This was because nobody liked being poked at their pronunciation, it was one of the main ways to tick people off.

One could easily see the effect even if they tried this with friends.

And Alexander was no different.

Thus the phrasing of the question was a way to test Darrus, and much to his delight, the meister priest passed with flying colors.

He even added, "Also, given how many foreigners are here in Zanzan, your accent is hardly that unique my lord. There are so many rich merchants, and many of my lord's retainers are also from Thesos and Tibias."

"I am certain all of them speak Azhak with varying degrees of mastery. So to determine you by that alone… it would be too much of a wild guess."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Of course, I had my guesses, but really, it was your large entourage and the frank attitude when talking to me that truly convinced me. I became eight tenths sure and so decided to take a bold step forward and test it."

"If I was right, I would win a great victory. If I was wrong… hehehe, then I could simply apologize and there would be no harm done."

Alexander was once again impressed by the candidness on display here, as Darrus opened his inner thoughts like a transparent bowl of water.

"Indeed, even if you were wrong, that person might feel faltered. Here in Zanzan, there is no one above me." Alexander happily nodded while stating a simple fact.

Although much of the Zanzan province was still not in his hand, he was certainly the most powerful 'warlord' around here.

Then moving back to the topic, he posed in a light, unconcerned tone, "So what is the last puzzle you have for you? Do I have to solve it? Or is it a mere formality?"

Darrus gave a slight, satisfied grin at the way the question was made,

"Hehehe, it is truly nice to speak to smart people my lord. Indeed, you have found out my trick. No, there is no need to solve a third puzzle. I am yours… if you should desire to purchase me."

The acceptance was such that it could not help but make even Alexander feel a bit excited. Such a talented man… Alexander already had a hundred different ideas about where to put him, what to make him do and how to extract the best value out of him.

Thus even though it was Alexander who was purchasing him, he felt half flattered.

The pasha was just about to ask the slave merchant to pick up the money from his manor when Darrus interjected with a melodious tone,

"However my lord, there is a puzzle even I was unable to solve. So if you can tell me the solution, I am willing to come for free and even take a new oath on your name!"

"...." Alexander instantly paused.

The money was secondary, 70,000 ropals were hardly anything for a meister priest.

But the oath….Alexander had not forgotten about Darrus's vow to Amenheraft, and he planned to slowly test the man.

However, if all that time and tedious observations could be chopped off in an instant-

"Okay, let's hear it!" Given there was nothing to lose, Alexander naturally agreed.

"Ahhem," So Darrus cleared his throat with a gentle grin, then lifting his index finger, dictated in a firm, erudite tone,

"This is a question I came across in one of the previous exams. It read-"

"Imagine there is an island where 100 war prisoners were taken after the army suffered a skirmish defeat. Out of sheer bad luck, all 100 of these war prisoners are high ranking nobles and priests. They have to be rescued no matter what.

"The king has put you in charge of the negotiation."

"You meet with the enemy leader and try to ransom them at first. But the amount they ask is too much. It would bankrupt the realm."

"Fortunately, the leader of the enemy is a quirky man. He says with a taunting smirk that he will let all those with green eyes leave for free. But if anyone without green eyes tries to leave, he will be executed on the spot."

"This is very good news for you as all the 100 of the captured men have green eyes. But the bad news is none of them knows this! And also they are not allowed to tell each other the color of their eyes in any way- verbal, signaling, covert signals, etc."

"There are also no reflective surfaces in the island where they can see their own eye color, and even the water they are given is covered."

"The island is also impregnable with day and night surveillance. It is impossible to pass any message, impossible to escape and any attack on it will result in the death of all 100 prisoners before rescue can come."

"You negotiate the enemy leader even more and after much back and forth- he agrees to let you say one single sentence to all the prisoners. But it can only be something the men already know. So you cannot say- 'All of you have green eyes'."

"So the puzzle is my lord- What can you say that will free all the lords and clergymen?"

".....I do not know."

Alexander did not even pretend to think about the solution and surrendered after only a few seconds of rumination.

This was because the giant problem was already hard enough and that had quite a lot of clues. Despite that, he got stuck in there for a while.

So to think he would be able to solve a much harder version of it… Alexander was much more willing to pay for the goods and save the needless headache.

As for the oath, Alexander turned his attention to this next, squinting his eyes at Darrus,

"You said you would change your oath if I solved the puzzle. But is that not normal? How can a slave be loyal to anyone other than his master?"

"Of course it is possible, " Darrus however appeared completely unphased by the accusation and cleverly pointed out with a radiant grin, "A master owns a slave's body. He must always follow his master's command. And I swear I will always obey you, my lord."

"But a slave also does not have to like his master's order. I will of course never betray you, but I will always see His Majesty Amenheraft as the true king. There is no contradiction here."

"....." Alexander frowned having a hard time wrapping his head around such a convoluted logic.

But eventually, he managed, mumbling with a slightly bemused tone, "So you are saying I can have your body but not your soul."

"Hahaha, indeed, if the Pasha wants to be poetic about it." Darrus frankly chuckled, then pointed,

"If my lord still has a hard time accepting this, remember I am no noble. I imagine I will only be involved in the civilian affairs of things- teaching, giving sermons, or keeping books. How much harm can I do anyway?"

"Also did not many of your retainers once also swear their oath to His Majesty Amenheraft? The only difference between them and me is they broke their swears and I did not."

Alexander understood the true meaning of these words. Darrus was saying his words were gold as gold, that his promise to not harm Alexander was truly genuine.

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And Alexander was indeed inclined to sway that way.

This meister priest had impressed him too much and also, in the grand scheme of things, his allegiance to Amenheraft was really not that big of a red flag.

As the man had said, many of Alexander's Zanzan retainers still held some loyalty to their former liege.

If one got picnicking, even the newly conquered Tibian nobles had their roots more closely connected with the surviving royal family.

So if Alexander was to try and pluck out every single one of the flags, he would be left with nothing but a barren field, starved of any retainers.

'Darrus is a man who seems to have a great liking for learning. Hehehe, once he sees what we do in Zanzan, I am sure the thought of Amenheraft will be left in the dust.' Hence he concluded.

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