1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 265: The Bath

It is a charming after noon, and Antonius is in this lavishly designed bathing hall, enjoying the hot spring water with a not so adorable kid and his grand father. This three people occupied the entire hall that is initially designed to be able to host a hundred visitors, and usually it is fully occupied most of the times with the rich city folks trying to improve their lives to the next standard enjoying the fortune and privilege they have that Thessaloniki has a well built water irrigation system and a ancient Roman antique, which is surprisingly now still working. but now it is only occupied by the three people. 

"Grandpapa." The childish voice of the grand son can be heard echoing through out the dome structure accompanied by the sound of flushing water and dripping droplets. "Why is the bathy house so empty today? Where are all those good looking big dy dy sisters? I never saw even one today!"

The grand father chortled washing the grand son's messy hair. "Those good looking sisters and weird uncles have all either ran out of the city, or have locked themselves in their sweet little homes, so you wont be able to see them today."

"Why have they ran?" The kid asked tilting his head. "Is there a monster chasing after them? What a pity not having them around here."

"Yes, there is a monster, and the monster is called the Ottoman invaders The pretty little sisters know that if the Ottoman invaders come, they shall be pretty no more after being taken as concubines or slaves, and thus they choose to yield"

"Ottoman invaders?" The kid seems to have an never ending amount of questions. "Are they big? Do they have sharp teeth like the tigers? Do they have fearsome claws like the dragons? Do they have the ability to spit fire like wizards?"

"No, No, No my child, they don't have all of those things." Replied the old man. "In fact, they look completely the same to us, they eat, they sleep, they laugh, they sobber, they rejoice, they bitter, but most importantly, they rape, they robe, they enslave, they collect nonsensical taxes from us I was once part of them too, one and half years back."

"Grand papa was part of those monsters too?" The little kid looked at his grand father with doubts in his head, no matter how he thinks he simply cannot relate his grand father with the image of monsters in his impressions.

"Yes Let me tell you a story." The old man seems to be soaked in his deep memories. "I was once a gunnery specialist drafted in to the armies of the Sultan ruling over the monsters Mehmed II, with your uncle Christopher and uncle Euphobia, in charge of manufacturing explosives and artilleries in order to lay siege to a very, very large city called Constantinople."

"Even bigger than Thessaloniki?" Asked the kid.

"Yes, even bigger than Thessaloniki." Nodded the old man. "The Sultan Mehmed II is a young lion who is urgent to achieve some thing immediately when he ascended to the throne of the Sultan. Thus he ordered me to make a lot of artilleries using the bronze melted from the bells of the churches all over Romania, thus for a piece of time you cannot hear the elegant ringing sound of bells from churches for a period of time, because they are all being transported to Thrace and made in to machines to kill people, by me and the disciples."

"Grand papa." The kid asked again. "You killed people?" 

"No! No, no, no" The old man hurriedly explained. "At least not by my own hands I have always believed in my life that it is the user of the weapon to decide whether he wants to be kind or evil hearted, and I know when those bunch of people in Seres invented gun powder for purely good intentions, but the user decided to make it in to weapons But enough side even if I want myself to be innocent, it is true that my own creations killed a lot of people, a lot of Romans of our own kind"

" Thus, tortured by guilt and approved by that Sultan Mehmed II, I made a run back to the woods first, and then came back to the city of Thessaloniki continuing to run the family iron work. You know, kid, you got to appreciate the little cosy life you are having now, back then when the Ottomans ruled the city, you can forget about entering the Bath of Paradise as a 'Rumelian Peasant', even if you served directly for the Sultan, it is only catered for the Ottoman over lords and nobles, it is already a good thing if they don't randomly come in to your house and shops drafting your son or daughter, taking your valuable and declaring that they are here to collect additional taxes Life was hard back then, even with an iron work I can still only manage to feed the family and that is about it" 

" Thus you know what, kid, when the news of the Ottomans coming again for Thessaloniki is spread in to my ears, the others can run, can hide, or go to the side of the devils, but I cannot concede; I have went through for my first half of my life under Ottoman rule and I know what does it feel and taste like, it is a mouthful of hardship and bitterness, thus  I will not choose to back to then, I will leave tomorrow to join Lord Antonius' army, and contribute my skills experience and knowledge to building their artilleries, so this is the last day I am staying with you, kid Kid?" 

The grand son could not stand the long lecture by his grand father and has dozed off in his broad arms. The old man sighed and smiled to Antonius when he realised the later was looking in his direction. But the young man opposite to him did not smile back, instead the young man stood up and bowed down ninety degrees towards him, startling the old man and a while later he waved towards the young man, the young man waved back and began leaving the bathe, leaving only the grand father and son in there. 

Antonius walked out of the bathe thoroughly cleaning both his mind and body, feeling more refreshing as ever just like a man new born, not knowing that Yuri and the rest of the guards are already panicking trying to find where the hell has their admiral went searching every single corner of the government house. Seeing that the sun is still showing no sign of setting, Antonius decided that probably it is still not the time to return yet, perhaps it would be the best timing to have a little longer walk around the city touching the sculptures in the forum and having a taste of the prosperous down town market streets. 

Antonius came to a famous food street in the down town near the harbour of Constantine after crossing the Forum of Rome. Although he has read about the statistics being reported to him by Alexios about the trading potential of this street accompanied by the huge amount of legal taxation collected from this place.  He is still bewildered by how fast this place has regained its crowdedness and popularity still with the old impression of the street when he just entered the city with his troops. 

The bustling sound of merchants advertising their merchandise, accompanied by the voice of customers bargaining for a better price filled the ears of Antonius filled with vibe in his head making him join in the crowd snatching a seat in a pub, a place he has never came for a very long period of time, and ordered in a bottle of mead, and also accompanying with it dishes of Amygdalota cookies and Feta Me Meli serving as appetizers allowing Antonius to have a taste of what kind of lavish food do they serve in big cities like this, the sight and aroma of the dishes itself is like a warm massage soothing his mind spreading the fragrance in his mouth. Though the only thing he is not satisfied about is the price, no matter how he looks at it this thing is way too expensive. 

"Lord Antonius?" Just as Antonius is seating there enjoying the food by himself accompanied with sumptuous mead wine, a half drunk Roman eater identified who Antonius is with his sharp sense Actually Antonius was not even hiding without wearing any cloaks or hoods. 

The man raised his cup to the air and shouted out to every one else in the pub. "Hey! Oi! Lads! Lord Antonius is here! All raise your cups and hail Lord Antonius! For the protection and life, he has brought to us!" 

"Hail Lord Antonius!" 

Antonius smirked standing up, and raised his cup of mead in the air. "Hail to the people! For their solid support and trust on me!"