Rome must fall.

Chapter 276: Cythonus's Persuasion

The captives were only thinking about eating, and they had just suffered a crushing defeat. They were traumatized by the ferocity of the Nyx soldiers and did not dare to stare at them. Therefore, they did not notice that there were their compatriots in the Nyx team that came to deliver food. Moreover, in the eyes of Onosis, although the Nyx soldier standing in front of him looked very similar to the tribesman in his impression, he looked heroic in his armor and had a completely different temperament.

"It's me." Cythonus responded, squatting down and taking off his helmet.

"Cytonus, it's actually... you!" Onosis was so excited that he wanted to reach out and touch Cytonus, but when his hand touched the cold armor, he subconsciously retracted it, and his expression became cautious again: "Great, you're still alive! But how... how did you become like this?"

"Uncle, you still remember that last year Chief Andres summoned the army to attack Knicks, and I also participated. It was you who sent it to me..." Saitonus said softly.

"Of course I remember. I reminded you at that time that the chief would surely win a great victory this time. If you fight bravely, you might be able to make our chief forget his hatred for your father and return the land he had taken from your family to you..."

Setonus recalled the past and sighed, "... I didn't expect the chief to suffer a tragic defeat. Alas, so many tribesmen failed to return... Later, the chief escaped, and some tribesmen were redeemed, but you were never there... They all said that you might have died in the swamp, so my wife and I built a grave for you in the wasteland east of the village... But I didn't expect that you are not only still alive, but you have also... joined the Knicks..."

"I'm not the only one who joined the Knyx. From last year to this year, thousands of captured Segestica warriors have joined the Knyx! He! He! He! They are all our people!" Setonus turned around and pointed at several Knyx soldiers among the group of prisoners, instinctively defending himself.

"I don't know about the others, but you are a good kid! How could you...how could you betray the tribe!" Onosis looked angry and his voice unconsciously became louder.

"Uncle, can you blame me for this? You should know that the youngest son of Timilus forced my father to go hunting, and they encountered two bears. The others were killed by the bears, and my father was also bitten, but he desperately fled back to the village...

But Timilus and several other nobles who lost their sons insisted that my father had taken them to a dangerous place to hunt without permission and abandoned them and ran away alone. Therefore, he took away my family's land and made my father do hard labor. He was already injured and could not stand such torture. He died of illness soon after...

"I have been looked down upon by my tribesmen since I was a child. Only you, uncle, have taken good care of me..." Onosis' words aroused the resentment that Setonus had buried in his heart for more than ten years. He complained emotionally, "Just as you said, I originally wanted to follow Chief Andres and perform well. If I could be favored by him, I could change my previous miserable life... But we lost. In our eyes, the brave and invincible Chief Andres was easily defeated."

Cytonus pulled the corner of his mouth, unconsciously revealing a trace of sarcasm: "Many of us were captured, first sent to the Aldi people to mine, and suffered a lot of torture. Later, Nix sent people to tell us, 'As long as we join the Nix tribe, we don't have to suffer these tortures anymore...'

Some people chose to join, many of them because their families were captured by the Knicks and had to submit. I am different, I just want to change my life. Since there is no way out in the original tribe, why don’t I try another way! ”

“You…you…” Onosis looked at Setonus’s excited face, and thinking of what he had suffered in the village in the past, he sighed repeatedly, and finally couldn’t help but whispered: “But the Nyx are a foreign tribe after all, and it’s impossible for you to join them than to stay in the tribe!”

"Who said that!" Cytonus raised his eyebrows and said loudly: "We Pannoni are actually Illyrians, but we separated hundreds of years ago. The Nix tribe was also mainly established by Illyrians. The leader of the Nix tribe, Maximus, regards us Pannoni as compatriots and welcomes us to join the Nix tribe--"

"Since the Nixes regard us, Segestica, as one family, why do they attack and kill us so cruelly?!" Someone nearby suddenly interrupted loudly, and before he knew it, a circle of prisoners were lying around Setonus.

Cythonus glanced around and said in a louder voice: "The reason why the Nix treated us like this is because we invaded the territory of Aldei first, killed and drove away their people, and occupied the land here, so they had to fight back!

For example, in the several major defeats we suffered from last year to this year, we attacked the Knicks first, and they fought back and won! Don't say that the Knicks are cruel to us. Think about it, when we captured the Aldi people, we either killed them and threw them into the Kupa River, or cut off their hands and feet and threw them in front of the Aldi people's village to intimidate their tribesmen.

After the Nixes finished fighting with us, they treated our injured people just like they treated their own people. Look here—"

Setonus raised his left leg. There was a long scar on his leg. He patted the scar and said loudly, "This is when Chief Andres led us to fight the Nix people in the Varidosi Swamp. I was stabbed by the enemy. I fell to the ground and couldn't move at all. The Nix people carried me to their camp. Thanks to the careful treatment of doctors and nurses, my leg injury healed quickly.

Not only me, but also some of the tribesmen who were injured in the battle recovered their health because of the good care they received from the Nix people—"

"Oh, I remember now. I saw some Knicks soldiers carrying some of our injured tribesmen into the camp. Do we need to treat their injuries, too?" another prisoner interrupted.

"Of course! We are enemies during the battle, but after the battle we are all Illyrians. Nix will do his best to heal his compatriots!"

"So you joined the Nixes because you were grateful to them." Another captive interrupted. "Of course it's not just because of this." Cythonus looked at Onosius again and said proudly, "Uncle, can you imagine that? I didn't have any land in the tribe. I earned some food by grazing for Timilus. If you hadn't given me some delicious food from time to time, I'm afraid I wouldn't have grown so tall and strong...

But when I join the Knicks and win the war, I can get at least 60 acres of land. My captain is going to make me a centurion because of my good performance in the battle! I am living a much better life in the Knicks than in my original tribe!"

"Just 60 acres of land has made you betray the tribe and the gods we believe in. You still have the nerve to brag in front of us. You are really shameless!"

A sarcastic voice came, and Setonus' face changed. He looked up and saw a middle-aged man sitting outside the circle of people surrounding him. He was white and fat, and was looking at him with contempt.

Cythonus suppressed his anger and asked, "How many fields do you have?"

"I haven't counted it, but it's much more than 60 acres." The man curled his lips in disapproval.

Cythonus suddenly laughed: "Then you must be a noble?"

Before the man could say anything, someone said, "He is the elder of our tribe!"

Then someone else said, "It's my tribe leader Alpas!"

"Noble" is actually a foreign word for the Segestica people. "Elder" and "Patriarch" are the formal terms. A Segestica tribe is a large group of blood relatives formed after dozens or hundreds of years of reproduction. This group is composed of small groups formed by splitting up.

Generally speaking, the leader of the small group with the largest population and the strongest power is the chief, and the leaders of other small groups are the elders of the tribe. To the people of the group, he is the patriarch, because he has more or less kinship with ordinary people.

After the two men talked, Alpas tried his best to straighten his chest and appear proud.

Setonus did not show any respect, but asked directly: "Elder Alpas, do you know how many acres of land we ordinary Segestica people own?"

Alpas liked to enjoy himself and almost all the affairs of the territory were left to his subordinates. Naturally, he could not answer Setonus's question. After a pause, he scolded him a little bit out of control: "What qualifications do you, an ordinary tribesman, have to ask me questions!"

Setonus did not argue with him. He said seriously, "In my original tribe, the average citizen of Segestica has about 30 acres of land, right, uncle?"

Onosis hesitated for a moment, but nodded: "Almost."

The other captives began to chime in: "Each household in our tribe has a little more land, but it's closer to the mountains and forests, so it's not as fertile."

"We don't have that much land. We'd be lucky to have 25 acres."

"You are bragging when you say you can get 60 acres of land in Nix. In our tribe, several clan leaders only have more than 60 acres of land."

……

"Everyone, please be quiet!" Saitonus said loudly, "Whether it is 20 acres, 30 acres, or 40 acres, we ordinary people work hard to cultivate the land every year, and when the harvest comes, we have to hand over a lot of food to the elders of our tribe. The rest is good enough to barely feed our families-"

(End of this chapter)