"Dominus"
A lilting voice brushed my ear, and my eyes fluttered open.
"What time is it?" I yawned, slowly sitting up on my soft bed covered in white silk sheets and stretching my arms, my eyes falling on the young woman standing beside it.
She was a striking young woman with long dark hair that fell on her shoulders, contrasting with her pale skin, framing a face of sharp features softened by her blue almond eyes.
She was dressed in a flowing white tunic that brought out her supple curves and accentuated her modest bust, and around her arms were golden wrist cuffs that glistened in the light of dawn.
A bronze collar hung on her neck, attached to a small rectangular bronze tablet that bore the name 'Thias' as well as some Latin inscriptions.
"It's the first hour, Dominus," she answered and drew closer, gently pulling the blankets off my legs. "Your 'friends' are already assembled outside, waiting," she said teasingly with a smile.
"Argh." I groaned in mock annoyance and shifted my body out of the bed, my legs falling on the cold marble floor. "Some friends they are. They can't even let a growing young man catch a few more hours of sleep."
She chuckled softly at my words as I stretched my body, my joints popping as the last of my drowsiness disappeared, and stood up straight, smoothing out my crumpled tunic.
My eyes briefly surveyed the walls of my bedroom, adorned with colorful Greek frescoes depicting the Battle of Thermopylae, and the luxurious furniture of the room, before shifting back to her face.
"Are the baths ready?" I asked as she fell beside me, her oiled lavender scent wafting into my nose.
"Yes, Dominus," she nodded. "As always."
I nodded and stepped towards the thick oaken door of my room, Thias one step behind me. I opened the door, and a world of green met me the moment I stepped out of the room.
A large garden stood before me, filled with a manicured, verdant assortment of plants whose leaves were covered with morning dew, as well as marble fountains that spewed forth clean, gentle water. Above the garden was an open, square-shaped roof that exposed it to the sun and elements.
This garden was ringed by Corinthian marble columns etched with intricate grapevine motifs that seemed almost lifelike, and interspersed across the garden at various points were white reclining chairs.
Slaves dressed in simple brown wool-spun tunics were standing all over the place, holding long brooms which they used to sweep the stone paths of the garden and the marble floors of the mansion.
"Dominus," they greeted, heads bowed and eyes lowered in respect and a bit of fear as they saw me.
I nodded at them and shifted my eyes to the dark blue sky above, pausing near one of the columns with Thias silently beside me. I took a deep breath of the cold morning air, filling my lungs, and then exhaled gently, a sense of satisfaction washing over me.
At ease, I turned, and we continued our stride. We moved to the eastern periphery of the garden, passed the dining room, and stopped in front of a large door.
On both sides of this door stood twin female slaves of Berber descent, both taller than the Roman average, with dark coiled hair, dark brown eyes, light skin, and busty, curvaceous figures partially hidden underneath their brown tunics.
"Dominus," they bowed, and one of them pushed open the door to reveal a dim chamber lit by oil lamps hanging along the walls.
We both walked in, the two sisters following behind us, and instantly the heat of the room sank into my skin as they shut the door.
It was a grey room with a high ceiling and smooth marble flooring. There were four white stone benches arrayed in a square shape at the center of the room, and along the walls stood wooden lockers.
There were two closed doors along the walls of the room, one to my right and the other at the southern end.
"Dominus, with your permission, I'd like to go and prepare your meeting room," Thias said, her hands behind her back, as I clutched the hem of my tunic.
I raised an eyebrow at her request, a knowing smile on my face as I slowly pulled the tunic over my head, removing it and exposing my naked form. "Hasn't it already been prepared?"
Thias didn't react at all to my nakedness, her face impassive and serious as she answered my question. "It has."
I chuckled at the terse answer and shook my head, handing my tunic to one of the sisters, who quickly folded it neatly and stepped away to put it inside one of the lockers.
"Alright," I nodded with a smile as I sat down on the closest bench. "Go make sure it's extra, extra prepared," I playfully remarked.
She smiled cheekily at this, bowed, and then turned to walk out of the room, her hips swaying. She shut the door behind her, and then it was left with me and the two sisters in the room.
Without a word, one of them walked to a locker at the end of the room, took out a bronze amphora jar, and came back to stand in front of me.
She opened the lid, spreading a herbal, floral scent across the room and revealing a green, paste-like substance inside.
I put my hand into the jar, scooped out a handful of the oily paste, and rubbed it carefully all over my body, from my head to my toes. As I did this, the two sisters moved to one of the lockers.
They first put the amphora jar in, then wordlessly removed their brown tunics, showing their smooth backs and perky behinds, folded them neatly, placed them inside the locker, and then both took out small woollen cloths.
They turned, my eyes falling on their perky breasts, wide hips, and bushy vaginas, and stepped towards me, hands behind their backs, with their eyes slightly lowered.
Removing my gaze from their familiar figures as they came to stand next to me, I rose from the bench, my body slick with the paste, and moved to the door on my right.
I pushed the door open, and a fog of hot white steam assaulted me as we walked into the room. The room was large, white, and hot, with streaks of steam drifting all over the place.
At the center stood a wide circular pool filled with clean water, with puffs of steam hovering above its surface.
Stepping to the edge of the pool, I removed my sandals and slowly dipped my feet into the water, one at a time, with the rest of my body following, white foam frothing in the pool.
I moaned blissfully, my eyes closing, as the heat of the water wrapped around my body like a blanket.
Opening my eyes slightly, I watched as the sisters also stepped into the pool, their brown eyes upturned with small smiles etched on their pretty faces as they floated beside me.
They began gently rubbing my body with their cloths, creating more foam, and feeling more relaxed, I stared at the surface of the pool—my face, which featured striking bluish-grey eyes framed by shoulder-length wavy black hair and olive skin, staring back at me as I delved into my thoughts.
It had been eighteen years since I was reborn into this world. Despite all these years living here, it still felt illusory sometimes, like I was in a fever-induced dream that could disappear at any moment.
One moment, I was coming out of Congress after a long day arguing with old men, and the next moment I heard a deafening gunshot and my world turned black, only for me to return to the light as a newly birthed toddler in late second-century Rome.
It was a ridiculous situation, and half the time of my infancy was spent staring idly into space, hoping the nightmare would end and I would find myself back in my body in America.
That never happened, and so I was forced to accept my unbelievable and mind-breaking circumstance.
Somehow, after being assassinated in the 21st century, I was reborn in Classical Antiquity as the heir of the Scipio Nasica family, one of the most powerful political and financial entities in the Ancient Roman Republic.
I was now a direct descendant of Scipio Africanus, the legendary and almost mythical figure who defeated Hannibal at Zama, and the grandson of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio the Elder, the man who led the mob that killed the famed Tiberius Gracchus.
Till now, I had no idea how this reality-bending phenomenon happened or who or what managed to do this to me. Whether it was God, whom I never believed in, or the Devil, whom I never thought existed, I didn't know—and frankly, I didn't care.
I had gotten a second chance at life, something unattainable to the vast majority of the human race, and I wasn't going to waste it by obsessing over pointless questions and answers that had no bearing on the grand scheme of things.
Some might have groaned or lamented upon finding themselves in this chaotic, bloodthirsty chapter of human history, where genocidal levels of bloodshed, slavery, and unmatched cruelty were the norm.
Unlike them, I recognized it as an opportunity—a chance to soar to heights previously unimaginable in my past life, a way to change the course of human history and build something that could last for thousands of years long after my body rotted beneath the earth.
In my past life, I had to claw my way out of the dirt, out of abject poverty and exploitation, to reach the upper echelons of society—my rise the result of countless sacrifices that forever stained my hands with blood and filth.
And at the end of all that pain and suffering, I died young, never getting the chance to realize and witness my full potential.
But with this rebirth, and the perks that came with it, I'd be able to do all this and more.
So much more.
Rome, the city of seven hills, the capital of the most powerful polity in the Mediterranean wold was my playground, and it had no idea what was coming for it…