Chapter 310: 305: Count To Three

"Entre los Individuos, como entre Las Naciones, El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz!"

"Peace comes from respecting people, respecting countries, and respecting the rights of others." 

-        Benito Juárez, twenty sixth president of Mexico

"Admiral! My troops is here for your inspection!" Upon seeing Antonius Julian quickly ran forward greeting his admiral. He too saw the various comrades of him like Khalid, Abraham, Helio and others around Antonius who clearly have just returned from a prolonged fighting all the way in the front grabbing the most number of credits while he is just seating here with his boys collecting captives. It is only this time that he goes deeply regretful about his past that why did he not steal a horse from those nobles and train to be a mounted rider? 

Though Antonius did not seem to mind at all coming forward giving his captain a hug by his arms laughing. "I must thank you for your hard work in this entire battle Julian, if it is not for your persistent effort for the entire battle, we would not have been able to achieve such a grand victory, instead we shall be over ran by them since the first few days… I must say that aside from Helio, our dear Julian is the biggest contributor of this battle… Who disagrees with me?"

Every one laughed and grinned showing not a bit of dissatisfaction and disapproval. Julian too blushed his face hearing such warm heated compliments giving people a shy smile no longer having that same old regret and seeds of envy in his heart. 

"Alright, back to the serious part." Antonius said patting Julian on the back of his hand. "The job of those on horse back have finished, now it is back to the jobs for the people on feet. You are the commander of the infantries, tell me, how is the morale of the army? When can we launch our next offensive besieging the city of Serres?" 

Julian is surprised hearing this request asking back. "What is the rush admiral? Since the Ottoman army is a no more, why don't we let our troops take a break first waiting for the supplement troops to arrive, and then we can proceed on with…"

"You are wrong! Captain Julian!" Alexios by the side suddenly came out in protest. "If the admiral wants any thing done, just get it done according to what he wishes! What ever he says in his words, there must be a deeper hidden meaning inside it!" 

The others in the surrounding all nodded their heads in support for Alexios, leaving Julian with no other ways but to acknowledge this request as n order promising that he shall move his troops towards the city of Serres soon. Then he changed the topic to cover up his embarrassment inviting Antonius to reside in the Ottoman Sultan's tent. 

The group of people walked to the Sultan's tent and then they are awed by this piece of luxurious loot; The entire tent still has the aroma of a special flavored Hindu perfume which allows the people's lungs to expand in comfort being filled with the floral aroma even with out any incense burning, hugging every one on the inside with a cow rug walk with couches cushions and beds made from the finest fur and the entire tent is decorated with curtains and carpets with exotic symmetric drawings sewed on top giving this entire place a mystical kind of taste to the people watching. 

After a while Antonius took a dep breathe breathing in as much of the aroma of incense in to his lungs and ordered to the people around him. "I will not move myself in to this tent of the Sultan… This tent is not a tent for warriors, it can soften people's bones, weaken people's muscles diminishing their will to continue their struggle and fight…This is not a place for me. But call upon every captain and have a view of this tent, show them that this tent is one of the reasons why the Ottomans lost this battle, for they have lost the virtues of being tough and durable like their ancient ancestors." 

The captains around, especially Fisnik moved their eyes off this gorgeous piece of art creation and acknowledged their admiral's order with difficulty. While the later looks one last round of the tent and then some thing caught his eyes -it is a bed, made from plain oak wood dark in colour making it perhaps the least valuable furniture in this tent in terms of monetary value. Though this cheap out look did in turn make it stand out among the other treasures in the tent. 

"Any thing you can tell me about this bed?" Antonius walked in wide pace to the bed holding its frames and asked towards the crowd of people. However, no response came from these people as obviously how are a bunch of Roman captains know the history of the bed that the Sultan of their enemy sleeps. 

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"To the most prestigious, majestic admiral that is blessed by God from the both worlds, may the sea you sail always be fair." Ibrahim Pasha broke the silence bowing down spitting out a long sentence of flirting honors and titles that went way too appeasing giving Antonius a cold shiver down his spine in disgust. "I know the history of this bed, it is no ordinary bed, but the bed that used to be slept by three Sultans of the empire, Murad II, Mehmed II and Bayezid, and also one Grand Vizier Candarli Halil Pasha. 

Of course, he did not add himself inside this list of honors. Hearing this Antonius pondered for a while inside his head and instructed the guards. "This bed, is more worthy of any other stuff that is displayed in this tent… I want it, it shall be my bed from today onwards, this bed shall remind me of how these people who slept on top of this bed failed every single night when I sleep on top of it, so that I would never walk their old path."

"Aye! Admiral1!" The four guards replied and went on carrying this bed away. 

After this Antonius soon lost his interest on this tent going away as the other captains and soldiers began squeezing inside in excitedness to have a view of a life time on what is the interior of a Sultan's tent. 

Later that day Julian finished accompanying his admiral on the inspection of the welfare and health of the troops, the current state of the captives and then went back with a great satisfaction leaving Julian along. Then did he finally have some time to rest on his chair inside his private tent throwing his helmet on to a hanger, then poured himself a new kind of hot drink called 'tea' gifted to him by Abdullah which is surprisingly refreshing after drinking. When suddenly a voice came from his back almost making him drop his cup. 

"Captain, I must tell you that you stepped on three political dynamites just now." It is Ibrahim Pasha, who was left there inside the tent after Julian left in a state of panic accompanying Antonius to various parts of the camp leaving him inside the Sultan's tent introducing the various artifacts to the captains. "Of course, do not get me wrong I do not mean any harm, it is just that I have quite a lot of years of experience inside the political system, you have treated me with respect thus do think I need to remind you for the treatment you offered to me."

"Please, carry on." Julian too realised that he has made some mistakes. 

"First, you should not retort against the admiral's words asking you to prepare an offensive, as it is obviously not an enquiry, but to inform you of a decision that he has already made in his mind…"

"But that was clearly only a question…"Julian still could not fully get it. 

"The admiral asked you only because he had a high expectation of you from him moving in to your camp asking you in person, he wanted to shift more reward and Honour towards you at the end of the battle… He wanted to promote you handing you over an opportunity, but you chose to not acknowledge it slapping it off his hand." 

Julian gaped in shock not realizing that a few words of questioning meant so many things. 

"And second, you definitely should not have resided in this tent of the Sultan last night, and definitely should not have invited your admiral to reside in this tent knowing his personalities that he will not accept it." 

Julian remained silent for a while, and nodded his head heavily in agreement. However, after a while he rose his head up staring at this man before him and commented slowly. "Actually, you know what, I now knows what is my third mistake for the day." 

Ibrahim Pasha in return gave him a forced smile.

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