“Greetings my lord”, said Livia as she stood o front of our mansion. She wore a white long tunica, which didn’t leave much to my imagination. She bowed lightly to me as I left the mansion ground.

“Greetings my lady. I hope I’m not underdressed for the occasion”, I bowed to her as well, a bit less than she, as it was custom for higher rank nobility. I wore cotton trousers and shirt in the colours of brown and white respectively. I had already ordered a servant to get me a few sets of formal clothing, but it would still take a few days for them to arrive. Tailoring to its time. My two small crossbows were also taking along.

“Not at all Vespasianus. Shall we head to the administration district?”, she asked me.

“Yes lead the way Caesar. By the way, Lucius is just fine”, I said to her and spotted a smile on her face. She quickly schooled her expressions.

“Then Livia is just fine as well”, she said with a neutral expression. Only the shine in her eyes betrayed her mood. She had chosen another way than last time. We went through the districts of the merchants and upper citizen.

The district looked differently from most of the city. Firstly no wooden buildings, the residents used stone and marble as building materials. The latter reserved for the wealthy ones. The next thing would be the order and security.

Many guards from the city, the guilds and some private forces patrolled the vicinity. Only their coat of arms betrayed their affiliation, while the weapons and armour were the same. We were not controlled, a fact for which my guide is probably responsible. Mana sight showed a lot of runes. Sharpening runes for weapons, stability runes for walls.

Another thing were the people who passed by us. Mostly young ladies, which looked between me and Livia and gossiping about our relationship. They reached the conclusion of me being her servant. I really need to get that set of formal wear, fast.

“How come we have yet to see any sea-folk or demi-humans?”, I asked her. An assumption already forming in my head.

Livia stopped dead in her tracks and looked at me as several emotions crossed her face. An uncomfortable silence stretched between us.

“It is complicated. I’m not allowed to talk about that with you. Just know there is more dividing us than the power struggle from the houses”, she said and the silence continued for the rest of our way. I thought about her words. It seemed the corruption and power struggles were far from the only problems in one of the most important cities of Octanian.

We entered the noble district next and were, for my first time in the city, controlled by the entrance. A man, looking a lot more like a mercenary than guard, stopped us with an outstretched spear.

“And who do we have here? The esteemed niece of our governor and her… servant?”, he looked up from Livia and narrowed his eyes at me. He can probably tell, that I am a foreigner. He checked me for a few seconds until his eyes registered my crossbows.

“No weapons allowed for mere servants”, he said.

“I think that there may have been some kind of misunderstanding. Lady Livia, if you may?”, I said with a smile on my face as the guard's gears turned in his head at my declaration.

“Caradius, may I introduce Lucius Vespasianus to you? First heir to the throne of Neapoli. Son of Jagu, who rules from Napule to Panormus”, she finished her introduction and smiled as well at the guard.

She omitted a few titles my father held, but I can forgive her for that. The nickname silver-tongued devil isn’t one I like to hear. Especially when I have yet to see father win a discussion against mother. Another title would-be scourge of the confederacy. Something which points more at uncle than at father.

The guard visible paled, while I was lost in thoughts. He looked like he wanted to be everywhere else than here and regretted having ever have assumed my status.

He gave a deep bow and apologized for his behaviour. I accepted his apology because there wasn’t really a reason not to and I doubted a complaint would achieve much. There was nothing to be gained by antagonizing the guard.

“He seemed a bit too … confident for his position. He spoke quite casually to you. Has he some kind of backing in the city?”, I asked her. I couldn’t imagine any normal guard to question a member of the ruling house.

“He is the bastard of one of our supporting houses. His standing in his family is far from stable, but there is no reason for uncle to risk losing support, just because he treats me without adequate respect”, she said the last sentence with a sigh. Visibly annoyed at her own lack of options on the matter. Women had it harder than men in our society.

“Well maybe he will learn from this event and turn for the better or you will gain an opportunity in the future to have a small revenge”, I said to encourage her and watched a demonic smile appearing on her face. I sent a silent prayer to Hades for Caradius. The man would have it coming, should Livia make it far in the game of politics.

We finally entered the district of the governor but headed for a different building than last time. A big white building with many windows. An inscription on the wall adorned the marble.

‘Office for commoner affairs and statistics’

We entered the building and all eyes turned to us and immediately went back to what they were doing before. They seemed to have been informed and elected to keep their distance from us instead of risking a conservation. Livia ignored all of them and headed up to the stairs.

We passed a few rooms until we reached the office of the head administrator for this branch of the government, as the sign told me. Livia knocked on the door and a short ‘just enter’ answered us. She gave me a last look and headed with me behind her.

Behind the desk sat a woman with red hair and beckoned us with her hands to sit in the chairs before us. The woman shared Livia’s looks except for the hair colour. A quick exchange of looks between each other prompted an answer for me.

“This is Maxiana Caesar. Current head of this branch and the wife of my late father”, she said and I wondered why she never told me I would meet her mother today.

“Hello Lucius Vespasianus, it is nice to meet you personally. I hope my dear daughter didn’t cause any discomfort for you or made inappropriate approaches towards a prince”, she said while giving her daughter a strict look.

Now I knew why she didn’t tell me. That was not a healthy daughter-mother relationship. I decided against telling her of Livia’s actions. I will use the favour she owed me later.

“No, not at all. The opposite is the case. Your daughter guided me wonderfully through your city and answered my questions with diligent effort”, I answered her with a smile. Another silent exchange happened between mother and daughter before she returned to look at me with a much more relieved expression.

“It is nice to see my daughter fulfilling her duties for once. Now back to the topic at hand. The governor told me you wanted to have insight into our affairs. What did you want to know exactly?”, she asked.

“I will be satisfied with asking a few questions and a visit to the archive”, I answered honestly and saw the beginning of a frown on Maxiana’s head before it vanished.

“The first one is easily fulfilled, the second however will need an observer to accompany you”, she said.

“What about your daughter? I think it would be best for me to work with somebody whom I already know and who knows me”, I said with high hopes. Anybody who wasn’t Livia would be less likely to let me browse freely through the archives.

She glanced at her daughter and back to me.

“Fine, I will allow it. Now ask your questions Vespasianus”, she said and locked eyes with me. Her expression told me nothing. It was a perfect facade of a neutral face, but I was quite sure she underestimates me.

My studies about state affairs have been short and I’m just 13 years old, but the lessons with the crocodile were more efficient than I would like to admit.

“The old tax on common people has been removed in favour of a fixed head tax. Why did you decide to do that?”, I asked Maxiana.

“We wanted to create a fairer system where everybody pays the same. We have settled on this system and everybody is happy with the new system”, she said without showing a hint of doubtfulness.

“The tax on trade has been raised as well. Wouldn’t it be quite contra-productive, if people chose to trade in Antioch or Constantinople?”, I said and saw Livia looking at me from the corner of my eye.

“The trade is being taxed as much as in the other cities. Furthermore, some investment projects were in dire need of funding”, she said. I had my doubts, but could only confirm them if I somehow get information on the rest of the cities.

“You keep order up in certain districts and the market. Why are you neglecting big parts of the city?”, that question seemed to have hit a nerve. Maxiana glared at me.

“We are not neglecting any part of the city. The government is giving its best to help and protect all its citizen”, she said and again something was foul with that answer. It did become clear though, that she won’t disclose important information. As expected, somebody who profits from his situation wouldn’t want to fix it nor talk about it.

“That would be all Lady Caesar”, I stood up and nodded for Livia to follow.

“I’m happy to have helped you Lord Vespasianus”, she said and showed us a smile, which made me shudder internally. I gave Maxiana one last look before leaving the room. Livia joined me shortly after and looked visible relieved the moment the door closed.

“You do not have a good relationship with your mother do you?”, I asked her even if I already knew that much.

“No, I never had. We had different ideas about my future. Dad always supported my ambitions, but with him dead I dread what mother will try to do”, she said with worry.

“Never mind, let us go to the archive. The sooner I start to dig through your governments, the faster I can learn from your mistakes”, I said and waited for her to defend the system. My smile faded when she just looked at me and didn’t say anything, a blank face like her mother.

She led the way and I followed.

The way to the archive was uneventful. Again everybody tried to ignore us and kept out of our way. I was really not used to be actively ignored and avoided. It was a rather interesting experience compared to my life at home.

When we finally reached the archive entrance, a door out of steel, Livia pulled out a key. I activated my mana sight and could see both door and key were enchanted with runes. The key’s insertion activated a chain reaction in the runes and a loud clack told us the door was open.

I followed Livia and the door fell shut behind us. All runes in their original position with the door now locked.

We reached a long room filled with shelves, who in turn were filled with a massive amount of documents.

“By all gods. That is going to take us a while to search through all the documents”, I said with less confidence than before. The only thing worse than boring books would be 10’000 boring documents.

“Us? I’m just here to observe you”, she said with resistance. Another one who was not excited for the coming events. But she owed me one and I could use her help.

“I have forgotten your illusion magic and your flirting, in front of your mother. Help me and we can consider the favour repaid. Don’t and I will complain to your mother”, I said, and she seemed to actually consider both options until she shook her head.

“Fine this one time I will help you out”, she said and I laughed, which got me a glare in return. Teacher was right, there was nothing better than unwilling helpers.

The following hours were filled with silent reading and an organized search through the shelves. Every dozen minutes a curse was released when documents were incomplete or at the wrong place. The forged documents in between didn’t help my effort to get a basic image of the cities' administration.

After five hours we stopped our efforts and I summarized the thing I found out. I had wanted to inspect several locked shelves, but Livia wouldn’t let me. It would have made things easier for me, but the cities' secrecy about its documents was nothing new to me.

I have found out several things. Government spending on the noble and wealthy citizens districts has gone up, while the spending for the other district has been cut and cut again.

The governor invested more money into key positions in the city. This showed his resolve to keep control over the city. However, the unpopularity of those policies would also give his enemies a chance to rally the people up against him.

A dangerous game of policies, which will not only decide Alexandria’s fate but that of Aegyptus as well. The reports showed how more and more money was funnelled into projects and private shops, which looked less and less credible.

It was as if the officials themselves were getting tired of covering up corruption and became sloppy in the process. We left the archive after Livia checked my notes multiply times.

There was a heated argument over some of my notes, but I was able to quell any attempt from Livia to destroy parts of my notes. I wouldn’t part with material I worked hours to acquire.

We said our goodbyes as she escorted me back to the entrance of the government district. A group of my servants were waiting for me and with a final handshake, I made my way home.

And when I did enter home both Alaric and Niloticus were not there, but we had a guest, who waited hours to meet me specifically.

I recognized him when I entered the lobby. He was the seller from the creature shop. The humanoid toad headed for me immediately when he noticed my presence. He looked angry, or at least I assumed as much. I had not much experience with humanoid species.

“My lord there was a theft in our grand shop and I would like to have your help in solving the situation”, he said and I looked at him with my best shot at a surprised and completely shocked expression I could muster.

“A tragedy to be sure. Tell me, my friend, what was stolen from your shop?”, I said and noticed relief in the Vodyanoies’ expression.

“It is only a hunch, but we would like to investigate you and your home. Oh, and your teacher and aide as well. Just to clear any doubt about your participation in this crime up”, he said, and I was surprised how confident he looked when he accused a royal guest of theft, even if he was completely right.

“I have to decline my fellow noble, but I have to insist on my diplomatic immunity. The last thing I want is for my house to lose prestige, because of groundless accusations”, I said and suppressed a laugh. Alaric you idiot, I told you they would put one and one together!

“What do you mean? I will go to the courts if you don’t allow me this much. You have nothing to lose from an inspection”, he countered. The Vodyanoies was wrong through. We had something to hide after all. The egg in question was just behind a door, ten meters away.

“My friend, if you want to go to the court then do it. But be prepared for the consequences. House Caesar and Vespasianus will have you pay for your accusations against a guest”, I said and tried to sound as confident as possible. He flinched at the ruling house name and seemed to consider my answer.

“Very well, we from house Bilibin will remember your answer. The matter will be put to rest for now. The situation in the city will change soon anyway”, he said and turned to leave when he couldn’t find a way to force my cooperation.

“Was that a threat?”, I asked him. He stopped and looked over his shoulder.

“No, I wouldn’t dare my lord. Call it healthy advice from one noble to another”, he answered with a smile. Never seen a smiling toad.

“House Vespasianus tends to act rashly and with great severity. Be careful of your actions”, I replied with my own smile. His disappeared at my answer.

“Was that a threat?”, he asked as well.

“No, it was a promise”, I delivered and turned away from our guest, who in turn was led outside. I could hear a few curses when he left the mansion. I felt happy to have resolved the first small power struggle in the city for my own good.

I went to the room where the egg lay. The eggshell lost more and more colour and turned more transparent. The creature inside was more and more visible. Its eyes still closed.

I decided to put him in my room for the next few days. The last thing I wanted was for him to hatch without me present. He should imprint on me after his birth. I knew that he was a ‘he’ because teacher told me and my own research on the embryo confirmed its gender.

The flow of mana, but also some physical characteristics were the deciding factor to confirm the gender of a black wyvern. It also told me, that it would hatch soon as the manna in the shell moved at snail pace and would stop probably any hour now.

An hour later both teacher and Alaric arrived, and we exchanged information about our day. Alaric visited the black market and an arena. He would tell me more tomorrow. Teacher had visited the local brothel. I had hoped he could keep the details to himself, but that should not happen.

We listened to his story of a mermaid and a naiad who accompanied him today. I noticed how Alaric followed the story with clearly more interest than I did. At least I learned a new thing about the sea-folk. Mermaid's breasts were apparently more soft and tender than the ones from a naiad.

I was happy when I could finally go to bed and tried to forget teachers praising his conquests. He also encouraged us to find love and adventures. The sparkle in Alaric’s eyes told me, that I really need to defeat him in our coming bout. I need him as an aide and only a favour earned by beating him in close combat will bind him to me for at least 10 years. Or so I hoped.

I closed my eyes as I looked at the egg next to me one last time.