Chapter 328: 323: Tales of the East

"They could not hit an elephant at the distance!" 

-        Famous last words, General John Sedgwick, then he got shot. 

"I shaved my beard to keep the harm away from my daughter." 

"What the…." The Sultan is caught speechless with Antonius' words. 

"Come here, have a seat Orhan… Oh be careful not to step on that carpet or you need to wear shoes." Antonius ushered the Sultan in to his seat. "Hey! Yuri! Inform the kitchen to prepare us some tea, yes the Sultan don't drink wine, bring us tea!" 

After a while the tea is served with some desserts and the two men had a good time chatting about the recent events greeting each other asking for one another's welfare, now Antonius decided to go on to the topic. "Ok now my friend, what brought you to me today? I bet that you did not arrive at my city because you suddenly melt a strong urge to meet me just to talk about these irrelevant things that only those daily dwellers chit chat about all day, am I right." 

"I can lie to the others, but I cannot lie to you Antonius." The Sultan bite his lips hard and decided to say the truth. "I got defeated, badly, under the city of Antalya, by the awful tricks of that kin of Lucifer Zaganos resulting in thousands of my troops getting slaughtered and most of the others taken as captives… I know these people; I am sure that these people taken as captives will join the evil gang of Zaganos in no time and come back for me." 

"Oh?" Antonius took a sip of his tea and gave the man before him a peek. "Then I cannot lie to you too since you are being so sincere to me. Actually, I have already received information around a day back, my faithful organisation of 'messengers' told me every thing that I need to know. Now, my dear Sultan Orhan let me ask you some thing, do you still remember that discussion we had six years back on that ship before we split apart with you going to the east and I going to the west?" 

"What discussion?" Sultan Orhan felt a nausea feeling rushing down his body as he feels like every thing he was doing is being secretly watched by this man. "Antonius you see I am almost an old man, I cannot remember trivial things from half a year ago, and now you are talking about things six years ago? Please, do enlighten me."

"What a shame." Antonius sighed and shook his head. "If you had listened to my words six years back you would probably not have became like this… But yes you are right there is no mean of going back to sx years back thinking of the past forgetting the present we are in. Now tell me, my friend, what is your plan now after all of these? Or do you have a plan now?"

Sultan Orhan remained silent pointing his two hands downwards towards the carpet, and only after a while when Antonius is almost finishing the last sip of his tea then did he open his mouth again. "I… I don't know, I think that I need a break from all the trouble first before I buff my mind up once more to face the challenges that still awaits me ahead, please, give me hospitality for a week and then I shall set sail back to Anatolia, and please to lend me a helping hand…"

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"I can lend you a helping hand, but I cannot offer you hospitality." However, Antonius rejected this seemingly tiny piece of request in such a straight forward manner that might potentially make people think he is being rude and impolite, unlike the image he portrays to others in the usual days. "Actually, I cannot even let you stay here for an hour more, you need to go now."

Hearing this Sultan Orhan sprouted up from his seat and gulped down his cup of tea without uttering a word and headed straight for the gate hiding his face away from Antonius by turning his back on him. Seeing this Antonius sighed in his mind standing up too. "Wait! Sultan! Stop! There is no need to go in such a haste, we still got time for a lunch together and then I shall explain to you specifically on why I cannot let you stay here although I very much like to."

Sultan Orhan's hands is already on the door handle when Antonius said these words, and hearing it Orhan hesitated for a little bit, stepped back turning to face Antonius and nodded his head.

Later that day Antonius treated Sultan Orhan in a personal lunch in his own room with no other guest, no chef, no waiter.  Sultan Orhan sat down there while Antonius are there in the kitchen himself preparing some dishes he managed to learn from Anna Notaras. It did not take long before he managed to prepare a simple lunch for the two men arranging nicely on the table. "Come! Lets eat! Before it is too late!"

Sultan Orhan silently raised up his right hand, gently dipped it in to a bronze bowl on the table filled with Limonana water and then had a taste of the rice and mutton ribs prepared by Antonius – he must say that it is way too salty for an old man like him. Though he never said any thing, the weeks of enduring adventure on the seas has made his tongue a lot more numb and resistant to things especially with all those filled with worm biscuit and salted beef that not only tasted literally like there is no beef, only salt, but also it is so damn hard to bait that the eater would suspect if he is eating beef or eating a piece of brick.

"Orhan!" Antonius raised his wooden fork and spoon. "Now this is a quiet place where I can tell you about my further plans, now, you know why I cannot let you back?"

"I am doing this for your own good. Of course, I can learn from the emperor of the Greeks offering you hospitality here trapping you inside a tranquil castle filled with honey, milk, women and silk diminishing your ambitions filling your heart with nothing but content and lust, just to use you as a pawn, a claim for my future conquests. But did I do that? No! I am not that kind of person like the emperor of the Greeks who is filled with intrigues and plots. I know you need me, and I must tell you that I too need you, thus I am getting you back to Anatolia not because I despise you, but it is for your own good, you need to trust me old friend."

"For my own good?" Sultan Orhan made a cold smear clenching his fist, but managed to suppress the anger feeling mistreated and disrespected despite being a noble. "I don't think it is the time for us to talk about these Antonius, I need some time to soothe my mind. Please, forgive me…"

"Don't run away from the reality Sultan!" Antonius interrupted out of a sudden shouting out loud startling the man in front of him. "The reality is that you, have made a chain of severe strategic mistakes which ultimately led to your defeat under that damned city, and because of this defeat the entire situation in Anatolia is now screwed up! The balance have been lost! Because of you! And you know what can happen next? Your vessels, shall start to think that you are an unreliable leader and start to find a replacement for you very soon, install another puppet which might just be far more obedient spurring less trouble for them, not a Sultan who will go around every day losing wars giving their lands away to some one else."

"You ought to know that if you do not get back in time to consolidate your supporters and your remaining troops. You shall be deposed soon enough, and you shall then lose every thing that you had in the past, you understand? I know that it is hard getting past a major defeat, but trust me as your old friend I am doing every thing for your good…"

"It has only been five years and you have learnt the cunning mouth of an autocrat, my old friend Antonius." Sultan Orhan interrupted facing the table. "I know, because you need me, you do not want a unified Anatolia and a Zaganos Pasha returning to face you with a grand victory, a victorious army with a buffed up morale…. Which will halt or even kill your any wish of continued conquest, and so you need me to act like a sponge, a shield to attract the swords and arrows of Zaganos Pasha, and a proxy of yours in the mountains of Anatolia, am I right? Lord Antonius?"

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