Chapter 20: Bandit

Chapter 20: Bandit

The next day, a more exciting news came, Tissaphernes announced that the Greek mercenaries could pillage this area for supplies.

Everyone was cheering, but only Davos was silent, ‘Pillaging?…this is a revenge against Cyrus the Younger! But what does the people here have to do with Cyrus the Younger’s rebellion?…Don’ tell me! It is just because they live here that they will suffer this disaster! Tissaphernes is really vicious! And what about the Greeks?…’

In the afternoon, the mercenaries of Menon rushed into a village.

The quiet village was soon filled with screams and crying…

Davos saw it with his own eyes that his comrades who were usually intimate and friendly had now turned into a bandit. They stabbed the Persian men that had attempted to stop them and kicked over the old who were pleading, they then picked up the Persian women who were crying and broke into every house, they snatched the gold and silver, and also took the animals and food…each of them had a mix expression of greed and madness on their faces, which made Davos felt strange.

Davos was like a wandering soul, that weakly wandered through the village, all the soldiers who saw him looked at him in surprise. There were Persians lying on the ground, covered with blood while pointing and shouting at him, there was a limping old man holding him and begging…although he could not understand what they were saying, but deep inside his heart knew they were angry at him. There is nothing he can do, so what are they pleading for?

He tried to avoid it like a plague by running unsteadily to a deserted place, avoiding the angry gazes that made him felt guilt. At the same time, he was trying to comfort himself in his mind, ‘This is war. This is war!! I was just forced…’

Just then, a sudden scream awakened the absent-minded man, it was Olivos’ voice!

‘I fear that Olivos might be in danger!’

Following the sound, he broke into a house quickly. A Persian man had fallen into a pool of blood in the yard. He didn’t have the time to think about it and with one foot, kicked the door open: A naked Olivos fell motionless on the bed. There was a woman curled up at the bed and at the bedside stood a girl around 10 years old, trembling while holding a big rock in her hand…

When Davos saw this, he could probably guess what had happened. Obviously, Olivos fancied the beauty of the hostess, he first killed the man, then forcible carried the woman to the bed and ravaged her. Who knew that the daughter that was hiding ran out and smashed his head with a stone, while he was having fun…

Shameless! He cursed in his heart, but he still shouted out of concern to his comrade, “Olivos, are you okay?!”

Olivos didn’t reply, but it woke up the little girl. She turned her head quickly and saw another Greek soldier standing at the door, she was greatly stimulated and screamed, “Bandit! Bandit! Die!! Die!!…” She struggled in throwing the rock at Davos and at the same time rushed at him.

Davos subconsciously blocked the stone with his shield, and he naturally revealed the spear held in his right hand.

The girl did not shriek at the shiny spear, nor did she dodge it, and as if she became insane, jumped straight at him.

Davos couldn’t evade and only felt that his right hand sunk, and as soon as the girl’s hand grabbed his face, she fell on him powerlessly.

The woman on the bed cried out in despair and rushed over nakedly. Davos stepped back powerlessly and let the woman held the girl with a spear in her chest tightly. The heart-tearing cry was like a sharp knife piercing his heart and made him feel like he was going to faint, but someone supported him.

“Are you okay?!” Davos who was absent-minded, heard the voice of Hielos.

“I’m fine.” He pushed Hielos and slowly walked into the yard.

Hielos had discovered Davos behaving strangely, and so he followed him all this time. At this moment, although he was worried about Davos, he was even more worried about the safety of Olivos who was inside the house, thus he quickly entered inside…

When he came out of the house, he found Davos sitting on the side of the road, leaning against the wall, while looking at the sky and not moving, he wondered what Davos was thinking…

Hielos wanted to pull him up, but he felt it inappropriate, after thinking about it, he just simply sat with Davos…

He didn’t know how long it took, when Davos suddenly stood up and repeatedly scream strange speech loudly, while tears run down his cheeks.

After a while, he calmed down and asked, “What about the woman?”

“She went insane.” Hielos sighed.

Davos was silent for a long time, and said, “Her husband and daughter died, perhaps going insane might be the best relief for her…”

“Yeah.” Hielos felt the grief in his words and said, “Olivos is fine, he was just knocked unconscious. He woke up and is currently resting in the house.”

Davos didn’t speak, and Hielos shivered when he saw the cold gleam in his gaze.

“Now, we need to ask the people of this village whether there is someone who knows the Persian geography best.” Davos then stood up.

Hielos hesitated, “We had just pillaged them, I am afraid they won’t tell us.”

“There’s a way to make them to speak.” Davos’ faint comment made Hielos feel a chill. The current Davos seems to be different from his previous self. Hielos doesn’t know whether the change was good or bad…

At dusk, the mercenaries threw down the weeping villagers all over the place, and returned fully loaded. Davos also found the man he wanted — a Persian merchant. In order to make him speak, Davos also asked Hielos to capture his wife and daughter. Although Tissaphernes made it clear that it was not allowed to capture any Persian as a slave, but the troops of Menon ignored what Davos had done and even covered for him.

Davos succeeded in bringing the people back to the camp.

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

“You mean that our team has been moving northwest?” Davos looked at the Persian merchant, Marigi, and asked. The interpreter next to him repeated Davos’ words in Persian.

The tall and slightly chubby Persian, who claimed to be a small merchant, cautiously looked at Davos and quickly lowered his head and stroked the grass with a branch, “According to what you had said before, you are going back to Ionia. Ionia is in the Aegean Sea to the west. You passed through Babylon, Opis, and now you are here…if you keep going west, not only will it be a long way, but it’s also difficult to cross the Taurus Mountains and you will need to take a detour…”

He once more looked up at Davos, and when he saw that he was listening carefully, he raised his voice, “So you are obviously heading northwest along the Tigris River through the mountains of the Carduchian, then to Armenia and eventually to the Black Sea by boat to go back to Ionia…”

“Oh, it turned out to be like this! It seems that Tissaphernes’ route is still reasonable.” Olivos suddenly thought about it and shouted.

Davos found that when Marigi heard this, his body slightly shook. He immediately glare at Olivos.

“Shut up!” Matonis scolded in a low voice. Olivos, who likes to argue with Matonis, stop talking.

Davos looked at the sketch drawn on the ground and looked at it carefully for a while, and then asked, “Which place do you think it would give us a lot of trouble when marching on our future routes?”

Marigi said without hesitation, “The mountain area of the Carduchian! There lived the savage and ferocious Carduchians, who won’t easily let strangers pass through their lands, but—“ He glanced at Olivos and said quickly. “Your troops are huge, and you have the Persians leading the way, so you should be able to easily get through.”

“How do you know that we have a huge troops?” Davos asked immediately.

“Because…because before I came in, I saw your camps one after another…” Marigi began to tremble.

Davos patted him on the shoulder and smiled, “Don’t be afraid, you have a good observation. Do you know Tissaphernes?”

Marigi immediately shook his head, and suddenly thought of something and began to nod his head hard, His voice trembled even more, “I just heard that…because he used to…to accuse our lord, Cyrus, of rebellion…he was almost beheaded…”

Davos looked at him, and he was avoiding Davos’ gaze with guilt.