Chapter 17

The Old Guard of the Spinther family. They're considered by some modern historians as the peak of human strength, ability, mind, and many more.

They overshadowed the overrated spartans, some modern historian even claimed they're better than the legionnaires in all aspects. Though these claims are not entirely baseless, it's still heavily debated by scholars due to the lack of evidences.

The Old Guard has not seen the light of battle. Historians believe that they're not what a legion is to Rome, instead they're literal guards, and does what a guard does, protect.

While some proposed that they're ceremonial in nature by using the translation evidence, claiming that the people from the medieval times mistranslated the latin name of the Old Guard.

History is filled with revisions, whoever wins, gets the right to dictate how it works.

In reality, the Old Guard is the collective name of the whole organization whose job is to accompany the members of the Spinther family at all times.

They are given a name by the man they are going to protect for the rest of his/her life. Though it may not seem like it, but all of them are elites. They're trained from a tender age of 5 on the way of the horse, spear, short sword, and bow, including its variation called the crossbow. They are either orphans of war or slaves bought by the family.

They have a gigantic round shield with a pointy spike on the center that's made by a refined iron making it more durable in the cost of the weight.

For their weapon, they have a medium sized spear around 2 to 3 meters in length as a primary weapon. The look of the spear is like the standard polearm of the Swiss Guards. For their sidearm, they have a medieval age short sword.

Lastly, their armor are brass or silver in color depends on the occasion and rank with a special animal horns on the left arm to signify the captain in battle.The armor is made up if a super durable iron, and the horn is made up of a bull's horn. They also have a belt object like that of a Roman legionnaire. Finally, they have a skirt like cloth wrapped around their waist whose color is based on the preferred color of their lord.

Their helmet is a combination of the spartan helmet but more enclosed and looks more like a medieval helmet with horse tail on top of a crescent platform.

Currently, a captain of the personal Old Guard of Lupus is steadily walking down the marble floors to get the messenger.

His name is not important, however, his duty is the opposite. He has been under the servitude of Lupus since the very "start" of his new identity.

His lord sometimes does literal superhuman feats occasionally, like crushing a silver cup using his one hand, and many more.

However, out of loyalty, he and the other men always closes both their eyes when he's doing such a thing to prevent them on becoming witnesses.

A couple of steps later, he finally arrived at the entrance of the gigantic mansion. There, he saw a man in black hood tending to his horse.

The man has a postman's bag on his side while speaking to his brown horse. The captain slowly walked towards him and tapped his shoulder gently to inform him that it's time.

"My lord has agreed to meet you, please surrender your weapons. I will return them later." the captain laid out his hand, waiting for the messenger to surrender his weapon.

"Tsk" the messenger looked at him and angrily gave his dagger to the captain. The messenger then brought his hood off his face, revealing his scarred face. His left eye has a slash scar which left it blind.

The captain simply nodded and sheathed the dagger on his armor as he motioned for the messenger to follow him inside.

The messenger shortly followed as they slowly walked inside the compound. There, the messenger saw different races of people. From fairly tanned skinned people tending the flowers, to white people sitting on near the fountain. The people are all multicultural in nature.

The messenger is closely observing everything inside the mansion. From the smallest of the details to the largest, it won't escape his eyes.

But as he continued to observe, his mins too continued to be mind blown. He has heard of rumours regarding the Spinther family, after all he's a messenger of Pompey which also acts as some sort of a spy in a sense.

He can't believe what he is currently seeing. From the soldiers to the lowest of the servants, it seemed to him that each one of them are richer than him by a great margin.

As they finally entered the mansion, the messenger is once again stunned by how beautiful the inside is. The outside already looked like the palace of an emperor, but the inside even rivalled that of the gods.

It has marble statues of elephants on the entrance, purple curtains, carpets, even the clothes of the servants inside are colored purple. But the most eye catching is the ceiling that's inlaid with gold forming an artwork, as if telling a story about a man in golden armor with men and women on both his sides, wearing golden armor and having weird looks.

"Who is he?" asked the messenger as he momentarily stopped to admire the artwork on the ceiling. The captain just chuckled behind his iron mask as he gently shook his head.

"It's not something you should know. You're not here to hear a story aren't you?" said the captain as he continued to walk which the messenger shortly followed but not without stealing a last glance.

The two finally entered the balcony, and there, Lupus is still lazing around, letting the sumemr breeze stop him from accomplishing anything of value today.

"My lord, I've brought the messenger as per your orders." said the captain as he stepped away to reveal the figure of the messenger behind him.

"Thank you captain, let's get straight to the point. What does Pompey want from me?" asked Lupus, completely playing dumb like he didn't know the full happenings and to happen.

"My lord Pompey wants to request your support regarding the relinquishing of the power of Caesar." said the messenger as he pulled out a parchment of paper with a seal of Pompey himself burned on it.

"He wants my support? But he's the current dictator of Rome. He has both consuls from his faction elected. I don't know why he wants my support." chuckled Lupus as he motioned for a slave to bring him another platter of food.

"Please read the parchment your excellency. This will further explain it." said the messenger as Lupus once again motioned for another slave to get the parchment and bring it to him.

The slave is a female who's not holding anything as of the moment. She slowly walked to pick up the parchment which the messenger handed to her, but not without weird stares. The stares stemmed from the fact that literate slaves are expensive and hard to come by.

The slave then slowly walked towards Lupus while holding the parchment but Lupus motioned for her to stop.

"Read it out loud." said Lupus as the slave he ordered to get another platter of food has finally returned.

"Yes master." the slave bowed and opened the parchment of paper. The messenger wanted to stop her as the contents of the parchment are supposedly private and only for Lupus to see.

"...On behalf of the people of Rome and the senate, I, Pompey wants to request your utmost support to pressure Caesar out of the position of governor of the Gauls..." the letter ended right there and Lupus had a weird look on his face while eating the fruits on the platter.

"He has an absolute advantage over Caesar. Why would he need my support?" asked Lupus as he stood up and stretched for a little bit.

"Your family is respected by all families, if you'll pressure him, we'll be able to evade a civil war." reasoned the messenger but just then, an Old Guard came inside with a news.

"Hail Lupus!" shouted the soldier as he carried himself around like a true soldier he is.

Lupus just nodded, not wanting to reply to the salute.

"My lord, a messenger from Marc Antony has came. He requests a chance to meet with you to discuss a cooperation..."