Chapter 239: Gifts
This was an unintentional act, but it achieved a good result. The sweet aroma of the candy seemed to be healing that young and scarred heart. She gradually became cheerful, gained a bit of weight, and no longer avoided conversations with the knights. After all, the knights’ daily perk—a piece of rock sugar—had to be taken from her hands.
The knights treated Nathia with great care as well. They all knew of her unfortunate past, and being kind and patient young men, no one impulsively knelt before her to swear to become her knight.
They knew she was not ready yet. If they did so, it would not bring her glory, but rather fright and humiliation.
But there were indeed a few among them who genuinely liked Nathia. Caesar had been carefully observing these people. If in the future Nathia fell in love with one of them, that would truly settle one of his worries.
He had said all these things to Boccia before, back in another world. As a busy rotating doctor, Caesar had also read some novels and watched films and TV shows. What he could not understand most was why two people already in a marriage would hide from and conceal their true feelings from each other.
In the world, only psychologists would tirelessly guess your thoughts from subtle expressions and reactions, trace your past, and analyze your mind—most people have their own lives and work, and do not exist solely for one person, not even for themselves.
It was truly unnecessary to waste precious time, energy, and emotions on such mutual torment. Moreover, Cyprus now was full of crises and constant upheavals. Not long after, he would have to go on expedition with Baldwin.
He had also personally witnessed the conflict between Queen Mother Maria and Princess Sibylla in Holy Cross Castle. Before Baldwin ascended the throne, her mother, the Countess of Jaffa, chose to retreat and avoid conflict with the new mistress. Their teacher had told him and Baldwin more than once that the struggles between women were no less fierce than wars between men—this was still in a castle of Christians. If it were in the harem of a Sultan or Caliph, such struggles would only become more bloody and sharp.
When Dandolo had a long talk with Caesar, he did not hesitate to mention that he had raised Boccia as if she were a boy, which meant that besides the acuity unique to women, she might also possess the brutality and cruelty of men.
Caesar did not want her to have pointless conflicts with Nathia. In the future, there would be only one mistress of Cyprus. Nathia would not be involved in the whirlpools of politics and military affairs, but in return, he also hoped that Nathia could gain freedom like Boccia.
Boccia had once been overjoyed by Caesar’s tolerance. Now, she should not feel troubled by the preferential treatment and connivance another lady might receive, let alone that she should also be grateful to Nathia. Without Nathia, Caesar would still be just an attendant by Baldwin’s side. Even if he had been knighted and given territory, no matter what, he would not become a marriage prospect that the Venetians needed to fiercely compete for.
And Boccia might have spent her life in the monastery built for her by her grandfather, free but lonely.
Moreover, Caesar loved his sister, and she should love her equally. Anyone with a heart should not let their lover suffer from having to choose between love and family.
Boccia’s hesitation fell into the eyes of that woman, instead making her secretly smug.
She was a woman too, of course, and knew well that when a woman was deeply immersed in love, her love was how strong her jealousy would be. And this jealousy had no regard for targets or limits—men, women, the elderly, children, those with blood ties or without, even living or inanimate things, could all become objects of her jealousy.
As long as the other party stole her lover’s attention, she would be filled with envy and hatred, either quarreling with her own lover or destroying the object of her jealousy.
Moreover, although rock sugar was a new good, its value was already becoming apparent.
It was said that Emperor Manuel I of the Byzantine Empire, taking advantage of being Caesar’s father-in-law, sent an envoy every week to take a box of rock sugar directly from the workshop.
He had once praised this square honey candy as mana granted by God to humanity.
It was pure like ice and snow, sweet like honey. The Emperor ate one piece before and after meals, and another before bed. He believed this purified sugar could better invigorate his spirit and prolong his life.
And far away in Rome, Pope Alexander III—though he had been furious about that niece whom Caesar had ruthlessly returned—gladly accepted these gifts of amends from the Lord of Cyprus.
Besides the gold, silk, and pearls that he had already grown tired of, what pleased this Holy Father most was the rock sugar. Like Patriarch Heraclius, he saw its value at a glance.
Although he greatly disliked the Lord of Cyprus, that did not stop him from proclaiming it as a minor holy relic. After all, in this era, there were no sprouts of science, only God’s grace and the devil’s tricks. The birth of rock sugar could undoubtedly only belong to one of these two categories.
The Holy Father deliberated for a long time, and only after confirming that the Roman Church could receive one hundred pounds of rock sugar from Cyprus every quarter did he classify this novel item into the former category.
Rock sugar was not only placed on the sacred altar alongside those precious offerings but could also be sold as a universal medicine. It was said that now in Rome, the value of rock sugar was equivalent to gold—of course, this was blessed gold.
But even ordinary rock sugar had become a trinket for nobles and monarchs in Europe to compete in showing off.
They often carried rock sugar in money bags hanging from their waists, casually taking out a handful to enjoy in leisure moments. The nobles fortunate enough to be rewarded with one or two pieces by them were overjoyed and deeply grateful.
The output of rock sugar was still not entirely satisfactory. Its value, for a territory or an army, could only be described as a drop in the bucket.
But for a noble lady, it was quite substantial.
They judged by themselves, thinking that Caesar would tightly hold the production process and sales channels of rock sugar in his hands as his private property. Yet this private asset had not been given to his wife, the mistress of Cyprus, but to his sister. They did not believe Boccia would accept it calmly, without resentment.
“This is Caesar’s intention; he loves his sister very much.” Boccia fiddled with that golden flower crown while saying casually.
But at the same time, she was secretly observing the expressions of those noble ladies, seeing how many of them were colluding with this Madam.
Sure enough, she saw a few ambiguous glances that had not been fully restrained in time.
She now finally had some understanding of what her grandfather had said before the wedding. If she were not Boccia, not the child raised under Dandolo’s tutelage, but an ordinary noble lady, she would probably have been successfully alienated by them by now.
If she had a conflict with Nathia, not to mention whether it would affect her relationship with Caesar, even just for this still very young family, it would be all harm and no benefit.
Of course, for some people, Nathia’s existence was competing with her for power. But they should also realize that when Caesar left Cyprus to fight for his king, the only one she could rely on in Cyprus would be Nathia.
In Cyprus, only their three destinies were closely intertwined, whether those Crusaders, Venetians, or Cypriots.
For them, who the master of Cyprus was did not matter much.
They might not betray Caesar, but if Caesar were gone, their feelings for Caesar were not deep enough to extend to the two women out of love for him.
Boccia did not directly answer this Madam’s request, neither refusing nor agreeing, but she kept that golden flower crown.
This Madam left the Governor’s Palace and hurried home, where a group of people were anxiously waiting for her.
Boccia had seen those Madams show strange expressions toward this lady for a reason—her family had some unclear relationship with the Isaacites.
Although this relationship was already very distant. It was said that this Madam’s husband’s grandmother was an Isaacite woman. However, Isaacites did not intermarry with outsiders, nor did Christians marry an Isaac woman.
That young couple, for love, resolutely broke through the barriers set by both families and secretly married in a place. After being discovered, the woman even resolutely declared she abandoned the doctrines of the Isaacites, converted to Christianity, and became a follower of the Roman Church.
She was thus expelled from her family. She could only depend miserably on her husband and his family. But gradually, the Cypriots noticed something amiss.
The relationship between this family and the Isaacites seemed not as clearly divided as it appeared on the surface. Although they deliberately made a show of deep hatred, in subsequent transactions, they frequently cooperated with the Isaacites—that family, once on the verge of bankruptcy, thus gained a chance to breathe and even flourished again. This was indeed deplorable, but they did benefit from it.
However, the benefits from the Isaacites were not so easy to obtain.
Just like Jacques of Bethlehem, the Isaacites calculated bloodlines from both father and mother. Children born to an Isaac woman were also Isaacites. They always insisted on this—of course, only for those children who could truly bring them benefits.
Now was the time for this secretly placed chess piece to come into play.
They waited eagerly, and upon seeing the Madam return empty-handed, they immediately showed smiles.
After learning that Caesar had rejected the tax farming system, who was the most panicked? Of course, the Isaacites. Although they also engaged in some crafts, as well as currency exchange and lending financial businesses, the one industry they could not give up—remained only tax collectors.
They had served as this most despised role for the Ancient Romans, Ancient Egyptians, and every subsequent monarch and lord. Even though their people had repeatedly been expelled and massacred for numerous misdeeds, they showed no intention of retreating.
The tax farming system not only allowed them to quickly amass large amounts of money but also let them trample those Christians who despised and hated them. When they used taxes and debts to drive those craftsmen, merchants, and farmers—who thought themselves superior—into desperation, their smugness was simply overflowing.
Likewise, they saw it as an opportunity to climb upward. Even knowing that every ruler saw them only as a convenient tool, who said a tool could not one day turn against its master? For example, the short Pepin—he had originally been just a major-domo in the Clovis dynasty’s court, had he not?
They believed that with persistence, even one opportunity could allow a person to change the bitter fate of the Isaacites over the past millennium. The new lord’s idea of setting up his own taxation agency and recruiting tax collectors indeed troubled them. The first method these people thought of was to sow discord between the new lord and his wife. Was he not willing to delegate power precisely because his beloved wife was a Venetian?
The Isaacites believed that whatever the Venetians could provide, they could too, and even what the Venetians could not provide, they could more so. As long as they could make that young lord change his mind—they did not hope for Caesar to immediately abandon his original idea, but just to make him no longer trust the Venetians so much, and allow the Isaacites to have a hand in the new taxation agency, taking certain positions.
Now this Madam had perfectly completed their commission.
“No matter who ultimately gets the concession in the end, it will be handed over to you to operate.” The great sage of the Isaacites said this, which for the Isaacites was a promise generous to the extreme.
The people of this family immediately showed genuine joy—they tossed their caps in celebration, raised cups in toasts, celebrating the fulfillment of their wish.
Little did they know that Boccia had already taken that box containing the golden flower crown to see Caesar.
