บท 175: Laugh Of Old Man
" Hacker: Europe is a community of nations, dedicated towards one goal.
Humphrey: We went in to screw the French by splitting them off from the Germans."
- "Yes, Prime Minister", The Devil You Know, by Sir Anthony Jay
"Indeed." Selim Pasha clapped in agreement with Zaganos Pasha's statement. "After all of these Crusade nonsense, we can take full advantage of these conflicts and break through their defences, then conquer them one by one, ruling them the way we want them to be."
"To be honest I don't really like it, all these kind of trickery and plots." Zaganos Pasha bandages his hand and commented. "But everything for the Sultan and the True Faith."
"Everything for the Sultan and the True Faith." Selim Pasha grinned. "Just leave the dirty works to me."
…
John Hunyadi and his men are quietly having breakfast the next day when his guardsmen came in informing him that the Serbian Despot Durad Branković requested another chance to visit the King Regent.
By the rules of nobility John Hunyadi cannot refuse a guest whose statues is even than his, though after all what he has witnessed and heard the previous day, one might not expect to receive a good hospitality from him towards his guests today.
Durad Branković and Stefan Ratković walked into the tent welcomed by nothing, no ushers, no seat, no table, not even a word of greeting from anyone in the tent.
All the various officers and courtiers of John Hunyadi, including himself, showed a blunt cold face towards the despot continued having their breakfast or chit chatting among themselves, with occasionally someone giving the despot an aggressive sneer, a threatening stare or a silent spit on the ground.
Each and every parts of the brain of Durad Branković are mobalised into thinking a way out of this awkward situation still with that last hope of proving his innocence to his valuable allies knowing that if these Hungarians Crusaders decides to leave him by himself over here, he together along with his troops will be easily squashed and devoured by the Ottomans; With a very clear mind he knows that the relationship between him and John Hunyadi is a mutual dependence relationship, if not he wont even be here accepting this humiliating disrespect by a person whose title is beneath him.
However, the Logothete Stefan Ratković is not thinking in the same way as his sovereign, he just sees that these bunch of people here does not even have the courtesy to stand up and greet his despot whose title is equivalent to their king in Wien. He steps up to the middle of the tent looking right and left at these folks whose mouth are way too busy gulping down pieces of bread than saying a few words of blessings to his despot, and yelled. "What is the problem with you ill mannered uncivil bunch of twits! Have you not seen my King come in?"
After a brief moment of awkwardness, John Hunyadi clapped his hand cleaning the bread crumbs from his hands. "Give the despot a seat and table, serve him food!"
At last, the servants came forward putting an additional chair and table for the despot with some unfermented bread, a thick, slimy pottage and a wooden cup of river water.
Stefan Ratković still feels like the food is too plain to be considered a king's meal, and further more they served his despot fermented bread! What kind of heretic ritual is this!
But Durad Branković endured through all of these, pulled Stefan Ratković by his sleeves and still sat down there without the help of anyone smiling at John Hunyadi, though soon he found himself in a even deeper embarrassment – There are no utensils on his table.
The despot waited hopelessly for his utensils looking around to the servants, the different officers and John Hunyadi, but none responded, all busy or pretending to be busy consuming their own food.
"Hey, servant." Stefan Ratković noticed this too and pulled the servant to the table. "Tell me, is there something lacking on the table? You imbecilic piece of crap, get my lord's fork and spoon at once! Or I will…"
"Leave him." Lord of Schönborn Gerald wiped his mouth with his handkerchief staring at Stefan Ratković. "That kid is a son of an imperial baron sent here for internship,"
"But what about my lord's utensils?"
"Oh, I am sorry, do he even need one?" Another knight in the tent sniggered. "If he do, there are plenty of twigs, branches, that stuff outside of the tent, he can use those stuff…"
"Huh?"
"Let me put it in a more straight forward term. We don't offer all of those 'courtesies' to people who do not exist within our minds, now do you understand? Néma szamár!"
The level of temper inside Stefan Ratković exceeded nine thousand as according to the rules and regulations of medieval times, if an outsider insults the man's sovereign or lord, it is equivalent to insulting the man himself. With his temper beaming beyond his control Stefan pulled out his blade, right in the tent of John Hunyadi, and pointed it towards the knight who dared to even mention his disrespectful thought towards his monarch.
This triggered a series of violent consequences as almost every other Hungarian knight in the tent sprinted up drawing their blades and pointing it towards Stefan Ratković.
"Lord Stefan." John Hunyadi slammed his cup against his table. "I would advice you not to act wild here."
"And for you, oh, sorry for neglecting you, despot." John Hunyadi stood up slowly from his table and eyed Durad Branković with his symbolic pair of eagle like eyes. "I am sorry, despot, but… I would presumably prefer not to talk you for now, at least not today, for my head is still messy like a ball of tousled yarn, but can you please leave this camp, until further notice?"
The atmosphere of the tent became deadly silent with John Hunyadi standing up, Hungarian knights and Stefan Ratković pointing their swords towards one another, and the Despot of Serbia the only one sitting still.
"Hahahahahaha…" The Despot started laughing with his hoarse old man's throat out of a sudden.
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