Axicus greeted the guards standing at the door of the hut, and then gently opened the door, a foul fishy smell came to his nose, and he just sniffed without any uncomfortable expression.

Avia, who was in the room, was also unaffected by the smell, she was dressed in clothes specially made for animal trainers, her hair was tied up and firmly tied behind her head, she held a fat black cat in one hand and the pen in the other, and looked at the animal pen with a slightly nervous expression.

"Avia...... Avia...... "Maybe it's because Avia is too focused, Axicus shouted a few times, but she didn't react, but the black cat turned over, stared at Axicus at the door with big eyes, and then "meowed" twice.

Only then did Avia see Axicus waving at the door, she walked over a little unhappily, and whispered angrily: "Why have you been talking to your brother-in-law for so long, Nana (a female antelope) is about to give birth!" ”

"Just now Lord Shiros's son, Pekestas, sent someone to me, saying that he and his cousin had brought some guests to the zoo, and they had been queuing up outside, the weather was too hot, and there were many people, and they were afraid that the children would not be able to stand it and wanted to come in early." Axicus told a little lie and changed the person who asked him for help to Pekeestas.

This trick really worked, and Avia immediately said, "Ah, Big Brother Pekeestas is here, let them in quickly!" I'm just—" At this point, she looked back at the beast pen with some reluctance, and then changed her words, "When Nana is born, I will go to see him immediately." ”

In the past, Davers was invited to the king's palace from time to time for family dinners by the Henipolis family, the Aristilas and Asuna families, the Bagul and Andrea families, and the Shilos family...... So Avia is more familiar with several of Shiros's children.

"Then I'll go and greet them first." After saying that, Axicus turned and left.

At this moment, the voice of the trainer came from inside the house: "Princess, Nana has been born!" ”

When Avia heard this, she immediately became excited, grabbed her husband's hand and ran inside: "Nana has finally given birth to a lamb!" Pray with me, I hope Hades will bless the little one and survive this time! ”

…………………………………………………………

While the Sosikles brothers were taking their guests on a tour of the zoo, an administrative meeting of the Kingdom's ministers was taking place in the main hall of the royal palace in the city of Turiine.

When Martius, the captain of the palace guard, saw that the auxiliary ministers and the chiefs of the departments had arrived on time and had sat down as was customary, he immediately reported to Davers, who was resting in the side hall, and then Davos, with the court clerk Hennipolis, walked calmly through the side door into the main hall and walked to the throne.

Immediately all the ministers stood up and bowed respectfully.

"Sit down." Davers smiled and waved his hand, and the ministers sat down, and then he looked at the crowd and said slowly, but in a thick and clear voice: "Ladies and gentlemen, today is the last regular executive meeting of the month, and the sports meeting will be held in Turiyi next month, so the focus of our discussion today is the issue of the sports meeting. ”

Speaking of this, he turned his gaze to Kloto Kataz, who was sitting at the bottom of the right side: "Archon, you are the main person in charge of organizing this Games, you can first give us a detailed introduction to the preparations for the Games." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Klotokatax, who had served as the consul of the kingdom for more than four years, stood up unhurriedly and said in a loud voice: "Ladies and gentlemen, it has been two years and one month since Your Majesty announced that the Games would be held in June of the previous year, and our preparations have been basically completed. ”

For more than two years, Klotocataques devoted most of his energy to the preparation of the Games, and most of the things were done by himself, so he knew the whole situation well, and did not prepare the speech in advance, he coughed lightly, sorted out his thoughts, and then said loudly: "According to His Majesty's suggestion, the Games held by Turiyi not only have the traditional six major events of running, wrestling, boxing, racing, horse racing, and five sports (including running, long jump, discus throwing, javelin, and wrestling), but also add archery, iron ball throw, high jump, pole vault, marathon, swimming—"

"I can understand the rest, but what is this marathon?" The new Auxiliary Chancellor Bagule couldn't help but ask (in early March, Hmon asked to resign as Auxiliary Chancellor, citing old age, and Davos approved, and with the support of the Lucanian senators led by Hermon, the Senate elected Bagule, the prefect of the Roman district, to take over the post, and Davos approved the election result, and Bagule officially assumed his duties last month).

Although Crotocatacs had explained this issue several times in previous executive meetings, he patiently explained to Bagule: "I think everyone should know the legend of the Athenian army that fell to the ground and died after the Athenian army defeated the Persians in Marathon a hundred years ago, and the soldier Phidipits ran all the way back to Athens from Marathon to inform the people of the good news. In order to commemorate this historical event, His Majesty specially suggested that we set up this race, so that the marathon is a special kind of long-distance race, and its running distance is the distance from the marathon to the city of Athens, which is 84 miles in total. ”

"Eighty-four miles?!" Bagul exclaimed, "Who can run down such a long distance!" Even if I can run down, I'm afraid I'll be exhausted! ”

"We've tested it, and as long as you don't run too fast, you can run down." Klotocatax replied seriously: "So far, there are 10 players in our kingdom who have signed up to participate in this event. ”

"Oh, as long as you can run." Bagul nodded, indicating that he understood.

"Your Majesty, I've always had a question to ask." War Secretary Oliver couldn't help but say. (The year before, Alexis also resigned as military secretary on the grounds of old age, and Davers had planned several replacements, Leoticides, Matonis, Lizaru, and Olivers, but the other three refused to leave the army, and eventually hoped that the youngest Oliver would become military secretary instead.) ）

"Say it."

"The marathon is just a very long distance race, so why should it be called the Battle of Marathon in honor of the Athenians? And not in the name of some famous battles that our kingdom's army fought in the past? For example, the First Legion made a long run against the Roman army at Wolsey, and five years ago our army landed on Peleus Beach and raided Larissa for a long time...... Wouldn't it be better to use these battles as a name? Oliver tactfully offered his opinion.

"Of course not!" Davers vetoed without hesitation: "Both the Romans and the Thessalians are now citizens of the kingdom, and it is disrespectful to them in the name of these battles, and it will have a bad effect. The marathon is a battle of the Greeks against the Persians, not only does it not have this concern, but also shows our respect for the local Greek people, especially the Athenians, and helps to strengthen the local Greek people's identification with us, at least so that they can participate in the Games more enthusiastically. ”

"Your Majesty is right, in the reply from Athens to us, there are 5 Athenian runners who signed up for the marathon." Klotockataks answered.

Oliver paused, nodded and said, "Now I have no opinion." ”

"Guys, in order not to waste time, wait for the archon to finish his report, and then ask any questions for him to focus on answering." Davers reminded in a calm tone.

The hall immediately became quiet, and Crotokataks continued, "...... Marathon, swimming, clipper racing, sailing race, military four sports (including heavy running, javelin throwing, horseback riding, swimming), a total of 15 major events, all the venues and equipment required for all the competitions have been prepared, and all regions of the kingdom and the city-states that received the invitations except Persia have promised to send runners to participate. According to their reply, the total number of players to participate in the competition is 1,982, and the number of participants in each event exceeds 50......

According to the preliminary schedule, the Games will last for 15 days, so we are preparing to vacate all the hotels around the arenas in the Turiyi area, as well as the rooms of the Kingdom Hotel in the inner city, and provide free accommodation and food for the players and officials sent by the regions and city-states, so as to ensure that the athletes participating in the Games can compete in good condition (initially, because of the annual Kingdom Rugby Finals and Football Finals, the Turiyi City Hall temporarily set up athletes' camps near the various arenas, Hotels were built on these temporary camps to accommodate the players who played two tournaments a year, as well as for the convenience of travelers, often with the result that the rooms were often full, making a lot of money for the town hall of Turiy).

At the same time, we have also reached an agreement with the Carriage Association in Turiyi that they will be responsible for transporting the athletes to the competition venue during the competition and avoid being late.

The team of priests and judges from various temples led by the Hades Temple has been trained for several months and has basically mastered the judging criteria of various competitions, and I believe that the entire team of judges will be able to adjudicate the problems in various competitions fairly and avoid cheating and other ugly phenomena.

Master Staceikodas was very helpful to us, and the medical department will send experienced medical teams to each arena during the competition to treat injured players and spectators (Herps has retired from old age, and Stacetas will take over as medical secretary). ”