Eric (СИ)

With Corinth, everything went perfectly smoothly - the experience of Athens and Thebes affected. A delegation of the magistrate even came forward to greet him, in order to greet him. Doing the groundwork for the future, Eric took not the third part, but the fourth from money, jewelry and goods, in order to indicate his attitude to reasonable behavior. But the campaign must once end, so on May 22, he, along with his grown up to four hundred squads, returned to the city of Piraeus, where Demeter was firmly entrenched, at the expense of the poor knights who had moved to Corinth from all over the Moray. She, you see, found a common language with the local elite, so now this small town actually went under her care. The next stage will be turning it into an actual seaside company's trading base. Located in the very spacious residence of his priestess, the prince had a long conversation with her about the new financial receipts - how many of them, how to distribute them and what to do with a very impressive cash. The result of the robberies in central Greece was the replenishment of the budget of the Bosporus Bank for two hundred thousand denarii, although not all in cash, but still - the amount is simply colossal - the equivalent of ten tons of silver! These funds should be enough to continue the deployment of the production campaign and technology industry in his principality with the pace taken. In addition, up to ten thousand scrolls of various manuscripts were collected for the creation of the Bosporus Library and up to two hundred different statues in quite good condition, with which he wanted to decorate the city. In particular, to break in the Bosporus large and beautiful park, which decorate the most valuable, statue of Athena, the work of Phidias, which in addition to purely artistic value had a very decent commercial value, because there was not a lot of gold and ivory. In the evening he went out into the courtyard with a jug of cool milk and, settling on an open-air bench, decided to consider the events that had taken place. Somewhere there, the black sky was crawling far away all covered with small lights, and below, at the bottom of this vast ocean, he sat and analyzed everything that had happened to him in the last month. This was his second military campaign. Compared with the first, in general, a rather bloodless campaign, since only a little more than a thousand people died, and tens of thousands could die. As a result of the events that occurred, Demeter's view became even more enthusiastic. And not only her. People on the streets of Piraeus looked at him as something incredibly majestic and very dangerous. In their eyes, fear was mixed with respect and admiration. This was especially true after Feodor had successfully dissolved rumors that the prince deliberately delayed to enter Athens, giving people the opportunity to escape and avoid stupid deaths. On the other hand, Theodore recounted that Demetra had already repeatedly spoken about the essence of Ares in the presence of strangers. After taking a sip of milk, he put the jug on the ground and stretched himself. How wonderful that there are no liberals and humanists now! How great it is that people understand simple things and do not build piled up illusions and romantic hoaxes! Yes, these guys, seeing the actions of Eric, now would have simply gushed with accusations of inhumanity, cruelty and other horror stories. We would try to make our hero justify himself, feel guilty, give way to their delirium. Although no, sorry, very sorry that they are not with him now. It would be very nice to watch how they, with their extraterrestrial convictions, would survive here - in a world of concrete, cynical and extremely pragmatic people, though not educated. I wonder if it would survive at least one person per thousand of such characters during the year? By the way, yes, he was always tormented by the question - do they really believe in what they say or is it just a pose? Here, some feudal lord will press a young lady a feminist and a lesbian in the hayloft, confesses to her in genital love a couple of times. What will she do? Or put some liberal human rights activist in the skin of some feudal lord, and into the very midst of dynastic disagreements, so that he can feel the beauty of natural competition when your brother can be slaughtered for the right of inheritance. Yes, he likes the world more than the one in which he lived. Less hypocrisy, less artificiality. He is some kind of natural, naked makeup. In it, oh horror, white is called white, and black is black. Behind these thoughts, Feodor found him.

No. I decided to get some fresh air before going to bed and think over the affairs of the past.

YesWhy do you think so?

- You could do just an amazing thing - to make people think for the benefit of surrendering to you at mercy without a fight. There are rumors all over Attica that you are Ares himself, who has returned to earth, to teach people who are weak in spirit.

- So they are Christians! What is Ares?

" Who told you such stupid things? "A visit to the church and baptism does not make them Christians. In the whole Roman Empire, which is under the hand of Constantinople, the strength of a hundredth part can be considered real Christians, as they sincerely adhere to certain convictions. Unfortunately this is the most incompetent part of the inhabitants of the empire.

- This is just, it is very natural. It would be strange if they were the most capable.

- And yet people correctly notice

- What exactly?

" You are different from us, from all of us. "You are a very strange man. As if one of us, but very far away.

- Why do you think so?

"Faith my lord, your faith allows me to think so. "

"What do I have? " Eric smiled.

- I'm at a loss to say. My observations indicate that you do not have it at all. You as if do not take faith and the gods seriously. For you they are fiction, a fairy tale.

" You're an observant man. "And how do you estimate it yourself?

" Your Highness is very dangerous. "Already, there are rumors about you that you are coming down to earth the ancient God. I'm at a loss to say what it will result in later. But one thing is quite clear: a serious conflict with the Pope is inevitable. I understand that for you being excommunicated from the church is just words, but people who have more faith around you, and therefore may be impressed by this act.

"They know perfectly well that I will kill anyone who will go against me. "

"And if they start to leave, and not come out against you? "

- It is unlikely. With me they get too much, because of such stupidity as the faith to miss their profit. They are not even profitable to rebel against me, because my talent and my success gives them a satisfying life. What is waiting for them in a different scenario is not known to anyone.

"Are you so sure of yourself? "

- I'm absolutely sure of myself, otherwise I would not be what I have become. I would have fought, at best, somewhere in Antiochus with the Turks and Arabs as an ordinary knight. No, my dear friend, in order to lead people along, to lead confidently, accurately, you can not doubt yourself. There should not be a drop of doubt in you.

"And people will take you to heaven, considering not a man " theodore continued thoughtfully.

- Steel people yes, perhaps you are right, it was those who created the Roman empire.

" I've been to the agents around the Thebes, you know, it's amazing. You ordered to kill every tenth in that militia, and the people are grateful to you and consider it a very kind ruler.

"Curious Is that why? "

"Because you could kill everyone, but you took pity and returned most of them alive and well to your home. "