The Greece Antagonist

Chapter 196 Sister Ya, Don't! (4.2k)

several days later, on war god mountain.

in the afternoon, in a secluded residence, the newly appointed young athenian magistrate sat at a long table in the courtyard, flipping through a thick stack of case files for review, forming text on sentencing and punishment, making simple records.

after being busy for three or four hours, he finally reached the bottom of the stack.

sitting at the table, luo en looked at the dozens of pages of densely written parchment in his hands, patiently reviewed and revised them once more, then tossed his work aside, preparing to hand it over to astraea tomorrow as a reference for compiling the relevant legislation.

now, the second-generation goddess of justice had already entered the academy of athens at the enthusiastic invitation of athena and begun the preliminary drafting of written law.

but the beginning is always the hardest, and in an era where "a strong fist makes right," pursuing a perfect judiciary was an exceedingly difficult project.

firstly, the lack of legal scholars and a thin awareness of law were significant problems.

as the former secretary on crete island, the protege of netherworld judge minos, and the one who lured astraea to athens, luo en had no choice but to truly accept the appointment of athenian magistrate, spending his days going through case files and summarizing the customary laws from over the years.

but you never know until you look.

it was only when luo en actually went through athens's case files that he realized how primitive the current laws were; even punishment was characterized by "whimsicality," having nothing to do with so-called "fairness and justice."

laziness and stealing vegetables both warranted death...

a master who killed a slave would either go unpunished, pay with a sheep, or offer a sacrifice of a bull to the gods...

those able to supply their own weapons had citizenship rights, could press charges, and receive formal trial; those unable to afford arms had no such rights, often subject to vigilante justice by those of higher status...

and as for the upper-class divine-blooded nobility and city builders, they enjoyed criminal immunity in the secular sense...

in short, these customary laws with no clear standards caused luo en quite a headache, only after several revisions did he manage to scrape together a few usable laws.

it's not scarcity that provokes discontent, but inequality.

to prevent future troubles, it was essential to take care of the emotions on both sides ahead of time.

this was a practical lesson luo en learned after facing many setbacks.

shortly after receiving their "salaries," the two contented owls belched, then happily grabbed the two tubes, and spread their wings towards the vast night.

only after the two little creatures had completely vanished from sight, did luo en finally exhale a long breath and recline back into the chair, slightly relaxing.

after all the day's toil, even someone with a divine body like himself couldn't avoid feeling worn out in body and mind.

but it couldn't be helped; slow and costly as it may be to invest simultaneously in both intellectual and emotional labor, the virtue was in the minimal side effects.

he wasn't keen on being axed by the several women around him before his work was done.

especially athena!

ever since he had successively brought home figures like hecate, circe, and astraea, the goddess of wisdom had been giving him strange looks of late.

after bribing nike with a string of grilled meats and a jug of chilled wine, the girl confided to him in secret:

— athena had recently taken a liking to sharpening her weapons in hestia's yard, and would sometimes laugh while doing so, directed at thin air...

— all in all, it was rather creepy...

nike herself felt uneasy as the person concerned, and luo en was somewhat chilled just hearing about it.

therefore, he didn't dare continue staying at hestia's residence alone and moved out, keeping himself busy with athens's legal construction, using official duties as a pretext.