1453: Revival of Byzantium

Agriculture is never an easy job, no matter what era is it. Farmers would need to take care of acres of land with either little help or only himself. Thus, they would need to wake up hours before the sun rises, and work in the dirt all the way until it is already high noon. Then their relatives, most likely their children, shall come in to the field carrying a bucket which contains food and water. Then will they have the time to take a break, and they shall work all the way until dawn, rushing to go home before the sun sets to void all the danger and threat lurking out there in the wild at night. 

Antonius knows this too, thus he waited for the night to come with the letter of recommendation in his hands. But after half a day of waiting and doing completely nothing, he felt that he could wait no longer, and lucky for him the father of the girl seems to have decided to come back to the village early that day to feed the peck of chickens he has in his court yard. It might not be the best place to talk about serious stuff among a peck of chicks, but Antonius decided to wait no longer and further more he found this place a pretty good spot for a confidential conversation with the girl.

The girl seems like she is perfectly fine, standing right there in the middle of the court yard holding a pot and scattering the seeds on to the heads of the chicken with totally no sign showing that she has cried and wept just half a day ago. But upon seeing Antonius and Yuri, she immediately panicked and almost dropped the vase in her hands. Antonius made a smile as gentle as possible on his sea faring face, and passed her the letter sealed in a well decorated envelope. 

The girl nodded slightly and thanked Antonius for his kind offering, Antonius gave her a few more words of compliment, promising her that she shall be able to prosper if she studies well enough, excel in her grades and gain a good relationship with every one else. The girl replied with nothing but simply a gentle smile on her face, which only made her appear to be even more pale than before. After a while the two people waved good bye, and Antonius happily returned to his little hut, now preparing to leave this village to embark on to the next destination.

The bang of people soon began packing up their bags and carts, Antonius has planned for his next destination to be a fortress near the borders guarding against a possible attack from the Ottoman governors, or war lords in Epirus who have been in a semi independent state ever since all routes from Edirne to Epirus has been cut off. The village elder is soon informed by others about the news that the noble guests are leaving soon, and he managed to convince the team of visitors to stay for one more night, saying that it is already getting late, and they might become targets of wild beasts like wolves, and also those rogues and bandits who are still striving along the borders. 

Then the villagers invited Antonius and the Varangians for one last festival, an annual event to celebrate the end of the planting season for the new year, which means that they might have a relatively easier life in the coming months. Usually, they would just gather around to sing songs and commemorate the bond between the neighborhoods, but for this year, since there are noble guest, they shall 'upgrade' their concert with wine. 

The party is not big compared to the concerts and feasts in cities, of course. And neither does it have all those entertainments in Thessaloniki like bands, bathes, games. But still Antonius and the others found that they sort of enjoyed this kind of gathering more, as there are no intrigues, plots or diplomatic courtesy involved that needs Antonius to spend much of his brain power here, every villager treats each other true heartedly. The food here is not that nice of course, but it is the people over here that provided the joy. The villagers danced around the fire place, formed a choir sang perv songs of joy which is prohibited by the church, filling the place with joy and laughter. 

Antonius got overran by the villager's capabilities in making various lyrics in to songs. He looked around, Yuri and the Varangians are soaked in to this atmosphere dancing and singing alongside with the villagers, Apostolos is chatting with the villager elder who is roughly the same age group as him; Mikhail and Nikolas are playing games with the rest of the teenagers, and now it seems like only Antonius himself is being the one who is not enjoying the night. The admiral shook his head and decided to get up and flex the muscles on his back and legs. 

Antonius looked around trying to search for any more familiar people around him, especially the girl who was there in his room at night. The law only stated that whoever that had the gut to do 'real life firing actions' to be adultery, but it certainly did not include the act of simply looking at gorgeous ladies, especially the ones who had an affection towards you. It is a man's instinct to appreciate the natural beauty of a woman gifted by God himself isn't it. But soon Antonius found out that the girl, alongside with her parents, are no where to be found. 

After a while Antonius gave it up, sitting back down there listening to the chatters and songs by the villagers. Then he saw a familiar face – the father of that girl, coming here and joining the fun with only himself, the girl is still no where to be found. Out of curiosity Antonius approached the father asking him about the where abouts of his daughter, but the man did not give a direct response and attempted to change the topic to some thing irrelevant. Antonius observed this man, noticing that the longer he stared at this man, the more restless and panicking the man shows on his face. 

Mikhail, who is standing beside the emperor since the start of the conversation vaguely realised that some thing is wrong, but upon further questioning the man stared back warning the youngster, warning him to not question too much on his private family matters, apparently, he is afraid of Antonius who has a 'noble' identity, but totally disregards the young man beside the noble who looks like a petty servant. He even questioned back on the young man on whether he got any appropriate thoughts on his daughter in an unfriendly tone. Hearing this Antonius and Mikhail dared not to ask him any more in the fear that it might add another record on to the already piling up stack of rumors about Antonius among the Varangians. 

The crew had one last great night in the village, and by day break they are about to leave this place. Antonius waved good bye to the village that has taken care of him for the past three days, promising that he shall be there to do some thing to boost the current living statues of the villagers, and give their children a qualified level of education just like the kids of those city dwellers in Serres. Remembering this he emphasized to the parents of the girl about the recommendation letter he wrote, asking them to make sure that the young girl uses it and pursue for a brighter future in the cities. Upon hearing this request from the young noble, the father of the girl nodded his head with a pale face, and her mother's body began violently shaking, just like the girl a night before. 

Then, before Antonius could even ask, the mother of the girl broke in to tears while the father hurriedly promised Antonius that he shall definitely allow the girl to pursue her dreams in the cities, saying that his wife is only crying because she shall miss her daughter… But till this time even a dumb donkey can know that there is some thing wrong with this family. The suspicion inside Antonius soared as he narrowed his eyes and continued watching over the man who is trying to put up a show in front of him. But he did not react, instead he just nodded his head thanking the couple, and waved farewell with the village. 

Immediately after they left the village down the hills, Antonius stopped in his tracks and pitched up tents, summoning two varangian as scouts, go back to the village in secret and check what exactly happened over there about the couple and their daughter. 

The scouts did not take long to come back and report that the couple is preparing for a funeral making a coffin, the girl is most probably assumed dead, and the villagers all seem to know about it.