Chapter 26 Shadow Rome
◎The first paragraph of text began to emerge on the back of the page.◎
The footsteps came closer and closer, and the sound on the stairs quickly spread to the first floor.
Sura and the priest walked down side by side, with no guards following behind them. Sura was still wearing his formal attire, the gold thread casting a dazzling light under the candlelight.
"Old friend, with such a noble sacrifice, I believe Caesar's journey will be smoother." Sulla walked down the steps first, extended his left hand in a friendly manner, and supported the priest.
The priest didn't actually approach. Instead, he stood on the upper steps and looked out the window at the sky with an enigmatic look: "The stars have not yet given me any new prophecies."
Sura walked to the door, his fake smile gone. He twitched his index finger slightly. "Perhaps you think you can get more out of this foolish child, but I'm the only one who keeps my word."
The high priest took a step down, and the shadow shrank into the corner along with his footsteps.
"Sura, you are too impatient." The priest glanced at Sura's eyes and said, "Letting Muala's daughter inherit his property may not be a bad thing."
"But she's not stupid enough anymore. Someone... maybe a trustworthy tutor, standing behind her."
"Muala was my friend, a great friend."
"Yes, my friend. We don't need a clever and vicious heir... I believe you can make the right choice." Sulla stepped out of the door, and several priests came running from a distance, holding up the hem of his gown attentively.
Surrounded by the crowd, he quickly disappeared into the night.
The priest did not continue to watch. He withdrew his gaze, glanced at the shaking shadow in the corner, and then walked out of the tower.
Click—the wooden door slammed shut, followed by the sound of an iron bolt falling.
Pasha.
"You old bastard, you're always the cause of bad things! Meow meow meow meow!" The kitten with its fur standing on end rolled out from the shadow's arms and meowed at the closed door.
If it weren't for Sulla's insistence, one thing after another, she would have inherited the huge family business and reached the pinnacle of life by risking her life! Who wants to stay in Rome and play ball with you guys? Wouldn't it be better to run away and farm?!
Huff, huff!
She meowed for a while, at least to vent her anger. Now it was time to think of a countermeasure.
The sacrifice Sulla mentioned was most likely her, but it could also include Elena. However, as Elena had said, the princess would definitely be joining the new guard to meet Caesar. The only immediate danger was encountering the enemy, so no one would intervene at this critical juncture.
In "The Rose Princess," it's mentioned that Caesar was poisoned two years later, so he's definitely not dead now. Those who waited for the heroine to suffer misfortune are shooting themselves in the foot.
On the contrary, it was Melia - no one counted on her fighting ability, and the so-called sacrifice was probably a sacrifice before the war.
Believers believed that people could make deals with the gods, offering sacrifices in exchange for what they desired. They believed that sacrificing a pure young girl would gain the favor of the god of war and was a more effective sacrifice than offering cattle or sheep.
If the high priest really wanted to help Sura, she would have to reopen it in a few days.
What if I were reborn at the moment before death, burned to death in flames and then came back to life, and then burned to death again after coming back to life... Ugh!
The little white cat's face wrinkled up, and a finger poked in cautiously.
"Wow, don't poke people's noses!"
"S-Sorry...it looks so good..."
The girl withdrew her finger and glanced at the kitten nervously: "Are you leaving?"
“Hmm…”
Melia looked at the girl carefully and placed a paw on her knee. The paw was hard, and the feeling of bones and joints covered the skin.
Although the fear of being eaten alive still lingered on her neck, she raised her claws and gently rubbed the girl's face.
The gold coin flipped in my mind, and twenty seconds later, the dark night sky enveloped the world.
The girl looked up at the stars in the sky and fell to the ground in shock. "W-why... in the wild?!"
She looked around at the ruins with wide eyes, then noticed that the chain around her ankle was gone. Only the mark above her ankle still lingered with the pain of the restraint.
"Don't be afraid, this is—"
Melia was stuck, she had no idea where she was. Rome? Rome of the past? Rome of the future? Rome of another dimension? There was no mention of this in "Rose Princess," so she had to make it up.
She shook her beard and said seriously, "Shadow Rome! This is the other side of Rome. Don't worry, the priests won't be able to find you. No one will chain you up and let you starve anymore."
"ah……"
The girl's lips slowly moved as she looked up at the sky, where stars twinkled at her. Breathing in and out—breathing in and out—the air outside smelled moist, not at all dull.
Is this the underworld? Or the divine realm...
"I haven't asked you what your name is yet, you can call me Meimei~" The kitten squatted on the back of her feet and poked it.
"I... call you daughter." The girl took a deep breath and said, "Father calls me daughter."
"Uh—the high priest is your father?!"
"He bought me and he said he was the father."
There was no attachment or hatred in the girl's eyes, she was calm and numb: "I want to be obedient, but I'm really hungry. Is this hell? Is there anything to eat?"
Melia's tail tip drooped gently as she patted the girl's ankle. "Give yourself a name, daughter or something—you have nothing to do with him!"
"You come to name it. I should belong to you now?"
"No, no, you belong to yourself!"
The kitten's tail hooked around her leg, and Melia's soft body spun around, forming a white spiral: "Like Helen, Lilith, Jenny, Miranda..."
"Then it's Miranda. Meimei, do you have anything to eat? I'm so hungry." Miranda squatted down and touched the soft fur.
Melia rubbed her head against the wall and said, "You just devoured a whole chicken, you're really not going to get too full?"
I've heard that overeating can hinder digestion for people who've been hungry for too long, but the girl before me was clearly no ordinary person. She'd devoured the roasted chicken without leaving even a bone.
Miranda shook her head blankly. "No, I can eat one, two, three, four of those big things in one sitting. Father feeds me flatbreads, and I can eat a whole basket. But Father says that the magic in me must be stimulated by [emotions], and the hungrier I am, the more effective it is. That's why it takes so long to feed me."
Melia froze. There were so many flaws in this statement that she didn't know how to refute it.
If there really wasn't magic in this world, she would definitely think that the priest's behavior of withholding food was related to treating bulimia.
"You have magic within you? What kind of magic?"
Miranda still shook her head. "Father said that only he could channel the magic within me. A savage like me is not worthy of mastering knowledge."
Melia announced that now there were two people she hated the most.
"Phew~ If you're really hungry, just follow me."
The little white cat twitched its tail and hopped down the rubble. Where the Temple of the Gods once stood was a pile of rubble, far more devastated than the residential area.
She remembered that she had hidden a lot of food near the commercial district, where she could find bread and dried meat whenever she went. The air and microorganisms in this space were still circulating, so she would have to find something with a longer shelf life next time.
They ran out along the street. Miranda suddenly opened her eyes wide and sped towards the left front: "It smells like barbecue!"
Sniff, there is indeed a burnt aroma of grease in the air.
The two of them ran on the stone slabs into the clear moonlight, and suddenly they were filled with smoke and the smell of barbecue.
"You're back so soon." The man beside the fire lifted his gray cloak. Misha breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought I'd have to wait another five hundred years."
When she saw Misha's face, Melia remembered that she had imprisoned someone in Shadow Rome.
Guilty, she leaned over and picked up a grilled wing. "Uh, sorry... where did this come from? I only remember hiding the chicken wings."
The wing in the mouth is smaller than the chicken wing, and the pointed bones of the wing are very brittle. Once you bite it, it slides into your throat along with the bone marrow and cannot get stuck.
"Ah~ delicious."
Without needing anyone's comments, Miranda grabbed the skewer beside her and stuffed it into her mouth along with the wooden stick.
"Hey—" Misha's hand stopped midway, and she watched helplessly as the other party chewed and ate the stick. His teeth were different from those of ordinary people, they were serrated.
The little white cat patted her shoulder comfortingly: "Don't worry too much, as long as it's not stuck."
Is that the problem? Misha wiped the sweat from her forehead, grabbed another stick, and ripped the meat off, handing it to Miranda. "That's all I have. I caught it near the edge of the woods. I thought I saw a deer just now. It was in the forest, and I didn't dare chase it."
Are there a lot of birds around the woods? The cat's ears twitched.
Melia leaped onto the ruins and gazed into the distance. Indeed, there were a great many bushes in the shadowy Roma, and a shadowy forest behind the purple mist. Perhaps it was a psychological effect, but it felt as if the mist had receded a little.
It was previously tightly attached to the gate, but now it has retreated a few feet and can see the bridge piers outside.
If it wasn't an illusion, what were the conditions for the purple mist to dissipate? If it could all dissipate... the shadow world had flowers and grass, people could farm, mine, and even raise animals.
Swish~The kitten sucked his saliva. Such a big piece of land, he wouldn’t trade it even for a heroine!
"There are really a lot of small animals in the forest. Oh, and I also built a small house with stones."
Misha couldn't help but touch the kitten's head and carried her to the pile of rocks.
The cold touch under her claws brought Melia back to her senses. She poked the pile of stones, and a few pieces of gravel slid down the mud with a crackling sound.
I don’t know whether to encourage Misha to keep working hard or give her some suggestions for improvement: living in a house without a foundation and without any adhesive, you might get hit on the head at any time.
[The Roman houses are still standing where they were. It would be great if they could be restored in a snap.]
Snap, snap, snap. The stacked stones made a crisp collision sound.
The uneven surface of the stone house began to heal, and when the crackling sound stopped, a house that looked no different from an ordinary house rose from the ground.
Only when you look closely can you discover the terrifying difference: the patterns of the bricks and stones are simulated carvings, and they are completely "healed" into a whole wall, so no adhesive is needed.
Oh my god, what is going on!
The cat's fur stood on end. Under her ghostly gaze, the pages of "Rose Princess" slowly turned in her mind. The first paragraph began to appear on the back of the page.
[Shadow Rome, owner: Melia (?)]
【Residents (2): Misha (human), Miranda (mixed-blood human)】
【Building (1): Residential House】
The cat's head slammed against the house: "Script, I was just talking nonsense, don't write everything down—"
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