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“Lesguk, is this your so-called damn trap?! Five thousand…five thousand brave Samnite warriors are now gone! And my dear friend Usebek…Usebek!…”

Segobani cursed angrily, his eyes turning red. He and Usebek were of similar age, and their tribal territories were adjacent, so they had played together since they were young, forming a deep friendship. This friendship was why Usebek had given up competing for the position of great chieftain when the previous Caudini great chieftain passed away. Instead, Usebek wholeheartedly supported Segobani, which allowed Segobani to defeat Kinduk and become the new great chieftain of the Caudini. Later, when the Theonians captured Segobani, it was Usebek, along with other chieftains, who resisted Kinduk’s pressure to appoint a new chieftain and took the initiative to cooperate with the great chieftain of the other major Samnite tribes, eventually securing his release.

Due to Segobani’s quick temper and tendency to hold grudges, he was difficult to get close to and so had very few friends besides Usebek, with whom he had a decade-long friendship. Thus, he lost control of his emotions once he found out about the death of his friend.

“Lesguk, it’s hard to blame Segobani for being upset with you. Even after your decade-long tension with Garni, you failed to raise your vigilance against him, which led to you failing to detect the sign of Abellinum’s rebellion in a timely manner. You bear significant responsibility for this failure!” Pentri’s great chieftain, Badani, also voiced his criticism. Despite his reservations about going to war with Theonia, it was Lesguk who convinced them, leading to a series of losses for the Samnite Tribal Alliance and significant casualties for Pentri. Consequently, Badani’s dissatisfaction with Lesguk continues to grow.

“There’s no use blaming each other now since things already happened! That damned traitor once stood before the High Priest and swore a solemn oath, but he still betrayed us. Who could have imagined such a betrayal happening for the first time in our race’s history? Although it was Lesguk who proposed luring the enemy, the decision was made after discussing it among ourselves. At that time, not one of us raised the need to be cautious of Abellinum and Potentia, both of which we disregarded…” Konteruk, the great chieftain of Caraceni, could only sigh. Despite his hot temper, he, being the oldest of the four, recognised the importance of maintaining unity within the tribal alliance at this critical moment.

“Our homeland is now threatened with Theonia’s massive army already entering the Samnite mountains. Thus, we must immediately prevent the enemy from encroaching on our land further and protect our territory and people!” Konteruk reminded them.

“It’s unfortunate that we must stop our siege of Neapolis.” Despite saying this, great chieftain Badani didn’t have a bit of regret on his face. After all, despite the Samnite Tribal Alliance army ravaging most of the city-states of the Campanian League these past few days, they couldn’t do anything about Neapolis with its high walls. Although they had attacked it several times and lost some warriors, they still had no hope of breaking through the city wall’s defence.

The Samnite Tribal alliance had a lacklustre sieging capability that, if it weren’t for their previous plan to lure the enemy, they would have already withdrawn. Now that their plan to lure and encircle the enemy had failed, the other three no longer had objections to withdrawing.

“But where do we withdraw to fight the enemy? The Theonians were near Aquilonia just a day ago, but we’ve lost track of their current location. It’s a hundred kilometres from here to Aquilonia, so by the time we reach it, the Theonians could have gone somewhere again.” Badani raised an important point.

“Lesguk, do you have any suggestions?” Konteruk asked him since the Theonian army was operating within the Hirpini territory, and Lesguk was more familiar with the situation there.

Lesguk was taken aback when he heard about the army they had left in the mountains being routed. He felt a wave of shame and fear. So, while Segobani and Badani were blaming him, he was deep in thought about how to handle this crisis. Despite his inner fury, he kept it hidden because, as Konteruk pointed out, they needed the entire tribal alliance to cooperate in driving out the Theonian army that was causing havoc in their territory. After glancing at the grieving Segobani, he thought, ‘While I failed to detect any signs of Abellinum’s unusual activities, you also missed any shifts in the Abellinum army’s behaviour, even though you had taken control of Nuceria. Nuceria is much closer to Abellinum, and you had even stationed many of your trusted men there.’

Of course, he won’t say these words out loud.

“We should retreat to Beneventum! I am suggesting this not out of selfish intentions but because Abellinum, who is very close to Beneventum, has betrayed us. With them betraying us, the mixed army organised by the Theonian can smoothly pass through Abellinum and attack Beneventum! Once they occupied Beneventum, then Caudium will also be under great threat-”

Lesguk then looked at Segobani after saying that. He believed that even as he mourned the death of his dear friend in battle, the great chieftain of Caudini should have realised how much of a threat losing Beneventum would be to Caudium. After all, the two towns were next to each other, with only over a five-kilometre distance. Furthermore, Caudini is located on a small plain in the middle of a mountain range, so the terrain there wasn’t dangerous; thus, he believed that Segobani would ultimately support him.

“What if the Theonians continued north after capturing Aquilonia instead of attacking Beneventum?” Badani immediately raised his concern, fearing that heavily defending Beneventum would lead to an empty defence in the eastern part of the mountain range. If the Theonian army decided to go all the way north, then the territories they would threaten would be Pentri and Caraceni.

Hence, Konteruk also expressed his concern.

Lesguk shook his head and said, “The Theonians won’t do that because our army stationed in Beneventum can also attack Abellinum. And once we capture Abellinum, it would not only allow us to secure Caudini’s territories, but we can also continue to threaten Potentia through it, which is exactly what the Theonians feared.”

“Lesguk is right, so I agree to withdraw to Beneventum!” Segobani loudly expressed his support, completely setting aside his previous grief and anger when he cursed Lesguk.

With the two strongest tribal chieftains in the alliance already reaching an agreement, Konteruk and Badani no longer had any choice. Besides, they also felt that Lesguk’s words were reasonable.

As the four discuss the matter of withdrawal, Badani couldn’t help but say, “Actually…we can consider having a truce with Theonia…”

The three immediately felt shocked upon hearing this. Since the beginning of the war with Theonia, the Samnite Tribal Alliance suffered consecutive defeats and heavy losses, so many tribal chieftains expressed complaints, and even their confidence in the war was wavering.

However, Lesguk first spoke against it, “We had torn up our agreement, declared war on Theonia, invaded the Dauni region, and plundered the Campanian League, all of which are a serious offence to the Theonians. So, there is no way for the rigid Theonian king to ever make peace with us, especially since he wished he could eliminate us, who constantly caused trouble for him. Therefore, we can only continue fighting until there is a change in the situation.”

Lesguk understood that if they really surrendered to Theonia, he would be the first victim because Garni had already defected to Theonia and would never spare him. Hence, his attitude this time was unyielding.

“Change? What changed?” Badani asked with a gloomy expression.

“Defeat the Theonians in the next battle! Or wait for the Theonians to lose on another battlefield!” Segobani interjected, knowing equally well in his heart that if they were to make a truce with Theonia, his good days would end because he was the perpetrator of this war and also the one to lure and kill Kinduk, whom the Theonians supported, and even killing and capturing so many Nucerians who are the believers of Hades.

But he would not say this reason and instead found a much better explanation, “Badani, don’t be a fool! Think of Taranto, who had torn up their agreement and fought Theonia! They surrendered to Theonia after the South-Italian War and became that whatever free city. But this resulted in their territories getting divided, their inability to even own their army, and their citizens being kept in captivity like livestock! Do you want us, the Samnites, to become the second Taranto?! Even if we want to make peace, we have to create more trouble for Theonia and force them to be the ones to initiate the peace talks for us to gain an equal footing in the negotiations and agree to a peace treaty that is more favourable to us!”

“Peace talks?! Hmph, we are the children of Savoni, and we will never submit to anyone! We will fight to the end as long as we can’t secure our independence, even if it means death!” Despite being the oldest, Konteruk had the most fighting spirit, even shouting to Badani in the tone of an elder, “Show your courage; your father’s spirit wandering around Savoni’s temple is still waiting for you to wash away his shame!”

Faced with the strong opposition from the three great chieftains, Badani could only say, “You are right! We can only fight the Theonians to the end for us to have a way of survival…”

Late at night, a messenger from Beneventum arrived at the Samnite camp, bringing the news that there was a large army in Abellinum, which increased the urgency felt by the four chieftains to withdraw their army to Beneventum.

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

At the same time, a fast sailing boat from Irna sailed into the port of Neapolis in the darkness of the night, guided by the lighthouse’s light.

Not long after, the candles in the city hall of Neapolis lit up, and the high-ranking officials of Neapoliss, the allied archons who had taken refuge, and the strategoi of the allied reinforcements arrived one after another.

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