While Manuel was handling the accumulated state affairs, he deliberately shielded his surroundings, lifted his upper garment, and observed the scars on his torso. To his surprise, the wound left by the arrow shot was completely gone; his skin was as clean as before, as if the wound had been directly removed.
"It must be the effect of that last character," he thought. Recalling his life so far, he realized that of all the injuries he had sustained since childhood, only this one had been "removed." Was it because it was a fatal wound? Manuel immediately considered whether to poke himself in the heart with a small knife to test it, but after some thought, he decided his life was more important and gave up the attempt.
After abandoning his inquiry into such matters, Manuel began to concentrate on the state affairs. "These backlogged government affairs aren't as numerous as I imagined, and the ones that are missing are those boring, repetitive tasks. The truly important ones seem to have been untouched, perhaps waiting for me to wake up? Was it Badars? No, that guy isn't capable of such precision. Then it must have been Barbara. She must have worked hard; even I feel sick to my stomach when handling those boring, repetitive tasks." He was filled with emotion.
During Manuel's time in Kaffa—let's call it his recovery period for now—he not only diligently dealt with all the accumulated affairs of the past three weeks but also made time to retrain his body. In what he called his recovery exercises, he was surprised to find that the severe injury had left him with significant after-effects; at least for a long time, he wouldn't be able to charge with a spear on horseback or draw a bow and arrow.
"There really is no completely free gift," Manuel thought, a bitter smile on his face as he tried to draw a bow and instead clutched his right chest in pain. "Forget it, just being alive is a stroke of luck." He could only comfort himself this way.
Soon, the news of Manuel's safe recovery spread. Upon learning that his beloved eldest son was safe, Alexius breathed a sigh of relief, finally letting go of the huge stone in his heart. Carlo Merlo, who had personally shot the fatal arrow, was reportedly so enraged upon hearing the news that day that he smashed all the ornaments on his desk, including an expensive white porcelain bowl from the distant Celestial Empire. Haji Giray was mixed with joy and worry, as he truly did not know the Crown Prince's real attitude toward him. Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania, however, was overjoyed: it seemed their secret agreement would not be easily reneged upon by the Principality.
However, Manuel himself was oblivious to these people's opinions of him. After a week of recuperation and work in Kaffa, he had largely recovered and began his journey to Mangup to discuss with the Principality's high-ranking officials how to deal with the Genoese army still holed up in Olstyn. For certain purposes, he also brought Barbara with him.
Upon arriving in Mangup City, Manuel first took Barbara to see his father, Alexius. After confirming through an envoy from Constantinople that she was indeed Barbara herself, he exchanged pleasantries with his future daughter-in-law. After their conversation, Alexius was very satisfied with her: her knowledge and conversational skills were both excellent, her manners refined, her attire showed the taste of a Roman noble, and she was polite to her future father-in-law. She was indeed worthy of the imperial family of Constantinople. Furthermore, her careful care and assistance to his eldest son made him envious and reassured: if Zoe also had such good political ability, it would be wonderful.
But this was merely a secondary objective. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, she was arranged to stay temporarily with her future mother-in-law. Manuel, on the other hand, entered the miniature Privy Council as before to participate in the discussion, as the purpose of this Principality-version of the Privy Council was to discuss how to deal with the remaining Genoese army in Olstyn.
"Everyone is here," Alexius said with a serious expression, looking at the assembled officials, because this meeting would determine the direction of the war, at least from Theodoro's side.
Everyone nodded with solemn expressions. Seeing this, Alexius wasted no more words and directly asked, "Regarding the Genoese army in Olstyn, do any of you have good suggestions?"
Patniko was the first to offer his opinion: "Your Majesty, in my opinion, we should act quickly and use all our current forces to push all the enemies into the sea as soon as possible."
Alexius frowned and reminded him, "Patniko, have your elite field legions, which suffered losses last time, been replenished? What about the number of militiamen that can be mobilized?"
Patniko's face showed an awkward expression: "Ah, well, the losses we sustained last time, um, it will take at least another one or two months to replenish them completely."
"But Your Majesty, I'm afraid we can't afford to wait," Raus said with concern. "According to intelligence from Venice, the Genoese Council is going to dispatch another 1,000 Calabrian mercenaries as reinforcements, and they are expected to arrive by the end of next month."
Alexius frowned and asked the only Venetian among the key officials, "Lord Falero, is the intelligence reliable?"
Falero replied with a relaxed expression, "Absolutely true. And if we don't defeat them in time, there might be more than 1,000 reinforcements. If we continue to delay unnecessarily, our army will surely be defeated."
His words were like a huge stone falling into water, stirring up a thousand waves among the crowd. Everyone began to discuss animatedly, and many even started to embrace a defeatist spirit, discussing where would be the most comfortable and safest place to escape.
Alexius sighed inwardly, suppressed his faintly rising blood pressure, and shouted, "Everyone calm down." After the entire hall fell silent, he turned to Manuel and asked, "Manuel, what do you think?"
"It's me again? Just because I won a few battles... Well, okay, it really is just me." Manuel smiled bitterly to himself and offered his views on the battle:
"Father, I believe this battle must be fought, and it must be a decisive battle to completely cripple all the military forces the Genoese have sent here." At these words, some people gasped, but Alexius quickly scanned them, silencing them, and then gestured for Manuel to finish speaking.
"But the time for a decisive battle is not now. Our previous losses were too severe; even a forced attack now would only hurt our foundation. The Principality's strength is not great; to push the excellent Genoese army into the sea, we can and must only strike at the right time and in the right place.
"The mercenaries from Apennine are not well adapted to our climate here. We can try to use the winter, combined with the uncertain ground between dry and muddy, to prevent their heavily armored soldiers from performing at their full strength. We should deploy hussars, who are suited for winter combat, and leverage our advantage in firearms.
"This battle must induce the Genoese to come out in full force to ensure that their projected power in the Crimea region is paralyzed. Only then can we firmly consolidate all the achievements we have made.
"To achieve this result, our strength alone cannot guarantee victory because Genoa has naval support. Therefore, it is time for us to seek help from the Venetians. However, we must also prevent the Venetians from taking this opportunity to seize Matrega first. So, we should also seek help from the Adyghe Principality.
"These are my thoughts on this battle. Does anyone else have any opinions?"