Chapter 290
In Rome, a Censor's actual power fell short of a consul's.
However, the office was typically held by former consuls and required profound trust from both within and without.
In some ways, becoming a Censor was an even greater honor than rising to consul.
The head of the audit organization that Octavian had just assumed actually held far more real power than a traditional Censor.
Although the Censor's authority had been nominally divided, those divisions only applied to the individual departments.
Overseeing all those departments, Octavian could single-handedly wield all the power of the old Censors if he so chose.
Furthermore, while the traditional Censors had always operated in pairs, Octavian now held this authority entirely alone.
Neither the consuls nor the Senate had any real means to keep him in check.
Only Caesar and Marcus possessed the authority to restrain him.
People watched with equal parts anticipation and anxiety, waiting to see how Octavian would wield such immense power.
Ever the wise politician, Octavian did not immediately throw his newly acquired weight around.
He showed no hint of arrogance.
Instead, he visited venerable statesmen like Cicero and Piso to seek their counsel, cultivating their trust.
He even paid his respects to Cato, the man who had so fiercely opposed his appointment.
To the public eye, Octavian appeared entirely devoid of political ambition.
Some even called him weak for constantly trailing a step behind Sophia at official events.
But the subject of these rumors seemed entirely unbothered by such assessments.
Octavian simply went about his usual routine: patronizing artists, attending performances, and enjoying debates with scholars.
And outside his official working hours, Sophia was nearly always by his side.
"The more I watch you, the more devious you seem."
"What do you mean?"
Sophia set her piece down on the chessboard with a sharp clack.
"Don't play dumb. You've got the cowardly senators convinced that you're a harmless sheep."
"If I recall, the person who advised me to do exactly that is sitting right in front of me."
"You would have done it anyway, even if I hadn't said a word."
"True enough. Thanks to your advice, my image as a pushover has only grown stronger."
Octavian finished setting his pieces on the board and let out a cryptic chuckle.
It was a smile he never once showed in front of the Senate.
"So, what's your plan going forward? You still have to do your actual job."
"Marcus and Caesar can exercise my authority in my stead anyway. Therefore, I intend to wash my hands of personnel matters and focus purely on audits."
"You know audits will only draw their ire, right?"
"Which is exactly why I'm taking it on. And to minimize the backlash, I'm keeping my head down right now."
"Honestly, both you and my father are far too good at scheming in the shadows. My grandfather is practically an open book compared to you two."
Sophia pushed the pawn in front of her queen two squares forward.
Octavian responded with a wry smile, advancing his own queen's pawn two squares to meet hers.
"That holds no water coming from the person who takes after Marcus the most."
"What do you mean? The public calls my mother and me goddesses of benevolence."
"I can completely understand why Julia is called that."
"Well, we'd only be insulting ourselves by arguing over it."
Sophia then pushed the pawn in front of her queen's bishop forward two squares.
It was her favorite chess opening.
Though it looked like a free sacrifice of her pawn, it drastically widened her strategic options depending on how her opponent responded.
As Octavian deliberated over whether to accept the gambit, she abruptly spoke up.
"This opening formation here. Do you know what it's called?"
"It's your favored tactic, isn't it? Since you were the one who originally developed it, shouldn't you be the one to name it?"
"No. I played a match with my father the other day, and he already knew about it. I heard him mutter something under his breath. Queen's Gambit? That's what it sounded like, though I have no idea what the term actually means."
Octavian took her pawn with his own, nodding nonchalantly.
"Come to think of it, since Marcus invented the game, it's not surprising he already knew the strategy."
"But he told me he doesn't actually enjoy using it. We may be alike, but we're certainly different. Even if a child is an extension of their parent, they're still their own person in the end."
"That is rather interesting. Personally, I find it to be quite a fun and efficient tactic."
"I don't know the exact reason either. If I had to guess, this strategy focuses on easily seizing the center by sacrificing one of my pieces, like I just did. He probably dislikes the feeling of giving away a piece for nothing. I believe the chessboard is deeply connected to both warfare and politics, in the sense that one must look at the bigger picture rather than fixating on petty gains."
Since both warfare and politics unfold in real time, they differ slightly from a turn-based game like chess.
Yet, despite that real-time flow, the core principle remained the same: every action required anticipating the opponent's next move.
Victory was impossible for anyone so obsessed with their own plans that they failed to predict their enemy's.
In that respect, chess was fast becoming the favored pastime of the Roman elite.
When they wanted to turn off their brains and be entertained, they went to the Colosseum to watch the games; when they wanted intellectual stimulation, they played chess.
"One of my friends claims that cards are actually a much closer reflection of reality than chess."
"Who? Maecenas? Cards are far too dependent on luck."
"Reality itself is full of chaotic variables, much like a hand of cards. Isn't the true mark of a great politician the ability to embrace that chaos and execute the best possible strategy with the hand they are dealt?"
"I suppose that makes sense. But cards still rely way too much on luck."
Despite her complaints, Sophia didn't actually dislike card games.
Knowing this all too well, Octavian clicked his tongue and chuckled.
"You're only saying that because Trajan beat you the other day."
"That match doesn't count. My draws were so ridiculously bad it was practically a joke."
"That's how it always goes. When you lose, it's a trash game of pure luck, but when you win, it's all about skill. That's exactly why people enjoy cards so much. If they lose, they can brush it off as bad luck rather than a lack of ability. And with a bit of luck, a lesser player can actually pull off a win. Chess, on the other hand, is unforgiving. If the skill gap is too wide, there's practically zero chance of winning unless the opponent makes a blunder."
"Which is exactly why politics is just like this chessboard. Once the power gap reaches a certain point, there are foolproof ways to guarantee you never lose."
After that, Sophia and Octavian fell silent, completely engrossed in the chessboard, standing in stark contrast to their lively banter just moments prior.
A few matches were usually enough to give a rough read on someone's personality.
For Sophia and Octavian, who practically spent every day together, they already knew each other's tendencies intimately.
The two shared a similar way of thinking, yet operated on entirely different principles of action.
Even when they devised identical strategies, their methods of executing them were completely different.
Beneath his mild exterior, Octavian was capable of making far more ruthless decisions than either Caesar or Marcus.
If the situation demanded it, he wouldn't hesitate for a second to lop off the heads of senators, nobles, or members of the equestrian order.
Sophia, on the other hand, was comparatively far more moderate.
Because of this dynamic, they were able to complement each other perfectly.
In the original timeline, Octavian had been surrounded by brilliant advisors, but in this life, the vast majority of those figures were stationed at Marcus's side.
Only Maecenas remained by his side as he had in the original history.
And even Maecenas had been specifically assigned to him by Marcus.
As a result, the only person Octavian could truly open up to and debate with was Sophia, the girl he had grown up with since childhood.
The reverse, of course, was equally true for her.
Roughly an hour passed in total silence.
Only when the match reached the endgame did Octavian finally speak again.
"That reminds me. Maecenas recently commissioned Virgil to compose a poem praising Caesar and Marcus, and he's finished it. I read through it, and the prose is magnificent. Rather than feeling overly sycophantic, the verses actually evoke a sense of sweeping grandeur."
"So you're pulling artists into the political realm now, are you?"
"Art and politics have always been inseparable. Maecenas is simply trying to harness that connection more systematically."
Octavian's voice dropped so low that she had to strain to hear him.
"As I'm sure you've already guessed, this is all for our benefit. The more thoroughly we lay the groundwork, the better."
"...I suppose it can't be helped. You and I are in completely different positions from my father."
"I assume you've heard the news, but Marcus will be receiving yet another official title sometime next month."
"I know. It was your proposal, wasn't it?"
The authorities and titles currently held by Caesar and Marcus were so numerous that it was practically impossible to list them all off the top of one's head.
Marcus, for his part, was the First Man of the Senate, and he wielded the powers of the Permanent Consul, the Tribune of the Plebs, and the Censor.
On top of that, he held sweeping gubernatorial powers and a supreme imperium that overrode all other authorities.
Caesar, meanwhile, held all of the above as well as the position of Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of Rome.
And now, it had been decided to bestow the title of Praefectus Annonae upon Marcus, granting him total control over Rome's food supply.
In truth, this was merely a legal codification of the authority Marcus was already exercising in practice.
While controlling the food supply effectively meant holding the very lives of the citizens in his hands, the public actually welcomed the move.
While he excelled in many areas, Marcus's reputation when it came to agriculture was simply on another level.
To the struggling independent farmers and the starving poor, Marcus was nothing short of a literal savior.
Though the position wielded power that in some ways eclipsed even that of a consul, not a single voice of opposition was raised for exactly that reason.
Even Cato saw it as a natural step.
Through Maecenas, who acted as a patron to countless artists, Octavian had commissioned poetry specifically to praise this achievement.
However, this massive propaganda campaign served to obscure one crucial detail: the authorities granted to Marcus and Caesar were not temporary.
These powers were effectively being treated as personal property, and Octavian quietly lobbied to have this permanently enshrined in Roman law.
This legislative push also included a provision arguing that since Julia and Sophia were Rome's most august women, they ought to enjoy the greatest privileges of any Roman woman.
In short, this meant the two women would be legally granted the exact same privileges held by Rome's vestal virgins.
Without, of course, the strict vow of chastity the priestesses were forced to observe until retirement.
This allowed the women of the House of Julius-Licinius to legally own private property and be completely free from the traditional authority of the male head of the household, just like the vestal virgins.
By extension, this set the legal precedent allowing Marcus and Caesar to bequeath their powers to their heirs.
The mechanism of this was subtly different from a hereditary monarchy.
A king passed down the physical throne and title, but this Roman legal framework allowed for the inheritance of authority, not just titles.
It was ultimately little more than political wordplay, but to the people of this era, the semantic difference meant everything.
Octavian stared intently at Sophia's king, which had remained safely nestled in the back row throughout the entire game, and flashed a meaningful smile.
"Once the stage is fully set, please step forward. I will be right there beside you."