Herald of Steel

The pimps and slavers who recruited the young girls for the capital or various lords had high standards, both in terms of beauty and brains.

These high ranking men got tired of just a pretty face very quickly. They wanted the playgirls to be also clever, charming, quick witted, and funny, actual entertainers who stimulated their minds as much as their bodies.

However as it could be guessed, it was difficult for the recruiters to determine the extent of this quality with just a few exchanges with the parents and small girl.

Many might appear very pretty and clever at the moment but turn out to be total duds later.

And vice versa, some ugly duckling might transform into an elegant swan after hitting puberty, her charm, beauty, and elegance stunning all.

It was quite impossible for even the most experienced pimps to accurately judge each and every girl just from a few glances.

So never being the type to pay for something they did not want, these smart people did the next best thing.

They roughly gauged the potential of these young, five to seven year girls, and first brought them to the various brothels or lord's houses as servant girls.

There they worked under a 'big sister' learning all the ropes of the house.

For example, those small girls that Alexander saw in the streets trying to pull in customers into the dubious buildings were all that type of girls.

Girls tended to grow up very quickly in such an environment until they came of age.

At that point, the dumb and not so pretty ones were either sent back home, or kept as menial servants for life, bought for a paltry sum from their parents of typically around three to four thousand ropals.

As for the beautiful ones, well if the parents were clever and knew how to haggle, they could get anywhere from fifteen to twenty thousand.

But if they were gullible, a shrewd pimp could swindle them with as low as only ten thousand. And unfortunately, most of the time, it would be the latter case as few poor peasants ever saw that amount of money in one place- more than five years of their income at least.

They would feel it was raining pies, and not even dare to negotiate in fear of the deal falling through.

As for the truly stunning ones, the ones fit to serve Pashas or be sent to the capital to work in high class brothels or even better, as palace maids, well, depending on how far away the province the little girl was from, they could reach as high as a hundred thousand ropals if the parents were smart enough.

This would be enough to set anyone and their sons for life, although regrettably few peasants had the insight and intelligence to take advantage of it.

This was not to say they were dumb. But just that they had no idea how much their girl was worth.

Living in a tiny village all their lives, even a few thousand ropals was an astronomical sum for them.

And without any clue of the size of the market, it was quite normal to take the few tens of thousands the pimps would offer with over the moon grins and a torrent of gratitude.

In fact, the same thing would probably happen in the modern day too.

For example- if a mining company said there was gold, oil, gems, etc. under your house and they wanted to give you 1 million dollars every year till the oil ran out, how many of us would be prudent enough to hire private prospectors or consultants to verify its true worth?

Very few, I would wager.

Most would be over the moon just at the thought of free 1 million dollars a year!

Or to make it even harder, suppose a mobile tower was set up on your land that let the company earn hundreds of millions of dollars annually but you got only 100,000.

You would probably take it because estimating the profits from that single tower would be too hard.

Now admittedly these were much more complex problems, but the core point still stood- these businessmen had far more resources and intelligence than the common folk.

But very very few girls ever reached that heights, the deadly combination of both looks and brains needed to survive in the capital or a Pasha's mansion being perhaps one in a thousand occurrences.

And even if they did manage to enter that magical wonderland, well their hardship would only increase, not decrease, as they would all find their dreams soon shattered by the reality of it all.

Perhaps the food and clothes they were given were a bit better than in their homes, but even that would certainly not meet their sky high expectations.

But that would still be nothing compared to the cultural shock they got upon entering a noble's house.

The young girls were never really told what was explicitly being asked of them.

Until that point, they only knew men liked to lie with girls, and in exchange got rewarded with fancy clothes, jewelry, and food.

What their 'big sisters' did to get those rewards though… well the girls would first find out when their virginity was sold.

The less beautiful ones would have it done by a rich commoner or low noble. And sometimes, they would have it done multiple things.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Now, how does a girl lose her virginity multiple times you ask?

Hehehe, of course, because a girl's virginity grew back after a few days, you silly.

'It does! Honest!' At least that was that some pimps would try to peddle some gullible men.

As for the truly beautiful ones, they would be sold to powerful nobles or even the Royal Palace for a hefty sum, where they would come to see the truly ugly, rotting face of the Adhanian nobility.

What went on at those night parties and how these poor girls were treated by multiple noble men and sometimes even multiple noble women was a tale for another time.

Enjoy new chapters from empire

But suffice it to say, it was not easy work to satisfy those hungry men. All their skills had to be top notch and they were not allowed to flatter in any way even when being asked to entertain multiple clients.

The mouth, hips, and hands were all expected to move regardless of what was happening elsewhere in her body.

This was sometimes too much for the girls and if they failed or if they were deemed to be not 'fun', they would be sent back to their pimps, where they would languish in some poor, third class brothel until they caught some disease and died.

As for the girls who managed to adjust themselves to this demanding 'work environment' and serve the men well their ordeal was hardly over yet.

They might have overcome the hurdle of having their bodies taken in all sorts of abnormal ways, but the next step- gaining favor with any of the nobles and having him take her as his concubine, seemed basically impossible.

They would find the beauty they were so proud of, the beauty over which so many men used to fawn over, was actually nothing special there.

Girls of their kind were a dime a dozen within the pleasure halls of the palace or other nobles' manors.

While most of the men inhabiting these places, the men they hoped to catch the eyes of, were more often than not fickle, if not outright cruel.

These men might shower them with gifts and honey words when it was dark and time to play, but the moment the sun came, they forgot to spare these poor girls even a glance.

After all, why would these nobles settle for one dish when there was a whole buffet going on? No matter how beautiful and tasty a dish was, be it lobster, wagyu, or caviar, one would eventually get tired of it.

This shattering of the dream of an easy life that the girls had been sold from childhood was a deadly blow to many girls.

Thus the streets of Adhan and the various provincial capitals were filled with the bodies of such discarded women, ones whose bodies were enjoyed until there was nothing left and then promptly thrown away.

The 'career' of most working girls was really short, around ten years at best, from fifteen to twenty five, after which most were seen as having become too old.

At that point, they were mostly let go, with only a few lucky, competent, especially beautiful ones having the chance to remain as high ranking maids, governesses, and wet nurses for the children, cooks, etc.

They would be seen as having proved themselves, someone the master of the house trusted and someone who was really, really good in bed, enough to charm the man of the house despite all the younger, youthful alternatives at his disposal.

Those who were only a bit less lucky, might become madams and managers of brothels, places which they worked for, or someone the place would hire due to her contacts with the nobility, while some entrepreneurial women would even set up their own establishments using her savings.

As for the rest… well they truly lived unenviable lives.

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