Aksham-Sadin was utterly bewildered when he was called out of his chambers. He considered himself merely a Muslim scholar, of no significance to a Christian monarch, so why would their people summon him? Could it be that they intended to convert to Allah's faith?
However, when he saw the familiar, though now composed, face of Bosporus Caesar Manuel, he couldn't help but let out a helpless laugh, even though he hadn't yet understood the situation.
"Long time no see, Caesar."
"Long time no see, Gourani Molla." Seeing his old acquaintance from ten years ago again, Manuel, dressed in military attire, did not show any intention of currying favor, nor did he rashly make any awkward requests. Instead, he gestured for the jurist to sit in the chair opposite him and enjoy the tea he had prepared.
"So, Caesar, are you here to reminisce?" Aksham-Sadin gave a dry laugh, not drinking the tea. "If you're hoping I can do something for you, I'm afraid it will be difficult to fulfill your wish."
"Then I've only asked you to come for a simple reunion," Manuel said, taking a sip of tea and smiling easily.
"Really? That would be wonderful." Though he said this, Aksham-Sadin cursed inwardly, 'The devil believes it.'
Nevertheless, faced with the other's goodwill, he sat down and drank the tea Caesar had prepared for him. Seeing this, Caesar, after some small talk, got straight to the point.
"By the way, you should be aware of the recent changes within the Ottoman Sultanate, right?" As he spoke, the smile on Manuel's face became even more inscrutable to the other. "Now, all three sons of the former Sultan have fled, and no one knows where they've gone. I didn't expect even Muhammad, who is less than 15 years old, to make a similar choice to his brothers."
Hearing Caesar mention his student, the old man's eye twitched subtly. This, of course, was noticed by Manuel, who knew he was on the right track and continued:
"Muhammad, as the youngest of Murad's three surviving sons, is also suspected of being the first to flee the battlefield. Although it's uncertain whether this is true, Murad II's other two sons will certainly not miss this opportunity to gain an advantage over him in terms of reputation. Furthermore, as far as I know, among the Ottoman high-ranking officials who have already fled Thrace, not a single influential one has chosen to side with Muhammad."
"Manuel, you..." Aksham-Sadin was about to erupt, but he was cut off by Caesar before he could finish.
"I am not accusing, but merely telling you some facts. Even if you are not yet aware of these facts, and have no concept of them.
"So, do you want to see him? If you wish to see your student, then the Autocratic State will escort you to him with due courtesy. In return, you must find a way to make your student believe that the Romans can help him. How about that?" Convinced he had found the right approach, Manuel began to patiently persuade the old man before him.
After a moment of astonishment, the jurist spread his hands helplessly to Caesar, saying, "Manuel, you overestimate me. I am just a scholar, and my student has Greek ancestry; he is naturally close to the Greeks. Even if you approached him directly, he probably wouldn't refuse."
That's also why he ultimately chose Muhammad, Manuel thought, but what he said was, "I just hope your student can accept help from others more naturally."
At this moment, Aksham-Sadin looked at Manuel, this infidel Caesar, with extremely complex emotions. But in the end, he nodded slightly, accepting Caesar's proposal without a smile. "Very well, Caesar. It shall be as you say."
After courteously seeing Aksham-Sadin out of the room, Manuel instructed his Commander of the Guard and confidential secretary to begin searching for information about Muhammad and secretly arrange a ship for the jurist. Afterwards, he calmed himself and diligently dealt with the various messes the Ottoman had left him in Adrianople.
After resting for a few days in Adrianople, formally renaming the city back to its old name Adrianople, and waiting for his civil officials to categorize all the city's documents and archives and move them to Constantinople, Manuel then confidently led his army westward, continuing to reclaim the empire's former territories.
During this time, he also dispatched his troops to promptly occupy all of Thrace except for the Gallipoli Peninsula. Thanks to the Battle of Adrianople, which annihilated most of the Ottoman's central military power, apart from the Gelibolu Fortress, which was highly valued by the Sultanate and still guarded by troops, the defenses in other parts of Thrace were almost nonexistent. In less than half a week, Bosporus's army occupied most of the Thracian territory.
During the period of reclaiming Thrace, Manuel also received some crucial information: Fruzhin, the second son of the former Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Shishman, with the support of Hungarian Regent Hunyadi, secretly returned to his homeland Vidin from Timișoara on the day of the Battle of Adrianople. He united with local Bulgarian restorationists, killed the Ottoman officials there, and, upon learning of Murad II's death in the southern battle, openly restored the title of Tsar, proclaiming the restoration of the Bulgarian Empire.
In addition, Serbia, Wallachia, and Albania were also stirring on their borders. The former reportedly even had factions within the country claiming they would march all the way to Thessaloniki, recreating the story of Emperor Stefan Dušan;
And in Anatolia, Karaman and Aydın had launched offensives against the former territories of the Ottoman Sultanate. The former was currently besieging the city of Ankara, while the latter was attacking Tekke and Karesi in an attempt to control the western coast of Asia Minor, but recently seemed to have suffered a setback for unknown reasons.
As for Murad II's three sons, after fleeing Thrace, they finally stopped in several major cities in the remaining regions of the Sultanate, recruiting former Ottoman soldiers, proclaiming themselves the legitimate Sultans of the Ottoman Sultanate, and immediately declared war on their brothers. The eldest, Ahmed, occupied the old Rumelian territory where Plovdiv is located. Sultan Aladdin Ali, after fleeing back to Brusa, occupied the central-western part of the Sultanate, while Muhammad is now in the southwestern tip of Asia Minor.
"I don't know how he managed to take so many people so far, wasn't Aydın blocking the way in between... Wait!" Manuel suddenly thought of something as he mumbled to himself. Could it be that his adopted son's expansion was thwarted by Muhammad and his followers...
Thinking that under the influence of the storm stirred up by his butterfly effect, the former Roman homeland would become as chaotic as it was decades ago, Manuel couldn't help but feel a headache.
But upon closer consideration, the shores of the Aegean Sea were vastly different now than when the Ottoman first set foot on Gallipoli decades ago: at that time, the Ottoman were full of vigor, possessing the military might and momentum to sweep across the Christian states of the Balkan Peninsula; now, the Ottoman were fragmented, and the various countries that wished to intervene, apart from Bosporus, had all suffered significant setbacks before, making it difficult for them to pose a threat on their own in the short term.
Since that was the case, this time, he would lead the Romans and the Roman Empire back to their rightful place in history, just as he had always aspired to!
However, before that, he still had some things to do.
"The ownership of Thrace is almost settled," Manuel thought, and as he wrote down military orders for the navy to temporarily blockade the Sea of Marmara, his sharp gaze occasionally swept westward.
"Next, it's time to reclaim Thessaloniki, the co-capital of the Roman Empire, and Macedonia, where it is located."