I Rule Rome with a God-Tier AI-Chapter 155: The Whispers from the East

Alex returned to Rome from the smoking, industrious haze of Vulcania to find the political air of the capital as thick and dangerous as ever. He had solved the immediate fuel crisis, but the human fires of ambition and conspiracy continued to smolder. He had been so focused on the grand, existential threats—the Silenti, the collapsing economy, the public health crisis—that he had neglected the more conventional dangers that festered in the shadows of his Empire.

It was Perennis who reminded him of them. The Praetorian Prefect, his spymaster, requested an audience. He entered Alex's study looking displeased, his thin lips pressed into a line of disapproval. He had been pointedly excluded from the recent "holy" councils of war and engineering, and his pride was clearly wounded. He was a man who dealt in secrets, and he did not appreciate being kept in the dark.

"You have been busy building your new religion, Caesar," Perennis said, his voice a dry, rustling sound, like old parchment. There was no reverence in his tone, only a cynical acknowledgment of Alex's new political strategy. "While you have been converting generals and inspiring senators with tales of divine purpose, my agents have not been idle. The world of men continues to turn, even if your eyes are on the gods."

He placed a small, tightly coded dispatch on Alex's desk. It was wrapped in silk, the mark of a message from the far east. "This arrived this morning from my best agent in Antioch. It seems your old rival, the esteemed Governor Pertinax, is not enjoying his golden exile as quietly as we had hoped."

Alex picked up the scroll, his fingers breaking the intricate wax seal. As he decoded the message, a cold knot formed in his stomach. Perennis watched him, his face impassive.

"My agent reports a series of secret, nocturnal meetings between Pertinax and a high-ranking Parthian envoy, a man named Vologases, who is a known confidant of their king," Perennis elaborated, providing the context. "They do not know the content of these meetings. The gatherings are too well-guarded. But the frequency and the extreme secrecy are... alarming. It seems the old lion, far from being cowed by his removal from Rome, is sharpening his claws in the east."

The news was a jolt of cold water. It was a crucial piece of human intelligence, a classic political threat that his grand, cosmic narrative had completely overlooked. The Silent Ones might be a threat to humanity's existence, but Pertinax was a direct threat to his.

Later, in the privacy of his lead-lined chamber, Alex fed this new information into his tactical planning with Lyra. His relationship with his AI was changing. The "Ghost Protocol" that firewalled her most advanced, anachronistic functions had forced him to adapt. He no longer went to her for divine, fully-formed solutions. He used her now as a 21st-century leader would use a powerful analytical engine and a chief of staff. She was a tool for clarifying his own thoughts, for testing hypotheses, and for seeing patterns that a human mind might miss.

"Lyra," he began, pacing before the glowing screen. "New intelligence. Pertinax is in secret communication with the Parthian court. Premise: Pertinax is a Roman traditionalist with strong support among several eastern legions. Parthia's eastern territories are currently unstable due to the ecological disruption and the rise of the Silenti-controlled tribes. Given these variables, what is the highest probability objective of this alliance?"

The firewalled Lyra could not access forbidden knowledge about modern proxy wars, but she could analyze the raw data of history and political science with terrifying efficiency.

Processing, her text appeared. Pertinax's profile indicates a primary motivation of restoring traditional senatorial power and a personal animosity towards your regime. Parthia's primary motivation is the stabilization of its borders and the removal of a perceived external threat, i.e., you. The convergence of these motives suggests a single, high-probability objective (78% likelihood): a Parthian-funded military coup.

The cold, statistical confirmation made Alex's blood run cold.

Scenario model: Parthia provides substantial financial backing to Pertinax, allowing him to buy the loyalty of additional legions, Lyra continued. Simultaneously, Parthia guarantees the security of Rome's eastern frontier, neutralizing any threat from that direction. This action frees up the legions currently stationed in Syria and Cappadocia, legions known to be loyal to Pertinax, to march on Rome without fear of leaving the border exposed. It is a classic proxy-war scenario designed to achieve regime change with minimal direct Parthian military involvement.

Lyra hadn't told him anything he hadn't suspected, but she had stripped the problem down to its cold, logical bones. She had confirmed his fears with the dispassionate certainty of mathematics. She was no longer his oracle, but she was the most powerful analytical tool in human history, and she was still his.

As he was contemplating the new threat from the east, another message arrived, this one from the north. It was a dispatch from Senator Rufus, traveling with Lucilla's legion. Alex broke the seal, expecting another litany of complaints about his sister's ambition. What he read instead was a masterpiece of passive-aggressive, bureaucratic warfare. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Caesar, Rufus wrote in his elegant script, Our progress northward has been regrettably delayed. Upon reviewing the legion's supply manifests, I discovered several minor irregularities. Citing the Lex Cornelia de Frumento from the time of the Gracchi, which mandates a full audit in the case of any suspected grain spoilage, I felt it my solemn duty to insist upon a complete inventory of our supplies before proceeding. The Lady Lucilla was, of course, most insistent that we press on, but I felt that adherence to the law, however inconvenient, was paramount. The audit took three full days. We found two sacks of spoiled flour. I have, of course, launched a full inquiry.

Alex couldn't help but let out a short, sharp laugh. The old man was a genius. He had weaponized his own virtuous obsession with procedure, delaying his sister's march by three precious days over two sacks of bad flour. He was the perfect saboteur.

But as Alex read on, his amusement curdled into fresh alarm. Buried at the end of the report, almost as an afterthought, was a new, worrying detail.

On a separate matter, Rufus wrote, I feel compelled to note a change in the Lady Lucilla's recruitment strategy. She has begun enlisting a great number of men from the local Norican tribes. She is not, however, conscripting them as auxiliaries in the traditional manner, to be commanded by Roman officers. She is forming an entirely new, independent unit of 'Exploratores Lucillae'—Lucilla's Scouts. She is offering them triple the standard pay for an auxiliary, and is promising them full Roman citizenship for themselves and their families after only five years of loyal service. The local chieftains are sending her their best and most ruthless young men. They are flocking to her banner.

The Lady Lucilla claims she needs guides who know the local terrain to hunt the raiders who perpetrated the massacre. But she is forging a private army of non-Romans, men whose language we do not speak, and whose loyalty is being bought not by the Roman state, but exclusively by her. I find this development... unsettling.

Alex put the scroll down, the two threats now clear in his mind. The old lion, Pertinax, was actively plotting with a foreign power to launch a civil war from the east. And the serpent, his own sister, was not just marching north to confront his Devota; she was building her own private, foreign army on the frontier, using her new authority and treasury to create a force loyal only to her.

His own actions, his secret war and his grand reforms, had created a power vacuum. He now saw, with terrifying clarity, that his ambitious human rivals were filling that vacuum in cunning and dangerous ways he had not anticipated. Lyra could analyze the data he gave her, but she could not predict the sheer, relentless, and creative ambition of his enemies. He was fighting a war on three fronts now: a secret war against the cosmic Silenti, and two very human wars against the lion and the serpent.