In the Persian Market: The Roar of an Empire

Episode Nineteen: A Dialogue of Blades — The Duel Between the Great King and the Merchant

1. An Isolated Battlefield

Exploding fire bombs. Shattered phalanxes. Soldiers screaming in terror.

Amid the madness, one place stood unnaturally still.

Alexander the Great astride his black steed, Bucephalus—

and Cyrus, caked in mud and sweat, standing alone before him.

“…To think my advance was halted by barely a thousand merchants.

This is a comedy fit to be written into myth, Cyrus,”

the Great King said, his words striking Cyrus’s chest with tangible weight.

“It’s no myth, Your Majesty.”

Cyrus raised Hossein’s heirloom dagger, his hands trembling but steady.

“This is the continuation of the market ledger you burned.”

2. Sparks of Steel and Cunning

Alexander thrust his spear.

The strike flashed toward Cyrus’s throat at blinding speed.

Using Danesh’s lessons in spatial calculation

and the dirty, instinctive footwork he’d stolen from Kabil,

Cyrus slipped past it by a hair’s breadth.

“Fast—but too straight!”

He hurled a pouch of Inaz’s custom-made blinding spice powder.

Alexander frowned for a heartbeat,

yet by instinct alone knocked aside Cyrus’s follow-up strike with his hilt.

“You rely on tricks.

But a king’s path is always straight!”

The second blow tore into Cyrus’s shoulder.

Blood spilled across the sand.

Yet Cyrus laughed.

“…You don’t understand value, King.

Do you have any idea how much the price on your head just rose with this one cut?”

3. Nirfar’s Intervention — and Resonance

Then a white horse burst between them.

Nirfar, blue banner streaming, interposed herself.

“Alexander the Great!

I will not allow you to defile my people—my market—any further!”

Her blade struck the Great King’s golden pauldron.

For the first time, surprise crossed Alexander’s eyes.

Before him stood not a princess to be conquered,

but a queen, bearing the will of a dying empire.

“…Intriguing.

So the soul of Persia has not yet burned to ash.”

He pulled on Bucephalus’s reins and halted the Companions closing in.

“No one interfere!

This is a contract—between me and this insolent merchant.”

4. The Strike That Made History Tremble

Cyrus gathered every last shred of strength into his legs and kicked off the sand.

Feigning a frontal charge, he snapped upward an old market chain buried beneath the ground.

For a split second, it tangled Bucephalus’s leg.

“NOW!!”

Cyrus’s dagger shot toward Alexander’s throat—

toward the tiny gap in his armor.

Alexander’s eyes widened.

Just before the blade touched flesh—

CLAAANG!!

The Great King’s sword shattered the dagger clean in two.

Yet the broken tip still grazed his cheek,

drawing a thin line of blood from the face of a god.

5. The Silent Contract

Silence ruled the battlefield.

Alexander wiped his cheek with his finger

and stared at the blood upon it.

He looked down at the fallen Cyrus

and Nirfar standing protectively before him.

“…Man of the market.

You are the first human to buy blood from me.”

Alexander sheathed his sword.

“Enough for today.

I will leave this desert in your care—for now.

But next, we meet at Persepolis.

There, your market will find its true grave.”

He signaled a full retreat.

Abandoning certain victory,

the Great King chose to preserve Cyrus as a possibility—

not mercy, but an investment befitting a king who nurtured his greatest prey.

“…Cyrus! You alive?!”

Azad and Shahab rushed to his side.

Cyrus clenched the broken dagger, glaring at the retreating silver tide.

“…Yeah.

No idea if history changed—but I carved a receipt into his face.”

Part Two — Absolute Peak.

A victory bordering on defeat,

or a defeat bordering on victory.

From here, the story accelerates into deeper madness: