Chapter 381: 376: A Night's Conversation

"Good idea." Constantine tried his very best to understand his trusted general with that same old warm grin on his face. "If I am able to bear a child at this age, I would probably name him after Constantine too, breaking the so called prophecy that Imperium Romanum shall start with an emperor named Constantine and end with an emperor called Constantine…"

"Well, I never believed in things like prophecies." Giovanni gave a hmpgh and commented on the emperor's superstitious believe. "There are always buggers trying to convince me to buy their services, saying that if I do exactly according to what their prophecy says, I can win a battle. But if you read carefully their prophecies are always deliberately written in words and phrases that are hard to understand, may be with some ambiguous ritual before telling you the prophecies. Then if you fail, they blame you for not fully understanding what their prophecy says. If you win, they shall go around taking the credit, saying that you won because of his prophecies."

Giovanni did not realise that the atmosphere around this tent is getting awkward, as the emperor certainly did not expect a lecture on him by his general and went back to silence staring at the ground. Giovanni too found out that he has been saying the wrong thing, with the sound of his words lower and lower, until it is barely audible. After a while Giovanni could not bare this embarrassment any more and decided to own it up and break the silence. 

"I am going to get married after this battle, in the biggest church in all of Constantinople."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Constantine raised his eye brows hearing some thing interesting. "Aren't you already married?" 

"Aye, indeed." Giovanni agreed. "But my marriage with Therma is far from complete, we married with out a proper wedding. Thus I have promised her that after this battle, I shall return in the stance of a victor, and give her a formal wedding in front of the eyes of every one… But it seems like I am unable to continue marching alongside the troops now. 

"Do not worry about it." Comforted Constantine. "You are always a victor no matter whether it is now, in the past or in the future. I shall always allocate the commander for the Grand Parade's position for you. You shall be the first to enter the city after you have recovered, riding the most elegant horse the empire has, with two royal family members holding you kneels leading your way… I shall be there too offering blessings to you and Therma, on behalf of all Romans and the Senate." 

"I thank you, deeply wit gratitude." Giovanni got up again and grabbed the hand of Constantine. "But I still have one concern, emperor, that is with the current ongoing situation." 

"I am just about to ask you about this, Lord Giustiniani. Who can you recommend to take your place and lead the troops to advance on to Edirne?" 

"Do not advance on to Edirne so fast, emperor." Giovanni warned waving his bandaged hand. "We are far from ready, our troops just suffered a great loss, and we shall not be able to fight another major battle in a year's time; We need to update our armaments, we need new recruits and the time to train them. I recommend you to solidify our control on the newly reclaimed territories now while the Ottomans does not have the effort to come over, reassemble an army and pick a fight with us."

Constantine replied with silence, showing his attitude. He wanted to force a lie saying that he shall obey by Giovanni's recommendations but he found this lie to be the hardest one to ever make, because he longed for this moment of crippling the Ottomans with his own effort, own army not relying on those unfaithful Western Crusader or whoever's help who are known to fail again and again either because they abandon their allies in battle, or they prefer to fight in their own ways instead of just listening to the instructions of the central command. He is now nearest to his ultimate goal of restoring the greatness of the empire, and he cannot lie to the wishes of himself. 

He wants to be the Constantine that made the Roman Empire great again, surpass the historical significance of any Roman emperors before him, proof himself before his people and mark his name on historical manuscripts in bold. He wants to retake Edirne, or Adrianopolis. But at the same time he too, as a politician knows that what Giovanni just said to him is truthful and he is not that kind of Varangian who acts before thinking, he knows that the Ottomans now still have the capabilities of reassembling an army larger than his. Thus, the emperor difficultly nodded and complied. "Fine, I shall stop the army before the fortress of Tzirallon."

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Sensing this attitude coming from the emperor Giovanni sighed and laid his hands to rest again. "Fine, emperor. If you want to take a riskier approach to how things are done… Do not just stop before Tzirallon. Thrace is a place where there are hardly any mountains or elevated lands, it is all about plains, and we are still scarce in our stocks of horses… I would suggest you to reach your antennas out as far as possible deep in to the Ottoman territories, not to conquer lands, but to bring back the local Roman population and allocate them accordingly in the lands where we can control. Just like what my friend Antonius said before, it is the people, the population that is the most vital thing in this era, not land."

The emperor totally agreed on that, he too is trying his best to shed off the ancient cocoon passed to him carrying all those things like the prestige, honours and etiquette as a noble distancing himself from the other Romans even when they only have one last city left. Since the time when he became the despot over Morea, he has always been going in to the fields helping the local farmers during their harvesting seasons, chatting with merchant representatives from both the East and West on how they feel about the new trade policies. These efforts did pay off to him during his subsequent conquests in Thessaly. 

"As for the new commander of the army… Yes, I still recommend Mauro." Giovanni gave his answer. "He might not be a clear thinker on strategical issues, but he is a suitable commander on carrying out tactical missions, he ought to be able to assist you in things. But just keep him under control, because he still carries that mentality as a mercenary roaming around the Mediterranean with me last time. He certainly does not have any sense of belongingness to Constantinople." 

"Maybe it is because he does not have a Roman wife like you." 

"Maybe! Hahaha… Ouch!" Giovanni giggled with the emperor's joke, but accidentally torn his wound by a little bit halting his laughter, making him gape in pain and unable to close his mouth for some time.  The emperor helped him recover his chins, but after this awkward event Constantine dared not make any more jokes, and went on asking.

"Where do you plan to go after this battle?"

"I don't know, maybe I shall just take a break from all the flames of war with the rest of the casualties. You know, like what Antonius used to do last time, maybe pet a little puppy, read some hard to understand literature books. Oh, and most importantly, perhaps get a lass a fine lass with big boobs and round butt not like the one Antonius got last time, as my literature tutor, and then I can flirt around with her all day long till I make a full recovery…" 

"I can arrange for you one, if that is what you truly want. A linguistic young woman, with a set of… sensuous body features, to be your tutor, and she shall be responsible to at least make you be able to write your letters and reports in Greek properly, not like those one either full of Vocabulary and grammar mistakes, or suddenly mixing in Latin for the words you do not know." 

"Hell no, please don't, emperor, that was only meant to be a joke." The big bandaged man made a sheepish smile. "May I take back my words, do not take it seriously… If you really do, Therma would kill me for this. And furthermore, she is still bearing my child, I cannot be unfaithful towards her when she has already sacrificed so much for me." 

"Of course, of course." Constantine chuckled. 

The two men spent another night chatting with each other, appreciating their time as pals and comrades before the next day comes, and Constantine has to leave this place with the rest of his troops, marching off towards more enemies. While Giovanni would remain here, waiting for his wounds to be tended with before he can show himself in armour again.

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