Part 1

"Swear your loyalty to Emperor Claudius!"

"Never!"

Gaius, standing in front of the village chief had his blade unsheathed, pointing it toward the chief of the village.

By this time, the Century had occupied the entire village, herding villagers, out into small groups making sure they didn't move or go anywhere until Lucious came back for further orders.

"Mother, what's happening?"

"Shhh."

A mother hushed her child as they sat on the floor along with other villagers, herded by Roman soldiers.

The village chief was held behind the shoulders by two legionaries, holding him tight. He was held in the Village sqaure, where most of his people were also kept sitting down guarded by the Roman soldiers.

"You insolent-!"

Gaius dropped his blade and clenched his fist, preparing to punch the chief's face.

The chief shut his eyes, preparing himself for the hard blow from a seemingly seasoned warrior.

"...Eh?"

But, it didn't come.

Instead, the Chief saw that Gaius had fallen onto the floor.

It looked like Gaius had tried to punch the chief, but missed and instead hit the air beside the chief, falling face flat toward the ground.

The villagers, the chief, and even the legionaries looked on with a jaded expression of disappointment, all thinking the same thing.

...So uncool.

"Mother, that was so uncool."

"Shh. You're right, but shhh."

The child that had spoken out earlier, spoke out again rashly.

Seemingly embarrassed by this, Gaius silently stood up, wiped his face, and ran away.

"..."

"..."

"..."

The chief and the two legionaries holding him glared at Gaius silently as he ran away pitifully.

"..."

"..."

"..."

There was a moment of silence that lasted seconds but felt like an eternity. The soldiers behind the chief were sweating nervously, they were raw recruits following orders from the Optio Gaius, who was in main command of everyone here since Lucious wasn't here.

But their commander had just run away.

They both looked at each other and shared the "What the fuck do we do?" look.

Heavily affected by this awkward atmosphere, the Chief opened his mouth:

"Um... I- I feel very bad, I'll swear loyalty to your Emperor."

The chief looked away, pointing his gaze toward the floor as he muttered.

"Thanks..."

One of the soldiers behind him awkwardly replied.

So, the mission was a success. The village is now Roman-occupied.

The first subjugated for the Mighty Emperor Cladius!

Only a few minutes later, all three of them saw Emilia dragging Gaius by the ear back toward the chief.

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"Ow ow ow! Alright, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have run off!"

"Stop being such a baby and finish your job!"

Emilia was shouting into Gaius's ear as he was bent in an angle, dragged by it.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, you dumbfuck! Why would you even run away?!"

"I was embarrassed! Wouldn't you also run away if while you were trying to act hyper scary, tough, and intimidating but when you try to deliver the punchline proof of that toughness, you fall and hit the ground?!"

"You're being too specific, shut the hell up and get that oath of loyalty!"

Emilia threw Gaius in front of the Chief, all covered in mud.

"U-Um, it's okay, I've already sworn my loyalty to your Emperor..."

The chief nervously stood up for Gaius against the scary-sounding Emilia

Part 2

Lucious and his men came back, with Maria in arm.

"Eh?"

Maria looked on, expecting her fellow villagers to be tied up, beaten, or at least her village razed by fires by Lucious's soldiers, but instead:

"Maria! What are you doing with these men?!"

Her father, the village chief came running toward her, behind him were two soldiers that had the same uniform as Lucious, although one was a woman.

"T-They found me, and brought me back safely, father."

Maria stuttered as she embraced her father.

The chief, with Maria in arm looked at Lucious, taking a few seconds to awe at his size before shaking his head as if to sober himself back.

"That is Lucious Quintus Coleius, our Sir Centurion, show some respect."

Emilia spat at the chief with a cold tone.

The Chief didn't seem surprised by this but did jump back a step before bowing his head.

"It's an honor to meet you, Centurion... Coleius?"

"You can call me Lucious. Anyways, besides that, it seems like everything went well even without me doing anything."

Although I would have fucked up somehow if I did do anything anyways.

Lucious looked around and saw the villagers living their daily lives joined with the help of his men. He saw some of his men playing with the children as their mothers watched, three others were helping an old man hoe his farm while some just leaned against the buildings and chatted.

The sky was cloudy and the air was fresh, Lucious lightly inspected the materials of the houses with his eyes.

Wooden walls, wooden roofs, short stone walls, a little bit of paint? Now that's a countryside village if I ever saw one.

"Yes, this village is official property of the Roman Empire now."

Emilia replied professionally, her hands behind her straightened up back, Gaius nervously saw how tightly she was acting and followed the example.

"Um... Sir Centurion, what does that mean for us?"

The chief worriedly asked, concerned about this village's future.

I don't know.

Lucious wanted to respond with that, he didn't know what the hell was gonna happen. The process was too complicated for his simple mind, which included weekly taxes, ceasing of resources, or whatever they did.

"Talk to Emilia about that."

He pushed the responsibility onto Emilia.

A few hours later, the details were hushed out and Emilia returned to Lucious.

In summary, a small garrison of 12 men would stay at the village as protection and ensure peace, although that was a pretense for occupation. This village will be taxed weekly and their horses were taken along with a small percentage of their resources.

The chief seemed a little bit dissatisfied with this, but despite their consensual agreement, there was nothing they could do; we had the power here with our weapons, and could kill or enslave them all if we wanted.

So the chief agreed.

Right now, Lucious sat beside a tree, thinking about what was going to happen.

Immediately after ceasing the horses, Emilia and her scouting men immediately went off to search for the Legion base camp.

Lucious hoped that they didn't, it's been 2 days since they've separated from their army; the Legion would have found out about this by now and considered Lucious's Century as deserters, even though they simply got lost.

Lucious would have to at least achieve a significant feat before returning as a way of compensation.

"Hey, Mister, what's 5 plus 23."

A kid approached Lucious and grabbed his shield, he seemed to be around 12 years old from what Lucious could assume.

"Uh..."

What was it again?

Lucious sat there, and racked his mind.

"It's 25, the answer is 25."

"Wrong, dumbass."

"It's 28."

"Correct!"

While Lucious didn't care much about academics, he at least knew that much, well, only after thinking for a few moments.

A kid cheekily smiled, but he was head chopped by Maria, who followed up behind him.

"Um... Sorry if he bothered you, Sir Centurion..."

"It's fine, he's very intelligent. How does he know arithmetic?"

Arithmetic and language were only taught to high-class individuals, the very fact that a kid from a remote village like this knew of it was unprecedented.

"I... I taught him."

Maria stuttered as she put her arms around the child.

Oh? So she's the smart one here.

"That's very impressive."

"Yeah..."

"How old are you, little girl?"

"I'm 18! I told you already! And I'm not a little girl!"

Maria hotheadedly clenched her fist, stomping with a frustrated expression.

"I see, little girl."

Lucious didn't notice it, but he called her a little girl again. Lucious wasn't the brightest person, and was very much more dull than your average Roman man, so he didn't notice Maria's annoyance.

Hearing this, Maria kicked his thigh and huffed a sigh.

"Hmph."

Naturally, it didn't hurt. In actuality, he couldn't even feel it.

"Hey, little girl, do you know a place where I could clean myself, like, a lake?"

"Hmph!"

Maria crossed her arms and looked away.

Did I piss her off? What did I do?

Lucious was clueless.

"Little girl, are you angry?"

"No! I'm not!"

Maria this time turned completely away, grunting very pettily and exaggeratingly as if she were mad.

"I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry."

Lucious apologized, completely clueless and confused.

"Come on, I'll take you to the lake."

Maria took a few steps in the lake's direction, seemingly annoyed by Lucious's cluelessness.