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Unfortunately for the Daunians, they couldn’t respond to it even if they found the enemy’s change because they had no habit of keeping reserves and couldn’t take out their troops who were in a fierce battle in time to rest. Thus defeat was only a matter of time.

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

“Pant! Pant!…” Adoris gasped as he stared at the routed soldiers in front of him.

The enemy unexpectedly panicked and fled just as they detoured and were about to pounce on them. So to catch up with the enemy, Adoris threw away his long shield and later his spear and drew his short sword, hoping to kill an enemy and not participate in this battle in vain.

But those Daunians run too fast.

The squad Adoris belonged to had received strict instruction from the senior centurion in advance, so how dare they let him take the risk alone? Thus they all followed him and therefore were all out of breath.

Then the salpinx that signals to stop the pursuit rang through the battlefield, which relieved the whole squad.

But Adoris acted as if he didn’t hear it and tried to continue the pursuit.

Seeing that, the squad captain became worried, so he rushed up to him and shouted angrily, “Adoris, are you going to violate the military order?!”

At this time, Adoris could only stop reluctantly. Seeing the distant enemy, Adoris angrily threw his short sword to the ground.

“Don’t worry too much, the enemy won’t be able to escape, and our cavalry legion will make sure they won’t have a good time.” Adoris’ squad captain comforted him.

Adoris only bowed his head and didn’t respond as he was too angry that the battle ended without him even grazing the enemy’s hair.

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

“Commander, congratulations on winning this battle and defeating the Daunians’ main force!” The nearby officers congratulated Alexius.

Alexius modestly said, “We have more troops, our training is much stricter, and our equipment is also much better than the Daunians, so it is only natural for us to win. However, completely defeating the main force of the Daunains isn’t enough…have the herald immediately inform all the legions to gather the troops quickly, reorganise the formation and then march towards the city of Herdoniae.”

“Understood!” The herald galloped away.

“Lord commander, should we write a war report to Thurii?” His adjutant Umateseus said excitedly.

Alexius nodded, “Tell his majesty now that we defeated the army of about 20,000 Daunians on the Ofanto river; we would then head to take the city of Herdoniae so that he doesn’t have anything to worry about.”

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

“Reporting to the legatus, Prince Adoris hasn’t suffered any harm and has gone to the fourth brigade with his squadmates.”

Olivos’ expression suddenly relaxed. Then he said with a smile, “It’s good as long as he is okay!”

Then when he remembered something, he turned his head and said to his adjutant, “Write a private letter to his majesty in my style of writing that during the fourth brigade’s flanking of the enemy, Adoris was brave and charged at the front. And even after defeating the enemy, he still followed them closely… In short, write that Adoris performed excellently in the battle but do not exaggerate it too much. Do you understand?”

“Understood, legatus.” The adjutant replied and immediately went to get a quill and papyrus.

“After you finish it, give it to me to read. Then stamp it with my seal and send it to Thurii.” Urged Olivos.

“Understood!”

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

“Everyone! Our next target is Herdoniae!” Olivos pointed to the front and had his horse galloped forward. Then the officers and guards around him followed him.

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

“That Olivos!” After reading the letter sent by Olivos, Davos couldn’t stop smiling. Even though Davos knew there were exaggerations in the letter, he was relieved that Adoris was safe.

“Have this letter delivered to my home and give it to Cheiristoya.” At least the letter would relieve his family’s worries about Adoris.

“Yes, your majesty.” Henipolis took the letter and left the king’s office.

Suddenly, a man came to approach him, “Lord Henipolis.”

Henipolis then quickly replied, “Lord Antonios.”

Although Henipolis’ position as the king’s clerk was only a middle rank, he was also a statesman, which was one of the rewards given to him by the Senate after he took the initiative to merge Laos into the kingdom of Theonia. Thus he could be considered the youngest statesman in the Senate. But the main reason why Antonios was so polite to him was that Henipolis was the herald of Davos, so besides his majesty’s family, Henipolis could be said to be one of the closest to the king.

Antonios then asked, “Is his majesty there?”

“He is waiting for you.”

Just as Antonios took a small step forward, he bowed his head and asked in a low voice, “Lord Henipolis, can you tell me…why had his majesty called me here today?”

Henipolis glance at Antonios’ gloomy face. After hesitating for a moment, he uttered a sentence, “The list of middle and lower ranking officers to be promoted.”

Hearing that, Antonios became startled.

Every year, the Ministry of Military will decide who they would promote according to the soldiers’ performance and record of each legion. But if there was no war, they could only promote an officer who had served a certain number of years. According to Theonia’s Military Law, the Ministry of Military could decide the promotion of middle and lower-ranking officers. Afterwards, they would only need to submit a list to the king for approval. But since establishing the Ministry of Military, Davos rarely made any remarks on it, so Davos would often return the documents and rarely call them besides having to add a few names occasionally.

But they had already handed this year’s list five days ago. It’s just that Antonios had forgotten that Davos hadn’t sent someone to return it to the Ministry of Military because he was worried about his brother-in-law, Phragres… When he thought of that, Antonios’ heart began to sound an alarm. So as he slowly headed towards the king’s office, he began recalling what was wrong with the list.

After the guard announced his name, Antonios heard a familiar voice inside, “Antonios, come in.”

Antonios took a deep breath, stepped on the smooth marble floor and entered the king’s office hall, which Davos named.

It is indeed a hall, not a room, as even though it isn’t as large as the palace hall on the first floor, it is three to four times larger than the room where Antonios works in the Ministry of Military. On both sides of the hall were neatly placed red wooden chairs, which is where the ministers and officers would sit when the king called them to discuss official matters. And on top of the wall close to the chair were rows of small windows to ensure the hall had sufficient light. The centre aisle is very spacious that you can even place several large tables to place maps and documents on them and discuss important military and political affairs. In fact, this is where King Davos would discuss and handle the kingdom’s affairs with his ministers, while the palace hall downstairs was more often used for large court meetings with foreign guests and major events.

At the end of the aisle is a massive desk, and the wall behind the desk has a large map of Italia, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica painted in various colours. And in front of the desk were two small wooden tables, where the clerk and scribe worked, thus showing that Davos was busy with government matters. After all, many documents from various departments would arrive every day, and his clerk and scribe would come to help him sort them out, classify, file, read and respond to them according to Davos’ instructions. After handing them over to him for signature, they would finally send the documents back…

But the always busy office hall was now empty, except for Davos, who was sitting behind his desk and the piles of documents on the desk hid his face, which made Antonios feel nervous. Although he had come here countless times before, he had never felt such things. But the crimes of Phragres, the persuasion of Asistes, and the attitude of Davos towards Ladician in the Senate the day before yesterday made him uneasy.

“Your majesty!” Antonios walked towards the desk and gave his respectful greetings.

“Sit!” Davos stood up and pointed to the chair. After seeing Antonios sit down slowly, Davos picked up a document on the table and asked calmly, “Have you read all the details in the list of officers to be promoted?”

‘It is really about the list! Is his majesty dissatisfied with some of the candidates?!’ Antonios suddenly had his thoughts change, so he replied with caution, “With countless people to be promoted this time, I only focused on the names and performances of the senior centurion and the centurion…”

Then Davos asked with vagueness, “Who was the one who made the initial draft?”

“…mainly the officials under me who made the initial draft by following the list recommended by the legatus of each legion…”

“The current inspector of the Ministry of Military should be Xanticles, right?” Davos asked again.

“Yes, your majesty.”

Xanticles was one of the several mercenary leaders of the Persian expedition. Unfortunately, he was too old and lacked stamina, so it was difficult for him to continue leading the troops to train and fight, and in the end, he failed to become a legion’s legatus. But remembering their past camaraderie, Xanticles’ decades of combat experience and his familiarity with military matters, Davos transferred him to the Ministry of Military as the inspector. He would be responsible for supervising and reviewing the promotion of officers, military expenditures…and so on.

“Take a look.” When Davos handed over the list, he noticed that Antonios became puzzled.

Antonios stood up and received the list in a hurry. However, he remained standing as he read through it. Unlike ten years ago, the current kingdom of Theonia has ten infantry legions, not to mention four naval fleets and four cavalry legions. Thus there are hundreds of personnel to be promoted, so the list consists of more than ten pages of papyrus that were densely covered with the names of people, making it harder for Antonios to find the problem in a short time.

“On the page of the Eighth Legion.” Davos’ indifferent tone surprised Antonios because the Eighth Legion was also known as the Sicilian Legion and its headquarters was in Catania.

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