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Strasippus and Nicostratos looked at each other with shock in their eyes. Nicostratos even looked back at the group of people still arguing in the gazebo, with his thought regarding them changing.

He looked back at Stesichodas, who was walking ahead, pulled Strasippus and asked in a low voice, “Who is this man that you have so much respect for him?”

“He is the…uhm…vice-president of the medical school in the Akademia of Theonia. He is not only highly skilled in medicine but is also very knowledgeable!” Strasippus murmured.

“Highly skilled? How much is he better than you?” Nicostratos didn’t care about the other’s position as he only cares about the actual level of the other party’s medical skills.

“I can’t compare with him at all. The gap in our skills is just like that between a child and an adult. You will find out once you see him treat the patients and listen to his speech.” Strasippus said sincerely.

Nicostratos was utterly speechless as he realised that he and Strasippus have almost the same skill level, ‘Could it be that this humble middle-aged man is really so amazing?!’

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

In the dark of the night, in one of the houses in a village outside the city of Thurii. After eating their dinner, Teratus asked his wife to pour him some wine as he sat alone in the yard, looking at the starry sky thinking deeply. From time to time, he watched the slaves cleaning the farm tools in the yard while the sound of his son reading came from the room lit by an oil lamp…

‘How wonderful such life is!’ Looking back on himself a few years ago, Teratus could not help but be happy that he had made the correct choice of betraying Crotone, which he is still a bit guilty of. However, he had already done a lot for Crotone and Milo, which even include risking his life by sneaking around Clampetia to obtain important information and contributing to Crotone’s efforts to assist Terina in repelling the Bruttians… However, even with all of those, his life remained difficult until he surrendered to Aristias. After Davos defeated Crotone, he fulfilled his promise and brought back Teratus’ wife and children to him safely. So from then on, he began living in Thurii while officially joining the mountain reconnaissance brigade under Davos’ arrangement and accumulating war credits. At the same time, he is secretly working for Aristias and the archon.

It wasn’t until last year that he finally became a Theonian citizen and got the “allocated land” that every Greek dreamed of. At the same time, his children also began attending the Akademia of Theonia. His household even bought two slaves to take charge of the work in the fields…all this happiness came from the fact that he had made the right choice.

Thinking of this, he felt that he should pray to Hades. At the start, he was often troubled by guilt that he couldn’t even sleep at night. Finally, after going to the confession room in the Temple of Hades on the advice of Aristias, he gradually became relieved.

Just as he began to pray to Hades devoutly, a patterned knock sounded from the door.

“Who is it?” Said Teratus in a low voice as he hastened to the door.

“Teratus, it’s me!” A low voice came from the door. However, in the quiet night, the voice was very clear.

‘It’s Aristias!’ Teratus was shocked because Aristias, as his boss, would usually ask him to report at his residence and assign tasks, and he had never gone to Teratus’ house in person, let alone at night.

He opened the door in a hurry. And under the moonlight, the slender figure of Aristias appeared in front of him.

Aristias glanced seriously at the courtyard behind Teratus, then came in.

Teratus then lightly closed the door while making excuses to drive the slaves to rest.

While Aristias just stood quietly in the corner of the courtyard. And with the wall and tall willows blocking the moonlight in the sky, the darkness completely covered his figure.

After Teratus set things in order, he immediately rushed over to receive the order.

Aristias did not beat around the bush. He then said in a low voice, “Milord has ordered that you can start to act on the matter that was assigned to you.”

Teratus’ became tense again as the “lord” that Aristias spoke of could only be the first man of Theonia whom he both feared and grateful to.

Teratus then became excited once more, “Chief, where should we start?!”

And the two of them talk in whispers for a while.

After seeing Aristias leave, Teratus could no longer restrain his excitement that he clapped his hand hard, “CLAP!”, the clear applause in the darkness of the night ushered his wife’s voice, who was in the room, “Teratus?!”

“It’s nothing. You go to bed first.” Teratus quickly comforted her and told himself, ‘Be calm! be calm!’ Although this is an opportunity to make great achievements, it is of great importance and involves too many people who were either in high positions or very wealthy. So he must be careful and cautiously think if there is any mistake in implementing the plan.

Thus with both hands on his back, Teratus walked around and pondered, spending the whole night in the yard…

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

The following day, the sky is blue, and the temperature and weather were just right to travel.

The Thurians got up early, washed and ate, placed flowers in front of their homes and sprinkled the streets with clean water. The men dressed neatly while the women dressed in fancy clothes. Afterwards, they rushed to the east gate in pairs.

The Temple of Hera in Thurii was built two years ago due to Theonia’s Marriage’s Day becoming more and more grand and influential. But since there is no Temple of Hera in Thurii, they needed to go to Heraclea to invite a priest of Hera before every Marriage’s Day, and they could only hold the event in the Nike Square, which was somewhat unconventional and not in line with Theonia’s identity as the centre of the alliance. Therefore, in response to the people’s needs and the city’s development, the Senate approved the construction of the Temple of Hera.

However, the temple’s construction cost had not come from the Treasury, which was already stretched from all kinds of infrastructure; instead, it came from various donations. With the generous donation from archon Davos as an example, the many statesmen and merchants donated one after another, enabling the Temple of Hera to be completed after more than a year of construction.

At that time, due to the political situation of Theonia becoming stable after the Bruttian War, finding a location for the Temple of Hera became a problem. Because of several years of rapid development, the number of citizens in Thurii sharply increased that there was not enough space to accommodate a new temple, so they could only build it outside the city. This is why the Senate had also put the problem of expanding the city of Thurii on the agenda.

Contrary to the Greek tradition of building the temple on a high place, the Theonians built the Temple of Hera on the flat land between the city of Thurii and the port on the bank of the Crati River outside the city.

Early in the morning, the Theonians gathered from all directions to the Temple of Hera to participate in the annual celebration.

Even though the sun in the sky has not yet shone, the sea of people was already outside the Temple of Hera, putting significant pressure on the patrol units responsible for maintaining order.

At the same time, with the number of engaged couples being as high as five hundred, there are many that have come to participate in the blessing this year, causing the Temple of Horae, the goddess of seasons, and the Temple of Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, on the side of the Great Temple of Hera, to be crowded.

As the people outside the temple became so crowded and noisy, they started to faintly hear the sound of bells from the southwest, from within the city of Thurii, followed by a powerful sound. They all know that these bell sounds came from the four-ton bronze bell in the Temple of Hades, ringing nine times in a row.

“One! Two! Three!…” The people also began counting simultaneously at the ringing of the bell (In folklore, Hades’ birthday is September 9, so Theonia had not only changed the annual Hades’ Day to September 9 but also made the temple bell ring nine times for every major celebration).

‘The celebration is about to begin!’ The Theonians began to liven up. As for why the Temple of Hades, the king of the underworld, could announce the beginning of the celebration of Hera, the Theonians were already long accustomed to it and did not doubt it because in the past five years, and with the unremitting efforts of Plesinas and his subordinates, the Theonians have long regarded Hades as the protector of the union and the giver of stability and prosperity to Theonia.

The crowd began to stir up as they saw groups of musicians holding lyres, flutes, bronze horns, drums…and so on, get closer to the steps in front of the temple and stand in order. Then a dozen priestesses dressed in long white robes came out of the temple and stood in front of the platform.

When the melodious music sounded, the noise began to weaken, and the priestesses began singing in chorus. However, this was not the hymn to Hera, but her daughter, Hebe, the goddess of youth. Therefore, the new hymn was lively and cheerful.

Singing together with them were dozens of young girls in front of another temple, the Temple of Hebe, the goddess of youth. These young girls stepped lightly into the square along with beautiful singing and dancing, and from time to time, switching to various formations and shapes.

Since the opening ceremony of the Temple of Hades, the dramatic dancing with spectacular scenes and magnificent momentum had not only shocked the Theonians but also opened up a new form of art. And the priests of all the temples regarded it as one of the indispensable ceremonies for celebrations.

Watching the girls dancing happily in the square and listening to the music with a slightly strong rhythm, a lot of the girls outside couldn’t stop themselves from shaking their waists.

After the hymn of Hebe, the maidens stepped back while the children and the priestesses on the temple platform emitted a soft resonant sound as if it was a piece of divine music.

Everyone in the crowd tiptoed, gazing at the temple one after another, as they all know that it was time for their lord to appear.

A woman then came out of the temple, dressed in a plain white robe, wearing a pomegranate crown while holding a torch, lit by a long bright oil lamp in the temple. Her demeanour was dignified and calm, and her exquisite face shows no flaw as if the whole person is the statue of Hera carved by a famous master. She is so holy that the crowds couldn’t feel a slight hint of blasphemy.

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