spartan ancestor

When Artemis rushed down the mountain, Hyacinthus was listening to the introduction of the officer in charge of training the female soldiers: "...The results are very gratifying. I didn't expect that so many female soldiers in this group could pass the examination. In fact , considering the natural disadvantages of women on the battlefield - such as the humiliation they may suffer after being captured, we set higher passing standards for female soldiers than male soldiers."

"That's good—" Yacintos just nodded, and the two rushed down the opposite hillside.

Artemis also ate the bear's heart and leopard courage, and dragged His Majesty Una into the soldier queue: "Stop! What are you doing?!"

The good training was suddenly interrupted. The officer wanted to get angry, but just opened his mouth when he saw His Majesty Una: "...just, normal training?" , hesitantly asked, "Where is the problem?"

His Majesty Una said the same thing just now, but Artemis sneered: "Normal training is to whip women? I have never heard of this training method."

"..." The officer's expression gradually changed to "from which corner did this woman pop out?"

Originally thought that His Majesty Una wanted to know about the training, but after hearing the accusations made by the woman who came with His Majesty Una, the officer's face turned dark, and he just opened his mouth to say something, but just now he screamed like he was about to die The female soldiers raised their heads one after another:

"Hey! Thank you for your concern, but pay attention to your words. On the training ground, we are soldiers, not women."

"Haven't you heard of it? No way, are you a foreigner? Even border residents or Spartans born in Helos should know that there is a special pain tolerance training in the Spartan military training."

"Oh, that's great. Just keep chatting with this incomprehensible person. I'm going to continue training anyway. At the end of spring, I'm going to pass the pain tolerance test perfectly in front of the Artemis Altar !"

Artemis: "..."

What? ?

Before whose altar?

through what? ?

Hyacinthus watched Artemis' expression become horrified with great interest, coughed dryly, raised his hand to cover the wicked smile on his lips, and slipped Artemis out of the training queue: "What are you doing here? ?”

Artemis tried to restore his shaky three views: "What kind of trial are they talking about? Haha! It should be a competition or something?"

"Competition? Forget it." Hyacinthus smiled and looked at Artemis' frightened expression, "Before accepting the final trial and becoming an official soldier, every year the trainees have to accept Pain tolerance training. Trainees who are whipped cannot speak out or beg for mercy, or they will fail. Of course, training will have a competitive desire. Although pain tolerance training is not a competition, there will always be some trainees before training. The latter will set up a gamble in private, and compare who can last longer, and be the man who is most favored by Artemis."

"..." The breakdown of Artemis' three views can almost be seen from her face.

Favor a furball!What is her image in the eyes of humans? ?Why do such things in front of her altar! ? !

She persisted tenaciously, stood on the spot and said with a stiff face: "That shouldn't be..."

She wanted to say, "You shouldn't train female soldiers," but after a moment of hesitation, she changed the euphemism: "These girls shouldn't be allowed to wear so little clothes and receive this kind of training. This should be the first training session of your training." A group of female soldiers, I have never heard of the rumors of Spartan female soldiers before this. Do all the men in the city-state agree? Will this not affect their marriage?"

In the eyes of Artemis, Sparta was a boring and cold collective army camp, so before that, she had never come to this land.

She often goes to city-states like Athens.

There is a prosperous harbor there, and foreign merchants bring all kinds of interesting gadgets, filling the corners of the market.

But these economically prosperous and culturally prosperous city-states, without exception, take women very seriously.

She once spent time in Athens, where women were not allowed to go out, and the most free place to move was the roof of their own house.

Even in rich families, women can only live on the second floor of the mansion with slaves, doing weaving and other labor together.

The men held social receptions on the first floor separated by one floor, and invited friends, poets, and even beautiful courtesans. Even if the hostess knew that her husband was having a good time with other women at her feet, she was not allowed to go downstairs. , into the place of the social reception.

Because it's a man's place.

"What's the matter?" Jacintos played with the scabbard on his waist indifferently, "Our Sparta is different from other city-states."

Even though there are no female politicians or female soldiers yet, Sparta has always treated women with more respect than other city-states.

They can go out as they like, and they don't have to be tightly wrapped. Even if they want to go out naked for a while on a whim, no man will impose any restrictions on this.

As for military training?Spartan girls had to receive all kinds of training since they were young, such as running and javelin... Before that, there were girls who directly participated in soldier training with boys of the same age, but they didn't become soldiers in the end.

Jacintos shrugged: "I don't comment on the mate selection criteria of other city-states. Anyway, in Sparta, the stronger and healthier the mother, the stronger and healthier the child will be. You know that after the council passed the proposal to train female soldiers How many people in the Citizens' Assembly are muttering about preparing a dowry for their children so that they can participate in the competition before leaving the square?"

The proposal to train female soldiers passed more smoothly than equal rights. After all, many Spartan women, like Queen Lutes, would influence their husbands' decisions after marriage.

Including the existing senators in the Senate, their wives are all aristocratic women with certain political literacy, and occasionally they even express opinions on their husbands' political opinions.

City-states such as Athens have ridiculed Sparta as a "city-state ruled by women".

The sound of whipping started again. Most of the female soldiers were used to this kind of pain, and only a small number of them couldn't help screaming.

However, Artemis was still shocked by the effect of the leather whip swinging on people, and Artemis couldn't help but said: "Then you don't have to go through this kind of training? I don't have any interest in whipping this barbaric behavior. There is absolutely no need to perform this at the altar to please me."

"?" Yacintos laughed, "Are you thinking too much about yourself? The fundamental purpose of whipping training is to ensure that soldiers can continue to fight when they are seriously injured on the battlefield in the future."

Being able to hold on for a second longer than the enemy may win back one's life for oneself.

Yacintos looked at the female soldiers under training, paused and said, "The enemy on the battlefield will not stab you and ask you if it hurts. They will not care whether you are a man or a woman, on the contrary. , It’s the women who are the worst. Do you dare to think how the enemy will treat the female prisoners of war? Therefore, facing these female soldiers, the training and assessment will be more stringent.”

Artemis's lowered hand unconsciously clenched his fist: "Then why do you need to train female soldiers?"

She thought, wouldn't it be good to maintain the previous life?It sounds like the living conditions for women in Sparta were pretty good.

Why not cherish the existing comfort?

Why do you make such a risky decision? Don’t you know that this road is destined to be full of pain and scars, and you will face many enemies or dangers that you may not be able to fight against. Humiliated, tortured, killed...

"..." Hyacinthus glanced at Artemis, who seemed to be struggling.

The question was clearly a female soldier's question, but Artemis looked like he was hiding behind the female soldier's question, trying to find the answer to a deeper, hidden question.

His Majesty Una was already swaying by himself, and was about to disappear over the hill. Hyacinthus stood there for a while, and then moved, leading Artemis to keep up with his father.

He pondered for a moment, trying to make his answer more perfect, hoping to provide some inspiration to Artemis' inner struggle: "You know, these female soldiers signed a contract before receiving training."

"The female soldiers guarantee in the contract that if they choose to step on the battlefield, it must be out of desire for victory and voluntary. The army guarantees in the contract that before going to the battlefield, they will be responsible for providing a poison to the female soldiers, Once unfortunately captured, this poison can help them lose their lives in an instant, and the corpses will appear ugly purple spots, ensuring their dignity to the greatest extent."

Yacinto paused, and said slowly: "I said this, not to exaggerate the cruelty of the battlefield. I just wanted to say—"

"Look. Even though they knew what they were going to face, they still chose to sign."

"The female soldiers who are able to stand here and receive training are only allowed to join the army after repeated applications and layers of screening. After each round of training, the officers in charge of training them will reconfirm that they have no plans to retire."

"But they kept going until today. As you can see."

In fact, when the proposal was passed, Yacintos did give the female soldiers a preferential treatment that the male soldiers did not have.

All male soldiers who enlist in the army are not allowed to be discharged. Once discharged, they will incur extremely severe punishments, but there is no restriction on female soldiers.

This is also an invisible filter.

Considering that this is the first batch of female soldiers in Sparta and the choices they may face on the battlefield, Jacintos hopes that the female soldiers who finally set foot on the battlefield will be courageous and have no intention of retreating.

They must regain their victory. Failure will not only damage the reputation of the Spartan army, but also make the Greek city-states more certain that women are not suitable and worthy of the battlefield.

In a way, they were fighting not only for themselves, for the glory of Sparta, but also for the women of Greece.

Hyacinthus gave a rare and earnest encouragement: "My father once told me that nothing is impossible, it just depends on whether you have the belief to become stronger to protect important things."

"..."

Artemis suddenly fell into a long silence.

Hyacinthus felt that he had tried his best, closed his mouth and continued walking for a while, only to hear the sound of sniffling behind him.

He turned around strangely, and found that Artemis' tears burst again at some point: "? Are you sisters and brothers with tears?"

Hyacinthus was a little amused, and thoughtfully closed his red cloak, reminding him gently: "Don't put tears and snot on my cloak. You understand."

"..." Artemis' half-stretched hand froze in the air, and then he slapped his eyes back angrily, and said with a bit of venting emotion while rubbing, "You know a fart! What you said is simple, but it's easy to explain." How should I fight against Zeus? He is my father god, from the moment I was born, I was doomed to be weaker than him!"

Hyacinthus shrugged: "I don't know much about the strength of your gods, but I remember that Zeus also overthrew his father Cronus to become the current god king? His father Cronus seems to be the same Overthrew his father, Uranus, to become the second generation of God King?"

Artemis was taken aback: "..."

A tear fell from her wheat-colored cheek, and her expression became a little dazed.

It's like... that's it.

Is such that.

She paused, and repeated it in a more determined tone in her heart.

An unprecedented feeling suddenly gushed out from the long-dried heart, and the tears that Artemis stopped for a few seconds flowed from the eye sockets again, more violent than before, but those salty water drops Rolling down her face, she only felt warmth—and hope.

hope.

Something that she gradually lost after she ascended Mount Olympus.

There is another kind of treasure, which takes root and grows in the heart along with the emotion of losing and regaining.

It is what she has never possessed for countless years since she was born as a god, and now she has learned from humans—faith.

Artemis' cheeks were wet with tears, but the corners of her mouth were raised. She couldn't help but open her arms, wanting to embrace the young king in front of her, who was shining like gold in flames at the moment.

Her heart was pounding, and she couldn't tell whether it was because she had just made the risky decision to "overthrow Zeus", or because of the relief that the guilt she had felt towards her friends over the years was finally settled.

——then she was pushed away by Hyacinthus with a disgusted face.

Hyacinthus looked critically at Artemis's messy face: "Stay away from my cloak—and, have you wandered around enough? Shouldn't it be time to go back to breed? Want to be lazy?"

Artemis: "..."

She slowly restrained her expression and raised her hand to wipe away her tears.

Tears are useless, Hyacinthus has no heart!

·

Since she had a new goal, the time Artemis spent on breeding has been reduced a lot. Fortunately, she only has pony horses that have not been bred, so the time is not too tight.

Also, her powers are starting to come back.

One night when testing the pony's night vision ability, Artemis' fingertips suddenly glowed, not only frightening the pony, but also frightening herself to death.

Not bothering to make any records, Artemis returned to the room immediately, and carefully speculated repeatedly, would Hyacinthus feel the recovery of his divine power?Was this arranged by Hyacinthus?Just... Seeing her good performance during this time, she is ready to return her godhead to her tolerantly?

Artemis was so excited that she didn't fall asleep the whole night, and the next day, with dark circles under her eyes, she ran to Hyacinthus to brush up her presence, served tea and water courteously, and asked if she wanted to squeeze her shoulders He squeezed his back until he was thrown back into the backyard with a gloomy face by Aka, who had just finished his business and returned to Sparta.

"...To be honest, I think A-Ka seems to have a problem with me."

One day after checking the foal's physical condition, Artemis complained softly to Hyacinthus who rarely had time to visit His Majesty Una's courtyard.

"Every time he looks at me, it's as if he wished I could be destroyed, no exaggeration!" Artemis shuddered, "I've apologized to him many times, really, I was confused before, don’t I want to start over now? I sent food and clothes to his yard—those meats are good meat animals that I have raised and carefully selected by myself. The most essential part of the body, the clothes are also made by myself after I learned from others, stitch by stitch, ugly is a bit ugly, what a heart!... I feel that he will never forgive me."

Artemis was a little frustrated.

She rubbed her fingers, and in the blink of an eye, small shimmering thorns as thin as a cow's hair protruded from the pads of her fingers, and disappeared with the palm turning over.

This is the advice she got from asking Jacintos "is there a good way to kill Zeus" some time ago, and it is a little thought on how to flexibly use divine power.

According to Artemis' description, many gods are actually very dependent on their own divine power, and rarely think about fighting skills.

This leaves a lot of opportunities for sneak attacks, especially in the eyes of the gods, Artemis is still on their side. Artemis wants to take advantage of the opportunity to shake hands and pat their shoulders. It was a breeze.

But a small needle like this will definitely not be able to seriously injure the gods, and may not even be able to pierce the skin of some people.

So Artemis has been training hard during this time, how to gather divine power, so that the small thorns are sharp enough to pierce the skin of gods that are harder than stones; and after piercing into the skin, the small thorns must first Time followed the bloodline all the way, and penetrated into the chest where the godhead was, just like when Artemis was robbed of the godhead by the golden thread, and blocked the opponent's godhead with divine power...

It's just a pity that there is no real god in front of her for her to practice.

Artemis sighed faintly, and said sadly: "I don't know where that little bastard Apollo is now?"

Hyacinthus was busy stacking the official affairs sent by Aizhi on his father's desk.

Who would have thought that he had already hid in his father's courtyard, and these damned official duties could still come after him, has my brother been lazy recently!

Hyacinthus also sighed sadly, not listening to what Artemis was whispering in his ears.

When His Majesty Una saw the guards entering the door with official business in hand, he immediately slipped to Mount Parnon, as if anticipating the possibility that his unfilial son would squeeze his old father.

Hyacinthus looked anxiously at the pile of official duties, and his eyes slowly fell on Artemis.

Artemis was still talking to Hyacinthus without any sense of crisis: "Did you listen to me? Where did Apollo go, do you know?"

"..." Hyacinthus smiled slowly, and put down the pen he had just picked up like an old dog. "Should I find a way to restore Daphne? I remember he said it before he left."

"Oh," Artemis crossed her hips and thought for a while, "that poor little girl became a laurel tree because of Apollo, the little bastard. It's a good thing that Apollo thought of restoring her. But it's not a loss. The reason for my dear sister! When Apollo comes back, I must educate him and encourage him to become stronger with me."

Artemis curled her lips into a smile, quite relieved.

What she thought was to punish Sister Keng's younger brother to be a training puppet, but Yacintos thought: "Al."

Hyacinthus smiled earnestly and kindly: "You know, in order to overthrow Zeus, it is not only the strength of the battle that needs to be strengthened. After all, Zeus is the king of gods. There have been people who wanted to unite to overthrow him before, right? Why did the last What if it failed? Because Zeus knows how to play games and how to instigate people. This is something you can’t learn from fighting.”

Hyacinthus slowly sat the stupefied Artemis in front of the desk, and said in a gentle tone, "Come on, I'll teach you how to deal with this kind of psychological game now."

Artemis had a vague intuition that "I seem to be being deceived", but just as he opened his mouth and was about to stand up, Hyacinths pushed him back to sit back again without refusing.

Jacintos pointedly accused: "Do you want to back down? Or, after overthrowing Zeus, you want to continue to be an irresponsible and let go of God King? Huh?"

Artemis: "..."

Her eyes were a little straight, staring straight at the business affairs piled higher than her head.

Hyacinthus whispered in her ear like the voice of a demon in the abyss: "Don't be afraid, I won't let you approve everything. At most, those simple, boring, repetitive little things... Come, take Pick up the pen at hand, yes... I will teach you, this kind of thing, after the first time, it will be easier in the future..."

two months later.

Artemis stood in front of the newly renovated Temple of Apollo in Sparta, smiling with empty eyes, and heard the excited high priest next to him: "...the repairs are quite tedious, I didn't expect His Majesty Yacintos To be able to follow up and approve our repair progress and coordinate official documents so quickly in a busy office, I thought it would be delayed for a long time!"

"Ah...Actually, after His Royal Highness Apollo showed up and told the oracle that God loves pure white marble, our temple wanted to be rebuilt. The current pure white temple, presumably after His Royal Highness Apollo saw it, Definitely will be filled with joy, and more will come before our eyes!"

"..." Artemis nodded with a smile, but what he was thinking in his heart was: Damn, I know why that boy Apollo hasn't come to Sparta to see me... Hehe, if Apollo will come to Sparta again Da, I took my head off and gave it to Zeus as a ball.

The High Priest said with anticipation again: "Actually, the Temple of Artemis on our side is also going to be repaired again. I wonder if there will be an honor in the future to have His Highness Artemis come to our Sparta?"

Artemis: "Hehe, I will."

Will shit.

When the godhead is fully restored, I can stay as far away from here as possible, and I will be considered stupid if I get too damn close to Sparta.