Chapter 4 - (MC-Intro) A meeting between distant brothers?

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The tent was not huge, but it held vast, luxurious items, order, and arrangements belonging to the Turkish culture. 

Seeing this, he kept his composure and stared at the middle-aged man that had a long beard and mustache while his head was shielded by a luxurious turban. His clothing and jewels that he held on his fingers were also something that would draw the attention of any person.

Yet, this middle-aged man, when he saw Vlad's entrance and the missing arm that he entered inside, he shook his head, and while drinking a brewed cup of coffee, he said to Vlad who could only stare at him with a composed face.

The man stopped drinking, and with a sarcastic tone, he asked Vlad sarcastically and disdainfully.

 "Would you look at that, kardeşim Vlad, what a surprising visit from such a busy person as you? Tsk, in what manner could those idiots leave you for this visit. How come you made time to visit me?

Vlad could hear the sarcasm and disdain in Mehmed's tone, and while laughing a little bit at what was said, he was not affected at all. 

"As you can tell I'm fine, my body feels like giving up soon, but worries are for another time. Right, kardeşim, can you give me a cup of coffee? I think that tasting my last cup of coffee before being executed would be the best. Knowing that your coffee is the best around here, I really kissed Mary with this one."

Mehmed shrugged his shoulders, picked a new cup from his table, and gave Vlad one to taste.

Meanwhile, as he stared at Vlad from where he was, Mehmed took some sips of the brew and later asked Vlad, still keeping his victorious speech. 

"I heard that you even prepared an army to fight me again. However, I doubt Mathias wants to fight me, so it might be just your crazy idea to give your final farewells to me, maybe apologize for being a betraying brother who would even stab his own brother in the back."

"Hmph, you talk about those things with me? You know very well what our relationship is. Maybe we were like brothers in our youth when we were not constrained by the weight of our crowns, but you were the one to betray me Mehmed, not the opposite."

"I wasn't the one who asked for people to fight in my dirty wars, I wasn't the one to ask for money, as a greedy bastard. I wasn't the one to suppress and disturb any steps I would take in developing my country. It was you, you bastard."

Mehmed, who stopped drinking his coffee and looking at Vlad, could only stare at him with a sad expression, but that later turned to indifference.

"Times has changed kardeşim. Since I've become Emperor, I am the Ottoman Empire, I will think about the future of my empire and its glory. I only learned the weight of my crown when I was besieging Constantinople, if God wasn't with me on that day and those Genovese rats wouldn't have open the path toward the Queen of Cities,  my siege could have failed miserably and with that, my legitimacy as Emperor would be jeopardized."

"Hmph, it no longer matters to me, my only regret is that I didn't manage to kill you that night. By what coincidence you were not in that tent, I don't know. Maybe you were fucking one of your delicate soldiers? Bah, who I am to care about your gay tendencies."

 Mehmed stared coldly at Vlad as he heard that insulting comment and said to him with a long sigh.

"Sigh, brother you dropped so low. Look at you, all the bandages around you, just like a mummy from the legends, it just doesn't fit you. Well, the face seems ok. I can punch it a little bit just like Farad or maybe impale you like you did my soldiers."

Vlad's eyes twitched a little after ending the final part. Mehmed continued to talk, just for rubbing some salt on Vlad's wounds.

"Do you want to know something new?"

He didn't even give Vlad a choice to ask what.

"When your brother heard that you were taken captive by Corvinus, the first thing he asked after meeting me was when I would send people to get you killed. To negotiate with Corvinus to take you back and maybe be killed early."

"Mehmet, can you give me a spare with your attempts to annoy me? They don't work with me anymore. I spent 13 years in solitude. I've had enough time to train my mind, so I am no longer affected by these insults. 

Also, we both know that Radu was a bitch since young. He never dared to do anything by himself. All that is good about him is that pretty face of his that could only suck on your old man's cock and yours. I even heard from Corvin that he was destroyed 4 times on the battlefield by my dear little cousin Stephen."

"Vlad, that's not so kind of you, to say this behind your dead brother's back, won't your conscience hurt in the final moments.

Also, for you to remember, Radu was a much better ruler than you. He was obedient and did as he was asked to without any schemes, not like someone here." Mehmet ended by saying this while looking straight in his face.

Hearing this, Vlad could only sneer. "So you think that my little brother did a better job when he ruled my lands? Probably in your interest, Radu did a great job. Paying taxes and extorting his subjects, he would do anything just to please his master. He was even going as far as to give you young men to fight your bloody battles, to be brainwashed into servitude, and only to taste blood and death.

In the end, all of this will accumulate, and he will be disposed of by the nobles. An eternal circle of hatred. Ruler against subjects or subjects against the ruler. Who attacks first doesn't matter." added Vlad to Mehmet's rhetoric.

"Just look at how easily he was rounded by my cousin. Even you gloriously lost to him. I tell you that bastard is a lucky son of a bitch. He will outlive you by far. Sigh, even getting that stupid title of Champion of Christ from that retarded old man Sixtus." laughed Vlad a little bit.

Mehmet could only look at Vlad angrily, somehow pissed by the truths Vlad said but still impressed by the information he knew.

"You know Vlad, I always regretted not having you as one of my generals. I will tell you this, I might have people call me Mehmed the Conqueror or the Great as the heroes in stories, but I will tell you this. I think you are a far greater general than what I could become. The only problem you have with Wallachia is the lack of quality people.

Your lands are infested with parasites, but this isn't my problem because these parasites are willing to be servient to me. However, if your religion wasn't so focused on brainwashing people with dumb stories and instead focused a bit more on teaching them essential things, you could have also become great. Hah, but it seems it wasn't for you. You weren't blessed to be great like me."

Vlad, hearing this, could only say in agreement to Mehmed. "I agree fully with you on this side. If I had at least half of your army I could have stomped on that old Murad and your head all day long, but with ignorant nobles and stupid soldiers that can't even obey orders, you have nothing to work with."

"Haha, indeed. The only regret you could say I have with you is that you allied with the Hungarians to be their dog. You joined with them but still didn't get any real help when needed, but only served their own needs to stop our advance in Wallachia.

We, the Turks, could be more lenient with you, but there are no such things in the time of wars. For now, I'm done with my monologue, Vlad. Do you want to add anything else before your execution?"

He looked at Vlad's expression, who was drinking his coffee with the remaining arm. After sipping an extended portion of coffee, he looked at Mehmet with a relaxed face and said. "If you could let me savor this cup of coffee, it would be great, don't rush me now. I'm not going to run anywhere, and now it wouldn't even be possible.

Take your time too, remember this old friend's face, and if you have time in the future, go pray a little for my little soul." he ended sarcastically.

"Sure take your time, I even took a break from all imperial work just to be here, old friend. Just to see your head hitting the dirt." said Mehmet with a hint of hatred in his tone.

"Such honor on my side. You could just spend some meaningful time with your sons or prepare some ideas to invade the Italians or Hungarians but instead choose to be here with me. You really hate me that much it seems."

"Don't even remind me of that failure. If it weren't for you Wallachians, Moldavians and Albanians messing up and revolting when I had my hands full, I could have conquered parts of Venetian territory or even going into the Italian peninsula. The rest would be history, but no, you, Stephen, and Skanderbeg had to start to cry like little kids when their sweets were taken. While all you did was in vain, only my plans had to be redone."

Laughing a little, Vlad said. "So the story was true. When I heard from Corvin that those Albanians managed to beat you I was so impressed. As for my little cousin brother, it was expected for him to win, he's a genius for God's sake."

"Sigh, indeed they deserve some respect, especially that old warrior Skanderbeg. But let's forget about these annoying memories, I'm here now, just for you."

"I'm almost done with this coffee, and then you can go watch a show."

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.

The hour of his execution was close. The sun was setting, covering the land beneath everyone's feet in a tint of reddish-orange.

Even the sun was looking forward to his execution from what looked like a perfect sunset.

With the execution platform already set, all that was left for Vlad was to walk before it, or in exceptional cases, be dragged or carried. In Vlad's case, the guards were brutally dragging him towards the execution platform.

"You pieces of shit, do you want me to hate you even before I go, be a little bit gentler, is not like I raped your wife or daughter while I was raiding the Ottomans territory." said Vlad, a little furious

"Impaler, do you want to get your blood warmed up before your head goes?" added a soldier that was dragging him. After finishing, he looked in Mehmet's direction. He was alone in a raised platform, only to see him nod his head.

The soldier stopped dragging Vlad and took out a whip to unleash a storm of lashes on his back.

Vlad could only grit his teeth and leave some grunts of pain when the whip touched his old sword cuts. The bandages on his body started to lose effect, they got destroyed, and Vlad's blood started to gush out.

After whipping him a little longer, the only voice heard from all the whipping sounds was pain grunts.

"Enough, just take him on the platform and commence with the execution. That would lend out more blood than a meager whip could do. He already suffered all this life."

The soldier stopped and took Vlad on the execution platform. He was meet by an expressionless man holding a more massive sword.

After that, he put Vlad in a kneeling position and bound his body to ease the execution.

The executioner looked in Mehmet's direction. Seeing him nod his head, he got himself prepared. Still, he wanted to let Vlad say his last words before getting himself killed.

"Do you want to say any last words, Impaler?" asked the executioner in a cold tone.

Vlad raised his head and looked over the high-standing platform to see Mehmet and some guards staying behind him with expressionless faces. Meanwhile, Mehmet was smiling a bit.

"You Turk scum, do you want me to say my last words? Fine, I'll take off what I accumulated!"

Taking a long breath, he started.

The one thing I regret in this life is that I didn't manage to kill Mehmet." As he said that, it made the soldiers gathered for this occasion shout in rage against Vlad, but he continued.

"SHUT UP, YOU BASTARDS. LISTEN HERE. I hope you can kill those hypocritical Christian states that wanted to deal with you Turks. From all their bravado, all their attempts to fight you back when the most crucial moment arose, they learned only to back out as soon as blood was spilled. Yet, they only think of themselves as essential and can decide and impose faith in man. 

If I wasn't so blinded by my faith since I was young and focused on treating my people and developing the country better, I could be something else. Not a monster like all of you started to make me out to be. Or someone that would inspire fear by only calling out my name.

I suppose this is what God does to his faithful. Then he doesn't deserve such great songs of him, all I remember doing was to fight in his name and protect the faithful, yet he never did anything for me. Everything that I once had was because of my hard work!

He and his so-called believers only know to backstab each other. That's how you guys could grow and now be so feared. Starting from a lowly barbarian tribe, now you're an empire, such funny situation." laughed Vlad a bit after finishing saying that.

"However, don't look with those smug faces you muslim bastards. Your God is the same, you will for sure see how he will abandon you as he did with me. I've said enough for you parasites, let's get it done. I really want to see that mutt of Jesus Christ and his father."

He finished saying his last words and could only close his eyes in pending his doom.

The executioner looked yet again at Mehmet, where he could see him nodding his head and making a slicing head sign.

Vlad noticed Mehmet's sign and added in a hurry for fear unless he's decapitated too early.

"Mehmet, I hope you die soon so I will not be alone in the afterlife. You damned betraying brother, do you hear me!? I HOPE YOU DIE, get killed by one of your sons, or get done by a pathetic death. I WILL WAIT FOR YOU DOWN THERE NOW THAT I'M TAKING MY LEAVE!" ended Vlad in a tremendous roar that even shook off the crows seated at the gallow platform, and after that, he closed his eyes and awaited his unknown fate.

After ending his moments of hatred, the executioner raised his sword. With a swift swing, Vlad's head was free again from the corporeal body. It was indeed a beautiful decapitation. Vlad's head was still in the air for longer than the rest of the body, and everyone could see a grin on his decapitated head."

"May God be kind to you, kardeşim." murmured Mehmet under his breath while turning away from the gallows and moving toward his tent while giving some orders to his Janissary Commanders next to him.

"Take this body and head and give him a burial at his homeland, I remember him talking about a beautiful forest that even had a lake around, Snagov was called that land. That foolish bastard said that there's an island there with a monastery made by his grandfather, bury him there, and have any damned bastard knowing that he is buried there purged."

"YES, MY Sultan." replied the Janissary Commander to Mehmed, as he bowed his head toward Mehmed, who moved toward his tent with a sad expression on his face. 

As those muslims even thought of giving Vlad a respectful burial and even taking care of any idiot crazy enough to disturb his resting place, it all sounded good. But those were things of the past since Vlad was preparing himself to journey out toward a dark world full of unknowns.

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