Since Manuel decided to assassinate Mara Hatton a few years ago, his personal secret service began collecting information about Murad II's Serbian concubine.
In fact, due to the remarkable success of the secret service, the Caesar had already largely grasped the relevant information by the year before last, but he felt it wasn't the right time to act and worried that his intelligence network within the Ottoman territories would be destroyed, so he held back.
It wasn't until Badars presented him with his new intelligence that he planned to use the opportunity to ignite the Ottoman court's internal issues.
"Very good, maintain the current situation for now," Caesar ordered softly. The Commander of the Guard beside him immediately saluted in response, "Yes, Your Majesty. Loyalty!"
After Badars left, Manuel sat quietly in his chair, his thoughts drifting far away. "It's clearly the calm before the storm, but why does it feel unexpectedly unpleasant?"
However, it should be noted that the conversation above, as classified intelligence of the Bosporus, was known to no one other than Caesar and the Commander of the Guard, who was the head of the secret service.
In early May, Manuel, as an uncle, presented a gift to his newborn nephew, Isaac: a box of silver coins minted from silver produced in Trabzon's silver mines. Their obverse was engraved with the names of Constantine XI and his son. Taking this opportunity, Manuel had his envoy sent to Constantinople secretly declare his satisfaction with the current situation, making it correspond with his years of external silence, creating a false impression that the Bosphorus Despotate was content with the status quo.
Thus, under Manuel's deliberate portrayal, in the eyes of some high-ranking officials in other countries, this Caesar, now over thirty, seemed to have quieted down from the relentless campaigns of his youth, no longer exhibiting his previous external aggression and sharpness, just as he had been in previous years. However, some also believed that this Caesar's ambition was not extinguished, but merely accumulating strength, though it was completely unknown when it would erupt.
This facade not only deceived his close friend, Karaman Bey Suleiman, as mentioned before, but also gained the approval of the Venetians, and even perplexed the Ottoman Sultan Murad II and most of his high-ranking Ottoman officials, who had always been quite wary of the Bosphorus Despotate.
Although this Roman monarch had previously left them with an impression of being brave and cunning, after reaching a compromising peace agreement with Manuel, Murad and his Grand Vizier believed, based on the situation, that this Roman monarch had been overwhelmed by harsh reality and no longer had the ability or confidence to directly oppose them; while most high-ranking officials from Devshirme backgrounds believed that regardless of whether the Roman monarch's external display was real, they should not relax their vigilance against him.
This was not because the latter was more rational, but rather a phenomenon of the gradual opposition between new and old nobles that emerged during the Ottoman's development. Although for the Sultanate, which was rising like the morning sun, this was currently more conducive to national development under the Sultan's suppression and utilization, this struggle still affected the high-level's diplomatic judgment of the Bosporus, which in turn played into Manuel's hands.
Of course, it wasn't just these Turks who were misled by Manuel's attitude, but also the Catholics who didn't understand him well enough. For example, Pope Eugene IV therefore sent the Bishop of Caffa and the Bishop of Pontus to admonish this Caesar, but ultimately only received his feigned deafness and dumbness; and Ulaslo I, who was also the King of Hungary, upon learning of this, even sighed in his court in Pest about a hero aging prematurely. Venice, which had a deep relationship with Manuel, was not fooled by this posture, but also couldn't truly understand Caesar's true attitude through connections.
Manuel was also aware of the accusations from outsiders. But besides promoting his authority domestically, he did not try to overturn his current external image. During this period, he even had the intention of using the local copper mines of Pontus and Georgia to mint a set of commemorative copper coins for his exclusive use, not for circulation in the market. Their obverse was inlaid with Caesar's own frontal portrait, and the reverse was engraved with his full name, thus demonstrating his authority on both sides of the Black Sea.
Domestically, there was no opposition to Caesar's actions. After all, even Constantine XI, who was so down and out that he only had Constantinople and Morea left, began minting a small batch of copper coins in the second year of his reign to show his rule. In contrast, their Caesar, who only started minting coins in recent years, was already considered a very unusual type of monarch. When Barbara privately asked her Little husband why he only started minting coins now, as a husband, he just scratched the back of his head and chuckled, "Oh, that? I forgot before."
"Are you serious...?"
"Alright, alright, I'll tell you, I'll tell you." After the children had gone to sleep, Manuel, late at night, slowly explained the real reason to her, "I just felt that minting coins before my currency could circulate throughout the entire market lacked a sense of ceremony. When everyone across the country is using ducats, and our Bosporus hyperpyron, or rather, stemma, is ignored, isn't that a very sad thing?"
"So you only started minting coins now, and they're non-market commemorative coins?" After hearing Manuel's words, Barbara smiled helplessly, gently placing his head on her lap. "Manuel, in some ways, you really are very different from others."
"But that's what I like about you."
"It's been over ten years, do you still need to keep saying that?"
"Listen or not!"
However, these actions of Manuel clearly did not affect the development of external events. Rather, under his deliberate restraint, the external situation superficially developed as it did in his previous life's official history. Since entering summer, at the Pope's urging and instruction, the various Christian countries on the Ottoman border had engaged in closer exchanges than in previous years. Even Manuel, who outwardly appeared content with the status quo, received envoys from six countries—the Roman Curia, Constantinople, the Kingdom of Lithuania, the Principality of Moldavia, the Republic of Venice, and the Kingdom of Hungary—within a single month.
Manuel naturally gave them a positive reception. Sometimes, he would also take the opportunity to offer some vague explanations, stating that he was not truly fond of peace, but rather that the pressure from the Ottomans on the border was too great, forcing him to remain compliant. After all, he only wanted his enemies to make diplomatic misjudgments, not for the upcoming Crusaders to truly leave him out. As for whether these fellow Christian brothers would believe him, or become more confused about his true intentions, that would depend on what they thought.
But he was not entirely without worries; for example, the gradually escalating border frictions between Karaman and the Ottomans in the southeast gave Manuel a headache.