Aesop took the initiative to explain to her relatives: "They don't know if I have an heir, and I can't prove my identity yet, and my origin is very suspicious. And the house and the grange are real possessions, which already belong to them, and whether they are smart or stupid, only the gods know. ”

Amun, who was driving the car, shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know, I'm just a car driver!"

Medanzo asked, "You are rich enough, and it is not difficult to buy the house and the grange, and if you do, I think they will gladly admit your relative's identity." ”

Aesop asked, "Medanzo, we live in the world, have you ever considered a question - who am I? You are Medanzo, but why are you Medanzo?...... If I do that, I lose the meaning of finding my homeland. Actually, I don't mind giving them a lot of money, but what is it for? Let's start by proving who I am, I'm Aesop, and I'm acting as Aesop. ”

Medanzo asked again: "How do you feel when you meet such a relative, and are you a little disappointed?"

Isolt said calmly: "Actually, I am not surprised at all, and I will not be disappointed. They are all small people in the crowd, and the so-called 'small' does not mean that they have a low status, but that they have a general weakness of human surnames, and may seem philistine, selfish, suspicious, and seem ridiculous, but their thoughts and practices are very common in the world, and they are also very normal people, and even the playwrights in the city of Yalun often describe the gods as such.

If this is the case for all living beings, and any relative, it is possible that any of them may be such a small person, so why can't Isolt's relatives? Their reaction is understandable, in fact, I am not resentful at all, on the contrary, I am even grateful, grateful to the gods and grateful to them. When I returned to my hometown, I was able to see the Ackerman family, and the home where I grew up and my father's Grange are still there. ”

Amun, who was driving, couldn't help but sigh: "Aesop, you may be the closest person to a god in this city-state. ”

...... Aesop, the son of Ackerman the Elder, has returned, sixty years after his disappearance! Some people say that Aesop made a fortune outside, but he still wants to get back the grange and mansion that his ancestors should have inherited. Some people also say that the stranger is not Aesop, but has only heard about the old Ackerman's family, and pretended to be Aesop who has returned from a fortune, trying to deceive him.

Aesop lived in the inn with a groom and a bodyguard, and anyone who was older than he saw said that he did look a lot like the Ackerman family, perhaps Aesop-Ackerman. Some people began to argue again, since Aesop had made a fortune, why bother to get back the assets of her cousin's family that had been in business for sixty years?

Red Ackerman is very good at keeping his property, and after so many years of war, if it were another family, the house and the grange would probably be long gone, and even if Aesop returned, who could he go to? The sages who liked to preach in the temple square also talked about it, according to their opinion, if Aesop was Aesop, then the house and the grange were his, and Aesop's generosity or stinginess could not change this fact.

Even if Isolt was willing to give the house and the grange to his cousin, he had to prove that it was his before he could talk about generosity and giving.

Aesop's identity was to be decided by the city-state citizens' assembly, a request submitted by Aesop herself, adjudicated by fifty permanent representatives in the city-state's citizens' assembly. This is different from going to court to be tried by a judge, as the court can only accept Aesop's property dispute complaint or Reid Ackerman's fraud allegation against Aesop, but all of this is subject to the establishment of Aesop's identity.

Red Ackerman did not file a complaint with the city-state court, only claiming that he could not determine the identity of the old man.

On the day of the citizens' meeting, many interested citizens of the city-state went to watch the excitement, and the city-state council hall was crowded with people. The Citizens' Assembly appointed a representative to preside over the ruling, Thales, the famous sage of the city of Miduri. After Thales accepted the commission, he first invited ten old men over eighty years of age from the city-state to attend, all of whom had met Aesop Ackerman back then.

Longevity has always been regarded as a blessing from the gods, and those who have lived in the same city-state after the wars and devastated years are respected elders as long as they are not criminals. There are not many such people in the first place, and it is even more difficult to be sane and able to recall the events of sixty years ago, so it is not easy to invite ten people.

It is indeed unrealistic to expect these elders to clearly recall a teenager they knew 60 years ago but did not pay special attention to it. Several of the elders told Thales after seeing Aesop that his facial features were indeed very similar to the Aesop-Ackerman in his memory, but it had been too long since the impression of the time was blurred, not to mention that Aesop was now an old man and could not be confirmed!

Thales didn't expect the old men to confirm that they were able to recall Aesop in order to prove that the verdict was meaningful and not farce. You can't just come to a city-state and claim to be someone from decades ago, and the city-state citizens' assembly will rule for him.

Next, Thales asked Aesop in front of everyone, "Old man who has returned from a foreign land, you insist that you are Aesop Ackerman, do you have any documents to prove your identity?"

Aesop replied: "I have the documents to prove my identity in the cities of Eju and Salem, but they can only prove my identity there, which is meaningless for the purposes of this ruling." Such an instrument can only be signed by the citizens' assembly of the city-state of Miduri, which means that after this ruling, I may have it. And the documents of that year are long gone, and even if they are still in my hands, it is difficult to prove that I am the person in the documents. ”

An important ritual was then performed by the Civic Assembly of the city-state, in which the gods were asked to descend on the oracle at the suggestion of the majority of the citizens' representatives. If the oracle confirms Aesop's identity, then there is no need to make a ruling. The council hall contains an idol of the patron saint of the city-state, and under the auspices of two city-state priests, Thales prays to the gods on behalf of the people of the city-state for the oracle.

The situation of the Olympus god system is interesting, its god domain is composed in a similar form to the United Kingdom of Heaton, Zeus is not the main god of every city-state, and almost all city-states believe in their own patron god as the main god of the city-state. For example, the patron deity of the city-state of Aaron is Alena, the patron deity of the city-state of Kibada is Ares, the god of war and blacksmiths, and the patron deity of the city-state of Miduri is Hermes, the messenger of the gods and the god of commerce.

Amon and Medanzo also stood in the crowd of spectators, and Medanzo's voice quietly sounded in Aesop's soul: "Old man, you don't have to worry, if those two priests are bribed to deliberately lie and pretend to be oracles, I will make them unable to open their mouths for the rest of their lives!"

Aesop didn't worry about this, just watched silently, ordinary priests would not lie on such occasions, if they really believed in the gods, what would be the price to make them betray the gods in public?

Sure enough, an oracle came, it was really an oracle made by Hermes on the altar, Amon sensed it very clearly, the priest did not play any tricks, and Thales, who presided over the ceremony, truthfully announced the content of the oracle - "People of Miduri, this old man in front of you has returned from a foreign land, and he has not received the light of the gods, and the gods will not prove his identity, and he needs to prove himself." ”

Amon was slightly stunned, that Hermes should be able to confirm Aesop's identity, for example, Amon can also confirm it by using retrospective magic - the current Aesop is Aesop-Ackerman back then. Hermes, however, refused to provide a conclusion, and instead asked Aesop to prove herself, leaving the decision back to the city-state citizens' assembly.

But Hermes did not lie, the gods were telling the truth, and he did not deny Aesop's identity. Thales didn't seem surprised by this result, and after reading the oracle, he turned to Aesop, "The gods have sent an edict for you to prove yourself." ”

Isolt replied, "I can prove myself, and my standing here is a kind of proof, but what kind of evidence do I have to provide for the citizens' assembly to make a decision?"

Thales thought for a moment and said, "It's a difficult problem, in fact you are you, and you don't need to prove it." But according to the decree of the city-state, there must be three grounds for the ruling: the imprint of the former identity, the memories awakened by the past experience, and the traces of the homeland that you have kept. ”

Aesop nodded and said, "That's how it should be, then I'll come one by one, first of all, please take a closer look at this mark." He stretched out one arm and rolled up his sleeve, and on the inside of his upper arm, near the elbow socket, there was a faint mark of light brown that looked like a wound from a long time ago.

"I was very naughty when I was a child, and when I heard that gold doesn't burn and doesn't spoil in the fire, I roasted my father's ring on the fire with something between them, and I accidentally fell on my arm and burned myself," Isolt explains. The ring bears the emblem of the Ackerman family, when I was only eight years old, and the scar is exactly half of the emblem. The scar grew larger as I grew older, but I could still see the outline of the emblem. ”

Thales called Red Ackerman to his side and took off his ring to examine the family crest, and the mark on Aesop's arm was indeed a vague outline of half of the emblem, apparently not recent. Thales also called the other representatives of the citizens' assembly present to take turns to examine it, and although the scar was faint, it was still recognizable.

Medanzo in the crowd grinned, and secretly said in his heart that Aesop, this old fellow, was a ghost, and he still hid such a hand, and waited until this occasion to pull up his sleeves.

After examining the scars, Isolt lowered her sleeves and said, "How can there be no memory of the past? How else would I find it here?" Mr. Thales, I need you to ask Red Ackerman a word. My old house has been renovated, but the steps in front of the gate have not been touched for 70 years, isn't that so?"

Thales turned to ask Red, who nodded in the affirmative. Aesop said, "There are five stone steps in front of the gate of the house, which are built with a whole stone slab pressed one by one, and the four stone slabs on top are taken apart, and the largest and heaviest stone slab at the bottom is turned over, and I still remember the pattern engraved on the back, so I can draw it in public." ”

Thales asked, "How do you know?"

Aesop replied, "I built the staircase when I was six years old, and I saw it with my own eyes. ”

Thales ordered a pen and paper to be brought to Aesop, who drew a scepter on parchment with two pythons wrapped around the top, which was common in Hermes's scepter, carved under the stone slab of the steps to guard the house. Many of the buildings in Miduri were built with this custom of leaving a symbol of the patron saint of the city-state in an unseen location. It is said that if the secret is revealed and the demon learns about it, it will lose the protection of the guardian spirit.

The mansion was newly built by Aesop's father after his father and Red's father separated, and the symbol of the Patronus was left on the back of the stone slab on the first step of the doorway, something that even Red Ackerman did not know, but Aesop said it in public.

This kind of thing is no joke, if it is verified, then according to custom, this mansion will have to be rebuilt before it can be lived, because the hidden location of the patron saint has been exposed. Thales hastened to ask a priest to go to the mansion with a team of able-bodied warriors, tear down the steps, and lift the stone slabs to inspect them.

After a while, the inspector returned, and the priest reported the results to the representatives of the citizens' assembly, and the steps in front of the mansion showed no signs of passing, and the information provided by Aesop was accurate. The voices in the hall suddenly became noisy, and people were whispering, so that no one doubted Aesop's identity anymore.

Thales waved his hand and asked for silence for Isolt to continue talking. Aesop was about to speak, when Red Ackerman stepped forward and saluted Thales, "Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished delegates to the Citizens' Assembly, don't ask any more, this old man is my cousin Aesop Ackerman, I'm sure!"

Red-Ackerman, a nobleman and one of the city-state's citizens' councils, knew the outcome when he heard the crowd. Whether he recognized Aesop as a cousin or not, Aesop had already been identified in the hearts of everyone, and if he waited until after the verdict to make a statement, he and his three sons would be despised and ridiculed in the future. Although Red is a philistine, he also understands things, and he took the initiative to stand up at this time.

Thales smiled, looked at Red and said, "The topic discussed in the citizens' meeting now is to confirm whether the old man in front of me is Aesop Ackerman sixty years ago, and on this occasion, whether you admit it or not does not represent the final result." Mr. Aesop, Mr. Raidt, shall we continue to ask, or shall we submit to the vote now?"

Aesop smiled, "Then please vote now, and if the representatives of the city-state citizens' assembly think it is necessary for me to continue to prove it, I will continue to prove it." ”

The vote began, and the fifty delegates who participated in the vote unanimously agreed that Aesop did not need to prove that he was Aesop-Ackermann. The hall erupted in cheers and applause, and Red Ackerman called his three sons over and asked them to salute their uncle Aesop. The eldest son, Blake, blushed with shame, the second son, Hunter, looked embarrassed, and the third son, Will, looked very happy.

Isolt opened her arms and gave her cousin a warm hug, then hugged her three nephews in turn, then reached out and took out three flame spirits, handed them to each of the three nephews, and said, "Dear nephews, I am returning to my hometown alone, this is the gift I have prepared for you. Now that you have confirmed my uncle, please accept it, this is a blessing from afar. ”

Many people in the hall were stunned, looking at the flame elves in the hands of the three brothers with various eyes, they never expected that Aesop would be so generous and give such a valuable gift to his three nephews in public. In fact, as early as when Isolt met his relatives for the first time, he planned to give them away, otherwise Medanzo would not have taken it out, which was a gift that had been prepared for a long time.

Red Ackerman's head was sweating, and his three sons knelt down in thanks, and stepped forward to grab Aesop's arm, and his excited lips trembled: "My cousin, you are so generous......!

Aesop interrupted him and smiled, "I have never blamed you, I heard that you are going to buy merchant ships to do business, and I have no other use for keeping this money, if I am your cousin, it is only natural to fund them." ...... Actually, I am very grateful to you, after so many years, when I return to my hometown, I can still see the old house and the Grange of my youth, you and your family have kept them, which is so precious to me!"

This scene is very emotional, Thales cleared his throat and said: "At today's meeting, the first item voted on has ended, and I would like to congratulate the Ackerman family on their recognition. The second agenda item will then be voted on, proposed by Hunter Ackerman of the Ackerman family, and will not take effect until the first issue is decided. ”

Quietly turned around and asked, "Oh, dear sir, is there a second topic for today?"

Thales replied a little helplessly: "Yes, this second topic is also related to you. The Citizens' Assembly of the city-state unanimously ruled that you are Aesop Ackerman, son of Sainz-Ackerman, and that the mansion and grange left by Mr. Sainz-Ackerman should belong to you, which was determined at the same time as the ruling was made. Your nephew, Hunter Ackerman, raised another issue beforehand and requested another ruling on the basis of this ruling......"

Before Thales could finish his words, Hunter Altman stood up with a flushed face, opened his arms and said loudly: "Representatives of the Citizens' Assembly, please forgive me for my faux pas, I withdraw my proposal!"

Red Ackerman also said, "O gods, please forgive this stupid child! ”

Thales asked with a smirk, "Mr. Hunter-Ackerman, are you really going to give up what you are asking?"

Hunter nodded again and again, "Yes, I give up!"

Thales waved his hand dryly: "Then this is the end of this meeting." ”

**

(To be continued)