As soon as these words were said, the faces of the people present changed. In public, the consuls of other city-states were more powerful than their own tyrants, and in Syracuse, only Ferosanus dared to do so.

"It's a pity that I heard that Daves of Dionia was from a humble background and was once a shepherd (referring to Daves's grazing sheep and herding horses in Thessali before he became a mercenary)." Massias said first.

Henipolis finally couldn't help but retort: ​​"Did Lord Dionysius have a noble birth? I heard that before he became a general of priest, he was just an ordinary clerk in Syracuse. Lord Davers once told me, 'Real heroes don't care about their origins, because they rely on their own abilities, not the gifts of their families.'"

"Well said! This is what I admire most about Lord Dionysius!" Phylistos praised loudly to conceal Massias's statement: "Everyone here has achieved his current dignity through his own efforts."

"Yes! Yes!..." Marcias echoed repeatedly to hide his embarrassment.

"Everyone--" Phylistos quickly held the wine, stood up, looked around, and said loudly: "Because I have been accompanying Lord Dionysius and the Carthaginians these days, I am so busy that I can't take time out, so I neglected the distinguished guests from Dionysia! I have my friends here to accompany me, so I punished myself to express my apology!"

"Okay!" Gerolis raised his glass, and Leptenes, Masias, and Ferrosanus also raised his glass.

Ansitanos did not stand up to dissuade him, because he knew that Phylistos said these words for Dionysius, and the wine also contained Dionysius' apology.

After Phylistos and the others drank the wine in the glass, Ansitanos stood up with Henepolis and raised his glass and said, "I am very grateful to Lord Phylistos for his kind invitation. At the same time, I also congratulate Lord Dionysius on defeating the powerful Carthage many times with the assistance of all the adults. This is the great victory of Syracuse and the most exciting news that the entire Greek people heard! Because Carthage, the biggest enemy of the Greek city-state in the western Mediterranean, was severely damaged, the people of Sicily and Great Greece will enjoy peace for a long time!" After saying that, they also drank it all.

"Well said!" Phylistos raised his wine glass again and shouted: "To Lord Dionysius! Syracuse is a thousand victories!"

When the others raised their glasses to congratulate, Ansitanos, who was opposite, noticed that the expression of Girolis was not as serious and enthusiastic as the two next to him, and Ferrosanus did not follow suit, but shouted: "For the peace of Sicily!"

Then Phylistos made a gesture, so the musician and the dancer walked into the hall, and the banquet officially began.

In the graceful melody, the soft dance swayed, everyone was drinking and feasting...

When the music stopped and the dancer left, Henipolis was almost full without realizing it under the delicate voice of the beautiful slave. He saw that Masias on the opposite side had kissed and stood out, extremely unbearable; Leptines was also flirting with the slave; only Herolis was still chewing slowly; Ferosanus even fired the slave on both sides; he turned his head and saw that the teacher Ansitanos next to him had little food, and was always watching the song and dance with a smile... Henipolis was immediately ashamed of his poor self-control.

At this time, Phylistos, who was on the main seat, coughed twice, attracted everyone's eyes to him, and then said: "Mr. Ansitanos, since the establishment of the Dionysian League, we have basically not had formal diplomatic exchanges. Did Dionys send you to the envoy of Syracuse this time?

Here comes! Ansitanos had been accumulating his strength for a long time, and was waiting for this moment. He immediately smiled and said, "Of course, it was for friendship. Syracuse is a great state of Sicily, and Dionia is also a powerful alliance of Great Greece. Before, one of the two sides was busy dealing with Carthage and the other was fighting back the indigenous people in the mountains. Various reasons have caused the two major Greek forces so close to each other to establish friendly contacts and communication that something regrettable happened-" Ansitanos deliberately stopped talking.

No one in Syracuse spoke, but Ferosanus asked curiously: "What a pity?"

Ansitanos took the opportunity to take over the conversation: "Several veterans in the Senate of Dionia were charged by the people for crimes such as corruption and bribery. When collecting evidence of their illegality, they found a large number of 'Four Drakema silver coins' from Syracuse, and some letters. These letters--" Ansitanos looked at Phelistos.

Phylistos looked very listening.

"The main content is to communicate with the convicted elder Polyxis of Dionys, 'How to disrupt the order of the Dionysian League, cause public riots, and oust the consul Davers from the office...' and so on. The signature of these letters is Phylistos." Ansitanos looked at the host of the banquet again: "The letter also mentioned that 'he was ordered by Lord Dionysus.' Polyxis himself admitted that 'It was because of the support of Syracuse that he dared to carry out these actions of betrayal of the League so boldly.'"

"What is this happening?" Phylistos looked surprised: "I have never written a letter to the people of Polyxis. This is really... Lord Ansitanos, can you bring the letters you said?"

"I brought it." Ansitanos was ready to take out a letter from the bag he carried with him and handed it to the female slave beside him.

Phylistos couldn't wait to take the letter, and when he opened it, he immediately smiled relieved: "Mr. Ansitanos, if the handwriting and signature of each letter in your hand are the same, I can tell you with certainty that these letters were not written by me!"

"Oh?!" Ansitanos looked surprised.

"Go and bring a few copies of the letters signed by me in my study." Phylistos immediately ordered his own slave.

"Show me this letter." Gerolis next to him spoke, and Phylistos handed him the letter.

Just as the slaves went to get the letter and the banquet was temporarily silent, Gerolis took the letter and said, "Well, Lord Ansitanos, I was shocked when I heard the news you just said. But I wanted to try to stand on the sidelines and talk about my own judgment. Phylistos is a self-reliant and noble scholar. He disdained to do such despicable things that only despicable people would do, and he could not go with the greedy and dirty veteran Bo Bo... Bo..."

"Polyxis." Leptines reminded.

"For Polyxis, Phylistos could not write to him. As a plenipotent general, he was very happy to see a consul of Dionysia with a similar identity as him, which made him feel that he was not alone in this vast Western Mediterranean. How could he do something to destroy Lord Davers's rule!"

"Yes, my brother would never do such a thing!" Leptines stressed loudly.

"I think this is the case--" Phylistos pondered for a while and analyzed seriously: "Lord Dionysius created the powerful Syracuse today, uniting the Greek city-states of Sicily, but they were also hated by many people. I think you all know that when the Carthage army was at the city of Syracuse a few years ago, some people in the city incited the people to riot, trying to drive Lord Dionysius off the stage. Although the situation was finally calmed down, in fact, rumors have been circulating in Syracuse over the years, and even small riots and assassinations have emerged one after another. Otherwise, the general of the primordial power would not have lived on this island and had such strict defenses.

These people, like poisonous snakes, hid in caves, ignored the peace and stability of Sicily, and seized any possible opportunity to attack Lord Dionysius and our supporters. The Carthaginians were defeated, but in Greater Greece there was a Dionysian alliance with similar strength to Syracuse. If a war broke out between Syracuse and Dionia, then they would have the opportunity to come out of the dark again and create unrest in Syracuse to achieve their goals…”

"You mean that this was done by Lord Dionysius' opponents, and then framed you, Lord Phelistos?" Ansitanos asked with a smile.

"It's very possible." Phylistos answered seriously.

"So, Helmith, a citizen of Syracuse we also captured in Turiyi, has fully admitted that he was assigned by Lord Dionysius to buy Polyxis and others to engage in sabotage activities against Dionyya. How can this be explained?" Ansitanos's lips slightly mocked.

"Helmith?" Felistus asked several others a little confused, "Do we have such a citizen in Syracuse?"

Henipolis couldn't help but say loudly again: "Don't pretend, we have investigated in detail. Helmis is a citizen of Syracuse and lives in the central area of ​​the city, in the merchant gathering area next to the Apollo Temple. He has two sons. He is also the clerk of Lord Herolis. I'm right?"

"Is this true?!" Phelistos was shocked, and Herolis' expression was even more surprised. He turned his head to look at Phelistos. After the two of them met, he hesitated and said: "...I do have a clerk named Hermis under me, but... I was sent to Cyrenega a year ago, and after I came back, I heard that he had been punished for embezzlement and lost his position... If Turiy was the same person, I really didn't expect that he would actually go to Turiy. If you don't believe it, you can check the court's records. His criminal record six months ago..."

"It's so troublesome!" Phylistos suddenly shouted loudly, his expression becoming extremely serious.

"What's wrong?" Leptines asked in confusion.
Chapter completed!