About an hour after the two officers left to give Priscus some privacy they returned, figuring that enough time had gone by for him to read the letter.
Upon entering the office, they discovered a red-eyed Priscus sitting quietly at his father's desk, looking mournfully at the letter in his hands.
*Cough*
One of the officers coughed lightly successfully grabbing Priscus' attention. Looking up from the letter he sighed deeply before addressing the two officers.
"I have decided to keep the ludas." Priscus' voice was firm but weary, weighed down by the enormity of his task to keep the ludas running. Made all the more difficult due to current circumstance.
The officer on the left nodded his head and produced a key from his pocket. The key was simple and brass, more of a symbol of authority than an actual security measure.
Still the local court offices wouldn't recognize a legitimate transfer without it.
"I'm glad you came to that decision." The officer with the key stated kindly. "If you'd like I can take you down to the court house and we can get all the paperwork out of the way."
"That sounds fine, thank you." Priscus' thanks was genuine, a small smile briefly flashing across his face. "Give me just a moment to get ready."
The officer nodded and Priscus quickly disappeared to freshen up and change his clothes.
While he was away the other officer turned to his partner.
"Have you ever seen anything like this?" The fear in his voice was controlled but obvious, it was clear that the sceans he had witnessed yesterday had truly unsettled him.
It was rather uncommon to find such violent crime in these days. With the empire's security measures, violent offenses are almost always stopped before they become lethal.
The empire had, some years past, implemented an empire wide digital unification campaign. Medical records, bank accounts, scholarly achievements, pretty much everything was to be included in the new digital system implemented by the empire.
They did this for a number of reasons, not the least of which was control. With the whole of the empire required to use their system to survive, it eliminated a lot of the more primitive crime overnight.
Fraud was impossible, so was corruption unless one had supreme access to the governing AI, and no one not even the emperor did.
The AI wasn't sentient in any sense, at least not in the way most people would assume a supreme AI that oversaw an entire galactic empire would be.
It was more like a super juiced up version of siri/Alexa with access to super batman's batcave. The AI knew everything about everyone.
Which is why it was such a surprise to come across such a brutal homicide, it should have been flagged and stopped well in advance of Gaius Lupus actually coming to serious harm.
A heavy sigh escaped the officer's lips as he said. "Not in my 42 years as an officer have I ever seen something like that." The words were scarcely out of his mouth when he looked his partner in the eye and said. "But whoever did it...is not someone any of us should be messing with."
His partner grasped his meaning immediately. They would perform an investigation but it was unlikely that they would actively pursue the culprit. Anyone who was capable of committing such acts without triggering the AI's protocols was beyond dangerous. And neither of them were ready to die just yet.
It took only a few minute for Priscus to finish getting ready. Once he was done the officers drove him down to the court house to finalize the transfer of the ludas.
With the system in place as long as Priscus could produce the key it was a very simple matter.
His relationship to Gaius Lupas was confirmed, his age verified, the deed to the villa and all its facilities was checked and reverified. In short all the legal proceedings for the receiving of an inheritance was completed within an hour.
After which all Priscus had to do was sign on the virtual dotted line and the ludas would be his.
Since he could sign the paperwork from home, Priscus decided to return to his father's office to complete the transactions.
It had always been tradition for the transfer of rights to happen there, and Priscus wanted to at least honor that part.
Once again sitting behind his father's desk, which was now his desk, Priscus pulled up the paperwork required hearing a light voice in his head.
*Would you like to finalize the transfer of the Lupus Ludas from Gaius Lupas to you?*
"Yes."
The moment he spoke he felt like he'd been struck by a lightning bolt. His hair stood on end, his body began to convulse and so violent were the tremors that he wound up on the ground flopping like a fish.
The only thing he could hear was a new system voice, much louder and more distinct than the one he was used to.
*Acquisition of the Ludas successful, requirements to activate latent abilities and bind with host have been met."
A couple of painful minutes go by as Priscus is still writhing on the floor completely confused by what is going on.
* Binding successful, awakening talent.*
The pain seemed to double almost instantly as his blood began to heat up, and his heart rate continued to accelerate beyond what should be possible.
*Talent(The Ludas King-Exalted) has successfully awakened, congratulations your journey towards eternal glory has begun.*
When the voice stopped speaking the pain in Priscus' body dissipated almost instantly, as if it were merely a dream. A horribly messed up dream.
Weakly crawling back towards his chair he somehow managed to haul himself up off the floor to take a seat.
Heaving great gasps of air to try and calm his racing heart, Priscus' head was swimming in confusion and fear.
Never before had he experienced something even remotely close to that. And the system had never taken the initiative to speak to him unless he had asked it too.
What was making matters worse was that his system window, which was normally a brilliant blue, had suddenly changed to a deep violent black with the lettering in shining gold.
This caused him no small amount of panic as a system error would spell absolute disaster for him at this point. Without access to the normal system functions he wouldn't be able to do literally anything.
He couldn't buy food, pay bills, search the web, make appointments, schedules, recruit gladiators, ANYTHING!
While Priscus sat there attempting to control his raging heart he once again hear the same voice in his head.
*The host does not need to fear, I have integrated fully with your empires system and can perform all of its essential functions.
There is no need to worry about being unable to function normally, I am here to help you after all.*
His heart stopped.
Once more this new system had done something entirely new, it had read his thoughts and provided answers. That was impossible with the low level access he had to the system.
Others had gone through enormously expensive surgeries to more fully integrate themselves with the system. And in fact many people were using gene serums and biomechanical implants to enhance themselves.
But the Lupus family were more of a purist family. They integrated only as far as they needed too to function. And while they didn't begrudge their gladiators from gene supplements, thinking it was merely removing a weakness present in the human body but not fundamentally changing it.
They had adamantly refused to allow biomechanical enhancements in themselves or their men.
This had led more than one former ally to distance themselves, and they had lost many gladiators due to that policy. But they were firm in their stance that the human body had infinite potential. It was simply a matter of digging it out.
Mustering his courage Priscus dared to speak, he didn't exactly understand but he had a feeling that the voice was telling the truth. It was a deep instinct that was saying everything was going to be okay.
His father had always told him to trust his instincts, and so he was prepared to take a leap of faith. If it didn't pan out...It truly wouldn't make much of a difference anyway.
"You say your here to help, but what exactly can you do for me?" He paused briefly still unsure of weather or not he had to speak or could simply think and be heard. Deciding it didn't really matter at the time he continued.
"I don't know if your aware but our Ludas has fallen on some hard times. We have only two gladiators still willing to fight for us, neither of them all that good. Our doctores has left, we have bills piling up, and we only have one slot in the upcoming games. If our one man doesn't perform well enough in those games than it all goes belly up. so please tell me...How can you help me change all that?"
A few tense moments went by before once more the voice rang in his mind.
*Let me show you.*