Rome lay in darkness.
In a noble mansion, a domus, a daughter and father were having a conversation.
"Father, I bought a gift for you."
Pompeia said, presenting an amphora.
"A gift for me, Pompeia?"
Looking at his daughter's proud expression, the middle-aged man smiled.
"Did you come home late because you were buying that?"
"I had to go around more than ten shops to finally find it. I'm sorry for coming home late."
"I didn't mean to scold you. I was just worried, my dear."
At his daughter's slightly dejected reply, he said gently.
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus.
A former subordinate of Sulla, the dictator who ruled Rome with tyranny, Pompey was one of the most prestigious generals and politicians in Rome.
A great general who not only pacified the Mediterranean pirates in just three months but also brought over ten eastern kingdoms to their knees under Rome.
Countless Roman citizens chanted his name, and the senators envied his fame more than anyone else.
But even he was nothing more than a gentle father in front of his daughter.
"So what is this amphora, Pompeia?"
He asked, looking at the amphora his daughter handed him.
Except for a small picture and letters engraved on the top, the amphora didn't look very special.
"It's Palmolive, Father. That olive oil everyone is dying to buy these days."
"Ah, this is that Palmolive?"
Pompey blinked in surprise.
Only then did he realize that the letters written on the top of the amphora were 'Caesar'.
Recently, a rumor had been heating up Rome.
Although the story varied slightly from person to person, the basic content was this:
'At the Egeria Spring, Goddess Vesta bestowed the divine olive oil upon her priestess.'
Not only that, but there were also rumors that Lucius Caesar had received the recipe directly from Goddess Vesta to create insurance and this Palmolive.
"I heard that rumor too. Although it's hard to believe that the goddess herself descended upon the spring."
"But according to rumors, children were playing in the foam."
"Rumors are always exaggerated, Pompeia."
At his firm answer, Pompeia puffed out her cheeks in a pout.
Seeing his daughter's reaction, Pompey burst into hearty laughter.
"Sorry for interrupting you, dear. But you always need to take rumors with a grain of salt."
In the next moment, he muttered quietly.
"As far as I know, Lucius Caesar is a boy not even twenty years old yet."
Pompeia nodded and replied.
"I don't know his exact age either, but people say he's surprisingly young. Probably around my age."
"Julius Caesar was Pontifex Maximus. Then did he put his son forward to orchestrate this?"
If so, this 'Palmolive' craze currently shaking Rome was somewhat explained.
It was most likely that Caesar in Hispania had used his son and the Vestal Virgins to create such rumors.
"It seems Crassus is also involved to some extent."
Pompey also knew that Crassus's private fire brigade had been dispatched to Lucius's insurance company.
When he remained silent, Pompeia asked, worried.
"Father, are you okay?"
"Ah, I'm fine, my dear. Just thinking about something else for a moment."
Coming back to his senses, Pompey smiled and stroked his daughter's hair.
"Anyway, thank you. I'll make good use of this Palmolive."
Next moment, he spoke with a serious expression.
"But next time, you shouldn't wander around this late, Pompeia. An unmarried girl like you shouldn't roam the city without a man."
"But I'm the daughter of Pompey Magnus! I can easily subdue a dozen men by myself."
Pompeia replied, lifting her head high.
Spreading her arms wide, she embraced her father.
Because of the difference in their builds, it looked like a cat being held by a bear.
At his daughter's playful behavior, Pompey eventually burst into laughter.
"An answer befitting my daughter. Now go back to your room and sleep."
"Yes, sweet dreams, Father."
Pompeia said, pulling away from his embrace.
After parting with his daughter, Pompey returned to his room.
Before going to bed, he stared intently at the amphora in his hand.
He couldn't know for sure, but a massive change was happening in Rome.
The insurance causing a frenzy among citizens, and now Palmolive.
The problem was who exactly was causing this storm.
Crassus?
Caesar?
Or perhaps a third figure?
Faint moonlight shone into his room through the window.
A scabbard placed in one corner of the room gleamed in the moonlight.
Looking at it, he muttered.
"Wait a little longer, and I'll find out."
***
"You carved this from a glass bead, sir?"
"Right. Now, keep this large glass plate and small glass plate apart at a certain distance..."
The second-floor office of the insula we used as the insurance company building.
After dumping Palmolive production on Felix, I was in the middle of conducting scientific experiments with Vitruvius.
Strictly speaking, rather than scientific experiments, it was closer to introducing future inventions to Vitruvius one by one.
I showed him two crudely cut glass plates.
They were convex lenses I had commissioned from a nearby glass artisan and jewelers a while ago.
Mixed with impurities, opaque, and uneven. Compared to 21st-century glass, they were quite crude.
But convex lenses capable of magnifying objects existed even in this era.
"Overlap the two like this and look through the center. Put one in front of your eye and the other in front of the object, then adjust the distance."
I said, widening the distance between the lenses.
Hearing my words, Vitruvius examined the lenses carefully with one eye.
A moment later, he shouted in surprise.
"By Jupiter! What on earth is this?"
"This is what I wanted you to explain."
I smiled watching his reaction.
What I showed him was a primitive form of a telescope.
With Rome's current technology, grinding glass could only produce convex lenses.
The image was inverted and mirrored, but it was still possible to magnify distant objects.
Vitruvius shouted while looking at the lenses.
"Looking through this glass plate, your face looks huge, sir."
"It'll be more fun if you look outside."
Taking the lenses from me, Vitruvius looked straight out the window.
He fiddled with them for a while, then stopped as if he had found the focus.
"Although it's upside down, to be able to see such a distance as if it were close..."
He said, breathing heavily.
"I've heard stories of magnifying letters using water and glass in Greece, but this is truly a first. How on earth did you discover this?"
He fired off questions in rapid succession.
"No, how did you even think of cutting glass into this shape in the first place?"
"Let's just say it was the result of coincidence and luck."
"Like how you accidentally discovered Palmolive?"
Vitruvius narrowed his eyes. At his reaction, I shrugged.
I wouldn't have believed it either if I were in his shoes.
But that didn't mean I could explain that I came from the future.
"Babu or Felix might believe you, sir, but I absolutely cannot."
Putting the lens down on the desk, Vitruvius continued.
"Palmolive, and this 'mysterious glass plate', are things a person might discover once in a lifetime, if lucky."
He crossed his arms and continued.
"But how on earth did you figure these things out all by yourself?"
"I already told you, by chance..."
Just as I was mumbling under Vitruvius's persistent questioning, a knock was heard.
"Sir!"
It was Babu.
Before I could ask anything, he gasped and said.
"Citizens have flocked outside."
"Is that unusual, Babu?"
I sighed.
As Palmolive gained huge popularity among citizens, people flocked not only to the riverside factory but also here to the insurance building.
Because people crowded the narrow streets from the morning, even I, the boss, couldn't get to work on time.
"That's... They aren't people here to get Palmolive."
"Then what?"
At Babu's restless appearance, I tilted my head and asked.
Babu gulped once and finally opened his mouth.
The answer that came out of Babu's mouth was something I hadn't expected at all.
"People want their money back for Palmolive."
Vitruvius and I exchanged glances.
Refunds all of a sudden.
What on earth is going on?
***
I went straight down to the first floor with Babu and Vitruvius.
The sound of people murmuring echoed from below the stairs.
"What's going on?"
"Ah, sir, you came down."
A worker was sweating profusely while trying to calm the angry citizens.
The sight of extremely angry people caught my eye.
From mothers with children to men in long tunics and old people.
The people gathered in front of the building looked different, but they all had one thing in common.
They were all incredibly angry.
At the front of the line stood a middle-aged man in a toga, pointing his finger at the employee and shouting repeatedly.
"Do you know who I am? My father-in-law is a senator! How dare you sell me such a fraudulent item!"
"Please calm down first, young Caesar will personally..."
"I trusted Caesar's name and bought twenty amphoras at a high price, huh! Bring your master here quickly!"
Seeming to belong to the upper class, several sturdy slaves stood behind the man.
The atmosphere suggested they would use force if necessary.
Looking at the chaotic street, I took a deep breath first.
After straightening my toga, I approached the man.
"What seems to be the problem?"
"Who is this kid?"
"He is the young Caesar."
At the employee's answer, the man snorted and looked down at me.
"What, this kid is the Caesar?"
"Watch your words, sir."
I frowned as I looked into his eyes.
"I don't know why you are so angry, but it is troublesome if you cause a disturbance in the street like this."
"I'm troublesome? Do you know how influential my father-in-law is in the Senate?!"
He shouted, his face turning red.
The slaves standing behind the man approached with an intimidating attitude.
But despite their blatant threat, I didn't blink an eye.
"I don't know who your father-in-law is, but..."
I was a person who had already experienced death once.
It was a big mistake if he thought he could make me kneel with just this level of threat.
"My father is the current Governor of Hispania, Pontifex Maximus, and once held the honorable position of Aedile. Please keep in mind that 'this kid' standing in front of you is his son."
"...."
As if he hadn't expected me to respond like this, the man fell silent with a flustered expression.
"And the insurance business in this building is jointly operated by Marcus Licinius Crassus and me."
I crossed my arms and continued speaking.
"Therefore, sir, you are currently causing damage not only to me but also to Crassus's business."
"What, Crassus?"
At the mention of the name Crassus, the man's face, which had been bright red until a moment ago, turned white as a sheet in an instant.
"I don't know who your father-in-law is, but are you prepared to confront the Caesar family and the Crassus family head-on?"
Incurring the wrath of Crassus, the richest man in Rome, was impossible unless one had nerves of steel.
Only then did the man clear his throat and step back.
"I only came to exercise my legitimate rights, young Caesar. No, Lucius Julius Caesar."
"Why is everyone demanding a refund? What is the problem?"
As soon as I finished speaking, people rushed in.
"My Palmolive doesn't foam! I bought it for 4 sestertii a bottle, but it's just the same as olive oil!"
"It doesn't foam?"
At a woman's words, I could only tilt my head.
The surfactant contained in Palmolive had the property of foaming when it came into contact with water.
Without that foam, it was practically devoid of cleaning ability.
"Please give me the amphora you brought."
The woman handed me the amphora she was holding.
"What is this?"
Receiving the amphora, I immediately noticed something was strange.
On the top of the amphora, my brand and trademark picture and 'Caesar' were engraved.
But the detailed shape was completely different from what I had designed.
"Babu, go inside and bring one amphora of Palmolive."
"Yes, sir!"
The employee brought out a bottle of Palmolive.
While employees and citizens watched, I calmly held the two amphoras and compared the pictures.
"It seems you have been scammed."
"Scammed?"
"Here, look at this. This is the picture originally stamped on our Palmolive amphora, and this is the picture engraved on the amphora you brought. The two are clearly different, right?"
I showed the two amphoras directly to the other people.
The amphora the woman brought also had a picture of a wheel and an eagle similar to the original.
But looking closely, one could quickly realize it was a crude imitation.
"It's true..."
"Mine doesn't even have any mark at all!"
Only then did the citizens realize they had purchased fraudulent products.
They weren't the only ones flustered by the unexpected situation.
"I didn't think a knockoff would appear this quickly."
I created the trademark to increase the recognition of my product.
But for an imitation to appear this fast.
Examining the amphora the woman handed me, I poured the contents onto my hand.
"This is just olive oil."
The faint walnut scent was somewhat similar, but it didn't foam at all and was just sticky.
Anyone who'd used Palmolive even once would immediately tell the difference.
But the majority of Romans had never used Palmolive yet.
If they had never used it, they could easily be fooled by such a crude fake product.
Demand was far outstripping supply. Which meant swindlers had already moved in to profit.
Both the insurance business and Palmolive put my family name 'Caesar' at the forefront.
These fake products were not only taking profits but also tarnishing my name—and the trust behind it.
"Then what should we do now, sir?"
Babu asked cautiously.
"First, we should receive reports from citizens and cut off any shop that sells fakes—or dilutes ours with plain olive oil. Or we only supply shops we've certified."
"That's a good idea, then we can prevent fake products from running rampant to some extent."
"But that's not the point."
I replied.
We couldn't solve the fundamental problem this way.
The surest way to stop swindlers was the threat of legal punishment.
In Rome right now, there was no concept of trademark rights.
Even if they made and sold fake products, I had no legal grounds to punish them.
Whatever I did, more swindlers would follow.
"Babu, go call my carriage."
"Where are you going all of a sudden?"
"To prevent swindlers beforehand, I need a law."
I looked at Babu and answered.
"Let's go to the place that runs this city."
"The place that runs Rome is..."
"The Senate."
I said.
"It's about time I went to make my presence known in the Senate."