1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 239: Cant Think of Good Title

Julian' heart skipped a beat as he stares at the sharp blade protruding in and out of the hay stack he is hiding in. 

The blade came so damn close to him that it almost hit his nose going through right through his head, but luckily it never happened. He looked at the Varangian lying right next to him, seeing fear but also perseverance and valiance in his eyes. Both of them knows clearly that even the smallest bit of noise screeched, and movement made by any of them inside the ay stack shall result to them being immediately exposed causing a blood shed right in this open spot, and they shall all be extinguished. 

Thus, they persevered, carefully observing the outside environment through the glimpse of light and sound through the straws. 

Similarly for Nikolas, his coat and tunic have already been drenched with sweat under the sun light, this entire thing put him in a desperate situation. Each stab the custom officer gives to the hay stack is just like a stab in to his heart. He observed the surroundings finding that there are definitely no route for him to make a run as all the nearest paths have been surrounded and sealed by Ottoman guards. 

Just as he is praying to God being the most devoted Christian ever in his life at this point of time hoping that all these agony in waiting can end soon, by miracle and the grace of God another man started calling the officer of the gates by his name halting his actions almost immediately. 

"Erden!... Erden!" An elder Ottoman, at least in the rank of a bey judging by his fashion and turban trudged his way out of the gate towards the officer of the gates difficultly with the help of a walking stick and a maiden slave by his side. "Erden! Come over here your unfilial stubborn donkey!" 

The officer of the gates had no choice but to concede leaving the fleet of unchecked wagon carts running towards the elder, making Nikolas heave a sigh of relief. 

As soon as the officer ran to the elderly, the later gave him a tight slap right on his face almost making him drop his helmet and scolded in a harsh tone. "You little stubborn donkey! Look at what a mess you have created! Huh? Suffocating the traffic in such an important lane for so damn long, what have you been doing? What have your grand father taught you? Huh?"

Each sentence the elder reprimands he gives the officer in front of him a slap on the face, some times accompanied by a kick on to his lower calf.

"Huh?... What are you doing here? Stabbing the wares of merchants? I have told you specifically that not all Rumelians are slaves right? Fine, how about this, I shall make you compensate the loss for the fuss you have caused today, is that clear? Now, come with me!"

"YesYes. Amca"

"Don't call me amca when you are performing duty! How many times have I told you!" The elder turned and gave this office another smack on the head. "If it is not your vice officer coming to my place alerting me about this, only all mighty Allah knows how much destruction you shall cause today"

"Yes. Bakan.." The officer followed obediently back in to the city.

The flow of traffic returned to normal, and Nikolas with his convoy is allowed entrance in to the city. While passing by the arched gate, the vice officer of the gates appeared out of no where winking towards Nikolas. Nikolas winked back and pretended to have dropped a few golden coins when passing by the vice officer. The coins fell on to the muddy ground with out causing a single noise, and the vice officer quickly stepped on these coins gathering them together and hiding them under his boots.

The fleet of wagon carts moved in to the city without any further disturbance. They turned left on to the main street first, then left towards the ware houses and finally stopped in a corridor where only one cart can barely make it through at a time. Stopping in front of relatively small ware house with not a single person around. Nikolas then paid the wages for these workers and negotiated to buy all the wagon carts from them.

The leader of these wagon carts workers looked around counting the number of men this merchant has brought, compared the strength and found out that they have much more men. He too saw the merchant bribing all the Ottoman officers with pure golden Ducats which means that this man over here must be a golden egg lying goose flourishing with wealth in that pouch. Equipped a wit buffed by his greed the leader of the wagon carts drew out his cleaver threatening the merchant. 

"Ahoy sir, I do not want the situation to become like this here, yer grace, but ye see, these wages ain't even enough to pay fer the ale price o' me an' me brothers, ye see yer grace, yarr pouch be pretty damned full why dont ye let me 'elp ye with the burden?" 

In the end of his words the leader of the cart wagon moved even closer holding the cleaver in his hands. 

Nikolas had no choice but to throw a couple more coins towards the leader trying to prevent more trouble from brewing as there are already enough distress for the day. However these port side workers' mind have been over run by the demon of greed as they are still not content with this amount of coins they will probably not be able to earn in their life, and started eyeing the remaining coins in the merchant's pouch.

Nikolas sighed and threw the entire pouch under the feet of the bandit. 

But they are still not satisfied.

"What more do you folks want?" 

"Actually" The leader of the wagons gave Nikolas a malicious scowl as he lifted up his cleaver. "i 'ave thought about it, why don't I just send ye to see Jesus in this here quiet valley, an' all yer money, yer cloth, yer goods an' wares, even yer ship be mine? I be sorry, yer grace, but do remember to brin' more guards next time fer a man such as yerself tradin' in a 'arsh world like this see ye in the other world."

Nikolas had no other way out and yelled towards the hay stacks and piles of fruits on the wagon carts. "You can come out now! Julian and warriors of Antonius! We are already inside the city!" 

The leader of the bandits is halted and startled in his tracks as the merchant suddenly yelled a chain of meaningless and absurd words, as he is pretty clear that there are definitely no one around. However just as he is about to scowl and chop down the head of this merchant, he suddenly saw a gush of redness in his eyes and his sight quickly darkening with his entire body losing balance falling helplessly on to the ground. 

"HowComeYou" It is only until the very last of his breathe, that the leader of the bandits caught sight of the man that stabbed his heart, coming out from no where. 

It is Julian. 

The moment Nikolas cried for help, Julian and his men spring in to actions crawling out of the carts, and before they could get a breathe of the fresh sea air, these professional trained warriors and fighters leapt in to combat cutting down these bandits one by one meeting little resistance, seeing that there are two surviving bandits trying to make a run out of the corridor, four men holding cross bows immediately charged forward, squat down, took aim and shot right in to the jack spot on to these bandit's head making them drop dead instantly. 

The entire combat took less than two minutes, and all the bandits are neutralised. 

"Next time, you should come out earlier with out me saying, so that I will not be put in to such grave danger like this." Instead of thanking Julian for saving him, Nikolas rolled his eyes and made a complaint. 

Julian being that same old Julian, remained silent like a snail refusing to give any response. 

"Get into works! Boys! We need to clear the corpses of these arse holes up, fast, just in case the Ottomans come patrolling in these areas, and then hide yourselves in this ware houses, and wait for the night to come!" 

The platoon of sixty plus men moved quickly carrying the corpses away, and within ten minutes this entire corridor looked like nothing have happened just with some rugs and haystacks laying around to cover the blood trails unable to be washed away by water. While for Nikolas, he seems to be pretty proud of himself seeing that such an army of elites are being commanded by his orders. Though he soon found out that this is the only piece of order they followed. 

Feeling disrespected Nikolas moved on to the next phase of his plan.