Chapter 144: Raid
< 144. Raid >
“That’s amazing…”
Intaphrenes, who had watched the wedding ceremony until the end, honestly admired it.
It was a wedding that Marcus had planned to show off his and Rome’s dignity.
The nobles from the east were dazzled by the splendid and majestic sights that poured out endlessly.
He saw the famous nobles flattering Marcus, who was sitting on a splendid chair and watching the spectacle.
They bowed their waists while enjoying the best of manners, which was undoubtedly the attitude of a servant towards a king.
Many nobles showed respect to Intaphrenes, but even he did not receive such treatment.
The king and the nobles were clearly different.
Even in an era when absolute monarchy had not yet been established, the king was a distinct being from the nobles.
No matter how much Intaphrenes was a great noble who was recognized in the Mesopotamian region, he was not a king.
Even if other nobles bowed their heads in front of him, it was nothing more than a courtesy to someone who had more power than themselves.
But Marcus was different.
Most of the nobles were annoyed by his eyes, and there were few who showed sincere obedience to him.
In Intaphrenes’ eyes, Marcus was undoubtedly the king of the east.
‘He says his name does not contain Rex? Well, I guess so. Even if he doesn’t use such superficial words, he is already no different from a king.’
Intaphrenes did not understand the Roman way of thinking.
If he had such absolute power and ruled over everyone, how could he not be a king?
It was ridiculous to cover his eyes and pretend that he was just a citizen.
‘I don’t know how they think. He has such power, but he doesn’t use it actively…’
Intaphrenes imagined himself sitting on the throne of Mesopotamia and commanding the nobles.
Until recently, it was nothing more than a fantasy, but now it was a reality that approached him.
He couldn’t get as much power as Marcus, who controlled the whole east, but it wasn’t impossible to get his hands on the Mesopotamian region.
For that, the east had to be engulfed in the flames of chaos.
He had no personal grudge against Marcus, but his death was essential for the achievement of his ambition.
His eyes flashed with murderous intent, and Horshid approached him and warned him.
“Don’t stare at him like that. You might arouse suspicion. We are still under suspicion, so we have to be more careful.”
“Sorry. I guess I showed my emotions without knowing. By the way, how is it? Did our plan seem successful?”
“Yes. First of all, I confirmed that most of the defensive troops moved to the outskirts of the city on my way back. And I also obtained the patrol route of the legion from the official I bribed beforehand. Now I think we can say that the success rate of our plan is over 90%.”
Horshid discreetly took out a papyrus scroll from his chest and showed it to him.
He carefully checked the contents and his face brightened up.
The detailed movement route of the guarding legion was written perfectly according to the approximate time.
With such detailed instructions, he could avoid meeting the legionaries on guard duty at all.
“I’ll tell Hidarnes to proceed as planned.”
“Then we’ll join them after killing Marcus as planned. Be careful not to get caught.”
“Of course. I’m not going to do anything too dangerous anyway.”
The assassination squad was divided into two groups.
First of all, Intaphrenes and Horshid were in charge of assassinating Marcus directly.
Horshid suggested that it would be better for him to hide behind him, but Intaphrenes insisted that he had to cut off Marcus’ breath himself.
Hidarnes led other nobles to distract the guards’ attention and then headed for the escape route they had secured beforehand.
“It’s a pity that those Jews didn’t make a fuss at night. It would have been easier if they had played their part.”
“We couldn’t help it. They’re not fools either. They wouldn’t risk getting caught and punished for something they don’t know. No matter how much money we give them, they wouldn’t accept an offer from a suspicious guy who doesn’t reveal his identity. It would have been more strange if they did.”
“That’s true.”
The Jews who caused trouble during the day were naturally Jewish fundamentalists who Horshid had hired beforehand.
They didn’t like Marcus very much and they gladly agreed to Horshid’s coaxing that they could make Marcus uncomfortable.
Of course, it was because he promised them that he wouldn’t ask them to do anything really dangerous.
They just had to shout loudly that Marcus was the king of the east and drop a letter, and they would get a huge amount of money.
It would have been strange if they had refused such an offer.
However, the Jews were only meant to distract attention, so they did not know the whole plan.
If they had known, they would never have cooperated.
Who would be suspected if Marcus was assassinated on the same day that the Jews caused trouble?
Intaphrenes planned to pin the blame of the assassination on the Jewish radicals.
But if nothing happened on the night they had announced to cause trouble, it might give a sense of something strange.
That’s why Hidarnes decided to pretend to be a Jew and send a signal by shooting a fire arrow from the outskirts of Antioch.
He had already obtained the detailed deployment of the soldiers, so there was no way the plan would fail.
After today, the Roman newspaper would report that Marcus had lost his life at the hands of Jewish extremists.
This time, Judea would be devastated like Jerusalem, but he decided to consider it as an inevitable sacrifice for his ambition.
“We can definitely get out of the suspect list if the Jews are identified as the culprits, right?”
“Of course. If someone else was identified as the culprit, they might be suspicious once or twice, but the Jews are different. No matter how irrational the situation and reason are, everything becomes convincing when religion is involved. That’s why fanatics are useful.”
“I agree. Then shall we move on?”
“Oh, and one more thing. There’s a high chance that a monster named Spartacus will be next to Marcus. I tried to get rid of him beforehand, but I couldn’t because I was afraid of arousing unnecessary suspicion, so be careful.”
“Don’t worry. No matter how strong he is, we can just push him into the water.”
Intaphrenes had also heard rumors about Spartacus, the strongest gladiator in Rome.
But no matter how great a warrior he was, it was not easy for one hand to handle ten hands.
And it was not ten, but more than a hundred people.
Intaphrenes left the banquet hall to join his subordinates who were hiding in the city.
He told Marcus that he had an urgent matter and had to go back to Mesopotamia first.
It was to create a solid evidence that he was not in Antioch when the assassination happened.
Intaphrenes and Horshid left Antioch after making sure that they showed their faces to the soldiers guarding the gate.
Then they entered the city again without anyone noticing through the official they had bribed beforehand.
The sun slowly setting towards the western sky was symbolically showing whose fate it was.
‘I won’t fail.’
Intaphrenes vowed and vowed again.
※※※※
They were not the only ones who were nervous with tension.
Hidarnes and other nobles who were hiding in silence in the outskirts were also trembling with tension.
He looked over the deployment of soldiers that he had received from Horshid for the last time.
He had already memorized it completely, but it was to shake off his nervousness a little bit.
“It’s about time.”
Hidarnes did not hesitate and started his action right away.
There was no point in staying awkwardly, as it would only lower the success rate of the plan.
The soldiers he had trained for this day put arrows on their bows with fierce eyes.
The tip of the arrow was wrapped in round cloth instead of being sharp.
Hidarnes sent a signal and his subordinates quickly lit fire on their arrows.
Almost at the same time, their hands snapped their bows.
Tiiing!
Dozens of fire arrows flying towards the south filled the sky.
With this much, anyone could see what was happening from afar.
Hidarnes led his men to hurry away from where they shot their arrows.
He already knew where the soldiers were stationed, so it was not difficult to escape.
The faces of the nobles who followed him also smiled as things went smoothly.
“This might end easier than we thought.”
“Don’t be complacent. After all, our goal is not just to kill the governor. We have to make sure that no one sees us and make it look like it was done by Jews. Only then can we say that we have succeeded in our plan.”
Hidarnes carved Hebrew sentences that he had memorized on dark alleys and walls as he moved along the escape route he had planned beforehand.
Looking back, this plan was not easy from start to finish.
He had to mobilize a large number of people and weapons, and prepare carts and boats for escape.
It took a lot of manpower and money to get all this done.
He couldn’t have dared to prepare it without the support of many anti-Roman nobles.
‘I wonder if he has enough money to pay them back…’
Intaphrenes said it was definitely possible, but Hidarnes didn’t know where he was going to get the money.
If he was short of money, he said he would pay them back by robbing the treasury, so he had no choice but to trust him.
He hurried his steps while immersed in his thoughts and turned around the alley towards the direction of the north field.
As he had expected, there was no shadow of Roman soldiers nearby.
The meeting point was right in front of him.
All he had to do now was wait quietly for Intaphrenes’ troops, who had assassinated Marcus nearby, to return.
It was then.
Something strange caught Hidarnes’ eye.
He narrowed his brow and tilted his head.
“What is that?”
While Hidarnes was moving according to the plan, Intaphrenes’ side was also starting their action.
More than a hundred soldiers armed with weapons had safely arrived near Marcus’ residence.
“The banquet must be over by now. They’ll be coming this way soon.”
“Yes. Marcus always has a dozen Lictors escorting him, and that’s the number allowed to the governor. The rest of the troops are stationed outside the city, so the number of soldiers guarding the governor is actually the lowest right now.”
“Twelve Lictors and one Spartacus. We just need to finish them quickly and run away.”
“There’s not much traffic around the governor’s residence, so even if some noise happens, it won’t be noticed right away. But we need to be careful if we have casualties, because that might delay the situation.”
If they left the corpses behind, there was a risk that it would be revealed that this was not the work of Jews.
So Intaphrenes planned to burn the corpses on the spot if anyone died.
He stroked his sharpened sword and muttered.
“This is more like a raid than an assassination… but Marcus would never dream of being ambushed near his residence.”
He had poured everything into this one attack.
A subordinate of Horshid who had been watching from afar ran up and reported.
“The banquet is over. The senators have returned to their lodgings, and the guests have entered the palace. Marcus and his escorts will pass by here soon.”
“Good. Everyone get ready. The time of judgment is coming.”
The elite troops gathered by Horshid and Intaphrenes put their hands on their weapons.
Feeling that the time had come, Horshid stood up first with a few of his men.
“Then I’ll go around and block the escape route. That way you can deal with the situation faster.”
“Do that. When I attack first, take that as a signal and respond.”
“Good luck.”
Horshid was about to walk away when he suddenly stopped and turned around.
He looked into Intaphrenes’ tense eyes and said.
“Even though we’ve come this far, you still don’t intend to tell me your whole purpose? Do you mean to say that you never reveal who’s behind this plan?”
“I’ll tell you after everything is over… I’ll need your help then.”
“So you don’t deny that there’s someone behind you. Well, I’ll settle for that for now.”
Horshid chuckled and turned away completely, disappearing with his soldiers.
His lips were dry with the realization that the moment of action had arrived.
He put his hand on the hilt of his sword and then took it off several times.
Finally, he saw a procession coming from afar in his eyes.
Twelve Lictors and the strongest swordsman in Rome as escorts.
This was Marcus, the governor and king of the East, walking towards him.
“Move!”
Intaphrenes covered his face with a hood and stepped forward.
The Lictors instinctively raised their weapons and blocked Marcus’ front at the sight of the strange men who suddenly appeared.
A distance of about ten meters.
A distance that could be narrowed in an instant if the soldiers ran.
A strange silence flowed between the two sides.
Marcus looked at the villains who kept showing up from alleys and behind trees and spoke calmly.
“Do you have something to see me for?”
Intaphrenes’ subordinates spat out curses in Hebrew that they had memorized beforehand.
Intaphrenes raised his voice in a clumsy Greek as if he wanted Marcus’ escorts to hear him.
“From now on, I will punish Marcus, the son of evil and the leader of the heathens, on behalf of our God!”
Marcus did not show any signs of panic or fear.
Anyone would be in a panic if they were surrounded by ten times more enemies, but he did not feel that way at all.
Intaphrenes frowned as if he did not like his expression.
“If you want to run away, run away. The wrath of our God will never let you go.”
Maybe he had some kind of deal beforehand.
Maybe he had hidden some more troops behind him.
Intaphrenes was about to shout out in frustration when it happened.
Marcus’ indifferent voice rang out in his ear.
“Intaphrenes, stop acting so out of character and take off that stuffy hood.”
“…”
Intaphrenes was about to give the attack order when he froze in his place with his mouth open.
A thousand thoughts crossed his mind in an instant.
‘What? Did the plan leak beforehand? Was there a traitor? No, that can’t be… There were less than five people who knew the details of the plan…’
If everything was already exposed, there was no point in killing Marcus here.
‘No, no. Officially, I’m out of Antioch right now. No matter how much they insist, they can’t tie me to this without solid evidence.’
It was more likely that Marcus was trying to avoid the crisis by making up a story on the spot.
Intaphrenes shook his head in a clumsy
“…”
He had been ambushed by more than 500 people, but the scale was smaller than he expected. Even considering the rats behind him.
He mentioned Horshid, who had gone back to block the escape route, and Intaphrenes’ pupils shook like an earthquake.
“What, what are you talking about…”
“That’s what I’m saying. You’ve been thoroughly used. Thanks to you, I can handle a lot of things very easily.”
There was no mockery or contempt in Marcus’ voice.
Rather, it was closer to praising a subordinate who had done him a favor.
He smiled faintly and added one more thing.
“You’ve done a great job, Intaphrenes. You were the best actor.”
< 144. Raid > End
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