Dragon Raja: History Simulator

Page 20

Aquitaine was a very old man, and his appearance, like his age, was full of vicissitudes, with gray hair, drooping eyes, and a withered appearance.

It's hard to imagine that such a person could be the leader of the secret society.

Looking at the young princess before him, Aquitaine asked again, "Has Attila left?"

The princess was somewhat puzzled, but without any hesitation, she answered affirmatively, "Of course, I personally escorted him back."

Honoria then asked, "Teacher, why are you so concerned about Attila, such a poor boy? He's just a prince from a small country."

At this time, the Hunnic state had just been unified, and in the eyes of the Romans, it was not much different from other barbarian tribes.

Attila, who grew up in the Roman court as a hostage, was familiar with Roman culture. For the Romans at that time, it was a welcome development for such a person to become the king of the Huns.

Meanwhile, Aetius, who would later become regent, was in the Hunnic kingdom.

As a key figure in Rome's intervention in the internal affairs of the Huns, his main task was to support Attila, a Hunnic prince who was close to Rome, to ascend the throne and help him defeat his brother.

During this time, Aetius and Attila, who were both hostages in enemy territory and fought side by side, forged a deep friendship.

At this moment, they could not have imagined that the two would one day turn against each other with swords. Just as the young Princess Honoria could not have imagined that the poor boy from the East who had always admired her was actually the dragon she had sworn to kill.

Listening to his student's naive words, Aquitaine slowly shook his head, his tone unusually solemn: "Honoria, you must remember this in the future: Attila will be the greatest disaster in the world."

The princess was somewhat surprised upon hearing this. Images of the noble knights who had bullied Attila before her arrival flashed through her mind; they appeared glamorous on the surface, but were corrupt and rotten at heart.

Thinking of this, the princess couldn't help but scoff: "Teacher, are you joking? Attila could become the greatest disaster? According to you, then wouldn't Rome be able to conquer the world with just a few cowardly knights?"

Aquitaine's voice was exceptionally soft, yet it traveled clearly to Honoria's ears like a heavy hammer, and it didn't sound like it came from the mouth of an old man who was over eighty years old.

“Honoria, the ‘Attila’ you know is not his real name. His real name is Fenrir, the king of the earth and mountains whom we have sworn to kill, the giant wolf in mythology capable of devouring the heavens and the earth, a terrifying demon that crawls out from the depths of the earth…”

Aquitaine spoke at length, but when it reached Princess Honoria's ears, she only caught one thing—her teacher's deep fear of her follower.

She interrupted the old man without hesitation: "Teacher, if that's the case, why didn't we just leave him here?"

"According to you, he is a dragon, and isn't our mission the secret society to hunt dragons? You brought him to the Roman court when he was sixteen, but there has been no movement in the past ten years."

At this point, Princess Honoria couldn't help but burst out laughing, as if she had heard the most absurd joke in the world.

The princess whispered, "Teacher, are you kidding me?"

She turned to look at the teacher, whose expression remained calm and unchanged, showing no sign of being humiliated.

On the contrary, he looked at Princess Honoria with great satisfaction, very pleased with his student. Only someone without fear in their heart could accomplish such a great feat.

He didn't offer any further explanation, but simply kept repeating:

"Honoria, remember yourself right now. Only then can you stand firm in your beliefs when facing this race that is like a devil..."

……

Memories faded with the swaying of the swing, and the incense grew weaker with the passage of time.

Princess Honoria kept her eyes closed, enjoying this brief rest.

Suddenly, she snapped, "Annil, why did you stop?"

It turned out that her maid, Anil, had stopped pushing her swing and instead hurriedly knelt down to welcome the newly arrived Emperor.

The maid knelt down with a thud. Hearing the princess's reprimand, she quickly whispered, "Your Highness, His Majesty the Emperor has arrived."

For a maidservant serving a princess imprisoned in the cold palace, the emperor seemed as distant as the horizon, which is why she was so respectful.

Princess Honoria was a half-blood, and according to the ranking standards of later generations, she should be at least S-rank.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to face the Dragon King alone, and have had the courage and ability to poison his food for a whole year.

Therefore, she had already heard the footsteps behind her.

However, Princess Honoria neither turned around nor rose to greet them. She kept her eyes closed, continued swinging on the swing, and said jokingly:

“I didn’t hear anything about His Majesty the Emperor’s arrival. Anil, if you disobey my orders again, I will punish you.”

As a princess and the emperor's only sister, even if she were imprisoned in her palace to "reflect on her mistakes," no one would care about how she treated a maid.

The maid's eyes reddened with anxiety, tears welling up, yet she maintained her bowing posture, not daring to make the slightest mistake.

The princess can punish her, and so can the emperor.

Just then, the emperor's voice drifted over. He looked at his sister, who was swinging on a swing in the flower bushes with her back to him. The scene was both beautiful and incredibly rude.

The emperor said, "Honoria, why make things difficult for a mere maid?"

Then he turned to the maid and ordered, "You may leave."

The maid breathed a sigh of relief and quickly withdrew.

Before leaving, she saw a person wearing a veil and a nun's habit accompanying the emperor.

The maid who had served Princess Honoria for years couldn't help but recall the secret that had been circulating in the court for the past month: His Majesty the Emperor had fallen in love with a nun.

She mustered her courage and glanced up at the nun's veil before leaving, only to see what appeared to be "The Last Judgment," before she was lost in thought.

When she regained consciousness, she had already left the palace.

Chapter 42 Brother and Sister

"Brother, you've imprisoned me here for two years, have you finally deigned to see me?"

Princess Honoria mocked the emperor's ruthlessness, and then hummed a nursery rhyme from her childhood.

This does not mean she yielded to her brother Valentine III; on the contrary, it was a biting satire of her brother, who was the emperor.

"You paid such a high price, personally imprisoning your sister who could potentially threaten you, yet you still cannot control power."

"All the power in the empire is in the hands of the Senate and the Grand Marshals, so what's the point of imprisoning me—your greatest threat—here?"

Princess Honoria's veiled sarcasm prompted Jormungandr, who was following behind the emperor, to chuckle.

Jormungandr remembered the girl; he had seen her once when he left Rome. Her brother Attila was infatuated with her beauty, and for this reason, he did not hesitate to deceive his sister, with whom he had wandered for a thousand years.

Jormungandr initially disliked the girl, but after seeing how she made the emperor suffer, he realized that this unruly girl wasn't entirely without merit.

Just then, Princess Honoria turned around on the swing and saw the nun behind the emperor. She couldn't help but sneer, "My dear brother, are you planning to get me a new queen as my sister-in-law?"

The emperor shook his head.

In fact, he never regretted imprisoning Princess Honoria, whether before or after his time travel.

Sixty years ago, the empire was completely divided in two: the Western Roman Empire to the west and the Eastern Roman Empire to the east.

In the Eastern Roman Empire, two emperors' sisters or daughters had already ascended the throne, while in the Western Roman Empire, his mother, Placidia, was also just the sister of the previous emperor. Because the previous emperor had no children, his father became the co-emperor, allowing him to ascend the throne.

In this empire where daughters also had the right to inherit the Roman throne, not only were the Brotherhood her enemies, but so were her sisters.

The only thing the emperor regretted was that he hadn't expected his mother to be so "generous".

Not only did the mother not hand over power to her son, but after her death, she also left the power she controlled to her daughter, Princess Honoria.

This allowed Princess Honoria, though nominally imprisoned, to retain a place in the court thanks to her mother's inheritance.

Even the marriage proposal letter she sent to Attila two years ago was completely unexpected.

The emperor learned of this matter from later historical records and wanted to guard against it strictly, but unfortunately he had no one he could rely on. He even knew that the marriage proposal was part of the plan of Aquitaine, the leader of the secret society, and that he, as an emperor without imperial power, could not stop it.

We can only leave it at that.

"Can you be imprisoned here?" the emperor asked rhetorically.

He knew in his heart that the imprisonment order he had issued was merely nominal.

As long as Princess Honoria is not seen in public, or if she changes into men's clothing that no one can recognize her, instead of her usual jewel-encrusted purple-gold dress, everyone will pretend to know nothing and ignore the entanglement between the two siblings.

The princess smiled, her smile blooming like a flower, standing out as the most dazzling flower in the fragrant garden.

However, she did not answer. In her eyes, the emperor was nothing more than a child who knew nothing of the world. The emperor had been confined to the palace for many years, and he neither understood the power of the dragon race, nor was he aware of the cruelty among hybrid races, much less the ruthlessness of humans.

He was single-mindedly focused on grasping that sliver of power that might have once belonged to him but was now coveted by everyone else, chasing after it like a moth to a flame.

"He will lead the empire to hell."

Her teacher, Aquitaine, once commented on the emperor in this way.

Princess Honoria then asked in return, "Is there any way to stop it?"

Aquitaine smiled, sensing ambition in the student's words. Indeed, given the precedent, who would prefer to be a princess rather than a co-ruling emperor?

He then continued, "The emperor will drag the empire into hell, but he is already the most qualified emperor. After he dies, the empire will completely collapse."

Princess Honoria was unaware that three years later, her beloved brother Valentian III passed away, and in less than twenty years, the empire had nine emperors in rapid succession.

Then, barbarian tribes invaded like a tidal wave, and the once-glorious Rome fell under barbarian rule for a thousand years. Even the city of Rome, where the empire originated, was not recaptured by the Eastern Roman Empire until sixty years after its fall.

Princess Honoria still doesn't understand why her teacher would make such a comment about her brother, whom she considered unworthy.

She looked at her brother, whom she hadn't seen for two years, with curiosity and asked, "My dear brother, what is it that you want to say to me?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at the stunningly beautiful nun standing beside her emperor brother and couldn't help but chuckle. "You're not trying to brag to me that you've found the perfect lover, are you?"

Jormungandr was somewhat annoyed, perhaps due to the natural animosity between his wife and sister-in-law. Not only did Princess Honoria dislike her, but he also felt equally displeased with the girl favored by his brother Fenrir.

Both felt that the other was not good enough for their brother, and they looked down on each other, yet they were helpless.

“Honoria, she is Aetina, the sister of General Aetius. Perhaps you should show her some respect,” the Emperor said softly.

Unsurprisingly, he protected his intended future wife and the extremely proud "Dragon Princess," with whom he had formed a blood oath, making them, at least for now, the best allies in this unfamiliar city of Rome.

Honoria laughed. "My dear brother, have you stooped so low as to have to fawn over a girl to beg the Grand Marshal for a better relationship?"

In the eyes of the former Empress Dowager Placidia and Princess Honoria, who inherited the Empress Dowager's will, Aetius was undoubtedly a major threat.

He first defeated and killed Bonifacius, another grand marshal who supported the queen mother, and then led his army to the capital Ravenna to beg for the emperor's forgiveness.

But everyone knows that this is not forgiveness at all.

From then on, the lowly-born General Aetius officially rose to the center of power, refraining from usurping the throne only out of fear of the Eastern Roman Empire behind the emperor.

Of course, in fact, over the next twenty years, General Aetius also secured the Western Roman Empire, which now only had the entire Italian region remaining.

The Emperor, looking at his beautiful yet unruly sister, suddenly grabbed the hand of Jormungandr, who was dressed in a white nun's habit, and said calmly:

"General Aetius is no longer the concern for me now; I am more worried about the secret schemes of your teacher, Aquitaine."

He was too mysterious, and too dangerous.