Chapter 350 - 251: Little Nikephoros (2)

But what about the Turkic People?

I have seen them brandish their blades, from which only blood drips. They have no mercy, no faith. They willfully tear up the covenants shared by Heretics and Christians alike. They delight in slaughtering and abusing Christians; they take pride in destroying the churches of Saints, as if these atrocities could somehow prove their Power and might.

They wantonly burn the Holy Land, desecrate Sacred Artifacts and Relics, and disregard all civilization and morality.

Wherever they go, they leave only ruin and despair, as if only through such ruthless destruction can they satisfy their ambition and bloodlust. In their eyes, faith, covenants, and sacred promises are but empty words; violence and conquest are their only true beliefs.

Look at this Turkic man before you, decked out in gold and silver, clad in Chest Armor. Then look at your fellow Greeks around you, dressed in rags, fighting each other over petty profits, faithlessly attacking their own brethren.

And these brethren have crossed thousands of miles from distant Britain and Gaul, with supreme reverence for the love of God, bringing hope and faith only to rescue the Holy Land from the iron heel of the Heretics. And you?

What kind of Christians are you? What has God taught you? Deceit and trickery? To bully the good and fear the wicked? It’s laughable!

Your cowardice and betrayal will plunge the entire Christian World into deeper darkness! God will see your betrayal and hypocrisy and will judge you, just as He will judge the Heretics who have desecrated our Holy Land!

It’s only a matter of time before this Empire, which has believed in Christ for seven hundred years, is abandoned by God.

As God has said, ’The deceitful will be tripped by their own schemes, but the faithful shall be saved.’

How can the deceitful stand before God?

Your Empire will become a playground for the Turkic People, just like the empire of the Saracens! No—I should say, it already is!" Eric laughed.

The Norman Knights around him who didn’t understand Greek couldn’t comprehend what Eric was saying, but they knew this was the time to show support, so they joined in with boisterous laughter.

They all knew their Count had a reputation for being ’eloquent,’ and besides, the look on Tatikios’s face up on the city gate was clearly grim.

"I told you, the Greeks are all gutless cowards!"

"Gutless cowards!"

"Letting a foreigner whose hands are stained with their countrymen’s blood boss them around. They’re so stupid!"

"..."

The soldiers and citizens on the city wall grew increasingly restless, and more and more eyes turned to Tatikios.

This made Tatikios’s scalp tingle with dread. It was the very situation he had been desperately trying to avoid.

The Greeks had always been a sensitive and sheeplike people.

Just then, another voice suddenly rang out from the city wall.

"Hey, what’s going on here! Why is it so chaotic? We’re supposed to be welcoming the people from the west, you can’t let all these citizens flood in!"

The voice was young; it was clearly a young man.

A thought seemed to occur to Tatikios. He waved to a few soldiers, who then moved in a certain direction, clearly intending to deal with the person who had just interrupted.

"Tatikios, are you trying to rebel?! I am the Emperor’s Envoy! You just try and lay a hand on me! Let go! Let go!"

The young man who had spoken quickly began to resist, causing a commotion. The soldiers seemed unable to handle him, and the situation on the wall grew increasingly chaotic.

Finally, the young man grabbed the head of a tall Armenian, climbed right onto the poor man’s shoulders, and began pulling at the Armenian soldier’s face, scratching him until it was covered in bloody marks.

"Lord Tatikios, aren’t you going to introduce this Emperor’s Envoy to us westerners?" Eric asked, looking at the young man and speaking in Greek.

He wasn’t actually asking Tatikios, but the young man himself.

"The Normans? The Normans are here?"

The young man turned around. He was quite young, a handsome youth with short, brown hair.

Eric didn’t answer directly. Instead, he pulled a Cloak embroidered with a Cross from his Warhorse’s saddlebag, shook it out twice, and tossed it into the air.

The Cloak unfurled in midair, finally landing more or less flat on the ground. The white Cross on the black Cloak was exceptionally striking.

"You’re the Normans from England! Our reinforcements! Tatikios, why are you keeping them out? Why are you letting this irrational rabble swarm in? Open the gate!" the young man yelled at Tatikios, jumping down from the tall Armenian.

Tatikios had little desire to deal with the young man.

"I act in the name of the Emperor! In the name of His Majesty the Emperor!" The young man, seemingly angered by Tatikios ignoring him, spoke with a gradually hardening tone and a shriller voice.

Tatikios frowned, still unmoved. "In the Emperor’s name?" he said coldly, his gaze never leaving the Normans. "His Majesty the Emperor gave me no order to let in a mob of out-of-control barbarians."

The young man’s face flushed red with anger. He took a step forward. "You are challenging the Emperor’s authority, Tatikios! They are our allies! You are delaying the arrival of reinforcements! Besides, you Turkic savage, what right do you have to call anyone else a barbarian!"

"You..." Tatikios was at a loss for words for a moment, then snorted with contempt. "Reinforcements? All I see is a band of armed thugs ready to pillage and destroy, not an orderly army."