Heir of Aurelian

Months passed by, and the days had finally come for Sigefrida and Placidia to give birth to their first children. Luckily for Marcellus, the two of them survived the ordeal, and were now in the state of recovery.

For Marcellus, this was the first time he had ever been a father, and though he had treated his nieces and nephews as members of his own household, he knew that he would never truly be the father they desperately needed.

Of his two women, Placidia had given birth to a healthy baby boy and, in doing so, gave Marcellus an heir to his household. Though whether the man would raise the child to be the next emperor was undecided.

The couple decided to name the boy Tiberius Claudius Angelus after Marcellus' late father, who passed away heroically on the battlefield when he was still but a young child. The infant was as currently bald as can be, but had the hazel eyes of his mother.

As for Sigefrida, she had given birth to a healthy baby girl. Because Sigefrida was a Marcellus' concubine, the child was technically illegitimate and therefore could not bear Marcellus' family name. In fact, the relationship between Marcellus and Sigefrida was considered taboo by Roman society at large for many reasons.

For starters, Bigamy and Polygamy had never been concepts that the Romans as a civilization tolerated, and in the past when one entered into a relationship that was declared Concubinatus, the man was not allowed to also have a legal wife. Yet Marcellus clearly had a legal wife as well as a concubine.

If Sigefrida had stayed a slave, then this would not be worthy of notice. However, Marcellus had freed her, and yet she still clung to his side, and even bore his children. If not for the loyalty of the military beneath Marcellus' command, and the strict stranglehold he kept over his people, then the man likely would have been cast out from polite society long ago.

Despite this taboo, Marcellus had gone the extra mile, and legitimized the baby girl as a member of his dynasty. Something that was unthinkable in years prior. Yet the man was a military dictator, and could do as he damn well pleased. Thus, the girl's name was Claudia Victoria, after the ancient roman goddess of victory.

Victoria was a bastard child that should not exist in this world. The product of a Roman Emperor and a Suebi slave, which he freed from bondage. She was an unusual existence in the roman empire, one that Marcellus' extended family, the gens Claudia would despise.

However, the man did not care in the slightest about the opinions of such a troublesome group. Though they may share a common lineage, he did not see his clan as family, nor would he entertain their prejudices when it came to his precious daughter.

Currently, Marcellus was standing over the cribs of the two infants, with his wife and concubine by his side. The man had a wholesome smile on his face, as he finally embraced his role as a father. Looking back on his memories from his past life, this was something he could never have achieved, at least not in any long-term fashion.

But in this world, he now had the ability to have a family, one that wouldn't be torn apart so easily. This brought a smile to the man's face as he closely watched his two kids sleep in harmony. Both Sigefrida and Placidia were exhausted from looking after the newborns, and thus the man ordered them to get some rest, even though they too wanted to gaze upon their sleeping babes.

"Placidia, Sigefrida, get some rest. I know things have been rough on the two of you as of late. But now that the kids are sleeping, it's the perfect time to get some much needed sleep."

The women silently nodded their heads and yawned at the same time. The very prospect of sleep was such a tempting offer that their bodies simply couldn't resist. As a result, they gave their man one last message before heading off to the bedroom.

"Look after them well. After we get some shuteye, it will be your turn."

Marcellus merely nodded his head with a smile on his face in response to these words. He was well accustomed to burning the midnight oil, and thus he felt no need to get any rest at this time. His women, on the other hand, were not so used to staying up so late.  Thus, he gave them the brief period of respite they needed.

After making sure the two kids were well looked after by his slaves, Marcellus returned to his study where he found Pulcheria waiting for him. The girl had a stern expression on her face as she called out to her uncle with concern for his newborn children.

"When are you going to baptize those two infants of yours?"

With a rude snarl, Marcellus responded to the girl's question with a simple answer.

"Never."

This remark caused the girl's face to become scrunched with rage. She could not believe the man was being so selfish and was quick to call him out on it.

"I can't believe you! If you want to spend eternity in damnation that is your own problem, but how dare you deny your children their right to baptism!"

This self-righteous nature of Christians was always something that got under Marcellus' skin. He quickly sat down at his desk and opened up a document where he began to get to work. Seemingly ignoring Pulcheria as he did so. It was only when she was about to curse him out that he responded to her claims.

"When I die, I will enter the fields of Elysium, just like my ancestors before me. I will allow my children the freedom to choose which gods they wish to worship. If they desire to join your murderous cult, then that is their choice, but I won't force it on them, like my parents had done to me as a child."

Such a slap to the face caused Pulcheria to react as if she had just been force fed a pile of human feces. She instantly barked out in rage at the man who had just so thoroughly insulted her religion.

"Murderous cult! Is that how you see us?"

With a simple nod of his head, Marcellus confirmed this to be true. Not only was he aware of the heinous acts Christians committed against non-believers in this era, after all, he had lived through their persecution himself.

However, Marcellus also had the memory of his past life, whose history showed just how Christianity had spread throughout Europe. Contrary to what the Church wanted you to believe, the truth behind how Christianity came to dominate Europe was a bloody affair that was the result of centuries of genocide.

Among the many atrocities committed by Christians in Marcellus' past life was the burning of Pre-christian European history, the dismantling of their holy sites, the mass extent of forced baptisms which were usually followed by a swift beheading to ensure that the new converts had no chance to revert to their old faith. In fact, the list of their crimes was too extensive to write in a single book.

Of course, it was not just the Europeans who these atrocities were done to, but every civilization the Christians contacted in the millennium that followed. It was only in the modern era that some sense of peaceful reformation occurred across the religion, and that had led to its degeneration and decline.

The most hilarious part of this was the simple fact that modern Christians had the audacity to point to other religions who continued to act in a similar fashion as they had done until just recently, as if they had never committed a single sin in their two thousand years of existence.

It was because of all of this knowledge that Marcellus had an intense disdain for Christians, even though he had not begun to persecute them, one of his goals was to break their stranglehold over Roman culture, and thus he did not deny Pulcheria's accusations. An act which caused the girl to flee the room in a rage.

Once he was all alone, Marcellus sighed and began to sign his name onto a document. With a simple phrase he expressed just how exhausted he had been these past few days.

"Finally, I can get some work done."