Wild Dragon of Rome 25

“Lillian, try to not make any sudden move, but we have guests,” I warned her, breaking her concentration. She opened her eyes, her expression tense. However, she didn’t make any sudden move, which was good.

“Who are they?” she said, tense.

“Don’t look back, don’t even move,” I warned as I carefully maintained the same pace. It was not my quickest burst, but any sudden change would alert them that their concealment was no longer effective, forcing them to take action.

And, the last thing I wanted was to fight with an experienced water mage in the middle of the sea. Persistent bastard. I hadn’t expected them to stick around after being defeated. Neither did the mysterious snake-marked organization, based on the way they had been camping.

I didn’t know whether the pirates were still focused on the riches Lillian represented, or stuck around for revenge and wanted to use Lillian as bait, nor did I care much. Either way, they wanted Lillian.

I had no intention of letting them. I wasn’t my uncle. I didn’t betray people.

“Did they realize we had managed to get away,” Lillian asked.

“No, it’s the pirates,” I corrected her. “Apparently, they stuck around.”

“How did they miss a huge ship hanging around?” Lilian asked, shocked and exasperated.

“It looks like the captain has some tricks in his sleeve. There’s some kind of shimmering mist around the ship. Combined with the darkness, it connects the sea and the horizon seamlessly, keeping the ship concealed. I would have missed if it wasn’t for my improved sight.”

Lillian shivered with my explanation. “The control and the power such a trick requires … can we win against them. Maybe I should surrender to them so you can get away —” she started, which I interrupted with a flick to her nose.

“No, cut it out,” I said, not sure what to feel about the speed she offered to sacrifice herself for my safety. The defeatist attitude annoyed me, but the importance she put into my well-being was the exact opposite. It warmed me in a way that I wasn’t used to. I ignored that warmth to focus on the present. “Who said we have to fight?”

“What do you mean?”

I smirked. “They are following us from a distance, waiting for us to embark the sea, because…”

Her eyes widened. “Because they don’t want me to escape.”

“Exactly. As a water mage, you have too many options in the sea. I don’t think they’ll act until we’re on the shore.”

She frowned. “That doesn’t make sense. I know my limits. The captain is so far above me that it’s not even funny. Sea or not, he can take me down in seconds.”

I chuckled. “Actually, it’s a bit funny,” I said, which earned an angry glare from her. I was quick to explain. “Think of it from their perspective. You have not only escaped from their custody while they had been fighting against the other organization, but also you have survived on a beast-filled island alone, triggered a beast stampede to exhaust them, and then stole a boat … all without exhausting yourself.”

That made her frown harder in confusion. “What do you mean? That’s nowhere close to what happened.

It fueled my amusement even harder. I didn’t bother keeping my laughter down — especially since it was a good way to convince any pirate that their presence was not noticed.

“How can you be this relaxed. We are about to get into another fight!”

“Oh, come on. Compared to the miracle we had pulled, it’s not even a threat. It even counts as relaxing.” That didn’t help her stormy expression. “Let me explain,” I said. “First, their understanding of the situation is limited to what they could see from a great distance. So, from their perspective, I’m one of the people from the organization that you threatened to help you escape. Ergo, they assume that I’m at most an apprentice mage, probably an earth one, strong enough to row the boat alone.”

“But you came from their ship.”

“True, but they don’t expect someone to be on their ship, because the captain only arrived in the middle of the voyage. No motivation for a spy, so they won’t even consider it.”

“Won’t they feel that you’re not using any elemental power?” she asked. “They probably have at least one scout.”

“No, not with the mana-mist around them. A wide effect like that would interfere with their detection, especially from that distance.” Then, I passed, thinking. “Still, you make a good point. Be ready to take over and use your water magic to drag us away if they decide that they are close enough and remove the mist.”

“Do you think they will catch up?”

“Maybe,” I said.

“Really? Everything else, you have an answer, but a simple question like that, you’re unsure.”

I shrugged. “There’s nothing I can do about that. They are faster, and they have more mages among their numbers. They have the initiative when it comes to making a decision. The best we could do is to continue playing our role, and hope that they would wait until we are at the shore.”

Lillian nodded, falling silent. I continued rowing while keeping an eye on the boat. With our tactics, rudimentary as it was, in place, there was nothing else to talk about.

Or, that was what I had thought until I started paying attention to Lillian once more. She was breathing faster and faster, showing signs of growing hysteria. I realized my mistake. I had neglected a very important mistake.

Waiting for a fight was a uniquely challenging affair. And, in our case, the situation was even worse. She was tense about a fight that might start any second now, and it was driving her to panic. I didn’t blame her. It was the reaction of anyone who hadn’t been conditioned like I had been.

Still, I needed to distract her. “Do you have any questions?”

“Nothing urgent,” she answered.

“We are not doing anything,” I said. “Feel free to ask about anything.”

She looked hesitant, still stressed by the upcoming fight, but she nonetheless spoke. “How can you predict the actions of the enemy so accurately, from so little knowledge?”

Normally, I would have answered it succinctly, but it would take a while for us to reach the shore. A lengthier explanation was exactly what I needed to distract her from the upcoming fight. “What do you know about the Scipio Family?”

“Well, nothing much, I suppose. I know that they were a very important part of the Republic’s ancient history, before the split even happened, responsible for some of the greatest victories.”

“Succinct, but correct. Two of our ancestors, in particular, had played a very important role when Carthage threatened to destroy Rome, which, at that time, was nothing more than a regional rival. Ironically, before those two, despite being a Patrician Family, we weren’t famous for our tactics. They had learned those tactics from the devastation of many Roman armies, in the hands of Hannibals, two famous generals. From there, our unique brand of strategy was born.”

“How so?”

 “You might have realized that Roman society, in general, has a very overbearing attitude when it comes to warfare.”

“Yeah, our family has some interaction with the local legions. They are rather … direct.”

“That’s the traditional military ethos of Rome. Better training, iron discipline, and relentless frontal assaults of superior firepower, both mana and iron… It often works, because very rarely, Rome had to fight against a superior enemy.”

“And, how does the Scipio approach differ?” she asked, invested in the explanation.

“We have three core tenets: information is power, deception is a valuable weapon, and play to the weakness of the enemy. My ability to read the enemy is based on the first tenet. My crazy old man had taught me how to predict people, both by reading their actions and body language, but also understanding what drives them. It took years, but it helps.”

“It feels…”

“Trivial and useless, right?” I said. “And what would you say if the final victory of the second Punic War, which came close to destroying Rome, actually relied on that principle to achieve what everyone thought be impossible by using that principle…”

“I would say that it’s nonsense,” she said in disbelief. I was happy with it. It was much better than panic.

“Let me tell you the tale of it, then…” I said, and started a grand tale of the Second Punic War, which was filled with some of the greatest Roman tragedies, like Trebia, Lake Trasimine, and the infamous battle of Cannae, followed by Hannibal’s dominion of the Italian peninsula, and the reversal forced by Scipio at the battle of Zama. Though, I did my best to keep the tales entertaining, rather than the dry military and political dissections my grandfather favored.

Those had been his favorite talking topics while training me.

The way I told the story would hardly teach anything to Lillian. But then, it wasn’t the aim. It was to keep her from panicking as we steadily moved toward the shore, followed by the pirates. As long as they maintained the distance, I was happy to ignore their presence…

Then, just as we were merely a mile away from the shore, the pirate ship started to pick up speed.

I cut my thrilling tale of how an ancient Scipio had countered the legendary elephant-tamer mages of Carthage. “It’s time. We’re going in the act in five seconds.”

Just like that, the tension was back. However, this time, it was a different kind of tension. Not a directionless panic, but a shared determination to end up victorious.