1453: Revival of Byzantium

Fifteenth of Feburary, 1453 AD, five days into the siege of Constantinople.

After the session of rejoice is over theres the session of remorse.

Antonius, Julian, Giovanni, Abraham, Abdullah, Mauro, Yuri, Harald and a bunch other people stood together in a circle with their heads low while a clergy conducts his sermon by a cliff outside the sea walls facing the sea of Maramra. Infront of them is a dug hole with a coffin inside, but strangely it is an empty coffin with no body but a cutlass and a set of cloth inside.

"Dear the Holy Father, Holy Son and Holy Spirit,"

"Today I ask you to accept the soul of Francesco. God, creator and redeemer, please be with them, lead and guide them out of the darkness. Lead him into your light and blessings, remove him of his pain and agony, pardon him of his sins, and lead him to heaven…"

The clergy's words is interrupted violently by an arrogant bellow from Harald. "Hey you old folk! What sins do my friend Francesco have!"

"Harald, quiet!" Antonius gave him a stern warning.

"…Yes, admiral."

The clergy continued. "Oh mighty God, may you walk beside him in his journey, filling the vacancy and desolate with your divine powers and blessings."

"Amen."

"Amen."

Antonius stepped forward placing a white lily flower on top of a gravestone with a epitaph that writes.

"Memoriae sacrum Francesco."

"cuius animae propitietur deus amen."

"Requiescat in pace."

The people surrounding the tomb lowered their head for one minute in silence to show condolence to their deceased pal, then covered th tomb with soil. Then left the empty tomb of Francesco with the accompany of sea gulls and salty winds.

Giovanni began his routine patrol of the Theodosian walls with Antonius by his side. By the middle of the day they have finished checking one third of the walls and decided to seat down for a lunch. Antonius took out a Greek country bread and some slices of metal-hard naval salted beef with an add-on of year old tooth-breaking oatmeal biscuit, a typical food for sailors out on the seas.

While Giovanni gave him a smile and swept out a beautifully decorated lunch box before the unbelievable look of Antonius, opened it and revealing what is inside.

A starter of sandwich containing cabbage, beef and scrambled eggs with sesame flavoring, two marvelously baked chicken gyros with Tzaziki in olive oil as the main course, and he even showed off his water flask which does not contain water but grape wine.

"Why… What… How… When… This is appalling!" Antonius' eyes almost popped out of his eye sockets as he tries hard enough to gobble down his metal-hard beef with the help of cold water.

Giovanni, satisfied from seeing Antonius' impression, almost rolled on the walls laughing. Then before the later's unbelievable eyes, he elegantly took out a clean silver fork and knife from a carefully wrapped pinkish tablecloth with a smile of lilac perfume, kissed it, wrapped the table cloth around his neck and started enjoying his meal.

Antonius feels what everything happening before him is absurd, if it is not for the sword on Giovanni's back he would have thought that this man before him is a counterfeit. The beef and oatmeal cookie suddenly taste nasty in his mouth and spat them out.

Seeing this, Giovanni gobbled a piece of chicken with his silver fork, then pointing it towards Antonius and started talking nonsensical stuff. "Hey, my brother, we are now considered men in high position, at least in the city… *gulp*…. You got to beware of emmm.. table etiquette! That's what those nobles call it! Dining manners! You see."

Antonius frowned so hard that his eyebrows almost joined together and retorted. "Table manners?! Since when did we afford to have that sort of luxury? Those lords back in Genoa? And what is with this food and lunch box?"

Giovanni laughed again with food in his mouth and replied. "You know what my brother, perhaps that you should find a lady… that loves you… and knows how to cook!"

However, this time Antonius kept silent, after a while he started chewing his stiff bread, looked down the walls and sighed. "Ah come on Giovanni, have you forgotten that we are the bunch of blood-licking fellows that might lose our heads the next day? Since when do we have the luxury to love… and be loved?"

Hearing this, Giovanni also remained silent and put down his silver fork and knife.

"You are right Antonius." Giovanni replied with a serious face. "It is a luxury to love and be loved. But don't you know that it is a luxury to die properly as well?"

"What do you mean?"

"As you have said, we are soldiers, blood-licking chaps who carries a blade even when we are asleep, might have our head chopped the next moment…"

"But you should know that in a battlefield, as a soldier, it is a blessing to die properly, get your body buried in a burial ceremony with friends and relatives around and a priest to conduct a sermon. Most of us out there will just die randomly by an arrow, a slash of sword, a rock from a catapult… And when we die on a chaotic battlefield, most likely we will just be piled into a stack with all other deceased soldiers and burnt into ashes together, or there is a even worse scenario that we will be left there waiting for vultures and maggots to eat us up…"

Antonius felt like vomiting as his cookies are also white in colour, like the creature that Giovanni just mentioned, and stopped Giovanni. "Stop, stop, stop. Are you sure you want to talk about this during lunch? What is your point of saying all this?"

Giovanni replied looking down at the limestone bricks. "What I mean is, we may or may not die tomorrow, that will be up to God to decide whether he wants to see us… But at least for the present moment, we are still alive. Thus, we ought to enjoy it to the fullest, then we can say to ourselves that we had a satisfying life."

Antonius pouted his mouth and replied looking at Giovanni's lunchbox. "Perhaps you are right."

"Perhaps you are right…."