I Became a Slave to a Mythical Shepherd

Episode 34. Theo

“Sah, save me! I will give you Mycenae and the throne! Please save my life!!”

Agamemnon, who rode a wooden horse and walked into the gates of Troy on her own feet, weeps inside the blazing wooden horse. The Greek generals and the kings of each country, who had been harassing Troy, are set on fire one after another.

Even great generals like Patrocles and Achilles tried to escape, but it was already too late.

In particular, Odysseus, who concocted the wooden horse plan. They begged me to send them back to Ithaca.

But it doesn’t matter. Decapitation with a Trojan steel sword!

The kings of Greek countries imprisoned in the dungeon beg for their lives, and at the request of the honorable and merciful Paris, the defeated countries get their king back in exchange for a huge amount of war reparations.

“hehehe…”

After annihilating all the Greeks, Troy stands tall as the only hegemon in the Aegean Sea. Faris will now be portrayed as a war hero, not a nerd who gets into trouble and hides behind his brother’s back in movies and TV shows.

Oh, it’s all cool inside.

-Thump, thump, thump.

“Uh, uh, what is it?”

“Paris? it’s me. I have to go to the forge.”

“Ah… Brother Theo.”

I’m in the middle of a thrilling dream, but I don’t have enough top coat to wake up.

When I put on my clothes and get out of bed grumbling, I can’t see that my parents have already started their routine.

‘Hagisa… I had to wake up late.’

what did you do yesterday

I consulted with Anoitus and adjusted the supply of ingots.

I sweated a bit while practicing swordsmanship and archery with Theo for several hours.

I went to the temple of Hephaestus with Uncle Skleos and told the truth that the quality of the steel produced this time was particularly good.

This time, he gave a sample of the newly invented ‘Tallshovel’ to Demeter…

I am spending a fruitful life that I have never lived in my previous life without blood drying in my head.

-bang! bang! bang!

– Rumble.

“Quickly pour out all the charcoal called charcoal!”

When I put the heated iron into the cold water, it sounds like a whale slowly pushing its huge breath.

“Tap! hurry!!”

– KANG!! kang!! Kkagang!!!

Dozens of hammering sounds overlapping, so anyone who hears it will think it’s raining steel from the sky.

In the newly built smithy, an incomparable number of workers were moving.

Whether it’s Uncle Skleos or his fellow blacksmiths, as a result, he has more disciples and assistants than ever before.

He hurriedly got all of his daughters and sons married, recruited manpower, and if that wasn’t enough, even idle relatives were brought in to carry water cans, even if they didn’t have a job.

The city’s forge, which used to be busy with about a dozen people, was no longer there. Around the newly built water wheel, a workshop several times larger than before was spread out.

The water wheel, which had been built through hardships, turned slowly, and the primitive mechanism that moved under it was blowing oxygen into the forge with a bellows.

In a much larger forge than before, much higher temperature heat was seething.

More and better quality wrought iron is produced, and when you put it in and out of the charcoal and beat it to death, it becomes steel.

“Is Paris here?”

“Ah, uncle. I’m here.”

“Yes… I have good news.”

“Have you recovered all your investment?”

“It paid off long ago.”

Saying that, Uncle Skleos’ expression was full of satisfaction.

“I pushed a little bit of steel to nearby cities without borrowing the power of Anoitos-sama, and even after the fare, there was quite a profit. That alone has already made up for the damage.”

My uncle vigorously tousles my hair.

“Very… very troublesome…”

Well, it’s been a few years since I’ve been treated as a geek throwing money into the air, so if huge profits continue like now, I can’t help but laugh hard every day.

“Look at how big the forge has grown.”

The smithy stretching out from the center of the water wheel was no different from being in the middle of the city.

In the past, the season itself was impossible without natural wind, so if you had to prepare a space for the season in a high place without obstacles, on the seashore, now it was different.

As it expanded along the river near the city on a large scale, the size of the workshop and the number of workers belonging to it more than doubled or tripled, and a road leading from the city was also laid.

The old man, who had been watching the scene with satisfaction, turned his head and looked at me.

“So, what are you going to do next?”

“First of all, it might be a little grandiose plan.”

I carefully pull out a piece of parchment with blueprints for the waterwheel and forge.

As soon as he sees it, the man hurriedly hides his business secrets, wanting others to see them, but he’s not the one to show them.

“I recycled the backing because I didn’t have much space to write it down.”

I turned the parchment upside down. Seeing something drawn behind it, Uncle Skleos and older brother Theo blink their eyes.

“This is a map.”

There was a map of the neighborhood.

A map full of names, from cities such as Antandros, Gargara, Assos, and Lyrnesos, to landmarks such as Mount Ida and the small rivers that flow beneath it.

This is a map I drew myself.

Uncle Skleos admired it weakly and praised it as a fairly accurate map.

“Mister, it doesn’t matter. Do you see Antandros here?”

“okay. We are connected by lines with other cities that sell steel through Anoitus.”

“I’m going to put a road on every line.”

“what?”

“You said it was a little grandiose plan, right? First of all, we will connect the nearby cities and Antandros with roads, and we will form a network by laying roads between other cities.”

Any knowledge of Roman roads here? The ‘Road of the Kings’ in Persia, which built a large-scale road before that, is a story that has passed hundreds of years, so it probably doesn’t exist yet.

If land transportation is activated, the market in which steel will be distributed will naturally expand.

Is that all? Iron farming tools will also be supplied much faster, and agricultural productivity in the region will increase rapidly.

Landlords will rely on our farm equipment to clear the rough land that remained unclaimed, and soon this area will come under our influence.

If that happens, even if war comes, will the troops coming from Greece be able to easily destroy the region?

Hoes, shovels, and plowshares that used to plow the fields will become sharp weapons against enemies, and the alliance of cities forged through expanded exchanges will become a strong unity against foreign powers.

Even the king can fall to Troy.

However, the kingdom of Troia would not be able to be defeated. Above all, my hometown will be safe.

“First of all, you will have to gather workers for this, but it won’t matter if you pay them in iron ingots, right?

Then, naturally, over a long period of time, the price of iron will drop in this area, so it will be easier to supply iron farming tools…”

“···for a moment.”

“Why?”

Theo speaks in a bright voice.

“Excuse me for a moment, Mr. Skleos!”

But in the meantime, I felt something bleak.

***

It was not an impulsive plan.

Anyway, I alone cannot change the direction of the war.

This is the only way to increase the national power of Troy while being tied to this city.

If the road network was gradually expanded to reach the royal capital, it would be nice if the entire kingdom of Troia could be connected to the road network and cultivated with an iron hoe, but there would be no time for that.

However, all of this can lead to exactly different scenarios.

Theo starts talking.

“There was an ambitious prince. Abandoned by the royal family.”

Beginnings like my past.

“The prince was loved by the gods and easily acquired wealth and power from a young age. Soon, he quickly took control of the town he lived in and the cities around it.”

A development that seems to be talking about me now.

“Eventually, the prince spreads his influence to the surrounding cities and builds a huge forge that spews powerful weapons.”

The climax that seems to be talking about after my plan is realized.

“What would the prince do?”

“Perhaps he made the kingdom established by his parents richer.”

“Wrong.”

Theo glares at me.

“The clearest explanation I can think of is this. A prince with a grudge against his parents who abandoned him eventually leads the cities in rebellion.

Build new kingdoms, wage wars, and overthrow Troy.”

. . . Neat ending.

“I can’t leave it like that.”

Theo’s expression hardened. The half-closed eyes open vertically for a moment, then narrow again.

“Abandon the plan. Don’t cross the line you shouldn’t cross.”

“why? I have no desire to rebel against me.”

“But according to the plan, you have the strength to commit treason. The mind is supposed to follow the power given to it by the hands.”

“Why do you think so?”

I know why.

If I don’t sit quietly here, they’ll think that Troy really is going to perish.

Because there is a prophecy.

“I know you are much smarter than you are. It seems that there is a deep inside.

But this, obviously crosses the line.”

Theo’s expression sharpens. I pretend not to hear and throw a stone into the water.

Pong, pong, the pebble that made a sound and jumped on the water surface soon sinks to the bottom of the water.

“Until now, I’ve taken care of everything. As far as the king of Troy knows, you were just a blacksmith’s apprentice, and then you got tired of it and returned to shepherding.

Because I reported that.”

“Thank you for that.”

“By the way, have you thought about what your plan might look like in the King’s eyes? Don’t you think the King won’t think of the story as I told it?”

“Well, you must think my son is really good. If you were like me, you would be proud.”

“Do not joke.”

Theo washes the dried bandage in his hand by the stream. On the inside, there must have been only one dry sentence written: ‘There is nothing wrong with the surveillance target’.

“You are all grown up, so think about it. Don’t you think there’s a reason why the prince of a country is being raised as a slave rather than being killed? And that’s with an escort like this next to you.”

“Well, I have no idea.”

“If I continue like this, I might die. The abandoned son forms a relationship with a merchant with enormous wealth, and he himself becomes a huge power and grows in power in the provinces?”

Theo’s expression darkens.

In the distance, Uncle Yorgos and Uncle Phillipos pass by, sharing small talk as they graze the sheep side by side. As the two wave at us, we mute our voices.

“…You’re not trying to usurp it, are you?”

“Because it is not.”

“Do you know why I hid the fact that you were called to Olympus? Am I keeping you alive because of my personal affection?”

Theo, who spoke quickly, hardens his expression again as the two disappear over the hill.

“no.”

I watched Theo hesitate for a moment as he put his hand on the hilt of his dagger.

“Hyung, calm down…”

“Prince? Have you ever wondered what a royal family is? Tens of thousands of people live in Troia. It is a much bigger and greater city than this one.

And, hundreds of thousands of people live together around Troia. Including this city! The royal family is the backbone that supports hundreds of thousands of lives.”

Before you answer anything

Theo’s blade cuts off some of his hair.

Theo brooded for a while and eventually aimed at me with a dagger.

“say. Because I am also the king’s warrior. If I don’t hear from you now, I’m no different than a traitor.”

There was no anger, resentment, or any other emotion in Theo’s voice.

only nervousness and anxiety.

“If the way you are going is treason, I must kill you right here.”

Of course, that meant that he had no intention of killing me any time soon.

If my brother Theo is convinced that my intentions are impure, then my head should have been cut off already, or else he should have been investigating without my knowledge.

“Why do you think I will destroy Troy?”

Theo’s eyes widen.

It was good to see that the question of how you know that came up to the uvula and then went back in.

“What is that… what are you talking about?”

“Just trust me. There’s no way a 12-year-old kid is plotting a well-thought-out rebellion in his head.”

“The reason I helped you… wasn’t because I trusted you. Until you didn’t think you could do anything. This kingdom is strong enough to collapse just because one slave boy is smart.”

Theo’s tone becomes aggressive.

“I thought so, so I let it go. And after a few years, it’s like this now.

What will happen to that prince after another few years? Wouldn’t he come back as a king from a kingdom far away in the East?”

“That’s a bit of a leap.”

“no. It is possible. When he grows old, he may become the king of Antandros right away.”

I couldn’t deny

That’s right. There are blacksmith workers around me. You can also make iron spears and shields to hold on to them.

It is not easy for an external invasion to lead to the downfall of a country.

But a prince who develops ambition and power from within can certainly bring down a country.

Only then did I see more clearly what Priam and the others thought of Paris.

A prince within the court may always plot treason or anything.

But the slave boy, who can be killed at any time, can do nothing but shear sheep. So you could have peace of mind.

By the way, how am I now reflected in Theo’s eyes?

He must be a nonsense person.

“It would be quicker if you already knew about the oracle.”

Theo quietly shakes his head.

“I have to tell you what the plan is. Because treason has to be cut off from that possibility.”

“…”

I couldn’t tell

From a distance it would be funny.

The fact that I would threaten Troia in a completely different way than Theo thought.

I know that Theo hyung’s worries don’t mean anything. I know why Theo is so hesitant.

It’s not just sentimental reasons like…

What if Hephaestus, enraged by the death of his disciple after killing Paris, brought disaster upon the kingdom?

What if the gods abandoned Troia when the boy who was called to Olympus was eliminated for some reason?

Still, it is the same that Troia is destroyed because of the existence of ‘Paris’.

Even if he kills me to protect Troia, the oracle can bring disaster on Troia at any time in an unexpected way.

As I take a step closer to Theo, the nervous brother takes a step back to keep his distance. A few strands of hair were cut off by the blade of the dagger.

“brother.”

“…”

“Now, my older brother’s mission has changed. know? You don’t have to keep an eye on me.”

Theo’s expression frowns a little, then changes to expressionless again. It was a very brief change that I would not have noticed if I hadn’t been watching.

If Theo’s mission was to keep watch over ‘Prince Paris’ from shaking Troia, now I’ve grown into an unmanageable variable.

Perhaps the important starting point is…

“You probably didn’t know that ‘Prince Paris’ would be directly ‘chosen’ by Hephaestus.”

Theo answers with silence.

He didn’t say anything, but it was clear that it was an affirmation.

“A mere shepherd boy can do nothing. But a shepherd loved by God can do anything.

Admit it. The mission has already failed.”

“… haaa.”

As if releasing a breath he had been holding for a long time, Theo let out a deep sigh.

And after a long period of silence, Theo returned to the country boy I was used to.

“How did you raise a traitor? what about this?”

“Because it’s not like that.”

“Then what is it?”

“Oh, really.”

Shall I tell you?

If I were called to Olympus and told what I had done, would you believe me if I said I had seen the future?

“But, bro.”

“why.”

“Can I really tell you what I did when I went to Olympus?”

“…no, uh, um, on second thought, I don’t think I need to listen.”

Theo hyung evaded his words, perhaps sensing a strong sense of prick.

Yes. In this world, it is ‘common sense’ that the less connected to God, the more comfortable it is.

But, again, it’s difficult to be fooled like this.

In order for me to do anything, I have to convince the Trojan spy next to me.

I shouldn’t be the Prince of Troy yet.

Priam, my biological father, must not notice my movements yet.

I’m still a humble shepherd boy, and there’s not much I can do at court.

“I will… do the best I can here.”

“So, what are you doing that for?”

“For Troia.”

At my words, Theo’s eyes slightly wavered.

“For King Priam and Queen Hecafe, Hector. To keep them from dying.”

“What do you mean?”

“…and for my adoptive parents and the village uncles and aunties.”

“What are you talking about…”

“Theo, what are you doing there! I’m going to eat both intestines right now. Do you want to eat it together?”

At the sound of Uncle Phillipos’ voice coming from across the hill, Theo quickly removes the bandages and hides them.

After a moment of turning his head, Theo hid the dagger under his coat and waved to Uncle Phillips with a friendly smile.

“No, Paris was with me to teach me archery!”

“Uh… uh uh… What, were you there too? Eat like this and go.”

“is it so. I’m fine, so take Paris and feed her to her heart’s content. Maybe it’s because he’s been running around all over the place these days, but his cheeks have lost weight.”

“Huh, I heard you went into a blacksmith’s house as a servant, so it seems like you’re working quite hard. Come, fill your stomach and go.”

“Uh… Uncle? I’m a bit busy.”

“Stop talking and come. It’s because I’m crazy right now, if it were normal, would you share my oil and meat just because you’re pretty?”

Leaving behind Mr. Phillips, who sneered at the kid’s business, Theo gradually moved away from me.

It is a thoughtful expression.

…This is difficult.

***

Surprisingly, even until the early 20th century, jeonseo-gu was used as an active duty. Even in World War I, when the telegraph and radio had already been invented, pigeons flew on the frontlines to deliver urgent news to the command.

So, of course, in the ancient world without a telegraph or radio, telecommunications were almost the only means of long-distance communication.

Of course, it is difficult to train, and the probability of successfully delivering a message per individual is not high, so in the end, we had to release several at the same time to increase the success rate.

In other words, if the spy named Theo wants to send a message to the capital via the telecommunications sphere,

-‘The condition of the current monitoring target is very unstable. Asking for additional assistance’…

It means that you have to write several letters with the same content and send them to several birds.

So that even one of them can arrive and deliver the news.

…Of course, as I said before, telecommunications are difficult to train and easy to fail in communication.

Contrary to Paris’s point out, this means that it’s not cheap enough to use for casual messages like ‘all right’.

It should be used only when there is an urgent situation like now, or when it is difficult to use other means.

-Pudder the duck.

“Be still, be still.”

Theo sighed as he sprinkled food on the birds who couldn’t stand the crampedness in the basket.

It’s a failure.

He failed to control Paris, or at least to manipulate it so that it would not become a threat to Troy.

Even removing it if necessary.

In a place where the kingdom’s survival was at stake, a single failure like himself should not be left unattended.

Better people should be added…

‘really?’

Who would dare to touch the boy whom God protects? Would that be possible if you weren’t a god or a demigod yourself?

The question, which was suppressed as an excuse for a loser, begins to grow again in his mind.

furthermore···

– “For King Priam and Queen Hecafe, for Hector. To keep them from dying.”

Mention the names of people you’ve never seen. Anyone can do that.

– “And for my adoptive parents and for the uncles and aunties in the neighborhood.”

If you’ve decided to rebel, can’t you say anything? It is a world where even a child can become a bloody slayer if the kingship is right in front of you. Zeus, my God.

…But what if some calamity befalls Troy?

If Paris, summoned by the gods, heard something…

done.

“…what am I doing?”

Theo ponders for a while, then takes the bandage to the stream and erases everything he wrote.

Then, he opened the lid of the basket and blew away the telegrams.