The captives earlier were solely focused on eating, and having just suffered a crushing defeat, they had a shadow in their hearts about the ferocity of the Nix Soldiers, so they didn’t dare to look at them closely. They thus didn’t notice that among the Nix team coming to deliver food were their own people. Moreover, in Onosis’ eyes, the Nix Soldier standing before him, although very similar looking to his fellow tribesman from memory, carried an entirely different heroic demeanor in full armor.
"It’s me." Sethonos replied, squatting down and removing the helmet.
"Sethonos, it’s really... really you!" Onosis eagerly reached out to touch Sethonos, but the cold armor made him instinctively withdraw his hand, and his expression became cautious once more: "It’s great that you’re still alive! But how did you become ?"
"Uncle, do you remember, last year the Andres Chief summoned the army to attack the Nix, and I joined. You even saw me off..." Sethonos spoke in a gentle tone.
"Of course I remember, I even reminded you back then, that the Great Chief would surely win a great victory this time, and if you fought bravely, perhaps our leader would forget his grudge against your father and return the land they took from your family..."
Sethonos, reminiscing the past, sighed and said, "...No one expected the Great Chief to suffer such a defeat, alas, so many tribesmen didn’t make it back... later the leader returned and some tribesmen were also ransomed back, but you were never among them... they all said you might have died in the swamp, for this, my wife and I even set up a grave for you in the wasteland east of the village... but unexpectedly, not only are you alive, but you have... joined the Nix..."
"It’s not just me who joined the Nix, from last year to this year, thousands of captured Segestica Warriors have joined the Nix! Him! Him! Him! They are all our tribesmen!" Sethonos turned to point at several Nix Soldiers among the captives, instinctively defending himself.
"I don’t know about the others, but you are a good kid! How could you... betray the tribe!" Onosis looked angry at Sethonos, his voice unconsciously rising.
"Uncle, how can you blame me! You should know that the youngest son of that Timileus forcibly took my father hunting, encountered two bears, and the others were all bitten to death, my father was also injured but managed to escape back to the village...
But Timileus and a few other nobles, who lost their sons, insisted that my father had taken them to hunt in a dangerous place on his own accord, abandoned them to escape alone, took the land from our family, and forced my father to do hard labor. He was already injured and couldn’t withstand such torture and soon fell ill and died...
"I’ve been looked down upon by the tribesmen since childhood, only you, Uncle, took care of me..." Onosis’ words stirred up the long-buried resentment in Sethonos, and he accused emotionally, "As you said, I originally thought of following the Andres Chief to perform well, hoping to be recognized by him to change my life...but we lost, our seemingly invincible Andres Chief was easily defeated."
Sethonos’ mouth twitched, showing a trace of sarcasm, "Many of us were captured, first sent to the Aldeans to mine, suffered a lot, and later the Nix people came and said, ’As long as we join the Nix Tribe, we won’t have to endure these hardships again...’.
Some people chose to join, many of them because their families were captured by the Nix and they had no choice but to yield. I am different; I only want to change my life, since there was no way out in the original tribe, why not try another path!"
"You...you..." Onosis looked at Sethonos’ excited expression, remembered the things he went through in the village, sighed repeatedly, and finally could not help but quietly say, "But the Nix are outsiders after all, joining them cannot be better than staying in the tribe!"
"Says who!" Sethonos raised his eyebrows, saying loudly, "We Pannonians are actually Illyrians, just separated hundreds of years ago. The Nix Tribe was also primarily founded by Illyrians, Leader Maximus of the Nix Tribe sees us Pannonians as kin and very much welcomes us to join the Nix Tribe—"
"If the Nix people see us Segestica as one family, why are they so brutally killing us?!" Someone suddenly interjected loudly nearby, and unknowingly captives were crouched around Sethonos.
Sethonos glanced around, and in a louder voice, said, "How the Nix treated us, isn’t it because we first invaded the Alde territory, killed and drove away their tribesmen, occupying this land, leading to their necessary counterattack!
Speaking of the several crushing defeats we suffered from last year to this year, which one was not us attacking the Nix first and then they counterattacked successfully! Don’t talk about how harsh the Nix are to us, think about how we used to either kill the Aldeans and throw them into the Kupa River or sever their limbs and throw them in front of the Aldeans’ village to intimidate them.
And the Nix people, after fighting us, would treat our injured tribesmen just like treating their own, see here—"
Sethonos lifted his left leg, showing a rather long scar, he gestured to the scar and said loudly, "This is from when Andreas Chief led us fighting against the Nix in the Validosi Swamp, I was stabbed by them, and fell on the ground, unable to move, it was the Nix who carried me to their camp. Thanks to the doctor and nurse’s meticulous treatment, my leg healed quickly.
It wasn’t just me, some tribesmen who were injured in battle recovered their health because of the good care from the Nix people—"
"Oh, I remember now, I saw some Nix Soldiers carrying some of our injured tribesmen into the camp earlier, are they going to treat their wounds?" Another captive interjected.
"Of course! During battle, we are enemies, after battle, we are all Illyrians, and the Nix will try their best to heal their kin!"
"So you joined them because you were grateful to the Nix people?" Another captive inquired.
"It’s not only because of this." Sethonos once again looked at Onosis, proudly saying, "Uncle, can you imagine? I had no land in the tribe before, I relied on herding for Timileus for some food, if not for the goodies you often gave me, I probably wouldn’t have grown this tall or strong...
But when I joined the Nix, after winning this war, I can be allocated at least 60 acres of land, and my captain is considering promoting me to centurion for my good performance in the battle! I’m doing much better in the Nix compared to the original tribe!"
"Just 60 acres of land and it made you betray the tribe, betray the Divine we worship, and you’re still boasting so grandly before us, you really have thick skin!"
A mocking voice came, changing Sethonos’ face, he looked over to see a middle-aged man sitting outside the circle around him, fair and plump, looking at him with disdain.
Sethonos suppressed his anger and asked, "How much land does your family have?"
"I’ve never counted, but it’s much more than 60 acres." The man dismissively shrugged.
Sethonos suddenly laughed, "Then you must be a noble?"
Before the man could speak, someone said, "He is an elder of our tribe!"
Immediately someone else added, "He is my Clan Leader Alpas!"
"Noble" is actually a foreign word for the Segestica people, "elder" and "Clan Leader" are the formal terms. A Segestica Tribe is a large group formed by the reproduction of a related bloodline over decades or centuries, which consists of smaller groups formed through family division.
Generally, the leader of the largest and strongest small group is the leader, other small group leaders are elders of the tribe, and to the tribe members, he is the Clan Leader because he has more or less kinship relations with ordinary tribe members.
After the two spoke, Alpas tried to thrust his chest out, wanting to show an arrogant demeanor.
Sethonos, however, didn’t show any respect, instead asked directly, "Elder Alpas, do you know about how much land we, ordinary Segestica tribe members, have?"
Alpas loved enjoyment and almost all territorial affairs were entrusted to his subordinates, naturally, he couldn’t answer Sethonos’ question. After a pause, he slightly lost his composure and scolded, "What qualification does an ordinary tribesman like you have to question me!"
Sethonos didn’t clash with him but seriously said, "In my original Segestica tribe, ordinary tribe members had around 30 acres of land, right, Uncle?"
Onosis hesitated for a moment but eventually nodded, "About that."
The other captives began to chatter: "Our tribe has a little more land per household, but near the mountains, not as fertile."
"We don’t have that much land, having 25 acres is good enough."
"You claimed to get 60 acres in the Nix is boasting, some clan leaders in our tribe only have about 60 acres."
"Everyone, please quiet down!" Sethonos said loudly, "Regardless of 20 acres, 30 acres, or 40 acres, we, ordinary tribe members, toil hard on the fields every year and still have to submit a significant portion of the grain to the tribe elders, leaving just enough leftovers to barely feed our families—"