Hilde and his group sat here and happily started their barbecue journey.
Chapter 4, Section 5: Determined to Kill
"Wow... so happy."
Sophia ate the barbecue and made a satisfied sound.
Even the Persian emperor Xerxes was sitting aside, eating roast beef. The Persian cooking technique was more advanced than the Greeks, at least they were not as wasteful as the Greeks. But even so, with Hilde's technology, this juicy roast beef still conquered a picky emperor like Xerxes. Xerxes didn't even have time to speak while eating the roast beef.
This is even more true on the other side.
Rhodes has no interest in beef and mutton.
All the attention is focused on seafood.
Open the freshly caught scallops, add garlic and salt, and grill until cooked through.
To Rhodes, that was more interesting than anything else.
For example, Tomylis, as a child who grew up on the grassland, may have eaten too much beef and mutton. Among the barbecues, what she was most interested in was roasted pork and roasted chicken. Her attention was almost entirely focused on the food buried under the charcoal fire. That was what Hilde called beggar's chicken. A whole processed chicken was wrapped in large leaves, then covered with mud, and finally baked in the charcoal fire. After the charcoal fire went out, the chicken was taken out, the mud on it was broken, and the leaves were opened. The chicken inside was very tender and juicy.
Dioni also prefers this dish.
Gods like Artemis.
Can't resist such deliciousness.
Seeing everyone enjoying the meal, Hilde also felt relieved.
Because of Sophia's arrest, everyone was under great pressure. Hilde could sense all of this, and everyone was thinking about Hilde's feelings, and everyone was worried about whether Sophia would come back. Now Sophia has returned safely, and the gods have not taken any other actions yet. It can be said that these two days are more relaxing than before.
Something very unpleasant happened today. The things done by those stupid nobles made Hilde still feel angry.
But put these things aside.
Today is indeed the most relaxing day in recent times.
Seeing everyone so happy.
Hilde felt more deeply how precious days like these were. If Sophia didn't come back safely, days like these might be gone forever. The more she thought about it, the more she realized how difficult it was to protect the people around her, but how necessary it was.
"Sissi, don't you want to eat?"
Sophia reached out and handed over a skewer of roast lamb.
And Hilde took it directly.
"Thank you."
"You, don't be so sad at this time. There is nothing to worry about. I have returned safely, and the affairs of the nobles have been handed over to Alcibiades. I believe he will be able to give you a good answer."
"you're right."
Hilde smiled and nodded.
I can't look so sad.
"Nobles? What do nobles do?"
"Ah, you don't know yet."
So, Hilde told the people who were having dinner what she had seen today and some of the things she had investigated. Even Artemis couldn't help but frowned after hearing what Hilde said. This kind but knowledgeable goddess couldn't accept what these stupid nobles had done.
"These guys..."
Xerxes shook his head helplessly.
"It seems that all the nobles in the world are so stupid."
"Persia, too?"
"It's even more outrageous than this. These guys don't know what their brains are made of. The empire needed to expand its military, so it needed a sum of money. It's not appropriate to increase taxes, and I don't want to burden my people too much. So, I hope some wealthy Persian nobles can help me with this matter. But when I asked them for money, they came up with reasons and excuses to spend less money, and what they did was even more ridiculous than these things."
"That's it..."
"If a person wants to have a huge fortune, it is almost impossible to obtain it through completely legitimate means. Therefore, I have always believed that wealthy nobles and businessmen must have sins written all over their backs. So when dealing with these guys, I never show mercy."
Xerxes' views coincide with Hilde's.
Although it is undeniable that there are still many rich people who have a conscience.
There are also many businessmen who have become rich by making money through their own hard work.
But in an ancient society that lacked the rule of law and was far inferior to the modern society, having money and power meant that one could walk sideways in the world to a certain extent. This was the case in Athens last time. If you had money, you could hire a wise man to teach you how to give a speech, but a poor person would never be able to learn this kind of speech skills. As long as you were good at giving a speech and won the favor of most people, you could get actual power.
Although the successive rulers of Athens have been trying to change this situation, this system eventually became a social system to protect the rich. So Hilde has always said that Athens's democratic system is actually a false democratic system. The Athenians keep saying that their city-state is very democratic, but women and outsiders do not have any political rights. At the same time, it is the rich who can really enjoy the dividends brought by Athens' power. Every year, many Athenians go bankrupt and are forced to sell themselves into slavery because of the run on the rich.
“So I have to change this situation.”
Hilde said casually while eating lamb kebabs.
"These guys just walked into the trap."
"Now that we have the evidence, let's teach them a lesson."
"I think so too."
Looking at the burning charcoal in the oven, pictures emerged in Hilde's mind one after another.
Hilde's previous attitude towards these nobles for the disgusting things they had done was to let bygones be bygones, but now, Hilde could no longer tolerate it and had to take a terrible approach to let other nobles and wealthy people who had such ideas but had not yet put them into practice know how tragic the consequences would be if they did so and stood on the opposite side of the people.
Chapter 4, Section 6: The Return of Socrates
For such people.
No matter how cruel the means used to punish them are, it is not excessive at all.
They deserve to be treated that way.
And by the way, they would use the death of these people to punish those Coastal factions who were ready to make a move. Hilde had also heard some rumors recently that these Coastal factions took advantage of the fact that they were not suppressed by Hilde and sold off their assets in large quantities during this period, preparing to go to other places. Hilde could not tolerate this behavior of intending to transfer the funds of the Greek Empire to other countries.
This is more critical.
Hilde was not bad to the Coast Faction and gave them a series of preferential conditions. However, since they were so shameless, it was necessary to kill the chicken to scare the monkey this time.
The skewers of meat sizzled under the heat of the charcoal fire, which made Hilde think of a living person being skewered on a wooden stake, with his skin and flesh burned to pieces under the blazing fire.
Just do it.
Let these despicable people.
They should pay the price for their stupid behavior.
Alcibiades acted very quickly. According to Hilde's instructions, he investigated and counted the destroyed land and the missing slaves, and then led his troops to the homes of the suspected nobles. Some nobles had heard the news long ago and fled with their families at night, but they could not keep up with the speed of the cavalry. All the nobles who escaped were caught by the army in the wild, and those who did not escape were still complacent, but were caught in the blink of an eye.
Hilde's order was a death order. Even if there was a difference of one person between the number of slaves handed over by the person and the number she counted, the whole family of the person would be arrested.
Hilde had never been angrier.
It has never been as strict as it is now.
In Byzantium, Hilde's policy was to not bring disaster to children or family members. If someone committed a very serious crime, Hilde would not involve their family members in principle, but the situation was different now. The order she gave to Alcibiades was to arrest all family members and children.
In a short while, in the outskirts of Athens, the nobles of the Mountain Party and the Plain Party cried for their parents and were escorted into the city of Athens by the army. The city of Athens at night was disturbed by the crying of these people, and the citizens of Athens also watched through the windows in horror as these people were escorted to the foot of the Ares Hill in Athens by the army holding torches.
"What are you doing?"
Socrates, walking on the street, looked at the scene in front of him with some confusion.
"I heard that these people destroyed the land they had watered with salt and food, and secretly killed the slaves who were supposed to be handed over. This completely angered His Majesty."
"What will happen to them next?"
Face Socrates' question.
Alcibiades shook his head.
"It's probably the death penalty."
"But……"
"Her Majesty is in a very bad mood right now. I rarely see her so angry. Moreover, it is true that the crimes of these people and the stupidity of their behavior are really hard to accept. So, when you see His Majesty later, you must not plead for these people in front of His Majesty. Although you have always had a good relationship with His Majesty, His Majesty is in a very bad state at this time, so don't contradict His Majesty."
"I'm just a teacher."
Socrates shook his head.
"I am naturally not qualified to say anything more."
"Teacher, please don't say that, it's just that this matter is rather bad."
Socrates certainly knew that Alcibiades said this for his own good, but from Socrates' simple moral point of view, these nobles who were also Athenians like him were taken to prison in carts and were likely to be sentenced to death. This was a thing that Socrates found difficult to accept. After all, Athens was a place where the death penalty was rarely imposed, and the heaviest punishment here was generally exile.
For an Athenian, depriving him of his Athenian identity and letting him go out to fend for himself was already an extremely cruel punishment. However, such a punishment was meaningless to Hilde. This was no longer the political environment of a small country with few people, where one city-state was against another. Now it was the entire Greek Empire. All the places ruled by the Greek Empire were the people of the empire and the land of the empire.
So, where is the concept of exile?
For such people who bring disaster to the country and the people.
Killing them would even be too easy for them.
In this kind of ancient society with low productivity, torture is necessary to some extent. Especially for such a large empire, there will be many people who rebel against the emperor. Severe punishment can make those who have two minds feel fear and serve as a warning. In the Persian Empire, the death penalty and a certain degree of torture have long been implemented.
Even in Macedonia, a slowly rising kingdom, this relatively harsh form of punishment was adopted. The torture used by the Macedonians was considered by the Greeks to be an act that undermined civilization.
So this is not difficult to understand.
Why Socrates was rather disgusted by this kind of thing?
"Teacher, don't worry."
"what?"
"There are no friends of yours among the captured nobles."
"You are... abusing your authority?"
"How is that possible? I dare not cover up anything like this. Once your Majesty finds out, your trust in me will be gone. It just so happens that among the people arrested, there is indeed no one who has a close relationship with you. At most, they just know you."
"That's fine."
It is a very lucky thing that my friend was not implicated.
Socrates dared not ask for more.
"Now, is it convenient for me to go see His Majesty?"
"it should be OK."
Alcibiades sent a soldier to report.
But after waiting for a while, the soldier responded that Hilde had already started to rest, and if he wanted to see her, he would have to wait until tomorrow. Socrates had no choice but to return to his home to rest for a while, and Alcibiades had almost finished this important task, so he also came to Socrates' home as a guest.
"I haven't been back for a long time."
Socrates looked at his familiar home.
He smiled bitterly and shook his head.
Chapter 4, Section 7: Speculations about the Emperor
During Cleon's reign, Socrates followed Hilde's ship and fled Athens to Byzantium, where he settled down. Since then, Socrates has never returned to Athens... And this time, Socrates knew that Hilde led his army to attack Athens. Although he didn't know when Athens would be captured, Socrates still boarded a ship to Attica and planned to stay in Euboea.
As soon as they arrived in Euboea, they found out that Athens had been captured.
So Socrates went to Athens without stopping.
Alcibiades knew a few days ago that Socrates was coming, so in the past two days, he ordered his slaves to start cleaning and tidying up Socrates' house, trying to restore Socrates' house to its original state. After Socrates escaped, no one had lived in the house, and it was already covered with dust and cobwebs. The slaves cleaned for two or three days before restoring the house to its original state.
Listen to Socrates's sigh.
Alcibiades couldn't help laughing:
"I have been in Athens for several days, but I haven't gone home yet."
"How are your parents doing?"
“They are all safe.”
When Alcibiades left Athens, he did not bring his parents with him, but now he returned to Athens with the identity he had always wanted. His parents and family members were naturally treated with favor, and now he has the potential to become the leader of the Coast Faction.
Socrates nodded with a smile.
