A cold breeze awakens a man sleeping on a desk filled with papers stacked high.
“H-huh?! Where am I?”
He mutters almost forgetting what he was doing at the time.
“Oh yeah, I remember now. I have to go meet with the senate”
Shambling off his desk, he grabs a hefty piece of cloth hanging on a wall and walks towards a bucket of water on the corner of the room intending to wash his face, still pondering on what else he was doing before falling asleep. Paying it no mind for now, he splashes cold water multiple times, rubbing his eyes before eventually moving on to the rest of his face. Still feeling out of it, he looks out towards the window to his right, his blurry eyes fixate on the antics of the children playing on the streets downhill, the vendors aggressively promoting their goods, the Centurion inspecting equipment, the Circus Maximus…
“Wait, the what and the what now?”
Startled, he quickly rubs his eyes in confusion, he looks out again to clarify what he has seen. Astonished to find out that he was not seeing an illusion, he pokes his neck outside the window and started frantically moving his head from side to side, scanning the environment. He can’t believe but notice that he was in the middle of a late republican city center of Rome. Everything was there, the temples of Jupiter, the River gate of the Tiber, the Forum Boarium. Despite being both amazed and confused at the situation he found himself in, he noticed that something was off. The scenery he saw was irrefutably late republican Rome, but upon closer inspection the buildings look worn down, the people look downtrodden, and the children he saw playing earlier are malnourished.
“What is this? This doesn’t look like Rome”
The man asks himself, his mind still processing what he just witnessed, his eyes dart towards the palms of his hands. In seemingly deep focus, a massive headache hit him moments later, leading him to stumble onto the ground, eyes shut with his hands gripping his head. Pained, he notices a vaguely familiar book next to him and barely managing to read the title.
“Veni, Vidi, Vici…”
It was then that the headache stopped, and memories quickly started to return. His name was Julius Fondatore, a 28-year-old Phd graduate in Roman History from the Sapienza University of Rome. One day when he was on his way to get his breakfast at a nearby café, he noticed a new bookstore that just opened, and in the top selling fantasy section in display was a new novel entitled, “Veni, Vidi, Vici – Rise of Rome in Another World”. He bought this book intending to read it while enjoying breakfast, but as he paid for the novel and was about to exit the establishment the ceiling suddenly collapsed crushing him unconscious.
He sat up with his newly found clarity, monologuing to himself in silence.
“So I woke up after being unconscious in a depressing late republican Rome after buying that random ass fantasy novel?”
He holds himself from laughing hysterically like a madman.
“Ha ha ha…What a jo-“
His thoughts got cut off by the voice of an unfamiliar man behind him.
“Consul Julius, the senate has been assembled.”
Confused, Julius replies.
“The senate has what now?”
The man witnessing a strange situation attempts to keep a straight face despite noticing his disheveled consul on the ground.
“The senate, lord Consul, they have assembled.”
Julius points at himself while looking towards the direction of the man.
“Lord Consul…Me?”
Unsure of what to say, the man reads the situation and logically concludes that the lord Consul fell and has hit his head rather hard.
“Y-yes lord Consul…your term has just started and today is your inaugural meeting with the senate”
Unable to cope with the reality of what he found himself into, Julius can’t help but sigh in defeat.
“HaH ha ha…What a joke”
