" There was celebration going on previous day, maybe she was occupied by that. " replied Marcus in bit obvious tone.

Augustus knew that Marcus had once confessed his liking towards Aquila but that didn't stop him from the truth. Removing his hands from his head, he clenched his jaws, " she is appointed to look after my wife, not to lose herself in celebration and how busy was she that she didn't even come to peek a glance at her? "

" Yes you're right, she should have been there. " agreeing to Augustus's point, Marcus spoke contrary to his thoughts.

Nodding at his brother, Augustus looked over back at Ritha and his heart vibrated with string of placidity.

Draped in a blue gown, she looked eye soothing. She wasn't wearing any of her ornaments but still, her beautiful smile compensated it. Puffy arms of her gown was actually making her look like her age. He had combed her hair and tied it in messy bun using a ribbon. Though he wasn't best at it, he tried his best.

Though women were strictly asked to wear a corset to make their body look attractive, Augustus didn't let Ritha wear one because of her injury and he believed that she was enticing the way she was.

He hated to interrogate Ritha in this condition but he couldn't help it and keeping his question short and simple he asked, " What happened exactly? "

Sighing heavily, Ritha recited all the events starting from noticing an injured young man to killing one of them.

Hands balled into fists, Augustus asked in his deadly voice, "Do you think that it could be the eagles? "

Rithambara nodded in affirmation, " now that I look back at it, I feel like that attack was planned because they didn't utter a word in front of me apart from the ladies whispering into each others ears. They had already planned everything and it seemed that they didn't want me to hear their voice, which indicates towards only one thing ,.."

Augustus completed her sentence, "that they are the ones whom we know very well . "

Before further discussion could proceed, a soft knock drew their attention. It was Aurelius standing at the door.

Augustus knew that hefty conversation couldn't be postponed further, so he had to go with Aurelius. Planting a kiss on Ritha's and Justus's forehead, he asked Marcus to sit there until Aquila comes to which he instantly agreed.

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Augustus and Aurelius entered in the room where King Atticus was already sitting on the chair. Bowing down his head infront of his father, Augustus took the adjacent chair beside him while Aurelius preferred to stand up.

King Atticus spoke in his old yet affirmed voice, " before discussing about our strength, let's analyse our enemies's weakness. "

Getting a nod from King Atticus, Aurelius started speaking, " as told by our spies, Britain has removed their army from Mare Nostrum and Corsica , Sardinia and Sicily were fast enough to bring their army at bay. Sicily defeated both of them using Greek Fire. "

( Greek Fire was believed to be developed by Syrian engineer and it was a combustible fluid which used to set fire above water. It used to burn after coming in contact with water)

It wasn't a surprise for Augustus or King Atticus because Sicily had always been a smart foe and that was the reason why King Atticus wanted secured relationship with them but unfortunately, it turned out quite opposite.

Concluding Aurelius's point, Augustus spoke, " that means, toes of our costal enemies are out of the game. Hmm! Impressive. "

A lazy smirk surfaced on everyone's lips. Aurelius continued, " Now coming to our land enemies, Milan is our major enemy alongwith with few scattered yet strong kingdoms. "

" Do you think eagles could be one of our neighbouring enemy? " asked King Atticus.

" Could be but how did they manage to break through our security? Nothing could be more worse than a fox boasting to be lion in his den. " spoke Augustus with fury evident in his eyes.

" The one year away from our land costed us a lot. " commented Aurelius.

After a thick pause or two, king Atticus asked Augustus about Florence's army and their training to which Augustus replied, " I've trained my soldiers with heavy wooden spades and not with metallic ones which will give us two advantage in the war, firstly, very less number of our soldiers got injured while training. Had it been metallic spades, lots of our soldiers could have been injured resulting us in losing money and at times even soldiers due to fatal injuries. Secondly, in the battlefield, our soldiers would be at ease in using light metallic spades. "

Standing up from his chair, King Atticus went and patted on his son's back with a proud smile on his face, " wars are never won just by army strength, a sharp mind is needed to put everything in accord and you, my son! You're mine and Florence's pride. I'm sure that future of our kingdom is in safe hands. "

Bowing down in respect at the compliment, Augustus passed his father a faint smile and spoke, " Now, it's time to show our trump card. Aurelius, bring the map of our secret tunnel."

Getting order from Augustus, Aurelius went towards a casket and took out the rolled yellow piece of paper. Bringing it on the table, he spread it open for Augustus to take a look.

Augustus's eyes lingered on the map and after inspecting the piece of paper, a smirk appeared on his lips. Dragging his chair backwards, he took slow steps towards Aurelius and stood face to face with him. After a pause or two, he rolled out his next words, " This is not the real map. "

These words enough for Aurelius's face to turn pale.

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I know that my story has more action and mystery than romance and I even know that majority of my audience is female. I get it all the time that women don't read or write action, so, commomn, . I hope you guys will support me till end.

Tell me if you're enjoying knowing about Roman culture. 😅