Chapter 567: Logothetes Ton Poulia
"I am sorry for my men’s wrong doings today."
Demetrios remained silent.
Of course, his silence is not a sudden show of bravery, it is merely because he does not know what exactly to say.
Curse and blame Giovanni Giustiniani for his treasonous act? But there are still a bunch of armed men standing in the room with their blades by their waists watching over his actions, any wrong word or move can result in him getting decapitated. Or how about giving the commander another few words of appeasement? For what? These men just led an entire army into the palace, breaking open his home and forcing him to submit.
Amidst the silence, Giovanni spoke looking down at his sovereign.
"You shall be safe with us, your majesty. But just please, do corporate with us, we are merely doing a peaceful protest. It will be best if no one gets hurt, and please tell your guards to lay down their arms too."
Demetrios made a wary smile. "What, you want me to now give a piece of order to my men who are just doing their duty?"
"I admire those warriors who fulfilled their duties at the most critical times." Giovanni answered. "But it is not an appropriate time to do so, especially when their duty is to protect a man like you, your majesty. Please, heed my advice, I wish to embarrass you no more."
Demetrios shook his head. "I cannot agree to this, Giovanni... And I got to thank you, at least now I know that there are still people loyal to me, fighting to the very last minute for me. I cannot disobey the wishes of these valorous and loyal men."
Giovanni is getting more and more frustrated by the words of this man who he thought as a coward and tyrant. "Look at the stuff you have done to the country, look at what kind of hellish situation has you dragged the country into with your selfish acts, you do not deserve the loyalty of these brave chaps, and why would you now want these good chaps to die, just for a man like you?"
"Because I would want everyone, including all the historians and soldiers of the Romans, to know that you, Giovanni Giustiniani, shamelessly declared an open coup d’état against the highest sovereign of all Romans, and there are Romans, who might be the husbands, brothers and sons of others, died under the blades of your treacherous rebel forces."
Upon hearing this, Giovanni could resist his temper no more as he drew out his blade yelling at the top of his lungs and pierced his cutlass right into the left shoulder of the regent, leaving the man rolling on the ground screaming in agony with his dull coloured blood getting splattered all over the ground the second Giovanni pulled his cutlass out.
Giovanni pushed his blade back into his scabbard, panting heavily as he realised the identity and title of the man who he almost killed with his own hands, and the actions he has performed today out of fear and stress.
"Tend to his wounds." Giovanni instructed the medic standing behind him. "And then take him to our camp, on that black chariot outside the gates."
A commander stepped out and asked. "What about those armed royal guards?"
"Ask them to yield, and if they resist, tie them up and keep them under close watch in a separate room."
"But what if they resist?"
Giovanni did not answer this question.
...
Lucas ran nonstop on the messe connecting to the Hagia Irene, knocking over multiple stalls and passers by on the way attracting numerous vulgarities and curses, but he has no time to give a damn about it.
Lucas is merely a chef working part time in the royal kitchen of regent’s palace, in charge of feeding, breeding and killing chickens. He was even offered a royal title, called ’Logothetes ton poulia’.
Though in fact, one might have guessed it, Lucas is an agent planted into the palace by the regent’s good old brother Thomas Palaiologos.
Lucas was in the chicken pen next to the palace walls when he felt that there were something moving along the walls next to him with his acute sixth sense that was developed after all the years of practising how to dodge the roosters pecking his hands. Fearing that it might be a wolf or anything preying on his precious pack of chickens (Yes, there are wolves residing in the densely populated city of Constantinople), Lucas went to have a peek at the openings between the bricks of the palace, and instantly got horrified out of his souls – as he saw a bunch of iron helms moving along the walls, glistering under the morning sun light.
Even a crook can accumulate an acute political sensitivity after so man years serving the royalties in the palace. Lucas realised that there must be a coup de’tat going on right before his eyes, and the target can non other be the man he is serving at the moment, the regent of the empire. Hence, Lucas immediately jumped into the pen, hide himself amongst the pig sty, and flipped over the part of the palace walls that is unprotected with sharp metal pieces on top which he often used to run away from the palace and date a merchant’s daughter not far away from here at night.
But of course, he has no mood to think about woman at the moment, for he only has one thing in mind, report the situation back to his political master, as speedily as possible.
Lord Thomas Palaiologos was having his measurements done by the stylists he spent heavily to invite from Florencia who are about to make a brand-new Northern Italic dress for him when his personal guards came bursting into his room.
"Your majesty!" The guard cried out. "Coup!"
Thomas is just about to give the guard a good yelling and cursing, but as the last word of the guard reached his lips, it halted and turned into a stammer.
"What?"
"Yes! Your Majesty! There is a coup going on right now at the palace of Porphyrogenitus! A whole group of armed hostiles!"
Thomas took a deep breathe in, gave a sign to the stewards to get all the dressers away, calmed himself down and asked. "Any update on the statues of Demetrios? Is he still alive?"
"We have no information on that your Majesty, but judging from the situation, any chance of him fending off the coup is highly... unlikely."
"He will live, he must live." Thomas took another deep breath. "If it is a coup going on inside the Theodosian walls, then the organiser of the rebels must be up to something, a political goal, that we have no knowledge about... They would not kill Demetrios, they must keep him alive, as no matter what he is the de facto and legitimate regent of the state."
The guard gulped and did not say a thing.
"Who is the leader of the coup?"
"We... We have no intel on that, your majesty."
"I did not pay tens of thousands of ducats just to build an intelligence system full of incompetent scumbags! Where is the man who gave you that piece of information, you are sure he is not a trickster or maniac giving us false information for fun?"
"I reckon so, your majesty." The guard pulled over the curtains, and right there, in a distance away, on the Sixth hill of the city, near the magnificent walls, there seems to be something burning with all the smoke rising up from the ground. It cannot be because of a fire caused by any ordinary households, it must be something big, and judging by the direction, that’s got to be the palace for the regent.
Thomas’ face turned pale, he does want to kill his brother of course, but the last thing he want is to have a third party getting involved into the civil strife between him and his brother striping all the benefits and power away.
Lucas is being led into the room, with his legs trembling.
"Your majesty!" Lucas cried out the moment he saw his master, almost making the later jump in fright. "I can confirm! There must be a coup going on at lord Demetrios’ place! I saw with my very own eyes!"
"You, you!" Thomas roared towards the poor little Lucas. "Who the hell is the leader of the rebels?"
"I... I..." Lucas has totally no idea who on Earth is the leader of the rebels, but he knows that if he replies frankly, his skin would be peeled by his master, hence he bites his teeth and answered. "I.. The leader is... Giovanni Giustiniani!"
Lucas started to regret his words the moment it came out of his mouth as it is nothing but a plain assumption with no proof at all, everyone in the court knows that commander Giustiniani is a righteous man devoted in protecting the country, why the hell would he ever think of betraying the state?
