1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 313: Illusions

"It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world."

-        Chaos Theory, The Butterfly Effect.

"I am your sworn enemy, rival and also victim, I am called Mehmed, the Sultan of the Ottomans at least for last time." The long haired man answered in a calm tone observing his opponent's expression through his mug, anticipating emotions like nervousness, horror, shock, disbelief or any thing like that. However, he is deeply disappointed as this prick before him did not seem to have any emotion on his face. 

"Oh? Mehmed? Mehmed II?" Antonius almost made a laugh out scrutinizing this supposed 'Ex Sultan of the Ottomans'. "I was just wandering where did you go? Why did you leave the fight in such a dishonorable way fleeing the battle field? It was only later did I know that you died, thanks for reminding me how hilarious it was hearing the news of your death man I must appreciate you for your comedic words." 

The long haired man 'Mehmed' did not seem to be angry by a bit hearing these words of sarcasm. With a smile and a pair of narrowed eyes he stood up pouring some more coffee in to the mug of Antonius. "You know what, I got to thank you some times, 'My Friend'. I hated you, I dreaded you, I wished to kill you, I wanted to torment you, but that guy, the so called Let me recall his name, the so called 'Administrator' of this world that man called Saber Fate disallowed me from doing so saying that the various worlds cannot conflict or cause an impact on each other, if not it would cause some thing called a 'butter fly effect', if I am not wrong, that is what kept me away from you." 

"Oh?" Antonius returned with a despiteful snigger and folded his arms before his chest. "Then how did you end up here? Just to have an early tea session to chat off your boredom? If it is like this I have no spare time to be wasted with you, I have much more serious things to attend to." 

"Simple question, because this is your dream, we are all inside your dream." Mehmed nodded. "And we are sitting down here peacefully because through my past one year of close observation on you my anger, fury, desperation, dread have all vanished bit by bit. The more I looked at you the more I find it strange about you which is why I used all of my effort to create an environment like this to talk with you taking advantage of your weakness when you are sick, and then if you solve the entangled puzzle in my heart I shall go to the world of the dead and leave you alone And when you wake up you will have entirely no memories on your dreams, but do remember this one thing, Antonius, that it is me Mehmed who saved your pitiful life."

Hearing that he is caught in a dream Antonius closed his eyes trying to tell himself to wake up but failed, with no choice Antonius sighed. "Fine, what do you want from me?" 

"I need to thank you, my friend, for a start." Mehmed watched Antonius gulping down the coffee, stood up and poured him some more just like an old friend. "It is only through my one year observation on you that I learnt some of the most important princeps of life, patience, quick thinking, love for the people, care for both yourself and your soldier, self discipline, humbleness, affinity to people from every walk of life You had these characteristics on yourself that I do not have, Antonius, for that I adore you, which can also be said in to I am jealous of you, deeply."

"Thank you." Antonius just kept on drinking this coffee before him. 

"And thus, through the constant observation stuck in this two dimensional world I began to think. You know what Antonius, the thing that made us human so powerful is exactly the ability to think, that is what made us stand out. And an always logical thinker has almost no weakness." Mehmed stopped for a while and continued. "I started to reflect on myself, I had made way too many mistakes that are way too childish to be forgiven that some times I used to laugh at myself as some of these mistakes can only appear in folk stories told to the children at bed side." 

"Aye." Antonius made a quiet laugh looking at the empty mug. "I must congratulate you for being the first monarch in the world to be killed by an artillery." 

"Through my reflections I washed away this old dirt off my heart in this void making a new me out from the body of the old me." Mehmed poured some more coffee in to Antonius' mug. "But through my studies I have found out some thing extraordinarily interesting, I have never heard or saw any name of a pirate called Antonius De'Ricci when I was merely a governor by the sea side until three years ago who seems to appear out of no where. Now, allow me to ask this, Antonius De'Ricci, are you really Antonius De'Ricci?"

"Huh? You came here to listen to my life story? Fine, I am in the mood of telling stories today I was from Genoa, previously I was roaming around by the coast of Sicily looting passing ships of the Merchant Republics, and then by an accident I found out that trading convoys from Egyptus to Anatolia has much more plunder with relatively lesser concerns about safety. The story all started when I sacked a passing ship carrying medication to Edirne to the Sultan of the Ottomans, for" 

"For my concubine." Mehmed interrupted. "Thank to you one of my favorite concubines died, but that is not what I want to know, a Sultan should never allow himself to be caught and sank in to any emotional trap becoming a hedonist. Listen, Antonius, according to the fate and the prophecies set for me I am supposed to get the city of Constantinople, rule the realm for a few decades and be known by the world as the 'conqueror'. But because of you, it is all ruined, and the course of history went in to a completely different path." 

"And so, there is some brute force that came in between us that diverted the course of history and our fate. You are supposed to not even exist while I am supposed to stay alive getting all those achievements being the greatest Sultan of the Ottomans, Padishah and the Fatih. So, tell me, who are you Antonius, and where did you come from? How did you manage to deter my offenses, my wishes, my dreams, and my empire?" 

"Huh? I have already told you on where I came from didn't I?" Antonius looks a little frustrated from this man keep asking the same question again and again. "I am a lone pirate from Italia, caught some chances of luck and your mistakes made by your own stupidity, that is what made me here, any thing more you want to know?" 

"I see, I see, never mind." That is definitely not the answer that Mehmed wanted to hear, being a proud person, he rose his head up staring at Antonius and spoke. "You could at least make a lie to me saying that you are not just a mere pirate who defeated me by pure luck, or you can say that you got no ordinary back ground, like you got some golden fingers, or was once a brilliant strategist who lost your memories, or a historical figure that reincarnated to this era." 

"Hey! Hey! Hey! We live in a realistic world; no such fantasies can ever happen Mehmed." Antonius had to stand up to break the wild wanders of the ex Sultan. "And besides, why do I need to appease you? Wake up man." 

Mehmed is startled for a second and bursted in to a chain of wild laughter until his tears almost came out of his eye socket. "Yes, you are right, indeed. Ok fine, I have wasted enough of your time Antonius, although I must say that I am not by a bit satisfied by your answers to my questions, but I shall still let you go" 

" But just remember Antonius, since you took my fate, my story plot, and my role in the world messing up my empire, then I expect you to perform my role well, I do not want to see you coming down too soon like this time dying of a young age with a limited achievement leading people to think that I am nothing because I am defeated by you, I want you to be the dominant figure in this era so that people shall too remember my name, understand?" 

Antonius hesitated for a while and nodded in agreement. 

"I have one more question" Mehmed asked. "If you are one day given a chance to design and build your own state, what kind of vision do you have for it?" 

"Easy." Antonius replied without giving much of a thought. "A state that no one starves, every one have an equal opportunity in life and no kids are forced in to doing things like thieves, beggars and finally pirates like me, then every kid has a chance to learn some knowledge."

Hearing this Mehmed first looks startled, then gave a quick smirk on his face and sighed. "I see Good luck then for your ambitious plan of feeding every one It is time for both you and me to go, there are still people waiting for you up there, don't keep them worried for too long."