Herald of Steel

"..... Counting houses? Banks? Deposit?" Vidiyan was not the most fluent in Azhak and thus, suddenly bombarded by all these new words, the man became a bit surprised.

Stammering and struggling, he hence turned to give Alexander a confused look.

"Yes… bank. It is a new kind of business I am starting." While seeing the reaction, the Pasha did not waste the opportunity to fish for new clients, eagerly moving his back forward to pitch his idea.

"It works like this… your people can store money with me in their name. Think of it like safely storing them in a vault. But instead of just storing it in a dusty box, they can keep it with me. I will keep it safe and in return, each year I will even give them 1% of their total savings as interest. So, if they save… say 1,000 ropals in January, they will get 1,010 ropals next year. And…"

"Wait! You will give them free money? Just for keeping the money with you!"

Alexander's proposal sounded so ridiculous that he was suddenly interrupted mid pitch by this shocked cry, for Vidiyan was unable to believe it.

Now, as a pirate captain, the man of course had a good sense of business in his head.

But this interest based business was not his forte. He knew very little about it and what he did know mostly involved loan sharks in some way or the other. And it was a well known fact how the regular people felt about those bloodsuckers.

Thus Alexander's proposal appeared to go against all common sense as evidenced by how the man then voluntarily corrected the Pasha, chiming,

"Surely you mean the opposite- my men will give you money, my lord, right!"

"....." Looking at the shocked and incredulous face of the man, Alexander turned to him with a small smile, subtly pleased at the reaction.

Vidiyan was a well travelled man who had seen many things- so it was definitely not easy to surprise him.

"No, you heard me correctly captain," Alexander then at last spoke in a cool tone, elucidating with a simple smile,

"It is a special service I am thinking of giving the soldiers under me. They can store their saving with me and for their service, I will give them 1% to 2% as interest on that amount each year. Think of it like a small pension."

In this way, the Pasha displayed the details of the banking system in a completely different light, making it appear more like a social benefit from his behalf.

He did this because he really did not want to go into the hassle of explaining the intricacies of the whole system… about how he was going to invest this money to generate returns and then pay the depositors from that.

Alexander feared such a thing might spook the pirate captain as the word 'investment' by its nature implied 'risk'. The pirate captain would definitely not like him risking his men's money no matter how minute the risks might be.

Hence Alexander then also cleverly added,

"Originally I thought of restricting this great privilege to only my standing soldiers. But after thinking for a while, I am now willing to give you the same privilege. Vidiyan, know that unlike the Heeat family, I consider you and your men as my own!"

"....." As Alexander made this grand statement, he thought he noticed the pirate captain, as stoic as he was tearing up a bit.

And it was not hard to guess why.

No other noble ever treated these men like this.

Their identity as pirates left them mostly as social pariahs, always shunned and never appreciated for their work. Even many of the nobles' slaves were treated better than them.

Although to be fair to the nobles they also had their justifications- these pirates were without doubt criminals in the eyes of the law, accused of doing many heinous crimes.

Plunder, murder, trafficking, ruining the purity of women and so much more… none of them were in no way good men.

So to openly rub shoulders with them… not only was it socially unacceptable, it was also morally reprehensible.

But still, that did not mean these men also did not crave recognition and honor.

In fact, given they were hot blooded men with a great amount of blood in their hands, they perhaps wanted it more than most others- a peasant might simply swallow the pain of being stepped on, but a man who had wielded a sword and tasted blood… not so much.

Thus when Alexander played towards this critical vulnerability, the pirate captain swiftly capitulated.

Overwhelmed by gratitude, any suspicion regarding the banking scheme was put way back of the mind. At the best the man thought this money was coming from the taxes. After all, Alexander already said it was like a pension fund.

While seeing his target was weak and vulnerable, Alexander decided to continue to hit the iron while it was hot, quickly explaining the scheme,

"You and your men Captain Vidiyan… can store your money with me in the banks for safety. I do not know much about the extent of theft or losing one's money in your ships but I guess it must be a problem, big or small."

"But with me… that money will be absolutely safe. They can also withdraw it any time and each year, I will even add money on top of the money already deposited."

"And if all that was not enough, once their principal amount deposited exceeds 20,000 ropals, each of your men can even apply to become a Zanzan citizen."

"I know I have already offered you men 10 acres of land after twenty years of service, but with this, they can have it before that…. They will only need to work a total of ten years then."

"And their citizen status will also let them buy new land, pass on this citizenship to their children, and even seek legal protection regarding any land dispute with the local magistrates. What do you say?"

"....." What could Vidiyan say?

Alexander had already perfectly laid out the allure of citizenship, swaying the man like a tree in a storm.

Compared to this, the perks of the bank was really secondary, kept at the back of the mind only as an afterthought.

For example Alexander's concern about the safety of the coins with the pirates themselves was largely overblown. There had never been a single significant theft aboard Vidiyan's ships.

These men were both experts at taking money and securing it, and hence made draconian laws against this.

Punishment for even just petty theft ranged from furious whipping to even having an arm chopped off.

While if the amount went above the equivalent of 50 ropals, it meant death by drowning, or worse, being sold to the nastiest slavers- the ones who supplied men for mines or quarries- that was not a pleasant place to work in.

Few thus ever dared to take the risk, letting the pirates at most complain of displacing a few loose changes.

Now as for Alexander gifting them this great boon of the possibility of citizenship, this was of course not gone just out of the goodness of his heart.

It was simply a political move, meant to buy their loyalty and anchor their interest with him.

Any pirate thinking of betraying him and switching sides had to think twice- once about this loss of potential status, and secondly, the loss of all his stored money in the bank.

He changed his thinking to this after reviewing his previous deal, feeling twenty years was a bit too long.

As already discussed, most pirates had a short shell life.

So Alexander thought it would be far more effective to give them a new incentive.

And the pirate captain of course understood the hidden game being played as well.

Hence another reason behind his silence as he tried to think of the best way to navigate this murky political deal.

On one hand, he certainly did not want his men to be more loyal to an unknown lord than him. The man instinctively wanted to preserve his power.

But at the same time, he knew he could not deny the crew this privilege. If they got even the slightest hint he was trying to block or hinder them in this, they could simply vote him out for a much more amenable man.

The title of pirate captain was a democratic one, not one for life.

From the other side, Alexander pretended not to notice the man's dilemma.

Rather, without giving Vidiyan the peace of mind to continue with his thoughts, he quickly pressed on the proposal once again in a different way,

"Is the captain unhappy with the 20,000 ropals limit? It is not much is it? I should think this amount of money should be easy to save up for your men."

"With the size of loots you manage to seize regularly… even if divided equally, it should only take a few years for all your men to become citizens of Zanzan right?"

The pasha thus pretended to see it like it was a monetary issue.

"....." While hearing it, the pirate captain was finally unable to keep a straight face and cracked a thin, rueful smile.

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

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