"Lord Pericles." At this time, as the oracle of Poseidon, Rhodes came over with a kettle, smiled, and filled the cup in front of Pericles with water. "I have seen you look sad these days. Did something bad happen? If there is anything I can help you with, please tell me. I will do my best to help you."
"Actually, nothing happened... You should remember that I have a daughter. Her name is Hilde."
"I know that many people in Athens are talking about Hilde and like to compare me with her."
Chapter 4, Section 9: Pericles's Shock
Rhode smiled a little embarrassedly when he said this. "But I don't think I can compare to Sister Hilde. She is not only an oracle, but also the king of the Byzantine Kingdom. I heard that she transformed the Byzantine Kingdom from a very small city-state into a large kingdom with a population of hundreds of thousands. Sister Hilde is really amazing."
"Yeah……"
Pericles didn't expect that Rhodes was also a loyal fan of Hilde.
Listening to the admiration in Rhodes' words.
Pericles became even more worried.
"Lord Pericles? Are you worried about Sister Hilde?"
"No... Actually, to be honest, there have always been conflicts between me and my daughter Hilde. You have seen my hair and my eyes, but Hilde has had long silver hair and purple eyes since she was born. I have always found it difficult to accept Hilde's appearance. Although it is very shameless to say this, I know that I always feel that Hilde is not my biological child. So for this reason, I have never liked her, and the conflict between us father and daughter has become increasingly greater... Alas."
"Lord Pericles, you must not lose heart at this time. I believe that all conflicts can be resolved." Seeing that Pericles was really upset, Rhodes quickly comforted him, "I believe that Sister Hilde will definitely forgive you. I know that I am not qualified to say this, but I really believe that Lord Pericles is a very good person, so I believe that Lord Pericles' daughter Sister Hilde must also be a very good and reasonable person. So I have no doubt at all, I think you two will be able to reconcile."
"Thank you so much."
Listening to Rhodes' simple and kind words.
Pericles really didn't know what to say.
He even felt a little sorry for Rhodes, who was so innocent and kind, but he was taking advantage of his kindness and turning him into the most loyal person around him. Pericles portrayed himself as a wise and benevolent ruler, which made Rhodes believe in him and become loyal to Pericles.
But if Rhode knew what he had done to Hilde, would he still remain loyal to her? Pericles began to worry about this problem, but after thinking about it, Pericles realized that not many people knew the truth of this matter. Unless Hilde came to Rhode in person and told him about this matter, otherwise, this matter would not be known to others.
"Lord Pericles, if you are too tired today, you can go and rest first. If there is anything, I will wake you up. What do you think?"
"Thank you very much."
Pericles pulled himself to his feet.
He sighed and walked to the door of his room.
"If someone notifies me of something later, you can judge for yourself. If it's a small matter, you don't need to wake me up. If it's a big matter, you must wake me up."
"But……"
"Don't worry about whether you can do it or not. You are the oracle, you are the one favored by Lord Poseidon, so you can definitely do this kind of thing. I believe in you." Pericles smiled faintly at Rhodes, then turned and walked into his room.
Rhode seemed a little overwhelmed. After all, a few months ago, Rhode was just an ordinary fisherman girl. Just an ordinary person, but now suddenly Rhode was asked to deal with some political matters, which made Rhode very overwhelmed. But since Pericles was very tired and really handed this matter to Rhode, Rhode also made up his mind to do this matter well.
So Rhodes sat in Pericles' living room.
She sits here alone.
It's a bit boring just sitting there.
Rhode used to like to clean the room whenever she was bored, but every time she wanted to do so, Pericles would stop her and tell her that cleaning the room could be left to the slaves at home. She didn't need to do it herself. But... Rhode was a child from a poor family, and he was only one step away from becoming a slave. It only took a disaster to turn a child like Rhode into a slave.
Therefore, for this reason, Rhode always wanted to find something to do. But Pericles said that such things could not be done, so Rhode was very obedient. Pericles said that things could not be done, so Rhode would not do them. Therefore, Rhode was a good boy at home, doing nothing but sitting on a chair and waiting quietly.
Rhodes was almost asleep.
But soon a member of the Citizens' Assembly came running over.
When he saw Rhodes, he immediately bent down and said, "Lord Oracle, I have something important to discuss with Lord Pericles."
"Lord Pericles said that if you have anything to say, tell me first, and then I will decide whether to trouble him with this matter. Lord Pericles is sleeping now, and he is not in good health today. So if you want to say anything, you can tell me first." Rhodes had a faint smile on her face, but she was actually very nervous now.
"Yes, Lord Oracle."
Rhodes said so.
There was nothing he could do.
So the man stood up and said, "Just now, the Byzantine Kingdom sent a delegation of envoys, and they have arrived at the port of Piraeus. They said that the queen of the Byzantine Kingdom will arrive in Athens in half a month, and they hope that we will receive her. At the same time, the envoys also want to meet with Lord Pericles in person, saying that they have important matters to discuss."
"So it's Sister Hilde... This is a big deal. Wait here for a moment, I'll wake Lord Pericles up."
Rhode immediately judged that this matter was indeed very important, so she felt that she could only interrupt Pericles' rest. So Rhode immediately walked to the door of Pericles' bedroom and knocked on the door. He said to the inside: "Lord Pericles, something very important has happened. Sister Hilde has sent an envoy to us, and Sister Hilde will arrive in Athens in half a month. You should get up quickly and deal with this matter."
"What!?"
Pericles in the room stood up suddenly.
He walked quickly to the door of the room.
Then he opened the door.
"The envoy of the Byzantine Empire!? Where is he?!"
"I don't know. Ask him."
Rhodes was a little frightened by Pericles's appearance.
Chapter 4, Section 10: The messenger arrived in Athens
Now, Pericles, who heard the news, didn't want to pay attention to his personal image, because there was no need to pay attention to his image. The news that Hilde was going to arrive here in person was like a thunderbolt to Pericles, which made Pericles burn on the outside and tender on the inside. Now, Pericles was completely panicked, and he had no idea what he could do now.
If Hilde really comes.
What should Pericles do?
Pericles felt particularly uncomfortable when he thought of this problem.
He himself did not want to see Hilde, and did not want to have any contact with Hilde at all. It was fine for him to never say a word to Hilde until he died. But he did not expect Hilde to come to his house in person. And she came in the name of the official Byzantine Kingdom... Pericles felt like he was about to vomit blood. This despair from the bottom of his heart made Pericles really want to die.
He couldn't help but think back, from when Hilde was a child until she left.
Hilde did a lot of things to him.
Almost got Pericles killed.
So Pericles also disliked her daughter very much, but she was also afraid of Hilde. From childhood to adulthood, Pericles almost died at the hands of her daughter several times. Anyway, whenever her daughter wanted to target her, Hilde could always come up with a lot of ways to make Pericles feel deep terror and despair.
Now that Hilde is finally gone, Pericles thought he could enjoy some peaceful days, but he didn't expect Hilde to come back. And now he is the king of the Byzantine Kingdom, and his status is higher than that of Pericles, the archon. The Byzantine Kingdom he rules has a population of 700,000 to 800,000, which is twice the population of the entire Attica region controlled by Athens. Now Hilde can be said to be crushing Pericles in all aspects, except for influence, which is indeed inferior to Pericles, the leader of the Delian League.
And this time Hilde came in person.
He definitely has bad intentions.
That was all Pericles could think of.
But since the other party had come, and came in the official capacity of a diplomatic country, it was a relatively honorable thing for the Athenians to arrive in Athens as the king himself. This also led to Pericles being forced by the Citizens' Assembly to have contact with Hilde. But if this was really the case, there was no other way, and Pericles could only endure it.
So Pericles, who had already thought of all the consequences, came from his bedroom to the living room and met the man from the Citizens' Assembly. After seeing Pericles, the man immediately said to Pericles nervously: "The other party's envoys are still being arranged by us to rest in the port of Piraeus. Do you think we should discuss it internally first, or welcome them to Athens now?"
"Do we need to say more about this? We must welcome them now. They are distinguished guests from the Byzantine Kingdom. If we fail to receive them well, it will damage the interests and reputation of Athens." At this time, Pericles immediately changed to the state of consul. His words were calm and his attitude was firm. "Haven't we been discussing whether to get in touch with the Byzantine Kingdom recently? Since the other party has come to our door, we must show the breadth of mind and momentum of Athens."
"Yes, Lord Pericles, you are right."
The man was also very happy.
"Then I'll arrange it now!"
"Thanks a lot."
Pericles watched the man leave his living room quickly. After the man left, Pericles turned around and said to Rhodes who was standing behind him, "You can see the current situation. Even if I don't want to meet Hilde now, I have to meet her."
"That's great. Sister Hilde actually came to you on her own initiative, which means she definitely still wants to see you."
Rhodes' simple idea made Pericles laugh.
I wish that were true.
Pericles shook his head.
"Anyway, it will take at least half a month for Hilde to arrive here. They sent an envoy to contact us first. There is no problem... I will settle their envoys first." Pericles took down a large robe from the side, and at this time, Rhodes came over and helped Pericles put on the robe.
"Thank you."
Pericles nodded slightly to express his gratitude.
"Do I need to go?"
"You don't have to come with us this time. We are just contacting the other side's envoy group. The things we are discussing are all very boring things, so you don't have to join in the fun."
"Then be careful on the road."
In this way, Pericles left his home and walked towards the Citizens Assembly. Since he was going to receive the other party's envoys, the first stop must be the Citizens Assembly, because these envoys needed to stand in the center of the Citizens Assembly and tell all members of the Citizens Assembly their purpose and ideas. No matter what country the other party is, they must go through this step, although it looks like hundreds of people are judging one person, of course this is what Athenian democracy must do.
The messenger's basic intention.
It must be known to the entire Citizens' Assembly.
Therefore, these envoys must first be received by the citizens' assembly.
“Isn’t Athens a very magnificent city?”
The man who was in charge of the reception was now leading a man in a red robe towards the direction of the Citizens' Assembly. Along the way, the man proudly introduced the various splendors of Athens to the envoy. In the man's mind, Athens was the best city in the world. However, in the eyes of the envoy, the best city was obviously chosen by someone else.
“This is my first time in Athens.”
The messenger looked around.
"I have known about the city-state of Athens for a long time. When I learned that my beloved King was also an Athenian, I became even more curious about this place. Today, I came here and took a closer look. It is true. The city is very large and the economy is very prosperous. From the clothes worn by the civilians on the street, it can be seen that everyone lives a rich life."
"Of course."
Hearing the envoy praising Athens like this.
The man was naturally very happy.
But at this time, the messenger suddenly said: "But I am not that surprised. Generally speaking, the situation in Athens is not much different from that in Byzantium. Except that the population is much larger than that in Byzantium, other aspects seem to be slightly inferior."
The fifth chapter, the first section, the truth unknown to everyone
In fact, this is indeed the case. Although Athens is huge and is considered the most prosperous city in the Greek world, many of its buildings have a history of decades or even hundreds of years. In addition, Athens' municipal management has always been in a relatively chaotic state, and it all depends on the self-consciousness of the Athenians.
Therefore, Athens could not compare to the novel Byzantium in every aspect, including the cleanliness of buildings and the design of streets. After all, the building materials used in Byzantium were all bricks, which were more convenient than the marble commonly used in Athens. It was possible to build a city more beautiful than Athens in a short period of time. Therefore, what the envoy said was actually not a problem.
However, this sentence always sounded particularly ironic to the Athenian who was in charge of the reception. You, a small city in the East, dared to mock Athens, the largest city in Greece. You are really arrogant. Moreover, this Athenian himself had never seen what Byzantium looked like. He instinctively thought that Byzantium was similar to those medium-sized city-states with a population of about 10,000 or 20,000, probably dirty, dilapidated and messy.
So this envoy from the Byzantine Empire.
It must be sour.
He must be jealous of the beauty of Athens.
So the Athenian's boasting mentality collapsed all of a sudden. He immediately showed a hostile attitude and said angrily: "Athens is the greatest city in the world. No city can compare with Athens. I think what you said is an insult to us Athens, unless there is a city like Persepolis. In this world, what other city can compare with us?"
The Athenian's protest was heard.
The kingdom's messenger said helplessly.
"I'm sorry that what I said may offend you and make you feel uncomfortable, but if you are willing, I will be happy to invite you to visit the Byzantine Kingdom. When you get to the Byzantine Kingdom, you will understand why I said so. I am not making such an arrogant comment, but I have carefully compared the conditions of the two cities."
The envoy of the kingdom did not think that he was offending the Athenians, nor did he think that what he said was an insult to the city of Athens. Just like Hilde's character, the officials sent by Hilde were really of the same character as Hilde. The envoy of the kingdom was unwilling to admit that there was anything wrong with what he said. Anyway, the city of Byzantium is better than the city of Athens in many aspects. If you don't believe it, go and see it in front of the court. If you don't want to see it, then shut up.
That's the attitude.
The Athenian who was in charge of the reception was very angry.
And the Athenian really couldn't find a good excuse to refute it.
Because of the two of them, the Athenian had never been to Byzantium, and didn't even know much about the situation in Byzantium, but the kingdom envoy had been to Athens in person, and he was a Byzantine. So what he said was actually much more credible than the Athenian, thanks to Athens' tradition of believing in rationality, even if the Athenian was angry to death, he couldn't cheat.
In this way, the two of them fought each other and soon arrived in the city of Athens. From this direction, you can see the Acropolis in the center of Athens and the Parthenon on it.
The messenger knew that this temple was dedicated to Athena.
So he said in passing:
"In our city of Byzantium, we also worship Lady Athena."
"That's really rare."
"This is not surprising... We were founded on military power, and we expanded our territory through continuous victories, and finally achieved the current results. What's more, our king is the oracle of Lady Athena. In this case, there is no problem for our kingdom to believe in Lady Athena."
When this sentence was said, the man was obviously in shock. The king of the Byzantine Kingdom was the oracle of Lady Athena! ? The man knew this news, but when he heard it with his own ears, he was still very surprised. At this time, the Athenian man stopped talking, he just lowered his head and thought about this question carefully.
Is Hilde the oracle of Lady Athena?
this problem……
