“Surrender, Nerva! There’s nowhere else to run!” The veteran warrior next to the hero of the rebellion shouted.

“Nerva. Now that’s a name I haven’t heard since we last met, Brutus.” The man clad in silk and ornate gold decorations smiled at the intruders.

“If you surrender now, Emperor, then death will not come for you.” The hero, barely an adult, exclaimed.

“Death?” Nerva chuckled and walked toward the jar of wine on a nearby table.

“Don’t move!” Another man in the crowd of rebellion soldiers yelled.

“Boy, your name is Trajan, correct?” The emperor continued to pour two glasses of wine despite the soldier’s instruction.

“I said don’t move-”

“You bested the most powerful army on the continent and defeated the strongest man the world had ever seen. Are you going to tell me you’re afraid of what a frail, old man would do?” 

Everyone silently glanced at the soldier while he tried to hide his embarrassment. 

“Sit, young Trajan. Your victory is assured. There’s no need to be on guard.”

Nerva strolled toward another table in the middle of the open room and sat down.

“What are you trying to do?” The young hero, weapon still in hand, wondered if he should approach.

“We should apprehend him now, Trajan! Don’t let him poison your mind!” Brutus stepped forward and aimed his spear at their enemy.

“Oh, like the poison you prepared for Nero? Ah, the good old days.” The emperor chuckled.

Trajan swiftly turned to stare at his mentor with shock. Brutus, on the other hand, grew even more furious and anxious.

“Fear not, boy. I assure you that this wine is completely safe to ingest.” He took two sips from both cups and grinned. “If not, well, I believe you would still have enough time to plunge your sword into my chest.”

“Ne-” Brutus wanted to charged toward his enemy, but his young protege stopped him.

“You always told me to keep an open mind, Brutus. I want to hear what he has to say.” 

The middle-aged man wanted to retort, but he couldn’t win against the boy’s steeled look. So, he turned toward the soldiers and ordered them to complete the takeover of the palace while the three men stayed.

Trajan sauntered to the table, laid down his sword, and sat opposite to Nerva.

“What does death mean to you, young Trajan?” The older man asked as he pushed the other cup of wine toward the younger man.

Trajan stared at his own reflection on the wine and pondered.

Nerva grinned and took a sip. “Let me put it in another way. What do you feel when you are facing death, both your own and your enemy’s?”

“I feel… dread. For both.”

Brutus raised his eyebrow.

“Dread. An interesting answer. Why?”

“Because I don’t like to be surrounded by death. I joined the rebellion so I could stop people from dying at the hands of your men.” The boy glared at the man.

“Is that all?” 

“...everyone only has one life to experience what the world can offer. Everyone deserves to meet their natural ends and pass away knowing that they have lived a fulfilling life. I believe all of us should be helping each other to achieve that goal instead of ending our journeys short. Whenever I need to take a life or have my own taken, I dread the moment because I want to see more of this wonderful world, and I want others to do the same.”

Trajan stared resolutely at Nerva, who was grinning ear to ear.

“I could never imagine someone like you being Brutus’s protege.” He then glanced at the middle-aged man. 

His former friend returned with a glare.

“I still don’t understand what you’re trying to do, Emperor.”

“My, still calling me Emperor? I wish I'd met you first instead of Brutus.”

“So you could make me, along with my sister that you captured, into your own personal sex slaves?” 

“That would be an atrocious waste of talent! I heard about your sister. She’s an exquisite woman. Better than most men I ever met.”

“She was raped and tortured for three years!” Trajan roared and slammed his fist on the table, yet the wine did not spill.

“A terrible tragedy. I believe you personally see to that pig’s death after you rescued your sister, yes? What did you feel then when you took his life? Still the same idealistic dread that you felt? Or did you revel in the pain you caused him before you cut his journey short?”

“I-”

“Did you feel happy when you took down those who made your life a living hell?”

“No-” 

“Did you celebrate when you stabbed the hearts of those who enjoyed and perpetuated the suffering of your people?”

“I didn’t-”

“DID YOU CRY IN TEARS OF JOY WHEN YOU CUT OFF THE HEAD OF THE MAN THAT BURNED YOUR VILLAGE TO ASH?!”

“NO!”

Tears were welling up in the boy’s eyes as he huffed. The emperor returned to his calm demeanour and took a sip from the cup. 

Brutus wasn’t sure if he should interrupt after that outburst.

“I… I didn’t. I didn’t feel happy when I killed those people. I felt… I felt...”

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Nerva gazed at Trajan coldly as the boy struggled to answer.

“When I was a boy, much like yourself, Nero executed everyone I knew slowly and painfully because we protected someone he deemed to be part of God’s mistake. All those lives lost because we did what we thought was right. We swore to take revenge, both me and the Bestiano we saved. We wanted to make Nero pay. To crush him like he crushed us.”

The man intentionally paused for the boy to digest his words.

“We fought Nero’s men and we protected the Bestiano. Many men and women rallied behind our cause and lost their lives as a result. We mourned for their deaths whilst marching forward. Then, 10 years after our journey started, we reached the end of our path. After Nero and his guards were successfully poisoned, I chopped off his head and put it on a stake. We did it. We had our revenge. We made the people who wronged us pay for their sins.”

Nerva paused again to observe Trajan’s expression. 

“I bet you’re wondering why the empire ended up like this, even though our stories mirrored each other. Both you and I, fighting to end the suffering and injustice in the empire, yet it persists. Come, don’t be shy. Make your guesses.”

“You took over Nero’s position, got drunk on power, and became exactly like him.”

“Ugh, what a boring answer. Are you even trying, young Trajan? Or is your ‘open-mindedness’ just for show?” Nerva gave Brutus a side glance.

“You don’t need to let a mass murderer lecture you on open-mindedness, Trajan!”

“Oh, but you can, Bomber of Sisca?”

Trajan widened his eyes and looked back at his mentor.

Fury lit up in the warrior’s eyes as he slammed his spear at the direction of the emperor, though the young hero managed to block the attack with his sword.

“What are you doing?!” Trajan exclaimed.

“Executing this son of a bitch!”

“My dear Brutus, you’re as foolish as I remembered. Don’t you realize you just admitted to the crime? I have to be honest, I was surprised when my spies revealed the truth to me. I thought, as cruel as you may be, you’re not cold-blooded enough to bomb a city district sky high. Look at how your lust for power has made you depraved.”

“Shut your mouth! You killed my family!”

“The very same family that tried to kill me and Hector the moment we took down Nero and his praetorian guards?! The one that poisoned my wife and our comrades so you could take the throne for yourself?!! You would’ve died a thousand deaths alongside your band of monsters if you hadn’t escaped that day. For 10 years, I dreamt of skinning you alive and slicing your meat  off slowly until you’re nothing but bones.”

The emperor then took a deep breath and calmly sighed.

“It has been 20 years since that fateful day. My hatred, however potent, had long dissipated. ”

The boy stared at his mentor with horror. His tough, yet kind mentor, a monster?

“He’s lying! Tell me that isn’t true, Brutus! Tell me!” Trajan pleaded.

Brutus roared, kicked his mentee aside, and charged toward the emperor. 

Nerva casually tossed the cup toward Brutus’s face. Despite his blurred vision, the madman continued his charge, confident that his enemy was a weak one. The frail emperor surprised him when he locked the front portion of the spear with his right arm, and gave the veteran warrior an uppercut on his chin before releasing a fistful of purple powder. 

Brutus coughed violently as he stumbled back and collapsed on the floor shortly after. 

The young hero stood by his mentor and raised his sword against the emperor.

“What did you do to him?!” 

“At ease, young Trajan. It’s not going to kill him.”

The veteran warrior struggled to keep his head up. “Y-you son of a bitch-”

“And yet, I’m the one that became emperor while you continue to sow fear across the country that I would die to protect.”

Nerva turned to the trembling Trajan.

“I’ll ask you again, boy, and I expect you to answer seriously this time. Why did I allow the rot in the empire to continue to fester, even though I, like you, fought to protect the people?”

“I… I don’t know. I thought you’re a weak and incompetent emperor, but… you don’t seem like one.”

“Admitting ignorance. I applaud you, young Trajan. All of the senators I knew would rather die than to show weakness. The answer is simple. I allowed it to fester on purpose.”

“Why?! Why would you do that?!”

“Because it was the only way to pry the empire away from Nero’s cold, dead hands.”

“What-”

“When we took him down, and subsequently betrayed by Brutus over here, we realized we had made a mistake. A grave mistake that plunged me into despair. We didn’t win because we fought valiantly. We won because the senators and other key figures of the empire had gotten sick of his reckless behavior and decided someone new should take the place.”

Nerva walked back to the table and poured himself a new cup of wine.

“It never dawned on us that Nero was merely a puppet. So, we tried to go after the puppet masters, but we couldn’t. We mustn’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because they control the empire! As despicable as they were, without them, the empire would collapse from within, and we would’ve been taken over by neighbouring countries. If that had happened, more people would’ve suffered. I had no choice. I spent many sleepless nights pondering if our rebellion did anything at all. Then, one day, the prophecy appeared. You know the one.”

He grabbed the cup, turned toward Trajan, and took a sip.

“I never believed in it, but I knew someone would take it seriously enough to make it come true, and that person turned out to be Brutus. When I first heard news of the rebellion, I got to work. I drafted a plan that will rid the empire’s evil once and for all without collapsing it. Have you ever wondered why the rebellion never failed to take down their targets? It was me. I gave the rebellion the means to remove them exactly the way I wanted while I secured or trained their replacements to fill the void.”

“I… You….” Brutus was struggling to express his shock.

“We were your pawns… all along?” Trajan’s voice was trembling. His stance had weakened.

“Come now, that’s a terrible way to describe the rebellion’s heroism. Still...”

The emperor turned toward the balcony and stared into the distance.

“I didn’t want to kill them. As evil as they were, some didn’t know there was another way to live, while others were forced down a dark path. It didn’t excuse their actions, but I often wondered if there was an alternate, peaceful solution.”

Nerva then walked toward Trajan’s cup and picked it up.

“When I killed the people who destroyed my life, I savored their deaths. But after that? I was haunted by the sounds they made when I extinguished the light in their eyes. Men like Brutus and Nero, they don’t see the value of life at all. They view death merely as a stepping stone to realize their greatest desire. They could kill, no, slaughter without remorse. So, I had to know if you’re able to see the weight of death in the same way that I do. Only then could I leave the empire in your hands, knowing that my efforts were not in vain.”

“And if I didn’t?”

“Then,” He pointed at the individual lying against the door, “I would’ve asked Hector to subdue you.”

Trajan followed Nerva’s gaze and saw the strongest man in the world limping toward a nearby chair before crashing down on it. The hero was sure he and his mentor took the commander down, which wasn’t technically untrue as the Bestiano was bleeding out on the chair.

“Do you need a medic, Hector?!”

The Bestiano gave a thumbs up before passing out.

“Now, my dear Trajan, you have three choices.” 

Nerva held the boy’s cup in front of him.

“One, you exile me and rule the empire yourself. Better watch out for Brutus. He’ll stab you in the back the first chance he gets.”

The middle-aged man groaned with his face on the ground.

“I don’t-”

“You don’t want power? That’s exactly why you deserve it. Power can only be trusted in the hands of those that do not wish to possess it.”

Trajan remained silent.

“Two, you become my left hand man while I continue to rule the empire until I can find a worthy successor.”

The hero lowered his head. The emperor smirked.

“I thought so, which is why your third choice is to become my protege. I will teach you everything I know and train you to become the emperor this country deserves. You will befriend the people I scoured to support the empire and succeed where I had failed. What do you say, hero of the rebellion?”

Nerva gestured to him to take the cup. Trajan thought for a long while before reluctantly accepting the cup.

Brutus passed out at that point, so he couldn’t really object.

“No more executions, torture, or slavery.”

“It is your empire now, young Trajan. Let us toast for the future!”

The two raised their cups to each other and drank.