Chapter 280 Banquet

The short meeting ended quickly. According to Roman custom, the organizer of this banquet, the Purple Chamber, decided to distribute bread and other food to the citizens in the audience for free.

"Follow me, my loyal general!" Valentinian III changed his words quite quickly. He pulled Luca past the statues of successive emperors erected at the entrance of the Senate. Unlike Luca, these statues were completely meaningless to Valentinian and he was unwilling to stay here for a moment. He was so impatient that he wanted the senators in the Senate to see this emerging general who "came" from the Eastern Empire!

As soon as I entered the gate of the Senate, the temperature dropped instantly. It was indeed a place that was warm in winter and cool in summer. The care for these elders was really meticulous. The huge hole above the head cast a bright light, illuminating the meeting hall as bright as day outside.

The seats inside were full of people. They were all elders of the Senate. They combed their hair in an orderly manner and trimmed their beards to make them look comfortable and natural. They wore white togas and red shirts. They all looked at Valentinian III and Luca. They seemed to be fully prepared for the sudden intrusion of the two people. There was no surprise on their faces, as if they had been waiting for this moment for a long time. Luca looked around the stage and saw a few familiar people. Of course, those were the only familiar guys, but Luca didn't have a good impression of them, especially the old guy Thermitius. He sat in the second row. He didn't seem to be very interested in the speech. He lowered his head and played with his fingers, looking absent-minded.

Perhaps he was used to being in the spotlight, Valentinian seemed calm and at ease, not feeling awkward at all. He adjusted the golden crown on his head, walked to the Senate's speech seat, pointed at Luca standing beside him, and shouted to the elders in the audience: "Now I have to solemnly introduce you!" As he spoke, he pointed at Luca in the audience and said to the elders in front of him: "Our hero! Flavius ​​Luca!"

“Pah pah pah…”

The sparse applause from the audience was enough to prove what kind of status Luca held in the Senate. But he didn't feel surprised at all. The only surprise was that there were still people willing to applaud him, even if they were extremely reluctant.

"Of course, as Augustus, I have to say a few words." When the sparse applause stopped, Valentinian began his speech at the Senate. Of course, this was all the long-winded nonsense that politicians usually talk about. Luca stood aside and didn't listen to a word. The elders who were used to listening naturally pretended to be loyal listeners. Luca guessed that this was probably because the regent queen Placidia standing at the door of the meeting hall was in the way, so these staunch supporters of the regent queen's policies had to sit here.

When Valentinian III was speaking excitedly, Luca turned around and met those eager eyes at first sight.

"Oh, God, no way!" Luca quickly avoided the eager eyes and tried not to look at her, the woman who was still thinking about him, no, his sister. Likinia was standing behind Luca. Now Luca looked like a winner. How could he not make this young girl fall in love with him, even though she was only a woman now. The few seconds of staring at each other had already satisfied Likinia. She smiled, lowered her head, and stroked her slightly bulging belly. She looked up at Luca's back, and then lowered her head to look at her belly covered by the loose robe. There seemed to be some subtle connection between them, but Luca knew nothing about it.

The long speech finally ended with Valentinian's dry mouth. Luca's legs were numb from standing. He had nothing to do during this time, so he just stared at Thermitius, who was also inattentive to the speech. The anger in each other's eyes was so intense that they wanted to burn the other to death.

Finally it was over, and then it was time for the banquet. Luca covered his rumbling stomach and followed Valentinian into the carriage without looking back. Because they were both members of the Flavius ​​family and meritorious officials of the empire, they could not be called adopted sons. So Luca was pulled into Valentinian's gorgeous carriage, and Gala Placidia and Licinia also got in. Andrew was naturally not so lucky. He was allowed to walk with the carriage holding the eagle flag. Although it was very tiring, it was still a great honor for Andrew to be able to escort Augustus' carriage, and he was very happy to do it.

On the contrary, Luca was a little embarrassed in the carriage. The Augustus of the Empire, the Queen Regent, and Licinia were the people he wanted to avoid the most from the beginning to the end. Now there were four people in the same carriage, each with different thoughts in their minds, and there was no common topic at all. No one broke the silence, and the scene was awkward for a while.

"Sir Luca!" Finally, the regent queen Placidia, who had rich experience in dealing with people, broke the awkward silence. She asked, "I heard that you gave those arrogant Vandals a severe lesson in Carthage. Can you tell me the details?" Luca was surprised that the regent queen wanted to hear all this, whether because there was no historian to give them a detailed description or what.

"Oh, OK, OK!" Faced with the request of the Queen Regent, Luca naturally did not dare to neglect it, after all, this was a woman who could threaten Aetius. No one could tell how capable she was, so Luca secretly told himself in his heart, "Be careful!" Luca told the three people in the car about the course of the war, of course, he also excerpted it, mainly talking about the course of the naval battle with the Vandals, plus he had the talent to brag, and because of his personal experience, he was able to narrate the details, what he said made the three people fascinated, and the most fascinated among them was Valentinian, because the last failure had made him lose the qualification to command the army, but he was eager to hold the military power in his hands. He listened to Luca's description and didn't even feel that the carriage had stopped.

"Here we are, Caesar!"

The driver's call outside the carriage brought Valentinian back to his senses.

"Oh, oh, my God!"

Valentinian realized that he had lost his temper and quickly apologized to Luca, then turned around and pulled open the curtains. He found that he was already outside the palace and had arrived at his destination.

"Hey! Luca!" Valentinian turned around and looked at Luca triumphantly and said, "Come quickly, let me show you what I have prepared for you."

"Oh, my God, I'm so tired!" Augustus Valentinian III was so enthusiastic that although Luca smiled apologetically, he was still secretly complaining in his heart.

(End of this chapter)