Chapter 356: The Bulgarian Descendent

"Spiritalis enim virtus sacramenti ita est ut lux: etsi per immundos transeat, non inquinatur"

"The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light: although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted."

-        Augustine of Hippo.

"Look at these pathetic faggots, Yuri."

A distance away Antonius, the people these merchants having been waiting for so damn long, is casually seated on a hill observing the commotion beneath him with a clear sight, while in contrast these people beneath cannot see him. He has been here all the well but refused to go inside the terrace and meet these merchants just to torture them by baking their souls on fire. He did this of course not to just entertain himself, but because this is a common way of negotiation, where by you scrub your opponent off their patience first, then scare them in to submitting to your request.

Yuri continued standing guard beside Antonius holding his signature axe, he does not have much interest in these people running around beneath the hills, as he knows that it is impossible for these people to pose any kind of threat to the admiral. His main concern is still the soldiers from the garrison of Drama who are mainly standing guard in the city of Drama maintaining law and order. He do not trust these people, knowing that they have already been infiltrated in to doing dirty work.

"Aye, admiral." Yuri answered exhaling the white smog out in to the cold. "Real pathetic, actually I do not understand admiral, these people already have enough coins to live a good life, but why did they decide to try the borderline of the laws and get even more coins through these dirty stuff?"

"While Yuri." Antonius tried to make an answer. "You know, Greed is a common trait that all human beings have. A man wants his wife prettier; a woman wants her husband to be less abusive, a warrior wants a better sword, and a pirate, despite already having much riches, wants a better…"

"Admiral…" Remembering some thing Yuri made a cut in to Antonius' speech. "I do not know about your last time being a pirate roaming the Mediterranean sea, but for us Nordic pirates who used to roam the Eastern Baltic and the Caucasian seas, things are rather different, we only became pirates because we, the muzhiks or serfs, did not have enough food to eat, and are forced in to piracy."

Antonius almost choked and continued no more on this topic. After five prolonging years as a lord even he have forgotten many details of his formal life on the seas.

After a prolonged awkward silence Antonius stood up, gave a pat on his butt clearing all the straws and hays, then went down slope. "Lets go Yuri! Time for us to meet our valuable guests, they must be waiting anxiously now."

Yuri chased behind closely. "Admiral! Your armour! Your armour!"

A while later as the sun is already coming down, the land lords and merchants are almost lying on the ground unconscious from the lack of water and food, which accompanied with the extreme fear of getting purged it made many of them both physically and mentally crumpled. But when things finally began to have a change they rooted their back up again, as they heard a loud series of tickling sounds coming from the gate of the terrace. They know this sound too well, the tickling sound is coming from the armour of these soldiers.

"Master Borislav! Please! Think of a way!" A merchant who could take it no more kneeled on the ground and pleaded the senior chairman. "These rogues led by the tyrant is finally here to kill us!"

However, by this time the chairman of the merchants, the elder called Borislav, have already calmed down seating down still with his eyes closed. "Do not worry, boy, I reckon the fact that the Caesar is here to take our lives today."

"How can you be so sure master?"

"Think about it, gents." Borislav had to open his eyes again and start explaining to these peck of worried fellows. "How did you people torture your serfs and kholops last time? You order your hit men to go for them, hunt them down and chop down their head, just like how you kill an ant. While for the Caesar, if he wants to kill us we would have no means to resist, we are the ant this time round. So why is he still not coming for our life now? It only means that we are at least still useful to him, or killing us would obstruct his future plans…"

A range of clapping noise that came from a far interrupted the chairman Borislav's words. The merchants and land lords turned their heads to look in to the direction, and there came two men, one tall and one short, both dressed in light cavalry armours walking towards them. Without much thinking the bunch of smart Alec here can assume that the man clapping is their lordship, the Caesar of Imperium Romanum, and that famed one man whom those buggers with weapons used to address him as the 'admiral'.

"All heil to your supreme leader, the Caesar of the Empire!" The elder chairman screamed out loud first but even without his orders, the merchants and land lords kneeled down by themselves with their heads lowered to the ground, because they have already been loomed by a composition of fear, anxiety, and stress that not only came from their crimes, but also because of the aura that this man before them carries, a kind of aura that can judge their life and death with one single word, the aura of power. The elder chair man continued shouting out his words of appeasement. "Your lordship! Your loyal subjects from the principality of Drama is here to embrace your words of honour! Please! Take the main seat my lord!"

"No, no, no." The admiral waved his hands and pulled the elder up from the ground staring in to his eyes. "Come, tell me respectful elder, who owns this terrace?"

A few seconds later a fat merchant climbed up from the ground shivering, confessing that it is him.

Antonius made a freezing giggle and then pointed towards him. "You see, elder, he is the owner of this place, we are all his guests, and thus he ought to be the one who should seat at the main seat, please gentleman, take the seat that you deserve!"

The chubby merchant almost cried out in front of every one, because he knows clearly that he did not acquire this property through legal means of course, there was originally a small settlement of five families residing here using this piece of land for agriculture to feed themselves. He did try to negotiate with them initially offering them with a price lower than the market value. And when he got rejected, he became furious and resorted to hiring a bunch of thugs, paying them to get rid of these farmers clearing the land for his new terrace.

In the end the farmers got inevitably chased away off to some where, with several murder and rape cases in the process tainting this place with blood, tears and agony. Then satisfied with the work, the chubby merchant decided to build a terrace for himself when summer comes. However, for this time round, winter came to him instead of summer.

Antonius waited until this chubby merchant went up to the main seat, then picked a seat by the side raising his cup, giving a toast to every one else in an expression of courtesy. "Please, pardon me for the long enduring wait! Gentlemen! I was busy tackling some criminals that are roaming around the streets of Drama, which took some time, and you here must know that what ever I have done for you people is for your own good."

The elder chairman had to stand up representing every one else. "We thank you with all of our hearts, admiral, your name shall be together with the moon and the stars. Your prestige will be as bright as the sun, allowing all of us to bathe under your shines of glory."

Antonius made a few wild laughs towards the sky, and then turned his body facing the elder chairman. "Honourable elder, I like you, you have a rather interesting way of expressing yourself…. What is your name?"

"My puny name is Borislav, my lord." The elder chairman dared not look directly in to Antonius' eyes. "Please, your prestigious, there is no need to remember a worthless person's name, it will only pollute your mind and take up space for other important matters…"

"Borislav!" Antonius did not have the time and patience to wait for the elder to end his nonsense. "I thank you for your kind words, but please, we have no time for these things tonight."

The elder immediately bent down his back and said no more words of appeasements.