Herald of Steel

Chapter 791 Alexander's Children

Although greatly enjoyable, Alexander did not choose to spend his time with only his wives of course.

He also paid much attention to his children.

The three month infants Afsan and Ophenia were too young to understand anything, so the most Alexander could do was swaddled them in his lap and take them on walks around the large estate gardens, many times accompanied by their mother, letting them enjoy the fresh air.

But much more than that, Alexander enjoyed spending his time with his two year old daughter Alexandria and one year old son, Philip, many times joining them to play with the various toys they had.

There his daughter with much enthusiasm introduced her father to all seven of her beautiful porcelain dolls she had clothed, letting him know of their names were as well as where they all belonged in her huge doll house.

That doll house was something Alexander had custom made for his princess before going on this campaign, and it was something truly unique.

Modeled after modern day toy houses, the toy was almost a meter high and even more wide, and since it was made of wood and metal, it weighed nearly thirty kilograms.

It was so big in fact there was a separate room just for Alexanderia to play with it.

The toy had lots of panels and doors to allow access to the various rooms, all of which were very beautifully furnished with exquisitely carved wooden furniture, many exquisite porcelain decorations, shiny metallic utensils such as all kinds of pots and pans, ivory combs, and small hairpins, velvet curtains, and mattress and lastly shiny glass mirrors and windows.

Painted vibrant colors of red, blue, pink, and even the ridiculously expensive purple, although the toy did not have any gold silver, or precious stones in it, perhaps that would have cost less than the extravagance Alexander spent on it.

The whole thing had taken Alexander sitting down with a team of various artisans like carpenters, smelters, tailors, and potters for almost a month to just design.

And then another two months to produce and assemble it, crafting it out of the finest wood, leaving him with a ridiculous ten thousand ropal hole in his pocket by the end.

To give the context of how much money this was, Cambyses- who officially held the position of the head of the city guards earned that much yearly.

And a peasant would be able to live five years with his family off this money.

But Alexander was plenty rich enough to spoil his little princess.

And the squeal of joy the little girl had given when Alexander had first shown her the piece made the expense worth every penny.

But in much contrast to this, his son who was supposed to inherit all his accomplishments, did not get anything similar.

Sure he got various toys and nice clothes, but nothing as spoilt as this.

And Alexander was of no mind to give him anything such either.

Something which Cambyses, being the loving mother she was, chose to privately protest.

And this was Alexander's reply, "Alexandria is my little princess. Of course, I will spoil her."

"But Philip is my successor. He must always endure hardship and experience want. He must never be able to allowed to feel safe, secure, and complacent. Or he might one day find his throat slit."

To Alexander, there would be few things as painful as having an unworthy successor.

And there was no way he was not going to let that happen on his watch.

Hence the stern mindset.

"What are you saying about your son? 'Slit his throat'! By Gaia, he is literally a few months old! He talks to the floor."

While at Alexander's intention of such a harsh upbringing, Cambyses was shocked with incredulity, especially at that particular phrase.

No one wanted to hear that about their children, even in a far fetched hypothetical scenario.

So Cambyses felt Alexander was being too demanding to the infant child who did not even understand words.

Then following that the couple had a small round of bickering that resulted in the two not talking to each other for two days.

And it was a fight that occasionally flared up even now and then, with regular 'small border skirmishes' over how to raise their children.

And like all quarrels, it involved loud screams, sharp words, and even tears, with differing quantities.

It was with these thoughts playing in his mind that Alexander joined his son in his play, though the small boy was at first a bit afraid of who this strange man was.

Philip had not seen Alexander for the last six months and being so young, he quite naturally forgot him.

It was only after Alexander played a few sessions with the wooden horses and chariots that he finally warmed up to Alexander.

The father and son even went on small horse rides around the back gardens much to the latter's amusement.

This was his first time riding one.

And the one last surprise for the two kids was the new playing companion they got when they came to Thesalie, Fabiyana!

Being Alexander's mistress in name, it was not unnatural for her to reside in the mansion with him.

And after spending a few days in the camp getting to know the girl, Alexander felt she would make a good older sister for his two children.

Because although Fabiyana was ten years old in body, she seemingly had the mental maturity of a six or seven years.

Now, she was not challenged or anything.

It was just that her development was a bit slow.

So taking advantage of that, and thinking interacting with other children would help the girl grow, he simply asked Lapitus to send Fabiyana over every morning and would return to her parents after supper.

Or if the girl was too tired, Alexander would arrange her sleep to sleep in the same bed as Alexandria.

And over the following weeks, the two girls quickly bonded, with Fabiyana falling in love in that doll house.

In a few instances, Alexander even saw Fabiyana teaching Alexandria about the various etiquettes the dolls they were playing with were supposedly expected to follow, all of which of course came from Tibian noble customs.

The two sometimes even roped Philip in to join them, and facing these two much bigger opponents, the little boy could only relent, and play all the boring parts the two girls did not want to.

In fact, the two older sisters would continue to bully the younger Philip for years, with many of their antics rising as they aged, ultimately culminating in making the boy play dress up as they practiced their makeup skills on him, decorating him with various lipstick, powders, mascara, and even jewelry.

The memories of these 'humiliating' plays would stay with Philip even as he became a fully fledged adult, becoming both extremely treasured remembrances, but also bittersweet humiliating black marks.

It would also be one among many antics that his older sister Alexandria would make him go through which would ultimately cause him to develop both a deep familiar love but also an instinctual fear of her.

But those honeyed memories were yet to be formed.

For now, Alexander was in the process of making sure his children could survive long enough in safety and luxury to enjoy their lives as such.

"Welcome messenger from the court of Parthenigh. I assume you come bearing the confirmation of Perseus's full, unconditional surrender?"

As Alexander was informed of the arrival of an envoy of Perseus, he greeted him in his mansion as such, the arrogance and imperiousness in him naked and open.

The lineup he gathered to meet this noble was greatly impressive too, as Alexander was joined by every single one of high ranking military officers and nobles, numbering close to ten, all immaculately garbed in their full battle kit.

The entire scenario was made to give the impression that Alexander was ready to march to the battlefields right this instant.

"It is an honor to finally meet face to face, Esteemed Pasha of Zanzan. First of all, let me thank you for taking good care of my son. He has sung great praises of your hospitality when he was under your care."

Facing Alexander naked, even somewhat rude greeting, the envoy from afar was instead very gentle, so much so that it even left Alexander a bit tongue tied.

He was not used to having sharp barbs being repaid with kindness.

"Oh? What is your son's name? Help me recall." So he replied such.

After all, there were quite a few nobles Alexander had captured back during Perseus's attack on the manor.

"My son's name is Theony. He was the one wearing His Majesty's armor. And I'm his father. Lord Theony," The man with the immaculate moustance introduced himself as such, bowing lightly.

'So it's a bigshot,' And recalling his son was enough to be exchanged for Laykash, who was at that time Perseus's most precious war prisoner, Alexander understood this man was a heavyweight.

But that did mean Alexander softened his tone any bit.

Instead, he only waited for the man to say his piece, looking at him expectantly, but not saying anything, intending to put psychological pressure on him,

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