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The Crotonians mobilized their troops to reinforce Krimisa. Such a huge development had naturally attracted the attention of the spies of Aristias, who were stationed at the port of Crotone.

In the early morning of the next day, when the herald sent by the mercenary arrived at the house of Davos, Davos had already learned about the reinforcement of Crotone from Aristias. So, he immediately judged that the situation of Timasion and the others is grave.

Therefore, when Phrigres, the herald of the mercenaries, asked him, “Lord Davos, leader Timasion have managed to capture Krimisa, and we hope to join the Theonia alliance and get additional soldiers right away!”

Davos, with a heavy heart, told his former comrade who had worked as an interpreter in the camp of Meno, and later worked for him. However, he had chosen to leave when they were in Byzantium, “Phrigres, you are late. I have just learned that ‘at noon yesterday, nearly 10,000 soldiers from Crotone had set out by ship.’ They should have arrived at Krimisa in the afternoon of that day, and I don’t think that Timasion and his men will be able to keep Krimisa….”

“TEN THOUSAND SOLDIERS?!” Phrigres froze at the spot when he heard it.

“I have sent someone to inquire about it, and I believe that we will find out the truth by noon.” Added Davos.

“Maybe…maybe they are still defending Krimisa….” Phrigres came back to his senses and prayed, “Lord…leader Davos, as someone who had fought together with us, please…please send an army to Krimisa and help them!! Otherwise, I fear that it will already be too late once you learn about what happened!!….”

Phrigres call of “leader” had made the mood of Davos fluctuate, but he still shook his head and said, “Hmph…I can’t mobilize the army immediately just because I want to! This requires the consent of most members of the senate, and without accurate information, they will not agree! Because if the Krimisians manage to recapture their city and the army of Theonia where to enter the territory of Krimisa, then this would be a violation of our agreement with Crotone, which means that it will be war! A war with Crotone!!”

The impatient Phrigres had obviously not heard the patient explanation of Davos, and had almost frantically shouted, “If you want to rescue our brothers, then it’s inevitable to go to war with Crotone! What are you afraid of?! You are the only archon for life of Theonia, so you have the final say! Send troops, please, leader Davos! The lives of Timasion, Cleanor, and all our mercenary brothers are waiting for you to rescue them!!….”

Davos shook his head, and had no idea how to properly tell him, “You go and have a rest first. I will inform you once I find out the situation.” Then he motioned to the servant to take him away.

Phrigres pushed away the servant and shouted, “Davos, you would have died in Persia without the help of Timasion and our brothers! But look at how you treat your former comrades now! When we arrived here, you did not provide any help, and had let us suffer a lot of grievances. Now, the life of Timasion and the others are threatened and are asking for your help, and yet, you don’t even lend a helping hand, and you instead give an excuse by saying ‘it needs the approval of the senate’….”

Phrigres yelled at Davos for his ingratitude, and made Davos angry when he heard that and thought, ‘You have falsely claimed that you will go to Syracuse, but in fact, you had invaded and occupied Krimisa without even discussing it with me! Isn’t it because you wanted to take advantage of me and Agasias and have Theonia take the blame for you? You did not even think about how this will make Theonia and myself passive! Now that you have failed, you came here begging, without even apologizing. In the end, who is ungrateful? Do you think that I am a pushover?!’

In his present position, there is no need for him to argue with a simple minded mercenary, so he simply made the guards drag Phrigres out of his house.

There was a lot of noise in the living room, which made Cheiristoya, with the help of Azune, come down from the second floor with a big stomach and asked with concern, “I just heard a quarrel. What happened?”

“It’s nothing.” Davos squeezed out a smile and whispered with reproach, “You are about to give birth, yet here you are still walking around and not taking a rest.”

Cheiristoya no longer asked, she then said while clutching her bulging stomach, “Our child had kicked me just now, which woke me up.”

“My child, be good, and let your mother have a rest!” Davos put his face on Cheiristoya’s stomach and said softly.

“Oh my, he kicked me again!” Said Cheiristoya with pleasant surprise.

“Madam, he must be a boy, because he is so naughty!” Azune said with a smile.

“Naughty little guy!” Davos patted her stomach and said softly, “Cheiristoya, I will accompany you with your walk.”

At this moment, he and Cheiristoya are both smiling happily.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

After Phrigres was kicked out of the house of Davos, he immediately regretted it. The entrance of the house was tightly shut so that he could not open it, so he went to look for Philesius and the others.

Who knew that Philesius, Kapus, Antonios and the others had either hid from him or apologised to him for having no way to help him.

In the end, Agasias told him that, “During the time when the mercenaries have caused trouble in the union. Lord Davos and the others were under a lot of pressure in the senate. Especially this time, when you rashly invaded Krimisa without telling Theonia. As a result, several Thurian statesmen, such as Pollux, had directly named and criticized Davos at the senate meeting, saying that he is using Theonia for the personal gain of the mercenaries! This is the first time that Lord Davos faced such severe criticism and humiliation since he became the archon! Under such circumstances, Davos could not mobilize the army without authorization!”

After listening, Phrigres finally seemed to understand, and realized that they had thought things too simple.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

At noon, the information from Krimisa had come: All the mercenaries were wiped out.

Davos sat alone in silence, and after a long time, he let out a sigh.

The incident seemed to have come to an end, but Davos realized that it was far from over.

Just as what he had expected, in the afternoon, a transport ship from Crotone sailed into the port of Thurii, then two people disembark from the transport ship: The strategos of Crotone, Lysias, and the polemarchos of Krimisa, Androlis.

What does this mean? The complexion of the statesmen, who were in charge of welcoming them, changed slightly.

Because two corpses were also taken out from the ship: Timasion and Cleanor.

This greatly saddens the statesmen who were former mercenaries such as Philesius and Agasias.

Therefore, when they started the senate meeting today, the atmosphere was already very tense and grave .

Androlis, the polemarchos of Krimisa, was the first one to speak. He was tearful and accused the mercenaries of all kinds of evil deeds that they had committed in Krimisa and the pain that the Krimisians had suffered. Then he burst into tears, “Why do the Krimisians, who were living peacefully for decades, have suffered from wars in succession?! Could it be that we had accidentally offended Ares, which made Ares vent his anger on the people of Krimisa?!….”

Lysias looked around and noticed that some of the statesmen of Theonia looked unnatural, while the archon, Davos, listened attentively and occasionally nodded with a sympathetic expression. With a sneer in his heart, he stood up and went to the center of the senate hall, he embraced Androlis and greeted the statesmen of Theonia, “Esteemed Archon and statesmen of Theonia Union, what I would like to say as an envoy of Crotone, we have manage to send reinforcements in time to save Krimisa from being destroyed by a group of bandits! After the war, we interrogated the captives and learned that these bandits were mercenaries from Asia Minor who have fought together with Lord Davos and some of the current statesmen, in Persia for more than a year. And later, by your invitation, they have come to Magna Graecia and registered in your union to become a citizen of Theonia. Is this true?!”

“That’s right.” Davos acknowledged it with a nod.

Lysias did not expect that Davos would straightforwardly answer, which made him unable to speak for a bit. He then raised his voice and said loudly, “According to the confession of the captives, ‘they were instigated by Theonia to raid Krimisa and to turn Krimisa into an ally of Theonia-’”

“Nonsense!”

“Rubbish!”

“This is a false charge!”

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Amintas, Dragos, Agasias and the others stood up and shouted.

“Whether you admit it or not, this is a fact! The corpses of the two leaders of the bandits are still on the port, and some of you had even shed tears.” Lysias pointed with a serious expression, then shouted, “Theonians, you have broken the armistice agreement with Crotone, and you still want to deny it!”

Androlis then glared and pointed at Davos and cursed, “Since the time you outsiders have come to Magna Graecia, there has not been a day of peace! No, it is not because Krimisa angered Ares, but it is your expansion and aggression that have brought wars to the city-states of Magna Graecia! The grievances of thousands of Krimisians must be answered and Theonia must be punished!”

There was an uproar in the Senate Hall.

Davos stood up, walked to Androlis and said while sneering, “I initially wanted to express our apology to Krimisa, even though we have nothing to do with it.”

Androlis was about to open his mouth to refute, but Davos looked at him and shouted, “SHUT UP!”

Which frightened him.

“But now, I can see that both of you have come here together not to find out the truth, but to join hands to suppress us, Theonians! Come on, say the conditions that you have prepared, let’s hear how harsh it is!” Davos saw through their intentions, and his unconventional remarks had made Lysias lost for words and also to remind the statesmen who are still clueless.

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