Dragon's Tale 93 (Patreon)

Xia didn’t waste any time before dashing to her destination, carrying the remaining dragon hearts with her, I slipped into a back alley before climbing to the roof of the nearest building. 

Trying to walk around the roofs of a bustling city without any illusion spells to assist the concealment was supposed to be impossible, but, luckily, my transformation was not completely negative. Even with the limited effects of the transformation while the scales were suppressed, my physical abilities had been elevated to a shocking level. 

Giving me the speed and flexibility to allow me to dash through the roofs with a shocking speed, the gaps easily covered through a leap. 

My destination was the houses that I had discovered during my walks around the city with excessive protective wards, marking them as belonging to important families and organizations. One of the advantages of living in the city for several weeks as a Sorcerer, it allowed me to discover otherwise ordinary buildings covered with wards with great ease — and a few that I missed had been revealed to me by Theodora. 

After that, it didn’t take much to identify which houses belonged to the families and organizations strong enough to defy House Junia, at least for a couple days. It might have been if I was looking for an organization to defy them permanently, but finding the ones overestimating their abilities under the effect of their greed to keep a Patrician weapon…

That was much easier.

For fifteen minutes, I run over the roofs, carefully spreading the Patrician weapons I had acquired by pushing them through the wards, their spell resistance turning into a benefit to accomplish that easily, their weight enough to complete the process. It was something that could only be done by Patrician Weapons. Without their amazing magical abilities, the process would have ruined them completely. 

Then, I walked away, curious about how long it would take for the Agents of House Junia to discover the fate of those weapons, and how many of those houses would reject the order for their bases to be searched, to give up the treasure that literally fell from the sky into their treasure. 

Greed was a useful trait. 

Without these weapons to weigh me down — except the three weapons, the bow, the sword, and the spear, that somehow resonated with me — I was much faster. Which was good, because several alarms were already ringing across the city, while the guards walked around with their weapons drawn, ordering people to go back into their houses, declaring an emergency. 

At a distance, I could see the rest of the guards gathering around the gates and barring them close. Luckily, I already had a plan to get away that didn’t include the gates, I thought even as I changed my direction toward Ludus Dacius, the School that had been my home and my prison for the last few weeks. 

I still had a mount to acquire.

Luckily, while the guards walked around, the citizens didn’t just obediently walk inside but argued with the guards — it wasn’t just the noble residents of Rome that were arrogant — and the chaos they created allowed me to travel without being noticed. 

The first undercurrents of chaos started to appear before I could arrive at my destination. More than one group of warriors and bodyguards on the move, with their weapons drawn, and a surprising number of wards were being constructed around me — they tried to keep those wards hidden, but to my newly enhanced senses, hiding such activities was near impossible to even on the distance. 

Like a true storm, it was yet to declare its presence by a showy signal, but to a professional eye, the smothering pressure was already there. 

And like a true undercurrent, it was ready to pull anyone that dared to underestimate it. 

Yet, it didn’t take long for those undercurrents to turn into waves and reach my destination before me. When I arrived at the entrance of the Dacian School, a group of nobles were already there, gathered in three different groups, each staying away from the others, clamoring to meet with Master Antonius. 

“How dare you bar our way, you slave,” growled one of them. “I’m a senator of Rome, and I can walk wherever I want. If I want to talk to a dirty slave trader, I will.”

Despite the importance of time, I couldn’t help but shake my head despondently for a second. Sometimes, I was shocked by the arrogance of the nobles, and no matter how much I got exposed, they always found new ways to surprise me. 

The shouting senator was a good example. He was right that, technically, as a member of the senate, he deserved respect. Unfortunately, not only he was just a Quaestor, which was the lowest official active politician rank, but he was also an ex-Quaestor, which was literally the lowest rank of the Senate, only there as a seat filler. 

And, his advanced age implied that he certainly had no chance of climbing above that rank. 

His attitude gave me a reason to guess why. Yet, gladiators were slaves, but everyone knew that they wore their identity as a badge of honor, and saw themselves above other slaves — and behind closed doors, even other Romans. 

That old man was clearly there to hire some gladiators in an emergency, yet he decided to start his negotiations with grave insults. 

No wonder they were still keeping him at the door. 

Meanwhile, a few others were already being led to the main courtyard, several servants hurriedly carrying chairs, and spreading them in a half circle. One that I recognized as an improvised auction. 

Everyone was trying to shore their defenses hurriedly at the sudden appearance of that many weapons. Well trained and available, the gladiators were clearly the best option, which gave the schools a huge chance to profit. 

Too bad I had no intention of letting Antonius profit from that. 

Not after he sold me out despite all the benefits I brought. 

Of course, I was never one obsessed with revenge, and loved to wait for the opportunities. If  I didn’t have another reason for being there, I might have not bothered to find him to increase the risk I was facing. 

But since I was there, there was no point in rejecting the opportunity just because it would give me a few seconds of delay. 

If it wasn’t for the presence of Spear of Scipio on my back, giving me all the confidence I needed to fight against a Sorcerer even without my magic — to get away if not to kill — I might have tried to skulk around the courtyard and discover his location. 

Instead, the moment I slipped inside the building, I walked toward one of the servants, about to say that I was summoned. 

The servant was faster. “Why are you walking around!” the servant exclaimed. “Master has the strict orders to escort you to him the moment you arrived. The gate guards were supposed to lead you there immediately.” 

“They are busy with a senator,” I said, smirking sharply. It seemed that my so-called master was already impatient about his meeting with Pluto. “Why don’t you bring me to him instead.” 

The servant nodded and started walking, though his destination surprised me. He was leading me toward the stables rather than his office. 

Interesting, I thought, though my surprise hardly lessened when the servant brought me to our destination, only to meet with a shocking crowd in the stable. There were about three dozen people in the room, most of them with already weapons were drawn. A crowd that included both Antonius and Marcus. 

I would have assumed it to be an ambush, if it wasn’t for the fact that those weapons were already pointing at each other. 

“… I’ll be the one that buys it, Harpax. How dare you challenge me here, when I’m under master’s orders?” said an old, skinny man.  

“Simple, it’ll belong to one that pays the most,” Harpax answered smugly. “After all—“ he tried to continue, only to be interrupted. 

It was Marcus that interrupted him. “The slave is finally here,” he shouted in anger as he looked at the doorway. “You pushed your luck too much, you worthless worm,” he shouted as he walked forward, his sword drawn. 

Someone was impatient to take Antonius’ place in the line, it seemed. Luckily, I thought as my smirk widened, Marcus was just as responsible for my situation as Antonius. 

All that remained was educating them about that…