Chapter 5. The Divine Favorites

 Davos marched fearfully through the passageways of the camp, which had become somewhat crowded, nearly tripping several times. When he lifted the curtain and entered the tent, he was greeted by four pairs of eyes with strange expressions.

 Compared to the hustle and bustle outside, the tent was rather quiet.

 "Davos, little Cyrus ... he is dead!" Oliverus said in a strange tone, "You guessed it, he's really dead!"

 "I've heard it from others." Davos sat back down on his 'bed', having calmed down somewhat.

 Xilos looked at this calm looking comrade, as old villagers who lived in a village and were relatively familiar with each other, at this moment it gave him a strange feeling, "Just now Antonius came over and said, 'Arrius, the adjutant of Cyrus the Younger, has sent to inform us that Cyrus the Younger has been killed in battle.' He is recruiting the dispersed soldiers and preparing to join us'."

 "Davos, I was going to beat you up when you caused me to not sleep last night. I didn't realize you were right!" Martonius scratched his head in embarrassment.

 "What do we do next?" Giorgis' words caused everyone to look at Davos strangely once again.

 Davos was wondering what was going on when Oliveros had said impatiently, "Come on! What oracle did Hades give you?"

 Davos looked at them in surprise. He then realized why they had acted strangely just now, and it turned out that they thought he had gained the favor of Hades, the King of the Underworld.

 When the news of the death of young Cyrus reached the ears of Hieros and the others, they were surprised that the truth had been told by Davos, and began to talk about Davos. After synthesizing everyone's opinions, they were surprised to find that almost everyone agreed that the youngest companion, who had been in their care, had awakened from his coma and was quite different from his old self in both behavior and speech, as if he had changed into a different person (even though Davos hadn't spoken much last night, it was only natural that the aura of a modern man would be very different from that of an ancient one in the way he carried himself).

 So they thought that Davos must have been lucky enough to meet Hades from hell and get help from the King of the Underworld to come back to earth. And the way he awoke was a bit scary: when they found him on the battlefield, how they called out to him, he remained unconscious and suddenly his eyes opened wide.

 At a time when everyone was at a loss and helpless, this "divine help" comrade in arms obviously became a lifesaving straw for them.

 Davos was somewhat amused by such a special encounter. In this obscurantist era, the Greeks were not like the Persians who regarded the gods as supreme, but they were just as superstitious, and every aspect of their lives was closely related to the Greek gods. But Davos did not dare to nod his head and admit it, because he just knew that there was such a historical event, but did not know the details of the process.

 "What oracle! I just like to think the worst in everything so that I can anticipate and be prepared when I'm in danger."

 What a love of thinking the worst in everything! Don't we know what kind of person you used to be? A stupid kid who only knows how to fight and brawl actually knows how to think! What if you're not favored by the gods? Why else would he change the flavor of his words? Looks like Hades told him to keep it a secret? The four of them looked at each other knowingly, since they were young, they had been inculcated from their parents' daily stories about the gods, letting them know that the gods were fickle and had a lot of complicated taboos, out of safety, they no longer pursued the question, but just looked at him with an expectant gaze.

 How similar is this vision to the one that Davos had when he was a village official and the impoverished mountain people hoped that he, a university student, could change the face of the mountain village. But one does not know what to do as you do? Davos sighed in his heart, and suddenly his mind moved and asked, "Do you guys know this person Xenophon?"

 The four men shook their heads.

 "You mean Xenophon he can help us?" Oliverus couldn't help but ask.

 Davos smiled and didn't say anything. In his heart, he was wondering: since the internet said that Xenophon had led this great retreat and had written a book about it, how could it be that no one had ever heard of him? He should be a mercenary leader anyways!

 "Where is Xenophon from? In our group?" Xellos asked.

 "He ... is probably in it. He ... should be an Athenian." On the question of Xenophon's place of origin, Davos still knew, after all, Xenophon was a literary and military man of the ancient West, as well as a disciple of Socrates.

 "When I have time, I'll ask the other camps." Xellos said solemnly.

 "It mustn't be one of Krilkus' men! Otherwise there's no way to get to him yet!" Giorgis said. The two chiefs, Krilkus and Menon, had a bad relationship, thus causing the mercenaries under them to hate each other as well.

 "It's not just a fight! Let's just fight! We Thessalians aren't afraid of these mongrels from Chersones!" Martonis said with a bit of excitement.

 "Who are you going to fight?" The curtain was opened and in burst a man, Antonius.

 Through the memories of this body, Davos knew that this was their squadron leader. But after all, he was a mercenary, and he didn't have much authority other than speaking his mind during battles. The crowd in the tent continued to sit and lie down, not a single person stood up to salute.

 "We're telling jokes." Xellos said.

 "It's a mess out there. You guys can still joke around here, not bad! Not bad!" Antonius said, half-joking and half-serious.

 He looked at the men in the tent and then said to Xylos, "Menon told me to tell you junior captains to comfort your brothers. Cyrus the Younger only died in an accident, and his troops are still there, so our strength and Persia's weakness have not changed. When we make peace with Cyrus the Younger's adjutant, Arius, tomorrow, we will have at least 30,000 men! We will then go on to defeat the King of Persia! Haha, much good will follow! Maybe we'll ... we'll embrace a new Persian king!!!"

 Satisfied with the crowd's astonished expressions, Antonius was about to turn around and leave the tent, but was stopped by Xilos: "It's fine to comfort the brothers, but you have to feed them! From last night until now, everyone just ate some raw horse meat, and now they are still hungry! But there's no news from Melsius. Without food, I can't guarantee anything will happen!"

 "That's right! That's right! No more food, we're done!" The crowd took the opportunity to yell.

 Antonius patted his stomach in embarrassment and said, ''I'm just as hungry. Right now, the entire barracks is short of food. Menon is urging Melchis to find a way, while he himself went to Proxenus himself, hearing that his camp lost less yesterday. Even if food were to come, there wouldn't be much to distribute to everyone, so let's all just endure for a day!" Antonius finished speaking and hurriedly burrowed out of the tent.

 Xellos sighed and said to the group, "I'm going to check out the other tent." After saying that, he also followed out. He, the squad leader, was in charge of nine men, and five more men lived in neighboring tents.

 He had been so wrapped up in his past life and present life that he hadn't realized that he hadn't been eating, and after hearing everyone's fussing, Davos's stomach began to growl.

 He had to do as the others had done, wrapping himself in a sheep blanket and lying on a "bed" so as to minimize physical exertion.