Chapter 536: The Escaped Hero
"The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it."
- Book of Revelation, 12:9, USCCB
Celalettin Özgür stopped by the coast of Marmara, feeling the cool draught of spring wind whipping over his cheeks, bringing the aroma of the saltiness and bitterness of the sea along with its howling wind into the nostrils of the frail Ottoman soldier. There is not a single living man along the coastline, for all the spare manpower, including the fishermen, are conscripted into the Ottoman war machine to assist in the collective effort of rebuilding the national defence against the Rumelian threat.
This beach is dead.
The remnants of the rotting boats are scattered everywhere along the sea giving the man a nasty decomposing smell, a distance away there stands a few huts built from straws, with only women making shoes from straws that they can sell to the army for some ration and children running around entirely naked. When these women met their eyes with the armoured man coming towards them, the first reaction they had is to usher their kids back into the huts, hide the pitiful amount of textile and food they have, while the kids, gathered up in a chain in front of their mothers and grandmothers facing the armoured man.
Celalettin Özgür could see multiple emotions and feelings from these people, the children are afraid but yet determined, these mothers are worried but angry, towards the armoured man with a clear Ottoman coat of arms. Celalettin knows why they are behaving like this, they must have mistaken him as another debt collector by the local government to collect tax from these villagers who got nothing left in their pocket in the name of the holy war against the Rumelians.
This country is dead.
Celalettin can still remember that twenty plus years ago, when the representatives from the Ottoman army came to his hometown, a quiet village in Denizli to recruit fresh soldiers, he is welcomed with flowers and cheers, with the local youngsters, including the Celalettin back then, all keen in joining the army because they saw it as a lucrative vocation with a good pay, prestige, love and respect by their countrymen. Promotion in the Ottoman army was easy back then as long as you are educated and showed your capabilities in battles, this is why Celalettin could become a senior field officer, despite him not carrying any noble blood. But looking at the fear and hate within the villagers now, Celalettin knows that the times have changed, the army is no longer respected, instead it is now seen as a beast, as a bandit taking their husbands, fathers, sons away and making them never return.
This army is dead.
Celalettin sighed, placed his pouch of coins on the soft sands in front of the huts, then backed off showing that he has no intention of intruding their lives.
He is the man who was lucky enough to get thrown out of the room a week before and managed to leave the city just a few hours before everything happened and the total lockdown. Thus, he somehow managed to escape the first way of the great purge, but his name soon appeared on the name list of criminals and now there are guards everywhere searching for him, forcing him to make his run all the way to Marmara in a straight eighty Roman miles to kavakkoy. Now finally after a gruesome seven days and six nights, the sound of hooves knocking against the ground behind him has finally vanished, which means that he is now safe.
There is a reason why he came this far, of course. He is the commanding officer of a garrison over here watching over the straits of Çanakkale Boğazı (straits of Dardanelles), controlling over five hundred people, watching over the area of sea where their forefathers from a hundred plus crossed the straits for the first time stepping their boots on the lands of Europa, in the name of mercenaries, using the name of mercenaries.
Today, he is finally back to his army. After seeing all the things along the way and experiencing all the traumas, he is now determined to take his revenge. On the murderer of this Sultanate, the killer of this army, and the imposter in the court that made him look like a clown. He has declared war on the highest ruler of the small country, the Sultana Dowager.
The guards could not believe their eyes when they saw their usually strict and stern commanding officer returning in such a pathetic state – one of his shoes is gone, his robes are torn, his gauntlets missing, and his helmet getting torn into half. But still with the fear for the commander, they still saluted and greeted him, not on time of course.
"Hayırlı sabahlar çorbacı!"
But instead of reprimanding these guards, Celalettin Özgür laughed and hugged each one of them. "It must be indeed a tough thing doing guard duty today, my brothers, look at all these sweat, come, stand under the shade!"
"But... Our Mülazım said that an Ottoman warrior must not protect the camp while hiding in the shadow like the Rumelians..."
"Who is bigger, me, or your Mülazım?"
"You, of course, commander."
"Then listen to me! Soldier! And listen, I got an order for you. Please help me gather every single person, from all the commanders to the soldiers, to even the cooks, the washers and the stewards, get them to form up in the parade square in thirty minutes’ time. I have an important message to pass to every one of you here."
"Yes! Commander!"
"Hey, I like you, young man." Celalettin Özgür made a smile tearing open his dried as scalp lips and gave a pat on the soldier’s shoulder. "Keep your attitude up like this, and one day you shall carry the same rank as me."
"Yes sir!" The soldier ran to carry out the order excitedly.
Celalettin Özgür watched his back quietly.
He was like this young man too, twenty years ago, filled with the robust energy anticipating for the future.
He has been corroded by time.
