Surviving as a Prince of Britannia

Author’s Note : This episode contains mature content. This interlude begins a short SPQR-focused arc. It shows what was happening on the Roman side before the story returns to the main Britannian timeline. The main storyline will resume with Chapter 26 after these interludes.

In this fic, the EU has been replaced by the SPQR. Its official languages are Latin and Greek. For readability, SPQR dialogue is generally rendered in English unless the language itself matters to the scene. In-universe, characters are speaking Latin, Greek, Britannian, or other languages as appropriate.

This episode is told from the point of view of Regulus Cissingensis, Head of the Bureau of Barbarians.

SPQR

The Senate and People of Rome

First Capital, Rome

The Center of the World

Bureau of Barbarians

Third Underground Floor

My Office

"Haa... Director... More!"

A secret agent, code-named Medea, sprawled naked across my mahogany desk, her dress hiked up to her waist, her creamy thighs spread wide to reveal her glistening, dewy folds.

Her chest heaved, soft breasts bouncing with every movement as she gasped for air, her voice trembling with a mix of fear and desperate arousal as I seized her waist, my fingers digging into her soft flesh, and drove into her with a savage, punishing rhythm.

My hips slammed against hers, the sound of flesh slapping flesh echoing in the small office.

I needed to destroy something, to feel something break, and Medea was the perfect vessel for my fury.

I buried myself deep inside her one last, earth-shattering time, pouring all my pent-up rage and lust into her trembling body as she cried out in ecstasy.

Fuck

I was still burning with rage and terror.

I had watched in real-time as Leila Vittonia Malcalia crashed in on a Knightmare and ripped that idiot, Eugene Abigail Justinianus to shreds with a single missile.

If that vulgar woman, with a brain smaller than Agrippina Minor had been more careful...

Rip

Clash

I had torn up the Senate attendance request and smashed a glass of high-end wine on the floor.

"Good-for-nothing bastards..."

"Not even 3 days, 3 hours, but suppressed in less than 30 minutes? Eugene, you harlot!"

Honestly, Leila's intrusion right after the broadcast means, information have definitely been leaked from somewhere, or perhaps she had elite forces waiting there beforehand, even though I couldn't grasp that.

Wait a minute, did Romanis who stood by her side during the Atlantic War help her that time as well?

But...it doesn't make any sense...although the Romani secret information guild acted as Praesidium in Adversis for the royals many centuries, their capablities have been drastically reduced and was incomprable to the Bureau of Barbarians in modern times.

Should I, Regulus Cissingensis, ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν βαρβάρων..., the Head of the Bureau of Barbarians, have claimed myself as the emperor, instead of that wretch, Eugene?

No, leaving out the possibiltiy that Leila's missile would have been shot right at my chest,

Eugene, who was both Exarchos Romae, the commander of the defense forces of the First Capital, Rome and from the House of Justinian - which was one of the six Patricians, noble families - House of Traianus, Justinian, Komnenos, Doukas, Laskaris and Palaiologos - that dwell in the second capital, Constantinople - was the best shot for the figurehead, I mean the new empress.

It's all thanks to the fact that current royal family - the House of Altocastarenis - being the descendant of the Barba Ruba, who was originally the Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire but won 4 battles in Ικόνιο, Acre, Arsuf and Ramla–Latrun, entered Jerusalem with bare feet and after giving a famous speech "I entered this city as a king of Germans, but shall return as an emperor of Rome", which he kept.

3 years later, Barba Ruba won the 3 battles in Benevento, Capua and Tiber, entered the City of Rome, while the pope kneeling before him, announcing "Now, the Roman Chruch and the Archbishop of Rome stands with the New West Roman Empire, long live Imperator!", and changed his name from Frederick I to Barba Ruba, Latinizing his family name from Hohenstaufen to Altocastarenis.

Thus, if I proclaimed myself as an emperor, entire city of Rome, no, entire Lazio would have revolted against me, let alone the fact that the Archbishop of Rome would never, ever give me a coronation.

Fucking Mediterranean parasites...

Where would a Germania native have a foothold?

Sigh

I vented this rage and fear through Medea's body right now.

"That woman... If it wasn't for Leila..."

I gripped her hips with bruising force, my nails sinking into her soft skin as I took her again and again, my breathing ragged and hot against her neck.

Medea arched her back, a soft, muffled moan escaping her lips as she clung to me, her body trembling beneath mine.

I was using her as a release valve for the pent-up rage and fear boiling in my gut, each thrust a declaration of dominance, each contact a desperate attempt to drown out the memory of Eugene's death.

Her warmth engulfed me, her cries blending with the slap of skin until there was nothing left in the world but the friction and the heat of our bodies locked together in a frenzy of raw, animalistic passion.

Pant

After thrusting roughly one last time, I let out a ragged breath and fell back.

Medea tidied up her disheveled hair and clothes and whispered to me.

"Director... about the Senate attendance..."

Phew

"We have to go, Medea."

"Let's go and act like a fool."

I tightened my tie and smiled cold.

The streets of Rome had already become hell on earth.

“Immediate resignation of the Senate! Hold early elections!”

“Dissolve the Pleiades and Atlas!”

“Crush the Mediterranean parasites!”

Yes...

I could not agree more.

“End the planned blackouts!”

“Give us bread and electricity!”

Energy refugees driven out by the planned blackouts, former public officials and soldiers laid off because of the fiscal crisis, university students who had lost their future jobs after the collapse of the Big Eight—Pleiades and Atlas—and civilians enraged by soaring prices caused by the loss of half our colonies and the supply sources of Sakuradite.

Crowds carrying torches filled the streets.

The police had given up. Only the Imperial Guard remained to protect the Imperial Palace, the Roman Senate, and Saint Peter’s Basilica—one of the Five Holy Sees of the Unified Church and the residence of the Archbishop of Rome.

The Senate hearing chamber.

All one hundred senators—fifty from Rome and fifty from Constantinople—were present.

Sitting at the center was the girl-empress who had suddenly ascended after her father’s abdication.

Lily Aemilia Altocastarenis Augusta Basilissa.

Fourteen years old.

A pale face.

Dull eyes.

Under her silence, the senators began to tear into me.

“I warned you that Exarchos Romae was suspicious!”

“Even if they were classmates, it was highly suspicious for the Commander of the First Capital Defense Command, the Admiral of the Second Fleet, and the Commander of the First Air Division to meet together. I told you to be careful, did I not?!”

Eirēnarchos Hodopoulos, a Sarmatian senator from Constantinople Senate, shouted at me.

He had once worked at the Bureau of Barbarians, and now served as Minister of Energy—Orientus. A rising star in his early forties, with bright brown hair and blue eyes, he had become a Constantinopolitan senator and a minister in barely more than ten years.

“If you did not know, then it was incompetence. If you did know, then it was perjury!”

Grrr

I endured the attack of that political comet with superhuman patience.

I had already burned every communication record with Eugene.

The moment Leila tore Eugene apart, I had erased the scenario I had prepared from my own mind.

As long as I did not commit political suicide, my position would remain untouchable.

“Resign, ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν βαρβάρων! Resign before you sully the name of the Bureau of Barbarians!”

Just as Eirēnarchos’s attack continued—

Bang

“Why, you shame of Germania!”

Angelica Limitanea, Chairwoman of the Roman Senate and senator from the province of Germania Inferior, crashed into the debate. She was a dark-blonde woman in her forties, with blue eyes and the temper of a battlefield trumpet.

“Megas Domestikos! Arrest this man immediately!”

Douglasius Nivalius, Leila’s successor and a Knightmare general in his sixties, answered calmly.

“At present, the Senate and People of Rome faces an unprecedented crisis. We are surrounded by the Arctic Ocean, the North Atlantic, the Sahara, the Euphrates-Tigris frontier, and the Ural Mountains.”

“Our territory now runs only from Nuuk to Kazan, from Helsinki to Aswan.”

“Under such conditions, we cannot touch the head of our highest intelligence agency without clear evidence.”

Bang

“Do you think that makes sense? You are also a native of Dalmatia, are you not?”

“Are you not one of the Mediterranean parasites as well?”

At her words, Douglasius roared.

“How dare you!”

“I crushed the Britannians at Bordeaux and La Rochelle, and I stood beside Leila during the Atlantic War!”

“On top of that, I held back Cornelia, Bismarck, and Lila for two weeks at Egilsstaðir!”

“Take that back!”

“No!”

As Angelica and Douglasius quarreled, senators from the Western Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean, and North Africa took Douglasius’s side, while senators from other regions took Angelica’s.

What a mess...

Luckily for me, the hearing eventually shifted to the energy crisis, the planned blackouts, and the economic collapse. My questioning came to an end.

As I left the hearing chamber, Medea approached me.

“Director. Senator Iacobus Chiracensis has just left for Paris in a hurry. It is Leila Vitonia Malcalia’s hometown.”

“Iacobus... the Roman senator from the province of Gallia Lugdunesis.”

“Is he not also the former fiancé of Leila’s mother, Diana, the honorary chairwoman of the Vitonia fashion conglomerate?”

“Yes. Gauls... Even Eros and Venus would have given up on them.”

Forget their love affair.

Since I have Medea as my official mistress, that makes Iacobus and me even.

After thinking for a moment, I smiled coldly.

“Another civil war would be troublesome. Let him be.”

But I added in a low voice.

“Instead... think about how to handle Refrain.”

“Yes, Director.”

Mwah.

At my order, Medea kissed me on the cheek and left.

My eyes flashed.

Rome was not built in a day.

And it would not collapse in a day.

Glossary

SPQR : The Senate and People of Rome.

Bureau of Barbarians : The SPQR’s highest intelligence agency, responsible for foreign powers and barbarian affairs.

ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν βαρβάρων : Greek for “the one in charge of the barbarians,” used here as the Greek rendering of the Head of the Bureau of Barbarians.

Praesidium in Adversis : Latin for “protection in adversity.”

Exarchos Romae : The Exarch of Rome, commander of the defense forces of the First Capital.

Megas Domestikos : A high military office. In this context, the commander responsible for the SPQR’s central military authority.

Orientus : The Minister of Energy of SPQR

Five Holy Sees : Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.

Barba Ruba : Latinized name of Frederick I, the former Holy Roman Emperor who became the founder of the current imperial house in this setting.

Pleiades and Atlas : The Big Eight conglomerates whose collapse helped trigger the SPQR’s economic crisis.