Chapter 497 - I Choose You! Julian!

Late in night, Antonius is seating by himself in a vacant room, with a coffin house in the middle of room  made from simple wooden planks Fjodor torn down from a door beside a burnt civilian, and inside the coffin lies the body of the Sanjek of Ottoman Epirus.

Anna, still in that guard uniform sneaked up to Antonius and found the empty bowl by his side, seeing this she stomped the feet and complained. "Has the doctor in Thessaloniki specifically to have this medication only every morning? Why did you have it now?"

Antonius winkled and chuckled. "You don't understand, my love, this is called military tactics."

"Military tactics?" Anna tilted her head slight, for she has no idea what her man is talking about.

"Yes, military tactic." Antonius nodded and took up the bowl. "You see, I have been drinking this herbal medication every morning for the past month, the illness within me must have been starting to adopt a solid defence in preparation for the medication every single morning. So, if I drink this medication a few hours before the indented time, it shall indeed surprise the illness catching it defenceless. Strategical thinking, you see."

Anna does not know what say about such comments as she knows that her man is definitely joking with her using such a weird concept.

"What are you doing here? In the late of the night? I am still waiting for you." After looking briefly at the layout of the room Anna asked, scrubbing the linen of Antonius. "And why are you staring at a coffin of an Ottoman with only yourself?"

"It is not just any regular Ottoman, my love. It is that supposed Sanjek of Epirus." Antonius replied with a slight sigh. "I came here to pay him a visit, because…. Well, you see, it is hard to say, but I feel like there is something that I have in common with this man, and I respect him, for what he has done in the last moment of his life. He is a true warrior, a modest man that well deserves his rank and his prestige. Honestly speaking I would not know if I had the wits to make the same decision if I was him in that kind of situation."

Anna looked at her man with a complicated look, on one side she hopes that Antonius can go back to rest soon, but on the other hand she knows that it is best not to disturb him when he is being emotional about this kind of things. So, she sat down on the mat beside him and started reading her book of Metaphysics by Aristotle beside the dim candlelight. As years go by and she is in her thirties, she found out that she is slowly developing a symptom just like Aristotle whereby it is harder and harder for her to see the tiny words on the paper clearly.

It is near eleven late into the night, the surroundings are pitch black with only the sound of armour by the patrolling guards barely auditable in a distance. This place is all the way back in a village near the town of Ptolemaida with miles away from the combat area so Antonius has no worries that he would be attacked. Finally, after a while Antonius could not continue holding it there as he stood up to relax his numb legs and peeked back, only to see his wife there staring at him.

"Are you done?" She asked and placed her hands gently on Antonius' shoulders which gave a later a shiver. "If not, lets go back in, the night is getting too late."

Antonius squeezed a smile and looked at the outside. "It must be a good harvest next year, look at this shallow snow! If we end this war soon and send the farmers back to their fields, I am sure that our state can rely less on the Genoese grains from Kherson."

"Yes, yes, but that is Alexios' job, I am sure that he can handle it pretty good." Anna hurried Antonius again. "It is really getting late, you still got a lot to do tomorrow, lets go back to bed."

"There is no time to waste, we shall be launching a totally offensive tomorrow morning, I must get all the preparations and tactical planning done to allow various troops to coordinate properly."

"Isn't that already been done by Julian? And there is no staff remaining to assist you with those work, so why don't you give them a good rest instead? I am getting sleepy let's go back."

"The weather is pretty cooling tonight; I might need a walk outside to soothe my mind…"

"Go back to bed!"

…

Antonius woke up on his bed next morning feeling a backache and a mild headache, only God knows what has happened last night that have caused all of these pain of this middle aged man. He continued staring at the ceiling lifelessly, beside him his wife Anna is still sleeping soundly on his arm with a satisfied smile on her still blushing face. Somehow Antonius is able to feel the stress faced by Anna as she is still unable to bear any son even after the age of thirty, there have been multiple people suggesting Antonius to get a few lovers or concubines to increase the chance of bearing a legitimate heir for the newly established state. Anna knows about these as well, but still the only person who will suffer in the process is the middle aged man Antonius.

A guard came knocking on the door disturbing Antonius from his deep thoughts. "Your majesty, the major offensive is starting soon, Master Julian sent me here to invite you to supervise the entire offensive."

"Tell Julian that I have authorised him to be in charge of the entire operation, there is no need for me to supervise him any further. I shall only be a distraction to him if I continued staying there forcing him to enquire me on everything before making a decision."

"Yes, your majesty."

The guard walked away, Antonius fell back to his deep slumbers, for he is now feeling more tiring than ever.

The soldiers from both sides are already on full guard towards the incoming battle before the sun even came out hustling around the battlefield, unlike their commanders whom one of them is still laying on bed, and another one lying in the coffin at this hour when the sun is already high above the horizon.  Julian is there too, with the rest of his colleagues and commanders waiting long for the arrival of his liege, rubbing his hands in his sleeves because of the coldness in the surroundings, and also the nervousness in his heart.

As one of the most senior members of Antonius' force, Julian was not used to be like this. His troops have proved themselves to always be one of the most capable and most efficient infantry force in the entire army mostly because of their commander Julian, a man who is always decisive in making the most appropriate decision, appearing in places where he is needed the most on time.

But a conversation between the Caesar and Julian after the successful siege on the Ottoman fortress changed him, turning him straight down from a decisive and quick witted person to what he is now, full of anxiety feeling nervous whether he might screw up something in the process. After the siege Antonius came down to his camp with only himself, helped to take off Julian's armours and his inner shirts, then took over the job of medical officers by bandaging Julian up. These actions indeed touched Julian's heart as he soothed his aches under Antonius' massage, but during the massage Antonius suddenly ordered the surrounding personnel to evacuate immediately, and then thrown out a bomb of words to Julian.

"My friend Julian, thanks to your efforts we now own a vast country stretching from Thessaly in the south, Macedonia in the North, Epirus in the west and Anatolia in the East. I must thank you, and by doing such minor work of bandaging you up is far not enough from compensating the blood and sweat you people, especially you my friend Julian, have shed for me."

"It is an honour serving under you, your Majesty."

"Though I must tell you that as our country expands, there is now more and more responsibilities, work and burden being laid on me as he has not even build a sustainable foundational structure of governance, unlike that thousand years old government in Constantinople, we need to start from zero. So that means in the future I cannot stay in the battlefield supervising your people for too long, especially if that battlefield is a hell long of a distance away from the central government… So I will need a man to replace my role, as the general of the army, fully in charge of all frontline operations while I shall always stay at the back supporting you silently, unless if things are way too serious that requires me to be called in."

"And… I have decided to choose you, my friend Julian."