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He even heard that at the end of the battle, King Telemani shouted, ‘Davos of Theonia, do you dare fight with me?!’ and led his elite guards towards the royal flag of the Theonia army. Unfortunately, the swarming soldiers of the Theonian army surrounded them, and they finally died in battle.

Upon hearing the king\'s death, Alemus could only sigh. After all, he believed that all Peucetian warriors who had experienced the great war would no longer be courageous to fight the Theonians.

In the following two years, the Peucetians could only live in fear and unease because the several towns and tribes in Peuceti were at odds with each other regarding who would take over as the new king, resulting in numerous battles taking place…

During that time, shocking news would come from the south from time to time.

“The Theonians captured Manduria…”

“Uzentum surrendered to Theonia.”

“Otranto was captured…”

“Rudiae has fallen…”

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

Alemus, who was already in his forties, knew that the Theonians would soon set foot on Peuceti\'s territory. But with the current chaos in Peuceti, they couldn\'t stop the advance of the Theonian army even for a moment.

Sure enough, once the Theonian legion entered the Peuceti territory, the Peucetians, who claimed to be fiercer than the Messapians, fared much worse. Blera surrendered, Silvium surrendered, Barium surrendered, Venusia surrendered, and finally, Canosa, where Alemus lived, also surrendered…

In less than four months, the Theonians completely conquered the whole Peucetian territory. But that was already okay as too many Peucetians had died.

Alemus and the other tribes could only watch with mixed feelings as the heavily armed Theonian army soldiers escorted the new ruler of their city. Afterwards, the Theonians gathered the people of Canosa in the square.

After introducing himself as the praetor of Canosa, Agasias first comforted the Canosians not to be afraid because no one would dare to harm them as they were already Theonian citizens, and the Theonian law would protect them.

Then he began reading the decree issued by the kingdom of Theonia, the content of which Alemus still remembers, “…All Peucetian tribes within Canosa will be dissolved, and every Canosians will have independent freedom. Besides being under the jurisdiction of Theonia\'s administration and having to abide by the kingdom\'s laws, you will no longer be governed by other organisations and groups. Furthermore, you will receive your own land and only need to pay 1% tax every year, and besides joining the military service, no one will force you to do additional labour…

At that time, Alemus, like everyone else, thought they had misheard it.

But the following actions of the Theonians proved their words were not empty and issued official documents to all tribes in Canosa: First, all tribes must hand over the lands they occupied to the city hall for redistribution; Second, all ethnic minorities will be registered at the Census Registry Office in the city hall.

Alemus knew how much the document shooked the tribes of Canosa: In just three days, six revolts and commotion happened in Canosa, but the powerful Theonian army quickly pacified all of them. And the chieftains and nobles who led the riots were escorted to the square to have their heads beheaded, which happened several days in a row and resulted in the heads to keep on rolling and blood spilling everywhere.

Such matters also happened in other Peucetian towns, and these bloody executions extinguished the courage of the Peucetians. (While conquering Messapi, the constant revolts and chaos of the Messapian tribes made Davos and the Senate realise the difference between the Messapi, the Lucanians and the Bruttians. In addition, Theonia\'s current power gave Davos enough confidence to make him disregard the soft method and slow disintegration of the indigenous tribes. Instead, he would quickly cut down any problem as soon as it appeared and thoroughly solve the Peucetians, who were far away from the influence of Greek culture and may resist the Theonian rule much more fiercely than the Messapians.)

And it seems that Davos overestimated the ferocity of the Peucetians because soon after quelling the revolts, the chieftains of the Peucetian tribes all rushed to the city hall to show their loyalty, including the chieftains of the tribe where Alemus belonged.

A few days later, Alemus\' family, who had finished registering as citizens of Theonia, was given new land. Since Alemus was living the first half of his life in the tribe, he felt both bewildered and a little excited: Bewildered because the sudden loss of the tribe he relied on made him feel some fear and helplessness; Excited because there was no longer any tribe that would constrain him, making Alemus feel freedom.

Even though he had land in the past because he was a tribal warrior, he would only need to pay a small tax every year on the land he gained now, and the next three years were tax-free.

And the Three-year tax exemption law had significantly reduced the discontent of the Peucetians in the newly conquered land.

After two years, the city of Canosa significantly changed under the rule of Theonia, with only the Temple of Lycaon still standing in the city. Every year, a lot still goes to worship him, but it is slowly decreasing as more and more begin to believe in the king of the underworld from Greece. Moreover, his temple wasn\'t far from the Temple of Lycaon. And since the Temple of Hades healed the people for free and helped the faithful in need, they are much more approachable than the high priest of Lycaon.

The young Canosians, on the other hand, fell in love with the football and rugby games invented by the Theonians. During the farming season, they would often play from morning to night in the open spaces both inside and outside the city. Moreover, they would actively learn Greek to play these games better because their coaches are Theonians from across the Gulf of Taranto.

These Theonians were legion recruits that took part in the conquest of Messapi and Peuceti, who had gotten a piece of land in Canosa from the Senate and settled there. At first, the Peucetians rejected, resisted and even had disputes and conflicts with them, but due to the popular ball games in South Italia, followed by the military training, they gradually began opening up and accepted the Theonians.

Under the compulsory decree of the city hall, the young men of Peuceti had to take part in military training, and the ones to train them to climb, roll and fight were these newly arrived Theonian soldiers. And it was the training on every seventh day that helped foster their friendship.

For Alemus, what attracted him the most was the Theonian food. In the past two years, Alemus reaped a good harvest on his farm along the Ofanto river, and since he doesn\'t pay taxes, he would take the rest of the grain to the market in the city for sale after reserving enough for their use. At the same time, he would also take some livestock he raises each year and sells them to the Cheiristoya Restaurant in the city, where the prices are not bad.

With his abundant money, his former comrades often pull Alemus to the Cheiristoya Restaurant for a small gathering. There, they would drink cold beer, eat delicious food, recall the joy of battles of the past and complain about the changes that have made them happy today. In fact, they admit deep down that today\'s cosy life is much better than it was two years ago.

While they were drinking, complaining at Theonia and looking forward to their future life, a piece of news shocked the quiet city of Canosa, ‘Theonia declared war on the Daunians!’

Although the Peucetians were happy to fight the Daunians as they had been enemies for decades, Alemus, who had just experienced two years of peace and quiet, was worried, as were some of the older Peucetians, that the war would again spill the blood of the Peucetians that had gone through many battles that had reduced their population.

But in reality, they just overthought it.

Once the mighty Theonian army marched in from the South and built a colossal stronghold not far from the city of Canosa, Alemus knew that the Peucetians would have nothing to do with the next war.

However, some Peucetians became unhappy with some young men going to the city hall and the training camp to protest and demanded to be allowed to participate in the war against the Daunians. While the others, such as Alemus, set up a temporary market near the stronghold to sell the daily needs of the soldiers, who would go out to battle under the organisation of the city hall. The Canosians, who had previously been brave and ruthless, were beginning to develop a sense of business, which was perhaps the biggest change for Alemus and the others in the last two years.

By getting up early this morning, Alemus managed to get a good place for his stall near the entrance of the temporary market. But just as he was lost in his thoughts, a loud cheer broke out from the nearby stronghold that made Alemus high-spirited. And based on his experience yesterday, this should be the end of the soldiers\' training.

Immediately after, the vendors in the whole market stopped chatting and walking around as they began to get busy stacking up the goods they would sell on the stalls, such as grapes, olives, boiled beef and mutton, fruit juice, bread, salted fish, clothes, ironware…

As soon as Alemus and his wife started setting things up, they saw a group of soldiers pouring into the market.

“Adoris, this is the stall with the delicious juice I told you about.” Several soldiers stood in front of Alemus\' shop while surrounding a young man about eighteen years old.

Hearing that, the young man looked at the stall and immediately said, “Give me a bowl.”