The Roman Affair

Inside a mob of people were all cheering, a dozen or so people were waving to the crowd,

“What’s happening here?” Sato asked hotly to one of the people,

“The demons fled! I heard the hero liberated us!”

“Hmm, so who are THOSE-” Sato pointed at the happy people at the front, “-people?”

“Have you already forgotten our senators? The demons held them in the dungeons! But once the demons flee, we can free them!”

“Ok.” Sato nodded, starting to push through the crowd,

“Thank you. We’ll make sure the town will remain demon-free-” The senators were engaging in empty talk.

“HEY!” Sato waved his hands once he was at the front of the line. Like a shock wave causing the crowd to go silent, spreading. Sato was covered in dried blood, his front soaked with swamp water, his shorts and the lower part of his shirt covered in mud, with hair all over from sleeping in the same tent as Sunya and Garia, and a chipped sword in his hand. It was definitely a look. A distinctive look compared to all the people who may have been dirty and moderately washed, but they didn’t look or smell a fraction as rancid as Sato.

“Who…” one of the senators asked before stopping himself; Luna and Prix also pushed through the crowd.

“I SAVED ROME!” Sato yelled, spinning around, waving his sword in the air, “I KILLED THE-” Sato started shouting before Luna snubbed him, tightly sealing his mouth with her freshly licked paw.

“I-” Luna began.

“We’re the hero’s party!” Prix shouted over Luna; she looked frightened, but she still stood for what she thought was right.

‘I have to admire her.’ Idalec thought from the back, as Prix gave the senators a curtsy, her dress filthy, the white having turned brown and grey. The hair on her head did look decently well combed. ‘Maybe she was grooming herself, which is why she showed up late.’

“I’m the eldest Princess Maria from the Kingdom of Lira.”

“Oh,” the senators gasped, looking amongst each other,

“So our pleas managed to reach you. I’m Marcus,” the senator said, giving Prix a bow of respect. “I’m very grateful to the Kingdom of Lira. We should talk… uhmm.” Marcus said, looking at the crowd, “We shall all feast tonight! Rome will feast to honor the heroes from Lira.” Wild cheers erupted again.

“Prix was a princess? How curious. I would suspect that something about her overarching ideals was quite an interesting quirk that Madam Prix seemed to possess.” Garia whispered to Sunya,

“Oh~” Sunya laughed nervously, scratching her head, “I guess Sato didn’t tell you hehe~.”

“If I may ask that everyone go out and please start getting ready! Today we shall again embrace each other as free men and women of ROME!” Marcus cried out to thundering applause. “On behalf of the Senate, thank you three heroes personally.”

“Oh, senator, we are actually a party of seven.” Prix corrected Marcus politely, pointing out Idalec, Garia, Sunya, and Miki standing towards the back.

“I’m sorry. Let us thank all seven of you.” Marcus apologized as senators and the heroes shuffled off.

“Don’t mess this up.” Luna hissed threateningly into Sato’s ear before taking her paw off his mouth,

“Hey, if it wasn’t for me, Rome wo-” Sato started complaining, shutting up once he caught Luna’s vengeful gaze.

There were six senators other than Marcus who walked beside the heroes. They climbed up to the third story. “This is where the senate used to convene." Marcus declared with pride as he opened the doors to reveal a single throne.

Every senator gasped,

“We’re-” Marcus said, with his hands, “We’ll grab everyone a chair. Please wait inside, distinguished heroes… We didn’t expect them to have desecrated this room.” The seven senators then left, leaving our heroes in the throne room.

“Oh. Look at that.” Sato said, walking over to the throne and sitting down on it. “I’m king of the Romans now.”

“Get. Off. That. Throne.” Prix sputtered, eyes bulging from her head.

“Sorry about that…” Marcus and the other senators returned surprisingly quickly, the color draining from their faces.

“Sat-” Prix began apologizing,

“I am the senate.” Sato cut her off, emphasizing every single word so that there was no denying it.

“What is the meaning of this?” Marcus asked, dropping the two chairs he was carrying, growing pale as he looked at Prix, then Sato,

"Ten thousand years of peace begins today." Sato started laughing towards the end, hitting the armrests of the throne.

“Oh…” Marcus laughed along; everyone else slowly joined in except for Idalec and Luna. “We love a good eccentric here in Rome.”

“Look, I want to be king,” Sato said after the senators arranged the twelve chairs in a circle.

“But nobody can be king of Rome?” Marcus said, raising a hand to Sato,

Sato had a sour look on his face. “But I want to-” A guard ran through the door, “-be king! I am the king!”

The guard looked confused at the remark.

“Yes?” Marcus asked,

“We have captured many demons, soldiers, administrators, and the old vice governor of Rome. We also recovered the corpse of the old governor.” The guard delivered

“Thank you. Yeah. You’re dismissed.” Sato shooed the guard away, who looked uncomfortable before exiting the room.

“Has the Kingdom of Lira come to conquer us?” Marcus asked, disappointed,

“No.” Sato and Luna said at the same time. Which made the senators even more confused,

“That is the Heavenly hero Sato-” Prix cringed as she spoke, “-he-” Marcus could see the pain in Prix’s eyes, trusting in whatever she had to say.

“Let us all sit down then as equals.”

“But I killed the demon dude and saved Rome?” Sato said, pointing at himself, scouting the throne over, an affront to everyone's ears as the heavy gold and metal thorn scraped across the marble mosaic floor. Marcus, along with all the other senators, had the blankest looks on their faces as Sato did this.

“Ok, Chat, what did I miss?” Sato asked cheerfully.

“Well…” Marcus said, a lump forming in his throat. It looked like it was physically impossible for him to now thank Sato. “Thank you, Princess Maria, for providing our city relief from the demon blight. We greatly appreciate it.” Marcus moved his gaze over to Luna, who had a demon commander uniform with all the different insignia. “Wh-what is your name, be honorable…”

“Luna.” Luna snapped,

“Your jacket…”

“Yeah-” Luna showed it off to everyone. “- I took it right off some demon; it looks delicious, doesn't it?” Luna then showed off all the insignia on the shoulders. “A couple trophies.” Luna grinned.

“Yeah.” Marcus eased up. “I see. Thank you, Luna, for fighting alongside the heroes-”

“I’m going to stop you right there.” Luna snapped at Marcus. “I liberated Rome, and I did everything. I was the one who rallied the people to save. I drove the demons out. You should be kissing the ground. I step on mucus.” Luna pointed down at the ground.

“I’m very sorry she-” Prix butted in. Marcus gave her a look like he was less sure of Prix’s ‘plan’ now.

“Idalec!” Prix said in desperation, walking over to Idalec’s chair where he was sitting aristocratically, straight back, his left leg on his right.

Idalec put down his leg. “Most pleased to meet everyone,” he said respectfully, ‘They seem like honest men, honest and good men.’

“It’s nice to meet you, Idalec, and we thank you for helping us,” Marcus said, giving him a nod.

“Ok, Ok! Enough with this. As king, I’ll-” Sato clapped, getting everyone’s attention. “-I’ll-” Sato tried again before freezing. Everyone’s eyes on him.

“This is Sunya,” Prix said, introducing Sunya, who gave a cute smile and waved,

“We thank you, Sunya.”

“This is Miki.”

“We thank you, Miki,”

Garia spoke up before Prix had a chance to introduce her, “My name is Garia, many greetings to you, wise senators of Rome. I helped save the hero, and my Master Sato, from death when peril nearly struck him down; life nearly went out of his eyes. I appreciate your appreciation of my person, Marcus and company.”

“We thank you, Garia. Are you by chance a mage, Garia?” Marcus said, giving her a bow from his chair.

“Ok-” Sato clapped everyone's attention. “- Senate in session.” Sato kept clapping. “Now what did the guard say about the demon prisoners?” Everyone looked around, wondering what Sato was talking about.