Hero of Rome

Caesar skips the whole prisoner routine and has the surrendered Vercingetorix ritually strangled in front of his Gauls—because why waste good bread on a defeated chieftain?

Xochitl’s serene yet lifeless face haunted me as I tore across the dark Atlantic Ocean. Luckily, I arrived less than a second later in Rome so I didn’t have to think about her much.

In truth, I never wanted to relive that harrowing experience in my mind. It was too… awful. My brief return to Rome was twofold: to get some answers on the vaccine from Valerius, and, honestly, to see my wife to decompress. Almost being sacrificed alive didn’t bode well on one’s mental state. To see Cleopatra would renew me, as it always did.

Feet first, I activated my Boots of Mercury, stabilizing me above the Eternal City. It was the tactic I used to ferry my men across the ocean to establish a foothold in the new world until we discovered how to make rudders, latine sails, astrolabes, compasses, and all of the advanced tech required to traverse the Atlantic. We were getting close thanks to my hand in the development and seeing an infinite amount of possibilities over the course of a week. It wouldn’t be long till Roman ships came across the Atlantic to pick up the resources we plundered.

However, for right now, I was the only one who could cross because of my foresight and my Boots of Mercury. If anyone else tried it, they would likely die instantly upon hitting an unforeseen surface, much like Xochitl.

She’s only part of the past, I told myself. Yet, I couldn’t convince myself of it. Xochitl, like everyone here in Antiquitus, had lived at one point in history, only to be revived in this Systemized world of the past.

A past that I was determined to make different.

I had acquired the ability to speak to the Iriquois and the other native tribes in surviving the Aztec sacrifice. Because Xochitl had died, I received no glory for the Fortuna quest, a first for me. I deserved it. It would have made me sick to have gained any other reward for letting her die.

Beneath the moonlight, Rome glowed like silver. All of its marble temples, statues, fountains, aqueducts, and the Colosseum, all of it still filled me with wonder. The Tiber River glittered beneath the moon, winding through the empty streets. Once we acquired oil from the new world, I would make it my goal to set up street lamps all across Rome to ward off criminals and the occasional mythological monsters that roamed it.

With the last of my thirty second flight, I landed on top of the Colosseum’s walls. It would be a short jaunt to Domitian’s Palace where my wife, Cleopatra, rested. Using my enhanced jump and speed, with zero fall damage, I made quick work of the Roman rooftops, reaching Palatine Hill and Domitian’s Palace very quickly. The Praetorian Guards surrounding the palace were used to seeing me come out of nowhere, usually from above, and they recognized me by my pure black centurion armor, courtesy of Alexander the Great’s mother, Olympias. They hailed me as I strode through the halls of the palace and open courtyards to my personal quarters. Caesar’s room was on the other side, though he was not here. Instead, as the System informed me, he was busy finishing off the Gauls.

Cleopatra was asleep when I entered our lavish room. Our linen sheets were empty as she slept face first in a pile of parchment papers, her hand still gripping an inked feather. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight. Moving closer, I could see she was drafting ideas for how to educate the young girls she had recently acquired through a new private orphanage, paid by the state. She was deeply moved when I had told her of how most modern societies tried to provide education and opportunities to orphans so they wouldn’t end up on the streets. She, being a former prostitute from a very, very young age, was deeply moved, and decided to found a girl’s orphanage to rescue them from destitution.

“I never knew I wanted to be a mother, until I met you,” she so often told me. It swelled my heart with adoration to see how selfless and caring she’d become.

I knelt quietly beside her, aided by my Silent Steps twenty percent noise reduction attribute. Everything in me wanted to be with her, but she looked so peaceful. Instead, I wrote her a quick note, telling her I would be back tomorrow and that I loved her. With the note finished, I turned to leave.

“NO!” Cleopatra screamed, startling me. “NO MAXIMUS!”

“Darling?” I said, rushing to her. As soon as my hands grabbed her shoulders, she seized mine with ferocity.

“Don’t don’t don’t!” she said, tears streaming down her elegant cheeks.

“What? Hey, it’s okay, everything’s fine. I’m here, shh shh, it’s okay. You just had a bad dream.”

Cleopatra’s eyes widened with recognition. And then, she collapsed into my chest, weeping. “Oh Maximus! It w-was so horrible!”

“You don’t have to think about it anymore. It was only a dream.”

Cleopatra shook her head. “It felt real, my love. It happened because you went back to America. I… I saw him, Caesar, cutting open your chest and ripping out your heart. It was so awful, Maximus. Please, please don’t go!”

Cleopatra continued to sob in my chest, which felt suddenly weak with fear. It had to be only a coincidence that she saw an Aztec-like ritual performed by Caesar. She had no idea that I had that experience. But… Caesar? Why him? It didn’t make any sense.

“Promise me, love,” she insisted, looking up at me with makeup-smeared eyes.

How could I convince her that it was only a dream? That Caesar would be on the other side of the world when I returned and couldn’t get there without me? That if I didn’t show up tomorrow for the peace talks with the Iroquois to translate, it could very well turn into a bloodbath? So many things to explain, and this was not the right time. Instead, I quieted her fears and kissed her. Rather passionately, Cleopatra threw off my helmet and grabbed a fistful of my hair, pulling me closer.

Later that night, after Cleopatra fell asleep on my bare chest, which almost didn’t look like my chest given how filled out I had become through training and war, I stalked the halls of mine and Caesar’s palace in search of Valerius. The wiry alchemist received his own laboratory and room within the palace so that we could keep his experiments secret. Like all empires, any new invention, potion, or poison one could make would be zealously coveted by those around it.

Hence, secrecy was key.

I passed by Umbra who stood asleep in his own private courtyard. Or, at least it had become his personal resting place after the siege of Rome. In the ashy Pegasus’s defense, the city smelled too much for his liking and he wanted to be around us since I was his master, still holding the golden Friendship Key that could summon him at any moment, from anywhere. In truth, the real answer lay around the Pegasus. Two chestnut mares slept at his feet on the ground, while an attractive servant girl slept on Umbra’s back.

What a strange horse, I thought, rolling my eyes and grinning.

Before I reached Valerius’s quarters, I passed by Titus’s and Livia’s room and private hall. They had both married weeks after the civil war was over and now prepared to go out and search for Livia’s missing children. As I expected, a familiar pinging sound could be heard from the adjacent courtyard, one of many in this huge palace.

Titus had recreated an outdoor forge in the courtyard beside their room. The hearth for the forge was only embers now, and the giant loyal companion sat on a nearby stone bench and tinkered with something in his hands.

“Titus?” I said.

His shoulders jumped from me, startling him. Titus turned around and smiled, his short cropped hair and new, growing beard orange visible from the embers.

“Still Pluto-blessed, I see,” he said, chuckling. He placed whatever he was working on and clasped my arm in brotherhood. “It’s good to see you, Maximus.”

“You too, man,” I said.

“We leave soon. Here, I have just finished this.”

Item: Cleopatra's Figurine of Eternal Bond (Legendary)

Description: This exquisite figurine depicts Cleopatra, the legendary queen, holding two babies close to her heart. The delicate detailing of her royal attire and the serene expressions of the infants capture the essence of maternal strength and love. The figurine hangs gracefully from a sturdy gold chain, serving as a protective talisman for its wearer. The figurine radiates a warm, golden glow, symbolizing the eternal bond between her and Maximus, even across vast distances.

Enchantment: Projects a glowing, silent image of the wearer’s love, offering comfort and a calming presence from the heart it represents.

Weight: 0.07 kg

Worth: 20,000 Denarii

To my surprise, I found myself choking up at the intricate gift.

“T-thank you, Titus,” I said, embracing him so he couldn’t see the tears in my eyes.

“I figured you needed a new one after decorating Camilla’s grave with the last one,” he said, his face genuine. No more hatred remained in his heart for his former enemy who had given her life to save us from the Cult of Eternal Night.

Thinking of Camilla brought up a swell of emotions. I turned my head away from him as I put on the necklace. I hoped she was resting in Elysium. It pained me to think that she was down in the Underworld right now, where her sister Octavia was, along with their former wicked master, Persephone, who had led them in attempts of enslaving the world. I could only pray to Pluto that he allowed them to escape his crazy wife and allow them to have some much needed rest.

After I said goodnight to Titus, I made my way to Valerius.

Striding without pause past his guarded living quarters, I entered into his dimly lit laboratory. Unsurprisingly, Valerius was still up, even though it was well into the night. The alchemist, surrounded by thousands of ingredients on his shelves and looming over a bubbling cauldron, didn’t bother to look up when I entered the room. Instead, the man sniffed deeply the fumes emerging from the pot, revealing his severe widow's peak. He muttered something under his breath before strapping on a glowing leather glove. When he plucked a petal off a purple flower nearby, he crushed almost a pound’s worth into the pot, even though there wasn’t that much to begin with.

I shook my head in amazement. The man was so strange, choosing always to work, to push himself to the next discovery. He was like a Roman Elon Musk.

“Imperator,” Valerius said, not stopping to greet me with his eyes. I took no offense. Without warning, the thin man took a ladle and sipped it, only to stick his fingers in the boiling pot.

“Wait!” I said, reaching out to stop him, only to already know what the result would be. I had almost forgotten that I had seen something like this whenever I surveyed this week of futures. It was easy to forget the little details when seeing almost endless possibilities of the futures.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” he said, bringing his hand back up from the steaming cauldron.

“A new client?” I said, forgetting the person who he would mention hired him.

“Yes, strange man. Showed little of his face. Anyway, I have more Salve of the Unyielding Aegis if that’s what you’re here for.”

“Actually, I came because the smallpox spread,” I said, laying down a vial of the potion on the table next to him. The alchemist stopped, looking at the vial in surprise.

“Impossible,” he said, snatching it while with his free hand popping off the cork.

“It spread to almost every native of one tribe we encountered,” I continued while he sniffed it. “And, it’s severely messed with my powers. They do not work as efficiently.”

“Mhmm,” he said, nodding. “Definitely altered. That much is clear. My batch was perfect when it left. That’s the one vice with the ingredients I had to use. It—”

Suddenly, his eyes furrowed in fear.

“By the gods,” he whispered, taking a small swig and shaking his head. It was through his reaction that I confirmed he was innocent. “Not only does this not prevent you from spreading smallpox, but it amplifies its reach if you have it and how quickly it kills. One or several of your men must have had it, and now… oh no.”

“What?” I said, feeling queasy.

“Whoever tampered with this put in an ingredient that increases the speed of the disease and makes it more viral. If we do not create a vaccine, the new world will die.”

Wait. “You mean like the Great Dying, like how it happened before?”

Valerius shook his head. “Not just half, or more. But all of them shall perish who are infected.”