"He generally eats modestly, is hard-working, but is a little too addicted to women." - Appian's evaluation of Mithridates VI

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As he walked through the main hall with the others, he saw a miserable and disastrous scene, the same as when he first crossed into the Calabi Palace, full of poisoned and swollen corpses, eunuchs, women, and servants, and then, in the dim light, he saw Adiana kneeling in front of a huge corpse lying in a pool of blood, mourning, Biduiita stood silently on the side, and Achilles departed to give an account of the defense of the "Eighth Legion".

The core of this royal palace, it seems that there are no soldiers to plunder for the time being, when they learned that the king of Pontus had committed suicide, they dispersed, Calabis walked into the oval small dormitory, dug out some beautiful and majestic clothes from the wardrobe, as well as some spare jewelry, and precious ointments and other things, and walked in front of Adiana, and helped her up, "Listen, Adiana, now you have to be strong, I have put the fake corpse on the ship and sent it to Pompey's station, so that he can be delayed for a while." But you still have a limited amount of time to pay homage to your father, and as you said before, you don't want your father's body to be sent back to Rome in a mule cart, and now I will help you do that - go and bring in the timber and furniture that are piled up at the palace gates. ”

The princess held Calabis's hand tightly, "You mean, you want to incinerate my father's body on the spot?" ”

"Yes, at the request of the Romans, I was supposed to return the body or head of Mithridates back to the city of Rome - so. That's all I can do for you. Calabis said solemnly. Know that you're also taking a huge risk. "Adiana, this is a matter of your decision not to nod, but it must be as soon as possible, there is not much time."

Adiana looked at her father, who had died forever, with red, swollen eyes, and then at Calabis, and Zuihou gritted her teeth and bowed her head at him. Calabis brought a circle chair and sat the mourning Adiana on it. Then he covered his hair and mouth with his cloak, and showed only a pair of eyes outside, and went to the garden at the colonnaded patio, and dug two shallow pits with the tools he had brought, one for Mithridates and the other for Marcha, and the soldiers and centurions who came with him put furniture, branches, planks, and other things in the shallow pits, and made a simple cremation pile.

Then Calabis took out all the letters in the bookcase. looked at it and walked up to Adiana. Half-kneeling, he placed the letter next to her circle chair, and said, "These things mean little to the plunderers, but I think they are different to you, keep them safe, and don't fall into the hands of Pompey's gang of idle literati." ”

At this time, Biduita stepped forward and handed Adiana Mithricates' sword "Ottolicus" and Manime's small crown to Adiana, "Princess, this is a gift from your father to me, and now you take it, Minander and Stratonis are still alive in the world, or use it to avenge the royal family, or sell it and don't ask about the world, this sword is worth at least four hundred Tallents, enough for the rest of your life, the princess." ”

Adiana took the somewhat heavy sword, and looked at Calabis who was busy with the cloak next to her, sweating on her face, helping her father and cousin to anoint the corpses and change into clean clothes, without saying a word. Calabis's subordinates lifted the bodies of the two with the removed door panels, and Calabis and Biduita plucked some flowers and cinnamon branches from the garden and placed them on them, and then his black eyes fixed on Adiana, as if waiting for her statement, Adiana pursed her lips, hugged "Ottolicus" to her chest, and nodded at the amphora.

The corpse on the crematorium was peeled and burned along with the planks and furniture, and the body of her father gradually evolved into a shrinking black shadow in the flames, and the smoke rose as thick as the smoke rose, and Adiana sat down on the circle chair and slowly drew the sword of Ottolicus, which was as cold as water, reflecting the orange fire and her maroon gaze.

After the cremation ceremony was completed, Calabis and the others picked up the remaining bone ashes, poured them into two bronze sealed vessels, and carefully placed them in a box, then removed the cloak covering his face, blinked his eyes and breathed into the air, Adiana took "Ortolicus" in both hands and walked up to Calabis, "Amphora, can I use you again?" This Altolicus is my reward. ”

Calabis pushed his sword back, "I made a pact with you beforehand that even after your father's death, you will still be the princess of Pontus who turns all beings upside down, and I have not forgotten this agreement - but I now need an envoy to return to Rome, and as for me to stay here for the time being, I just don't know if that damned Claudius is really dead." With that, Calabis pressed a writing amber tablet against a pillar, dipped his teeth in a charcoal ink pen, and stroked on it

But when they walked to the dock with boxes and letters, and were about to spend more money to hire some sailors and ships back to the Acropolis, they saw the ocean in the distance, and a group of ships came proudly, "Is it our legion's successor from Philippon?" Pop was so frightened that he hurriedly took off the general's helmet and armor.

"No, no, the sail is not the logo of the Thirteenth Legion, the other party's flagship uses a purple sail!" Karabisnahan said, "What is this fleet?" ”

Biduita next to him said in a deep voice: "It's Macmillan, the Purple Sail Pirate, he was originally based in Crete, and was later expelled by Pompey to the Yukxing Sea, but it's really amazing that this guy can get out of Pompey's hands!" ”

"I had persuaded my father to spend a lot of money to hire them to fight Pompey, but I didn't expect this Macmillan to come after my father's death." Adeina's face was solemn, and she didn't know whether the prospect was sad or happy.

But when the ships of the Purple Sail Pirates lined up peacefully in the sea in front of the dock, the guy who came to negotiate in a small boat was enough to make everyone present gasp - it was actually Claudius, with a dull and charming smile, and next to him was a bronzed muscular man with a Scythian beard, grinning with snow-white teeth, haha, and hugging Claudius, who was a little stiff.

Before Claudius and the bronze muscular man's boat docked, a soldier who had previously served in the Seventh Legion whispered to Calabis: "God, this is exactly what the goddess of fate has planned—Claudius was kidnapped by pirates when he was in Silesia, and later he wrote to his brother-in-law Lucuras, asking him to give him twenty tarents to redeem himself, but the pirates said that he was only worth two tarents, but Lucuras refused to give even two. ”

"Later, what did Claudius rely on to redeem himself" Speaking of which, Calabis himself figured out that when Claudius was beaten in public by the Lord of Rikdania, Claudius hugged his brother-in-law's thigh and begged for the reason, everything needless to say, the real scene was in front of him.

When the soldier saw that Calabis was silent, he thought that he could not understand, so he frankly revealed the answer: "I heard that Claudius relied on the virginity of the moon worker. (To be continued......)