25. Fight for the throne Part 2

A king's life is of despair,

Blood paved roads leading onto the hall of greatness,

Death is their release and struggles their way,

Suffering endlessly for the others who follow before,

A king is not so simple,

A king's life not so easy,

Corpses filled pavements and a throne of thorns,

Which will you choose,

O wise king for your actions wrought such,

A decision would be made,

Either in despair or misery,

Would you fall and give in or fight to rack more corpses,

O little king for your suffering has yet to begin.

Justinus once again woke up from his nightmare. The words of his uncle seeped deep in his mind.

The life of a king is not filled with Roses. A just and wise king would have to suffer much more than the corrupt and sadistic. Betrayal would be his day and destruction his life. A battle of words against equals will succumb to his time. If it was in his hands Justinus would wish for happiness for all, but the reality was harsh. Not everyone could live happily, sacrifices have to made, or else no one would be saved. But could he handle it? Could he wrought despair on others knowing their sufferings?

"It's a hard choice uncle, one I wish I would never have to make" once more Justinus tried to go to sleep and forget such thoughts. But the burden of responsibilities soon started haunting his nights.

A few Days Later:

Justinus walked towards the royal castle with his uncle trailing behind. The closer he got the more people began noticing him. He was not in his usual garment. In order to bestow regality towards his future allies, Justinus wore a royal cape with a lot of strings, inside was a linen shirt with exquisite decorations making him feel discomforted in this fiery weather but for this current meeting and sheer insistence from his uncle, he wore this attire. A serious atmosphere engulfed the pair upon leaving the house making Justinus even more uncomfortable as such taking a decision to be a better man, he initiated the first strike of conversation.

"What can you tell me about the royal family, uncle Silvarres? You did serve my father before"

Uncle Silvarre's face scrunched on the mention of this topic, " Though it would be better for me to not say anything about them and let you handle them firsthand. Knowing your temper towards the upper class it would be wise for you to know. In truth, they are not good people. Your uncle, the one related to you by blood spends the state's fortune on wine and women, your cousin is no different from your uncle. She has a special room for the lack of better words, where she throws the gladiators she likes in the arena and uses them for her past time, some never come back from her chambers ever."

"...and you want me to make good on those people. I am ashamed uncle, I thought you knew to be better," Justinus said with a strained smile barely able to control his anger and disgust towards them.

"I know you better Justinus even if our time together was small. Your first objective as a king would be to leash them. The methods would simply depend on you." His uncle's words left Justinus confused.

"Hah...Would you not be sad if I do so? After all, you did serve the royal family in the past"

"The past is the past. Live on the present instead of looking behind all the time" His uncle spoke with a nonchalant smile on his face. It seems something happened between them in the past. Well, not my problem on the other hand it makes things easier.

"Okay. uncle if that is your wish"

The pair soon found themselves in front of the gate of the Royal Palace.

"Halt, state your reason for entrance"

Justinus taking as his cue decided to speak stood forth, "My name is Justinus, heir of Regulus the late king of Rome."The guards looked at him in apprehension. Quite a lot of people claimed themselves as the heir- apparent to the late king after all. It would be unusual otherwise if they outright believed him.

The guards decided to humor his charade and asked, "What proof do you have for such a claim?"

He smirked this was time to show off his true worth. From his waist, he took out a sword and plunged it deep in the sky. The guards gasped while looking on this relic. There was no one in Rome who did not know of this sword. "This is the sword of the late Julius Ceaser, Cochea Mors. After his departure, the sword laid on the ground on a deep forest next to my home. Fortunately, I was able to find and restore it to its past glory."

"How can we believe your words to not be fake? We could easily take the sword from your hands and claim ourselves, king, no?" Justinus laughed boisterously at this insight. However, he was prepared for this kind of question.

With his free hand, he plunged the sword deep beneath the ground, "Then, do it"

One of the guards taking on his provocations tried to pick up the legendary sword and hoped to be a new king but the moment he touched it he felt a searing pain on his hand. In his fear, the guard backed off.

"See, I forgot to tell you the sword is very picky. It can only be wielded by those acknowledged by it." His uncle smiled at his well-timed bluff. The sword cannot be picked, as he activated one of its passive abilities before leaving it on the ground, which caused flickering flames to dance on the hilt of the sword. Only a user recognized by it before can cancel it.

A Few Days Later:

The knowledge of a new heir to the throne spread like wildfire all over Rome. The people of Rome for the first time saw hope in their new king. Justinus advocated for all of the gladiators and bottom dwellers. He was a king of the people sympathizing with their plight and aiding them in their time of misery.

Very quickly his reputation soared the skies. Adored by women of his kingdom and earning people respect made procuring food for the army expedition easier as well as made his warriors the most loyal in the world. The love and loyalty of his follower would in no way lose to Arthur and his knights in the past. The final icing of the cake was the presence of Crocea Mors in the new king's hands.

"Rome will never be the same. The past showed you all that an inept king is. Weak and spineless was Arhieus, and his noble friends even worse. Debauchery was rampant as well as slavery. I, Justinus vow to you people to return Rome to its Glory as such I ask you the people to fight by my side. Britan will fall in Blood, The Saxons in our wrath, and the Maharajas will kneel before us. The world will ours from now as it should be"

The silence was what filled the entire place. It was a common busy day in Rome. Normality at its finest or it should be if Justinus had not decided to make his speech to rally support and take the fight to the world. The priests spoke of a new king rising to conquer the world sent by gods while the vagabonds betrayed their own to side with him. Suddenly Rome roared for their new king. The battle of the future will start anew.

"All hail Justinus, True Ruler of Rome!! All hail Justinus!!All hail Justinus!! All hail Justinus!! All hail Justinus!! " Shouts echoed throughout the vicinity. Serfs, peasants, maids, gladiators, merchants were no more. All speaking in a single voice as a single entity. Rome was born today in his hands, starting a new page in history. Will it portray their king's shortsightedness or a rise of a new empire, only time will tell...

Hearing such exploits of the new king rose the interest of a certain general among the crowds. His name was Alexandar, The Great.

Rumors spread speaking praises of the new king of Rome. Alexander was hoping to see if it were false or true as such he infiltrated inside Rome to see what this king brought in their table. He was surprised though. The charisma, energy, and his way of words inspired not only Rome but even a fine general like himself. A storm was coming and he did like to be the receiving end of it.

"If only I could meet you first, then Justinus would have been with us ..."

Alexandar's Palace, Persia:

The place now is a large open field decorated for a banquet of the king. Women of renowned beauty danced in front of him. Some of his advisors sat on different chairs laying visage to beauty and feasting on wine and food. Luxury was apparent to this king. Sitting on his throne in the middle of the venue sipping his expensive and old wine sat Alexender, pondering on the situation of his neighbors.

Coming with a strategy against Justinus was hard because of his astute reputation among the nobles. Some of them feared the new king's wrath to such extent that they defected to his nation.

That's when he knew how much trouble the new king of Rome brought to his doors.

"He killed his own family." Shock spread to his mind. A freshly minted country bumpkin having no prior knowledge of lineage did that in a few months? Preposterous.

"Yes, not only that. A foreign woman by the name Aria is going around executing everyone who goes against his will in front of the crowds. Information regarding his past was scarce. Other than being a past gladiator there was nothing more known about him but through my contacts, I found out that the girl, Aria is filling his ears though the integrity of such information is dubious at most." Alexander smiled fiercely at this new information.

"It looks like the birth of a new conqueror. Truly living in this time is fun as hell. First Arthur showing the middle finger to all her knights and sacking the support of the church's order and now, the emergence of a second Julius Caeser" Though Alexander should face despair for fighting against these legendary individuals, he could help himself to not smile in mirth. A battle worthy of legends would soon succumb to the world for there could only be one conqueror, one ruler.

" Send a messenger to Rome and inform them of a temporary alliance between us."

"But Sire doing such will compromise our positions as equals. Surely we maharajas under you have far more intellectual and military capacity than that newly minted bottom dweller. We see no reason to further support his ascension. " Spoke one of the advisors named Ambhi. Wearing a dark turban with white stripes and fleeting mustache.

Persians were anxious about what actions their ruler would take. Standing as the self-proclaimed conqueror naturally ruffled the hairs of a great few nations but then alexander was able to keep Persia afloat through sheer tactical might.

"Do not worry about the future. Just make sure to rally support from the Indus valley and bring in all who wish to join for glory. It seems like some people forgot their place in the world claiming themselves to be strongest as such we as veterans have a duty to remind them of their place" A crude picture of Arthur was planted in a table. Taking out the sword from his waist, Alexander plunged his knife through Arthur's heart tearing the picture apart. The noble smile of alexander soon turned demented.

"Revenge will be ours. Just you wait, Arthur. Hahaha..."