Chapter 253 Valentinian
Ravenna, Royal Palace.
A young man stood alone on the balcony of the palace. He was wearing a purple robe, revealing his white, slender right hand covered with gold jewelry. He was holding an empty wine glass. He looked at the city below him. Looking east from here, there was a vast sea, with ships busy at the dock. Everything was full of vitality. This was the only comforting scene in such an eventful time. At least it made the young man know that he would not be the last emperor, especially now.
The palaces here are not magnificent and are far less suitable than those in Rome to reflect the identity of an imperial Augustus.
The young man had a solemn expression on his face, and he seemed to be indifferent to everything here. He pondered in silence, as if he was thinking hard about something.
"Child, the clothes prepared for you are all placed here."
At some point, the door behind him was slowly pushed open, and a middle-aged woman in a purple robe with gold patterns came in. Although time had left irreversible marks on her face, it was hard not to admit that she was still charming, worthy of being the beauty who had fascinated many heroes, Augusta Placidia of the Western Empire. She looked at the young man's back, her mouth slightly raised, and she was secretly happy for some reason.
"I have prepared your wedding dress. Why don't you come and see it, my child?" Placidia took two steps forward, and the maid holding the dress followed carefully behind her. The dress was obviously tailor-made. Because there was a breastplate on the chest, it was to show that the wearer was in line with Roman tradition and was a good soldier. But this also made the dress heavy, at least for the two women. Their hands were shaking a little, but they gritted their teeth and insisted. They were very careful, fearing that the gorgeous dress would be stained with a little dust on the ground, and Augustus' body and clothes would be covered with dust, which would be a capital crime.
The young man, no, Valentinian III, did not even turn his head to look at the clothes, as if he was not touched by the gorgeous clothes at all. He still turned his back to Augusta Placidia, as if he was resisting, avoiding, and unwilling to look at the gorgeous clothes.
"What's wrong, my child?" Augusta Placidia asked, she walked slowly behind Valentinian, stretched out her hands and gently placed them on her son's shoulders. She put her mouth close to Valentinian's ear and asked, "Why do you look unhappy? What is bothering you so much, my child!"
"It's nothing, Mom!" Valentinian said, putting the cup in his hand on the table. He sighed deeply. It seemed that Placidia's concern made him even more sad.
"Because of marriage." Placidia released her arm from Valentinian's shoulders, and her originally relaxed tone became a little serious.
"But, mother," said Valentinian, turning his head and looking at Placidia, "I have never seen her. Is it really a good idea to marry so hastily?"
"This is not something you should worry about, my child!" The last trace of smile on Placidia's face disappeared without a trace, replaced by seriousness, coldness, and even a hint of anger. She turned around and said in an unquestionable tone: "You are Augustus, you must make a choice for this country. Don't care about what you haven't seen before. If I ask you to marry, you must obey. This is also for your own good!"
"But……"
"No buts!" Augusta Placidia interrupted Valentinian just as he was about to say something. She turned around and glared at Valentinian. The fierceness in her eyes scared Valentinian so much that he took two steps back and responded with fear.
"Remember this, this is your fate!" Placidia said this and walked out of the room without looking back.
"Fate! Fate!"
After Augusta Placidia had gone away and her footsteps could no longer be heard in the corridor outside the door, Valentinian ground his teeth until his palms turned white while holding the silver cup in his hands. He kept repeating the word that Placidia had taught him.
"Fuck his fate!"
Valentinian turned around suddenly and threw the silver cup in his hand out of the window. The roar scared the two maids so much that they almost dropped the gorgeous clothes in their hands. It seemed that they had never seen Augustus do such a thing.
Valentinian realized his own gaffe, but he did not calm down his anger. He snorted coldly, turned around and looked at the distant port again.
"Luga Luga!"
When he felt that he had walked out of sight of those people from the Eastern Empire, Andrew stepped forward and called out to Luca. Luca turned around and looked at Andrew. Andrew's face turned red and his expression was extremely gossipy.
"What's wrong, Andrew?" Luga had already guessed what Andrew wanted to say, but he still asked out of courtesy, otherwise it would be bad to leave Andrew with nothing to talk about.
"Hey, hey, hey, what does the princess want to say?" Andrew stared at Luca with wide eyes. He must be thinking about this kid Luca, who was inseparable from him. When did he do this? He never saw him and the princess interacting with each other. Now he was openly flirting with her, which really made Andrew curious. "Luca, I have to say something about you. She is going to marry Augustus, and she will be Augusta in the future. You can't hold your pants like this. We know it but don't say it, but Augustus knows it. No matter whether it is your adoptive father or Valentinian, who doesn't want to get rid of you as an unstable factor? This is not a joke!"
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"I know, Andrew!" Luca was really fed up with it. He interrupted Andrew unhappily and continued to explain: "I don't know what's going on either, you know? Andrew! Liginia must not have thought this out herself. She must be testing me and testing my loyalty. Humph, it must be like this! She knows that Augustus is young and has no ability to rule the empire, so she wants to test the loyalty of those rising stars, such as me! If I am found to be disloyal, she will definitely get rid of me! Yes, that's it!"
Luca's words left Andrew speechless. He didn't know what to say, but he knew that every word Luca said made sense and there was no reason to refute it.
"I don't know what's going on now, I'll just take it one step at a time." Lu Jia's hands were sweating. On the way back to the city, he recalled Li Jinia's words over and over again in his mind, and analyzed them word by word, fearing that he would reveal a single word. This made him a little flustered. What exactly did Li Jinia want to express? He was still guessing.
(End of this chapter)