Volume 6: The Meeting of Two Heroes, Chapter 103: Good News and Bad News (Part 1)

“But now the restaurant has run into a problem. We’re short on wheat flour and fish, and some dishes customers ask for we just can’t provide—that’s brought a lot of complaints…” the restaurant manager explained the situation.

“Ah, there’s no helping it. Because of the war, the whole alliance is stretched thin for grain and sea fish—it’s not just us having a hard time.” Cheiristoya sighed, then spoke seriously: “I suggest posting a notice on the door of every restaurant, explaining the reasons to customers and apologizing to them. At the same time, recommend they order more beef and mutton dishes—things like boiled sliced beef and mutton, pan-fried beef, roast lamb leg… Andria wrote me from Grumentum that this year the Lucanian region has raised too many cattle and sheep. If we don’t consume a large number, it’s not just a matter of them losing weight in winter—if the weather turns especially cold, many could freeze to death, and then the herders’ losses would be huge. So we need to buy as much livestock from Lucania as possible.

Besides, given these hard times, all the citizens of the alliance are facing food shortages. If we make high profits now, we’ll earn the people’s resentment! So I’ve decided to lower the prices on all food, earning only a small profit to pay the staff’s wages. Until the war is over, we must share in the hardship alongside the Daonian citizens!”

“Yes, ma’am! I’ll see to it at once!” The restaurant manager’s reply was much crisper.

Cheiristoya yawned. Asuna saw that her mistress was getting drowsy and immediately stepped forward to cut the meeting short, sending the managers back.

“Ma’am, you’re about to give birth—why wear yourself out like this? You need to think of the baby in your belly!…” Asuna complained as she helped her up.

Cheiristoya cupped her large, round belly gently and said in a soft voice: “With such big things happening in the alliance, matters naturally pile up. I have to deal with them. In a few days, Andria will come and take over these affairs for me temporarily, and then I can rest easy and deliver the little one…”

“Lady Andria is coming? That’s wonderful!” Asuna said happily. She helped Cheiristoya take a slow walk in the back courtyard to ease the swelling in her legs from sitting too long.

“Andria is also bringing her two children back to Thurii—one of them is her former husband’s son—so that Bacule’s father can see his grandchildren properly and satisfy his longing…” Cheiristoya sighed a little emotionally. Andria had been married before and had a child, then married into a foreign chieftain’s family. For her to be accepted by Bacule’s large clan and get along well with them, she must have put in a great deal of effort…

“Adoris and little Klo will be so happy!” Asuna laughed.

Cheiristoya suddenly remembered something and asked, “Has Agnes come back yet?”

“Not yet. Ma’am, I think maybe because of the defeat in the battle, not only have more people gone to worship at the Temple of Hades, but even the number of worshippers at the Temple of Hera has increased, so Lady Agnes probably hasn’t finished her duties…” Asuna guessed.

“Nonsense!” Cheiristoya frowned anxiously. “She’s pregnant too—how can she not take care of herself! Send someone to call her back, on my orders!”

“Yes!” Asuna knew her mistress meant what she said and hurried off to summon a female slave.

Just then, the back courtyard door opened.

“Mother, I’m back.” Cynthia came in carrying her school satchel and hurried over to support Cheiristoya.

“Where’s Adoris?”

“He’s playing rugby in the school square with his classmates.”

“I hope he doesn’t come home after dark like he did yesterday.”

“He won’t. I already warned him.” Cynthia reassured Cheiristoya, then asked with concern, “Mother, have you heard any news from Father? This afternoon, when everyone learned of our defeat at Scylletium, no one could concentrate on lessons. They kept asking me, ‘When will your father lead the army back?’”

Cheiristoya turned her head to look at her adopted daughter, who was now nearly up to her shoulder. She remembered how wary Cynthia had been of Davos when they first met, and now she was proud of him—that brought Cheiristoya great comfort. “Don’t worry. Your father will return victorious soon!”

“Mm!” Cynthia nodded firmly.

“Mommy, I’m home!” A clear child’s voice came from outside the door.

“That little rascal is back!” Cheiristoya’s face lit up with a doting smile. Lately, because she was close to giving birth, she could no longer keep up with the energetic little Klo, so every day she had the female slaves take him to the square to play.

“Mother, I’ll go keep my brother company.” Cynthia walked forward sensibly to greet him.

The female slave who came in after him shouted excitedly, “Ma’am! Good news! Great news! The Lucanian messenger has returned, saying the master won a great victory at Poseidonia! They say… they wiped out over twenty thousand enemies…”

“That’s wonderful!” Cheiristoya couldn’t help exclaiming. How could she not have worried while Davos was away on campaign for so long? But as the mistress of the house, she had to put on a brave face. Now she could finally relax…

No sooner had she shouted that than she felt a rush of warmth between her legs, and her belly began to ache. Having been through childbirth once before, she steadied herself, propped a hand on the stone table, and said as calmly as she could: “Asuna, Asuna, I’m about to give birth. Go quickly, quickly call Helpus…”

…

While Davos’s household was in a flurry over Cheiristoya’s labor, the news that “the magistrate led the army to a great victory over the Samnites in Lucania” swept through Thurii like a warm wind, calming the citizens’ rising panic. Among those worshipping at the Temple of Hades, someone openly shouted for the first time: “Make Lord Davos king!”

But at dusk, a messenger galloping in from the south shattered the citizens’ gradually settling mood once more. The shocking news—“The Syracusan army has breached Scylletium, not only looting the entire city but enslaving all its people”—stunned the people of Thurii and also shocked the Senate. The senators, who had been hesitating, quickly made a decision: to approve Philistos’s proposal and dispatch the newly formed Sixth Army Corps to Crimissa to guard the safety of Daonian territory.

That night, as the people of Thurii tossed and turned unable to sleep, a newborn child came into the world in Davos’s house.

“Ma’am, it’s a healthy, lovely girl!” Asuna carried the baby, already cleaned, the umbilical cord tied, and wrapped in clean linen, carefully to the bedside to show Cheiristoya.

Exhausted and weak, Cheiristoya turned her head with difficulty to look at her daughter, who was flailing her hands and crying loudly. A tender smile crossed her sweat-drenched face.

“…Eunice… she’s Eunice…” Cheiristoya remembered the promise she had made with Davos.

Everyone waiting anxiously outside the bedroom breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing the good news that “mother and daughter are safe.”

In this era, childbirth was a major event and also a difficult one. Difficult labor was common. Although Davos had passed on the precautions he had learned from his previous life to Helpus and the other doctors, and had advocated gathering the experienced midwives of Daonia for professional training to make them specialized obstetricians in the hospital… these measures had somewhat controlled the newborn mortality rate in Daonia, but it remained high.

“Little Klo, you have a little sister!” Agnes gently stroked little Klo’s head and said softly.

“Little sister?! Can I play with her often?” Little Klo asked happily.

“Not now, but you can when she grows up a bit.” Agnes explained to him while holding her own slightly swelling belly. She sincerely hoped that in a few months she too would give birth smoothly.

“Great, it’s a girl!” Adoris shouted happily. Little Klo was always pestering him, and he really didn’t want another younger brother—that would drive him crazy.

Cynthia was happy too. Now she could finally have a little sidekick, just like the other girls in her class.

From the moment she was born, Eunice was welcomed by the whole family.

The next day, while the Thurii Senate was assembling the newly formed Sixth Army Corps in Victory Square, preparing to send them south to garrison Crimissa, the Syracusan envoy Damocles strutted into the city of Caulonia.

Damocles carried Dionysius’s ultimatum to Caulonia: surrender immediately, or Scylletium would be its example.

For a long time, Caulonia had been the front line in the Croton Alliance’s defense against Locri, and its citizens had been confident in the city’s fortifications—mainly because it had the full support of Croton and the other allied states behind it. But after the defeat in this major battle, Daonia and Croton had retreated, Scylletium and Trina had been captured, and the support that had backed it was all but gone.

Now Caulonia was deeply surrounded. Moreover, they had long heard of Syracuse’s strong siege capabilities, which had once taken Motya, the Carthaginian stronghold in Sicily. And the recent news had shocked them even more: Scylletium had fallen in half a day (the Syracusan and Locrian armies had sealed off Caulonia so tightly that no one knew Scylletium’s fall was due to Dionysius’s treachery), so the people of Caulonia had lost confidence in their city’s defenses, and the tragic fate of Scylletium’s inhabitants terrified them.

The Caulonians reasoned that even if Daonia and Croton had a chance to counterattack in the future, Caulonia would have already fallen by then, and they themselves would have become slaves shipped far away. Even if Caulonia were eventually liberated, it would mean nothing to them anymore…

Finally, the Assembly decided unanimously to surrender to Syracuse!