Deep within an inconspicuous side hall of Topkapi Palace, an attendant hurried to a bookshelf and pulled out a book.
Soon, the sound of a mechanism tugging chains came from within, and a hidden compartment opened in the floor.
The attendant quickly stepped inside. The compartment then slowly closed, the floor tiles fitting together so seamlessly that it was as though nothing had happened.
The attendant hurried through the passage and soon arrived in a spacious, brightly lit room. In the center stood a massive square table made of walnut wood, upon which rested an enormous sand table.
The sand table encompassed every nation from the Sultan in the south to Sweden in the north, from Persia in the east to France in the west.
The entire sand table was pieced together from countless squares, each covered with extensive details about the region it represented, including its mountains and terrain, cultural environment, customs and traditions, and troop deployments.
Its workmanship was so exquisite and its contents so thorough that even the sand tables of the War Departments of Europe's great powers could scarcely hold a candle to it.
At that moment, a young man was lying on his back atop the sand table, a copy of The Campaigns of Napoleon in his hand.
"Callum, something terrible has happened! Afud Pasha wants to see you!"
Callum meant lord, ruler, Your Majesty—a very ancient and solemn form of address. Usually, however, only eunuchs addressed the Ottoman Sultan that way.
The young man casually tossed the book in his hand aside.
"Oh? That traitor? What does he want with me? Was the money allocated to him not enough for him to bribe the Russian envoys?"
The attendant before him was one of the young man's closest confidants, and a genuine eunuch besides, so