Chapter 516: Have No Fear Of Escalation
Have no fear of escalation
Antonius concluded his speech with a bunch of threats on the citizens of Kastoria, then left the premise for Platia Dexamenis where he shall finish the remaining procedures in the hand over and takeover of the new government of the city. Before he leaves, he told Apostolos that he has just made the old man’s work easier as he can now just record down what he said just now on that stage, especially the last part, copy multiple copies with those scribes and send it to the armies of Julian and Helio.
But the poor Apostolos has totally forgotten about what the Caesar has just said just now, his aging head simply cannot afford to let him keep that similar amount of memory power like when he was still young. With this he had to seek for help from his colleague, Alexios, standing by his side, who is perhaps the best in remembering things after dealing with numbers and accounts for a decade.
"What do you think of the Caesar’s speech?" Alexios frowned and sought his colleague’s opinion. "I remember that I came here giving him the prepared script that is supposedly in a much tending tone used to soothe the anxiety of the people and sway the citizens , yet he decided to throw that piece of elegantly written script away and change it with his own performance, does he not know that these kind of sudden self-performance is always suicidal as compared to a prepared script in this kind of mass public speeches?"
Apostolos shook his head and sighed. "Young man, you got it wrong, do remember that as a courtier of Thessaloniki you got to think in the perspective of the sovereign, and you must understand that how a sovereign look and observe things is very different from how you observe things, oh, and maybe you have never really put yourself in the shoes of the citizens and peasants over here and understand what they really want to hear from the Caesar."
"Such as?" Alexios’s face is painted with sneer and disagreement with the old man’s words
"I have read your papers..."
"Wait, how did you manage to read my papers?" Alexios’ eyes widened staring at the man. "I submitted it through a secret channel!"
"Yes, all secret channels must go through me first before reaching the Caesar." Alexios spoke some terrifying fact in a blend tone. "Anyways, I have read your papers, and I can say that most of your words are using classical Roman and pagan Greek quotes from the philosophers, reassuring the people that they shall have a better future, the city of Kastoria shall be prosperous under the leadership of the Caesar bluh bluh bluh, but let me ask you a few questions, do you really think that these citizens who have never fully read a single of work by Plato or Socrates to understand the meaning of your classical quotes?"
"No."
"You see, you knew about it, but you still added them in the script, because deep in your mind this script is not for the people listening to it, instead it is for the Caesar who is reading it to prove that you have really done your work. And second, do you really understand what the Caesar wants? The Caesar wants stability, land, manpower, law and order, especially the last one. He wants to make sure that the city would not give him any trouble after he leaves this place going deeper into Epirus. And it is pretty obvious that you do not understand what do the people want as well, the Caesar knows though which is why he said that he was once a worker in the city of Genoa closing the distance between him and his listeners, the people of Kastoria wants safety, sufficient necessities and the freedom of life, nothing else, but none of these three are mentioned in your speech."
The words from his counterpart made Alexios start developing deep thoughts on himself deep inside his head, as it made him realise that one of the biggest disadvantages of him is that he has never – for a day of his life – lived side by side with the ordinaries and have an experience on how their life like is. Which kind of explains why that some of his economic policies are often unwelcomed in the city of Thessaloniki and accused by the Caesar for being way too impractical and not applicable towards the problems they are really facing.
Antonius came back from the meeting with his guards and waved towards his two courtiers.
"What are you two doing here still in the forum?" Asked Antonius. "The speech is already over, come, we still have things to do. The army shall embark in three hours’ time, I shall brief you too on the way about the terms and regulations that the city has just agreed with me, come Alexios you need to know this as well, then you shall stop whining and complaining to everyone in the camp on how much of a spendthrift squandering money from the national treasury away."
Apostolos followed up quickly while Alexios is still caught in his own thoughts. "Your majesty, we have finished interrogating those people from Constantinople, what should we do with them next?"
"Those pricks? Ah, just a bunch of annoying pricks, I bet that Abdullah is already fed up with me losing my patience in such diplomatic meetings. Did they mention anything interesting? If not just pack them up and throw them onto the boat back to where they came from."
"Yes, your majesty... We did find out something interesting about them." Apostolos bowed down slightly observing the face of the Caesar and continued with utmost caution. "The man claims that Thomas Palaiologos has been invited into Constantinople willingly by the citizens, which later we found out that it is only half correct; Thomas Palaiologos did get invited to Constantinople though not by the citizens of Constantinople, but by the senators who oppose the rule of the Sebastokrator Innocentius Zonaras, that is why I believe that Thomas did not just come empty handed on this trip, he arrived into the city with five hundred troops and immediately, he is appointed to be the regent."
"Interesting." Antonius frowned. "So, in the end it is not democracy of the citizens but rather just a shadowy play of power within the nobles of Constantinople."
"Oh, your majesty, and there is another thing that might interest you. These people are not sent here by the new regent of Constantinople... One of my interrogators found a rather interesting detail from the chit chat of these people when they are in their cells last night, one of the guards mentioned that they did not sail here from the North, instead they came from the South."
"The south... the South?" Antonius raised his eyebrow as he realised something.
"Yes, indeed, so we went in further in our interrogations, and we found out that they are actually not sent by the new regent, but instead by his brother, all the way from Achaia, Demetrios Palaiologos. According to the guard that we have interrogated, he has purposefully sent these people here after telling them repeatedly to expose the name of his brother.
Antonius is speechless.
Apostolos lowered his voice and spoke again in a cautious way. "Your majesty, judging from the current situations, it seems like we have caught ourselves in the squabbles of the next conflict over the throne of Constantinople faster than we have expected...."
"Those people are still in the cells?" Antonius suddenly interrupted. "Dig up as much information from them as possible, cut off their tongue... No, give them a good beating, then send them back to where they came from.... Wait, do the rest of the people know that the confessed guard has spoken the truth?"
"Not yet, your majesty, we have separated them into different cells."
"Good, keep him... No, keep him and other random three people here saying that they have been escaped from the cells, make sure that they have no idea that their information has been exposed, then release them to where they came from. We have no interest in getting involved in their struggle for the emperor’s throne between the two brothers."
"Yes, your majesty."
Apostolos backed off with the new piece of instruction, while Antonius gripped hold the handle of his blade tight cursing the two brothers inside his mind, resisting his temptation to chop that ambassador into two pieces for trying to play with him making him look like a fool.
A lady, with a child in her arms walked past Antonius and waved to their new sovereign, the later quickly hided the frustration with tiredness off from his face, replacing it with the same usual smile and waved back at the mother and the child. No matter what despite of all the things going on, it is his first day as their sovereign, and there is absolutely no need to spread his frustration with these civilians whom he has just promised to protect.
