It's all about art

"If you regain your memory, would you take me out of this wretched place, Acte?" Nero suddenly asked after Burrus left. 

It was unclear whether she asked this on a whim or if she meant business. 

However, Acte knew that her monarch didn't like indecisive answers or vague ones, or answers with many excuses. 

She only demanded a yes or no. 

She was all about that decisive game, no middle ground. 

"If you wanted to do it now, then I do, Nero," Acte answered without hesitation. 

The rune mark that was supposed to bind her to eternal slavery by the slave owner who found her had already been removed from her sight when Nero brought her to her side. 

Nero freed her and didn't care whether she would rebel or run away. 

If she did so, then it meant her vision was bad; if she stayed loyal, that meant she was right about Acte, nothing more, nothing less. 

It was all about gamble and her gut rather than rationality on her part.

She threw rationality out of the window when she made the gamble; after all, all capitalists were gamblers in the first place, and she was no exception from that list. 

Honestly, Acte admired Nero's courage even after knowing that she had a grudge with Rome, especially slave traders for bringing her into this. 

Despite being weaker than her, Nero still unbound her shackles, and she did it without hesitation. 

But considering Nero's life was all about gamble, and one wrong move could mean death, it was reasonable why she did so; she was already in a state where she didn't care about life and death. 

It was about the gamble of winning or losing. 

"No. I like my life, Acte. And I don't want to change it," Nero answered. 

"Nero, why...?" Acte didn't understand what was so great about this kind of life. 

She had seen the rough hand Nero had been dealt, surrounded by two-faced backstabbers from all angles. Even her own mom wanted to puppeteer her, and her childhood friend was a total psycho. Nero was living that isolated life. 

Being an emperor sucked, plain and simple. 

That's why Acte didn't understand why Nero insisted on doing it. If she wanted to, Acte would let her out from this wretched place, but Nero refused. 

"Yeah, why? This question was indeed worth pondering about." 

"I'm doing it because I enjoy it." 

"I enjoyed the stage. I enjoyed the art. I enjoyed this grand performance, Acte. I loved every minute of it." 

"This is not all about power, ambition, or survival. It's about doing what I like." 

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." 

"That was me, Acte. Plain and simple." 

"So, why did you ask that question in the first place, Nero? Why did you want me to take you out of this place?" Acte wanted to make sense out of the situation, but she couldn't after she heard the answer. 

Her monarch may have looked fine on the surface, but she could perceive that something was different, something that she couldn't pinpoint where had gone wrong. 

Nero didn't answer her question as she turned out to be already asleep. 

Acte sighed sympathetically and carried her monarch on her back as she escorted her to her private chamber. She knew from this that she needed to keep an eye on Nero closely, or one day she would snap out again. 

It wasn't paranoid on her part because she witnessed how extreme Nero was when she saw those slave traders and any witnesses knowing her true status as a slave and sought the silence of every single one of them. 

Except for her fiancée, Claudia, who wasn't shut out by her, she ordered the assassination agency that she had to murder all witnesses silently. 

So, no one knew that she was a slave apart from Nero and Claudia. 

She didn't know how long this sanity would last. 

Nonetheless, she would always be on her side if she needed her.