“Legatus Decimus, please wait outside while I inform Legatus Caius of your visit...ah!”
Jean pushed her way past a line of Roman guards.
After the assassination attempt at the marketplace, she rode straight to Caius’s mansion with a small band of her own personal guards. Rather, Decimus’s. This time, she didn't wait until the sentries could inform their lord. Someone who was almost killed shouldn’t be in the mood for that.
There were plenty of men loyal to Caius here, much more than the ones Jean brought, but they knew exactly who Decimus was and what Caius’s attitude toward him was. If they stopped him by force, their lord would never praise their loyalty to their duty. He would be too busy apologizing.
That was the benefit of shedding into a new skin. Jean didn't need to raise a single blade to get to where she wanted to go.
As Sun Tzu once said, supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.
“Legatus Decimus,” Finally, the man who Jean was looking for showed his face. Caius walked out. Four fully armed guards behind him.
“I hope you know why I am here.” Jean started out the conversation plain and simple. She made sure the fury in her voice was clear to the world. “I need an explanation.”
Caius nodded. He has expected this as soon as he heard the news. It was only right for Decimus to come to him for questioning. After all, this was his city. It was his guards at the city gate that must’ve let the assassins through. It was his patrols that failed to notice and stop the killers.
“I see.” He waved his hand, and a man with a bloody face was dragged into the halls. It was obvious he was questioned already. “I did some digging on my own. This is Captain Kevinus. He was in charge of security at the market square. Just minutes after you left your mansion and headed for the market, he ordered most of the guards at the market to be deployed elsewhere. It is almost certain that he has ties to the attempt made on your life.”
The man looked up faintly. Suddenly, he came up with a dying curse.
“The Emperor will not let this go! He will hunt down all of you and put you all to the cross! You will die screaming.”
The guards and slaves around froze at those words. Jean tilted her head and glanced at Caius.
“He works for the Emperor?”
“It would appear so.” Caius glanced at his men. “What is happening here doesn’t leave this room. If this information gets out, I don’t care who’s responsible. I will hunt down every single one of you.”
“My lord.” All the guards and slaves lowered their head in obedience. They knew Caius was perfectly capable of doing such a thing.
“Same with you all.” Jean said quietly to her men. “Now. Leave us.”
All the irrelevant personnel left the room, even the two guards holding onto the prisoner. Finally, there was only Jean, Caius, and Captain Kevinus.
Caius was the one who started.
“The Emperor must’ve known about the Aggressors’ opinion on you. He feels threatened, and he knows he can’t afford a frontal war. That’s the only reason he would resort to cowardly methods like assassination.”
Jean knelt down beside the captured captain and spoke without looking up.
“And what do you suggest I do now?”
“Return to Cayden, rally your troops, and march on Rome. You have 40,000 men. I have half that count. Senator Tullus and Legatus Gallio will likely join us. You have the gifts of the Aggressors. Combine all of these factors and we will have more than enough to dethrone the Emperor. After that, we can truly invade the new worlds and spread the glory of the Empire to every corner of the Infinite Realms!”
Jean suddenly grinned.
“Are you a man of honor, Legatus Caius?”
“Of course!” Caius looked provoked. “I respect you, Legatus Decimus, but you should not put my honor to question…”
“Then why would you imprison the family of one of your own men and force him to take the blame for something you ordered him to do?”
The captain’s head snapped at Caius, unable to conceal the shock on his face. The lesser Legatus did a better job to keep a poker face, but his hand moved an inch closer to her blade.
“What are you talking about? This is...”
“This is ridiculous. I know.” Jean turned back to Caius. Cockiness was in her eyes. “You told some truths. The Emperor did know about my deal with the Aggressors. And yes, he did send those assassins. Then again, you didn't tell me the whole truth, and that is the same as telling a full lie.”
Caius’s hand was already on the hilt of his sword. Jean continued as if she was completely unaware of the danger before her.
“It was the Emperor’s men that made an attempt on my life, but they were only here because you told the Emperor what I told you. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the night of the first game, right after I told you about the Aggressors, you sent an envoy to the capitol. Twelve riders. Twenty four rides. Lead by your vice guard captain. All your most loyal personal guard. Care to enlighten me on what that letter is about?”
Caius’s mind turned. How did he know? Doesn’t matter. All he had to do was push his blade into Decimus’s back. And then, he would quietly leave the room and dispatch his own household guards to surround Decimus’s bodyguards and catch them by surprise. Crossbows on the second floor. Shields in front. Swords in the back. Of course, the 25,000 men outside the city need to be dealt with as well.
“You acted like you didn't know, but you ordered your city guards to let them through. How else did they transport two dozen crossbows into the city? You are the one who removed most of the patrols in the market. There used to be ten patrol squads. You removed eight.”
Jean still had her back turned. Caius slowly drew his sword behind her, but before the bloodshed, he still had one more question.
“How did you know?”
“Well, I have acquired a particular set of skills across the years. Some from my brothers and father. Some from the fellow Romans. Some from those so-called Voyagers. But most especially, some from the Aggressors.”
“You thought all the Aggressors gave me was a few serums. That belief was incorrect.”
Without another word, Caius suddenly leaped forward with his sword slashing down. But the moment before it could clash with Jean’s skull, she suddenly took a step to the side as if she had eyes on the back of her head.
Observers. It was her network of observers above the city that was catching every detail of what was happening and reporting to her. Of course, Caius didn't know that. As far as he knew, the Aggressors gifted the Legatus they preferred omnipresence.
Sounds impossible, but with the Protectors and the Aggressors, nothing was impossible.
The Legatus struck a few more times, but Jean dodged every single one of them comfortably. She no longer had the enhanced speed and strength gifted to her by the primal zerg essence, but the observers have simulated where Caius’s blade would be seconds before it was there based on applied force, angle, environment, and such.
This was never a fair fight.
After a few slashes, Jean drew her sword and hit Caius on the back at a moment where he was the most vulnerable. He has just spent all his force on one strike, and it would be a few seconds before he could recollect herself. Jean used this window to knock him onto the ground.
Caius’s hands were ice cold. Jean rested her weapon next to his throat.
“I don’t know why you’re so persistent on pushing me against the Emperor, but I have a few guesses. For lower warlords like you, stability means immobility, and the only way up is through a ladder of turmoil. Fair enough. I will lead my warriors against the Emperor, but it will not be because of your trickeries.”
Instead of slashing down and ending the conspirators who tried to play her like a chess piece, she took a step back.
“Don’t try anything else like this in the future.”
“In the future?” It took Caius a few seconds to get the implication. “You’re not killing me?”
“You have to understand something.” Legatus Decimus picked up Caius’s weapon and returned it to him. “I am not concerned by ambition. Ambition is good. What I am afraid of is incompetence, and you are far from incompetent.”
Caius nodded before sighing. He knew this was it. He would never be able to raise blade against Decimus again, not after what he has seen today. He glanced at Captain Kevinus. The man has seen and heard the whole thing.
“What about him?”
Jean shrugged.
“He helped the Emperor in an effort to assassinate me. Cut off his head and put it on a spike.” In the Roman world, that was hardly a figure of speech.
Caius nodded. The Roman captain closed his eyes. He had to admit he didn't expect the change of events, but ah well. He was going to die anyway. He quietly waited for his end to come.
That was when Jean’s voice entered his ears.
“Oh, and kill his families too. Tie up the loose ends.”
Kevinus’s eyes snapped open, but that was it. Caius quickly slashed his blade across the man’s neck before he could resist. A look of disbelief barely left Kevinus’s face as his entire head tumbled over. Beheading someone with one strike wasn’t that easy, but someone as strong and experienced as Caius with a sword as swift as the one he held made that fully possible.
He glanced at Jean.
“You didn't need to do that.”
“Correct,” Jean smirked. “I didn't need to remind you to tie up the loose ends because you already have. In fact, the dogs who you fed their bodies to have gone hungry again already. How fitting. Then again, I would never miss the chance to make someone who wanted me dead suffer a little before he dies. Try to kill me and then die with a smile? Hah!”
She turned and walked out of the room.
“I expect the games to go as planned.”
A dozen guards on both sides were at the door. Jean simply left with Caeso and the rest of her guards. She has achieved what she was here for.
Inside Caius’s mansion, a few guards finally entered the room. They frowned when they saw Kevinus’s body, but they quickly lowered their heads.
“My lord?”
“Put this traitor’s head on a spike at the city gates. Let him serve as an example to all those who would put something else above the loyalty to me. Feed the rest of him to the hounds.”
“As you wish, my lord.”
The guards dragged the two pieces of the corpse out, each to their own separate destination. A few maids walked in with buckets of water. They were here to clean up the blood, but Caius looked at them with such a gaze that all of them turned and left.
When he was finally alone, Caius sighed.
What happened today was totally unexpected. Even more, it made him feel insulted. He made all these plans to tip Decimus against the Emperor so he could play off both sides. If Decimus wins, he would be his second in command. If the Emperor wins, he could turn to him as well. Either way, he would climb up the ladder.
Yet, all those plans became jokes in front of whatever sorcery the Aggressors gifted Decimus with. Somehow, the Aggressors gave him eyes and ears everywhere so he could know anything and everything going on across the city. It gave him the power to deflect his strikes at point blank range without even looking.
The Protectors were cruel, yet they helped the Roman Empire grow at a slow yet steady pace. Sure, that might be because they couldn’t spare the attention to such a lowly world, but they have never given a brute something that could make him invincible.
And yes. To him, Decimus was indeed a brute. Only a brute would tell something as important as the Aggressor support to someone as unreliable as Caius. Only a brute would choose to upgrade worthless gladiators rather than sacrifice his own loyalists. Only a brute would let him live, and after that, insult him by forcing him to kill Kevinus the way he did.
Yet, the brute was the one with the upper hand, and by the looks of it, he would keep that upper hand for a while.
As she rode back to her mansion, Jean’s cruel smile disappeared.
Caius was a timing bomb, yet he was useful. Killing him was easy, but what next? Caius was a lower Legatus. Possess his body and trade more troops for less troops? Not do anything and have her own legions clash with Caius’s legions across the city? Roman sword against Roman shield. It was a tempting offer and she could win with a few plots, but in the end, all the casualties would be on her side. The only winner would be the Emperor.
Jean has shown her cards. Caius was ambitious yet careful, which meant he would only strike until he had the confidence. In other words, before that, he would be a loyal servant. Just like she said to Caius, she wasn’t particularly concerned about ambition. She was worried about incompetence. Ambitious people, she could tame, but she had neither the time nor the patience to deal with the useless.
Plus, to a degree, she liked the way Caius thought about the overall situation of the Infinite Realms. Something was off with this whole Aggressor-Protector war and she knew it. But what? She hoped if she could give Caius some more information, the Legatus could help her deduce a conclusion.
