That night, Lucilla’s residence.
Lucilla had been living in the palace since her father became the Roman emperor. Later, she married her first husband, Lucius, whose father ruled the Roman empire with another emperor at the same time. Hence, Lucilla could naturally continue living in the palace.
However, when Lucius died, Lucilla was asked to marry her second husband, Pompeanus, by her father. That would mean she had to move out of the palace. Fortunately, her father asked the Senate to compensate her. Hence she was awarded the title Augusta. Although Pompeanus was not as powerful as her previous husband, he had an impeccable attitude toward her. After they were married to each other, they were not as affectionate as other newlyweds, but they got along harmoniously.
Pompeanus would usually stay at the barracks and not interfere with Lucilla’s private life.
Therefore, in the eyes of others, Lucilla had a married life that most women envied.
She constantly held banquets at her domus and usually provided an endless flow of wine, accompanied by many hunks. But tonight, neither of these things could make her happy. In fact, Lucilla’s mind seemed to be absent from the beginning of the banquet. It was as if she had been traumatized before. The laziness and pride she had in the past were now gone. When her maid asked if she would cancel the banquet tonight, Lucilla told her that everything was business as usual.
When those handsome men invited her to dance, she rejected every single one of them without exception. After that, Lucy got up and left her seat, telling the maid that she wanted to head back to her room for a change of clothes. However, after undressing, she did not go to the closet to get a new set.
Instead, she stood in front of the bronze mirror and stared at herself in the mirror motionlessly. She seemed to be obsessed with the person in the mirror. She started to stroke her skin with her palm, bit her lip, and reached into a drawer on the side. Among all the perfume bottles, she picked a small verdant jade bottle.
When she picked up the bottle, an indecisive and unwilling look flashed in her eyes. But in the end, she removed the cork. When she tried to bring the jade bottle to her lips, she heard a coughing sound from behind her.
Lucilla was startled, and the jade bottle in her hand also fell to the ground.
“They said that Cleopatra VII learned that her death was approaching after the Battle of Akshin. So she asked her maid to hide a poisonous snake named Aps in a basket of figs. After that, Cleopatra VII let a poisonous snake kiss her chest, and she ended her splendid and legendary life just like that. Her death also meant the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Eventually, Egypt was annexed by Rome and became a province under Rome…”
“When did you show up here?” Lucilla turned around and saw the person that talked to her.
“Sorry, I actually just arrived here not long ago.” Zhang Heng wiped the blood off his two Persian short swords with the silk bed sheet, “I faced some troubles just now. I came here to look for you right after I dealt with my problem. To be honest, I didn’t expect you to take off your clothes as soon as you came in. I wanted to wait for you to change before talking to you to avoid an embarrassing situation like this, but…”
“They got to you too, didn’t they?” Lucilla’s expression changed slightly.
“Uh-huh,” Zhang Heng nodded and inserted the cleaned Persian short swords back into their sheaths. “It looks like your toy is broken.”
Lucilla did not argue with Zhang Heng when she heard what he said, “We lost this war. In fact, we lost not only this war but everything else as well.”
“I can’t agree with the last statement. You still have me. You really shouldn’t have kept it from me from the beginning,” Zhang Heng said.
“…”
“It’s too late now.” Lucilla shook her head. She then asked, “How did you find this place?”
“Augusta of the Empire, the emperor’s sister, is the Priestess of the Balance Blade, the mysterious assassin organization. It must be admitted that people with no imagination would have never connected you and Balance Blade. When you played the Priestess of Kreis, you were so different from who you are right now…” Zhang Heng paused. “Uh… why don’t you find a dress to wear first, and we will continue talking.”
“I don’t think it is necessary.” After the initial panic, Lucilla quickly calmed herself down and stood in front of Zhang Heng, naked. “Are you not interested in me? I remember you rejected me more than once before.”
“Well, if you are not afraid of catching a cold, you can just be like this…” Zhang Heng rubbed his nose and continued what he was trying to say. “The time you met up with me as the Priestess, you were wearing a mask, and you sounded completely different from now. However, you overlooked one detail, which is the smell of the perfume on your body.”
“The smell of the perfume on my body?” Lucilla frowned. “I didn’t overlook this detail. Every time I played the Priestess of Kreis, I would bathe first and put on a different perfume.”
“Yes, but the two kinds of perfumes that you use are the perfumes from the palace. In the beginning, I didn’t suspect that you were with the Balance Blade. I thought that the Priestess was hiding in the palace as a court maid. The day I started to suspect you were when you visited me in my new domus. When you left, you said something inexplicable to me. I thought you were threatening me, but Altrus looked for me that night, and he asked some questions. It was at that time when I finally understood what you said to me.”
Lucilla nodded. “On that day, I was told that Altrus might meet you. It was too late for me to summon you as the Priestess of Kreis. Hence, I could only go and look for you personally. Fortunately, I have quite some rumors surrounded me. It is not uncommon for me to like a gladiator. However, I don’t think you identified me as the Priestess with just one sentence, right?”
“Yes. After that, I found the place where we met that night,” Zhang Heng said. “That house belongs to Sktus, a young man from the Kolasu family. A friend of mine told me that he rarely comes here for two years now. Out of curiosity, I investigated Sktus and found that two years ago, there were rumors that he was one of your secret lovers. That was where you had an affair, right?” Zhang Heng said as he stared at Lucillia in front of him.
“This is something I still can’t figure out. At that time, your eyes were covered, and you were put in the carriage. How did you manage to find that place?” Lucilla asked in surprise.
“This is a little trick taught to me by an old friend of mine from Baker Street. If he were the person who was loaded into the carriage that night, he would’ve figured out the route a lot sooner than me,” Zhang Heng said.
