Blue Sword

Chapter 73 Epilogue The Fall of Constantinople and the Rise of the Blue Sword

Author: Anna Pavlogenit Achilles

Written in the year 261 of the Sixth Age

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In 273 of the Third Age, when Caesar crossed the Rubicon River, history records that he sighed:

"The dice of fate have been cast."

In fact, no one knew the meaning of this sentence better than Caesar.

Even before his earliest days as a priest, Caesar was Solomon's most experienced gambler. Not just in the casino, but also in Solomon's politics.

The Rubicon River north of Solomon City was his last line of psychological defense. According to the regulations of the ancient Solomonic Republic, any general who led his troops across the Rubicon without the permission of the Senate was deemed to have completely rebelled against the city of Solomon.

Crossing this river meant that he would either wipe out all the elders who dared to resist and become the supreme Dictate dictator in the Republic of Solomon. Or he would become Solomon's traitor and die a despicable death despised by everyone.

If he does not choose to cross the river, there is a small chance that he will be assassinated when he returns home, but there is a high chance that he will reach an agreement with some senators, strip off his military power through a grand triumph, and become a "good dog raised by the fathers of the senators."

Finally he chose to cross the river.

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According to a widely circulated saying: Everyone has three to four opportunities to "roll the dice of fate" in his life.

Each time, the person's life is forever changed.

Therefore, when many historians do not understand why my mother chose to abandon her distinguished status and join a little-known small mercenary group to leave the East, I hope that at least dear readers can understand that she was actually just throwing her own way. Just dice.

Before the fall of Constantinople, the political situation in the imperial capital was already quite unfavorable for my mother.

Some nobles and bureaucrats believed that she should bear the responsibility for the betrayal of the Franks. There is a record that she signed the treaty with the Venetians to extradite the Frankish knights against all objections.

Anyone with a little knowledge of imperial politics can see that without the simultaneous nod of two co-ruling emperors, how could a treaty be followed by the bureaucrats below without objection? The Venisians are not idiots without any diplomatic common sense.

The real reason for her loss of power lay in the changing attitude of the Orthodox Church.

Although the Orthodox Church at that time did not possess as much power as its Western papal brothers, it still enjoyed a high reputation in the imperial capital.

At the State Council, the Orthodox Church remained strangely silent in the face of Zoe's coup offensive, which undoubtedly sent a signal to most of the neutral bureaucrats and aristocrats.

The Orthodox Church does not support His Majesty Theodora. This is the most deadly sword that stabs my mother.

Regarding the attitude of the Orthodox Church, it is rumored that when my mother first came to the throne, in order to seek help from the Western Holy See, she considered agreeing to revise the classics in accordance with the wishes of the Western Catholic Church.

I don't think this is the real reason. Of course, His Excellency Alexius, who was an Orthodox Christian at that time, might have considered this an offense to the Orthodox Church.

However, rashly deciding one's attitude towards a majesty because of an unintentional remark that was not even put on the table was not the traditional way of doing things in imperial politics.

The main problem was that at that time, both the bureaucrats, nobles and priests of Constantinople, as well as most of the loyal citizens, believed that what the empire urgently needed was a male emperor.

Even in the entire Solomonic culture, women are synonymous with "irrational" and "indecisive".

Although the two co-ruling emperors, relying on the political prestige inherited from the late emperor Constantine, temporarily reached a delicate balance at the highest level of power in the empire.

However, this balance is fragile. As long as the adult Her Majesty Zoe chooses to get married, prestige and power will soon gather on her husband, because this is a male emperor in the true traditional sense.

For the mother, this is naturally the worst possible outcome. For Zoe, the result was not a very good one. She just changed from sharing power with her sister to sharing power with her husband.

The latter is even more difficult to deal with than the former.

Therefore, at the State Council, the coup offensive launched by Zoe was actually conveying an attitude to the church and bureaucratic aristocrats:

She is unwilling to share power with anyone, not her sister or her future husband.

Dear reader, assuming you are Lord Alexius of the Orthodox Church, you must be able to clearly see the chaotic situation at that time.

When Zoe recklessly showed her fangs at a state meeting, the delicate balance between the two majesties had been broken.

In this case, there are only two endings: Zoe wins and Theodora fails; or Theodora wins and Zoe fails.

No matter which outcome, it would be extremely detrimental to the empire. While the Seljuks were wreaking havoc on the flesh and blood of the empire in the east, the two emperors were foolishly still hostile to each other.

Therefore, this political battle must be ended immediately.

If the church supports Her Majesty Theodora, Her Majesty Zoe will naturally suffer backlash and even lose power immediately.

However, my mother was only 16 years old at the time. Could a minor queen who had just ascended the throne really lead the entire empire to resist the steppe barbarians from the east on her own?

On the other hand, if you support Her Majesty Zoe, Her Majesty Theodora's political life will naturally be "ended" as a matter of course.

According to imperial tradition, an emperor whose political life is terminated must be exterminated by those in power.

So, if the church instead shelters the fallen "former" His Majesty Theodora, then Her Majesty Zoe will soon realize another fact:

Although she won the political battle, she was not the real winner.

Because Her Majesty Theodora still had such a high reputation whether in the church or among aristocrats and bureaucrats that she was completely unable to completely get rid of her sister.

Failure to be removed means that it may one day make a comeback.

Therefore, in order to consolidate her own power and offset the adverse effects of the coup and Her Majesty Theodora's remaining political prestige, Her Majesty Zoe could only choose to get married as soon as possible and strengthen the legitimacy of her governance through her husband.

Then the empire would have a male emperor again.

A male emperor who is, in the traditional sense, more "sane", "decisive" and "ambitious" than women.

This is the result that the church and aristocratic bureaucrats want to see, and it is also the real reason why they choose to do this.

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Perhaps some readers still do not understand the complex political logic after reading this, so please allow me to use concise language to once again explain the political situation of the upper echelons of the empire at that time:

Due to Her Majesty Zoe's rash rebellion, the delicate balance between the two Majesties has been broken. The church's knee-jerk reaction is to quickly end this stupid political battle and then reestablish balance as quickly as possible.

Since my mother, Her Majesty Theodora, is even younger, the church can only choose to support Her Majesty Zoe and instead put my mother under house arrest and protect her.

Once Her Majesty Zoe realizes that this desperate coup will not work, she can only take other relatively stable methods, such as marriage.

Therefore, if the mother had not disappeared in the monastery at that time, the church expected that she would have encountered several dangerous political attacks, slanders and even assassinations.

However, as a tool used by the church to put pressure on Her Majesty Zoe, the mother will be closely protected by the church, and these assassinations will have no effect.

When necessary, she would even be released from the monastery and make a brief appearance in the political arena to stimulate Her Majesty Zoe's nerves.

Until Her Majesty Zoe gave up her attempt to dominate, finally gave in and chose to get married.

Then power will be concentrated in the hands of her husband. In the next few years, the situation in the imperial capital will be as dangerous as a ship sailing on rough waves as the empress and the new emperor struggle.

As for my mother, the final outcome was naturally to lose all her cards and be completely eliminated from this game of power.

Everyone uses her as a bargaining chip, and no one will show mercy to the fate of the chips.

Therefore, faced with this extremely unfavorable situation, her choice is to pick up the dice of fate.

Then the entire gaming table was knocked over.

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History records that when my mother disappeared from the monastery, the Orthodox Church opened the Life Cage Wall immediately.

This quickly caused chaos in the imperial capital. Since the life cage wall did not allow any living body to pass through, the inside and outside of the wall were almost completely isolated.

The church set up twenty-eight access points on the edge of the cage to allow residents inside and outside to queue in and out.

There is at least one church demigod stationed at each point, and anyone who enters or exits will be spiritually swept through every cell in the body to ensure that no hidden creature can escape the prison of life.

My mother understood, however, that the church could not sustain its living cage walls for long because the Franks across the Golden Horn were attacking the city.

It is absolutely impossible for the imperial capital to maintain war on both sides at the same time.

Her guess was correct. On only the fourth day, the church was forced to remove the life-cage wall and switch to a more covert method of inspection.

Many historians hold various analyzes and speculations about the way the Blue Sword Mercenary Group escaped from Constantinople by avoiding the search by the Church. Here I can only quote the actual conversation with my mother. Here are a few words.

On a cargo ship heading to the port city of Rhaedestus, a tightly wrapped box was filled with a large number of books, which were printed from the printing workshop in Constantinople. Sent to the Municipal Library in Laredtus.

Because the ship carries too much cargo, the demigod cannot carefully inspect every cargo in each container (imagine, if a ship carries dozens of tons of sesame seeds, does the demigod have to inspect every sesame seed?) . Therefore, they could only roughly scan the ship for life forms.

So the fate dice rolled a good result. Empress Theodora briefly disappeared from the historical text, and a small mercenary group called the "Blue Sword" had an additional trainee mercenary who mastered arcane magic.

In the eyes of us as later generations, the name "Cang Qing Sword" has undoubtedly long been heard.

However, at that time, abandoning the noble royal status and choosing to join this small mercenary group from scratch required great courage and decisiveness.

My mother has often talked about the past recently, about her companions, and about how she was so full of doubts when she first joined that she even couldn't sleep all night for a long time.

Occasionally she would feel strong regret, but more often she would feel confused about the future, just like the thousands of people in this world holding dice of fate, hesitating not knowing whether to cast them.

Fortunately, now that she is looking back on the past again, she has finally found the path she wanted.

If my mother had chosen to stay in the empire, her life would have been completely different.

As for whether it is good or bad, we have no way of knowing at this time.

Here, I can only quote my favorite Frost poems to make a final summary of this volume:

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

It's a pity that I can't get involved at the same time,

I stood at that intersection for a long time,

I looked towards a road,

Until it disappeared deep into the forest.

But I chose another path,

It is covered with lush grass and very quiet,

Look more attractive and beautiful,

Although on these two paths,

They leave few traces of travelers,

Although the ground was covered with fallen leaves that morning,

Both roads are unsullied by footprints.

Ah, leave a way to see you another day!

But I know the path goes on forever,

I'm afraid I won't be able to return.

Maybe somewhere many years from now,

I will look back on the past with a sigh,

Two roads diverged in a wood,

And I chose the less traveled route,

So it changed the course of my life. "

In the main plot of the game "Iron and Fire", players help the captain of the guard Michael and the palace ink officer Ms. Varomina to rescue Theodora from the monastery. In this world, it was the protagonist and his party who rescued Theodora.