On the second floor, the same meeting room as last time.

"This is it." Brought Shang Luo and the others to the door of the conference room, her breathing was still a little short.

"Victoria. And Caesar, are they all in there? “”

"Yes." Karin nodded, "There are other people, oh my God, there are others, they are all there. ”

Karin's state can be described as "frightened". Although Victoria herself was inside, it was obviously not Victoria who shocked her so much, but "someone else".

"That's right." Although she was a little panicked, she still remembered what she wanted to explain, "His Majesty the Emperor instructed that Shang Luo's two friends should sit in the reception room next door for a while. When the content of confidential matters is finished, she will come back to see the two of you. ”

"Is there ice cream?" Gao Shiyu asked.

"Yes, I'll send them directly downstairs."

"That's good, that's good. Talk a little longer, I haven't eaten enough. Please send one of the three flavors. ”

"No problem. What about this one? She asked Gao Qingyu again.

"Two copies each, thank you."

The two of them went to the lounge and waited very cooperatively. Shang Luo also expected - the scene that can make Karin feel "frightened" is probably not something that anyone can see.

Karin, who had gone to get ice cream, walked to the corner of the stairs not far away, and he knocked lightly on the door:

"Your Majesty Victoria, may I come in now?"

"Please come in." Victoria's voice came from within.

He unscrewed the doorknob and the door opened. He stood at the door and was stunned:

Shang Luo remembered that the last time he and Victoria were talking inside, it was still an ordinary conference room. And this time.

It's still that room, it's still the same length and width.

But what was once a window was replaced by a huge painting: Raphael's Academy of Athens.

[Ah!! Apollonia was surprised, "This is it! That's it! 】

In the white marble temple, Plato and Aristotle stand in the center of the picture. Epicurus, Pythagoras, Socrates, and other Greek sages settled in the temple and went about their own issues—they were talking.

The sages of the past generations who have crossed time and space gather together in the painting. This conversation begins at the beginning of ignorance and will be indulged in the "sea of wine" with Rome until eternity.

In the painting, everyone "sees" that some visitors have arrived, and some people inadvertently glance outward, and then continue with their own topics. Many more people are turning a blind eye to this.

Only one person was an exception - Aristotle's student, Alexander the Great himself, also stood by his teacher. Wearing a golden helmet and a purple toga robe, although this is an image processed by later generations, the identity of the "emperor" is also revealed. According to the Greco-Roman lineage, Alexander the Great, from the Macedonian city-state of Ajid, is also regarded as one of Rome's previous emperors.

His gaze stayed on Shang Luo and looked at it for a while.

He bowed slightly to the teacher, walked out of the center of the frame, near the point of perspective, and walked down the steps, out of the depth of the picture, until he was out of the frame—alongside Victoria outside the frame.

Victoria was standing not far from the door, in front of the frame. Compared to Alexander, her toga robe looked more compact, more like a cloak than a toga. Her golden crown was not in the style of a helmet, but a golden laurel branch.

"Welcome to Cybercolonia." Victoria greeted him. She was smiling, but she was not so natural, and the events of that day were still swaying in front of her eyes like a marquee, so that she regretted until now that she should not have tried to be quick for a while, and explained everything as if she were a last word.

But now there is something more important to inform Shang Luo than personal affairs: "I'll go first. First of all, this Alexander III of Macedon. ”

"Fortunately." Alexander replied in Greek, "I'm sorry, but I can't learn Aurora, so I can only help you within my limited ability - the current Emperor, translate it." ”

Victoria translated Alexander's original words to Shangluo.

"Wait, this is . Silhouette? ”

"Well," Victoria didn't answer directly, but asked him rhetorically, "Do you know what the highest achievement of alchemy is?" ”

"Immortality, of course? I remember there were many ways to do it, like the Philosopher's Stone. Wait, this is? ”

"That's right. As one of the six Romes, Alexandria is the apex of alchemy. The apex of the so-called alchemy is, of course, the Stone of the Philosopher. The Philosopher's Stone embodies the desire of all Romans for immortality and the fear of death. Of course. This attempt ultimately failed. ”

She didn't need to say this, Shang Luo could guess it. If the route of the Philosopher's Stone had been successful, Rome would not have to sink as it does now.

"But!" Victoria pointed to the painting behind him, "The Philosopher's Stone, although it did not bring us immortality, did bring us another miracle. I just asked them if they were silhouettes, and the answer was 'yes and no'. If a silhouette is a fragment of a person, it's like a photograph and you can take as many pictures as you like. And what you have in front of you is a collection of 'all the experiences of the human community about this person'. They are the virtual philosopher kings. They are the Palace of the Muses. ”

"So the Muse Palace is commanded by these resurrected philosopher-kings?"

"Yes. Therefore, all the sages led by Plato, all the decisions they made were perfect. From the perspective of the sages, they examined the moral problems facing the Romans today and judged the ethics of science. Their decisions had the same effect as the will of the Senate and the oracle of Delphi. The key you're going to get today comes from their research into the 'Vulcan Core' technology. They are the conscience and moral bottom line of the whole of Rome. Without them, Rome would have been doomed more than a hundred years ago. But."

"But?"

"I invite you here today because of two things. The first one is the key, which is not worthy today. ”

"Huh?"

"The second piece." Victoria picked it up immediately, "The reason I can't match it is that someone took the key." ”

"Can someone take that thing?"

"Because. The person who took the key has the same authority as me. Yes, Caesar. She motioned for Shang Luo to look behind her.

Shang Luo looked back—it turned out that this place was far bigger than it looked. A door of no thickness penetrated the space and opened at the end of the main hall. The floor painting in front of him was just next to the wall, and the golden hall was in the back. And in the deepest part of the main hall, sitting high on the throne was an old man with gray hair. The old man was emaciated, and the huge toga encased him like a shroud. His eyes were deeply embedded in his sockets, and those eyes were looking at Shang Luo.

"That's it."

"Yes, that one is Caesar. The key was borrowed by him. Are you in a hurry? If you're not in a hurry, you can wait for two weeks, are you in a hurry? That can't be helped. ”

Shang Luo suppressed his voice: "Didn't he take the army to the desert over there?" ”

"How do you know? Well, it seems that you also have an intelligence network. However, the person in front of you is beyond the reach of any intelligence network. The one on the throne, he is not a silhouette, nor is he a virtual philosopher-king. He is. The real Caesar. ”

"He's resurrected?"

"Resurrected, but not fully resurrected. This is Caesar's true self, and his consciousness is not interrupted - but this is another path that doesn't work, you just think about how he died. In short, I have unexpectedly created a Caesar's expeditionary force for us, in short, on your own, I have brought you in. ”

(End of chapter)