Chapter 256: Six and Two

"Equity is that idea of justice which contravenes the written law."

-        Aristotle

The group of farmers went off thanking Antonius repeatedly getting the freedom, compensation and farm land, the land lord is put to prison relieved that he is not executed by the admiral, and the admiral himself acquired more love among the common folks. It can be said that at the end of the day, every one got want they wanted. 

Happy ending, happy ending. 

Helio and Fisnik cautiously approached Antonius. 

"Admiral!" Helio kneeled down and reported. "I am guilty! Admiral!" 

"What is it? Stand up and speak, there is no need for you to kneel." 

Helio took out the six ingots of silver and dropped it on the marble ground, and pinched the thigh of Fisnik stopping the later from hesitating again and made him drop his two ingot of silver on to the floor too. 

"My admiral… We are bribed! By that land lord's house keep, I am deeply sorry that I actually accepted this sum of dirty money that I do not deserve… Thus, I hereby present it to you, I wish for your pardon and forgiving my admiral…" 

Fisnik hastily nodded and followed. "I too, admiral." 

Antonius gazed at the two men on the ground, and the three silverish ingots laying in front. He listened patiently to Helio's words of confession. He just sat there holding his chins with his hand palm on the table and continued looking for a minute. Which to the two people beneath felt like this is the longest minute they have ever been through in their entire life. Their hands and arms began trembling vigorously and large droplets of perspiration began dripping on to the marble ground, but they dared not look up towards Antonius to see the expression of their admiral, as they themselves knows that they have committed the cardinal sin of avaritia which is not accepted both in here and the theological world. 

"Helio!" Questioned Antonius. "Can you swear to God and me that you only received six  silver ingots from that land lord?"

"Yes! My admiral!" Helio rose his head up looking at Antonius and sweared. "I can guarantee to God and you by my heart that I only received six ingots of silver!" 

"I see." Antonius took a sip of the hot drink on the table dampening his dried lips. "What about you, Fisnik?" 

"I…" Fisnik bit his teeth and instead of rising his head up, he lowered it further on to the ground and replied. "I hereby... swear to God and you, admiral! That I only took two ingots of silver!" 

"I see." Antonius continued monotonously. "I am glad that you have the honesty to inform me about this… Go ahead, take this money for yourself, buy yourself a house to reside… Especially you, Helio, I know that you got quite a big family still in Marmara, this  six ingots of silver should be more than enough for you to purchase a pretty big house for your entire family to live in, fetch them here soon once you are done… Remember, I do not want to see you two spend this money on things like thimble rig, dice and even worse prostitutes, is that clear?" 

The statement of the admiral really came as both a shock and a surprise to the two men beneath, but they had no time to rejoice or regret about it, the two of them hastily nodded their head vowing that they shall comply with all the rules, and scattered off hugging the ingots of silver back in to their pouch. 

Antonius sighed leaning back on the chair staring at the full of beautiful mosaic artefacts ceiling for a while. Then he tilted his head looking at Alexios seating beside him. "What do you think, Alexios?" 

"Very hard to say, my lord." Alexios shrugged his shoulders. "But you know, I am not that kind of man that is in to reporting my colleagues…" 

"I am tired, Alexios." Antonius closed his eyes. "I don't want to listen to all of these minute troubled spurred by them,  and furthermore, will he really think that this kind of small trick is able to fool me? How is it possible that the what ever house keeper of the land lord gave Helio six ingots of silver, and only gave Fisnik two ingots? Huh? Is that house keep so damn inconsiderate, or has he ran out of silver or accidentally dropped one in to the drain while passing it to them? Hahaha…" 

"Admiral, please calm down, I believe there is some other reason behind that boy's actions!" Alexios stood up and tried to defend for Alexios. "You see, Alexios… is an orphan after the Ottoman invasion, living through most of his life in a malnourished and poor state, and thus naturally his mind is a little bit… uncertain, when faced with the lure of wealth, but he is still young!" 

"Young?" Antonius gave a cold laugh. "He is near twenty, and I am just turning twenty seven… But fine you are partly right, I shall turn a blind eye towards his dishonest act for this time, and I definitely hope that there will not be a next time… Yuri! Come in!" 

Yuri, who is guarding the doors since just now, stormed in and asked. "What is it, admiral?" 

Antonius ordered with out any facial expression. "Go to the prison cells, hang that land lord, and then dispatch a team to confiscate all of the land lord's properties." 

"Yes, admiral." Yuri turned back to execute the order without asking why. 

Hearing this Alexios sighed silently hiding his hands back into the robes lowering his head to read the paper. For he has remembered what his mentor taught him that the greatest obstacle towards forming a true system of healthy balanced and equal laws are always the beneficiaries of the current working system, which often came to be dictators or influential politicians and lords. And yes, when they have power on every single thing, there will always be one day they will not be able to stop their temptation and use the power they have making judgement and punishment bypassing the law set by the judges written on the codex of laws, like this time. 

Even if the dictator is a just and trustworthy ruler, the point of their actions itself is positive, meaning a good intention killing off the rogues and greedy lords, but their simple action of giving punishments evading through the law itself is a damage to the credibility of the law. This brings in a very elementary yet vastly debatable question, is the ruler above the law, or is the law above the ruler. 

But what can he do? Nothing, he is just a humble advisor. Except he can further advise the admiral next time on such issues when he is not that furious in his mind. Alexios definitely not to crash himself on to the rage of the admiral which might shatter his bones. 

…

The Grand Trial continued for a few more days, many more people rushed in to the court to witness the series of trials ongoing, cheering every time a case is concluded with justice and a rogue land lord or suspect is put under punishment. Touched by the stories of the victim the spectating crowd would throw stones and even run up personally to punch or try to strangle these criminals. Things began to evolve so extreme that one man was almost pummeled to death by angry crowds, and Antonius had to put guards to save his life and cool down the crowd. 

The news of the justice truly being done in the court of Thessaloniki spread to not only the city itself but also to nearby smaller villages and towns, with many more villagers coming in to report on the wretched local bullies, corrupted village chief and cruel nobles. Antonius of course, sent his calvaries this time to hunt down them one by one putting them under trial, and in the mean time send his own slightly educated veterans of wars as the new head men of these villages, successfully implementing his reach and influence out of the city to a more far stretched rural area. 

The fortnight long of trial smacked open the dark clouds of lawlessness looming over this area last time during the Ottoman rule, where the ruling class of the Ottomans wont really care about all these smaller matters of the commoners, they only focused on extracting more taxation from these farmers and merchants, while appeasing the local influential lords giving them various titles so that they probably will not revolt when the bulk of the Ottoman army is out there fighting a new war or even worse fall to the side of Zaganos Pasha; The current Sultan seating on that throne is not Murad, who swept across the area with his iron fist, nor is it Mehmed, who continued his rule here casting fear, it is now the Grand Vizier Candarli Halil Pasha.