Chapter 509: Mutton Hotpot
"Thank you for the two advice, my dear.... Friend." Antonius took a deep breathe knowing the problem he is going to face once he steps into that city gate.
"The name is Torhan Cevahir, you can call me simply as Torhan, my liege."
"Yes, yes, Torhan, I am sorry." Antonius grinned in embarrassment. "Ah yes, you mentioned that... you have four questions, right? Then what about the fourth question? Is it as difficult as the rest, or is it even harder?"
Torhan made a mysterious grin and nodded his head. "Yes, you are correct my liege, the fourth question is indeed the hardest out of all the questions, I shall make the long question short, the people of Kastoria does not trust you, and your army, because you know, the reputation of the Rumeli... Roman army is not that great especially in this area."
"I know."
"But I am glad to say that you have already answered this question, with a perfect response."
"Oh, have I?" Antonius is astounded.
"Yes, you have indeed my liege, answered in a way that even managed to touch the most of us over here, apparently there were some daring souls from the city who managed to escape from the city before curfew starts last night and went to the village to have a look at your army. They managed to experience the entire accident last night and heard your words, then before morning comes, they sneaked back to the city and told us about it which began spreading like wild fire reaching the ears of almost every single citizen of Kastoria before you arrives."
"Oh..." Antonius is not expecting this too.
"But still, the remaining questions can prove to be quite a challenge for you, my liege, do you need some time?"
Antonius do have a brief idea forming up in his mind immediately after hearing these questions depending on his own believes and views on things. But he knows the importance of these questions and if he does not make a perfect answer out of them, the people of Kastoria shall not submit to his rules wholeheartedly, and if the people of Kastoria has too much uncertainties towards him, then most likely he would not get the heart of the entire Epirus without putting enough effort and ten years of time to let the people here realise that this Roman ruler is not like the Roman rulers in the past seating in Constantinople.
And time, is the only thing he cannot afford to waste.
Antonius ’thanked’ the past rulers of Constantinople for their contributions to Epirus and him staining the banner of the double headed eagle with such a bad reputation forcing him to be the one who cleans up the mess their civil war left behind. Still when he tried to tell this man, Torhan, that he is ready with a response, he found his words stuck by his throat again because of one thing; he is not confident of the answer he is going to provide fearing the effect he is going to cause, and there is only two men at this point of time that can give him confidence and new ideas in things, but both are all not here as one is still in that crap hole of Constantinople, and another one is far away in Thessaloniki.
"Forgive me, Torhan, but I cannot give you, the people of Kastoria and the people of Epirus a clear response now." Antonius sighed and looked at Torhan’s blue eyes with earnest and faith. "But trust me, within five days, no, a week, I shall provide you with a response that is loud and clear. Within this period of time neither me nor my troops shall enter those city gates, I shall keep these things, but I shall not enter the city before I have the answers."
"You are already much better than all of the other federal nobles and rulers out there in the entire Europa, my liege." Torhan bowed down. "There is no need to be like this."
"But I want to, for I have promised you that I shall answer these questions for you, and I shall never draw back my own words of promise to my people, just give me a few days."
...
Five days have passed since Antonius wrote a letter and sent it towards Thessaloniki with the best scout and the fastest horse he can find.
"What is the purpose of this!"
The thousands plus army again pitched their camp along the lake of Kastoria right before the city that has already surrendered. All of this is because their sovereign has to answer some stupid questions from a group of people that they came to conquer. These soldiers are tired, frustrated and in extreme need of having something to vent their mood, for they have already been sleeping in tents and walking on battlefields for the past half a year, and they are in dying need to enter the real life world again to have some joy that can only be available in the urban areas.
Among the entire army, Alexios is perhaps the most anxious out of them as he is here wielding his axe cutting down a tree while spitting out his words of complaints to Apostolos, who is just seated beside him on a rock. Alexios has every reason to feel frustrated about him, for he is the economical mastermind of the system overseeing all the money flows of the kingdom, with the main responsibility of saving as much money as possible for the treasury.
War is an expensive thing, and each day passes with the five thousand plus army seating here doing nothing and tens of thousands of people transporting supplies for them without being engaged in agriculture or production, the more gold and silver start slipping out of his treasury making his heart sink whenever he gets to the reports of the expenses.
Which is why he coming out of his working tent to have a bit of relaxation today, by pitching up a wild pot and cook some lamb meat, with perhaps the most free person in the entire camp, Apostolos.
"What is the meaning of all of these nuisance? Don’t you feel that it is absurd?" Alexios complained even louder with each time his axe hits the tree. "We had no such thing last time when we took the city of Thessaloniki, we did not implement such welfare when we took Seres, and out of a sudden we are trying to behave like the good guys here, in a place that has been ran by the Ottoman infidels for the past century? Don’t you think that this is absurd?"
Apostolos did not reply with a single word, focusing on his chores of cutting the carrots and parsnips into pieces and dumping them into the bronze pot before him.
"Apostolos! Apostolos! I am talking to you!"
"Yes, I know."
"Oh god, why is it so hard to find a person of intellect to talk with in the entire camp, how I miss m old days back then when I was still a student in Nikomedia, how naïve was I back then to make me decide to jump board onto this ship and tie my hands with all these troubles? On my left I have people blaming me for squandering way too much money in a short period of time, and here on my right I have this.... Caesar! Who thinks that it is a good idea to lay a few thousand people here in the middle of nowhere! Just because he wants to ’win the heart’ of the peasants inside who are defeated through a war."
"Yes, yes, indeed we don’t have a lot of scholars around here." Apostolos nodded and continued with what he is doing.
The tree finally came crashing down, with its brown leaves falling all over Apostolos’ back with some falling into the pot of raw water and vegetables, giving the meal a bit of extra flavour. Alexios swiftly used his axe to cut down all the twigs and branches of the tree and managed to make the woods start burning with a flint in no time.
"You seem to be pretty familiar with this kind of things." Apostolos is awed.
"Learnt these techniques last time when I used to go out with the nobles for hunting." Alexios coughed and waved as the smoke covered his face. "Most importantly of all, Apostolos, I want to know how do you feel about all of these things going on, especially why do he have to wait for a week just to consult Abdullah who is all the way there in Thessaloniki!"
"Ah! I see! That is the thing you are angry about all the well!" Apostolos suddenly broke into laughter with his face flushing red. It took a while for Alexios to realise why is the old man as he stood up with his face blushing too clenching his fist. "No! You got it wrong! Got it wrong!"
