"Gaze upon my city, be struck by awe at the Empire of Flowers that all who heard of it praise!" Nero called out as she rode on a chariot pulled by two immaculate horses.
The city of Rome was a spectacular sight. Its walls were high, and aqueducts, speared in and out of the city atop bridges, transported the life-giving water to Rome's citizens and their properties.
Poor Roman citizens lived in houses made of wood, stone, and cement. They were cramped buildings upwards of five stories tall and were very similar to the apartments that the Authority built. In Zvezdnyy's own eyes, these were a hundred— nay, a thousand times better than the dirty shacks that those peasants in France lived in.
"These Insula are made out of the finest material. They will stand for a thousand years and more. To use any of inferior qualities would be an insult to Rome." Nero introduced as Chaldea was paraded down the street.
Zvezdnyy, Ritsuka, Mash, and Archer all rode on horses. However, Archer was at the very back of the parade. Her Polkovodet floated, her feet never once touching the ground.
The soldiers stood at attention. Their armor shone like mirrors, causing piercing rays of light to grace across Zvezdnyy's eyes, annoying her until, with but a single wish, all direct sunlight no longer affected her. The citizenry of Rome all wore some variant of togas, causing the Chaldeans to stand out like a black sheep among a flock of white ones.
Roman citizens stood at the edge of the streets and cheered their Emperor on. Maidens threw crowns of flowers, so many flower crowns that by the time the parade entered into the richer portions of the city, Nero was practically drowning in flowers.
That… was true love. Zvezdnyy thought. So much love. The love the people of Rome had for Emperor Nero…
The girl looked at the people cheering. Their eyes were full of love. So much love was directed at Nero. How was she able to so easily capture their hearts?
"Those who have more fortune than the common citizenry live in large Domus inside Rome. Most also have secondary housing in large villas in the countryside…"
Zvezdnyy tuned Nero out as she started fuming. Jealousy bubbled forth as the girl glared at the nobles and their servants who continued throwing flowers at Nero. Barely of them took notice, and of those who did, none cared for the view of what they see as a 'little girl'.
Then, Nero got off the chariot, halting the parade. She shook off some of the flower bundles that wrapped around her body.
Accompanied by two soldiers, Nero approached a market—stalls of merchants selling all kinds of known and unknown fruits to Zvezdnyy.
A particular one that stood out was this lemon-like yellow fruit. Its insides were dry and had a lot of deep red seeds.
"Your Majesty!" The stall owner yelled as Nero approached his merchandise.
Inspecting the apples, Nero grabbed the best-looking one, "Umu, this one it is." and bit into it.
"Glory to your Majesty and Rome!" The stall owner praised.
Seeing how Nero just took an apple, Zvezdnyy teleported right up to a stall holding these strange yellow lemon-like fruits and took one.
"Zvezdnyy!" Her Polkovodets called out, causing the girl to halt in place, with her teeth a short millimeter away from sinking into the fruit's skin.
"It's alright, o' Hidden Victoria. Why not take some fruits as well?" Nero nodded her head, then spoke louder, "Umu. Chaldeans! Take all the fruits you want. It's a small measure of Rome's gratitude for defending me against my rebellious uncle. I insist."
"Can I?" Zvezdnyy asked.
"..."
Mash and Ritsuka's horses entered the market through the gate to see what the commotion was all about. Nero turned to them and said, "Eat, drink, all to your heart's content. Pick as many fruits as you want! Fill your stomach with that sweetness found only in Rome!"
Nero bit into her apple once more.
Her Polkovodets' lips thinned until they could barely be seen anymore. Tilting a bit to the side, her Polkovodets let out a swinging gesture, prompting Zvezdnyy to take a chunk out of the lemon-like fruits finally.
"Bleeuh!"
Zvezdnyy instantly spat it out, "So sour! So hard! So tart! It bears no resemblance to a grape!"
"Ah, a quince is meant to be eaten baked into a pie, not eaten raw my dear Divine Child!" Nero then plucked a large red fruit from the stalls.
"Why not try this if the quinces are not to your taste? This is a pomegranate—" Nero stabbed her black and red blade into the ground, and then used it to cut out a slice of the pomegranate. "—it's very sweet."
"Woah."
The pomegranate was unlike anything Zvezdnyy had ever seen before. Its insides were full of many pockets of tiny red pieces clumped together like more tightly packed grapes. Each of those red pieces held a bit of a white discoloration at its core.
Nero put the slice of pomegranate right up to her mouth and sucked all the colorful pieces inside the pomegranate. Handing the rest to Zvezdnyy, the girl took it right out of the Emperor's hands and clawed out a handful of those pomegranate pieces.
Zvezdnyy ate the pomegranate as one might potato chips.
It was not a wise choice.
"Owww!" Spitting the pieces out, the girl muttered, "Seeds! Why doth this fruit harbor so many seeds within? I yearn for all pomegranate to be devoid of seeds, where the sweet nectar flows freely without hindrance!"
In an instant, the white core within each pomegranate seed disappeared, replaced with more of the fruit's flesh.
Upon seeing this, a curious Nero seized Zvezdnyy's pomegranate.
"Hey!" Zvezdnyy protested.
Holding it up to the sun and away from the young girl's reach, Nero examined the strange pomegranate fully.
"Umu. There's not a single speck of seed inside this pomegranate. How impressive, divine blood must course through your veins. Are you perhaps the child of Ceres, the Goddess of Harvest?"
For some reason, Zvezdnyy felt irritation at Nero's questioning if she was the child of Ceres. "No, and give back my pomegranate!"
"No. This pomegranate is as Roman as Rome itself. I am Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, and I am Rome! And so this is my pomegranate, I merely just lend it to you, o' child of Ceres."
"Mmmm!" Zvezdnyy did her harshest glare at Nero, but just like someone throwing snowballs at a bunker, it seemed to have no effect on the Emperor, who was absolutely brimming with confidence.
"That belongs to me and mine! Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine! Return it at once!" The girl stomped her feet.
Before this could escalate any further, her Polkovodets stepped in. But instead of getting Zvezdnyy her pomegranate back, her Polkovodets dropped two gold coins onto the merchant's waiting hands.
"We'll take three pomegranates."
"Oh my goddess, this is too much—!"
"Just— three is enough."
Nero halted eating her seedless pomegranate and bud into the scene, "Why are you paying, o' Goddess Victoria? Umu, experience Rome's gratitude and luxury and just take it."
Her Polkovodets thumbed the bridge of her nose before sighing in exasperation. Looking around Nero, her Polkovodets suddenly said loudly, "Look! There's a person buying seedless pomegranate!"
"Where? Where?!" Nero instantly turned away from her Polkovodets and towards where the Goddess was pointing.
In this brief instance of privacy there, her Polkovodets flicked the gold coins towards the merchant. Those gold coins sailed through the air, changing direction as though guided by an invisible hand right into the merchant's pocket.
"Oh, sorry, it's just a person buying a normal pomegranate."
Less than two seconds had passed. Nero shrugged and walked back to her chariot. Her Polkovodets grabbed three pomegranates from the merchant's stock, handing one to Zvezdnyy, Ritsuka, and Mash.
Everyone returned to the parade. Ritsuka himself was having difficulty trying to eat the pomegranate given how hard its skin was. Seeing his struggles, a nearby soldier produced a dagger and cut the pomegranate into multiple slices.
"Thank you."
It had no seeds inside it. Eating the pomegranate, Ritsuka found the taste to be similar to cherries.
The teen then looked around himself at the cheering Roman citizens as he ate the pomegranate. "Man, the adoration that Nero is able to cultivate is seriously something."
She was like a super idol visiting her fans.
"Indeed." Mash added, "It is incredible how much love the Roman citizenry gave to Nero. It's strange how history books painted Nero as a villain…"
"Alright, alright! She's dearly cherished, no need to belabor the point any further!"
Ritsuka chuckled and dropped the point as Zvezdnyy asked. Facing her Polkovodets, Ritsuka noticed how she was looking around at the Roman citizenry with a careful eye as though looking for assassins.
"Goddess you want some pomegranates? You did buy it for us."
"That's alright. I don't need to eat."
The reply was instantaneous. It was almost like muscle memory.
"Well, humans eat. So why shouldn't you?"
"... Maybe next time."
The rest of the parade continued on and only ended when Nero and the Chaldeans entered the Imperial Palace.
"The Domus Transitoria! Upon the hill of Palatine, connecting to the Gardens of Maecenas, Horti Lamiani, and Horti Lolliani."
It was located in the central part of a hill, under the Domus Flavia. Known as the 'House of Passage,' the Domus Transitoria was made from marble and stood taller than any other structure within Rome, even if one discounted the hill it stood on.
"Woah…" Zvezdnyy muttered as she struggled to take in everything.
The central piece of this palace was a single gigantic fountain that sat underneath a large dome that was filled with mosaic art of Roman gods and goddesses. From this dome sprang forth wings and pavilions off to the side, all interconnected with corridors, private chambers, and colonnaded porticoes.
The walls weren't blank. The pillars weren't completely white like a building made by the rebuilt humanity. Everything was richly decorated with elaborate frescoes, marble veneers, and intricate mosaics. Even the statues and busts, once completely chalk white in modern times were actually painted to better reflect the person they were meant to represent.
The Domus Transitoria was the very definition of luxury and lavishness. It was the polar opposite of what those French villagers lived in. Even the House of God, the finest place they had, was like an ant compared to the palace that is Emperor Nero's home.
Not even the modern era had anything coming close to what Nero lived in.
"Such luxury…" Zvezdnyy felt a sense of foreignness, as though she shouldn't be here in a place this grand, this extravagant, this opulent— this decadent.
Such, such luxury!
"Such a place is worthy for an Emperor, is not?" Nero asked the speechless Chaldeans. Seeing how only her Polkovodets was unaffected by the affluence on display, Nero added, "If this United Roman Empire had not existed, I would've continued working on my masterpiece: the Domus Aurea. It would be a thousand times grander than the House of Passage."
Even still, her Polkovodets retained a passive look on her face.
"Are you not impressed, Goddess? You simply must be, so impressed by Rome that the grandeur breaks your face on display. That reminds me, Filbertus! Have the artisans create a statue of our Goddess of Victory here. I wish to engrave her beauty in permanent form."
A man dressed in a wool toga bowed, "Right away, Your Majesty!"
"Now rest after a battle. Let the slaves take off your burdensome armor, listen to the songs of Rome's finest musicians, and let the servants rub your tired muscles that would soothe your wariness after a long journey. We'll be having the Cena (main meal) in a bit.
People with a metal band around their necks approached the Chaldeans. Zvezdnyy herself spotted how her Polkovodets' hands flinched, constantly repeating the motion of closing and opening as though she were exercising her muscles.
'We can't affect the course of history, no matter how much we may try.' Zvezdnyy recalled what her Polkovodets said.
Her Polkovodets turned away from the people with metal bands around their necks. "I… don't have anything. You guys can go, I'll just talk with Boudica to see what our next moves are."
"Nonsense! We shall feast to Chaldea's name, for it is because of you who brought absolute victory to the true Rome instead of the pretenders, o' Goddess!"
"You know, Nero, it's almost like I care more about your empire than you do."
Nero looked offended. Placing a hand around her hips, she declared, "I do care for my Empire thank you very much. I just know that I would've won eventually against that of the United Roman Empire. My victory is already pre-determined."
Just as her Polkovodets was about to respond, Zvezdnyy bud in, "My Polkovodets, did you not say I'm grounded? That I would be no more than 30 meters away from you?"
"Uff!" Her Polkovodets facepalmed, "Curse my past self—! Alright… fine."
_____
AN: I think it should be obvious what lesson Zvezdnyy is meant to learn in this Singularity.
Some more lightheartedness, Please enjoy it while it lasts.