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Vitus retreated to the Hexamilion Wall and began tallying the statistics from the battle:

The Eastern Roman Empire suffered 670 casualties, more than half of which came from the troops who had followed Theodore into battle.

As for the results: 1,300 enemy soldiers were killed, 3,500 were taken prisoner—the vast majority being auxiliary troops from the Balkans—and they seized 4,000 sets of armor, 30 cannons, and a massive quantity of weapons, arrows, grain, livestock, and tents...

Vitus had no use for these cannons of varying quality, so he sold them all to Italian merchants in Patras, netting 4,000 Florins. Afterward, he and Theodore paid out of their own pockets, barely scraping together 10,000 Florins to distribute as rewards and pensions for the battle.

Even now, Theodore remained somewhat listless, so Vitus had a physician escort him back to Mistra.

"That's enough. Go home and get some rest; I'll hold the line here."

February, in the city of Konya, southern Anatolia.

A messenger galloped wildly through the streets. The roads were narrow and winding, and pedestrians scattered along the way, terrified of being struck down by the high-speed warhorse.

The palace was located at the highest point of the city. After a rigorous inspection by the guards, the messenger passed through the palace gates and followed a dark-skinned eunuch inside. The palace corridors were deep and silent, with copper lamps hanging at intervals along the walls, their flames flickering restlessly in the cold draft.

Passing through a complex series of courtyards, they entered the audience hall. The air suddenly grew warm, thick with the scent of heavy incense. The dome of the hall had openings that allowed sunlight to pour through, illuminating everything within the grand chamber.

The twenty-two-year-old Sultan (Murad II) sat on a slightly elevated couch in the center of the hall, dressed in a plain, deep-purple robe, reading a book with intense focus.

Four ministers stood around the couch, draped in magnificent furs or brocade robes that symbolized their status. Rows of people stood on either side of the hall, including military officers, scholars, and attendants. At this moment, everyone's gaze was fixed on the messenger, the pressure inexplicably making it hard for him to breathe.

The messenger knelt ten paces from the couch and handed the letter to a dark-skinned eunuch, who checked that the wax seal was intact before walking with mincing steps toward the Sultan to present it with a bow.

After reading the battle report, the Sultan turned his gaze to a man in the line on his right. "Turahan, the deputy official you appointed, Sudak, has suffered a defeat, losing five thousand auxiliary troops. Did he report to you before starting the war?"

"Me?" Turahan was struck with shock. After a few seconds of thought, he reacted:

"I remember now. At first, Sudak claimed the Greeks in the Peloponnese were building walls and even had intentions of annexing the Duchy of Athens. My reply was to act according to the situation; I did not order him to assemble a large-scale army to attack. This was a decision he made on his own!"

The Sultan wearily set down his book. "Anatolia, the Balkans, the Aegean Sea—there is fighting everywhere. This fool thinks it isn't chaotic enough, so he launches an unprovoked attack on the Greeks, and then loses?"

The Sultan dictated an edict. He initially intended to execute Sudak, but considering the man's deep-rooted background, he could only strip him of his official position and toss him to the Balkan border to serve as a cavalry captain.

The eunuch took the edict with both hands and hurried out of the hall. The Sultan looked at Turahan again. "I had originally intended to have you serve in the army, but it seems the Greek region cannot do without you. Return as soon as possible to stabilize the situation. Remember, the current priority is to quell internal unrest and secure the borders. The Byzantine Empire has already become a slowly rotting corpse; there is no rush to deal with it."

Corinth.

After the war ended, Vitus incorporated the 3,500 prisoners into the engineering corps. He shelved the construction of the trenches and outer embankments, focusing all his energy on building the walls.

Even so, he felt the progress was not fast enough, so he conscripted an additional group of farmers and had the army participate in the construction.

On May 1st, the outer wall was declared complete.

A week later, Ottoman scout cavalry appeared again, followed by a large force of auxiliary troops. Vitus stood on the inner wall's tower to observe. The enemy had only brought twenty cannons; one-third were heavy siege guns, and the rest were small-caliber pieces meant to make up the numbers.

"Is that it? Even if their barrels were to break, they couldn't breach my walls." Vitus ordered the three-pounder cannons to be moved onto the outer wall, preparing to engage the enemy in an artillery duel.

In the open ground outside the city, Turahan observed the fortifications before him and understood why Sudak had acted without authorization.

"The act of starting the war was not wrong. It is just a pity that the fool was defeated, giving the Greeks ample time to build."

The thickness of the Corinth outer wall exceeded every wall in Turahan's memory. Artillery fire would be ineffective; they would have to sacrifice soldiers' lives to force a siege. Even if they managed to scale the outer wall, they would still face long-range fire from the inner wall, resulting in a very low survival rate.

Turahan abandoned the attack plan and merely requested to ransom the noble prisoners.

Inside the city, Vitus readily accepted the proposal. He handed the envoy a list containing not only the names of the prisoners but also their official titles and ransom amounts.

The envoy used a pen to make a few changes. "Tomorrow morning, we will pay 21,000 Ducats in gold coins. We hope they are safe and sound."

Vitus pressed, "What about the remaining common prisoners? The price is negotiable—five gold coins each? If you think that's expensive, four gold coins will do!"

The envoy shook his head. "Keep them. The Empire is never short of auxiliary troops. The lives of these people are cheaper than weeds. How could a Bey possibly spend money to ransom them?"

May 10th, early morning.

Marcus led sixty-one Ottoman nobles out of the city. He did not release them immediately; his primary task was to cut open the gold ingots and weigh them one by one.

After confirming that the weight of the gold ingots was equivalent to 20,000 Ducats, Marcus looked up at the imposing military formation ahead. "Not long ago we defeated over ten thousand men, and now another, even larger army has arrived. The Ottoman numerical advantage is simply too great."

He took a deep breath and ordered his men to release the prisoners and return inside the walls with the gold.

After the prisoner exchange ceremony concluded, Turahan rode a white horse and led his commanders from west to east to inspect the wall, finding no weak points. "If we are to attack the Peloponnese, we must prepare hundreds of heavy siege cannons and treat it with the same specifications as Constantinople."

Once the enemy had fully retreated, Vitus returned to his office to handle the accounts: with the 20,000 Ducats in ransom, the funding gap for the next phase was finally filled.

Now that the wall was complete and the most dangerous period had passed, he no longer pursued construction speed, so he dismissed all the civilian laborers, keeping only three thousand free laborers.

That evening, he gathered the technical staff for a meeting.

"The next phase is to dig the trenches outside the wall, use that soil to build up the outer embankments, and construct warehouses, barracks, wells, and other auxiliary facilities. We have plenty of time now, so we can appropriately slow down the pace..."

Once the outer embankments were finished, the wall's defensive capability against artillery would increase further. Even when facing concentrated bombardment from a large number of cannons, Vitus was confident he could hold out.