In written history, Commodus’s only family member after he inherited the throne was his sister, Lucillia. But this did not mean that he had no other siblings. In fact, Aurelius had many children, but most of them failed to reach adulthood. And eventually, only two children were left after his death.
If Aurelius’s dead children were included, Commodus was supposed to have many brothers. And among them, the one closest to Zhang Heng’s age was Commodus’s twin brother who died at the age of four. Aurelius held a funeral for him, and the Senate stopped working for a day to express their grief.
The ordinary citizens in the city of Rome still remembered it fondly until today.
As far as everyone knew, Commodus’s twin brother had indeed passed away.
This was also the reason why Zhang Heng did not think of this in the first place. Of course, these were just his speculations. If he wanted to prove that Altrus was indeed Commodus’ dead twin, more evidence needed to be collected.
Considering the special nature of the palace, almost all the political forces would secretly plant their men here. Hence, there were no secrets in this building. It was obviously impossible for a prince to keep living in the palace for so many years and not be discovered by anyone after his death. So if Aurelius wanted his child to continue living hidden from the world for whatever reason, he could only send him away from the palace. The safest option was to send Altrus out of the city, and the farther away, the better.
It was like Zhang Heng sending the slave girl away on a long journey. The good news was with the disability that Altrus had; it was impossible that the people at the place where he lived and grew up hadn’t the slightest impression of him. As long as he could find who Aurelius’s most trusted person sixteen years ago was and the nobles that possessed the most remote fief, Zhang Heng would be able to confirm his conjecture when he visited the place.
But the bad news was that Zhang Heng realized that he did not have the time to do so.
After that, Zhang Heng went to the perfume shop again. He discovered that the shop had a new owner and the shopkeeper he had previously talked to was now gone. It was then that Zhang Heng knew that he had been abandoned.
It did not mean that the Balance Blade had thrown him to the Hounds. Instead, the war between the Balance Blade and the Hounds was likely to break out soon. The situation on both sides was extremely tense. Besides, the Balance Blade found it hard to place their trust in Zhang Heng as their backup core member. Coupled with the fact that there were traitors in the organization, they decided to put aside the volatile factor during this critical time.
If that were the case, Zhang Heng wouldn’t be bothered by it. In his original plan, the only thing he planned to do was observe how the whole thing developed. Hence, it was not a big deal getting ignored by them. Afterward, Zhang Heng had to face a new problem when he heard an order given by Commodus. Commodus planned to inspect a military camp twenty miles outside the city of Rome. Other than Clint and him, Altrus was asked to accompany him as well.
The politicians in Rome were not unfamiliar with this name. However, no one had seen what Altrus looked like. The owner of this name had been living in the dark for a long time. Altrus was probably the second most powerful person in the city of Rome, second only to the emperor, Commodus.
Under such circumstances, the emperor would be easily jealous of him. Be that as it may, Commodus seemed to have great trust in his chief adviser, and he had never doubted him before. This made Clint and other consultants extremely envious of him. And this time, Commodus had announced in a high-profile manner that Altrus would be one of his companions. It seemed the emperor was gradually pushing the man who worked behind the scenes to the front stage. This caused this routine inspection to attract a lot of attention.
Not only did the nobles and senators want to catch a glimpse of the emperor’s chief advisor, but Clint and the other advisers were extremely nervous too, threatened by his presence. Up until now, Altrus had been working in the dark, and they had already witnessed how powerful he could be. Once he stepped onto the front stage, he could begin to use his power and influence to make more friends, form his own forces, control the Senate or even the entire country in the near future.
What Clint and others did not understand was why Commodus allowed such a thing to happen. No matter how much he trusted Altrus, what he might do would undoubtedly damage Commodus’s power.
Clint had even assembled a group of people who had a good relationship with him and prepared to persuade Commodus together.
And Clint did not forget about Zhang Heng, the newcomer that Commodus had recently been fond of. The speed of Zhang Heng’s rise to fame during this period was something no one had achieved in the entire history of Rome. From slave to civilian to an advisor, to the noble that was given a fief—this usually required three generations to achieve. Zhang Heng, against all odds, completed it in just over half a year. And now Clint regretted introducing him to Commodus so early.
However, Clint now had a more troublesome opponent to deal with. Hence, he had no time to take care of Zhang Heng.
When he left Zhang Heng’s domus, his face turned gloomy. Clint did not expect that Zhang Heng would reject his proposal. Although he did not regard Zhang Heng as his political ally, their last cooperation worked out pretty well, and Zhang Heng had shown intention willing to join forces with him to deal with Altrus.
That was the reason Clint agreed to help Zhang Heng using the imperial guards to give the major forces in the southeast city a good scare. Not long after that, Zhang Heng broke up the alliance agreement with him and made it clear that he did not intend to deal with Altrus together.
Clint almost failed to maintain his usual gentle image, slapping the table in frustration before he left. However, he did not want to make a new enemy at this critical time, so in the end, he gave Zhang Heng a cold stare, turned his head, and left.
In all honesty, Zhang Heng had hoped Clint would win this battle. This matter was clearly a trap they had set to deal with the Balance Blade. Zhang Heng was one of the few people who knew Altrus’s physical condition. He knew that Altrus would never show up in front of the public. At the same time, Zhang Heng also knew very well that Clint and others had no chance of winning this time.
The final result fell within Zhang Heng’s expectation. Clint and others were unable to persuade Commodus not to bring Altrus along. Two days later, Commodus still insisted on bringing Altrus with him, as if he wanted to tell the world how much he trusted Altrus.
And Zhang Heng also realized that he had to meet the priestess before the inspection.
