On the day Nicomedia was liberated, Manuel did not engage in the widespread slaughter he had previously committed in other places. Instead, he uncharacteristically ordered his soldiers to restrain themselves and maintain order. When Caesar, fully prepared, rode his tall steed into the city, he officially took up residence in the ancient city, grandly escorted by the Philaka Legion and other legions, receiving a warm welcome from the city's citizens, whether forced or sincere.
At this moment, the spirited Caesar, dressed in sturdy light armor and a new military uniform, with a purple-black sleeveless cloak draped over his shoulders, appeared composed and at ease. His handsome face, refined by battle and time, had not become grotesque or hateful, but rather more mature and steady: his dark short hair was mostly covered by his helmet, his brown eyes held a cunning yet mostly resolute gaze, his brow was Three-dimensional and upright, and his nose was high-bridged. Beside Caesar, Barbaro Talostos, one of his generals, held high the pure black double-headed eagle banner with a yellow background, symbolizing the Bosphorus Despotate and the Gavras Family, signifying that the city and its citizens had, from this point forward, welcomed a new master.
After the grand entrance ceremony, Manuel did not, as usual, immerse himself in military affairs. Instead, he uncharacteristically expressed a desire to appease the people inside and outside the city. When asked the reason by his subordinates, Caesar merely waved his hand slightly and said, "Unlike the other places recovered previously, Nicomedia, even today, is still a city predominantly inhabited by orthodox Romans. As its future master, I have an obligation to make a personal appearance and offer a reassurance to these loyal subjects of the empire."
Therefore, on the morning of the day after entering the city, Manuel changed into plain clothes, wearing light armor underneath, and accompanied by his personal guards and trusted cabinet members, began a simple condolences of the Roman civilians inside and outside the city.
Over the next day, Caesar saw churches and monasteries that had fallen into disrepair due to neglect and persecution, civilians who were bewildered by their identity after being separated from the empire for so long, and former nobles whose families had once been prominent. But what he saw most were ordinary Roman civilians suffering from the rampant holy fire disease, their limbs covered in gangrene, struggling for their very survival.
Seeing all that these people, who shared his ancestry and culture, had endured, it was impossible for Manuel not to be moved. These were his future subjects, the foundation of Rome, and his compatriots. Even when he tried to comfort himself with the idea of 'necessary evil' to completely crush the Ottoman, Manuel found it difficult to truly believe that everything he had done was entirely without fault. So much so that when he listened to an old farmer suffering from holy fire disease lamenting to him outside the city, the powerful and renowned Caesar finally could not bear the guilt in his heart. He reached out to the old farmer, helped him up, and said, a little choked up, "Holy Father above, I am so sorry... I hope Holy Mother Mary and Saint Sebastian will protect you, now and forevermore..."
"Caesar..." Seeing Caesar's rare and genuine display of guilt, the generals and common people, who did not fully understand his subtle maneuvers, were all moved by him. Some of the more emotional ones even burst into tears on the spot. To put it another way, even if their Caesar was putting on a show, his willingness to personally engage in such acts was already something most other monarchs could not surpass.
Only the Prime Minister and the Commander of the Guard, who knew varying degrees of the inside story, exchanged glances, understanding even more how complex their respected monarch truly was.
However, after a brief period of appeasing the people, Manuel quickly adjusted his state, returning to his former self as a keen, cunning, and resolute monarch. He immediately took command in Nicomedia, assigning various tasks, determined to completely liberate Bithynia.
After recapturing Nicomedia, the Bosporus Army quickly swept through the remaining Ottoman territories in Kocaeli with lightning speed, naturally including the previously mentioned Adapazarı and other surviving Ottoman towns. During this time, because Sultan's eldest son, Ahmed, cautiously escaped back to Rumelia by small boat in secret after hearing that Izmit had changed hands, the Bosporus side unfortunately failed to capture him as a hostage.
And after resolving the above matters, Bosporus quickly shifted its focus, aiming at other cities on the eastern shore of the Sea of Marmara, especially İznik and Brusa.
However, conflicts soon erupted between the Aydın Restoration Army led by Bey Halil and the Frank Crusaders, dispersing the strength of the allied forces in the southwest: the former began to return to the mountains, intending to first restore their old territories; the latter, impatient, marched north, attempting to rendezvous with the Bosporus Army and push through the western coast of Anatolia. But after parting ways, the Franks were not strong enough for a quick victory, causing Manuel's plan to swiftly sweep through western Asia Minor to nearly fall apart.
When news of Bosporus's triumphant advance reached Europe, Christians across Europe rejoiced: this was a major victory against the Turk Muslims, a heavy blow to the Ottoman! The Pope, therefore, changed his previous subtly hostile attitude towards him, began to extol his achievements, and secretly worked to win him over; the Latins also realized they had seemingly underestimated this ally who was both friend and foe, even the Genoese began to interact with him with a softer attitude; Władysław III, King of Poland and Hungary, even shouted loudly on the spot, believing him to be the leader of the entire Christian world second only to himself; even the title "Caesar Olubey of Gothia" that had previously circulated in Western Europe was gradually replaced by the more resounding and formidable moniker, "Black Death of the Turks."
As for the Ottoman Sultan? Murad II, who was in Robidou, heard this bad news shortly after a small victory against the Crusaders, and was immediately overcome with anger, almost falling off his mount. Besides his personal grudge that his son-in-law had died at the hands of infidels, making his daughter an early widow, his greater concern was the unease and worry about the future situation:
Even if Constantinople now claimed neutrality, the Sultan, who had been tricked by the Romans several times, dared not gamble that these infidels would keep their promises. If Bosporus were to establish contact with Constantinople again, allowing the latter to grant passage to the former, and letting them join the Crusaders, who were already extremely difficult to deal with, the consequences would be unimaginable, as Murad could foresee.
But he was not without a countermeasure; to prepare for the worst-case scenario, he had left a contingency in Constantinople, which would be more than enough to disrupt the situation. The only thing that gave him a headache was that the person serving as his contingency was a complete incompetent.
However, he no longer cared about many things. To prevent Bosporus from joining forces with the Crusaders, the Sultan immediately wrote a letter with a grim expression and sent it to Grand Vizier Halil Pasha in Edirne. Among the words in the letter, the most important was the following sentence:
"Use the sleeper agent previously left in Constantinople: find a way to release Dimitrios Palaiologos for me as soon as possible!"