Chapter 124 Death News
◎The moon was hidden in the dark clouds, as if the sky was weeping for the emperor's passing.◎
As the sun gradually set, Elena held the hilt of her sword with her hand and stood on the city wall with the sentry, looking out.
Is today another day of failure? Not necessarily.
Finally, a small black dot appeared at the end of her field of vision. Elena raised her telescope and saw a cavalryman dressed as a royal guard galloping towards her.
[The messenger who delivered the news of his father's death.]
After so many days, my heart had long since calmed down. The dark forces within Rome were truly patient, neither announcing the death in advance to disrupt public sentiment nor seizing the opportunity to kill the other heirs.
It seems that Marcus is the most suspicious person. After his father's death, he is the first heir.
For whatever reason, he could not live to ascend the throne.
Knock knock knock…
The sound of horse hooves came from far away. Both the rider and the horse looked extremely haggard, with their temples and sideburns stained with gray.
"Open the city gate. He is my father's personal guard."
Elena waved at the defenders and whispered to herself, "Why would he leave my father? Could the Persians be planning a detour to attack us?"
The guards had been with the princess all these days and were in awe of this cautious and serious prince. Someone immediately ran to turn the crank, allowing the city gate to slowly rise.
No one dared to respond. They waited in a daze for the guards to cross the line and let out a dying sigh: "Your Majesty, our great emperor has been assassinated—"
Boom! The news spread from the city gate like a thunderclap. The guards didn't even bother to verify it before they started wailing.
Even though Caesar had led his soldiers on countless expeditions during his lifetime, causing many families to lose their able-bodied laborers and increase the number of disabled people, there were always people among the people who secretly resented him and prayed that the emperor would soon come to his senses and properly manage the conquered lands.
But he always won, brought back a large number of slaves to improve the lives of the people - such an emperor was actually assassinated!
Elena's expression was as shocked and mournful as those around her, but she was calm inside:
Sulla and other elders probably didn't expect their father to still have such a high reputation... When a person dies, his flaws will be forgotten, and only the legend will remain.
[Sulla should see the signs tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and will definitely adjust his policy.] If he still had any sense, he wouldn't choose to force himself or a descendant to sit on the throne. Instead, he would nominate a descendant of Caesar as a puppet emperor—Marcus was the first choice, but not the best one.
If we analyze Sulla's personality, he should be more willing to support the second prince, but unfortunately Titus is already dead.
After a while, the wailing gradually subsided, and the guards were either dazed or sobbing quietly.
Elena wiped away her nonexistent tears and spoke hoarsely in the dim light, "Everyone, this news... I must tell everyone immediately, let the Senate, my brothers and sisters, all citizens, all Romans..."
There were ambiguous pauses between each of her sentences, as if the hesitation was mixed with tears, making her look even more heartbroken: Look, the princess who was usually so calm and composed couldn't speak fluently.
The crowd surrounded Elena and watched her run for a long distance before turning back, getting on her horse, and almost stumbling towards the palace.
Sobbing sounds were heard one after another, and those who received the accurate news dispersed, letting the sounds of crying and sighing spread from the city gate to every household.
There is a faint uneasiness in the sadness:
[The great Majesty is dead. If war breaks out again, will Rome still be invincible?]
…
Late at night, Elena left the banquet due to "excessive grief".
After all, it was a memorial banquet, and everyone was crying and offering wine to Caesar's spirit in heaven.
Many elders were running in and out in person to prepare for the funeral a few days later: the emperor's body would be transported back secretly, and in order to race against time to allow him to return to the kingdom of God as soon as possible, the funeral had to be held on the day of delivery.
The way they cried made her sick: the murderer must be among them. Marcus cried like a donkey that had eaten a sweet tuber. Ophelia was sincere, but after a few tears she couldn't help but flatter her brother, and the performance was ruined.
The evening breeze blew, and the water stains on my face dried up quickly.
Elena glanced cautiously around, then swiftly merged into the night, climbing through a small path into Melia's estate. Without even alerting the guards, she slipped through the gold-studded archway and arrived in Shadow Rome.
"Misha, are you there?" She began to call the administrator who was stationed inside, but received no answer. As night fell, Shadow Rome was also shrouded in a peaceful atmosphere of sleep.
Melia has implemented so-called "healthy working hours" here, urging employees to go home and rest after the sun goes down and to work later in the morning.
If they weren't there, then they weren't. She walked around the city for a while and saw many familiar slaves and soldiers who had stayed. As long as they were there, it was good. Sura probably didn't have the energy to sacrifice the cat demon's territory.
Elena nodded to the person who saluted her and was about to return to Rome to plan the next step when she heard a crunching sound.
"Who keeps the rats?"
The clicking sound stopped immediately: "You are the rat."
A snow-white cat poked its head out from the stone house. Oh, she said she hadn't seen this little guy for most of the day. It turned out that he was so bored that he ran around to eat and sleep.
"Don't occupy Misha's house. What are you doing?"
Halfway through the walk, Elena was speechless as she saw the boss's whole roasted lamb lying on the plate: now only the lamb shanks were left with meat.
The kitten stood alertly in front of the leg of lamb, holding the roast meat with its two paws. It seemed that like her, it liked to enjoy its favorite part last.
"Where's the lamb leg?"
"Auntie Sunny gave it to me." The little white cat suddenly remembered something and meowed, "I wanted to bring it to you yesterday, but you were busy and ignored me."
Hearing this, Elena's heart softened for a moment: Yes, we agreed to take the children to have a good tour of Rome, but in order to wait for the messenger, we went up to the city wall every day when we were free. In recent days, Mei...Meini has been playing by herself.
"Huh~" Elena breathed a sigh of relief and petted the alert kitten: "You eat first, and then I'll take you out to relax."
"Where to go? Kill Sura?"
"...Children, stop yelling and shouting about fighting and killing."
"Oh, then we can empty the treasure house in his house. Sister Misha moved the treasure house of the Temple of the Gods."
The four of them, one big and one small, stared with wide eyes.
There seems to be a saying among the people: children learn swear words and do bad things very quickly, and the one at home learns it three times faster.
Elena tapped the cat's head and said, "Wait until you're older, then I'll take you to the bathroom to take a bath."
Public baths for the public would certainly not be open so late, but there was a hotel with a bathhouse near the Colosseum that catered to distinguished guests and wealthy merchants. It was specifically designed to accommodate wealthy people from other places who wanted to take a large hot bath after a late banquet.
I haven't bathed my child in such a long time since I came back. I miscalculated. After all, cats don't really need baths.
Elena suddenly felt that she was very wise: if she and the little ghost didn't remember it after a few days and just threw the stinky kitten back to Melia, they would definitely be beaten up by the little fists.
The kitten licked its lips and reluctantly moved away: "I said before that I would bring you some food. There's a little lamb leg left..." As it spoke, it took two bites of the lamb leg.
"You eat, I've already eaten."
"Ah, ah, ah."
Menia finished chewing the lamb leg in a few bites, crushing it and swallowing it down with the bones. She happily jumped out of the window and said, "Let's go take a shower!"
Elena caught the kitten and let her lie on her shoulder.
As she walked, she looked back at the stone house: "Where are Misha and Miranda? Aren't they here?"
"Well, he's been away for the past two nights, so he'll be back during the day." The kitten yawned, "It seems he's going to the Temple of the Gods to get treatment, yawn~"
So, the high priest died, so they contacted a new witch doctor and borrowed the temple grounds to perform rituals? Elena put the question aside and carried the kitten across the archway.
…
The moon was hidden in the dark clouds, as if the sky was crying for the emperor's death.
The heavy door of the hotel blocked the sound outside. Elena walked into the bathroom, which was empty and more spacious than the private room in the public bath before.
She glanced at the clean pool, lifted the kitten's tail, and threw it into the hot water with a splash, then slowly changed her clothes.
By the time she changed into her bathrobe, Menea was already lying comfortably on her back on the water, splashing water with her two little paws.
The little kitten really knows how to enjoy herself. Seeing her funny little appearance, Elena chuckled and put her feet in the water: "Hiss——"
Hot, hot, hot, what the hell is wrong with this water temperature?!
"Yawn, what's wrong?" The kitten opened half of its eyes and continued to float.
Elena silently transformed her body into a dragon. After the scales emerged, the hot water was of course nothing to her: even boiling water could not penetrate the dragon scales.
"Nothing." She sank into the water calmly, a small doubt flashing through her mind: Could cat hair also be resistant to hot water? Or was Minnie naturally not afraid of heat?
A man and a cat enjoyed the rare tranquility in the hot water: there were still several days before the body was brought back, and Sulla probably wouldn't cause any trouble during this time... If he did, it would be to spread some unfavorable rumors.
When it comes to fighting rumors with rumors, who better to do it than Melia's comic booklet...
Clang! Boom!
Two loud noises exploded, one on the left and one on the right, startling the cat and jumping onto Elena's head. "What's that noise? How rude!"
Elena climbed out of the pool with the cat on her back and pushed open the half-sealed window. It was a noise coming from the city gate!
She hurriedly took out a telescope from her changed clothes and pointed it in the direction of the city gate: although it was dark, someone had already lit a fire there, which was a signal to summon reinforcements!
The Persians are attacking.
My brain immediately came to the conclusion: it could only be Persia. They didn't miss this golden opportunity. Instead of staying put and taking over a few more border towns, they marched straight into the Roman capital!
【Who let them in?! 】
A lot of doubts arose in my mind: Rome's control over the surrounding city-states was at least stronger than Greece's. Even if Caesar had a bad reputation outside the royal city, would anyone really dare to let the Persian army cross the country?
Either the nearby city-states rebelled one after another, or the Persians also had a "path" similar to the Shadow Rome.
"Mei Ni, go back to your mother."
Elena deepened her dragon transformation once more, letting her wings spread out. She had to lead her troops back immediately to provide support. If the Roman capital was breached, the throne would be a lie!
"Why?"
"Because it's dangerous here."
Elena grabbed the cat's nape. She had to go to Shadow Rome to gather the other half of the army and throw the kitten back at the same time.
"Oh~ so interesting." The cat's pink little mouth seemed to be smiling, and its blue eyes blinked.
The fur slowly faded away, and the little child pulled a decorative sword from the wall and spun it around like a toothpick. "I want to play with it too."
The author has something to say:
Finally~ the final volume! I'm rubbing my hands in excitement. I'm really looking forward to it—the throne will change, and Melia will also face a fierce battle!
Thanks to Fujimaru Hakuno, Yunzhong Feixiang, and Xiaotai for their support~
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