1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 321: The Sultan's Voyage

"Some use the wind's whistling to drown out the sound of their crimes."

-        Genshin Impact, Diluc

Sultan Orhan's defeat is now inevitable, it is now only a matter of time before the rooks of Zaganos Pasha comes in to his tent to arrest this pretender Sultan and put him under justice. After countless attempts trying to break free of the encirclement on the sides for every single day those simple barricades still absurdly looked as if it is newly built, and the troops brought by Zaganos Pasha too are truly up to the standard of its reputation being a formidable army, even after suffering heavy casualties they still held their position with out falling back. 

At the sixth day of being encircled every one in Sultan Orhan's camp now knows that they are not far away from an utter defeat. Every soldier just sat there on the ground lifelessly staring at the empty pots and tins. With out supplies they cannot even maintain their food stockage, and with out food their morale will drop down to the zero point, which also means that they have already lost the spirit of a standing army and the will to fight, including their Sultan. Orhan just sat down there on his carpet staring blankly at the flames cracking in the fire place waiting for his head to be taken.

But of course, that is not the case that happened, as apparently there seems to be an invisible magical power acting at the back probably called fate that stopped all of these from happening. During the final assault on the encircled troops Sultan Orhan ran to the city of Antalya for help, and the guards responded by throwing down a basket attached with a rope pulling him in to the city, and then getting him a ship sailing in to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea towards the west following the season's wind direction, leaving his troops behind getting devastated. 

The ship sailed west wards day and night passing by the dangerous shores of Anatolia, taking an abrupt turn off the Venetian Duchy of Candia in to the Aegean Sea, and then unexpectedly they are blown by the western seasonal wind in to a place where Sultan Orhan definitely did not want to go, that is the sphere of influence controlled by that man, the uncrowned Rex of Larissa.

"Sir, we are merely a few humble merchants from the east engaging in lawful trading activities." 

On the high seas under the sun of the mid noon Orhan's ship is stopped in its path by a random patrol boat under Antonius to do regular checks on whether they have any contraband items on this ship. Sultan Orhan had no choice but to continue disguising his true identity pretending to be a trades person from the distant lands of Cyrenaica who do not know about the rules and laws in this piece of land, and this clumsy performance put up by this amateur performer undoubtedly raised even more suspicion in the patrol ship captain's mind. 

"Where is your trading pass?" The captain interrogated staring in to the eyes of the supposed 'Cyrenaica merchant'. "Where is the trading acknowledgement pass issued to you by the department of trade? Show it to me." 

"Well, you see, honourable sir." The Sultan gave an uneasy smile rubbing his hands. "You see, I have only been here for my very first time in my life, thus I have no idea that I needs to apply for a trading acknowledgement pass, but worry not I shall apply for it right away when I reach there!" 

The captain narrowed his eyes and continued checking through the wares and then went back asking. "If you are truly a merchant, then where are your goods and wares?" 

"Oh!" Sultan Orhan smiled and gave a quick reply. "Because I am not here to sell things honourable captain, I am here just to buy stuff, you know captain, buy some goodies and then bring it back to my home town to put up for sail, you know sir, distance means profits, a lot of profits" 

"You don't have any money on your ship either." The captain gave this suspicious man a cold grin. "Tell me, how are you going to buy wares from us if you have no money?" 

"Emmm" Sultan Orhan found both his mouth and mind stuck by the question of the captain. "Sir, I have stored some money in the Merchant League Bank of Serres! And I can apply for some loans" 

"How the heck do you know about the Merchant League Bank of Serres and the fact that they offer loans if you are only here for the very first time?" The captain had enough of this twit who is full of lies with out even one sentence of truth and interrupted his speech. "Stop lying to me you piece of crap, tie him! Confiscate his ship! Lock up all the crews! Lads we are done here let's sail back to Thessaloniki! And we shall bring this man to lord Anjelo for trial!" 

"Please, captain! Sir!" Facing such emergency Sultan Orhan immediately took some thing out of his pouch a few ingots of gold, a huge treasure of this times, and pushed it in to the hand palms of this captain. "Please! Just let us go!" 

"What the heck are you doing!" However instead of the usual response Sultan Orhan is expecting to see the captain gave off a thunderous shriek dropping this few gold ingots on to the wet deck falling back wards almost landing on his butt. "How dare you, you imbecilic prick, are you trying to get me killed? How vicious you are!" 

Sultan Orhan still did not quite get what is going on when the captain turned back hurriedly explaining to another man standing behind him. "Commissar, have you seen clearly? I swear to Santa Maria that I have not accepted a single coin of bribery from this criminal!" 

The man called 'commissar' behind nodded slightly and reassured the captain. "Don't worry sir, I can prove that you remained loyal and earnest and did not accept a single copper of bribery As for this man, acting suspicious, trying to bribe a Roman official I suggest that you ought to confiscate all of his belongings and bring this man in to cell to wait for master Anjelo's trial, immediately." 

The Sultan Orhan opened his mouth wishing to say some thing in defense but after some thoughts he gave it up, hinted his guards to not retaliate, reached his hands forward and got tied obediently by these patrol personnel. Now he shall go to a land where he has not set foot for almost three decades, and to meet a person that he would definitely not want to meet, at least not in the current statues with him not as a victor, or at least a guest of the state, but a prisoner. 

The ship is guided back to the port of Thessaloniki where it has been a whole lot more prosperous five years after the epic battle outside this city with the port regaining its man tide and many new buildings around the port erected, vendors and shops established, and merchants yelling out their advertisements at the top of their lungs trying to get more people to drop by their merchandise and have a look. A distance away from this rowdy market is the also bursting port side, with brawny sailors singing rhythms of labour carrying crates and bags off the ships loading it on to the wagons. The entire port side is in a mixture between chaos but at the same time order. 

Sultan Orhan stopped in his tracks to observe this post war city remarking in his mind that the pirate captain really did do a pretty decent job in maintaining law and order, though the patrol guard behind obviously did not bother waiting for a suspect giving him a kick on the legs grumbling. "Walk faster!' The Sultan had no choice but to double up his speed facing down wards looking at those metallic chains in his hands, it is indeed the first time in his entire noble life that he ever had this kind of stuff on himself, though he did not have too much negative feeling about it, because going through the chain of recent events he is already been way too tired, he just wants to take a break. 

Sultan Orhan and his guards disguised as ship crew are locked up in a moisty jail cell beneath the government building where the prison guard told them. "You people shall wait here, although I still do not know what crime you have committed but master Anjelo is way too busy dealing with criminals like you, he shall see you in probably a week's time to determine your final judgement and punishment, mean while you can stay in this cell to repent your sins" 

"Call me master Anjelo please, I have a word with him."