Chapter 529: The True And Only
"Congratulations! Your majesty! Please, do accept my most heartful wishes and praises! For you are the true only one that God sent to save the beings in Eres!"
"Aye, your majesty, I wholeheartedly believe that one day you shall become a great saint like Moses, saving all the innocent Roman in the world and re-unify them under one banner!"
As soon as Antonius came out of the city, Apostolos and Alexios immediately came forward giving Antonius all the commends and applauds they can give of, appeasing Antonius giving him a great boost in esteem, making him burst into a series of wild laughs with his hands on his waist. One must say that the Caesar looks kind of weird now, with his face dyed with black smog, half of his hair, and all of his eyebrows and moustache burnt away leaving behind nothing.
Actually, Antonius still have to cut the remaining hair away after this operation, just in case if there is any hidden injuries left on the scalps that can damage the skin tissues and even worse come to infections with all the burnt hair around. So, after today, Antonius shall become bold with no hair on his head, only for temporarily of course, and this is not the first time his hair got burnt.
"Your majesty!" Apostolos kneeled down in the mud water and shouted towards his lord like a worshipper. "The city of Ioannina, the heartland of Epirus, is now yours! Your majesty! Use us! Lead us! Take us to victory and recover the entire Epirus under one banner!"
Alexios gave a look of despise at the old man before him feeling that he is appeasing the sovereign by too much, but still he followed up bowing down and asked. "Your majesty! We have taken the city! I suggest that we should immediately set up our new supply base in the city so that we can cut down on the amount of supplies we need to transport all the way from Thessaloniki, and we ought to immediately start planning on the rebuild of the city to improve the standard of living of the local population to allow then to smoothly transit to the governance of our realm...."
"We have just finished a grand conquest! Lord Alexios!" Just as Alexios is still there talking about his plans for economics, Cerberus standing by the side of Antonius interrupted him in an impatient manner. "The Caesar is tired! He has already sacrificed way too much for the citizens of Ioannina, the people here ought to be grateful! Why must you give the Caesar so much work, at this point of time, when the Caesar has just finished fighting a battle?"
Alexios stared Cerberus back in rage, and the later returned too with a stare, Antonius hesitated a bit twitching his non-existent eyebrow, but did not interfere. Apostolos was observing the facial expressions of everyone since just now, and he too kept quiet, since his sovereign remained silent.
The tension lasted for a while, before Antonius coughed a bit and broke the silence. "Alright, the rain has stopped, it is now time for our troopers to get a bit of rest before embarking. Alexios, may you please help me consolidate the number of rewards needed for the troopers who participated in the operation, they deserve a hefty reward, and we cannot repay their blood and sweat with nothing. Apostolos, may you help me organise the citizens of Ioannina together, distribute fresh water and food if needed, perhaps make a speech or two to soothe their tensed mood. And Cerberus, may you please help me maintain law and order with the troopers, I want no cases of robbery, theft or rape in my city."
"Including those Catholics?"
"Yes, especially those Crusaders from Alemania and Slavia." Antonius paused for a second. "Tell them that whatever reward or profit they gain from this war, it has to come from me, not by their own hands."
The three men ended their quarrels and parted away to fulfil the various tasks that they have just been assigned to. On the way Alexios kept on praising Antonius beside Apostolos’ ears, saying that he knew that the Caesar is as brilliant and diligent as before knowing what kind of roles and responsibilities to assign to an individual to achieve the greatest effect. Apostolos just kept on smiling and nod again and again to Alexios’ speech without saying much, for he has a different thought developing in his mind.
He is much older than these middle-aged youngsters, almost twice of their age, he has seen a lot of things throughout the span of his life, and there is something he saw on the Caesar that he has seen last time, that is the corrosion of one’s heart, mind and determination by time.
Time, the undoubtedly most corrosive substance that slowly changes one to a completely different man; it cannot be seen, it cannot be felt, it cannot be touched, but yet it is so deadly.
But how does it affect him, Apostolos? For he never had that much bond with the Caesar, he has never went through all those dramas and life or death situation before with the Caesar, their relationship is more like that kind of employer-employee relationship whereby Antonius guarantees his family’s dominance in his hometown, and protect the town from any outside threat. While he Apostolos repays the later with his faithful service.
Antonius literally dragged himself back to his tent, tired but filled with joy, esteem, and pride as he entered the tent, about to brag his achievements out loud to his wife. No matter how old or powerful a man is, one’s greatest amount of fulfilment still comes from his family, especially his woman. But immediately upon entering the tent, Antonius saw his wife Anna already dozing off leaning by the side of the table, with her right hand still holding a dried quill.
The Caesar instantly ceased all of his movements and tiptoed to his wife Anna, the latter is obviously waiting for her husband’s return from the field, with her hands still working on a manuscript on the amount of rations and supplies needed to indent for the army, but looking at the thick black line spreading across the entire paper, this report probably needs a rework. Antonius took down the fur coat from the laundry stand and gently placed it on top of Anna’s shoulder. Though Antonius did not appear to be gentle enough, as he accidentally woke Anna up from her slumber.
"You have returned."
"Yes, I have returned."
Anna felt like laughing upon seeing her husband’s unique hair style and smoke tanned face, but it get replaced with care and distress when she saw the burnt marks and injuries of Antonius. She took out the medication and bandages from beneath her table without saying a word, then pulled Antonius to aside to rinse the wounds and apply the medication.
"I saw the fire just now." The wife said while scrubbing the husband’s arms "If I am there, I would have stopped you."
"I know." The husband replied. "That is why I did not bring you along."
"You knew that this fire is going to happen?"
"Of course not, I do not have the ability to foresee the future... It is just that I felt that, you know, it is inconvenient for you to keep wearing and taking off that set of armour, I know that helmet kept on messing your hair plucking several hairs out every time you ride along my side, and I know that you have not been feeling well recently, furthermore, warzone is not a place where woman should belong to..."
"I am an independent woman, Antonius." The wife’s face is flushed with a pinkish red feeling like she has been looked down, she increased her strength used while scrubbing the dirt off her husband’s arms making the later kept on groaning and twitching in pain. "I can do any work that a man can do, I can even finish the task better than most of the man, and I trust that I can protect you well enough from any danger."
"Yes, you can, you can, relax dear, relax oh God you are killing me..."
"But strangely speaking, I do feel that I get fatigues more and more often recently ever since we stepped into Ioannina." The wife frowned. "And I felt like puking after yesterday’s breakfast, I think that the water here is polluted somehow."
The look on Antonius’ face turned serious.
"If that is the case, then I shall inform Apostolos to start a round of check on the water sources to make sure that there are no contaminated water laying around that can start a potential plague."
"What about now, are you not supposed to meet up with your fellow citizens of Ioannina and stabalised the situation?"
"No, because I have a more important task in my mind right now."
"What is it?"
"To produce a son for our family!"
"Ahhh~~"
