The peasants were also overjoyed when they were informed that the body of the previous king was right there in the middle of the courtyard, to be viewed and paid respects to, and when they realized that it was only observable to the few lines close to the center, many attempted to switch queues, even at the cost of delaying their food collection, just to get a glimpse of a god, even of a dead one.
But soon the thick wooden clubs and the wooden lower ends of the soldiers’ spears managed to break their determination and they had to be content with just getting food.
Though all the people did have the fortune of getting to see the divine face of the living god- Ptolomy, whom, they could not fully make out with all his distinct facial features, but could still make out his royal silhouette.
‘How can god be so easily viewed in the flesh so up close?’ The populace reasoned as to why Ptolomy sat so far away from them.
Time quickly rolled on, and dawn soon turned to noon, but the ocean of people seemed never-ending.
While the servers almost mechanically plopped off the liquid onto the bowls using a large ladle, a near-constant stream of people kept going in and out of the temple, to quickly replace the rapidly diminishing serving pots.
This was very natural as, at a rate of six hundred grams served per five seconds, the hundred-kilogram capacity pot would be empty in less than fourteen minutes.
And then multiply that number by fifty, the numbers produced would be truly horrific.
To the people carrying the heavy pots down the stairs and carrying back the empty ones, it felt like they were pouring food into the mouth of a bottomless abyss, as the previous one they just delivered would be empty by the time they bought a new one as fast as their feet would carry.
Alexander was also glad that he ordered those extra bowls, as he saw many without any bowls, being so destitute that they intended to carry the scalding hot porridge on their bare hands.
This made Alexander lampoon at the absence of the magic material called plastic and more specifically disposable containers, though Alexander doubted such a thing would exist in his lifetime.
As the serving was performed with almost machine-like repetition, amongst all of them, two incidents caught Alexander’s eye.
One was when a small child tripped and splashed her hot food onto the foot of a guarding soldier, which got her kicked in the stomach, and caused her to vomit as she quickly tried to scamper off with tears in her eyes.
Seeing this made Alexander absolutely incensed and for a moment he even wanted to execute that particular soldier, but instead got Hemicus to reassign that soldier to carrying the food pots up and down the stairs, while he made sure that poor girl had two servings.
After that incident, the soldiers became a lot more behaved with the populace, reducing minor harassment by the soldiers.
The second incident was not one of action but a memory for Alexander, as he watched a thin, almost cadaverous mother with an infant tied to her chest, and with three, dusty, soot-faced children trailing behind her given the large, generous serving.
The mother had no bowl with her and when she held out her hand to get the porridge but was given a crystal bowl instead, her disproportionately big eyes seemed to be in danger of popping out of her skull.
That bowl was worth more than a hundred of hers.
And her shock intensified when several similar more bowls, all part of a set were given to her children as well, making her choke with sobs while she accepted the warm food.
She had only expected to be given a single serving as the only adult and could only thank king Ptolomy and God Ramuh in suppressed cries for being able to receive five servings, one for even the infant.
The mother and her children then gulped down the simple, piping hot liquid as fast as they could, not bothering to care one bit if they burned their tongue or throat, as they were afraid the food might be snatched by gangs or strong men when they left the safety of the temple premises.
Alexander watched this from atop his perch with interest and satisfaction, as even though he the orchestrator of the whole thing got no recognition, instead it going to Ptolomy, he was happy nonetheless.
Alexander, even in his last life, was a cold guy, but never cruel.
He showed little emotion on his face and body language, but that didn’t mean he was cruel or mean.
He never enjoyed hurting anybody and would feel happy at others’ happiness and sad at others’ misery like any other normal human being.
And even though his edges had roughened over the last ten years, the core of his heart remained the same.
Alexander had also anticipated the problem that the mother and many others like her feared and had taken steps to ensure that.
So to ensure the queues were not broken and strong men and gang members could not cut places, he had made Grahtos and his men guard the lines from horses, catching anyone cutting lines and then sending them back to the very edge of the line, and in some case even beating the snot out of them.
After a few such demonstrations, these ruffians, under the threat of fist and steel, understood what was good for them.
Though the rich and the powerful ones, with high social skills, still managed to bribe some of the guards to get some favors.
Alexander was powerless to stop this kind of corruption as it was endemic and almost cultural and him stopping one here was futile and meaningless.
But this did make Alexander vow to make structural changes to crack down on these kinds of behavior.
The security at the back was also as tight as the front, with soldiers flanking the crowd as the latter made their way out through the back of the temple using the beaches, the guards ensuring no one hid themselves in the inner city or tried to cause any disturbances.
In this way, noon soon rolled over to dusk, and the inner city gates were closed under Alexander’s orders to prevent any more people from joining the line.
The last service ended an hour later just as the fire braziers were beginning to be lit and finally,
the duo that had sat like statues on top of the staircase, save for the occasional bathroom breaks, at last, got to retire to the chambers, with both of them suffering from painful cramps.
Alexander particularly felt like his back was on fire and about to snap off, as unlike Ptolomy who got to spend the day on a cushy, comfy pillow, he had to sit atop a horse for the entire day.
He had had to even change horses multiple times as the beast had gotten hungry, while he ate his meal atop the animal.
And thus his next night was spent with aching back pain as there was no one to even rub some oil on him.
Cambyses and the others had been working themselves like dogs like yesterday and when the strong, tired girl had entered the room late at night, long after Alexander did, she could barely keep herself standing.
She had gone to bed later than Alexander yesterday and woken up before him, and this applied to almost all the servants and slaves.
And the royals were not left unscathed either.
Hellma, the Queen mother, and Ptolomy’s family all helped out in instructing the servants all day long, while Ptolomy had never had to sit in one place for so long.
Many times he grumbled and even attempted to leave the seat, but a strong glare from Alexander was all it took to make the meek man sit down.
Another two notable royals that were hurt badly were Azira and Azura, who, it would not be inaccurate to say got their hearts figuratively crushed.
When they were made to say what had happened to two days, they spoke truthfully and although they repeatedly emphasized that they were tricked and threatened to do it, the people didn’t seem interested in such excuses.
This broke the pure hearts of the two, as, during the drought, they had served temple food reliefs to many of these people, who had accepted it with joyful cries and proclaimed them as saintesses.
And now those same people were cursing them as fallen angels and witches.
How lamentable!
The twins would spend the night in their room crying, only holding onto each for comfort and kinship. .𝘤𝘰𝑚
But while the day did have its few bitter moments, overall it was an almost unmatched, triumphant success.
There had been no large-scale disorder, no major food disruptions as the food kept smoothly pouring in, and no people that came went home with an empty bowl.
The propaganda piece worked flawlessly and thus, all in all, the day successfully ended.