Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1743 1715. Superstition
"Herodotus, long time no see!" Lan En couldn't bear to see his old friend Barnabas' current actions, so he simply found the father of Western historiography who was lowering his head, ashamed and embarrassed.

The two of them held each other's arms with hands of distinctly different sizes and then shook them.

Herodotus looked like a gentle and calm old man, his eyes full of thought and wisdom. Even at sea, he could still keep his gray beard neatly groomed.

"How long have we been walking?" Lan En asked after shaking his hand.

"Less than two months." Herodotus said curiously, "Don't you know that?"

"The speed of time is different and always changing. It doesn't make sense for us to record the number of days here."

"Is this what they call 'one day in heaven equals one year on earth'?"

Herodotus showed a look of joy and satisfaction. He spoke softly, slowly but clearly. Holding a writing board in his hand, he wrote down the new things he had just heard.

In the myths of ancient Greece, there are also descriptions of the time difference between the lives of Olympians and mortals.

He took to the concept quite quickly.

"Ha, that's good!" Cassandra cheered cheerfully, "We have time to go to the Olympics!"

"There is time, but it's urgent, Cassandra." Herodotos reminded in an orderly manner, "Did you forget? We have to pick up Thestykles, and he is still in Laconia. And I heard that he has a bad temper."

Herodotos followed the mercenary on Kassandra's ship to various islands in the Aegean Sea. Firstly, he was an advisor to Pericles and a wise man in Athens, and he hoped to overthrow the Cult of Kosmos and end the war. Secondly, he also liked adventure.

So his role on Cassandra's ship is basically that of a know-it-all and a think tank.

He often gives advice and helps to fill in the gaps for the falconer and the old captain who have little education and are not fond of using their brains.

"No matter how bad his temper is, we have to send him to Olympia." Cassandra put her hands on her hips and sighed helplessly, "For the Spartan citizenship of Myrrine and me."

"If we were not Spartan citizens, we would not be able to take a single step within Sparta, let alone investigate the Cult of Order hidden among the Spartan high-ranking officials."

On the one hand, Cassandra and her mother Myrrine really wanted to return to their hometown, to Sparta. On the other hand, this was also to hunt down members of the Cult of Kosmos.

Right now in the Aegean Sea, the Delian League centered on Athens and the Peloponnesian League centered on Sparta are fighting each other.

The situation seems to be a battle between two powers, but above the two powers, there is the Cult of Order, which transcends camps and city-states and has members spread across various city-states and islands.

Athens had their people, and Sparta had their people.

When facing the Cult of Order among the Athenians, Cassandra could assassinate and kill them without any scruples, after all, she was not an Athenian.

But when facing the Cult of Order in Sparta, she had to follow the formal procedures to expose their true colors. After all, she and her mother wanted to return to Sparta and live in their hometown.

As a classical militaristic slave city-state, Sparta's xenophobic style needs no explanation; one can imagine how serious it was.

Without Spartan citizenship, you want to conduct investigations in Sparta and expose the Cult of Kosmos? That's like a dream.

"All right, Kassandra, Herodotus," Lann interrupted. "Relax, we'll make it to the Olympics. If that doesn't work, we can always find a cable and have the Kirin tow it. Ha, that'll definitely be fast enough!"

Lan En said with a relaxed smile.

The wind and waves in the Mediterranean Sea are not strong, so even if there is a headwind, Qilin will not feel anything.

But since we are talking about Qilin.

Lann leaned against the railing of the Adrestia, the smile on his face gradually turning into embarrassment.

"What is Barnabas doing?"

"To worship gods and mythical beasts." Now it was Cassandra's turn to relax and tease. "Can't you see? Incense, perfume oils, flower petals... a lot of things."

Just as the falconer said, Barnabas was leading the crew of the Adrestia, bowing to the confused unicorn and the flannel ball in a serious and methodical manner.

Qilin paced on the deck curiously, occasionally lowering his head to sniff the bottles of perfume oil and incense.

The fluff ball was relatively shy. It suddenly jumped onto Qilin's head, hiding stealthily, not wanting to be seen by others. It only occasionally poked out its big eyes to see if the group of people were done.

Although Barnabas and his crew members moved with some clumsiness, they actually managed to complete the arrangement smoothly.

Some people were carrying pottery jars, some were moving small tables, and some were measuring the space.

It can be seen that although this was probably the first time it was actually performed, it must have been rehearsed a few times before.

The placement of the desk, the order in which things are placed on the desk after it is set up... each thing is done one by one, and it seems to be quite organized.

Now, no crew member on the ship was working. They were all looking in the direction of Qilin and the flannel ball.

Some of the crew members stood in groups of three or four, muttering quietly, some sat on the deck, and some pushed open the trap door in the cabin and stood on the ladder with only their heads exposed to look over here. Barnabas cleared his throat and then began to sing a blessing loudly.

The crew members on both sides threw flower petals on him, the flannel ball, and the unicorn.

The old captain's speech was also very interesting. He sang it solo at first, and then sang with the crew members at certain parts. Although it didn't sound very good.

The remaining crew members around were also busy. They used huge palm tree leaves to fan the table.

Let the scent of incense, perfume, and the smoke from the freshly grilled tuna drift toward the kirin and the flannel ball.

The whole ceremony didn't last long, less than ten minutes.

Cassandra cheered for Barnabas, while Herodotos and Lan each covered their foreheads, feeling embarrassed at the same time.

After singing the nearly ten-minute speech, Barnabas showed the competence and decisiveness of a seaman.

The faster you move things out, the more efficient you will be when you put them back.

After cleaning up, Qilin and the fluffy ball were still not able to react.

The only difference was the grilled tuna just now, which was quite big. It looked like it must have weighed several dozen kilograms after being grilled.

Qilin saw that the food was almost done and wanted to lower his head to taste it, but Barnabas took it and left.

The grilled tuna was placed on a large copper plate. Barnabas walked around the deck of the Adrestia with it, and each sailor came up to grab a piece.

In the end, the old captain scolded several times before coming over with the little grilled tuna left.

"Eat, eat, eat!" Barnabas urged earnestly, "Eat it for good luck! If I hadn't been watching, this thing would have been snatched away just now!"

The way people in ancient Greece worshipped gods was quite similar to that of ancient China.

Everyone believed that precious and delicious livestock should be offered as a tribute to the gods, and they all agreed that the gods would definitely like the smoke that would come out of these livestock after they were cooked.

It is the aroma and smoke that the gods love! For sure!
Therefore, after the gods have enjoyed the meat, the remaining meat... can only be borne by the people who performed the sacrifice.

The food left over after these sacrificial ceremonies was also believed to bring good luck from the gods after being eaten.

In those famous temples in the Greek world, there were even merchants and servants of the powerful waiting to purchase the food left over from the sacrifices.

The grilled tuna didn't taste very good and was mostly undercooked.

After all, Barnabas and the others were informed by Ikaros that Lan and Cassandra had returned, which was no more than half an hour ago.

Such a big fish would not be cooked even if they started grilling it immediately after receiving the news.

But since it’s all for good luck, the taste of the food itself is not important.

"You look quite good, Barnabas." Cassandra was the first to laugh, picking up a piece of plump tuna from the large copper plate and eating it. "Why didn't I know this before?"

"Listen to me, Cassandra. I'm not 'good at this'!" The one-eyed old captain looked quite pleased with himself. "Remember the Oracle of Delphi? The prophet famous throughout the Greek world, the priest of Apollo, the Pythia."

"I came all the way here just to queue up and ask! Pythia taught me this process out of your kindness!"

Cassandra said in astonishment: "You went back to the Temple of Apollo in Delphi? That's not close."

"This is too far away." Herodotus smiled helplessly and shook his head, but his hand still symbolically took a small piece of tuna from the large copper plate.

"I have been trying to explain to Barnabas that the gods in this world are just forerunners, and Lan and the others are not from Olympus, but from another... another world."

When talking about the "other world", even a calm person like Herodotus couldn't hold back his excitement. After all, this thing sounded even more magical than Mount Olympus of the Greek gods.

"But unfortunately, Barnabas's stubbornness and superstition are like this ocean, unshakable."

The one-eyed old captain was apparently immune to such arguments.

"Wise Herodotus, you have to believe in something, right? Believe that there is a power in this world that is more noble and unquestionable than humans. Otherwise, how can people live?"

For Barnabas, faith was already a state of life.

Lan En didn't think of blaming anything.

He chuckled and took a piece of tuna from the large copper plate.

(End of this chapter)