I stayed with the redhead for some time, basking in her admiring gaze. Trying to talk with her was awkward, to say the least, but I made my best attempts.

“So, where are you from?”

“America.” I explained lamely.

Her gaze was questioning.

Gaius hopped in for me. “He means Olympus.” He says, his voice brimming with confidence he didn’t earn. “You’re a lucky girl, you got saved by a demigod today.”

I opened my mouth to say otherwise, but then I saw the girl’s shining eyes, and I didn’t have the heart. It wasn’t like she would believe me anyways. Nobody else did.

“Olympus?” Her eyes widened. “What’s it like there?” She asked. “Do you dine on nectar and ambrosia?”

“Wait… no!” I protested. I thought of my breakfast. “Cereals.”

Her brow furrowed in confusion.

“Grains.” I amended. “With milk. And honey.”

“Milk and honey? With every meal?” She looked at me like I was Bill Gates.

“Only… mornings. For breakfast.”

“You eat in the mornings?”

“Morning, noon, night. Why?.”

For a moment, I was afraid her mouth might drop to the floor.

Gaius coughed. “You eat thrice daily, brother. She eats thrice a week, probably.”

She seemed proud of that, weirdly enough. Her nod was enthused. “My father treats me well. I can have a loaf every day. Usually. Whole bread.”

The meal I just ate suddenly seemed heavy in my stomach. “You… hungry?”

Her eyes darted away from mine quickly. “No, no, not at all.” As if on cue, her stomach grumbled.

Gaius frowned. “I’ll fetch some bread.” He promised. Then he was out, leaving me alone to fend for myself against a pretty girl.

You know that smile girls have? Yuppie, I’m about to have a real good time. Quite happy, a little evil, and very, very excited. Like when they see Brandon from wrestling show off his muscles, and then hear he’s passing their class on his way home. No? Just me? Ok fine.

But it was one of those smiles. Hungry, but in a different way than her stomach might suggest.

“Have you had any friends in Olympus?” She asked.

Friends? I thought of those dreary, lifeless days in school, surrounded by a sea of strangers. I thought about the lunch table, all seats empty except for mine. I thought of those precious few moments alone at home, work done, finally, and the latest manga blinking to life and blossoming on screen.

My only friend, not that I could ever be with them long. “No.” I said.

“No girls?”

I nearly snorted. “No.”

Her eyes shone brighter. “Lonely then…”

Oh, you have no idea.

“Yes.”

“... and powerful?”

Ok, maybe not.

“Like a legendary hero.” She cooed.

Now wait a minute…

“I-” She didn’t give me a chance.

She scooted close to me. Comfortably close. Or well… uncomfortably close, depending on how you saw it. I all but squirmed as her arm brushed up against mine.

“Oh, hero.” Her voice changed. Softer, warmer, more… daring. “What do you think of me?”

My face turned red. “Well, you’re very nice. Pretty- no, like, I mean, I don’t mean. I…” I babbled on incoherently for some time, my words switching intermittently between latin and english.

She retreated, lips pressed together. She looked almost abashed. Her hand rested on my forehead, and she frowned in concern. “Babbling… redness… heat. You are with fever.”

“No, no.” I protested. “I’m fine, I’m-”

“Hush.” She said, pushing me back towards the bed. Some irritation entered her eyes. “Nobody likes a bad patient.” She scolded. “Get some rest.” She pushed harder.

I tried to struggle, but I didn’t really have the heart for it. I tried moving my arms, but she had them pinned, and soon she was on top of me, pushing me down with more force… and…

“Hello? I brought-” Gaius’ head popped in the door. The warm smell of freshly baked bread wafted in from the satchel, making my mouth water. Well, okay, it was really the girl on top of me making my mouth water, but that was besides the point.

And that didn’t last long anyways. She was off of me in a flash, head faced in the other direction. Something made me suspicious she was blushing furiously.

Gaius’ face was a mix of a million emotions. Bewilderment, confusion, shock, on one end, and something that looked suspiciously like anger on the other. “What exactly were you doing, girl?”

“He’s with fever!” She protested. I caught a glimpse of her cheeks, flushed as red as her hair. “I was settling him to bed!”

“No?” I rose, all signs of redness gone.

Gaius’ eyed her with some disappointment. “Meretrix. He is still injured!” He chided.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Maybe I should’ve felt bad, but she was quite lovely when she blushed like that. I found myself staring.

Gaius turned his wrath on me. “And you… such an unmanly position! Will you be the one to sully the strength of the guard?”

Well… now that was a good question. I didn’t love being on the bottom, but if it got me what I wanted? Hell yes I would. But of course I couldn’t say that, the girl was right here! I couldn’t look like a pushover… just be one.

“No.” I scrambled for words. “Was nothing… just… resting.”

His voice was laced with sarcasm and disapproval in equal parts. “Right.” He looked at me, then her. “I believe you.”

He sat at the table, and I stumbled over to join. She arrived last, awkwardly. But then we got our hands on the bread, and the awkwardness dissipated. We both tore into our meals. It didn’t take a minute for the bread to disappear down my throat.

Now, bear in mind, I was something of a picky eater. I had preferences for my food. The meats I liked, the vegetables I liked, the right texture, the smoothness… everything. If it wasn’t just right, good luck getting me to eat. I put my parents through no end of trouble before they got me enthused for meals. For the longest time, I just picked at my plate, and wasted most of it.

The bread was decent by roman standards, but it was rough, coarse, and devoid of any of the softness you might find in a supermarket loaf. If I had it at the breakfast table I’d have politely set it aside and grabbed some cereal instead. Now I devoured it like it was the best thing I’d ever had in my life.

HP: 14/110

HP: 21/110

Besides me, the redhead was similar, wolfing down her share with the energy of someone who probably hasn’t eaten in way too long. Gaius stared at both of us, eyes wide, as we made short work of what should’ve been a thirty minute meal.

“It's not often I see an appetite to match the big guy.”

Our apologetic grins matched.

Gaius shook his head. “Really now, brother? The farmers of Olympus must have a plantation marked just for you. Milk and honey for every meal? Your appetite could bankrupt even an emperor.”

“Well… wasn’t expensive.” I tried.

Gaius snorted. “A bottle of honey goes for fifty truesilver denarius. Even the physicians dare not prescribe too much. And you have it with every meal? The wealthiest senator would not spoil his child so badly.”

“Not all meals.”

“Well, what else do you have then?”

“Meats, salts, spices.”

The redhead stared blankly. “What are spices?”

“Cinnamon, chili peppers-”

Gaius choked on his bread.

“What?” I asked.

Gaius groaned. “Lucky bastard. Even the emperor must wait for shipments, and you have it twice a day? Truly, there’s no justice in this world.”

The redhead’s eyes nearly bulged out of her skull. “He means red and black gold?”

“Seems like it.” Gaius rubbed his head. “Pluto help me… fifteen hundred denarii per bag. You could save money by eating pure silver instead. Only in Olympus…”

It was odd, feeling rich. Here I was, telling two friends about my regular meals, and they were looking at me like I was some monster that devoured solid gold for lunch.

I was just a middle class kid, damn it!

Not that it mattered to them. In their eyes, I lived like Bill Gates. Or used to, at any rate. Strange, all those things I used to take for granted. I would need to work to get them back. But with my system on my side…

“I could…” I typed some sentences out in GPT for a translation. “Make some, one day. For all of us.”

“You’ll get us cinnamon?” Her face was the very picture of excitement.

Gaius snorted. “By bankrupting the empire, maybe.” He grabbed at his loaf of bread absently. “But if you ever do, you owe us.”

“Of course.” There. A promise I think I could keep. Maybe for once in my life.

My thoughts turned to my system again. Sure, chatGPT itself wasn’t very useful, but there were other things I could do with it. There was a store upgrade in skill evolutions. Modern items for sale, if I recall correctly. Maybe some cinnamon was for sale there? Or maybe some other goodies. How might the two of them react to cheeseburgers?

A dumb smile crossed my face. The thought was almost silly. But… it made me feel happy, strangely happy.

A knock came at the door suddenly, jolting me out of my thoughts. The redhead sat up. “Oh! Probably my father, excuse me.” She rose from her chair. She paused halfway to the door. Turning around, she smiled at me. “I’m Tana, by the way.”

I smiled back. “Roland.”

And then she was gone. Gaius grinned behind me. “A nice girl.”

“Yeah.” I agreed.

“Very easy on the eyes. Are you interested?” There was a certain tension to his eyes, something beneath the usual friendliness I couldn’t quite make out.

“Well… yes.” No point in denying it.

“She is plebes, or worse. Her father is a servant here.”

“So?”

“You cannot simply have your way and leave her aside. It would ruin her.”

“No! I would… never.” I gasped, offended. “How could I?”

“What will you do then? Marry her?” There was some scorn to his voice. “She has no connections, no estates, no inheritance.”

“So?” I repeated, uneasy.

He raised an eyebrow. “You wouldn’t actually do it, would you?”

“Why not?”

“A praetorian at your age, slayer of lions, a demigod besides… Roland, you could have everything! There will be a day where the senators send their daughters to chase after you. Richer, prettier, more– everything. Will you stay loyal?”

“Obviously.”

He shook his head. “Easy to say.” He muttered darkly.

“Easy to do.” I countered. “Just be… decent.”

He chuckled. “Decent? Here in the capital? There’s two types of people here, in case you’ve failed to notice. The indecent, and…” He gestured towards the door, towards Tana. “... everyone else. Would you want to be like them? Barely able to square your meals? The Gracchi were decent. Marius was decent. Caesar was decent. See how it ended for them.”

His voice hardened. “Power… power will change a man, always. Change him or kill him, whatever comes first. You will be powerful. Best be careful too.”

“How’d you know?” I challenged.

“Know?” His voice turned violent suddenly. “I can do better than know, I saw. I saw with my own eyes. I-”

A knock came at the door. Gaius drew himself back, smoldering. “Later.” He said, his voice quiet.

The door opened, and I saw Tana’s face, cheerful and relieved. “Here, Master. This is the demigod.”

‘Master’, as Tana called him, was an old man, his dark eyes framed by wrinkles that bespoke his age. Even now, long past his prime, he carried himself with a certain strength. Reserved, dignified, he seemed like the very image of a zen master. Or maybe a university chancellor.

Gaius bowed as he entered. “Doctor.”

A smile came across my face. “I’m getting treated?”

Now that was good news. I’d recovered enough by now to take this damn sword out of my belly, but some medical help would be appreciated. It didn’t hurt to be safe, after all.

“You shall, young one.” The old man approached, Tana following close behind with a box. Medical implements, I would guess. “You are in good hands.” He assured me.

“Good to hear… I…” Then I caught sight of the box’s contents.

Grimy, rusty, with blood still dripping, the ‘instruments’, as the doctor would later call them, were hardly a sight for weak stomachs. Wicked, serrated edges seemed to take on an evil glow in the dim light of the room. They jingled, clinked, clacked against each other, scissors and cutters and incisors all choking together in a cacophony of ugly noise.

Then there was the glass jar. Dark brown creatures crawled inside; eyeless, faceless things that slithered with an alien intelligence. I could almost see them on me already, crawling, slithering, biting… I shuddered.

“I… I don’t… think I feel.. So good.” I forced out through chattering teeth.

The doctor beamed, and spoke the words I dreaded most. “Good, let me help you!”