Herald of Steel

If Alexander had decided to sell cement in the open market, he did not doubt it would sell like hotcakes within days.

And the hottest item to be made using it would not have been houses or homes but statues!

The religious Zanzanites held a strange fascination for them- them and glass.

Hence, with Alexander moving a bit further away from the stone workshops, he came across a shop selling glass products.

It was just one shop, but its dimensions were huge, occupying nearly an entire block for itself, thus making it multiple times bigger than Morus's shop, which was already considered one of the biggest shops in Zanzan.

This was Alexander's own shop- and he really had not spared any expense in making it.

Built of pure black onyx and the best granite imported from Matrak, it looked like a temple from the outside, with the various shades of black stone forming a cascading wave of mysterious and intricate patterns that made the eyes dazzle.

There were huge windows on the walls and as Alexander entered, he also spotted that the roof had several 'portholes' through which light could easily filter in.

And in case of a storm, well the floors directly under the open space actually had a small garden with trees growing out of there, and there was even an artificial pool designed to absorb that rainfall.

Alexander had spent multitudes more on this shop than he had spent even renovating his own home.

And it was similarly well guarded, with armed men in shiny new halberds stationed all around.

Just their presence alone was enough to deter most commoners.

The shop was run by a smartly dressed middle aged man in red robes, who naturally greeted Alexander with the utmost respect, followed in tow by a small army of beautiful men and women dressed in full sleeved blue robes and gowns.

All these clothes, shoes, and various ornaments were 'company issued', making the entire entourage appear extremely beautiful and even a bit imposing.

Except for the red robed man, all of the others were also Alexander's slaves- bought for their beauty, charms, and refined manners as guaranteed by the slavers.

Many of them were even related to nobility- who either fell from grace, were captured in battle, or were just good old kidnapped, similar to Arrya.

Thus due to their high status and beautiful attitude, Alexander promised them their freedom in exchange for six years of loyal service.

And in the meantime, he even paid them a good salary of 100 ropals a month, which was after including deductions such as food, clothing, housing, the work outfit, and a small part of their purchasing price.

Hence, given such impossibly generous offers, it was little wonder all the assistants were so eager to please their boss.

Be it man or woman, they looked like they could not wait to flatter him in any way, showing him around the shop and trying their best to at least make him remember their name.

….

Alexander casually dismissed the raw gazes some of the beautiful ladies were giving, like they could not wait to be taken by him, and just moved to view the various products on sale.

Now, it would be very wrong to think that this glass shop was anything like its modern equivalent. There were no glass products simply stacked up on the shelves or open tables for display as any common merchant might do.

Rather it would be easier to think of the place as a jeweler's shop, where exquisite pieces of glasswork were displayed individually on marble pedestals, placed over red velvet, like precious gems.

And indeed, given each of them was priced almost as much as their weight in gold, it was not wrong to treat them as such.

Thus goblets, chalices, mirrors, vases, figurines - each category had a section of the huge shop dedicated to them, yet, they were placed such distance apart that the entire place also felt quite empty.

There were also very few tables, chairs, or shelves, making the place feel more like a museum than a shop.

This was very intentional, as Alexander had designed the shop to feel like one coming to see a work of art, not some cheap 'product'.

Hence moving from one product to the other in a semi circular arc, Alexander first spotted all the various wine glasses, goblets, and chalices, all made of crystal clear glass and intricately decorated with gilding, engraving, and colorful patterns.

Placed on the pedestal and that fluffy velvet base, each one did look like a piece of art.

The following exhibit were the mirrors with bright clear reflections like none in the market, encased in elaborate frames of gold and silver, that were sometimes even studded with diamonds and other jewels.

Various decorative glass vases of different shapes and sizes came next, either left as is with their floral motifs and other unusual shapes, or colored in red, blue, green, and gold, making the intricate works done on them stand out all the more.

Small ornamental glass figurines followed afterward, often depicting various birds and animals- pigeons, doves, cranes, ravens, lions, horses, bears, etc. and even mythological themes.

There were a variety of, admittedly simple crystal necklaces and earring sets embellished with precious stones- rubies, sapphire, and emeralds, showing the glassmakers still had a bit of skill of skill to master.

Penultimately came the largest collection of all- household items.

There was fancy tableware: beautiful crystal plates, intricate bowls, and beautiful decanters. Their types might have been small, but each had such variety that they needed a separate row.

And lastly came the various showpieces, whose designs were as varied as they were weird.

There was an abstract amalgamation of twisted glass rods formed into lace like patterns, glass embedded with threads or patterns, and even parts of a crystal chandelier, all for sale.

…..

Overall, Alexander was quite satisfied with his shop, he had dropped in completely unannounced and yet found the service to be immaculate.

But this was also to be somewhat expected, as this shop was not really a retail venue.

It was more of a showroom, intended to show off Alexander's catalogs to nobles, ultra rich merchants, and other interested parties.

So they would inspect the designs here and then whatever caught their fancy, they would order a wholesale amount from the workshops for later.

Very few nobles got to actually buy the products outright from here, and they were Alexander's close friends and allies.

...…n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Given that Alexander was the owner, he naturally did not buy any of the products here but promised the manager he would come next time with more time.

For now, he moved to his next destination, soon coming across a collection of shops all selling perfume and incense.

Thus there was a gentle, pleasant smell lingering on the air around, as fragrances of all kinds met and mixed here.

Alexander did not know it, but due to his glass shop, and the kind of ultra rich clientele it attracted, this part of the market had been transformed into the luxury section, filled with stalls that catered for the high class of society.

This explained the presence of the stone workshops, Morus, and the rows and rows of sweet smelling stalls all around the same place.

The scents being sold here came from all over, be it locally made from the surrounding lands or imported from various parts of the Central Sea.

The cheap ones were usually made from flowers like roses, lilies, and violets, inexpensive plants like mint and lavender, and deer musk, whose strong, almost pungent like odor was considered offensive by the nobles.

The higher born thus much more preferred lighter, sweet, or smoky smells, like frankincense which had a lemon and pine like smell, or myrrh, which smelled earthy.

They had also started to use saffron as a 'body condiment', mixing it with other smells like ambergris, basil, and rose to give the perfume multiple notes of various strengths.

These ingredients, cheap or otherwise, were transformed into perfumes by repeatedly soaking or heating them in various oils, water, or alcohol until all their fragrances were extracted and the leftover residue was filtered out.

Then they were packaged in colorful and attractive bottles and set out for display.

And oh how attractive some of these bottles were.

The common ones were simply made of earth and painted in various vibrant colors and motifs.

The ones meant for the middle class- rich merchants, supervisors, and the like could have theirs in metal containers- copper, iron, or due to Alexander's influence even steel.

And due to a similar reason, Alexander even spotted some mid range scents in glass bottles, although it was made of cloudly, muddy glass. This was likely discarded waste glass that had been repurposed.

Lastly came the scents aimed at the nobles, and the containers housing them were naturally as extravagant as the ingredients.

Beautifully made crystal clear bottles of various enchanting shapes and sizes, bottles made of exquisite pottery, intricately metal worked vessels with all kinds of pictures, and even perfume jars made of solid gold and silver, Zanzan's luxury shops had it all.

Some of these perfumes Alexander found to be going for tens of thousands of ropals a pop!

And people were still buying!

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