Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 5 Outsider
The next morning, the black north wind dissipated with the appearance of the first ray of sunshine, and the coastline was littered with various incomplete corpses and shipwrecks.

Even experienced soldiers had rarely seen such a scene, and their faces looked heavy for a moment. Not many people cheered or celebrated the death of the enemy. Instead, they all focused on collecting and burning corpses to prevent the spread of a plague.

Orville certainly had not seen this scene with his own eyes. In fact, he was a little scared. He kept giving himself psychological hints, suggesting that this was just a part of history and he could not change anything. After repeating this many times, he pulled his hand that had stopped shaking out of his arms and pretended that everything was normal.

Tia was a little absent-minded looking at the coastline. She glanced at Orville who was still watching the show expressionlessly, then quickly recovered and gave orders to her subordinates: "The remaining people in the city, whether women, children, the elderly or adult men, are local residents persecuted by bandits and have not done anything hostile to Rome. According to the law, they are subjects of King Aquita, not rebels. We have the responsibility to protect the subjects of our allies and bring them safely back to other cities of the Palphians. As for this place, in order to prevent it from becoming a pirate den again, it should be razed to the ground."

Several officers below nodded in agreement, their eyes full of admiration and awe. They looked down on this woman with connections yesterday, thinking that women should not go to the battlefield. But last night she used only 500 cavalrymen to annihilate 2,000 bandits with almost no losses. She also personally commanded the cavalry and chopped off more than a dozen heads with her sword. Even if judged by the most stringent standards, this was an impeccable victory, and Tia was also a capable general.

The Romans did not hate victory, nor did they hate strong men. Facing a strong general who could bring victory, these Roman soldiers could change their attitude. Now it was no problem for them to believe that Tia was not an ordinary woman, but the incarnation of the goddess of war Athena. Anyway, the battle was won, a great victory, and whatever the general said was true.

Cavalry were always valuable, so it was not their turn to do the remaining dirty work. Two other battalions came with a lot of military slaves to clear the area. Orville and Tia returned to Caesarea, where they were warmly welcomed by Vespa.

He was very satisfied with his daughter's achievements, and even more satisfied that the pirate threat had been successfully resolved. He even held a banquet for this purpose. Tia reported Orville's contribution truthfully to Vespa. Vespa was in a good mood and agreed to let him, a prisoner of war, attend the banquet.
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The banquet was held in Philippi, the current capital of King Architas the Great, the ruler of the Parviids, and a command hub.

Orville showed up at the banquet wearing a different outfit, the toga, which was worn by the Romans. It was an oversized wrap, and most of the robes worn by those people in the portraits of Roman philosophers in later generations were of this type.

Strictly speaking, people without citizenship were not allowed to wear it, but this was Vespa's intention. He gave Orville an expensive toga and asked several servants to help Orville put on this difficult-to-wear clothes.

On the surface it expresses approval, but secretly it also has the meaning of a test.

Not everyone can easily abandon their identity. Orville is probably one of them. So far, he has no sense of identity with any country or nation in this world, so these are just labels to him, which can be torn off and replaced when necessary.

Philippi was just an obscure city on the east coast, but Vespasian did his best to organize a decent banquet.

It was not a private gathering of the upper aristocracy where they would lie down to eat and chat. It was more like a public banquet or a military celebration banquet. The chefs put the prepared food together and anyone could take it. It was lively and festive without so many rules of respect for hierarchy.

Vespa was born as a mule driver and businessman, and later became a provincial governor and consul. He had a good family background, so it was no problem for him to hold a banquet to win over his subordinates and restore their morale. As the highest commander on the battlefield, he was surrounded by many people. The same was true for Tia, who was the apple of the old general's eye. With the victory she won this time, she also became the focus of the scene.

And Orville was sure that the people surrounding Vespa might be doing so out of courtesy, while the people surrounding Tia were basically those who sincerely wanted to take advantage of her.

After being turned away, these people went back to drink with their accomplices in shame. Orville sat in the corner and ate quietly, observing the actions of the people around him.

No one said it, but Orville felt a little isolated. Not many people liked him as a surrendered general, and he was happy with it. He concentrated on eating. He hadn't eaten anything decent during the dozens of days of the siege, and later he had been eating military rations in the army. It was naturally great to change his taste now. He didn't have any taboos. The only thing he didn't touch was the wine that the Romans loved to drink. It was said that they used lead containers to make wine, believing that this would make the wine sweeter, which resulted in the lead content in the wine exceeding the standard by more than 200 times. He didn't know what the world was like, but for his own safety, it was better not to drink it.

However, he was not the only one isolated on the field. Orville looked at the woman wearing the traditional long gown of the Palfi people not far away, swallowed the unfinished steak in two bites, and walked over to say hello to her.

He bowed his head respectfully and said, "Lady Berenice, it is an honor to meet you. May you remain young, healthy and beautiful forever."

Berenice was stunned at first, then looked up and down at the young man in Roman clothes, then asked, "Who are you?"

"Governor Meier, who was appointed by the rebels, you should have some impression of me."

Berenice suddenly realized: "I remember Orville, who was in the olive oil business. You are now..."

She glanced up and down at Orville's toga, then subconsciously glanced at her own traditional costume. She opened her mouth to say something, but the words turned into a wry smile.

"It is the Herod family that has wronged its subjects, forcing you to be displaced and helpless. I am sorry that my brother and I were unable to stop those people in the Holy City. I am sorry that we did not have the courage to refuse the Romans' request."

The woman in front of him had a pretty face, and looked to be in her early thirties, with fair skin and no calluses on her fingers. She was well maintained, and it was obvious that she was a pampered aristocrat. The only flaw was that she was mentally exhausted, had obvious bags under her eyes, and looked worried. Orvel also knew that it was difficult for this sister Wang not to be worried.

The governor sent by Rome before had no intention of governing this place properly. He used all kinds of means to provoke conflicts between the locals and the Greeks, and even personally took part in the burning, killing and looting, which aroused the anger of the local people.

The Herod royal family was caught in the middle, and they were not accepted by both sides. On the one hand, they knew the power of the Romans and dared not to break off relations, and on the other hand, their subordinates were really overwhelmed. From the perspective of Orville, an observer, although King Architas was weak, he had been very sincere in easing the relationship between the two sides. However, the Roman governor was simply looking for trouble, and all their efforts were useless.

This kindhearted princess even disregarded her own reputation and walked barefoot to the Governor's Mansion alone, threatening to offer herself to the Governor in exchange for stopping his brutality. However, the Governor still turned a deaf ear to her words and continued to burn, kill and rob, forcing the area to revolt.

In the end, the brother and sister had no choice but to burst into tears while giving speeches to comfort the people. Crying could not fundamentally solve the problem. A part of the moderates represented by the royal family were driven out of the holy city, and many were even killed on the spot.

The Roman legions returned to suppress the local rebellion. King Architas also had to command some auxiliary cavalry to have some sense of participation. Berenice had nothing to do, so she was left here as a mascot.

Orville had no ill feelings towards such a kind lady. "It's not your fault. None of us can change the situation. Now that things have come to this, what Your Majesty should do is to quell the riots and reduce the losses as soon as possible. What you should do is to give confidence to your subjects, so you need to cheer up as soon as possible. The refugees in Joppa Port will be arranged nearby in a while. They will probably need your care. After all, you are a member of the royal family and can give them some comfort and confidence."

(End of this chapter)