Rome.
The Senate.
“The Germanic tribes are raiding the borders again! We must send reinforcements!”
A bearded senator slammed his fist onto the table.
“Reinforcements? And where will the money come from?”
Across from him, a thin senator sneered.
“The treasury is already empty! We can barely even pay the soldiers anymore!”
“Then raise taxes!”
“Raise taxes? Do you want the commoners to revolt?!”
The arguing nearly lifted the roof off the chamber.
The Chief Senator, Caesar, sat there with a dark expression, saying nothing.
At that moment—
“Report!”
A messenger stumbled and crawled into the hall.
His face was filled with unbelievable ecstasy.
“He’s back!”
“Lord Antony has returned!”
The Senate instantly fell silent.
Every eye focused on the messenger.
“He… he brought it back!”
The messenger’s voice trembled with excitement.
“From the East! He brought back a miracle!”
Caesar shot to his feet.
“Quick!”
“Bring him in!”
Moments later—
Antony entered the Senate chamber.
His clothes were tattered, his hair a tangled mess.
His face was weathered with exhaustion.
Yet his eyes shone frighteningly bright.
In his hands, he clutched a brocade box that had long since lost its luster.
As though he were holding the entire world itself.
He walked to the center of the Senate and dropped to one knee.
Then he raised the brocade box high above his head.
“I have fulfilled my mission!”
His voice was hoarse, yet filled with power.
“I have brought Rome… its future!”
All the senators stood up.
They stared at the brocade box, breathing heavily.
“Antony.”
Caesar descended the steps personally and helped him up.
“Tell us your story.”
Antony straightened his back.
His gaze swept across the chamber.
“That so-called Eastern Empire is weak beyond belief.”
His tone dripped with contempt.
“Their officials are greedier than wolves.”
“With only a few chests of gold, I bribed their border guards and bought off their bureaucrats.”
“That divine blueprint was hidden inside their heavily guarded Imperial Workshop.”
“And yet, with only a single greedy traitor, I obtained it effortlessly.”
The senators burst into knowing laughter.
“But they discovered it.”
Antony’s tone shifted.
“That young Qin Emperor flew into a rage.”
“He sent troops after me and sealed the entire harbor.”
“But under the protection of the gods… I escaped!”
He described the storm created by the Qin fleet as the wrath of the sea god.
He described the disguised merchant ship as fate’s guidance.
In his telling, he became a hero blessed by the gods, overcoming countless dangers through wit and courage.
And Qin became a rotten, foolish paper tiger that relied only on brute force.
“Excellent!”
One senator raised his arm and shouted.
“Antony! You are a hero of Rome!”
“Hero!”
“Hero!”
The cries echoed throughout the chamber.
Even Caesar revealed a satisfied smile.
He patted Antony on the shoulder.
“You shall receive one hundred pounds of gold, an estate outside the city, and honorary citizenship granted by the Senate!”
Antony trembled with excitement.
Everything he had dreamed of had come true.
“And now—”
Caesar’s gaze landed upon the brocade box.
“Let us witness this miracle from the East.”
The Senate fell silent once more.
Everyone held their breath.
An old man with white hair was escorted inside by guards.
He was Rome’s greatest engineer: Marcus.
Marcus approached the brocade box.
His hands trembled slightly.
He undid the clasp.
Opened the box.
Inside lay a scroll wrapped in silk.
He carefully removed it and slowly unfurled the scroll.
The blueprint appeared before everyone’s eyes.
Marcus took only a single glance.
His entire body froze instantly.
The expression on his face shifted from confusion…
to shock…
to bewilderment…
and finally into uncontrollable fanaticism.
THUD!
This revered national treasure of Roman engineering suddenly collapsed to his knees.
He was not kneeling before Caesar.
He was kneeling before the blueprint.
“Gods…”
Marcus’s voice sounded like sleep-talking.
“This… this is a draft personally drawn by Jupiter, God of War himself!”
The Senate exploded into uproar.
Caesar strode forward quickly.
“Marcus, you understand it?”
“Understand it?”
Marcus lifted his head, tears streaming down his face as though he had gone mad.
“No! I do not understand it! How could mortals possibly fully comprehend a divine design?!”
He pointed at one of the complicated structures on the blueprint.
“Look here! This linked firing mechanism! I dare say no one except a god could conceive such a thing!”
Then he pointed at the thick twisted ox-tendon cables.
“And this! Such overwhelming force! Ordinary mortal wood could never withstand it!”
“That’s why it exploded! Because mortal materials profaned a divine creation!”
His explanation was almost identical to Lucas’s.
“Then what do we do?”
a senator asked anxiously.
“Can we build it?”
“Yes!”
Marcus sprang to his feet.
“Of course we can!”
He pointed at the blueprint as though it were sacred scripture itself.
“The blueprint has already given us the revelation!”
“If we use Rome’s finest steel to forge its frame—”
“And the toughest ironwood from the northern forests for its connecting rods—”
“Then we can perfectly recreate this divine weapon!”
Those words were like oil poured onto a raging fire.
The entire Senate went mad.
“With this, what are Germanic tribes worth?”
“The rebellion in Gaul could be crushed in a single battle!”
“We could even… cross the great sea and conquer that so-called Eastern Empire!”
Caesar’s breathing became heavy.
As he stared at the blueprint, he seemed to see the entire world kneeling beneath Rome’s eagle banners.
Suddenly, he drew the sword from his waist and raised it high.
“I hereby declare!”
His voice thundered throughout the Senate chamber.
“From this moment onward, all construction projects in Rome are suspended!”
“Gather the finest craftsmen! The finest steel! The finest timber in the empire!”
“Use every reserve in the national treasury!”
“No matter the cost!”
Caesar’s sword pointed fiercely at the blueprint.
“Build us one thousand of them!”
“One thousand of these divine weapons!”
“And they shall bear a new name—”
Caesar paused, his face twisted with savage fanaticism.
“Wrath of Jupiter!”
“For Rome!”
“FOR ROME!!!”
The entire Senate sank into madness and fantasy about the future.
Discussion
Comments
0 comments so far.
Sign in to join the conversation and keep your activity tied to this account.
No comments yet. Start the conversation.