Panem et Liftin' 2 - (Fantasy Roman Timeline, Lepidus!SI)

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0 Yuanping (元平) (Last Chinese Regnal Era of Emperor Xuan and Marquis of Haihun)

The Empress with no Divine Guidance.

That was the title bestowed upon the poor girl known as Shangguan Min - the 'Grand Empress Dowanger' after the untimely death of her husband, Emperor Zhao.

At the ripe age of 15, the girl was indeed most upset with how things have been for her. Her grandfather, Huo Guang, a powerful minister for the Imperial Court, had masterfully crafted her a chance to reach such sublime title, but her lucks rejected her chances.

Sure, she was made Empress and, indeed, she was much pleased with her husband, but there wasn't any attempt to validate their wedding by bed.

Her beloved Emperor Zhao wished for her to be 'properly mature' before giving her pleasure. And, to the dismay of many, this decision left the Han Dynasty without a proper ruler.

His death at the age of 20 meant that there was no direct heir, and that others had to be examinated as possible successors.

For a month, that mess was solved when her grandfather pushed for the Marquis of Haihun, Liu Hen, to take over as new Emperor. But this proved to be a mistake.

Liu Hen didn't follow traditions, he wasted day and night drinking and whoring himself as he enjoyed his elevated status. And, such a shameful attitude, wasn't worthy of anyone replacing her former husband.

Dismissing Liu Hen was easy. Her grandfather had been quick to muster all his loyalists to intimidate any of those bowing to Liu Hen and then employed Min to oust the pathetic excuse for an Emperor.

In his stead, Emperor Xuan took over and Shangguan Min was... well, once more put to the side.

She didn't mind it as she wasn't born with much ambition, but it definitely hurt how annoyed her grandfather was over 'her' failures.

Was it truly her fault all of this happened?

In her mind, that was a half-truth. While she didn't exactly plan or have much to personally influence the fate of the Empire, it was true she was born 'wrong'.

Usually people with a great destiny were born with the blessing of their deities. And while that didn't sound much to Min when she was quite young, her grandfather made it a burden for her to bear - her, that she was given such a glorious opportunity to raise her family name to greater heights... had lost it all.

She had her moments of greatness, but those were pushed upon her rather than truly warranted.

For most of her life, Min didn't feel too offended by those words, but one particular conversation with her grandfather had pushed her to the edge.

After all, up to that point, she didn't know her maternal family had orchestrated her paternal family's complete extermination.

She was the only Shangguan family member left. And-

"It is all your fault. Your being born a female, your parents being greedy, and your bad luck for driving us on the brink of damnation more than once!"

He was drunk, yes, but that didn't stop him from admitting to what he felt was true - it was all her fault, her and her lacking a divine guidance.

She had tried to beg for this and that, but it never came to her. It wasn't for a lack of trying - she just couldn't find any response to her prayers.

And so, in a rather unusual fit of madness, Min dismissed her servants and reserved a small room for herself. It was just her and... a large torch.

Big enough to consume a proper body, but she wasn't looking to die by fire - yet.

No, she had once listened to some odd words from priests on how their ancestors relied on prayers by the fire. That some of the older deities, those that no longer kept focus upon the mortals, still listened through the flames.

So, Min prayed and prayed. Not just for a specific entity, but for anyone willing to listen and provide her with guidance.

She prayed and prayed, but all she could feel in return was a gust of wind... in a room without windows. The door had been closed behind her, so it couldn't be from there.

But as the former Empress opened her eyes, she found herself shocked. She no longer was within her palace.

Gone were the familiar decorations, rich in value and culture. It was now replaced by an unusual temple. The construct looked massive, as one would expect from a religious side, but it was so desolate as no proper priest or priestess kept watch upon the building.

Yet, Min wasn't the only one in that room.

Right in front of her, a single figure stood. Short, a girl like her and yet younger-looking. A child and yet... not.

[SPOILER][/SPOILER]

"Greetings, Min."

The lack of formality and the warmth in that innocent tone disarmed the cautious noble lady's mind and heart, eyes widening as she saw the girl producing a familiar flame onto her own palms.

"My name is Vesta, and I am the Roman Deity for Hearth, Home, and Family."

R-Roman?

Despite her many questions, Min opted to bow before the divine presence. Finally! That single word echoed through her tragic existence, almost bringing her to tears.

"No crying here, child. You are not unloved," Vesta softly remarked as she suddenly stood right in front of Min, a wet cloth bathing her face, right under her eyes.

Her teary eyes relaxed and she felt the sorrow vanish from her, the warmth consuming her own upset.

"I understand you seek answers to the questions currently storming your mind, but I am afraid I will have to leave you be for now. After all, what I just did is quite going to create a stir but... worry not, I shall entrust you to someone worthy of my trust and appreciation."

Min blinked. "A-A husband?"

Vesta giggled in embarrassment. "O-Of course not, child. That is your decision to make, and I can assure you that you will not be forced into that choice."

With a clap of hands, Vesta vanished and Min blinked in confusion as she felt her body grow lighter and lighter, then she saw red as she stumbled out of... of a torch.

She fell to the ground unconscious, ignoring the gasps and screams coming from both her sides, same for the odd language employed by those soon checking upon her.

Despite being yanked away from her certain life of despair to be pushed into one of unknowns, she couldn't help but feel... warmth inside.

680 A.U.C.

"Come on, Spartacus. Don't tell me you're quitting on the lifting~?"

I have to say that a hint of brattiness was enough to bring the best out of those gladiators.

The loyal 'Family Guard' I had recruited was indeed good in combat due to their ruthless style, but they were all too 'combat-oriented' to understand other fine tasks of their work: such as patrolling, turns of guards, and other tasks that common gladiators were not expected to be familiar with.

Within a year, I had these folks sharply drilled into understanding their jobs. The reason it took so little was due to the fact most of them already faced grueling sessions of training and, in comparison, what I gave them was particularly simple to memorize and apply in practice.

The one thing that, however, caught them off-guard was my Gym Room.

While I couldn't get all the right training tools, I could get dumbbells, weights for lifting and other 'simpler' stuff for their constant exercising.

They were expected to at least spend an hour of their free time there to keep their body sharp. It took a while for this tradition to stick to them, but they were quite taken by this daily chore.

And I was immensely delighted to be the one spotting for Spartacus of all people.

With business going well on my restaurant chain, some funds aiding my brother's political efforts to send loyal officers to our family to the Third Mithridatic War to gain more momentum in his rise to power, and other investments involving new aqueducts and public baths, our prominence in the social scene was growing exponentially.

That being said, my immediate acquisition of a loyal garrison of fierce warriors to protect us came clutch as assassination attempts unfolded due to all of this.

My brother, Lucius, was subjected to three, and I with four.

Luckily for us, my Gladiatoral Guards were doing their job, preventing any potential assassin from getting too close to our family. And this was bound to increase the irritation from rival groups.

I wasn't worried much about this matter, mostly because I had already some plans to retaliate once we had some of our bases covered.

We were going to hit once, just once, and it was going to be enough to exterminate any interest to give us grief from those groups.

That being said, today wasn't meant to amount to much. I already went through my weekly accounting process, I did all the investments I was interested to do for this month, and I really didn't have anything major in the political landscape coming up just yet.

All I had was some free time and basic daily chores.

...

So this:

Warning! Lady Vesta requires your utmost presence at her temple!

This was something interesting.

After all, I had hardly received any major reaction from my patron deity, and for this to lead to me checking to the temple felt a bit surprising.

I still kept on giving a daily donation to the temple - it wasn't too much, but that was mostly to not raise the chances of 'corrupting' the religious group in charge of the chores within the temple.

So, when I arrived to my destination, I wasn't expecting to find out that most of the temple's occupants had seen fit to focus on a single new addition. A new addition that, if I may add, was anomalous on both locational and circumstantial factors.

After all, what was a Chinese girl doing here?

Not only that, but the girl was somehow creating Chinese dishes through the available ingredients. As I got close enough and questioned a priest on the matter, I was told that she appeared through one of the large torches within the temple and that she bore Vesta's blessing.

The blessing in question, as I was told and shown, was the means to turn the local ingredients in the 'equivalent' to those their new 'guest' was more familiar with. Which in case resulted in her making noodles out of the pasta I had 'created' a few years earlier.

The food itself was delicious from the reactions of those testing it, but one thing that caught my attention was the way that no one was able to understand her. They just couldn't.

The issue there was not the language barrier but... the fact that it didn't extend to me.

"I can understand her just fine," I muttered to the priest, who instantly saw this as a sign that Lady Vesta had done something to render me capable of understanding their foreign guest.

I was coaxed to approach closer and see if she could understand me and-

"Hello, who are you?"

The girl paused, her smile slowly fading as she appeared stunned at my words. Her eyes went wide open and then, she smiled brightly.

I barely noticed her darting towards me and I caught her just in time before she could tackle me to the ground.

"Husband~!"

WHAT?!

AN

Lepidus: Vesta, why?

Vesta: Your mother and I want grandkids. So get to work, boy~.

Nobody expects the Chinese Empress Waifu!