Chapter 319: 314: Hello World

"A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country and in his own house."

-        Matthew, XIII. 57.

Antonius woke up from his deep sleeps feeling his head is about to explode in to pieces, with a dried mouth that feels even worse than the heat on the sands of the Sahara desert. With a drowsy pair of eyes that is about to stick itself together with the eye lids Antonius reached for a jar of water by his bed. However, after he managed to grab the handle of the jug he then found out how powerless the muscles in his arms are. The moment he managed to take a sip of the water in the jug his arms could no longer take this weight dropping the jug on to the ground creating a loud thump that sounded like a drum in the middle of the night, instantly waking up the man who is leaning his head on the pillar sleeping soundly in a distance not far away from Antonius' bed. 

Of course, it is still Abdullah. He jumped up hearing this loud thump in full alert thinking it might be some prick who came inside the tent, but after seeing his friend Antonius seating up on himself Abdullah's alertness is soon being replaced by joy. Under the blurry look of Antonius this near forty years old man jumped out of the tent yelling out loud as he goes. "Admiral is awake! Admiral is awake! Admiral is awake!" 

Antonius opened his mouth wanting to ask Abdullah to stop first and give him some drinks, but it seems like his throat is too dry to even vocalise one single sentence out. 

Ten plus minutes later almost every single man Antonius knows crammed in to the limited space in the tent all having their eyes on their admiral, and it is only then did the admiral finally get some water to drink drenching his thirst.

"How are you feeling, my lord?" Alexios stands beside Antonius' bed pouring him cup after cups of drinks while asking question after question with eagerness and anticipation sparkling in the light of his black pupils. "We are all glad that you finally came awake!"

"Came awake?" Antonius lifted his head asking in confusion. "What do you mean by finally came awake?"

"You have been sleeping for the past three days admiral." Answered Yuri, who was guarding this tent all time. "We almost tried to wake you up by force, if it is not for the advice by that old physician's advice…"

"… I am fine now, get me off this bed, I almost feel like I am sleeping on a piece of wet sponge!" Antonius coughed and interrupted in a hoarse voice and tried to get off the bed by himself. The others soon approached and supported the admiral helping him to stand up solid on the ground.

"Admiral, it is probably not a good idea for you to be walking around now." Anjelo could not resist himself and stopped Antonius from further walking. "The physician said that it is best for you relax first while the others massage your muscles, straighten your tendon, accompany you for a few sessions of physiotherapy before you are able to make a full recovery regaining the strength…"

Antonius gave a Anjelo a stare, but after observing some thing he asked. "Anjelo… You grew more white hair than last time."

"Exactly admiral!" Anjelo stared back firmly and adviced controlling that anxiety and temper inside himself. "Please do take care of yourself next time, although we treat one another like brothers and friends, but still, you are the admiral! You are the sovereign! You are the leader! Please, have some awareness over the power and responsibilities you hold. Forgive me for saying such words, but please your top three priorities are to look after yourself, have a successor, and look after your followers."

Antonius had to stand there getting reprimanded by this old man whose age is more than twice of him like a kid knowing that he is in the wrong. Seeing the old man showing no signs of stopping soon Alexios quickly gave the old man a pat on his back signalling him to stop, and then guided Antonius backwards towards the couch ushering him to have a seat whispering beside his ears. "During these three days it is Anjelo and Abdullah taking care of the affairs that was previously supposed to be done by you, while there is a whole pile of things that requires your acknowledgement and they have been facing an overwhelming amount of pressure, please understand their stress admiral."

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"Don't worry." Antonius nodded silently. "I do."

"Have you rewarded the physician who cured my illness?" After a while Antonius broke the silence.

"No, admiral."

"You should, they need a pay for their career of specialities, give him thrice the reward according to the current market price rate. And bring him here, I want to have a few words with him."

After a while the physician is brought in to the tent before the face of Antonius. Surprisingly Antonius found  this old man having a face that is familiar looking, after a rough failed search inside his head Antonius asked standing up. "Thank you honourable physician, but have we met each other before?"

"Yes, indeed mighty general we have met last time." The old man stood up facing Antonius revealing himself fully under the candle light. "I am one of the three disciples of the Ecumenical Patriarch Gennadius II Scholarius, I was there when we are treating the injuries of lord Giovanni Giustiniani." 

Hearing this Antonius struggled to stand up again with out the support of any one else, trudged forward and held the hands of the old physician tight. "Thank you again, honourable and respectable physician, please send my regards to the Ecumenical Patriarch, just a question on your professions, what do you think is the main course of my illness, is there a possibility that the other folks might get it, and how to curb it?"

When the question reached his profession, the old physician stopped bowing and went in to a serious mode analysing every bit of information Antonius wants to know. "This illness is most likely a Typhoid fever, caused by the filthy environment like in this case, a battle field with massive amount of corpses and dried blood left around unable to be cleared away in time. As for the third question, that too is what I am concerned about. I have came to this camp for four days and I have already noticed this similar kind of symptoms being spread around, this is forming in to a plague, admiral, if not taken seriously."

Antonius broke in to a cold sweat realising the severity of this issue. "Then what necessary measures can we do to curb it then?"

"Well, I do have several advice you can consider. First is to limit the sources of food and water our men consume only to those healthy ones, secondly is to limit the compound of them… disposing waste, like building a toilet, third is to force them to bath every single week like our ancestors, fourth is to force them to boil their water and cook their food before they drink, and lastly just get rid of all these corpses as soon as possible before these evil spirits lurks to the down stream taking away the valuable lives of even more people forming in to a regional catastrophe."

"I will listen to all of your advice." Antonius replied earnestly continuing to hold the hands of the old physician. "I have a request that I must make, do pardon me but may you please consider staying behind helping me out with all of these things? You see, I have no other person to rely on in this kind of fields except for you…"

"I will admit to your will your highness." However, with out the need of Antonius completing his words the old physician replied in a determined tone. "That is what I came here for, I came here with a mission not only to approach the local churches in the holy sites of the mountains around Thessaloniki, but also to serve under you building a channel of communication between you and the Ecumenical Patriarch. If that is your wish to appoint me as the physician, I shall gladly take this role up and serve under you."

"Ahem." Suddenly Alexios approached and whispered beside Antonius' ears. "Admiral, I must inform you that we do not have enough wood and coal to be used for boiling waters especially in this winter, all of them is allocated for burning of corpses… You see admiral, these things can become quite expensive due to their scarceness…"

"Listen to our physician." Antonius replied without hesitation. "re-allocate the inflammable materials to him, from tomorrow onwards we shall start to impose strict anti plague measures. Remember Alexios, health of men always comes before money, with healthy men we can achieve any thing, but if we only have money we are nothing, as money with out men using it is merely a bunch of metal."

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