Asean in Love

Niccolo Polo was happy to hug his long time friend Subadar Cin.They chose to meet at some point hiding from the public so it was a lonely island on the south just between Sumatra and Bali they met halfway."It is good to see you again my friend.""I have been here for around 6 months without knowing that you are near, so since I received an invitation from the Bali kingdom I couldn't stop thinking of seeing you again.""Nice to hear from you, our destiny is intended for our paths to cross on the islands of gold.""Yes, I just wish we could meet each other in Venice, I am getting old and traveling around the world has become too hard for me, I just want to live life as before, like a merchant and ship builder in my old hometown which was on island Korchula. Now I have enough gold to start my business in my homeland"Subadar looked at his friend."In Venice you are still building ships in the same style. I am curious, what do you think about my ship now, let go inside", and they went in a small boat to a ship that was anchored a little further away."I've never seen a ship like this before!" "Yes, you can build the same ship, it has many cabins and space, this ship is my own so I can visit you in Venice.""I wish I can travel immediately to Venice, my wife is waiting with our daughters for me to return home.""So why don't you go back yet?""We are just like chess pieces servants of Kublai Khan, we asked to let us go back, but still we can't leave Sumatra island without his permission." "That's his game."Typhoon storm season has passed."We don't have to be in Sumatra anymore, and Ghazan Khan is waiting in Persia for marriage ceremony and big wedding with princess Kukajin.""Everyone is losing patience, except Kublai Khan."He is over 74 years old, don't be afraid, just go with all ships to Persia, that way sea pirates will not atack, they are looking for treasure individual ships, so pirates do not attack fleets.""But his fleet admiral ordered us to stay here.""It will be a big change, doing invasion on Europe, Batu Khan was injured and he died in battle.New Khan will be sent to Europe instead. If Kublai Khan dies, it will be much worse for you to go back, just tell the admiral that it will be better to go to Persia now.""It is possible for the admiral to have a secret code to communicate with Kublai Khan, and he just follows his orders and decrets written by Kublai Khan secret code, so only the admiral can understand.""So you Niccolo don't use that secret code language?""No, it is too difficult for me, I grew up with different language patterns, latin, italian and my native language are also very different, but I do understand many spoken languages like mongolian and yours.""What about your son Marco, maybe he has been learning mongolian script when he worked as a diplomat for Kublai Khan?""I don't think so, but let me call him to come here, he is also on my ship, just waiting for us.""All right my friend, I also want you and Marco to meet my daughter, that was her request, she is resting in her cabine now.We can have lunch here on ship together.""That is a good idea, a can send a message to Marco by our pigeon that is the quickest way.""It is ok, I am not in a hurry.""Don't worry my pigeons are the best postmans in the world, they never get lost."So Niccolo calls his pigeons with a whistle, and sends a message to Marco who arrives after 1 hour.Subadar's daughter also joins them for a lunch meeting on the ship. "Migrant destinies are like ships in the ocean, we never know what is waiting behind horizont," Niccolo starts, "When I was young my friends were taken to row the gondolas, and my father sent me to Constantinople to open own trading company with him, that was the only way to avoid being a slave on the gondola ship. Since then I haven't come back to my hometown which was not Venice, but an island on the Adriatic sea named Korcula."" I am also a migrant from Song dynasty, luckily my daughter was married to the king of Bali so I can stay on Bali Island, but we never know what will happen if Kublai Khan decides to attack Bali. So, we know how difficult it is to survive, we need a miracle to defeat Kublai Khan without battle. That is the reason that I asked for a secret code script, if I know the script, it is possible to send a letter to Kublai Khan not to attack Bali and we can have peace around this area.""This can be a wise solution. Every time the Kublai Khan army loses in a battle, the people in rural areas of Song dynasty pay higher taxes.""As you may know my daughter has vanished from history, but she is alive thanks to her desire to protect own son, and she doesn't use her original name.That strategy is the wisdom her husband king of Bali created in order for her to survive life on Bali island. Every single day she is wearing a heavy wooden mask on her face, so today my daughter came for lunch without musk for the first time in 20 years.""Your daughter is very young, how old is she exactly?" "She seems to be the same age as Marco." Marco looked at Princess Kang. "Yes, women in the East look younger than men of the same age.""I was married very young, only 18, just like princess Kukajin.But everybody will know about Princess Khutulun thanks to Marco."Niccolo and Marko didn't understand that. Subadar decided to tell them the truth."Now both of our families are in a stalemate position, to save the queen from mat we must be good chess players."" Marco, do you have a wife with you in Sumatra?""No, I am a single man.""Kublai Khan didn't allow you to marry his daughter Leahui Lun and take her with you to Venice, we can help you.""It is impossible, Kublai Khan children can only marry in their own Mongolian Khan of noble families.""Kublai Khan will die next year, and by that time you will be in Persia, we can help your girlfriend to come to Venice.""So how do you know that miracles exist?""We will help you, because we are also migrants and we know your suffering, we can't go back to Song dynasty, but you can back to Venice and Korcula, and start to build new ships, that will help many migrants to escape from Plague, many people will die in Europe, so you have to protect your family." "We only want to live a peaceful life here, so we need to know a secret code which uses Kublai Khan, do you Marco know that code?""Yes, I will teach you, as you say we are stalemate here, we must change situation, and is true, if we write letter with secret code and give to admiral he will let us go by ships to Persia, if we just wait here for Kublai Khan letter here, maybe will war come close and we can't go home when Kublai Khan die, or even we will be killed by new khan, because every time new emperor or khan come they kill people who worked for previously emperor.But how can we know this will really happen, and Kublai Khan will die next year?". "Can I ask you one question?" "Of course.""Marco,your first girlfriend's name was Franceska, is this true?""Yes, but everyone can find this."That time her family did not not allow you to marry her, so you had a girlfriend named Marina in Venice, and you are in secret love with Kublai Khan's daughter Leahui Lun now.""In this world, no one respects the rules, rulers appropriate and conquer territories with wars, victims like us are migrants in a foreign world without their roots, at the end of the road we want to go back where we came from and live in peace.When desert storms start, the dust from the dunes drifts all the way to the ocean and falls into our eyes so we don't see reality.I really can't convince you that I'm telling the truth and that you believe me, I just need your goodwill.Corona is a word you understand that means -crown aura.""Yes, it has many meanings." "But did you have an epidemic of the coronavirus before the time of the Roman Empire, you must have learned in school, but these viruses do not die, they disappear when people acquire genetic immunity, and then viruses come back in climate changes.Then you had the Plague of Justinian, didn't you?""Yes, we know, there were many reasons for the virus to appear." "Bacteria that causes Plague still exist, unfortunately now started and going to spread around the world, quarantine and isolation is the only solution to stop spreading plague.Our business of foreign trade will be in trouble too, so we have a mission to save people from plague, by this we are also saving our families don't you agree with me?"" I understand, he is old and sick, I know that he drinks too much alcohol, maybe he will even get pneumonic plague."