Harem and Empire

My nose was cold, I moved my face and a wet towel fell upon the bed. 

"Good morning," Arya said. Our eyes met with a smile. "You sure slept through an entire day."

I didn't even bother to ask how I got here; I was more confused by the size of the tent. My tent back at Aquicium was ten times bigger than this one. This tent only had space for a bed and some equipment. Arya and I barely fitted on the bed at the same time. 

"What did I miss?" I asked. It was a joke. I didn't expect her to know.

"You should ask Manlius," She said. 

"Huh?" 

I got dressed and went out to the camp; It seemed rapidly constructed. Our legion seemed to be on the move. I looked for Manlius and his tent, but was unable to find it. But then, I ran into a purple tent in the middle of the camp; I had never seen this tent before. Could it be?

I tried to enter the tent, but the guards met me with grunts.

"Imperator Manlius is not taking any visitors," They said. 

"Tell him is me, Tiberius," I said. But they just ignored me. 

"DID YOU NOT HEAR ME? I AM OFFICER TIBERIUS." 

"We were told to not let you in."

"What!?" 

I pushed my way to the tent by running underneath the guards. When I entered, everyone's eyes were on me. This is the first time I saw guests inside of Manlius' tent. It seems they were discussing a stratagem. On the table laid hundreds of little pieces on top of a map of the empire.  

"Patricius, remove Tiberius from the tent."  He said. His voice monotone as ever, but this time, it had the tone of someone who carried the entire Roman World on his shoulders. 

"Ma-, Imperator Manlius, what is it that, I, Tiberius has done?" I asked. Mounting a symbolic resistance as that one eyed prick of Patricius grabbed me by the shoulder. 

"Officer Tiberius failed to fulfill his duties," He said. "Instead Tiberius fled the battlefield as attested by many witnesses."

"The same witnesses that dropped swords and shields?" I asked. Manlius did not respond. Patricius and the guards threw me out of the tent, straight into the dirt. 

The following morning I was in the middle of spanking Arya, when a soldier entered my tent. 

"Stay right there," I said. He did not advance any further. 

"Imperator Manlius has given the order to mobilize," He said, "Slaves await outside, to help you with your tent."

I bit my lips and finished her quick. 

"Do we really have to go?" Arya asked. 

I pulled her hair and kissed her. "Of course we do, silly." 

Soon after that, I was dressed and sporting my armor. Arya and I mounted my horse and made our way to the exit of the encampment. There, Imperator Manlius awaited with around another three hundred horsemen. Half of those were his personal bodyguards. 

I was not met with a smile. Manlius used his left hand to call the attention of Patrick. Then another gesture to point at me. They forced Arya to dismount and go wait for my return at the wagons with the rest of the slaves that carried our supplies.

The entire Manlian force assembled. We numbered barely a thousand. But as the letters circulated that Manlius had taken the Pannonian cause, all the Pannonian garrisons and slaves reinforced us. We were further reinforced by Germans as soon as it became known that Manlius was an Aryan, a branch of Christianity extremely popular among the border regions. Furthermore, having seized all the wealth of the province and loot from the Barbarians, Manlius used his war chest to hire mounted archers and other eastern mercenaries. 

Manlius entered the Italian peninsula unchallenged. When the Emperor Aurelius marched to meet our forces, he had done so along with twenty thousand men recruited across Italia proper and Gaul. By the time he met us at Aquileia, a town in between the Alps and Ravena, his forces had dwindled down to twelve thousand. Meanwhile, the Manlian forces had increased up to ten thousand. 

The two armies met on an open field. At first glance it looked like Manlius concentrated half of the cavalry on each flank and the rest of the dismounted troops lined up in the middle. But most of the cavalry was on the left flank. 

The enemy forces copied our formation, hoping to win on cheer numbers. Before the battle started, a messenger from the enemy army informed our troops that Emperor Aurelius challenged Manlius to a duel. When Manlius refused, the Loyalist forces charged us. 

Manlius countered it with a charge of his own. As the two sides crashed. The entire weight of the fight came down to the cavalry. As punishment to my honor, Manlius placed me on the right flank along with the mounted archers and light cavalry. 

If everything went according to plan, the fight would be over before the enemy found out that our right flank was exposed. The plan was ruined when Adrian, Aurelia's brother, charged us with his own routine of cavalry like a madman. 

"Fuck," I shouted. The mounted archers, like the unreliable cunts that they were, fled without shooting a single arrow. When the foot soldiers saw that their flank was exposed, the entire right flank fell into disarray. 

I grabbed my javelin and charged Adrian head on. He pulled his javelin as well, despite him only being a half Roman by blood. 

"This fucker is mine," He shouted. 

His grip grew tighter. His aim more ambitious. His Javelin flew two inches away from my face. 

"WE ARE STILL ALMOST 30 YARDS APART, YOU FREAK," I said.

He pulled his sword and shield. I kept aiming. My javelin flew like a bolt. He raised his shield and fell along with his horse. 

"No one said, this was going to be fair," I shouted. "You fucking moron!" 

His bodyguards were twenty yards away from Adrian, respecting the duel, but upon seeing my trickery, they charged at me too. I was a lucky bastard for sure, for around ten javelins got thrown at me and not a single one hit me.  

"GERMANS AND YOUR SHITTY AIM."

With one clear swing, Adrian was dead. His bodyguards came after me, I was a dead man. But suddenly they routed. Before they ran away, they got pelted with arrows and fell. 

The pesky mercenaries had seen the tides turn and rejoined the battle to receive their payment. When the elite cavalry of the loyalist forces routed. The footsoldiers in their flank routed as well. The loyalist formation unraveled. 

Emperor Aurelius, upon seeing his chances of victory disintegrate, rode with haste towards the right flank. Only for his life to be taken by an arrow gone astray. Upon seeing this, the loyalist forces collapsed. The following morning, we entered Ravenna.