A few mornings later, within the Principality of Samukhetsi, Atabeg Ivan II, 65 years old, surprisingly had little reaction upon learning of the response from his liege, Alexander I. "Oh, so it is as expected.
It seems Alexander Is still as energetic and sharp as he was ten or twenty years ago—at least on the surface.
"But it doesn't matter, as this was within expectations.
There's nothing to be done; while Samukhetsi's geographical location allows me to develop the economy through maritime trade, it also prevents me from directly 'interacting' with the Shiite Muslim states to the east.
However, it's not a big deal; what did that young Bosporus Autocratic State next door reply?"
It should be noted here that although Manuel referred to himself as Caesar both internally and externally, due to the customs of the orthodox nations during that period, referring to him as "Autocratic State" was both reasonable and legitimate.
In response to the Atabeg's question, the minister he had sent to Bosporus immediately bowed and replied, "Reporting to Atabeg, His Majesty Autocratic State Manuel of the west did not express any form of refusal or direct response to our greetings, but he also did not seem particularly interested in Georgia."
"It's hard to say, after all, this young Caesar, against everyone's expectations, used a claim that their Gavras Family had never exercised before, ambushing Trabzon and overthrowing the Megas Komnenos Dynasty that had ruled there for centuries."
Regarding his servant's report, Ivan II merely sneered, looked out the window, calmly smoothed his white hair, and offered his opinion.
At the same time, in the city of Trabzon, some distance from Samukhetsi, Manuel, who was handling official business, suddenly sneezed violently. "Ah-choo! Strange, the weather isn't cold today, is it?
Is someone cursing me?"
But after a very brief thought, he dismissed it and continued to deal with the official business he was currently handling.
After all, compared to this inexplicable feeling of doubt, the official business before him was naturally more important.
Not to mention, what he was currently working on was the list of future Senate members for his planned Bosporus Senate.
Yes, although not yet officially announced, Manuel had indeed decided to rebuild the Senate in his country.
After receiving the true results of the Pontus census report last time, he began to think about how to alleviate potential conflicts between various ethnic groups.
One of the results of his deliberation was to rebuild the Senate.
By giving representative figures from various groups a nominal, honorary title and granting them the privilege of participating in a council with no enforcement power, he aimed to foster a sense of cohesion towards the Autocratic State.
Although it was said to be merely honorary, Manuel was still very clear that the influence brought by honorary titles should not be underestimated.
Therefore, he believed it was necessary to carefully select its future members to avoid the absurd and comical joke of people opposing the Autocratic State while using its stipends.
Furthermore, the form of the Senate he intended to establish also needed careful consideration.
The Senate Manuel wanted was not the kind of awe-inspiring institution in the eyes of the domestic populace from the Principate era, but rather a toy for resolving conflicts.
And the Senators Caesar needed were not brave fighters who dared to oppose autocracy, but a bunch of parasites who would only cast affirmative votes.
"Senators are best off being brainless nematodes; nematodes are only responsible for approving my resolutions.
I hope no fools will truly think they are reincarnated Senators from the classical period and cause me trouble by talking nonsense in the Senate, otherwise, I'll have to pretend to be a gracious host." This was his true thought, inadvertently revealed when he discussed the Senate with his wife.
"Ah haha…" This was Barbara's reaction after hearing these words at the time.
Emerging from his memories and thoughts, Manuel quickly resumed dedicating his day's energy to handling these official duties.
For the rest of the day, except for meal times and evening rest, he would focus all his attention on these matters.
And while Bosphorus Caesar was exerting all his energy to manage internal affairs for the future of the Autocratic State, in the parts of Trabzon city that the prominent figures usually paid little attention to, a group of merchants, generally considered lower-middle class, were loading and unloading goods at the port.
During their breaks, they casually discussed Caesar and the political situation under his leadership.
"Alas, the Komnenos Dynasty ended just like that." An old merchant, dressed in a flamboyant Anatolian-style caftan, sighed with regret when speaking of the formerly ruling Megas Komnenos family.
"But when the Komnenos family ruled, we didn't have such vast borders, nor were we able to obtain cheap goods from all over the Mediterranean, were we?" A middle-aged merchant, dressed in a traditional East Rome white and grey dalmatica, retorted to his business partner, the old man.
"'We'? 'Vast'?
Saint Mary, are you kidding me?" And regarding the words of his relatively younger partner, a more experienced, simply dressed merchant burst out laughing as if he had heard something amusing.
The old man, as if he had seen something, immediately leveraged his advantage as an elder to preach to them about the "good" of the komnenos era in his eyes.
However, he was directly cut off by his simply dressed companion, "Old sir, my dislike for Gavras doesn't mean I like Komnenos.
And from a commercial profit perspective, Gavras is still marginally better for now."
"Exactly, old man.
Without Manuel developing trade, could you do business here peacefully?" The relatively younger one, seeing this, gleefully seized the opportunity to mock the old man.
Provoked by his business partners, the old man was instantly fuming, nearly pulling over a nearby servant to stage a nonsensical, no-holds-barred fighting performance in front of his clients.
Facing these merchants' political show, their client, a Mashriq Saracen, found it very hard to keep a straight face, even though he had grown quite familiar with these Greek merchants in just a few months.
Incidentally, the three people in front of him were also old acquaintances; due to similar sources of goods and complementary channels, even though they were bickering like this, they were actually close business partners.
And because of the good quality and low prices, this Saracen always preferred to source his goods from them when he came to Trabzon.
This is a small glimpse into the lower-middle class of the Bosporus business world today; it is a common occurrence for people with different political views to gather for commercial profit, even if they might come to blows at any moment.