The Founding Of A Nation (4)

Seated on his throne gazing out upon the throne room Julius marvelled at how far he'd come but upon turning his gaze his expression dropped some, of the fifty stone chairs lining his throne room three were currently occupied, and if he counted all his present retainers he'd still only fill 8 of these seats.

Clearly, recruitment would need to proceed apace to flush out his cabinet.

But for now, the people come first.

And that is where his second choice for spending his Tech points came in.

[Civil Service] is a multi-upgradable thing, the each stage increasing the lives of the commoners, the first stage increasing the commoner's belief in cleanliness, enhancing their skills as well.

The game would boost their crop yields, and gains from gathering, so with this would come better Mining, Logging, and Farming techniques that the people would begin implementing either with time or given how the system managed currency perhaps they'd already started doing it.

The other advantage would be the introduction of true civil servants as public organizations could now be formed, allowing for local management of towns without lords needing to be appointed, or the creation of guilds to better maintain standards for mining, farming, merchants etc.

This would mean the forming Roman state would be one based on Merit not on Hereditary like all the other kingdoms, this would allow the state an edge, with those most suited taking up key positions, gone would be the days when incompetence is allowed simply because one's title allows them so.

"Alright our seat of power starts here, but we will need people to fill in our city, Miri"

Hearing her name she jumped from her chair and stared at Julius

"Yes Milord!"

"Hehe, no worries Miri, just when you get a chance can we ask that you map out the inside of our Eternal City we will of course provide you with the necessary materials to do this, once done we'll create the layout for the roadways, and plots of land to be used by our people."

"Of course your majesty!"

Her face was beaming being given such an administrative task.

"Next Zeff, we'll need you to go back to Nova Carthage post haste to rouse up a garrison force to defend our new Captial city and bring their families if any of the men have them"

"It will be done!"

Without waiting any longer Zeff took off after responding.

Lastly, Julius turned towards Yuri.

"Sadly I do not have a task for you at this time Princess, but in a task stead would you care to go explore this new palace with me?"

Normally she'd snap at him mentioning her tossed-aside roll as a princess, but his follow-up offer caused the girl to stare at her feet with a heavily blushed face.

Having been handed her tools Miri took off to begin her task, but not before turn round and throwing a quick thumbs up towards the still stock-still Princess.

Having been left alone, Julius uprooted himself from his throne, strode to her side and offered a hand to the still-seated princess.

With this hand entering her downed field of view she finally snapped out of her fantasy, blushing a bit harder the girl took his hand, and the pair arm in arm absconded from the room beginning a tour of the palace.

For Julius, this was just that, a tour, he checked out the Library, grand hall, smaller dining halls, dungeon, training halls, and servants' quarters.

When they reached the third floor the practical rooms had ended and all that they found was bedroom after bedroom, each time a door was opened revealing a suite Yuri would blush.

The fourth and final floor Julius gathered would be the Royal penthouse or Imperial Suite.

At mentioning this he at first tried to prevent her from entering fearing the girl would outright pass out at the thought of being in his bedroom, given how she'd reacted to just seeing the various other bedrooms.

But her persistence bore him down, and so ascending the steps the pair entered his private suite, taking up the top floor the suite was not merely a sole bedroom, but actually a series of adjoining rooms all with a sole entrance.

Julius had his own bedroom, library, sitting room, and dining room from history somewhere within would be a secret passage to allow the emperor to escape in the event his personal suite was compromised, the same could be said for the rest of the palace and these would need to be discovered so that should the time ever come they could be used.

The pair scoured the place, most surprising was that the rooms were not empty just like the others they'd come across.

Beds and Bedding, Tables and chairs, even the library was stocked full of books.

Miri will have a field day, while Zeff surely will enjoy the training grounds to his hearts content alongside the General, and perhaps even Yuri.

The tour having ended resulted in probably the biggest problem of them all coming up which was that they had no one to cook for them even though they now had a home to stay in.

And so while the Praetorians continued to eat their trail rations while staying in the guard quarters of the palace, Yuri and Miri were treated to a personally cooked meal by Julius's own hand, nothing spectacular mind you as while the kitchen came stocked with equipment like all the other rooms, the pantry sadly was empty so he could only create what the supplies they'd brought with them allowed, along with what could be foraged locally.

And so the gathering broke bread in the palace for the first time, Miri ate in relative silence while still pouring over the map she'd begun to create, while Yuri could not stop spouting compliments at Julius's created spread or how this should be the first time in all of history for a King to make a meal for a pair of commoners.

This of course resulted in a fight as Julius felt it necessary to point out that princess or not she was far from being a commoner, and likewise stating that Miri as wife, or future wife to Zeff was barely one as well.