Chapter 408 - 290: I Trust, I Don’t Care

With Ruben’s capture, Cilicia had almost completely fallen into the Normans’ hands.

However, Eric was still doing his best to prevent the Knights from entering the countryside, keeping them in the cities as much as possible. This was to avoid them mingling with the Armenians and causing unnecessary conflict.

The Armenian villages were guarded by their own organized militias. Although their combat effectiveness was little better than nothing, the most important thing was to make the Armenians feel that they were protecting themselves.

Eric abolished all taxes, levying them only on the citizens within the cities.

The Normans were not short on currency for the time being, and their food supplies—grain plundered from Cyprus and Ruben—were also sufficient.

Once trade resumed, Cilicia’s situation would improve immediately, and it would once again become a breadbasket.

During this time, the Pisans had traveled back and forth between Tuscany and Cyprus several times. They brought with them many unemployed artisans, landless farmers, and some idle vagrants. Eric settled them in Cyprus and the coastal cities of Cilicia.

Here, they would begin a new life.

Eric continued to advance eastward through Cilicia to relieve Mamistra City.

Mamistra City was the Cilician city closest to Antioch, situated on the border of Anatolia. Beyond Mamistra City lay Syria.

Before reaching Mamistra City, Eric and his retinue passed through a small town called Iconium. It was situated at the entrance to a fertile valley, lush with streams, fields, and trees.

When the Knights crested the final hill and saw this sight, they were all stunned into silence. Then, one Knight knelt and began to sing a hymn. Soon, others joined in, and many wept openly. Someone said, "Heaven."

The people of Iconium replaced Eric’s party’s tired horses and broken carts, giving Eric and his men their own horses and those from the surrounding villages, which allowed some Attendants to have their own mounts. They filled their packs with food for the journey and taught the Norman Knights how to make waterskins from goat bladders.

They dried the bladders in the sun, then coated them with oil to make them soft and durable. These waterskins could hold several days’ worth of water.

They also sent guides to lead Eric to shepherd’s wells that the Turkic People did not know about and thus could not have poisoned.

As they departed, nearly all the Knights shouted, "God bless the Armenians of this land!"

As they drew nearer to the Holy Sepulchre, the Knights’ emotions grew more volatile. Even the least devout among them began to recite prayers and kiss the hem of the accompanying friar’s robes.

This phenomenon had its pros and cons. On the one hand, they were becoming more disciplined, and Eric no longer had to constantly remind them not to harass the Armenian village girls or steal livestock for a feast.

On the other hand, they were growing more and more impatient, desperate to reach Jerusalem. In recent days, their conversations with Eric had become somewhat strained.

They increasingly loathed waiting; even thinking felt superfluous to them.

They muttered that since God wished for them to go to the East and save His tomb, they just needed to press forward, and God would guarantee their victory.

Any hesitation or delay was a sign of faithlessness toward Him.

This was especially true after a Knight’s Squire came down with food poisoning and a persistent high fever, only to miraculously recover on the seventh day and declare that he had seen God.

The Squire claimed that God had roared at him, furious that he was still lingering in one place, making the Christians suffering under the Heretics wait in agony!

「Three days later」 they reached Mamistra City. However, to Eric’s surprise, the Turkic siege of the city seemed to have ended.

There was no sign of the Turkic People nearby. It turned out that just two days prior, for some unknown reason, they had abandoned their siege of Mamistra City.

This should have been good news, but when Eric requested entry into the city, he was refused.

...

On the city walls, the rulers of Mamistra City were arguing. An old Jewish man was arguing forcefully on Eric’s behalf.

"Let them in! This city has enough enemies. We don’t need to make another one."

"Besides, they are also Christians!"

"You have no right to decide this. I am the Municipal Official! You will listen to me here."

"You’re just a Jew. No matter what you say, I will not allow a band of Catholic heretics into this holy city."

"The last group that came a year ago was bad enough. We welcomed them warmly, but what did we get in the end?"

"They were just a bunch of bandits."

"Can’t you all see? They are a group of nobles."

"Yes, yes, a group of Norman Nobility. A group of blatant robbers."

"Fine. Then you can handle the next negotiations with the Turkic People yourselves. I’m just a heretic, after all."

The old Jewish man who had spoken up for Eric’s party seemed to get angry. With a cold snort, he pretended to leave.

In the end, he was stopped by the others, and the Municipal Official relented, accepting the Normans’ request to enter the city.

Eric entered the city without dismounting. However, just as he rode in, an old man dressed as a Priest spat on his Warhorse.

The old Priest cursed in Armenian, "Dyophysite heretic!"

Clearly, he was a member of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

"If I were you, I would never provoke a fully armed warrior, let alone insult him so brazenly in front of his men, especially when you have already decided to welcome him.

To accept someone and then humiliate them is far more detestable than simple humiliation, you know?"

As he spoke, Eric waved a hand at Hook Eye behind him.

Hook Eye let out a great roar. The Priest, scared out of his wits, scrambled away in a panic.

The Knights roared with laughter.

Soon, someone approached. It was the same old Jewish man who had spoken up for Eric’s party earlier.

"I am the Rabbi here, my Lord. I received a letter from my relatives in England two years ago."

"My apologies for the trouble. It seems it wasn’t easy." Eric gave the old Jewish man a slight bow to express his thanks.

"It is nothing compared to what you have done for our people, my Lord." The old Jewish man shook his head humbly. He then glanced at the citizens warily watching Eric’s party and said to Eric:

"Don’t blame them, my Lord. They’re just terrified."

"And you’re not afraid?" Eric asked curiously.

"I trust my relatives, and you give me a very different impression.

Of course, there are other reasons. This place has been abandoned by the Empire. To be frank, any powerful Christian Lord with a clear head knows that with the Turkic People sweeping through Anatolia at the height of their power, coming to this small Greek city surrounded by a sea of Heretics instead of staying in Thrace, and planning to occupy it, is an idea of utter folly."

"The Turkic People have had their eyes on this place for a long time. Their inexplicable retreat this time may be a stroke of luck, but such luck won’t last. This place needs to change, my Lord."

The city reeked, and there were rotting corpses in the corners. Fortunately, it was December, so they didn’t have to endure the swarms of flies.

Eric noticed many of the heretic women on the streets wore chains on their ankles, which made a loud noise as they walked.

"Why are they wearing shackles?"

"Because of the previous Turkic siege, the Municipal Official was worried they would join forces with their co-religionist brothers. He actually planned to execute them, but he was also afraid of angering the Turkic People. In the end, he chose to lock the men in their houses, while the women are allowed to move about in this area."

"Heretics? Aren’t Jews considered heretics?" Belem asked.

"It may be cynical, but because of your conflict with the Crescent, our situation has unexpectedly improved. When the Cross and the Crescent don’t trust each other, they often need the light of the Star of David." The old Jewish man smiled and shrugged.

Just then, an elderly woman wearing a veil and beaded ornaments on her face, clearly Turkic, walked toward Eric. Eric thought she was about to hand him a piece of bread or a water gourd, so he extended his hand. Instead, she bit him.

The Knight riding beside Eric immediately struck her with the flat of his Sword. She fell to the ground, and two Norman Knights rushed forward, ready to gut her. Eric shouted at them to stop.

Eric dismounted and walked over to where the woman lay. Though her cheek was split open and two Knights stood over her with drawn swords, there was not a trace of fear in her eyes.

She spat out a few teeth and muttered something to Eric in her own language, her mouth full of blood.

At this moment, Laila hurried up from the baggage train. Eric had her ask what the woman had said. "She says you should take her teeth," Laila said. "She says if she had bitten off your finger, she would have swallowed it. But since you knocked her teeth out, they are yours."

"Why did she bite me?" Eric asked.

Laila spoke with her again for a moment, then translated, "Because you killed her people, you are an enemy of her god, and she had no other weapon."

Eric said she could keep her teeth, but she just pulled her veil back on and walked away. Belem jumped down from his horse. "If you don’t want them, I’ll take them," he said, putting the teeth into his Money Bag. He explained, "I’m going to make a ring for my mother."

"Will you hate us like that?" Eric asked, looking at Laila.

"I wouldn’t dare. I’m a coward."

"You’re as brave as they come. It was just a question. Forget it if you don’t want to answer."

"My father said that in his whole life, he never saw Turkic People, Arabs, Bedouin, or Crescent Believers. He only saw foolish people and clever people, poor people and rich people, lazy people and diligent people, vile people and noble people, ignorant people and learned people, cowardly people and brave people.

"A rich man never considers himself the same as a poor beggar. A learned man does not see the ignorant as his own kind. A strong man never feels a weak man is his equal. And a Lord in power certainly does not give a second thought to the common folk."

"My father said that in the desert, the ones who kill the most Bedouin are other Bedouin," Laila said, puffing out her chest.

"Your father sounds less like a musician and more like a philosopher," Eric said with a smile.

"Aren’t you angry?"

"Why?"

"She attacked you, didn’t she? A Lord would always execute someone who offends their authority."

"She just didn’t know what she was doing. Besides, she’s been punished enough."