Imperator: Resurrection of an Empire

As Julius reached the meeting place, the chaos within the palace had already started to die down, while the remaining guards continued to search for the infiltrator those who 'died' had already gotten back to regular duties.

"Congratulations your majesty... as sad as it make me to have to say it."

"That was amazing Sir Julius."

Zeff, Miri, and Commander Berta were standing atop this buildings roof, having gotten a front row seat to much of Julius's infiltration into the palace.

"thank you, though I must say it was close there for a second when the guards had cornered me in the archives."

"Oh? But you being here means?"

"Yes, I 'killed' them all."

"Ah... all of them sir?"

"Well ok not everyone on duty in the palace, but my kill count tonight was twenty three, though it was around seven before the alarm was raised."

"Astonishing!"

"Hmmm it seems your majesty was correct in assuming we still had plenty to learn ourselves."

"Correct never say you know everything, for there is always something more to learn, now that is just an example and against me no less, as these tests keep happening I expect both sides to continue getting better and better."

"How were the men, did they perform well?"

"Yes, they followed instructions to the letter, each 'death' was as close to real as possible which was good, though much could be asked for their future training mind you."

"Absolutely sir!"

"I wanna try."

"???"

"Zeff?"

"Looked fun."

"Ha ha ha, well let's let the guards get a debriefing from Berta here first then we can see about sending you in on a mission, though to make it harder on the guards still we wont tell them when I will happen."

"We accept your challenge your majesty, I'll get the men whipped into shape just you wait."

~

It was three days later when Zeff took on the infiltration challenge.

Once more the Praetorian guards failed in their mission as Zeff was able to make his way through the palace to recover the specified item, even though we put it in a different room from where he was told it would be in the mission statement provided.

Though he was slightly more stealthy than my own attempt even though he had to cover more ground within the palace, eventually the alarm was still raised but Zeff managed to escape into the city with loot in hand, however what caused him to scowl most was the fact that his kill count was lesser than mine.

Zeff old friend the goal was infiltration not assassination...

Miri of course beat on his chest with her fists for his bloodmongering.

Commander Berta was soul broken two repeated failures by his men, and from adversaries they knew were coming for them even if they didn't know the specifics.

But that shattered faith was quickly restored, the new recruits having heard from Zeff about his victory in the trail clamour for their own chance to show up the Praetorians but...

"Thirty-Zero. Ha ha ha, that's what I like to see. Your majest and sir Zeff are just to monsterous for it to be fair."

That's right every single recruit failed, not only that but not a single one of them managed to even get inside the palace itself which was comforting.

But from their failure came a new hell born from Zeff's own pride, these were his wife's subordinates and they had disgraced his family by failing.

He was dead set on wiping that smirk off the Commanders face, and well thanks to this do or die training program we started to see graduates after only a few weeks of training.

The success rate almost flipped to the other side entirely, so much so that I had to get Elheat to step in to start hell drilling the Praetorians themselves the elites were getting even more elite, and thanks to Elheats training the Praetorians as a whole started to unlock martial skills and the use of aura which started to even the win rate between the two sides once again.

But then it once more started to slip again in favor of the guards.

Even with Zeff's abilities does the shadow require further help?

No the test itself became the problem, the guards had gotten used to the routine, it was easy to protect a single building so instead I decided to change the graduation exam, instead of infiltrating the palace when the Guard was out on training of their own the infiltrator would get inside their camp or fort and steal during that time instead.

This allowed for a change of scenary and further advancement of our own policies when not within the confines of the palace.

Having seen the success we were getting with our simulated battles during the night, General Elheat started to ask for permission to also for some War Games to pit the new recruits against the veterans, then having a mix on and on having 'bloodshed' day after day to make our army the best of the best.

I gave my approval to this measure but stating that this was for training not to boost egos, and as such proper military command would need to be adhered along with the same rules the simulations followed.

As Elheat left raving about how grand these 'wars' would be all I could do was sit back and chuckle at the old man who was soon dead set on bringing LARP'ing into this world.

Romanus was changing, as it needed to change.

It needed to grow, it needed to expand.

If we stood any chance of finding out what happened to Yuri, the army would need to be ready to charge in to take her back from their bastard imbred hands, while killing every last man woman and child that made such a thing possible in the first place!

Over the last few weeks i had been forced to come to terms with the fact that like it or not Yuri and even Serena had a huge impact on my new life, even when i due to thoughts about the connection between this world and the game i knew keeping them for better or worse at a distance, only to find that now.

Now all i could think was getting Yuri back as soon as possible, back once more safely into my arms.