Chapter 209: Send the Head Rolling

Antonius left Anna's tent and had a deep breathe of the fresh night air by the beach. 

The trial in a distance is still ongoing, with occasional roars and sobbers accompanied by the waving of battle axes signifying another head goes rolling on the ground. Seems like Anjelo and Abdullah will have a tough time tonight. He looks at the stage and went wandering about that old man Anjelo, whether his body can persist him to do this kind of physically demanding stuff. 

A smirk appeared on his face as he looked at his ships docked and patrolling in the sea waters, and his solders patrolling around with cutlass hung on their waist. He knows that he is considered an outsider to this island, if it is someone who do not have a basic security force by his side then he has to corporate with the local lords to get things working and not be frightened by people surrounding his house at the middle of the night. However, Antonius is different, for the men he brought is even much more than the entire population of this island, and all of them have weapons. 

After instructing someone to prepare some gruel for those who are still handling trials in the late of the night, Antonius went back to his tent and sleep. 

He had a rather bizarre and terrifying dream that night.

In the dream he feels that he is a poor young man roughly the same age as him now of around twenty six years old now, who had not heard the tickling sound of coins in his purse for a long time, wearing a white and red toga gripping the pillars on a ship making its way through the rare storms of the familiar but odd Aegean. The young man in his dream tries all his effort to prevent his pouch from getting drenched in the sea water, as inside it contains his important studying materials on Oratory which he spends months to get it.

The ship, like the sea gulls, are tossed like stones in the storm tumbling around as it struggles against the gale wave. Beneath the feet of the young man, the rogue sea rises like it reached the height of the alps, with the force of the God Neptune himself, turbulent and unforgiving towards the ship disrupting his rest.

What made it even worse is that three ships from a distance came charging at this poor unmovable ship at direct front. With its characteristics being easily recognisable by almost everyone on the ship. "Its pirates f Cilicia Trachea!" People shouted, in an alien Latin language, as they hurried to scatter around trying desperately to hide all their belongings as secret as they can.

Never had the young man longed so much for the reach of land, and the soft touch of sand. Before setting off he is still an adventurous young adult who pursues to have a taste of the exciting adventure that awaits him, pursue his dreams of being a successful Orator just like his already deceased father who was once a governor, then he shall make a come back to the capital, and he shall reshape his father's legacy climbing the pyramid of the government structure.

Though he sure did not realise at that moment what this adventure shall be like. The fear distorts his face shrinking the pupil in his eyes, unable to move a feet in the rogue waves he stares at the approaching pirate ships fast approaching him in a distance. The Gladius waving in those pirate's hand can almost be visible together along with its master's sinister laughter.

The pirates jumped overboard as if it is a flat ground for them despite of the waves, with a sinister grin on their faces they surround the young man who can be seen from his lavish clothing, is not some one ordinary, surely they would expect some good ransom to be paid by this young man's family. They crept upon him with ropes and sword. The young man in Antonius' dreams, tried his best to reach for the usual 'cutlass' that he always hung by his waist, but to his horror there are no cutlass over there.

Which student would always hang a blade by the side of his tunic?

The pirates came closer and closer to the young man.

…

Antonius sprung up from his bed panting up and down, with his body bursting into cold sweat which made him smell sour in this weather. He looked at his trembling hands on the mattress panting, thinking about the dream he just got. Was it a prophecy sent to him by God? If not what made him have this dream? He do not have an answer.

After a brief moment of catching up with his breathe, shook the thoughts about the dream away from his head, Antonius got off his mattress wearing his boots, then strolled outside of his tent patting the shoulders of the guards that guarded him all night, and admired the usual peaceful and calm sceneries of the beach he sees every day.

It is already in the late morning.

The trial that spent over night resulted in a total thirty one people beheaded, five people imprisoned for life under the supervision of the locals, and couple of kids recruited on board Antonius' fleet as servants. The crowd has already dispersed back to their homes to carry on with their daily stuff. Even with the evil land lords who used to oppress them removed, they have no time to celebrate unlike the citizens of Constantinople. These islanders are always on the verge of total starvation which leaves them with no choice but to work hard every day to get their next meal. 

Those things did change towards the better way, and it is going to become even better as the first thing their new lord Antonius did in the morning, is to issue an order to Julian to check on the total area of land and total number of boats the deceased land lord possess, how much food did they store, and how much coins did he keep. And by tomorrow he is going to equally distribute the land to the farmers on the island, the boats to the fisher men, the food and grains to each house hold as a form of gift, and for the money, he has some other special use for it in a later time. 

Under their admiral's orders the fleet then spread out to the other islands establishing their sphere of control setting up law and order, with specific instructions for each ship to look out for those locals who are considered rich or influential in the area. Whether these land lords are innocent or not the Varangians stormed their properties at once putting them into custody even before checking if they have convicted any oppression or despicable crimes to the innocents in order to prevent them from organizing any resistance which might lead to more blood shed later on. 

Then, organise a mass trial like what Antonius have done on Prínkēpos, have the locals come up and say what has these folks done to them in the past, and determine whether they are guilty based on that. Distribute their lands, properties, grains and other resources equally among the locals to win their trust and faith, make promises to protect them and exempt them from paying any taxes making them regain their economical abilities fast, and most important of all, encourage reproduction. 

Of course, if there are really any local lord that is like a so called 'saint' in the mouths of his subjects, Antonius do not mind sparing him in order to deepen his grasp on the area. It is pretty obvious that every thing that he is doing now is not solely for a charitable cause of helping these locals out of compassion, but also to use the chance to eliminate the local powers to create a political vacuum so that he can fill it up with him as the new over lord. 

An over lord does not tolerate any more lords in the land other than him alone. Just like two male tigers cannot stay in the same area. 

The entire process took Antonius and his men approximately four days, resulting in the death of another dozen land lords under the blades of Varangian axes. Their money confiscated, estates demolished, lands and boats redistributed, and their slaves freed. It can be said that at this point of time Antonius is the sole ruler of these islands loved by his subjects for giving them a new life freeing them from the iron grips of their past masters. Antonius showed himself on every single island parading through the local villages wearing a fancy Laurel wreath and a tunic of red and white embracing the hugs and support of every single person, it is almost like in a day's time the sky over these poor folks changed with a new lord giving them every thing they need, removing oppression and giving them a new hope in life in his speeches.

Since the start of this day, Antonius is the true 'king' of the Prince Islands.