Chapter 18

"Send him in. I want to hear about this cooperation." said Lupus as the guard just saluted and left to get the envoy of Marc Antony.

The messenger of Pompey on the other hand had a weird expression. He never knew that something like this might happen. It seemed like both Pompey and Caesar wants to get this family's support for their own personal cause.

The messenger has to act, he knows this. Pompey needs this family's support and the messenger will overstep the bounds of his duty to ensure this.

"Your excellency, perhaps, I can also discuss a cooperation with you?" the messenger suddenly said which attracted the attention of Lupus and motioned him to continue.

"I propose that you withheld your decision on who to support until I get the response of my lord Pompey. This way, you wouldn't suddenly upset the whole balance in the senate." said the messenger with a hasty voice.

Lupus just nodded as he pondered for a moment. Just as the messenger is about to celebrate thinking his desperate almost unconherent sentence managed to convince the most powerful man in all of Rome, the envoy of Marc Antony came inside with an Old Guard as escort.

"My lord, I brought the envoy of Marc Antony." the soldier stepped aside, revealing a formal looking diplomat with a sash on his shoulder that's colored red.

"Great patriarch of the Spinther family. I have come to bargain on behalf of the Caesarian faction." opened the envoy as he carried himself with confidence in front of Lupus.

"Bargain? I want to hear it, speak." motioned Lupus as he find the confidence of the envoy rather charismatic.

"The Ceasarian faction is more than ready to give you a tax exemption once Julius Ceasar gets elected as the Consul." proposed the envoy which made the messenger of Pompey formed a weird expression all over his face.

"Y-you can't do th-" the words that the messenger bourted out was cut off with a brutal response from the envoy who's looking down at him.

"Shut up, you lowly messenger. Your lord is but a bastard taking advantage of the situation." spitted out the envoy as he rolled his eyes in annoyance.

Lupus on the other hand just shook his head on the childish banter as he prepared a reply.

"A tax exemption? Can Rome even afford such an expensive deal?" replied Lupus as he laughed and requested the slave carrying a pitcher and cup to come forward.

"I'm sure that Rome can afford it your excellency. After all, it's Julius Caesar we're talking about here, the second richest man in all of Rome." said the envoy with a charismatic smile as Lupus chuckled in his mind.

Lupus then nodded and he fixed himself and walked towards the envoy, intending to shake his hands to formalize the agreement, the messenger thought of a wild idea.

"Your excellency Lupus Spinther!" the messenger suddenly shouted as the guard that's nearest to him moved in to subdue the disrespectful man.

The guard slapped the back of the knee of the messenger with the shalf of his polearm and followed it through with a kick on the back.

The guard moved so fast that the messenger didn't even had the time to process whatever happened.

The messenger stumbled forward right directly on the feet of Lupus. His face literally planted on the ground beneath the feet of the two men.

The guard then moved in and pointed the tip of his polearm, ready to stab the man in the first signs of an order from Lupus.

The messenger struggled to lift his head as he spouted totally enraging words.

"If you accept...You will be... treated as the enemy of Rome!"

The words literally enraged everyone other than Lupus as he thought that his fate will be like that of Ceasar, treated as the enemy of the republic which lead to the autocratic Empire that is the Roman Empire.

"Enemy of Rome? That's sounds like a good title to have." said Lupus, completely shattering the expectations of the messenger.

"Do you not have any... sense of honor or pride for your family?" shouted the messenger which struck some sensitive strings on the mind of Lupus.

"Pride? Honor? You know nothing about those words. Throw him out. And tell Pompey that I declare him as my enemy now." ordered Lupus as the guards immediately went to work.

However, Lupus secretly motioned another order. He motioned for the soldiers to kill the messenger, and the soldier know what to do.

The messenger had a dumbfounded expression plastered all over his face as he tried to process what happened and what he had just done.

"Wa-it, y-you got it all wro-" his words started to shrink from the ears of the people on the balcony as he was being taken away.

Lupus weighed the pros and cons on his mind of what he had just done. Julius Caesar is bound to win the civil war. Who knows, he might even make it faster by introducing the new and improved bow called the English Longbow. By joining him rather early on, he can get the most of the benefits, but of course, he will let Caesar turn into a sponge.

"Now Mr. Envoy, shall we finalize the deal?" asked Lupus as he extended his arm for a Roman version of a handshake.

The envoy nodded and shook his arm and the two finalized the deal that made historians of the future call it as much as the "Handshake that's seen around the world".

"It's nice having to talk to someone as smart as you your excellency..." said the envoy with a smile as Lupus smiled back at him.

"But, I have a request, my request is..."

...

January 10, 49 BCE...

Julius Caesar, the man, the myth, the legend. He is considered as one if not the current greatest living general of Rome.

He is near the Italian border with the 13th legion of Rome, ecamped. It's currently around 3 pm in the afternoon so it's not that dark.

Earlier, he got the news that the senate or rather the Pompeians gave him an ultimatum to surrender his power and face the law.

He slowly stood up from his seat inside the tent. He then exited the tent to have a breath of fresh air and have a good stretch.

Everything is uncertain for him. He hasn't got any news regarding the deal between Marc Antony and Lupus. If he only got that deal then all of these wouldn't happen.

But just as he was walking outside the tent, a commotion broke out which attracted his attention and he immediately rushed.

As the entrance of the camp, a long trail of wagon whose contents are covered by animal pellets can be seen. These wagons has no flag to signify which country or family they are affiliated to.

"Legionnaire, speak, what's happening?" asked Caesar to a nearby soldier who answered him immediately.

"My lord, these men claims to have been sent by the Spinther family to deliver us supplies."

"Supplies? Byt we don't need supplies right now." said Caesar as he pondered for a moment. Just then, the head merchant of the whole caravan came to him with a parchment.

"Great Caesar, please read this parchment written by our lord Lupus himself. This will explain everything." the head merchant gave. simple white parhment tied by a ribbon.

Caesar accepted the parchment and quickly skimmed all over it to get the whole gist of the situation. There, he was immediately shocked by the first line.

The Spinther family promised to give full support and provide for everything he needs. And in return, he only needs to beat Pompey in this upcoming civil war.

After that first line, the letter listed everything on the wagons. From armor to sword, from bows to this so-called crossbows, lots of arrows, and tons of food.

On the very last line, it even said that there's more on the way, and it ended with a rather weird phrase that he can't understand nor even speak.

"What's this so-called crossbow? Is this the things that those guards on the senate use?" asked Caesar as he looked at the head merchant in confusion.

"They use the weaker version of the crossbow. They wouldn't even be a worthy adversary against the crossbows inside the wagons." answered the head merchant as he motioned for Caesar to folliw him to a certain wagon and took of its cover.

Inside, it revealed too many to count on 2 hands crossbows. Each of these crossbows has metal plating, something completely different from the one used by the senate guards who's completely made up of mood.

"These are all mine?" Caesar picked up a crossbow and tried to figure out how it works. The head merchant saw this and gave him an arrow and immediately instructed the legionnaire beside Caesar to get some archers so they can be taught how to use these.

"Push the arrow in and pull the string up to this metal hook." the head merchant instructed Caesar about everything regarsing the crossbow, and luckily, Caesar is a fast learner.

"Aim it straight and not to the sky. You can use that deer as a target." the head merchant pointed at the eating deer at the distant and Caesar aimed at it and pulled the trigger.

A whoosh like sound was heard as the arrow almost instantaneously flew towards the deer at extreme speeds and hit it fair and square on the body, delivering a killing blow and pushing it back a good distance from its original position.

Everyone was dumbfounded, from Caesar to the lowest of the legionnaire present. They're dumbfounded.

The power behind the weapon is just great. Caesar knew that once this weapon was used on a large scale, warfare as we know it will change significantly.

"So your excellency, Gaius Julius Caesar, what do you think? Do you think you can defeat Pompey?"