Herald of Steel

Chapter 969 The Streets of Zanzan

With school done, Marcus quickly returned to one of his father's many shops, stashing his books away and taking charge of the operations for the rest of the day.

But somehow today, no matter how many sales he made or how busy the counter became, the boy was not able to concentrate an ouch on his work, unable to feel any happiness even from his pouch becoming full of gold coins.

For the only thing that swirled in his mind was his brother's promise to take him to the city's most expensive pleasure house that late afternoon.

And as he thought of the things scheduled to occur later that day, his tantalizing imaginations caused the boy to frequently become hard, making his organ rub against his loincloths.

So to relieve himself of the discomfort, Marcus found himself more than once having to adjust his pants, thus avoiding sporting an embarrassing tent.

Marcus waited with bated breath for the scheduled time, regularly looking up at the sun and wishing for it to descend faster.

"Marcus! You there?" And when he finally heard his robust voice from his fourth brother Lucius, the young sixteen year old almost jumped out from the shop like an excited frog, shouting, "I'm here! I'm here big brother!" as he was worried that his brother might leave without him.

"Heh, heh," Lucius had a low chuckle seeing the boy's flushed, excited face,

But did not tease. It was only natural for boys to be so excited about their first 'heavenly experience'.

Lucius remembered his own first time experience being in a similar setting and he too had reacted as such.

Thus, with a light smile, he gestured, "Good. Let's go! Or all the best ones will be taken."

It only took Marcus only a second to close the shop for the day, a bit earlier than his usual and the two brothers were at last away, the young boy taking each step both with purpose but also slight trepidation.

And as they got closer and closer, this latter feeling started to get bigger and bigger, as halfway through their journey, Marcus started to second guess himself.

'What if they laugh at my thing? What if I can't get it up? What if I'm too ugly?'

These and all sorts of other worries started to bombard him as the promised events somehow started to look scary.

Thus he could not help but whisper to his brother in a fearful voice,

"Bro… brother Lucius…. Is this alright? We won't get into any trouble, right? What if father finds out? If that happens…. you might be able to come out of that alive, but I will be dead! Father will skin me alive."

It went without saying Lucius's decision to take his youngest brother to such an adult establishment was not approved by either of their parents.

Neither would they approve if they knew about it.

"Bullshit!?You know as much as any one of us how father goes to Lilith's Touch at least once a month. He always comes home giddy and drunk those nights. And mother puts on such a nasty temper tantrum." Lucius however blew the slight hesitations away with this revelation, reasoning if their father could do it, why not them.

And then turning around to look at his brother, sniggered, "He is probably wondering why you haven't had a woman yet! That's why he still treats you like a child. If you were an adult, you could have come with us to the war and then fucked a noble lady. A real noble lady!"

This type of vulgar talk proved highly effective against the impressionable boy who blushed both in shame and regret at the missed opportunity.

But then instantly spurted a response to try and explain himself,

"Of course not! It's… it's just that I was worried about brother's coin. Lili… that place is not cheap you know. And… and what if someone steals it along the way? It's .. a lot of money."

However, the fact the boy felt too shy to even say the full name of the place he was going to visit was enough to destroy that endeavor even before it could start, enabling Lucius to easily see through this shabby attempt.

So with a slightly offended scoff, the war veteran heroically slapped his brother on the back, and declared,

"I have more than enough coin from my war spoils brat. That's no problem."

"And what do you mean our money is going to be stolen? What do you take Zanzan for? You think the city is still like the old times? Where thugs and gangs roamed every corner of the streets?" Lucius proudly smirked, then added,

"The pasha had cleaned the streets as soon as he took the city. You too must remember it right? How all those scums were captured in one single day and then immediately sent to work in the iron mines in shackles. All of them are still in there, if they have not died already. So where the hell will they get the chance to come and rob us?"

"By the gods, the pasha is so strict he even killed one out of every ten of those petty scoundrels that would just harass the widows. Unbelievable!"

"You think anyone would dare to cause trouble after that? Here, you could have a naked whore dressed in gold walk through the streets in the middle of the night and no one would dare touch her."

Lucius here was of course exaggerating a bit, but still, it went to show the public's trust in the security of the place, promoted by Alexander's implementation of harsh laws for crimes, a massive increase in the number of city guards to enforce them and large scale, almost barbaric styled crackdowns on any organized crime, all designed to rein in the chaos and establish peace and order.

And credit to him, it worked as evidenced by Lucius's testimony.

People could travel throughout the city with little precaution, safe in the knowledge that watchful eyes of protection were nearby.

And this was in fact doubly true for the two brothers, given their wealthy status.

Given they were dressed in quite good clothes, made of high quality and rare, vibrant colors, most thugs would think twice before confronting them in fear of their connections.

Thus Lucius lastly revealed,

"So you see, there are no large gangs or street rats in Zanzan. And all those 'strongmen' that you hear about are all really small fries who bow their heads to the city guards."

"They mostly run those half legal, dubious businesses like brothels, gambling dens, loan sharking, and drugs like opium and cannabis. Some of them even provide totally legitimate services like personal protection to merchants and cargoes. They don't go messing with regular people unless you go messing with them."

Saying all this, Lucius then at last slapped his young brother, reiterating,

"So you see Marcus, money is not the problem. It's you. From all these excuses you are making, I'm beginning to think you don't want to go."

"Do you not want to fuck the wet warmth of a woman's cunt? Do you not want to suck on her large titties? Do you not want to squeeze that huge ass? Are you not a man Marcus?" Saying this, the elder brother then grabbed Marcus's loincloth in jest, vulgarly teasing the young man.

"Of course I am! Don't treat me like a child!" The point of masculinity was a touchy spot for the 'legally adult at the time' boy, and thus he replied instantly, slapping his big brother's hand away fiercely.

And then in an effort proudly to show his virility, claimed, "I have to masturbate three times a day to quell the damn urges. Don't underestimate me!"

"Heh!" Lucius could not help but smirk a bit his brother's innocent bragging.

But at least this was much better than him whining to go back home.

Thus deciding to forego the teasing, Lucius gave him another encouraging slap to the back, and grinned, "Good! So today make sure to fill that hot cunt at least three times. Look, we are here."

It seemed Marcus was so lost in his own thoughts and conversation that he had not even noticed when he had completed the modest journey, as the young man found himself standing in front of a large, but very ordinary looking building.

The sun had already begun to set behind the branches of the trees on the hill, casting jagged shadows along the outer walls of the brothels.

Its large simple doors turned outward while the dark, open windows emanated smoke from the first floor, that being the only clue that this place was 'special.'

A line of men in varying states of intoxication had already begun to form in front of the front door, many seemingly in deep contemplation about the state of their purse and whether it would be able to sustain the merriment the famous establishment offered.

Seeing the two brothers and their good dresses, these hopefuls quickly moved out of the way and waved at them to enter, which the brothers graciously accepted.

And as they entered, they were immediately greeted with a sweet, smoky dose of burning incense, while one of the two receptionists standing right behind the counter greeted them professionally, "Welcome masters!"