Chapter 351: Medieval Problem Requires Medieval Solution

"If you make a promise, you keep it, if you make a mistake, you apologize. And if you give someone a dream, you defend it to the end"

-        Tartaglia "Childe"

Yuri charged down the slope like a raging Rhino, though he has never seen a Rhino in his life before. The bandits around the victims prepared themselves holding up their cleavers, butcher knives, hoes and pitch forks trying to scare these two random people away. Though Yuri totally did not give a damn about these ignoring the pathetic tries of these brutes, continuing his charge and raising his axe. And finally landing it right on the head of a bandit, who is trying to block off this axe strike by raising the pitch fork in his hands above his head.

But he underestimated the strength and power this Varangian man before him had, with one single strike Yuri cut the pitch fork in to half, and then the momentum continued leading the axe blade downwards slicing in to the bandit's skull, slashing the body of this man in to half, with the chest of this man still bulging and eye ball still rolling when he faced his call to meet God. Yuri raised the axe back in to his hands, and accelerated his horse on to the next target standing near by. This man met the same fate as his brother, with one slight slash it sent this man's head flying off in to a pile of hay stack a distance away, waking up the all frightened bandits, forcing them to flee.

Yuri did not bother chasing after these piss pots, instead he wept the blood off his face with a rugged cloth, tidied up his uncouth hair with a band and then walked to the two people he has just rescued, hoping that they are girls so that he can ask poets in Thessaloniki to write him a poetry next time praising him for the deed resembling a Slavic hero. Though the reality soon disappointed him, by a lot, as the two people he has just rescued are men, with one still being a kid.

Since these two people are guys instead of lass, Yuri withdrew that courtesy he has prepared earlier on, placing down the still dripping blood battle axe and asked impatiently. "Oi! Wha' are ye two sprogs doin' here? Ye know that 'tisn't safe outside those walls?"

The kid seems to be frightened by Yuri's bellowing voice and ferocious face, with his entire body shaking uncontrollably unable to answer this giant's question. While the other civilian showed some guts knowing that this man is their saviour and answered with a shaking voice. "We are from a near by village which got destroyed before the war, we know that it is not safe loitering around here, but we want to come back to where we used to live to visit our family's grave, and see if our old house is still there standing…"

Hearing this Yuri turned back giving a sigh of empathy, and then waved his hands signalling the two people to go. "Stay here no more sprogs, although the Infidel invaders 'ave been defeated 'n pushed back, this area be still theoretically a war zone, wit' all things wicked runnin' around like those piss pots ye encountered jus' now… Listen t' me, go home, visit yer family grave another time…."

Suddenly Yuri seems to have remembered some thing and asked them another question. "Where are yer parents?"

The two teens lowered their head and declined to answer this question, while the soldier that came with Yuri could no longer control himself and pulled the cloth of the Varangian. "Captain… The answer should be pretty obvious to you, they said that they are on route to visit the family grave…"

Yuri immediately realised how stupid his question was and turned back feeling slightly ashamed, waving again for the two teens to go away, but it seems like his follower has some thing else stuck in his mind as he approached Yuri from behind muttering. "Have you forgot our mission here captain? We literally dug the ground putting in effort to find some one for consultation with the admiral but found nothing, and here they are! Two living people! Why not we bring them back to the admiral?"

Yuri's eyes lit up from this suggestion as he stopped the two teens in their tracks for the third time of the day. "Ahoy! Ye two! Actually I've got some sort o' favour t' ask from ye two, may ye follow me t' some where? Do nah worry, we be nah bad scallywags, we be honourable 'n trustworthy Roman soldiers servin' under cap'n Antonius…"

However immediately after he mentioned his identity, the younger kid suddenly started shaking his entire body and became so scared to a point that he wept shedding tears right in front of every one, screaming out. "No! God! Jesus! No we are not going any where! Please do not bring us to the Roman soldiers! Do not bother us with any more government order from Lord Antonius again! Please I beg you good lord, have mercy on us!"

This caused a lot of confusion to Yuri as he totally did not know what on Earth is going on with these two teens, as usually in Thessaloniki serving Lord Antonius' army is considered a privilege, a kind of honour that normal people do not really get, serving the army for a couple of year can be granted a sum of wealth sufficient to sustain a flexible life in the rural areas, with honour, glory and also respect from neighbours friends and family members, so what is the issue over here?

Yuri continued trying to persuade these two people, but the more he persuades he more agitated and petrified these two teens seems to be, screaming shouting and crying making it appear like Yuri is the bad guy here trying to sabotage these two innocent folks. This went on for a while until Yuri and the soldier beside him could not take it any more, tied the two teens up by force and threw them on to their horses, while they went to the front and held the kneel for them.

The two teens continued shouting along the way, usually a few sentence in Bulgarian, then a few sentence in Greek, it did not take long before Yuri too gets frustrated and such a piece of cloth in each of their mouth, then finally did the world come back to peace for the four people, strolling alongside the equally quiet winter world with nothing in the surrounding except for flying crows, dead tries with no leaves, sealed wells, dried irrigation canals and the lack of greenery land.

"Even the land o' Rus got more greens than this god damn place." Yuri commented.

"It was not like this when we came here last time round… So, what happened here?" The soldier too commented while looking around staying cautious for potential danger. "Forgive me, captain Yuri, but I do not believe that a few Ottoman infiltration and a bunch of burglars can make things become like this, there must be some other reason behind this desolate place."

Yuri nodded in agreement. The older teenager riding on top of the horse back has stopped twisting around unlike his younger brother, and stayed quiet trying to listen to the conversation between these two burly people in front who calls themselves as soldiers of Lord Antonius.

Finally, they arrived back in a temporary camp set up for the admiral with only thirty plus people inside, it took them no effort to see their admiral, who is there seating under the branch of a tree talking to two other people who looks like farmers judging by their appearance, brought back here by another two cavalries. The admiral Antonius, kept his smile like always when talking to his people, trying to lessen their stress as much as possible so that he can get more information. And it seems to have worked this time too, with the two elder farmers looking like they are having a relaxing chat with the admiral, explaining to him every thing that has happened around here.

"Old gent, I still have one doubt in my mind." Seeing Yuri has returned, Antonius decided to fasten up the conversation by a little bit or else it can go all the way till sun set. "You know that my army is just stationed only around thirty Roman miles away, but why did not get the full coverage on the worsening situation here? It does not make any sense, am I right?"

"We cannot answer your question, my lord." The two elders shook their heads. "We are nothing but ignorant farmers who knows nothing except planting crops for generation after generation… We have no idea what has happened with the governor of Drama, the only thing we know is that our invaluable piece of land has been forced to be sold…"

"Land? Forced to be sold?!"