Dragon Taming Secret Art (Wishing Everyone a Peaceful Dragon Boat Festival)

Giovanni Giustiniani was a man clad in full Plate Armor and draped in a White and Red Cross Caparison. He did not look much like a Latin noble, but neither was he like those crude, mercenary-faced sellswords.

He was not particularly imposing in stature, yet merely standing there gave people the sense of an insurmountable city wall.

"May the Lord bless you, great Basileus."

The bearded man bowed slightly. Behind him stood a fairly elite force of Genoese soldiers, most of them crossbowmen carrying their distinctive square shields, with a smaller number of Light Infantry.

There was not a single one of the Latins' iconic knights among them.

"May the Lord bless you, General Giovanni of Chios."

Chios was an island in the Aegean Sea, once part of the Imperial homeland and now a Genoese colony.

The Genoese had never fully fallen out with the Ottomans. Merchant Republics valued profit above all else, and the Ottomans had granted them Commercial Privileges, causing many of them to lean toward abandoning Constantinople.

The Venetians were likely in the same state. Historically, even after Constantinople fell, the three galleys they had dispatched with reinforcements still failed to arrive.

Commercial Republics were oligarchies. Though the doge held an exalted position, he was still inferior to a true monarch. With internal factions pulling against and undermining one another, those without interests in Constantinople—or with only minor interests—could never agree to the demands of the War Faction.

Giovanni and the Genoese mercenaries beside him were clearly the only response the War Faction could offer.

"I am willing to grant you Lemnos as your fief in reward for your devotion to Christ. Should we win this battle, I am also willing to name you Duke of Athens. The soldiers under your command shall likewise receive generous rewards."