Chapter 456 - Unresponsibility Kills

The guard is right, it only took three minutes for the Roman search forces to extend their range and came in to the place where Semseddin and his men were hiding just now. They found nothing but some grass patch that seemed to be just stepped on, some burnt smell and random blackened smaller pieces of cloth and armour lying around randomly, this is already far from enough to determine that their visitors were indeed here.

The higher ups are called in soon after to walk the grounds. Khalid, who is a hide and seek master with years of experience among the deserts and hills, has a unique way of himself to search for people. He kneeled down in front of a pile of horse poo, gently tapped his finger to touch it, wiped his hands clean and made his conclusion. "The horse dung is still hot; they must be still near around here. Disperse yourselves and send the signal at once when you find their trace!"

Semseddin and his team is indeed not that far away from their chasers, but they took advantage of their familiarity on the surrounding terrain and the difficult landscape with all those rocks and trees to find an easier way out of here. The Roman cavalries gave chase, but soon found out that it is actually much simpler if they come on foot not on hooves, though that would too give away the advantage they had of speed. Hence, after a few rounds of arrows, the Ottoman infiltrators made their way back to the cover of their chain of fortresses.

The news of the demolition on the trebuchet site came as an utter shock to almost every single person in the chain of encampments around Ptolemaida, soon questions and discussions started spreading like wild fire among the soldiers from all different camps. Some of them turned furious, feeling that this kind of thing is one of the most severe gaffe that one can commit for his entire military career, while the rest are worried regarding the outcome of this battle.

While it turned out to be an utter shock to be Ottomans as well, but on contrast to the opponents it is indeed a pleasant gift and surprise for them. The low morales and instability among the Ottomans due to the unfair conscription and lack of equipment are improved, many saw the slight hope that they might… might be able to defend themselves against the Rumelian aggressor.

The atmosphere back in Ptolemaida is not that pleasant, the air is filled with the stench of human sweat and psychological pressure in which makes people feel that they are having a hard time to breathe in the crowd. The goat horns are being sounded for five times with the tri coloured pennant being flown high over above the central camp, every one here knows what these means. It means that the admiral, or the Caesar wants everyone with a commanding officer's appointment to be gathered around here, which means that there is some thing serious going on.

"So, you mean that it is not your fault?" In the middle of the crowd, Antonius gave Fisnik, who is standing by his front with his head lowered a peek.

"Ye…No, admiral, I must admit that I have some to be blamed too, but I did have assigned my second in charge to take a good care of that area of patrol…. If I knew about this…"

"If you knew about this, if you knew about this." Antonius cut through Fisnik's words as he lowered his head once more to study the map laid on the table before him, with a sight attracting cross being labelled on the position where supposedly was his site of trebuchets and catapults. He looked back up at Fisnik still standing before him, with the back of his hands supporting his chin. There is nothing but chilling coldness on the Caesar's stern face, he just froze in that position looking at Fisnik, with no words at all. The rest of the people who are just gathered here realised some thing too as they slowly quietened down after some time, all staring at Fisnik too.

Fisnik felt like his back is being stabbed on to by a hundred blades, he is a person who loves the rowdiness of the crowds in ball competitions and this sense of downright silence is suffocating him. He realised that he might not make it easy out of this today, which is exactly the thing that made him panic even more fearing that he might be chased out of the admiral's team, and so he slowly kneeled down on both knees weeping out his apologies. "Please pardon my inability and disqualification in accomplishing my duty as the guards commander, your majesty. It is because of my own stupidity and negligence that led to us getting attacked by the Ottoman infiltrators…"

"Stupidity? Negligence?" Antonius did not seem to be moved by his comment a bit. "No, Fisnik, I know that you are not stupid at all, for you all called the chief gambler in the city of Thessaloniki, I am right? You are indeed very intelligent. Negligence? No, Fisnik, I know that you always tried your best to cover up your checks and receipts to make sure that no one ever finds out about the bribes you have received, am I right? You can be very careful in doing things…"

Fisnik found himself helpless against the increasing amount of hostility with such an amount of compulsion that almost made him stick his entire body on to the carpet. It is only know that did he truly realise that this man he is kneeling towards is no longer that captain who roamed the seas with nothing but a small fleet and a few hundred men.. He is now the Caesar of a state, ruling over tens of cities overseeing over hundreds of thousands of people and of course, with the ability to kill almost anyone who displeases him.