As one of Dionysius's original supporters, after Orticia became Dionysius's "Acropolis", Herois was also invited by Dionysius to move to Ortigia, but he politely refused several times, on the grounds that his ancestors had lived here for generations after colonizing Syracuse, had never moved, and had become accustomed to life here. And he doesn't sleep well, he easily wakes up when he hears a noise, and the night waves on Ortiguia are too loud for him to adapt.

Dionysius didn't force it anymore, but perhaps this was the beginning of his dissatisfaction with Herois.

Herrolis's mansion was not too far from the town hall, on the west side of the square, across the street from the theater, and two hundred meters to the west, through the rich quarter, where his home was located near the junction of the plebeian and the affluent quarter.

Felistos strode forward, and the guards carefully guarded him in the center, and these guards were mercenaries who were ostracized and even hated by the populace in the city of Syracuse, so they were very loyal to Dionysius.

The slave who opened the room saw that Felistos was knocking on the door, and hurriedly welcomed him in, and said, "The master is resting in bed." ”

"Is Jerolis' injury serious?" Felistos asked with concern.

"The owner's head was broken and a lot of blood was shed! The doctor just came to see him and said that the owner needs to rest and rest...... Oh, that scene was horrible! Those thugs who deserve hell! Your Excellency, please catch them! ……”

Felistos frowned, he didn't answer the request of a lowly slave, but it wasn't good news for Herrolis to be seriously injured and unable to do anything.

Arriving in the hall of the main building of the mansion, Felistos prepared to go upstairs.

The slave looked embarrassed, glanced behind him, and said, "My lord, look at ......."

Felistos was thinking about things just now, and he didn't pay attention for a while, and then he realized: whether it is a Greek commoner or a nobleman, according to traditional customs, the upstairs of the main building of the residence is the bedroom of the head of the family and his daughter, and outsiders are generally not allowed to set foot in it, and he himself is a good friend of Herolis, and he often comes here as a guest, and he has never been upstairs, but today it is a special situation.

Thinking of this, he turned to the guards who followed him and said, "You wait here, I'll go up." ”

The guards hesitated for a moment, but agreed, they were all Greeks, of course they knew the Greek traditions, not to mention that they had been here with Felistos many times before, and there had never been any stubble.

As soon as Felistos went upstairs alone, the slave did not dare to stop him, so he hurriedly called another slave to receive the 20 guards in the hall and took Felistos upstairs himself.

Of course, Felistos couldn't go straight into the bedroom of Herolis, and it would be awkward if there were a female servant serving Herolis. In his capacity, of course, it was impossible to act so recklessly, so he let the slave in and report it.

"My lord, please come in." Until the slave came out of the bedroom and said respectfully.

Felistos walked inside, and as soon as he stepped through the door, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught a glimpse of two dark shadows on both sides of the door, and he was startled, and before he could react, his two arms were clamped hard.

He was stunned, and just as he was about to scream, a ball of linen was immediately shoved into his mouth.

He was pushed to the ground, his hands tied with ropes behind his back, but he was holding his neck and staring straight at the big bed in front of him.

Herrolis, who had been lying on his side on the bed, had already turned over and sat up, his movements so agile that he could not see any effect of the injury at all. In fact, there was neither a bandage nor a trace of blood on his head.

Felistos now knew that he had been fooled.

Herois looked at him with a complicated expression, and said in a deep voice: "Felistos, I'm sorry, for the sake of Syracuse, I can only temporarily imprison you!" ”

Felistos glared at him angrily, a "whine" from his gagged mouth.

"Help him sit up." Herois gestured.

Two of his men immediately pulled Felistus up and pressed him to a wooden chair.

At this moment, there was a sound of fighting upstairs, and Felistus, who was still struggling, suddenly quieted down, tilted his head towards the door, and listened intently.

Herois saw his thoughts and sneered: "Don't expect anything from these mercenaries, since I have made up my mind to keep you here, how can I forget these lackeys of Dionysius, no matter how powerful they are, I have hundreds of warriors waiting for them here!" They entered my house like rats in an iron cage, how could they escape! ”

As soon as Herrolis finished speaking, Felistos "snorted".

"It seems that you don't believe it, after all, I am the target of Hyparinus's key surveillance, how can there be so many warriors in the mansion?!" "Don't forget," said Herolis, "I asked you yesterday morning to persuade the nobles in the city to take the lead in sending their people on this second expedition across the sea, and I remember that you were glad to agree at that time. But do you know that whether I go to their mansion or invite them to my mansion, I come and go in a carriage, and there is not only one person in the carriage......

The light in Felistos' eyes dimmed when he heard this, but he then widened his eyes again, glaring at the good friend he had once trusted so much sitting on the edge of the bed.

Feeling the emotion in his eyes, Herois said in a deep voice again: "Felistus, I remember once at a banquet you held, you once proudly said to me, 'Syracuse under the rule of Dionysius is stronger than ever, not only will no city-state or force dare to invade our city-state again, but Syracuse will also become the most powerful city-state in the whole of Greater Greece, and even in the entire Greek world, earning more honor and wealth for the citizens!'" All we have to do is to help Dionysius achieve and maintain this great goal! ......'I echoed you then, and now I'm telling you what I really think—"

Herolis looked at him squarely, and said calmly but solemnly: "At the beginning, I was a supporter of Dionysius, just like you, because when Syracuse was facing the invasion of the Carthaginians and the political situation fell into chaos, only Dionysius had the ability to boost morale, unite citizens, repel the Carthaginians, and stabilize the political situation in Syracuse, so we fully support him as the plenipotentiary general of Syracuse!" In the past few years, he has continued to expand the territory of Siracuse, forced the Carthaginians to sue for peace with us, freed the Greek city-states of Sicily from the threat of Carthage, and made Siracuse the overlord of Sicily...... I know that this is the splendor of Syracuse that you have always wanted to see, and for that you have done your best to assist Dionysius! ”

Herois sighed and said in an accentuated tone, "But what I expect is different from what you expect, and what I see is very different from what you see.

What I see in my eyes is that Dionysius destroyed Naxos and Katanai, who were once friendly allies with Syracuse, simply because Syracuse needed more land, population, and slaves!

What I saw in my eyes was that Dionysius could have driven the Carthaginians out of Sicily in one fell swoop, leaving the island completely free of the Carthaginian threat, but he negotiated peace with the Carthaginians when he had an absolute advantage for the sake of the tyrant's throne!

What I saw in my eyes was that many Syracuse democrats were tortured and killed by him on the charge of 'traitor' because they had opposed Dionysius in the past, and even their families were not spared, and even Philosanus was thrown into a stone prison after just saying a joke!

What I saw was that the people of Syracuse were living in difficulty because of the rising war taxes year after year, and the people in the city became extremely careful in what they said and did because of the rampant mercenaries and the surveillance of Hipparinus! Dionysius, on the other hand, expelled the people who had lived on the island of Orticia for decades, or even centuries, and turned the entire island into his palace! ”

The more Herois spoke, the more agitated he became, and his face was filled with grief and indignation: "Dionysius is no longer the hero bent on saving Syracuse, but a demon whose hands are stained with the blood of the people of Syracuse and the Greek compatriots of Sicily in order to maintain his power!" Under his dictatorship, Syracuse ceased to be the great mother state that allowed us to enrich and to exercise our rights freely, but the instrument of Dionysius for the fulfillment of his personal desires! In order to achieve personal greed, he drove 70,000 or 80,000 people of Syracuse to take great risks to invade Greater Greece, which had never had any ill will towards Syracuse, leaving the bones of tens of thousands of people in a foreign land! If no more action is taken, Syracuse, our great city-state, will be defeated at the hands of Dionysius! It was I who supported him to sit in the position of tyrant at the beginning, and today I will do my best to make up for the biggest mistake I made! ”

After saying these words, which had been held in his heart for several years, Heroliston felt relieved, and he stood up with a resolute face.

"Woo! Woo! Woo! ......" Felistos glared at him nervously and shook his head vigorously.

Herolis ignored him and turned his gaze to the strong man behind him: "Go down and see if those mercenaries have been killed?" ”

As soon as the words fell, the henchman slave hurriedly ran upstairs: "Master, most of those guards have been killed, and only a few have rushed out of the encirclement and are about to run out of the mansion!" ”

When Felistos heard this, hope burned in his eyes.

Then he heard Herois saying, "Good, everything is going according to plan." ”