A New Teacher

Flavia gave Juli some documents to review. Juli reviewed them. But Juli was confused how would they know the time? Because there was no clock here.

Juli hesitated at first, but her curiosity won, and she asked Flavia, "How will we know that two hours have passed?"

Flavia was again amused by this question. She chuckled slightly and replied, "Can you see this thing? It is called 'Clepsydra'. When you came here. I have turned it upside down. It has different number lines on it to tell us the time."

Juli had already seen the same water hourglass in Livia's room and now she had learned to use it as well. 

After some time, Flavia and Juli left the house. Flavia had called a few people. All of them were dark-skinned and black hairs. It was obvious that they were slaves. They were holding a chair with poles. 

Flavia instructed Juli to sit on the chair. Juli asked, "What is this?"

"It is a Lectica commonly called Sella. It is used for a short journey.", Flavia replied.

"Will these people carry it?", Juli questioned.

"Yes, Is there any problem?", Flavia responded.

"Can't we ride on a carriage?", Juli appealed.

"Well, carriages are not allowed to travel within cities. They are for long journeys. Don't worry we will have our separate Sellas. You don't have to share it with me.", Flavia said cluelessly. She had no idea why Juli was opposing.

"I can't ride on it. Because I don't want to ride on anything carried by humans. I'm not dead yet. I can walk. Let's have a walk and explore the city. I've not watched the city properly. Give me a tour of your city.", Juli tried to charm Flavia by winking. 

Flavia was confused but she agreed. They walk through the city. During their way, Flavia had shown Juli an academy, where both Livia and Flavia had studied previously. They were the honorable graduates of the academy.

"You guys got graduated at the age of 15. So, do people become chancellor at the age of 20 here?", Juli said jokingly.

"No, we can even become chancellor before 20. Quintus is a live example of it. He became chancellor at the age of 18.", Flavia said with a serious face.

Juli was shocked. She was only joking. She thought that she had not even cleared her high school when she was 18 and people are chancellor here. She was jealous but she remembered that Flavia was only 17 and she was getting married. 

They saw another building while passing. "It is Julia Sulla or House of Commoners. Its building is similar to Curia Sulla.", Flavia told Juli.

"What is the difference between Curia Sulla and Julia Sulla?", Juli asked.

"Curia Sulla is the House of Senators or Nobles. There are a total of 250 seats in it. One hundred for nobles of all ten states means ten seats for the nobles of each state. Fifty seats for high-ranking military officials. Twenty-five seats for teachers or philosophers. Twenty-five for judges or lawyers. Twenty-five for athletes or poets. Twenty-five seats for foreigners. Do you know? Quintus was a senator and had a reserved seat for poets before getting elected as chancellor. Our mother is also a senator and has a seat in the foreigner section."

That was the reason Quintus had white hair. Because their mother is a foreigner. Juli thought.

"There are a total of 200 seats in Julia Sulla. One hundred for the citizens of the empire. Ten citizens from each state. Fifty seats for the low-ranking military officials. Fifty seats for small business owners or farmers." 

"But there is a main difference between these houses. Two votes of Julia Sulla will be equal to a single vote of the Curia Sulla.", Flavia completed her explanation.

Juli thought that Flavia was very knowledgeable. "You should be my teacher as long as I'm here.", Juli demanded. 

"A teacher?... Ok.", Flavia hesitated before agreeing.

"So, now you're my new teacher and I can ask you anything. Ok.", Juli declared.

"Hmm... So, you also have to do the same.", Flavia counter-backed.

Juli nodded her head and pointed her pinky finger toward Flavia.

Flavia was puzzled but Juli insisted she do the same and said, "We have made a pinky promise. Now, we can't break it."

"I'll ask my new mentor the first question. Don't slaves have any rights? Don't they get any representation?", Juli asked.

"Slaves are mostly the soldiers or the poor citizens of the defeated empires. The nobles or the royals of these defeated empires get recognition in the Curia Sulla in the section of the foreigners if they pledge to serve our country. Most of these nobles or royals got married to the nobles of our empire in order to recede the conspiracies. These people decide the future of these slaves and give them employment. But they don't have citizenship rights of our empire.", Flavia told her.

"So, they can't marry and own land here.", Juli questioned.

"They can get married if their owner allows them. They can also own property in special cases. Like if they save someone's life and get citizenship after the approval of their owners. But it's very rare.", Flavia answered.

Juli felt bad for them. But she was not in a position to worry about others. She was also not in a favorable condition here. She was brought to this world to fulfill someone else wish. She felt that she was also a slave there.

"Do slaves have families?", Juli asked.

"Yes, mostly they do have. Even if they don't have any family. They consider each other as their family. They have a community of their own.", Flavia replied.

"I'm not even a slave then. I don't have any family or friends here.", Juli murmured and thought maybe I shouldn't have committed suicide back then. But what's done is done. "Stop thinking about it", Juli said to herself in an audible voice while tapping her cheeks.

Flavia had heard everything. She pitied Juli and promised herself to become a good teacher to her. That was the only thing she could do for her now. But Flavia was unaware of the storm that was going to come very soon.