The song which kept me going while writing this chapter. 😅

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Aurelius's heartbeat was rippling high through every second. It was his responsibility to keep the map safe but he failed and now his loyalty was being questioned . His shaking finger tips curved to pick up the parched yellowish paper with black lines but nothing seem suspicious to him. His mouth was dry but nonetheless he gulped down hoping that few drops of saliva could water his throat.

His unsung question was heard by Augustus and he said, " While cartographer was making this false map, few drops of the ink fell on side corner leaving behind a stain but map which we have over here has no such stain which means that someone has replaced it. "

" False map?" exclaimed Aurelius. Apart from this word, nothing registered in his mind. Everything was muddled and puzzled over here. What did Augustus meant by false map?

" I never gave you my original map of the secret tunnel. " These ordinary words of Augustus twisted his friend's heart. He was looking at Augustus baffled trying to decipher what he meant.

He did anything and everything for his friend and this kingdom but he never trusted him enough. His head bowed down in shame, hurt or maybe because of both.

Augustus never wanted to hurt his friend but at times, twisted game of throne make people do anything. Sighing sadly at dissapointing his friend, he brought his hand and placed it on Aurelius's shoulder and explained to him, "No matter how loyal you were, rule of time and law of nature never permits me to trust anyone. "

His mind was numb with the previous information but his friend was talking about some rules of time and law of nature. The feeling of hurt was settling deep into Aurelius's throat but desperation of proving his innocence compelled him to speak, " I swear on my unborn child, your highness! I could never imagine to betray you."

" Unborn child? You mean.. You mean you're going to be a father? " spoke Augustus in a pleasant surprised tone. He hugged Aurelius when he nodded positively and congratulated him on this merry occasion.

All this while, King Atticus chose to keep quiet and let both the friends sort out the matter.

Augustus knew that he had to convince his friend that he still trusted him. If in place of Augustus, Marcus would have been there, he would have still doubted him.

" It's a law of nature that there are only two outcomes of an event occurring in this world,.. " pausing for a minute to look directly into Aurelius's eyes, he continued , " either you would have been loyal to me or not and the second possibility made you half the suspect. Had it been my dear brother Marcus in place of you, I would have still doubted him. You're a comrade of mine and we shall celebrate birth of your child by acing Rome."

A positivity serged within Aurelius and after having few light hearted moments, a serious question lingered in the air that who replaced the map and why?

" Now my doubts are being cleared about these Eagles. They're not just a small group of spies, instead, they are group of one of our enemy kingdoms and the reason why they came here was to steal the map. They were following the rule of distract and win. All the while, they were shifting us away from the main theme and trying to create dispute but what they don't know is the fact that their twisted conspiracies have been catched and now is that time of hour where we need to.throw it back on their face with force. We made this map around five years back and I was very well aware of the fact that with each passing day, risk of out secret blowing up was getting high. We were out of our kingdom for a year which stretched the risk even more. Therefore, I made a pseudo map and deliberately kept it here. "

Aurelius was amazed with this new found piece of information while King Atticus smirked a bit because he knew about his son's plans.

" Do you have any doubt on any specific kingdom ? " asked Aurelius.

Scratching his stubble Augustus shook his head negatively and spoke, " This tunnel is underground around the expected battlefield which is around fourty seven miles (seventy five kilometers) away from Rome. Any of the army which will know about it would surely be benefited by hiding their soldiers using it for other purposes. "

" So does this mean that shown tunnel in this fake map don't even exist? " Aurelius couldn't help but ask.

Smirking at his friend, Augustus replied, " I never underestimate my enemies. They would have surely done their research and to only way to trap them is to create a mirage infront of their eyes where they assume that they are ahead in this game. The tunnel very much exists which is shown on this map but the thing is, that it's less than half a mile longer which can fit in hardly one legion. While the actual tunnel is around three miles long. It will give us two advantage , firstly, they wouldn't think about other tunnel. Secondly, not only many legions but our horses and ration could also be stored in it which will be our trump card. "

( one legion consisted of around 4000 - 6000 men)

" Now let's discuss about our main war strategy. " spoke Augustus.

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On the other hand, Queen of eagles had summoned Luca in front of him. There was a thickening silence in the air. She was burning in anger looking at the face of Luca while the latter was slithering with fear.

Coming near him, she grabbed his injured shoulder and spoke, " I've stripped powerful men of their power and have claimed the ladders of sacrifices to become the first sole Rexa (Queen) of Roman Empire. "

Pressing intentionally more on his injury, she continued, " and if I fail in it, demons of hell would beg me to surrender your soul to them. "

The words were rolled out with, so much determination that Luca, didn't feel anything doubt in it.