Asean in Love

The dowager queen of Bali felt uncomfortable to obey Rinas's order."Rina, you've gone too far, you know that I always put cream with healing ointment on my back by myself", the emperor decided to scold Rina.Then he apologized to the queen:"Do not be angry, she is a faithful, but wild warrior of my guard and does not know the protocol of behavior towards royal dynasties, especially princesses.I'm sorry it turned out this way, but the only way to talk freely here is with you two.So, I invited you to tell me how the maritime expeditions went!"Rina lowered her head in shame, she was not used to being scolded by the emperor, he usually accepted everything as she did."Why are you standing so stiff Rina, pass me that big towel to get out of the water."The dowager queen looked at the emperor's back where fresh marks from new wounds were visible."Rina, go to the big room where my clothes are, in one of the pockets there is a small container with healing honey from the Diamond City, the container is blue, so bring it to me," queen sent Rina to bring honey, and asked the emperor:"Your Highness don't get out of the water until we wrap your back with new bandages, because your wounds are deep and still bleeding.What happened while we were away?""Rebellion, I can't even turn my back without being attacked by some rebel prince who wants to take over the kingdom in my place. Those rebellions in the kingdom of Singhasari were so many times since I was chosen as the heir to the crown.You see, I was just a son-in-law in the last Singhasari kingdom, same like you who came as a daughter-in-law and a princess from the Song dynasty, we entered the ruling dynasties from other kingdoms by marriage, that's why other princes think that the power belongs to them, I even founded Majapahit city in exile, and now this great empire of Majapahit is strongest in the archipelago of the Indian Ocean, if I leave it so easily many lives, including yours, would be in danger."At that moment, Rina also returned with a container of healing honey."Come on, first dry the emperor's back with a towel", the queen said to Rina," after that we will apply honey and medical ointment cream so that the wound heals quickly and bandage it with cotton bandages."Only after they wrapped the emperor's back with bandages did they let him come out of the water with a large towel wrapped around his waist."Do you have wounds in other places too", they asked, turning away from him from a distance."No, just the back, because they sneakily attacked me from behind, don't worry."The emperor sat down on one of the bamboo armchairs in the bathroom, there was some fruit and tea on the table in front, so they poured the tea into his cup."I am unusually glad that your missions were successful, and I am glad to see you, now my plan is to travel across the ocean to Venice and Constantinople myself for a while."He listened attentively to their reports of new routes for overseas trade."I myself know about those two routes, but Rina, you forgot that the route of the corridor across the Euphrates is often attacked and forbidden to others by the Yuan Empire, whose territory the corridor is on, now that they have conquered the cities along the Euphrates, I'm afraid that they will take away all our goods if we go that route way, so my plan for now is to use the route via the Red Sea and the Nile Delta, any route is still unsafe until we make trade agreements with other kingdoms.""Yes, the transit port of Alexandria was a major trading center for our ships, but with the Mongol invasion, the routes across the Euphrates were cut off to stop the army's attacks from the mainland," the queen remarked."That's exactly how they defeated the Mongols last year, but as far as we know they will attack those areas again because Yuan dynasty want the trade routes and the sea silk route across the Arabian sea to the Indian Ocean to be in their hands, one way to stop the Mongols is to join forces power in maritime trade with the ruling the Bahri dynasty around river Nile and Red Sea, also with our fleets we can help the Bahri dynasty repel the Mongol attacks. The Bahri dynasty thus has power over the main seaports and profits from overseas trade, which can strengthen its empire.They want to maintain the high lifestyle that was developed in the early civilizations, I also hear that they have the best medicines and hospitals, but they buy ingredients from our archipelagos for a long time, such as pepper, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.""Is my friend Subadar coming back? I am looking forward to playing chess again with him.""My father is now in Alexandria port; we are trying to restore one corridor covered with muddy ground around Nile DeltaFather said that you are the best chess player since chess was discovered in your kingdom.""No, we are saying here that chess comes from the Song dynasty."She starts to smile:"Some people said that Marco Polo brought the first chess to Kublai Khan from Venice, what is true origin of chess is hard to discover, because there are many legends and myths, so far first was known as chaturanga or 4 army divisions."