After wrapping her scars with bandages, Paullus tied his linothorax on her.

“That’s better, the bandages will prevent the rough armour from scratching your scars.” Said the man to Matea.

“They call us the Hastatis, and only provide us a short gladius, it’s just a little sturdier than the xiphe you all use.” He handed over his short sword to her. A familiar style of Roman sword commonly used in the gladiator fight.

“Oh, and I’ve sold my shield previously. Since I’m no longer in the Roman legion. Lord Amiran never ordered the hastatis to be on the frontline.” Paullus continued, while showing her how to tie up the linothorax.

“Ya know, in every battle, the frontline spearmen able to settle the enemies, and all of us at the rear has nothing to worry about. He he he, we just need to focus one digging trenches and building pathways.”

The man kept talking and talking but Matea could hardly understood his words. Her body was still aching but the bandages did help her to get less irritated.

After he had done with the linothorax, to her surprise, he pulled her hair. The fear in her emerged as she felt as if the slave trader had grabbed her by her hair. But Paullus rough hand calmed her as he combed her hair with his fingers, and tied them up again. A pair of caring hands that she felt no threat.

“How I wish my daughter had hair as black as yours. She’s a blonde. Same as Lady Arete. Blonde sure looks pretty, like the golden hair of the Goddesses. But that’s only applies to the nobles like Lady Arete. For low born like us, blonde is a curse. People call her a Thracian slave. My wife and I were really scared of that.”

“Apparently the world had never been fair to us. Both born with the same colour of hair, same beauty and grace, one from the noble another from the low. But one is perceived as a blessing, another as a curse.”

“Ha ha ha… what a funny world.” He laughed, trying to mask the sadness within his moist grey eyes.

“Hey! Pollus!” A man shouted.

“What?!”

“Get ready, we are heading towards Thapsos! Get your ass to the formation! And your molosser1 too!” The man replied.

Paullus put on his slippers, he grabbed a handmade bow and some wooden arrows. All he had was his thick rough tunic, a coward without his armour, he anticipated the end of this expedition. He will be given another victory reward. And then, he will leave his fellow swordsmen and travel home to his family.

Matea had not paid for the armour though. Yet she carried his linothorax, his boots and his short sword. Their captain will pay their wages on weekly basis. Paullus planned to leave the troops without farewell after the expedition.

“Every time after the captain distributes the wages, those pesky idiots will come and ask you to play kuboi, make you drink until drunk. And soon you’ll realise, your whole week wages are all gone!”

“The breads are free and the nuts are plenty. Keep your wages as safe as possible! And soon you’ll be able to retire early.”

“Getting promoted? Becoming a hero? Nah, that’s not for a coward like me. I would rater go home, tend my farm, raise some cattle, or may be hunt some wild boars if I want something fancy.”

“Life can be very fulfilling if your goal is simple.”

As they walked towards the formation of swordsmen, Paullus kept talking and talking. No wonder they called him Pollus, the name means chicken. He indeed bawks and bawks and bawks.

* * *

Original at RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/51152/tales-of-teleios

As Arctus and Petraeus rode to the high ground to observe the formation of the troops. Three phalanx frontline heavily guarded by their shield. The artilleries, however, were pulled by the calavries at their left and right flanks.

“Aren’t the rear supposed to help open the path and pull the heavy artilleries? Why are they at the flanks?” Asked Arctus.

“Ma’am’s instruction. She wants to show the Thapsos our heavy artilleries to scare them off.” Petraeus replied.

“But that will slow down the flanks! I mean, I totally get it. She wants to scare the shit out of the Thapsos, but that’s on the expenses of our strategic formation!”

Petraeus let out a heavy exhale, and he replied.

“Yeah, I’m worried about that too. Although the phalanx formation had been highly regarded in the scrolls. But that so-called ‘guarantee success’, had been broken by the Romans again and again in recent years.”

“But we are now facing the Thapsos, not Rome” said Arctus.

“Well, if her strategy works, we might be able to make the Thapsos surrender without even starting a fight.” Petraeus added.

“And that’s what she want! Imagine what the scribes will write about her - the living Athena, winning a war without a drop of blood.”

to be continued...