Chapter 922 Parthenigh in the Last Two Months (Part-2)

Chapter 922 Parthenigh in the Last Two Months (Part-2)

Before Philips was forced to step in to try and stop inflation, for a time, the price hikes had gotten so bad that it gave rise to various strange phenomena that needed to be seen to be believed.

For instance, there were examples of soldiers, with pockets bulging with copious amounts of money and heads full of 'copious little' common sense, starting to openly host informal auctions for various goods sold in taverns and brothels.

Example- if one group ordered a good meal, and another new arrival came to find there was none left for them, they might shout to the restaurant owner,

"Hey, boss! Give the order to us instead. We will pay you 2 ropals extra!"

But such a thing would be like opening Pandora's box.

Not only would the offering group get their desired result, instead, even before the shopkeeper would be able to respond, a third party would shout,

"No! We will pay 5 ropals!"

And then another, "Here, we will take it for 10!"

"For us, it will be 12 ropals!"

And so on.

Due to Alexander decreeing both the local libra and the Adhanian ropal as legal tender, and the exchange rate being set at a convenient 1:2, i.e.- 2 libras for 1 ropal, the soldiers were very conveniently able to use whichever type of coin they had on hand.

But this convenience only worked to help them burn their money ever faster, and then land them in great trouble.

For most of these 'auctions' did not end up with the highest bidder getting to happily eat his meal, but with some hot head losing it, and bringing the whole thing crashing down.

There would always be that one group, frustrated by being outbid and angry over the lack of food, who would decide that the 'thing' belonged to the one with the biggest muscle.

"You motherfu****s! We came here first. *Bang!*"

"You dare hit us. *Smash!*"

"Argghh! *Bang*!"

Thus would be the start of a tavern brawl.

Which would only stop with the intervention by the guards, who would beat some sense into them, before escorting them back to their camp to be caned and then fined for the damages.

And such instances were not one offs either, neither were they only restricted to the taverns.Visit no(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience

Whichever place you wanted- Inns, brothels, and even the marketplace saw these types of fights, with the men scruffling over items as mundane as a freshly caught fish.

It was this rapid deterioration of the public order that had first alarmed the palace and caused Philips to react, swiftly and very decisively.

Alexander himself had even seen first hand examples of such.

One time, when he was still in Nestoras's mercenary group, he remembered being hired to protect a small town.

And while they were on their way, the townsfolk mistook them for the attackers and started to panic.

Among these panicking men was a veteran soldier who had served in multiple campaigns for Alexander's employer.

When he heard that the town was going to be attacked, instead of taking up his sword to try and fight off the invader, the man was so scarred by the past experiences of his previous campaigns that he immediately bolted himself inside his house, and then set fire to himself, letting the flames take him as well as all his possessions.

Such were the horrific scars, invisible to everyone but oneself, that an ancient battlefield could inflict on one.

And worse yet, most men could not talk about it.

Because revealing that as a man you were scared or that you had bad nightmares could cause all of one's peers to laugh at him for being wimpy.

From a social point of view, this would be suicide.

Most also did not even know they needed to talk about it.

Because they did not even know this was actually a disease that needed treatment.

Instead, unable to rationalize it, they would come up with various supernatural reasons, such as being cursed, possessed by the enemy, charmed, or any other number of wild imaginations.

Which would then lead them to seek 'treatment' in a number of creative ways.

Such as going to an exorcist to have the 'ghost' beaten out of one with a broom, sleeping under a large, tree at night believed to possess holy powers to banish the ghost, being submerged in ice cold water right at the crack of dawn or being placed on a burning pyre to drive the ghost out by using extreme temperatures.

None of this ever worked of course, and if the men did overcome their PTSDs, it was actually due to the mind recovering by itself.

But although useless on their own, these rituals did have a placebo effect on the men, who went to bed reassured that they had 'taken their medicine' to cure them, which helped many to recover from their mental scars.

Which was both a boon, as many were indeed cured thought this when otherwise they would not have, but also a curse, because due to this a proper treatment was never conceived.

If you recovered, you were strong enough to win against the ghost.

But if you died during some of these more extreme rituals, well tough luck.

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