Chapter 164: The Isaacs' New Year (1)

September, Bethlehem.

After Cesar met Longinus, they lingered in Damascus for about another week.

The next day, David arrived with another detachment.

This straightforward young man was also filled with joy when he saw Cesar. In his youth, he truly did not like this handsome peer of his; on one hand, it was out of shame—shame that he could not remain firmly by Baldwin's side.

On the other hand, it was jealousy—jealousy that Cesar, a person of unknown origin who had once been a slave, could actually occupy the position he once held.

But these grudges had long since vanished into thin air years ago. Cesar had proven to him that he was indeed better than David, whether as a squire or as a friend.

Although they were eager to return home, Saladin insisted on waiting until the physicians deemed Cesar fit for the long journey before they were permitted to leave.

Saladin accepted Baldwin IV's gifts, but he also reciprocated with an extremely generous gift for the King of Jerusalem. Cesar, David, and Longinus were each rewarded as well—not to mention the horses, armor, and silk, the most surprising thing was that just as they were about to step out of the Damascus city gate, Saladin actually sent a special gift.

An Isaac.

As soon as he saw Cesar, he wore a look of resignation to fate. Saladin nodded to Cesar; he believed this gift would definitely be more to Cesar's liking than gold or Damascus blades.

This Isaac was none other than Haridi.

When they had passed through here before, because the Isaac merchants in the city had taken advantage of the chaos in Aleppo to collude with bandits outside the city and plunder passing caravans—the Viceroy had therefore arrested all the Isaacs; the men and dogs were hung on wooden frames together, and the women and children were sold into slavery.

Haridi was one of them. Fortunately, although he was captured during his escape, he was recognized by Cesar.

Cesar had also been looking for him. When he was performing the body purification for Sultan Nur ad-Din, he had discovered the needle marks on his body, and also found the broken needle tip.

At the time, he found it somewhat unbelievable that he had actually discovered the prototype of a syringe. He had always thought that the syringe would have to wait three hundred years for a European to propose the initial concept, and another hundred years before it was truly manufactured.

Yet here he saw a real syringe, and a trigger-type anesthetic flying needle at that. Such flying needles were not rare in his world; people used them to hunt fierce beasts and control criminals or the mentally ill.

Therefore, Nur ad-Din's death was not caused by his illness, but by poisoning. It was just that both the potion and the syringe were crafted so ingeniously that no one noticed. If Cesar had not come from another world and been extremely familiar with syringes, he would not have known what that hair-thin object was...

Or perhaps he wouldn't have cared at all, and might have just tossed it aside as a piece of jewelry residue on the Sultan's body.

If Haridi could make such exquisite instruments, it meant he could complete some of the highly demanding components Cesar had envisioned.

Those Saracens in Fustat were not wrong; Haridi was indeed a skilled craftsman who would be more than capable even if he went to serve the Sultan or the Caliph. His craftsmanship could not even be described as exquisite, and his concepts were even more imaginative—this might be related to the blessing or revelation he had received.

Cesar wanted to take him back to Bethlehem, but when they were breaking out of Aleppo with ministers like Kamal, this cunning Isaac craftsman took the opportunity to escape.

At that time, Cesar did not have the energy or leisure to hunt him down, so he could only keep the matter in mind, waiting to see if there would be an opportunity to find him or other usable people in the future.

Unexpectedly, he was caught by Saladin again. To save his life, he blurted out Cesar's name, and Saladin naturally would not be stingy about adding such a small gift for his little friend. However, he glanced at the pale-faced Haridi, "I heard this isn't the first time he has escaped from your hands," he suggested kindly: "Perhaps you should break his legs, if the things you want him to do don't require anything other than his eyes and hands... of course, and his tongue and ears."

"Then he will never receive my service," Haridi said with a stiff posture: "I am alone in this world, and the only thing I seek is freedom. Without freedom, I will do nothing."

"Ha!" Kamal, who was beside Saladin, sneered not so politely: "I don't believe you have such courage, Isaac."

"You are so young, and have such craftsmanship. No matter which city you go to, although you cannot join the Christian guilds, you can still live a quite affluent life. You will still have another wife, and more children. You are just harboring lucky thoughts and are ungrateful."

"If you are so eager for freedom, I believe Cesar would not be so unreasonable."

"Go walk up to the wooden frame yourself now; there are still a few empty spots there."

Haridi looked in the direction indicated by the Sultan's minister; those wooden frames were still hung with shriveled corpses, both human and canine.

"I don't understand, why do you keep wanting to escape?" Cesar asked curiously, "I am not a harsh person. I will take you back to Bethlehem, and you can still run your workshop there. I will give you good treatment and a comfortable environment, as long as you can craft the things I want."

"And I have already seen the finished products you made before; this is not a difficult task for you."

Yes, why? Haridi could only remain silent.

Everyone could see that Cesar would surely have a bright future. The only weakness he had had already been eliminated. Even because Joscelin III was dead, he would not be constrained by his father as Heraclius and the Queen Mother Maria had worried, and he could inherit everything from his father as soon as he returned to Jerusalem.

Even if the County of Edessa no longer existed, the title and the two hundred thousand gold coins were still there.

Haridi could completely use his appreciation to find a foothold in Bethlehem. This was a relationship that the Bethlehem Jewish community and other Isaacs had failed to build even after spending one hundred thousand gold coins.

Why did he have to escape again and again? Not to mention that others couldn't understand, if he hadn't heard his teacher's final dying words, he would have wondered himself why he was doing this.

But perhaps fate was just like this; it pointed out a direction for him, and he had to walk down it.

For a moment, Haridi did not know how to describe his feelings at this time. Was it sorrow? Or mockery? Or perhaps despair. He lowered his head, seemingly having accepted this trickery of fate.

Saladin shook his head imperceptibly. If he were Cesar, he would definitely hang this Isaac craftsman to repay his repeated attempts to escape.

No matter what Cesar hoped he could do, he didn't believe that among thousands or even tens of thousands of craftsmen, one couldn't be found who could rival him. However, nothing could be achieved overnight; he had also made many mistakes in his youth.

An Isaac craftsman could at most become a small thorn embedded in the flesh; wanting to remove it was just a matter of a single thought.

Haridi was handed over to a Christian knight, who unceremoniously put a noose around his neck and then tied the rope to his own horse.

No carriage, no horse, and no mule.

The rest of this journey would have to be walked on this Isaac craftsman's own two feet; this could be considered the lightest punishment. When they rested, Longinus would still follow Cesar's instructions to check on this person. He also felt it was strange, but unlike others, he could ask.

"Is there anything special about this Isaac? Must it be him, and not someone else? Even if Bethlehem doesn't have one, Jerusalem certainly does."

Others really wouldn't do.

Unfortunately, Cesar had no way to explain the reason to Longinus. First, even if he said it, it would be difficult for Longinus to understand those things he spoke of; second, the instruments he needed Haridi to craft were to be used to treat Baldwin in the future.

And in the Christian Church, a knight who had received grace was absolutely forbidden to be involved in the bestowal of gifts; that was the exclusive domain of the clergy.

Even in armed monastic military organizations like the Knights Templar, there would be clerics and monks who received gifts, but although people called them knights, they were essentially clergy.

"Haridi! Haridi?!" The continuous calling startled Haridi from his previous memories. He only then realized that he had been staring blankly while holding a gemstone sent by a customer. He looked up and saw that the person coming was his old friend, one of the merchants in the city of Bethlehem, Le-Gao.

It was just that his reputation among the Isaacs had dimmed quite a bit due to the mistake not long ago. Although a large part of those one hundred thousand gold coins had been Le-Gao's personal investment, others had also suffered losses to varying degrees.

They had no shortage of complaints about Le-Gao's failed scheme, and some even said that Isaacs should stay in Isaac places and not have too much contact with those Christians or Saracens. They were just some deviant heretics who were not trustworthy at all and could not be communicated with.

Trading money with them was as dangerous as snatching prey from a tiger's mouth.

And Le-Gao retorted that when they were discussing this matter in the synagogue, not many people had opposed it. At that time, everyone's eyes were flashing with eager light, and they had enthusiastically brought out their money. Didn't they just want to take advantage of this opportunity to seize Bethlehem?

After all, the ones who originally ruled here were members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre sent by Amalric I—Bishop Andre and his knights. And although Bishop Andre accepted their offerings, he was just like the church people in Rome or Francia, full of disgust and precaution toward them. They had not been able to gain any benefits from this rigorous armed monk.

Instead, their new lord was young, kind, and the best part was that he had lived as a slave before and had not received an education commensurate with his status.

Young heirs like David and Abigail had learned early on from their fathers how to treat Christians, Saracens, Isaacs, and further afield, Byzantines, Armenians, and Turks.

And as for how to govern a city, the Bethlehem knights had no experience at all. If their scheme could succeed, God bless, they would receive a very, very large return from the Bethlehem knights, and perhaps their names would even be written in the scriptures.

And such speculation full of danger and uncertainty was not the first time they had done it, and of course, it was not the first time they had failed.

Le-Gao did not feel guilty for the losses of his clansmen, even though some of them had even fallen into debt because of it—he actually took advantage of the opportunity to collect these debts to make up for a part of his own deficit.

Although Haridi was still just working as his goldsmith, he had heard a little about this, and he really did not want to deal with such people.

"Right, you want to make an amulet, right?" He estimated roughly, "Come get it in three days."

"Besides these, I have one more thing I need you to do."

Haridi looked up vigilantly. Ever since he was brought back to Bethlehem by Cesar, Le-Gao had been trying every possible way to find out why Cesar valued him so much.

He had even sent several peers to probe what Cesar wanted him to do. Was it a gold crown for the King? Or a reliquary, or perhaps a large cross? For his unfortunate parents.

Of course, these people returned empty-handed; they couldn't even see Cesar. And as for Haridi, Haridi did not want to become a sage or a leader. He had no desire for power and did not value money, making him like a slippery loach that Le-Gao couldn't get a handle on.

"It's not for those things," Le-Gao shamelessly pretended he hadn't done anything: "The New Year is coming soon. The Sage asked me to notify you that we are going to gather in the Isaac synagogue tonight to discuss how to celebrate the New Year."

Haridi didn't want to go, but as an Isaac, no matter which sect he believed in, this reason left him with no excuse to refuse. He had to nod reluctantly, "I will go, but Le-Gao, does celebrating the New Year still need to be discussed?"

"It does, why wouldn't it," Le-Gao winked at him, "You'll know when you get there."

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"The Isaacs of Bethlehem are preparing to celebrate their New Year." Natiya leaned against the window, lifting a corner of the curtain to peek at the Isaacs walking on the street.

The Isaac New Year was different from that of the Christians or the Saracens. It was neither at the beginning of the year nor at the end, but between September 5th and October 5th, because they still relied on their own Hebrew calendar, based on the moon phases, and the corresponding date with the Gregorian calendar changed every year—the New Year was the same.

"You should also prepare, brother."

"Prepare?"

Natiya lifted her head and left the window, walking to her brother's side. She leaned over and wrapped her arms around Cesar's shoulders, then gently pulled the quill from his hand and pushed away the parchment in front of him, "You should rest, brother."

"It's just reviewing some documents; it won't cause too much of a burden on my current body."

"You almost died." Natiya didn't listen at all and pushed him back onto the daybed: "Let me tell you about the Isaacs."

Although Natiya had been in Sultan Nur ad-Din's harem for the past few years, her news was not blocked. Don't think that the women in the harem had nothing to do with the conspiracies of the court. Just as the Sultan's first wife was his blood relative, the second and third wives were princesses of the Turkic Khanate, and there were even female relatives of his ministers in his harem.

These people were different from the female slaves who were bought. If they were favored by the Sultan, they would naturally have to stay in the harem for life, but if not, when they reached a certain age, they would even be released by the Sultan to marry.

And their connection with the outside world had never been severed.

And for Natiya, the conversations, quarrels, and even slanders of these noblewomen were all important capital she had accumulated. She remembered every word deeply.

And every September, there were almost always concubines complaining that their fathers or brothers needed to increase the security of the entire city to deal with the Isaacs' New Year.

Saracens and Christians would throw stones at the Isaacs when they celebrated their New Year, extinguish their fires, insult and mock them, sometimes causing conflicts in more than one place.

This touched on a point Cesar had not yet learned about.

"Is Bethlehem the same?" When he was in Jerusalem, perhaps because he was always by Baldwin's side, he hadn't heard of these things.

"I don't know, but you might be able to ask others, or just issue an order forbidding the Isaacs from celebrating the New Year."

It was certainly a simple, easy-to-use, and clean method, but Cesar just pondered for a moment and called for Longinus, asking him to invite Bishop Andre.

Bishop Andre had been acting as ruler for Amalric I here for more than a decade. He should know how the Isaacs in Bethlehem had celebrated the New Year before, and whether others in the city, such as Christians and Saracens, had clashed with them because of it.

Bishop Andre immediately agreed to Cesar's invitation and did not feel troubled.

He was from the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and had long seen many companions who couldn't move for months due to overexertion. For what Cesar had done in Damascus, he had only admiration and gratitude. There were even several young people he was familiar with who had returned safely to Jerusalem.

They had dinner together, and before night fell, Cesar brought up the fact that the Isaacs were preparing to celebrate the New Year.

Bishop Andre pondered for a moment, "They don't parade, nor do they hold mass. Most of the rituals are completed only in their own rooms—I haven't heard of any conflicts related to it—but I think your sister's suggestion is very good," he said without hesitation: "There is no one who knows how to push their luck better than a group of Isaacs."

"This is also your first September spent in Bethlehem." he added meaningfully.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 165 =====