Chapter 303 - 300 -
The morning sun cut clean and cold across the Eternal City, its rays slashing down the marble columns and gilded rooftops with the precision of a legionary’s blade.
Inside the Imperial Palace, the Court of War had already been summoned into one of the many meeting rooms though this one looked something more similar to the senate building with two rows of raised seating on either side, with a single raised throne on the far end of the room, while the floor was a decorative map of the entire continent, though today a massive area rug had been lain down to cover this map, and instead focus on a closer territorial map covering the Western part of the continent exclusively.
Julius strode through the long vaulted halls in simple dress armor—no ceremonial robe, no crown, just the iron-forged leather and gilded plates of a soldier who just so happened to rule an empire.
At his side walked Serena, similarly clad in the attire of readiness rather than ceremony.
Her presence was both a statement and a promise: this was not a war of Julius alone.
They pushed through the bronze doors into the Strategium, the war council chamber.
Entering and walking around the lain out map before reaching their assigned seats while taking a look at the map, outlining provinces, cities, rivers, mountains, and — soon enough — battlefields.
Seated around it were the greatest generals and minds of Romanus those who would be responsible for commanding the legions in the field of battle, and the strategists who would be watching the overall progress of the war campaign witnessing the war from atop a table back at the military field command:
Elheat, grizzled commander of the Iron Cavalry and master of battlefield maneuvers.
Zeff, future chief of the Praetorians and Julius’s most ruthless enforcer and direct personal bodyguard.
Miri, Consul of the Treasury, keeper of logistics and supply.
Tirian, admiral of the growing Southern Fleet.