1453: Revival of Byzantium

Antonius has already became hopeless about these drunkards, knowing that they have successfully created a mess that they are not able to handle. Judging by the varangian sleeping posture, Antonius knows that this burly bear shall continue to sleep soundly for another few hours, and thus he must do some thing at least first to whip the arse for these trouble makers. But after trying to clean the stench and chase the rats for half an hour, Antonius gave it up, knowing that no matter how hard he cleans this place still would not be back to normal.

Antonius, the admiral of a hundred ships, general of a standing army counting to more than twenty thousand regulars, countless conscripts and the supposed 'Caesar of the Roman Empire', is now seating on an empty barrel with his head lowered, like he has just been defeated and dominated by an unseen enemy. His fleet has scourged the seven seas, his horde has domineered the entire Greek Peninsula, the number of coins flowing past his rule each day is like the River Niles, he is in command of a state that rivals his home country Genoa, and yet now he is defeated by the stupidity and addiction of his own few trusted Varangians.

Our admiral here really wanted to kick the backside of these adult children until they get up from their slumber and clean the mess by themselves, but just as he is about to do that, he hesitated. These few men are his best men in the force, fighting alongside with him on the toughest missions since the start of his military campaign back then in Constantinople, now most of them are already bearing permanent wounds in various parts of their bodies because of him. One purpose of this trip is to bring them out, have a ride in the country side and relax their wounded minds. So, after a while lifting his feet up for multiple times, he gave it up and sat back on to the empty barrel.

A few minutes later the two boys came back from feeding the horses, and is surprised to see their admiral seating on the empty barrel with a few more wrinkles developing on his face and a frowning pair of eye brows, looking more sorrowful than hearing the news that he has lost any battles in the past. It did not take very long for Mikhail to know what is roughly going on in the admiral's head, and he knew that he must do some thing at least to calm him down, if not he can already foresee the future where by this long anticipated journey by him travelling around the province to increase his knowledge shall be cancelled, and he shall be forced to seat back in the boring class room.

Mikhail approached the admiral in frustration and laughed. "o My lord, what is troubling you today? You look like a man who has just been rejected by the college he longed to get in to!"

Antonius raised his face, gave a stare at this young man and pointed his finger towards the corner where it seems like a rat is feeling kind of tipsy from licking too much of the grape wine on the floor, running around every where, falling clumsily on to the ground occasionally. Mikhail knows that he has just asked a silly question, but still he carried on laughing and comforted Antonius. "O my lord, please do not be angry at the foolish deeds of your faithful warriors…"

Antonius stared back at him. "I am not angry!"

"O My lord, please do not be sad at the fact that Master Yuri has…"

Antonius stared back at him again. "I am not sad!"

Mikhail looked at this admiral still seating on the empty barrel with his arms folded feeling like bursting out bursting out in to laughter. He tried his best controlling his emotions, walked over to Yuri and tried waking him up, but of course he failed and almost got slapped away by the annoyed Yuri for trying to interrupt his sweet dreams. Running out of ideas, Mikhail looked back at his brother Nikolas signalling him to go back to the room and never come down, but instead of following his elder brother's signal, Nikolas walked up straight to the admiral.

"Honourable admiral, I have no means of respect, but I think I can assume that our cover has already been blown, the owner of this place has already known our presence and our identities since last night judging by their behaviours."

Antonius raised his head in a little shock, but more of a frustration. "How can you be so sure?"

"Very simple logic admiral, since the moment we stepped on to the land of this town, we have not seen a trace of this so called market order maintenance force for once, when we asked around the various vendors but none of them revealed any information about these rogues… I never lost my confidence on the information and scouting branch built by Master Anjelo himself, and that is the first time that I have been suspecting that the village chief has seen through our disguise."

"Carry on my boy." Antonius is listening.

"Furthermore, my admiral, have you realised that there is some thing not right about this hostel? It is like this entire building is… emptied and reserved for us. Not a single other customer has came since yesterday, even the keepers of the hostel have not been here despite the fact that it is already high noon… It is definitely possible for them to suddenly have a vacation outside right? And although every one here is drunk, no one laid their hands on the valuable or our horses. It can't be that the town has suddenly managed to achieve zero criminal rate right? So, there can be only one possibility, that is the village chief have been actually sending people to watch over us, and perhaps secretly stopping any one from approaching this hostel…"

All of these clues now point towards the simple fact that their cover has already been blown way back, perhaps even before they have entered this town. Which can be pretty chilling to think about as it shows that the chief, or whoever that is behind this town is not only a rogue or any regular land lord that builds an army of brutes to keep his dominance on the neighbourhood. This man must have an iron grip on all activities going on in and out of the settlement, getting almost every single man under his rule as his watchful eyes, and some how made sure that all the residents here is able to stay loyal to him listening to every single order he gives.

Nikolas felt a sense of early morning cold chills running down his spine as he continued analysing the situation for the admiral. The room went back in to an eery silence after this with Mikhail in the back ground gaping after hearing his younger brother's analysis, Nikolas standing in front of the admiral feeling uneasy, and Antonius who is there swinging his legs front and forth on the empty wooden barrel, with no one truly knowing what he is thinking.

The tall man on wine barrel came down from his royal seat and comforted the child with a warm smile. "Well, since our opponent this time is a smart guy, or he thinks he is a smart guy, that ought make the job easier for us this time. I love talking to smart people for a reason, they are easy to communicate with and is able to understand what you are talking about without much trouble… You know what Nikolas, thanks for your detailed report."

Antonius bent down and took up a wine flask, stared at it and commented. "What they said about meads and wines are indeed correct, drinking wine proves to have no actual benefit on a man, bringing nothing but foolishness, negligence and wroth. Remember my boy, I now grant you the permission to kick me in the arse if I ever consume any form of alcohol again, understand! Now, please go kick Yuri's arse for me."

Of course, Nikolas dared not to accept this kind of order fearing that he would be torn apart by Yuri and the Varangians who is almost one and half of his height, he turned his head giving his older brother Mikhail a pitiful look trying to seek for help, but his brother could not offer any thing too shifting his sight away in disguise, pretending that he did not see or hear any thing. With out any further choice thinking that the admiral shall definitely shield him if Master Yuri is going to enter his raging Viking mode, the young Nikolas bite his lips hard and lifted his right foot up. While our Lord Yuri here who is still in his sweet dreams, and Antonius is standing nearby with his arms folded, waiting for the show to happen.