For the next two days Peter, like the most professional painter and mason, sat on makeshift scaffolding, covered in mud and chalk, squinting his eyes and busy, first outlining the "areas" with rattan, then drawing the lines of the figures and scenes with sketches, and finally painting them with paint, "which cannot be done in about two weeks." ”

Gawain took off his armor, wore his jacket, and carried his axe, and struggled to split a log into different strips of wood in the muddy yard outside the chapel, and then glued it into a framed square plank, and to smooth it with a heavy planer, because immediately on it Peter was going to paint the icon in "light color".

Many of the villagers came to watch, and others came to help, and the people of this age, especially the peasants, were so devouted that many of them, who did not know where they came from their huts, took out a coin, an egg, or a small bag of salt, piled it on the closet in the chapel, and begged Gawain and Peter to exchange it for expensive paints and reed pens.

And many others, led by the elders, petitioned in front of the tax collector's brick and stone courtyard - he was the only one in the whole village who could live in such a "luxurious" dwelling, but this man named Feobis was still complaining about the damned and poor conditions, and saying that he was willing to stay in this ghost place because he had served the emperor wholeheartedly, sorting out the land and books, collecting taxes, and that he hoped to save up his money as soon as possible, and then cross the sea to study at the law school in Thessaloniki, and then he would be able to flourish in the capital. For he was now favored by the Archduke Caesar Macaulinus of the Empire - "The two preachers are doing such a glorious and hard work, that we wish to make them a hot meal every three days by the fire." The village elder, dressed in a crumpled gown, stood in a low voice at Fiobis, who was sitting at the accounting table,

"Where did those two come from, my friends?" Fiobis put his pen on the small shelf, and then, with his white fingers, stroked his beautiful, crumb-stained beard, and asked in a low and sweet voice.

"A martyr, Your Excellency."

"It's the same abominable and despicable hillbillies who came from Rome or the Frankish countryside, lowly fellows, who have made a mess of the imperial order." Feobis softly spat out a string of curses in Greek from his cherry-like ruddy lips, "I warned you, my friends, Caesar of the Empire—"

As he spoke, Fiobis suddenly stood up straight from his bench, and the rest of the peasants, with their eyes wide with skill, took off their felt hats, and followed the tax collector solemnly in the direction of the west, and saluted for a while, until at last Fiobis reported the honor of Caesar of the Empire, "Salute to you, the most noble Caesar, the co-emperor of the empire, the deputy of the great Augustus, the chief grand duke of Asia, the chief nobleman of the court, the Lord Myaulinus, who is seated in the city of Abydos three hundred and fifty miles away, Wishing you all the best. Recently, a notice has been sent to various regions asking us to guard against the spies from the Zahas thieves in Nicaea, and soon Zahas may join forces with the Pechenegs in the north and send an army and fleet to sack Prusa and even the Roman capital, so be careful! ”

"But the border guards of the original military region have not patrolled the border of our village for several months." The meaning of the Elder's words was to suspect that Zahaaz's army had really come to fight, and that the most honorable Lord Myaulinus would use some kind of armament to repel it.

But Fiobis rounded his round eyes, and rebuked the villagers in a very stern tone, saying that His Excellency the Grand Duke had his own manners, and then he proposed that it was okay to use the stove, but that the rent for the stove had to be paid, and that at once—as he spoke, the tax collector brushed up again, and the villagers could only continue to take off their hats and salute the "distant" Lord Caesar, and I wonder if he could know that His Excellency McAulinus was to recruit men from the rural market towns under the various military districts, and that the military service had been made into a book. In the near future, he will take over the recruitment of soldiers in the area.

"Our village has already paid enough taxes last year, so we shouldn't be able to pay for the military service this time, right?" The elder was cautious, and the tax collector was disapproving, and roughly agreed with the elder's question, and then the villagers were relieved, and one by one they saluted and said goodbye from the house, and came out one after another.

The next day, while Gawain was sitting in front of the black plough with no end in sight, eating a mixture of acorns and berries, Peter came over and made a list of "glue, bauxite, egg whites, egg yolks, lime, honey," and then gave Gawain a wooden plank on which the things of each need were drawn vividly in black ink, for Peter knew that Gawain was "illiterate," and that "these are all the colors of the blend, and you go to the town fifteen miles away and prepare all these things." ”

Gawain readily agreed, he must repay the villagers with virtue and kindness, and when Gawain walked out of the dirt road at the entrance of the village with a huge basket on his back, several children flew behind him, and followed the barren road overgrown with holly and firecracker willows, towards the town that Peter had pointed to.

The basket was full of small copper coins, as well as salt, cloth, and other things that could be exchanged, and Fiobis, the tax collector, stood in front of the door of his courtyard, and looked at Gawain with wariness and disdain, and Gawain also looked back at him, and without saying anything, he continued on his way.

As he walked back the way he came, carrying all the exchanged "light colors" on his back, suddenly there was a lot of dust behind him, and a cavalryman wearing a conical hat and a soap-colored cloak shouted and swept past him, towards the village where he lived.

When Gawain reached the chapel, he found all the villagers gathered in the open field in front of him, and Fiobis, the tax collector, and the Turkic-like cavalryman with a whip in his saddle, standing aside and facing everyone.

"Let me introduce you, this is from the city of Abydos, the Imperial Caesar - salute to you!" As he spoke, Fiobis and the villagers took off their hats and saluted for a long time towards the west with no edge in sight, "The most noble Caesar, the co-emperor of the empire, the deputy of the great Augustus, the chief archduke of Asia, and the chief nobleman of the court, sent by His Excellenus, a Pecheneg patrol cavalry, brought your warrant, and the scale of this war may be extraordinary. So the warrant of Lord McAulinus went to the magistrate, and from the magistrate to our local office, and then to my Fiobis, and now that time was running out, I will make a long story short—our village must provide your army with fifty Modi of grain, and a half of a solide's gold, and a sergeant with armour, and a small flag, and weapons, and horses, and five servants and two mules. ”