55.
55.
Basil of Macedonia.
Emperor Michael's old friend, political comrade. Adopted son.
"His Imperial Majesty has always enjoyed laughing and making merry like that, since long ago. Perhaps that is why he was always surrounded by so many followers. Like Basilikinos over there."
I followed the glance of Basil, who was pointing to one side while lightly touching his cup to his lips, and saw the future Caesar, Basilikinos, who already appeared to be nearing a state of complete insensibility, struggling to raise his cup in time with the Emperor's rhythm.
"Sometimes, I am reminded of bygone days. His Majesty still raises his cup, looking exactly the same as he did back then. But I have now reached an age where I can clearly feel the years flowing by..."
Bullshit.
The old man's lament was at odds with the strength in his eyes, which was practically shouting the opposite. Still, perhaps I should play along a little.
"How can a commander who once wielded the left-flank cavalry as naturally as his own hands and feet utter such frail words?"
I was not well-versed in the corruption of Rome, but at the very least, political skill alone could not have been enough for a soldier of peasant origin to rise to the position of Co-emperor. Basil was, in truth, an incomparable cavalry commander as well... I had heard that in his youth, he personally crossed swords with Bulgarian soldiers and displayed great valor. For such a man to speak so weakly was likely neither mere humility nor anything more than that.
"Ha ha ha! To be praised by one who should be compared to the heroes of legend—nothing could delight me more."
Basil laughed as if genuinely pleased and raised his cup, and I raised mine to match him.
Soon, as the two of us emptied our wine in one draught, attendants who had been waiting behind us stepped forward and poured fresh wine.
[Jorororok-]
"The taste is superb indeed. The wine of Bithynia never grows tiresome, no matter how often one drinks it."
Basil swirled his cup around, inspecting its contents. The wine reflected in his pupils was a red as vivid as blood.
"Ah, I do hope this old body has not disturbed the young hero's enjoyment with needless grumbling. Well then, I should take my leave now. Helgi Konungr."
"What are you saying? I wish to speak more with Your Co-imperial Majesty, so please seek me out anytime."
When I rose from my seat to see Basil off as he asked my leave, he smiled and nodded his head.
"Your words alone, Konungr, are enough to warm my heart. Today, my body is weary, so I shall retire first, and we shall meet again later."
"Then, I shall await it."
With a pleasant expression, Basil offered his respects and turned around.
His figure quietly leaving the tent and the sound of Michael's loud laughter intersected with me standing between them.
*****
The banquet, overflowing with the joy and rapture of victory, had ended, and the dark night had deepened so much that even the torches lit here and there could not completely drive away the surrounding blackness. It was the time when the darkness lay thickest.
There were figures moving as silently as cats through a space where clouds that had gathered from somewhere were scattering even the moonlight.
[Puk! Keup-!]
The palace of Cyzicus was not large in scale.
Two of the Emperor's guards, whose tension had unwittingly slackened due to the frenzied banquet just hours before, had their lungs pierced by blades that flew from behind, and could not utter a single sound.
"Kreuk... keuk..."
"Keo-keok... keok... trai... tor..."
Sound, after all, is only made when there is air. Those who collapsed in hideous agony from the sharp blades churning their insides could never rise again, but those who committed such a gruesome deed in the darkness seemed to have lost even a shred of sympathy.
"Is it certain that the Emperor's quarters are empty?"
"It is. I saw that fellow Rentakios being carried away drunk as well, so there will be no more than thirty men at most."
"Good. Move quickly. From now on, kill anyone who gets in the way."
"Yes. Marinos."
After exchanging those short but bloodthirsty words, the uninvited guests advanced without hesitation toward the Emperor's quarters, where the majority of the guard was stumbling about drunk.
"Wh-what!? Who are you!"
"You need not know. Strike them down!"
[Chaeng! Chaeng! Puk! Pu-puk!]
"Keo-heok!"
The skill of the Imperial Guard was beyond reproach, but even that had its limits, and they could not handle the number of assassins swarming in two or three to each man.
"This room?"
"Cleared. No Emperor."
"That one over there?"
[Uaaaaaaaaah! Assassins...! Assassins...! Kreuk...!]
"I shall check it."
Boldly lighting the interior of the darkness-shrouded building with torches and swaggering openly, these assassins meticulously and carefully inspected every room, killing everyone within.
When at last, after slaughtering all those who were drunk and dyeing the path they had taken a vivid, pooling red, the assassins were finally blocked by fewer than twenty white-cloaked guards—at that moment, these ruthless assassins halted their steps.
Given that the situation had already reached this point.
Neither side uttered words like, "Who are you!" "Do you know where you are!" "Clear the way!" To work in the heart of the Roman Empire meant steeling oneself to face such things at all times. What mattered was simply this: at any time, in any situation, were you ready to keep your oath? Or were you not? It was a very simple matter.
Between those who had betrayed their oaths and those who sought to keep them, no further conversation was necessary.
"Marinos, halt."
Just as the tension reached its peak and the scent of blood grew thicker, a voice that feigned calmness yet settled the pounding hearts of both the somewhat excited assassins and the guards echoed lowly from behind.
"Your Imperial Majesty."
Turning their bodies aside to make way for the approaching figure, the man called Marinos, who was at the head of the assassins, bowed deeply at the waist.
"You have done well, Marinos. My brother. Where is His Imperial Majesty?"
A man who seized control of the space, where an ordinary person might faint from the suffocating stench and force alone, with just a single word.
In the eyes of Marinos as he looked upon the Co-emperor, Basil, a chilling coldness resided.
"We seized the servants and interrogated them. There was no means of escape. Since he has not shown his face thus far, he must certainly be up ahead."
"Is that so? I see. He guzzled so much drink, and yet even now, when matters have come to this... he refuses to even show his face."
There were thick emotions in Basil's words, which he spat out as if in lament. Emotions that only he himself could know.
"Skoll's warriors, decide. Will you block the path, or will you open the way?"
But now, in this moment, as if even those complicated feelings were a luxury, Basil, who had recovered his countenance in an instant, urged a ruthless decision upon the resolute guards.
"Symbasileus Basil, though I do not know well how you, who have seized every glory attainable, can act this way. But you know better than anyone that the Skoll's warriors are those who serve the Emperor, not those who turn their backs on him."
When faced with imminent death, not all men were stricken with terror, and the Skoll's warriors blocking this place were indeed resolute beings. Men who knew honor.
Seeing this, even Basil, who had cast aside his own honor, could not help but admire them, but of course, personal feelings and the feelings of a leader were separate things.
To put a punctuation mark on it, Basil gave the order.
"Then you shall do what you must, and I shall do what I must. Ioannes, open the way."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
[Click. Clack.]
From behind Basil came the sound of tightly fitted armor grinding together, and a man of gigantic build slowly stepped forward.
Even the sword and shield in his hands were larger than those of others, and the armor and helmet, splattered with blood here and there, sent a chill through those who watched, but the captain of the Skoll's warriors did not back down.
"Skoll's warriors! Protect His Majesty!"
"Protect His Majesty!"
The Skoll's warriors swiftly formed a shield wall, and Basil quietly watched them. Soon, when the giant Ioannes took one step forward.
All of a sudden.
From behind the Skoll's warriors, a man walked out of the darkness-shrouded inner chamber.
"Co-emperor, Basil. It is true I said I was waiting, but I never imagined you would come this soon."
The man in the darkness, who had addressed him in a soft tone somewhat out of place in the solemn space, gradually revealed himself under the torchlight raised by the rebels, and the more he appeared.
The nerves of every Roman present stood on end.
It was the instinctive feeling a person has when encountering a predator at the apex of nature's hierarchy, like a tiger or a bear.
Their hands and feet refused to obey fully, their pupils dilated, and suddenly a dry swallow began to pass down their throats.
In this place where only warriors who knew well the identity of such feelings had gathered, where treason was being committed. Both the Skoll's warriors, who had already steeled themselves for death, and the assassins felt a distinct terror.
"Helgi Konungr..."
"Hercules..."
"Satan of Adramytios..."
The guards who had witnessed his feats with their own eyes saw an unexpected figure appear in an unexpected place, but they merely stood on guard and dared not level their spears.
The assassins in Basil's entourage, who had only heard rumors of the foreign king's exploits, ignored their instincts that were urgently sounding the alarm, as if wondering what problem the addition of one strong warrior could be.
"Helgi Konungr. I distinctly heard that you drank the cup my servant brought... You proved to be far stronger with drink than I imagined."
Basil had spoken casually in his usual expression and tone, but Marinos, who had known him for a long time, noticed that Basil was agitated.
"You went too far with your jest, Basil. Thanks to it, I slept quite a bit. I slept deeply for the first time in a long while. My thanks for the gift."
Heh-.
Basil let out a hollow laugh at the foreign king's composed words.
"No matter how strong you are, you are still a human in the end. It was a poison that should have laid you groaning in bed for at least three days. Did my servant betray me? Or... did you truly endure it?"
Hehehe-.
The two pairs of eyes fixed upon each other's faces did not stray from one another for a single moment, even amid the words and the boisterous laughter passing between them.
"Well, it matters not now... Helgi Konungr. I say this with all my respect: meddle no further in the affairs of Rome. Do you not know why this matter has reached such a state?"
"Basil...!"
"Quiet. Stay still, Marinos."
Marinos, who had never once seen his brother beg someone like this, was startled, but soon fell silent at Basil's stern attitude.
Basil's gaze, and the one who stood at its end. Helgi Ragnarsson quietly contemplated something for a moment, then glanced once at the inner chamber behind him before placing his green eyes, which seemed to glow alone in the darkness, back upon Basil's face.
"See here, Basil. This is not a matter concerning Romans and Norsemen. It is far more personal than that."
From the sight of Helgi Ragnarsson silently grasping the hand axe at his waist, a restrained yet essentially ferocious and savage energy slowly seeped out.
"I, the man called Helgi Ragnarsson, am not a man who turns his back on a comrade with whom he has shed blood."
[Thud. Thud.]
Soon, the Norse warrior walked through the white cloaks and stood at the head of the imperial guard. Before him, Basil's warrior called Ioannes blocked the way.
"Ah, I see. It is a pity, when merely closing your eyes for a moment would have ended it. Helgi Konungr."
"Do the Skoll's warriors still have the strength to fight?!"
As Basil finished speaking, Helgi, who had been watching the assassins creeping closer, asked the imperial guard, the Skoll's warriors.
"Of course...! Archon Helgi!"
"We will fight until our last breath...!"
"Good."
After confirming their resolute voices, Helgi nodded once and then drew in a great breath.
Hwwwp-
The breath, which swelled as if to burst, filled his towering upper body. He gathered the strength drawn up from his core into that breath, and hurled it violently past his chest and throat.
"Hee- - ! La- - -!"
[Hwooong-! Laa-! Laa-! Laa...!]
"Ugh!"
A tremendous sound erupted from Helgi's mouth, filling and resonating through the entire space with a force that seemed ready to shatter the eardrums of those before him. The moment Ioannes, who had been approaching with his shield raised, furrowed his brow and momentarily flinched.
[Tatat-! Bwoong-!]
"Kuhuk!"
Starting with Helgi, who shot forward like a bullet and kicked Ioannes's shield aside, the Skoll's warriors also charged at the assassins in unison.