Chapter 401: 396: No Time To Live

Mauro stands firm in front of the fire place in his small commanding room, filled with the nauseous mixed scent of human sweat and dried blood with more than a dozen people pecked together standing closely. The fire place, as a contrast to the pitch dark winter night outside the windows, glowing with its bright golden flames, bring some extra warmth to the already hot enough room making people sweat even more inside their inner clothing and armours. But that certainly does not matter a lot any more, as again, Mauro and his gang now has a bigger problem to deal with. 

"So, please allow me to ask you this question, 'master ambassador', what is your name?" Mauro asked in a weird tone trying to flame the man kneeling before him. "Do you care to enlighten me, just like what you have done in the past weeks, please?" 

"I have told you repeated times, your highness." The ambassador raised his face, his lips are now fully dried and cracked with one of his eyes blackened with extravasated blood, all showing that he certainly did not enjoy some good treatment a while ago. "My name is Ayaz Ahmed Pasha, a member of Abbas Pasha's corps sent here to negotiate an alliance between the two powers."

Hearing these same old words Mauro gave a snare and walked up to the man kneeling on the ground. "But where are the troops of your Abbas Pasha? I don't see any thing going around here though, I can only see the army of the Sultan! Ohhh, let me guess, I must be mistaken, those men outside must be your men, not the Sultan's men, must be here to help us, right?"

The pasha remained silent, lowering his head down on the ground, refusing to answer any question.

"So, let me ask you again, seriously this time." Mauro lowered his voice suddenly staring right at the head of the man before him. "What is your real name, answer or you shall get persecuted."

"Ayaz Ahmed Pasha."

Mauro squatted down and snatched the kneeling man by his keffiyeh, throwing it on the ground and grabbed the ambassador by his thick oily hair, forcing him to stand. "But I have heard some very, very interesting words, saying that your name is not Ayaz Ahmed, but you are an 'honourable' pasha though, your true name ought to be Gedik Ahmed. Am I right?"

Facing this situation, the man could still force a smile on his cracked lips, although it looked more like a weep instead of a smile and continued resisting. "Well, you should know that we Ottomans have a tradition of bearing two or more names, do you need one also? I can help you find a very… ooff…"

Mauro gave this Gedik Ahmed Pasha a good punch on his soft abdomen, almost making Gedik Ahmed Pasha spit the sour juice in his stomach out on to the tall Latin mercenary's face. But still he kept a smile after twitching his face. "You know, I came from the Janissaries, old Janissaries, and I am proficient in the studies of literature and languages such as Latin and Greek, I am sure that I can give you a name that suites you…"

Mauro gave him another good solid punch on his hardened belly, making him choke in his saliva and coughed out loud, but he still kept his smile which seemed to Mauro as absolutely irritating. Feeling a great despise towards this man Mauro continued interrogating. "How did you give the information regarding the route we took to your masters? How did they know where to lay an ambush on us? What else do your masters know? Spit it out, or I shall give you a few good lashes!"

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Ayaz Ahmed, no, Gedik Ahmed Pasha made a weak grin and raised his head again to look at the man. "Let me make this clear, honourable general, I did not have any ways of communicating with my colleagues outside in Bulgaria the moment I stepped in to your camp, the routes and suggestions I gave to you people is indeed the best routes and suggestions I have to offer which is indeed the fastest way to reach Edirne, I did not lie in the start, no one could have communicated with me since the start, and you people never asked me whether is there a whole bunch of ambushes waiting for you ahead… So whose problem you think it is? Is it mine? Or is it yours?"

Mauro no longer bothered interrogating this man, knowing that he is just trying to say words to affect his mind and thinking by making him furious, unleashing the true evil inside him. Knowing that he probably cannot take any useful information from this man's mouth, Mauro decided to take a break first and removed the gauntlets from his hands. However, it seems like this ambassador whom indeed has a golden tongue, make a smirk continuing his stare on Mauro, and laughed out loud.

"Actually, you should know, Master Mauro, I know myself, you know yourself, and you got to admit, even if I was not involved in the decision making process of your army, you guys shall still eventually try to find out the nearest path to Edirne, and try to snitch the capital city as fast as possible, am I right? So please, do not try to find fault on me your highness. I am completely innocent in this, and you failed the battle does not mean that you have the rights to vent your rage over me, it is your failure, not mine… Ooff…"

Mauro could resist it no more and kicked the ambassador on his chest, but the later soon climbed up with his hands being cuffed and continued trying to provoke this general. "Please stop abusing an ambassador like me, I thought your people, seeing yourself as the more civilised Europeans, are bound by a strict codex of Chivalry regulating your behaviours? You know that abusing a foreign legate ought to be strictly out of bounds?"

"That is a red head thing, not for us." Mauro clenched his fist and walked up to the so called ambassador, after a while he too realised some thing and made a laugh. Just as his sub coordinates in the room are thinking whether their commander has gone mad by rage he responded. "You know what, I have seen through your tricks spy, you are just trying to provoke me in to making an illogical decision so that you can turn the situation in to the better way for your masters…."

"Oh really?" Gedik Ahmed Pasha lifted up his eye brow, and interrupted in an exaggerated way. "Is that what you have been thinking? Oh, you must be damn smart my lord! But actually, you know what, nah I am not thinking about that, instead I am thinking of some other things, some traits and behaviours I have seen… On you, and the emperor of yours."

"What is it?" The moment after Mauro replied he immediately regretted about it, as…

"Because, let me be frank over here, your highness, you and your emperor entered the state you are in right now only because of your own stupidity and most importantly, greed. The chain of victories prior to this softened your heart of caution, making you people think that we Ottomans have became like clowns in terms of combat capabilities. And especially your emperor, engulfed in the mind of envy by the chain of grand victories fought by the southern lord, decided that he must do some thing to prove to the people that he is the true over lord, the true emperor of the Rumelians, not that lord of the South… And for you…"

Gedik Ahmed Pasha made a stare with a vague smile towards Mauro, making the later feel like he is peeking right at the deepest point of his heart and mind. "An honest remark, you are not that up to standard as a commander of an army more than five thousand people, you cannot be compared with your master Giovanni, I wonder how you are going to explain to Giovanni about the defeat you have just been through, and I cannot imagine how disappointed he would be when he heard about your defeat caused be nothing but greed…"

These words successfully laid a spike down at the soft point of Mauro's heart as he too, is thinking about how he should face Giovanni when he goes back to Constantinople with this bad news. Being completely tilted and provoked Mauro torn down all the reason and calm he had prior to this, jumped up from his chair, and under the horrified look by others he pulled out his blade and pierced it right in to the chest of Gedik Ahmed Pasha. The later slowly collapsed on to the ground, with blood gushing out of his chest while he maintained his stare at Mauro, still showing that calm smile that almost creeped Mauro, sending cold chills down his back.

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