68 The circle

Sullen, I made my way back to camp, grumbling the whole way as I absentmindedly rubbed my head.

"should have just stayed in London."

It took me until first light to pass the abandoned town, which I stayed away from.

By this point, the smell from the bodies would have been terrible.

As I got closer to the camp, my nose picked up the smell of cooking meat.

'is…is that my bacon?' I thought, as I tilted my head to get a better whiff.

'They better not have.'

Quickly making my way through the thick brush, I stumbled into the campsite, before I had to quickly duck my head, under a swinging sword.

"BANDITS" John yelled, as he swung at me again.

Grabbing the sword at the hilt, I yanked it from his weak grip before he could finish his draw back and swing.

"John it's m~." I tried to say, before I had to take a step back, to let Henry come tumbling past us, to fall flat on his face, as he had tried to tackle me to the ground with the dagger I had given him in hand.

"John it's me, Adam." I said, before he could start trying to fight me with his fists.

He stared at me for a moment, when his eyes slowly started to widen.

"My…my goodness man, what happened to you…and your clothes?" He asked surprised.

"I kinda got caught up in some fire, and let's just say, I couldn't get away fast enough."

"The fire…in the sky" Henry weezed from the ground, as he tried to get air back into his lungs from his hard fall.

"Ahh, yes, you must have been there." John said, as he finally relaxed.

"Right well…it's cold, so I'm going to put on some of my clothes." I said awkwardly, as I covered my man hood with my hands.

"Oh right ugh 'cough' yup." John said, as he looked away from me, as I made my way to the cart.

As I went, I looked back to the camp, where I expected to see the kids.

But they weren't there.

Stopping dead, I turned to look at John and Henry, who was just making it back to his feet.

"Where is Oscar and Gérard?" I asked.

Pointing past me at the cart, John said.

"Behind the cart."

Turning back to the cart, I crouched to look under the cart, and saw both of them huddled behind one of the wheels.

"You can come out, it's me Adam '' I said in their language.

Gérards head turned in surprise as he heard me.

Leaning over I grabbed one of my bags that had my clothes, as I heard both boys standing.

Getting myself clothed in a blur of motion, I was decent again, before they came around the cart to see me.

And the surprise was instant as both of their mouths fell open when they saw me.

"Yeah, I know, I look great don't I." I said with a smile, as I leaned back into the cart to get a pair of footwear.

The reunion was fun for me, and got my mind off my own problems.

"Well today is the day we will be heading into France, I said to the boys, as Henry and John started to pack up the camp.

"To France?" Olivier said in a high pitched voice.

"That's right." I said with a smile, as those were the first words he had said to me.

"The biggest city in these parts." I said.

"And where will we go?" Gérard asked.

"Well with us of course, if that is what the both of you want, unless you have somewhere you would rather go?" I asked.

Both boys shook their heads.

"Very well." I said smiling again.

For some reason their acceptance made me happy, which confused me.

Taking a second to think back, I tried to think of times I was happy about something, and realized it had been a while.

I had Julius and Jane back home, which was nice, but I never really had anything in my life to bring me happiness.

Sure I have traveled the known world more times then I care to remember, and I have done some incredible stuff, but after a while that sort of life gets old.

'Shut up with the sappy shit Adam' I thought to myself.

"We should be there by mid-day, so once we are there, we can get the both of you some new clothes." I said, standing up as the horses were attached to the cart.

Lifting up Olivier, I carried him to the cart, while his brother followed closely.

Setting Oliver into the back of the cart, I then lifted Gérard, and did the same.

"Alright, we are set, so let's get moving." I said to John, who had the horses' reins In hand.

Like I had said, we could see the large stone walls of the city by mid-afternoon.

"Would you look at that?" Henry said, as we stopped on the busy road.

"Nothing like home," John added.

"What do you mean?" I asked, as I stopped next to him.

"You know the wall." He said not looking at me, and pointing at the walls.

I looked at him.

"London has stone walls." I said.

He looked at me.

"It dose?"

"Yeah" I said, confused.

"Can you get a move on, your cart is taking up most of the road!" An old man behind us, also with a cart, yelled.

Turning, I waved my hand.

"My apologies, my companions have never seen stone walls." I said, before turning back to John.

"Let's go, we're holding up the road." I said, before we started off again.

This Paris was quite the experience for me as well as John, Henry, and apparently Gérard and Oliver, who had never left their village before.

The line leading to the north city gate, where we had come from, was long.

And I mean "what the fuck is taking so long." Long.

After standing around for about thirty minutes I got tired of the waiting, and just told John to "follow me".

Walking past the line of people, we quickly made it to the gate, which was guarded by a group of men wearing armor chest plates, and helmets.

They were searching every bag, and going through every cart.

As we made it to the front of the line, one of the guards had spotted our approach.

Stepping away from his men, the guard captain raised his hand to us.

"Whoa, and what do you think you are doing?" He asked, anger lacing his words.

"It's simple really, we're skipping the line." I said with a smile.

The guard looked at us as if I was dumb.

"You can't just skip the line, all these people have been waiting as well."

"Oh, well then." I said, looking back at the long line of angry face, that were looking right at us

" But what if I gave you this, and you just let us in." I said, raising a medium sized purse that kinked as I raised it.

"15 gold coins, of the finest purity." I whispered to him with a smile.

The guard's eyes widened as he looked at the bag.

A part of me expected drool to start coming out of his mouth, as he stared at the pouch.

Slowly, he raised his hands, and grabbed the bag, then opened it.

"Oh my." He said in a whisper,as his hands started to shake.

Which didn't surprise me. It's not everyday someone hands you a month's wage just to let them skip a line.

"Uh…ye-yes sir, right away sir." The man said, with the widest smile he could possibly make.

I smiled, as he backpedaled to his men.

"Move, get them back so this noble can enter." He shouted at his men, getting them to move.

As the entrance was cleared, we walked in, as the guard captain gave me a slight bow.

I gave him a sheepish smile.

"How much did you just give em?" John whispered.

"oh just 15 gold." I said, not noticing when John stopped walking by me.

"WHAT!" He shouted at me, catching the attention of others who were passing us.

Turning to look at him I raised a brow.

"What?" I asked.

Coming close to whisper in my ear, he explained.

"That's nearly three years' wage."

I looked at him confused.

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Hmmm, well…It has been a while since I bribed someone, and money doesn't really mean anything to me anymore, so it's not a problem, I have plenty more." I said with a shrug, as I turned to start walking again, missing when John stumbled a few times from light headedness.

Finding the nicest inn in the richest area of all of Paris, I got two rooms, one for myself and one for Oliver and Gérard, while John and Henry would be sleeping with the horses in the stables.

As we walked in, I was grateful that there weren't any nude women serving drinks to its patrons, like were common in Rome, in the more upper class inns.

Instead they now wore dresses, but still did the same job with a LOT of extras for the right price.

After getting the rooms for the next few days while we explored and I found out where I was to meet with the crusade army.

Once John and Henry brought my stuff to my room, we all headed out to go find some clothes for Oliver and Gérard.

It only took us a few minutes to find the right place.

At its door it had a large wooden sign with a needle and thread, signifying it as a trailer shop.

Both boys had stars in their eyes as they experienced everything.

All of this was new to them, with sights and smells they had never known existed.

That's if you could smell past the shit, that caused the streets to reek.

Both boys were set with four outfits, of various colors and designs.

To them the clothes were nice and felt better then anything they had ever worn before, but to others they looked like the children of some very rich nobles.

Leaving the shop, Henry and John carried the chest full of their clothes behind us, as me and the kids stopped at any store that caught their attention.

By the time it got dark, both John and Henry were ladened with various items I had bought for myself or the kids.

That night me and the kids sat down for a nice meal of steak at the inn, where our female server gave me the googly eyes the whole time, making sure to always bend over more than was necessary, to give me a good look at her cleavage.

But there wasn't a chance in hell she would gain my attention, she didn't have near enough teeth, or anything resembling a pretty face.

But other than that, our meal was great, and we devoured our food.

What surprised me, was when Gérard had told me that in the last few days, they had eaten more meat than in their entire life.

But then I remembered that most people of this time were quite sparse, and didn't really contain meat, or at the least very little.

But since I had come here, meat had been a staple of my own diet, but that's because I could simply hunt what I wanted when I wanted to, as easily as going to a grocery store in later years.

But for the average person, meat was a rarity.

Where they had to painstakingly hunt, and more times than not, come home empty handed, or buy it with money they didn't have.

The next day, early in the morning, we left the inn, to explore some more, and for me to find out what the plan was with the crusade.

But there was a stop needed before anything.

Coming out of a busy street, we got our first glimpse of a building that even in the 21st century would be a staple of Paris, just like the eiffel tower.

"Notre Dame."

At the moment it was still under construction, and looked much smaller then I had remembered, but I had only ever seen it in photos, so what did I know? Maybe it will grow in later years.

Later that day, when both boys were tired, I brought them back to their rooms and told them I would be gone for a little while, and not to leave their rooms for anything until I returned.

Leaving the inn, I made sure to put my sword on, as I went, making sure all knew I was a warrior.

From listening in on conversations as I passed, I learned that the army was stationed in the south side of the city, explaining why we never saw them.

It took me another hour to get to the south side of the city, after going over two large bridges to get over the rivers that split the city in two.

After that, the signs of an army became clearer.

With more gruff looking men with swords, starting to appear.

Making it out of the walls of the city, the army camp was along the wall of the city.

Hundreds or maybe a thousand small white tents littered the area, looking like a small ocean.

Making my way through the crowded camp, I looked for somewhere to sign my name, and join the army.

After asking a few of the men, they pointed me in the direction of a large tent, with flags billowing around it.

At the tent, was a large wooden desk, sat outside the entrance, with a monk seated with a large book that he scribbled in, as men gave their names to sign up.

Going to the back of the line, I became bored quickly, and looked around as I waited.

Thankfully the line moved quite quickly, and before I could get too bored and fall asleep standing, I was at the desk.

"Name?" The monk asked in a nasally voice.

"Adam Gottes" I said, giving him a false last name.

"Mm, do you know how to use a sword?" He asked, not looking up as he wrote.

"Yes, I'm quite good with a sword." I said.

"Mm, and can you read?"

"Yes, I can read. I can also write, and am proficient in mathematics, and languages." I said, giving the monk a smile as he finally raised his head, with a confused look on his face.

"You can?" He asked, confused.

"Yes I can," I said with a smirk.

Quickly grabbing another book that was on the desk, he flipped it open, and turned it towards me.

"Read this out loud." he said, with a furrowed brow.

Leaning over to get a better look, I read off the page quickly and without any errors.

Once finished, the monk now had a surprised look on his face, as he stared at me.

Then closing it, his mouth then the book, he turned the large book that was in front of him around then said, "write your name on the bottom under the last one."

Shrugging, I grabbed the quill he offered, and wrote my name, with all the fancy curves and smoothness I could.

Once I was done, the monk turned the large book back to himself, and widened his eyes.

Looking back up at me, he spoke again.

"Are you a noble?"

"Nope," I said, And couldn't help but smile.

__________________________

'I should have pretended to be slow, or at least a noble'

I thought to myself as I went over the camp's books.

After signing up with the monk, I was led to meet the general of the army, then promptly given the job of bookkeeper.

And books they had.

No less than fifty large books, of all the records.

From what they spent on food, to what they were paying their men.

All of it was held in these books.

And what a mess it was.

For one, they were completely being screwed by there food providers, and I mean who the fuck was stuiped enough to pay three gold coin per cow.

At this point in time, a healthy cow might cost you two or three silvers, not three gold.

Then there were those pesky grain sellers, who were practically doing the exact same thing.

'They are going to run out of money soon if they don't change this.'

Somewhere after an hour I needed a break. So leaving the camp, I made my way back to the inn, where I found both Oliver and Gérard sitting at a table eating a plate of food, with John and Henry.

Grabbing an empty chair, I sat in an open space.

"Well it looks like we will be joining the army camp by tomorrow." I said, as I waved at one of the servers to bring me a plate.

As I was eating, an idea popped into my head.

'I could use my own company to help with this.'

I still had the shipping business, which was run by my Rome bank.

But some time ago, one of the branch heads of that bank decided to expand on it, adding an on land caravan department to it.

We shipped food to cities and other locations that wast accessible by sea.

Finishing my food, I quickly gave John and Henry instructions, about watching the boys, and making sure they went to bed at a reasonable time, before leaving the inn again.

Leaving the inn, I made my way to the busy docks, even though it was getting dark.

Walking down the full docks, I looked for the signs of one of my ships.

After a few minutes I found it.

The ship was a galley ship, and the biggest ship in the harbor.

The reason I could tell it was one of mine, was a symbol painted into the head of the ship.

The symbol was of a sun. With green and blue as the rays of light coming out of a red sun.

Coming down to the gangplank, I stopped in front of a pair of my guards, who were in the fashion of old legionaries, with purple capes.

Speaking in Latin, I told them.

"I must speak to your captain." I said sternly.

Both men looked at each other surprised.

"The captain is not available at the moment." One of them said, but I cut him off.

"Go to your captain and tell him my words, he will understand the meaning.

"Nox mors est, sol vita est." (Night is death, the sun is life/ old Latin)

The guards looked at each other again, before one of them left, and knocked on a small cabin door at the back of the ship.

After a moment he entered.

While he was busy me and the remaining guard stood awkwardly, while I rocked on my heels, making popping sounds with my lips.

It only took a moment for the doors of the cabin to literally be kicked open, and a gray bearded man fast walked to us.

The man was probably in his late 40s, with long white hair, and a beard that would put duck dynasty to shame.

He wore a white shirt that went to his knees with a piece of black rope as his belt, and fine sandals as his footwear.

Practically skidding to a stop, the man looked at me wide eyed before he dropped to his knees in front of me.

"I have waited my whole life for this moment." He said, in what sounded like worship.

Surprising me even more, the man hesitantly reached out and grabbed my feet.

'What in the fuck?' I thought.

"Uhh, yeah yeah yeah, why don't you stand up, huh, we're drawing some attention here." I said, looking around, at the people.

"Your wish Is my command," he said, before standing again.

"What was that all about?" I asked, as he stood up.

"Oh, uhhmm, I…uh, I've always wanted to meet the father. And to Finally meet you here of all places is just a true blessing" He said, looking up to the darkening sky, raising his hands up.

"Praise God." He said, and I could have sworn I saw a tear form in one of his eyes.

"The father?" I asked. now way beyond confused.

"Yes, father," he said, confirming it for me.

"Father of what?" I asked.

"Father of man" he said with a wide smile.

'Oh fuuuckk.'

Raising a hand to my forehead, I let out a groan.

"and how exactly did you come up with that?" I asked, not removing my hand from my face.

"I'm a member of the 'circle' Father." He said.

"What is the circle?" I asked.

The man raised an eyebrow as he looked at me confused.

"The circle, it's a group who worship the father of man, and that's you father." He said.

I smacked my forehead again.

"And who exactly is part of this 'group'?" I asked.

"Oh, well all the heads of each bank of course. As well as the heads of each department. Like myself. I'm the head of the ocean trading sector. I thought you would have known about this Father?" he said.

I raised my hands.

"Could you please stop calling me father."

"Oh, uhh, yes fathe~, I mean sir." he said with a chuckle.

'This can't be happening' I thought as I started to pace in front of them.

'These idiots made a fucking cult about me' I thought while shaking my head.

Finally coming to a stop, I spoke to the captain of the ship.

"Prepare your ship to sail, I will be back in an hour, then we will be heading to Rome." I said, before turning to leave.

I was a bit pissed.

I was actually starting to look forward to being a soldier for a while.

But now thanks to my bank head, I'm having to leave and deal with this issue that they hid from me for who knows how long.

Technically I didn't need to leave.

But the idea of a group of people worshiping me just creeped me out to no end.

So I decided to just nip this in the rear as soon as possible.

And plus it wasn't like there wast going to be way more wars soon.

So I had time. (100 years war & more)

Making it back to the inn, I woke both John and Henry and told them to pack theirs and my belongings.

After that, I went upstairs to Gérard and Oliver's room, waking them as well, telling them to get dressed.

Then went to my room, putting my things in one of the chests that they were brought up in.

In total, it took us a little under 30 minutes to get moving towards the docks.

Guiding them through the streets, we made it to the ship just in time.

"What's going on Adam?" Henry asked, as some of the ship's men started to take our belongings to the ship.

"Something has come up, we're going to Rome." was all I said, as I helped the boys from the back of the cart.

Once the cart was empty, I was asked what I wanted done with the horse and cart.

Looking around the dock for a moment, I spotted a man who was missing an arm and seemed to be down on his luck.

He looked to have probably been a soldier or guard at some point, if his steady stance told me anything, but sadly he lost his arm at some point.

Pulling the horse along, I stopped in front of him.

"Want a horse?" I asked him simply.

The man looked at me then the horse and back to me.

"where'd you steal it from?" He asked in a gruff voice

"I didn't, we're leaving for Rome and don't have enough space on board to take him with me. He's a good horse and in good health." I said.

The guy gave a shrug, so I handed the horse over to the man before boarding the ship.

Entering the ship, I made my way to the back, where the boys, Henry and John were sitting.

_____________________

The trip took nearly a week, which was annoying, because all I wanted to do was yell at some bank head the entire time.

But there was a good thing during the trip, I found out more about this "circle" group.

First I was told what the circle meant.

I was shown by the captain, who I found out was named Anton, the symbol for the group.

The symbol was a collection of circle's.

One big one, with four small ones inside in another circle, and what they represented.

1. Unity and Wholeness: representing completeness and perfection. It has no beginning or end, meaning an eternal and infinite nature. Was the first big circle that surrounded the other four smaller ones.

2. Continuity and Infinity: The circle's endless shape symbolizes continuity and infinity, as it has no breaks or interruptions. It can represent the cyclical of life, seasons, and the ongoing flow of time.

3. Harmony and Balance: The symmetrical nature of a circle symbolizes harmony and balance. It represents a sense of equilibrium and equilibrium in various aspects, such as emotions, relationships, and the natural world.

4. Divine and Spiritual: the circle represents the divine and spiritual realms. It can symbolize the divine presence, enlightenment, and the interconnectedness of all things. Like a halo.

5. Protection: represents a sacred space, and a gathering, that is protected.

And I couldn't help but give a silent nod of respect to whoever came up with all of that, because damn, that was a lot of shit that kinda made sense.

Apparently they had two meetings a year in the Rome bank.

Once at the beginning of the year, and once in the 6th month of the year.

Involving all the bank heads, and the heads of each branch.

There were also a lot of other things I learned, but after I found out they didn't do any weird stuff like sacrifices or group sex nights, I felt a bit better, but of course still pissed.

By the time we reached Rome's large harbor, I had started to get some hair back on my head.

So instead of being bald, o now had a buzz cut look.

But that didn't really matter much, especially here in Rome, where the pope resides.

every person from the lowest of class to the richest, we're true believers I'm faith, and have gone to church every Sunday.

So if I was to show my white hair here, it wouldn't take long for people to start having ideas.

Using a hooded cloak, I made my way to the bank.

As I traveled the once familiar streets, I slowly started to realize how much of this place had changed in the past few hundred years that I had been gone.

Of course there are still some things that remain the same.

Like the colosseum, my horse racing arena, or the baths of caracalla.

Finally making it to the large steel doors of my bank, I looked up at the absolutely massive marble structure that surrounded them.

"What the fuck" I said out loud.

The structure was a true behemoth, of about four stories, with massive white marble pillars, and taking up nearly a quarter of a mile from one end to the other.

'Rome isn't even the main bank, why the hell is this bank so big?' I thought, as I looked around.

Deciding to get this done with, I Made my way inside.

The inside was just as grand as the outside, with massive pillars that led you to the desks of the tellers.

As I walked, I saw that the marble pillars had carvings in them, depicting scenes of historical events.

Like certain battles, or of Emperors taking the throne.

But one stole my attention.

On one of the pillars, was an almost perfect carving of my face, with long hair and all.

"I'm gonna dig up one of my old bank heads, and kill 'em again." I grumbled to myself as I walked up to one of the opened desks.

"Good afternoon sir, may I have your vault's name, number and its security numbers sir." a young man said, giving me a smile.

I stood stone faced as I took out my beat up and dinged gold card, and tossed it onto his desk.

"your bank head, now.'

The young man looked confused for a moment before he looked down at the card and froze.

Surprising me, the young man opened one of the drawers of his desk and pulled out a slip of paper.

On the paper was the symbol that was on my card, then some scribbling underneath.

His eyes got even bigger as he read the paper.

"Uhh, ye-yes s-s-ir." He squeaked, as he stood, and literally ran for his life to the back of the large open bank area, to a door at the far back, where he slammed into it before disappearing into the back.

The actions of the clerk drew much attention, leaving me to stand there, as people stared at me.

After a few minutes the clerk exited the door, closely followed by another man, who was dressed in much finer clothing, and had rings and chains on his, signifying his status.

As he walked towards me, we met eyes, and I instantly knew that he knew that I knew.

( I couldn't help myself)

A cold sweat appeared on his face as I stared him down as he got closer.

___________________________

Sooooo, yup, that was a big chapter, how about that, two in two days.

But what can I say, I'm motivated, and had a lot of pent up writing I needed to get out.

After the first half of the next chapter the summarized time skips will begin, with sporadic full chapters involving important people to the story.

I'm finishing this at nearly 1 in the morning, so I'm beat. I can't really check this for any errors at the moment because my eyes are crossing, so if you find any, please let me know.

Thank you as always.

-BEAN-

Oh and before I forget.

Please check out my other fan-fictions.

Something when I'm running behind on this fan-fiction, or having some serious writers block, I write those ones to help jog my mind.

Hope you enjoy.

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