The Villae Estens was a villa located in the town of Tibur, the oldest settlement of what will be known as Tivoli in the future. It was actually a big farm owned by the Estens family.
"Hmm... we can't enter without being discovered," Yuto said, observing the strict surveillance within the perimeter of the farm: men armed with glades and spears patrolled the agricultural fields while lookouts were located on the four wooden turrets at the corners of the boundary, all armed with bows.
"Jack can kill them," Jack said.
"No, even too much silence could alert them," Yuto said, stopping Jack who was already producing her toxic fog.
Yuto concentrated on trying to find a solution. The real problem was the lookouts. They would see him sneaking through the crops.
"Jack, wait here. When you see the signal, you go inside. They mustn't see you," Yuto replied. "The signal will be recognizable."
Jack nodded and vanished in spiritual form.
Yuto crouched and reached a guard who was returning to the camp to take over the others. Approaching his back and making his presence known, Yuto whispered something in his ear.
Yuto grinned as he delivered him an amphora full of wine.
The soldier staggered into the camp and approached a colleague.
"You bastard raped my woman. You will pay for this!" the soldier hit his colleague with the amphora that shattered.
Yuto grinned at me. Hypnosis could not work on strong minds but those were soldiers trained to obey orders and therefore their wills were much weaker than a commander.
To be sure, Yuto did not hypnotize two others, to add more fuel to the fire.
Yuto entered the villa, the chaos of the fight covered his steps allowing him to pass unnoticed.
"Where will they be?" Yuto wondered.
"In the cellar below us," Jack answered directly into Yuto's mind.
Yuto found the passage and went down to the basement. It was a place really lit only by a candle placed on a table in the centre of the room. Gaius Valerius and the mystery man Yuto met at the public baths.
"There's no way." Yuto was shocked to recognize the third man.
He could not forget the face of the archer of the Sixth Holy Grail War. He was a man of tan skin, snow-white hair and steel-grey eyes. He wore black armour that adhered to his trained physique, black trousers tight to his thighs and shins by leather straps and black shoes. He was wearing a crimson red coat over his armour.
Yuto hid in the shadows but if he was that man, then hiding was futile.
"Soon Octavianus will begin a campaign against the conspirators. At that moment, when he is away, you must convince the senate to declare him an enemy of Rome and exile him." the mysterious man said, moving a black stone from the remaining whites. "Octavianus will gather Caesar's troops." He put more black stones next to the one that was supposed to symbolize the future emperor. "The plan is that he sieges Rome. The senate will vote for a state of emergency, send this man to confront him, and kill him."
"What if Archer should intervene?" Gaius Valerius rightly asked.
"I happen to be Archer," the other man said. "The fact that his face was covered will do the rest."
"But you must be persuasive. Your speech must be as convincing as Pericles' speech to the Athenians during the memorial," the mysterious man said. "Have you understood everything? Remember that you will not have other possibilities. If you have questions, ask them now."
"I will need evidence to prove his guilt," Gaius Valerius stated.
The mystery man turned to Archer. "Can you handle it?"
"Yeah, no problem," Archer said.
Yuto gasped slightly as Archer's steel gaze shifted over him. He had been discovered, noticing the smirk on Archer's lips; however, the servant did not warn them of his presence.
"Don't dare fail this time," the mystery man reminded him.
Gaius Valerius swallowed nervously before Archer's glacial gaze.
Something told him that the man was much more dangerous than any conspirator.
Both Gaius Valerius and the mystery man left the cellar alone, while Archer stared at the details of the plan.
"Did you like what you heard?" Archer asked.
Yuto came out of hiding, suspicious of the man's intentions and with the guard at most considering the type of humoral person Archer was.
"Are you playing both sides?" Yuto asked.
"Their plan is doomed to fail. That's for sure," Archer said.
"You let me listen for that?" Under the mask, Yuto frowned.
Yuto distrusted this man. Archer was the exact opposite of Jack. While Assassins was extremely loyal to the master he chose, Archer was loyal to no one but himself, entering into different alliances and leaving them when it suited him.
"This is how magi act," Archer snorted bored. "They think I'm their lackey, and I will let them believe it for as long as I need it."
"You have no honour," Yuto said, displeased.
Archer stoically stared at Yuto. "Aren't you doing the same thing? Aren't you using that man for your own purposes?"
Yuto's eyes opened wide while those words were illuminating. The suspicion he had during the Sixth Holy Grail War was certainty now. Now he knew who the man in front of him was and it made sense.
"If you have a brain, you will agree that you are following a ghost," Archer said. "Give up now. Once you take that road, there will be no return."
"..."
"Hmph..." Archer snorted before vanishing.
Yuto stood there, his hands flickering slightly in his fists. In a fit of rage, he smashed a barrel, pouring the wine on the ground.
"Daddy?" Jack appeared next to Yuto and held his hand.
Jack's presence calmed him a little.
"I'm fine," Yuto said, turning to the door. "Let's go home."
In the end, the man she was going to marry was decided. Her friends could have told her it was time, but she wasn't exactly thrilled. Many men were lady-killers, with only a few exceptions like her father who was a man of honour.
She didn't know who her future husband was. Her father and mother didn't say his name, but they asked her to trust their judgment. She knew for a fact that her marriage would strengthen her family. It would herald the birth of a new alliance that would strengthen both sides' positions in Roman society.
"Miss, the mistress requests you," a slave woman said.
Lavinia the Younger nodded and walked to her mother's room. She definitely wanted to talk about marriage and what she should do once she's married. Like she hasn't heard it many times.
"I wonder what he's doing right now," Lavinia the Younger murmured to herself.
There was a guy who had worked at her house for five years and something caught her eye, even though at the time she was just a little girl. It was as if that boy's eyes could see beyond the simple distinction of gender; it was like he could see a hidden truth that was a gift from the gods.
However, she had not seen him for five years. Her father had freed him after he had saved his life and that of his entire garrison.
"You wanted to see me?" Lavinia the Younger asked, entering her mother's room.
"Are you nervous?" Lavinia asked her daughter. "You shouldn't be. The man your father chose for you is trusted."
"I know. My father is a wise man. I trust my father's judgment," the daughter replied.
Yes, of course not. She doubted it very much. Marriage was nothing more than an alliance between two patriarchs in search of mutual advantage.
"If you wanted to talk to me, then I have very clear in my mind what my task will be. I must be loyal to the husband and procreate. Nothing new compared to what I already know," Lavinia the Younger said, turning to the door.
Lavinia was aware of how important Yuto was to her daughter. She had known this for ten years, since he found her after she was lost in the crowd during the regifugium (February 24). She didn't know exactly what had happened, but her father Tiberius had found them, sitting on a bench with Yuto telling her a story from Greece. Since then he had started telling her stories of heroes and myths from the various Roman provinces.
"I wanted to ask you if you were ready to meet him?" Lavinia asked.
"I'm ready to do my duty," the daughter replied.
"Then you will be happy to know that the man you will meet tomorrow is Yuto," Lavinia said, surprising her daughter. "The reserve was so because a marriage between a patrician and a freedman is not common. But your father chose him because he wants to bring a magus into the family."
"A magus?" Lavinia the Younger tilted her head slightly.
"Your father tried to convince him in every way, even by paying for the forge; however, Yuto refused every proposal," Lavinia said, explaining that the sword that Tiberius had begun to use in battle was a sword created by Yuto's magic. "Your marriage to him will grant us a line of magi."
"Basically, you're using him," Lavinia the Younger said, shaking her hand to her chest as if to block the guilt.
"Isn't this the wedding?" the mother commented casually.
Lavinia the Younger nodded.
Did he like this?
No.
Did she have any way of refusing it?
No.
"What should I do then?" Lavinia the Younger gave in.
A clever smile formed on the face of the matron.
"You will have to seduce him and to do so you will have to seduce her daughter," Lavinia said. "Conquer her heart and everything will be fine."
Lavinia the Younger nodded.
"Now go. I want you rested for tomorrow," Lavinia kindly ordered.
Lavinia the Younger left.
The next morning, at dawn, Yuto prepared for the meeting with Lavinia the Younger.
He would have preferred to avoid it; however he did not mean disrespect to the family of Tiberius and therefore he would have done so, only to decline their offer in the end. He wasn't interested in marriage or alliances after all.
"Will she be happy to meet Jack?" Jack asked.
"Don't kid yourself," Yuto said, trying to dampen Jack's enthusiasm to prevent her from being disappointed if Lavinia the Younger was not the mother she was looking for. "Whatever happens, you must promise me that you will keep calm."
"I get it! Jack has to like her!" Jack declared ardently.
Yuto sighed and crossed his fingers, praying that everything went right.
The Domus of the Lupis family was located on Palatine Hill along with the other residences of the aristocracy. It was a two-storey house, decorated with marble statues from mainland Greece and other areas of the Aegean and coloured mosaics.
"Oh, it's Yuto!" a maid said, greeting him.
"Hello, Maria. It's been a long time since you've been here. I find you a little old," Yuto said cordially.
"Are you saying I'm old?" A vein was beating on Maria's forehead. "You cheeky little brat! Damn, your forked tongue!"
Maria was a domestic slave, a person who worked in the Domus. Yuto was a particular case in that he was both a domestic slave, a bodyguard and a slave who worked in fields.
"I'm glad to see you're okay. Uhm..." Maria noticed Jack's presence. "Who would you be?"
"We're daddy's daughter Jack," Jack answered casually.
A mocking smile appeared on Mary's face.
"Do you know where the mistress is?" Yuto asked.
"Do you have anything to tell her?" Maria asked.
Only of his possible marriage. Yuto simply nodded.
"Well, I think she's in the garden," Maria replied.
"All right. Thank you!"
Thanking Maria with a bag of cookies he cooked, Yuto and Jack headed to the front of the villa, that of the family's private garden, where in addition to the matriarch, Lavinia the Younger was also there.
"This place is as cheerful as ever," Yuto said, bowing slightly before Lavinia the Younger. "I see you've grown a lot since I last saw you."
"It's been five years. Now I have fifteen," Lavinia said, returning the gesture.
"You know why I'm here, don't you?" Yuto asked her to make sure she wasn't unaware. Only at Lavinia's affirmative gesture, Yuto decided to go straight to the point. "Do you want it?"
"What I want doesn't matter. The sake of my family and Rome is everything," Lavinia the Younger replied as if she had been programmed to answer that way.
"..." the answer of Lavinia the Younger did not please Yuto, but he thought it was caused by the presence of his mother there. "I am sorry. Could we have some privacy?"
Lavinia nodded and left, leaving him, her daughter, and Jack alone in the garden.
"Tell me the truth. Do you really want it?" Yuto asked again.
"What I want doesn't matter. If I don't marry you, I will marry someone else," Lavinia said. From this point of view, she preferred to marry Yuto who at least knew him and knew who he was.
"I can't guarantee you happiness. I can't guarantee you a comfortable life at the very least," Yuto said.
He was a blacksmith. He lived with little.
He was a vigilante. He lived his life in a precarious balance on a thread between life and death.
"Do you know what makes me happy?" Lavinia replied, taking Yuto by surprise. "Do you remember the fairy tales you told me when I was a child?"
"They were just stories I told you to get you to sleep," Yuto replied.
"My favourite was that of King Arthur and the impossible love between Lancelot and Queen Guinevere," Lavinia the Younger said. "Even if their love was adulterous, it was still honest."
"Hmm..." Yuto murmured thoughtfully, crossing his arms across his chest.
Did she prefer adulterous love? Yuto was definitely confused.
"Marriage must bear offspring. This offspring must ensure the continuation of both families," Lavinia the Younger said, sitting on a marble bench. "Once I have a child with my future husband, he will almost certainly lose interest, assuming he didn't lose it after his wedding night."
"That's clear," Yuto replied. "That's human nature."
In Gilgamesh's words, men were beasts incapable of experiencing joy without making others suffer. This was a point of view that Yuto fully shared.
"I am saying that I alone have a right to determine who or what makes me happy, just as Guinevere had found a little happiness with Lancelot," Lavinia explained.
It was a speech Yuto would never hear from a Roman woman. Perhaps he had entertained her a little too much with his stories, plagiarizing her to some extent and emancipating her thanks to the strong examples of women he had spoken of.
"If my father chose you, he had his reasons. I don't know if it's because of what my mother told me, yet I trust him and accept this marriage without any hesitation," Lavinia declared, firmly convinced of her decision and intention.
"..." Yuto remained silent reflecting on what to do.
To refuse now would surely ruin relations with Tiberius' family and he would not.
"Jack, what do you think?" Yuto asked.
Jack approached Lavinia the Younger. "Are you my mommy?"
"Only after the wedding," Lavinia the Younger replied.
"And will you make daddy happy?" Jack asked then.
"I'll try," Lavinia the Younger replied with embarrassment.
"Is it a promise?" Jack asked, staring into Lavinia's eyes.
"Yes, it is," Lavinia answered.
"Then you have our blessing," Jack declared
Yuto sighed wearily.
"You heard the boss, didn't you?" Yuto said, pinching his neck.
Yuto turned to the door, where he saw the mother of his betrothed observing them with a satisfied smile. He did not like and he did not love even Lavinia the Younger, however now he could not flee.
What did he just do?
- Meanwhile...
"The kid's doing well."
"Kyuuu!"
"Unfortunately the time has already changed."
"Kyu?"
"I think it's time to go."