The society of Bhasmachal was a traditional one wherein the nobles were considered to be higher grade humans than ordinary people and traditionally ministers of the cabinet were people selected from the nobility, this was not a rule but to keep different nobles happy the king followed this and selected people from nobles with lobbying power and the right skill sets to be his cabinet ministers. Julius had known Marcus since young, he was not a strong cultivator nor was he of noble birth he was a third generation trader, Julius had seen him at work and his management skills, even under the most intense situations, were inspiring even to Julius so he hired Marcus. When Julius announced this in the midst of the cabinet; Marcus was stunned beyond words. It was as if Julius had lifted him off the ground and raised him to godhood, cause there was no higher position a person could rise up to. Marcus was surprised at the announcement initially; Julius had not informed him of this before. Especially in an atheistic society like there’s, it was rising up to the level of Gods. Never in the recorded history of their country had this happened.
Marcus walked up to the throne post the announcement, there was no reaction from the surrounding nobles and Brutus; this was unheard of, why would Julius do this? Why would he appoint a commoner, no matter how rich, a minister in the cabinet? A role only fit for chosen ones!! Though not a law, it was an unwritten rule. Nobles thought “Was it a practical joke between two friends or will we have to answer to a commoner? What is going on?”
Marcus, the second person in the duo who were now in the centre of attention, reached the throne in slow careful steps. He trusted Julius with his life but politics was a place where even a son cold kill his father, a brother his brother and mother her son. Was it possible that Julius had ulterior motives when appointing him the prime minister? Was it possible that he wanted a rubber stamp, cause the governing in Bhasmachal was not dictatorial one sided decision making system. It was really complex with the cabinet of ministers present to check the powers of the king. If this was so then it was not too bad for him, since he could use this opportunity to churn some money for himself, “but what if he is looking for a scapegoat for some corruption in the government? why aren’t any of the nobles protesting? This is weird. Am I being pushed into a trap?” As Marcus reached the bottom most stair of the Throne pedestal, instead getting down on one knee, he did something really weird… he just stood there, disbelief in his eyes, looking at Julius with doubt instead of reverence. He said “Please excuse me for this my liege; I may not be worthy of your generosity”
Julius perturbed by the turn of events, raise his right eye brow in intrigue. The members present in the court too were stunned. This was too much happening at the same time, some of them were beginning to assume what Marcus was thinking too, since no king in his right mind would do this since, money aside, losing a noble’s support would mean huge chunk of army of the kingdom which supports the nation. Plus, who in their right mind would want a nobody leading the other nobles and aristocrats when it was given nobody would rally behind him at all. Most people knew of Marcus’s cunning so they weren’t surprised when he turned Julius down.
Julius smirked and asked “If not you, my friend, who do you think is worthy?”
This question even stumped Marcus. This would be a dumb question if he really wanted to hire me as a scapegoat, not like I cannot point out someone. Just as he opened his mouth to speak “…”
Julius started “Who is more worthy than the person who handles a business spread over 4 countries and 6 vassal’s countries? Who is more worthy than the person whose personal worth is more than the king of entire nations, who despite being born in this country, has more influence among the nobles of other countries than anyone here present?”
People in audience including Marcus himself were stunned at the words said here, though true it was an open insult to the all nobles present.
But Julius did not stop there “Who doesn’t know, that you’ve single handed cleared our nation from many difficult situations without using back door channels, who would be shrewder than you? Who here doesn’t know that you employ 6% population of the country, comparable to population of many counties? Directly or indirectly your trading corporation feeds upto 17 % of the families in our country. So what count?? what Baron?? could stand before you in terms of influence and power? My friend you have what it takes to become our prime minister and it is within my power to appoint you based on the laws of the great country of Bhasmachal, question is whether you want to accept or not”
Silence ensued in the court of the Julius, it was an unprecedented event happening before them and the nobles gathered were anxious. The position only below the monarch, was now going to be occupied by a common man, a historic event was happening infront of them, of course no noble wanted this to happen, but the Julius enjoyed the popularity to make it happen despite their opposition. They could not stop this blasphemy right now and would have to wait it out before Julius slipped up before pegging out Marcus as well. Brutus was going red with rage on the side, this could have been him standing there getting appointed as the prime minister, Julius had overlooked his request and opted for the one person he believed to be the least qualified of the lot as per him.
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Marcus’s brain was churning like crazy, he tried guessing what was the king thinking, why hasn’t anyone interjected, what is he trying to cover, recalling the recent incidents. Then he looked directly at the Julius’s eye and saw the child like honesty in them and thought to himself “What am I doing doubting the one person who has the clearest conscious of them all???” smirk on his face which gave Julius his answer without any sound and then came the reply “My lord, thank you for this opportunity and I wow to rise upto your standards”
Few years had passed since the coronation ceremony of Julius, their country was under attack of what was probably the largest pirate invasion in recent history. They had managed to capture a port town of the country on the far east coast. Killing thousands in their way, they had done what was the most unexpected thing from a pirate, a pirate who are deemed as looters and escape artists, who choreograph their entire being behind freedom and character behind not being chained to a location, had occupied the port town. Julius had come to know of the incident three days before the occupation had begun which was 4 days into the attack and he had set out with his army in the same night. His spies had informed him of the brutal murder of people, rape of men and women, defiling of corpses, burning of living people and other inhuman things. The hostages, including the mayor and his family were placed in huge taverns and halls across the town. They had to relieve themselves and live in the same place with 500 other such people. The mayor of the town, a childhood friend of his and his ardent supporter, Cracus, was held hostage with his family in one such pigsty like place. It took him a night to reach the town but, he had hidden his forces from the eyes of the pirates by emptying and occupying the nearby hotels and lodges around and outside the town. Except for the people in the army and Marcus no one was wiser about the movement of the massive 500000 strong armies. The pirates had a fleet of 10 galleys which occupy 5000 people at the maximum each, meaning the pirates were at most 50000 strong. Julius had the numbers and element of surprise but the pirates had something far worse, which was around 8000 hostages. The hostage demands had just come in, they were demanding 10 billion swarna to let go of all hostages. This equivalent to 4 years of GDP of the nation. If country forked out such an amount, it was tantamount to plunging the country into an endless cycle of debt and poverty.
“All that I have built would be doomed. 10 galleys… this was not something which should have gone unnoticed by my intelligence department, someone must have been working behind our backs to undermine my throne.” Julius thought to himself. It was deep into the night, Julius and Marcus were standing on a short hill overlooking the port town which was at sea level. There were two freshly built 30 m wide and 50 m deep wide canals which were carrying waters from the sea in the town to the other end of the island crossing many cities and towns along the way. This scheme alone had increased the agricultural production by two times and made Julius’s claim to throne unshakable, but all would for naught it he did not tackle this properly. A frontal attack and the pirates would kill all the people and if surrounded and let them starve the pirates would again kill all the hostages. He could not do anything to stall, people were living a life of hell right now. Thinking upto this point in time, Julius clenched his right fist and gritted his teeth, so much that he had started bleeding from his hand and mouth, anger, rage, fury, wrath nothing right now could describe his feeling right now. His eyes were red, his genius meant till now all the problems were within his control never did he have to face something unexpected, his emotions were not in his control, he was breathing heavily like a raging bull ready to toss the bull fighter up in the air, but he had contained himself cause the man next to him, the man who supported the entire execution of the humongous country wide canal project was quiet. His hands clasped behind his back, here to support whatever decision his king made Marcus was pensive, emotionless but pensive, his powerful and confident blue eyes peered through the darkness to look at the town, after a few quarter hours of silence he said “My liege, please remember the words of this humble fool before you set out on this campaign, Accept the things you cannot change, have the courage to change the things you can and have the wisdom to know the difference…”. Julius looked at the town, still not looking at the Marcus as if ignoring the words of his right hand man, but there was visible change in his body language as his clenched hands and gritted jaws loosened. Marcus was not expecting a reaction, cause he knew the message had been delivered, “perks of working for a smart boss” he always said.
“His majesty, we are ready” came a voice from the dark, Marcus knew someone was in the dark but still couldn’t find him “Heh… I still have a long way to go” he thought to himself.
Julius simply nodded and there was no sound and Marcus did not even know if the person was there or not.
Next day was the day of siege. As per the pirates’ intelligence information, they still had more than a week before any sizeable navy would reach them, so except for the patrols along the sea shores and the ones on top of the fort walls, the pirate fleet, which consisted of 13 major pirate groups, was in a drunken stupor raping women and men and ravaging through goods and food supplies, loading them on their ships to plan an escape. This was a major disadvantage of living in island nation, not all borders could be protected and the such popular port towns which grow with the national economy become places for pirate attacks. The kingdoms could not restrict its people to only develop in well-guarded places since over a period of time the land prices in vicinity increases; people find affordable places to live away from naval security to establishment of port town.
A pirate patrol man standing along the port facing the ocean was surprised cause in front of him were 10 galleys equal in size to their own heading towards them like the wind. Something was not right with the numbers and the way it was headed. Analysis was not his job and he performed the only task he was afforded which to inform the captains of his fleet about the incoming attack with the Bhasmachal flag on its mast.