Chapter 307
"What? Don't tell me your daughter is trailing after Octavian too?"
Her sister's unexpected remark sent Cleopatra's thoughts into a tailspin.
Countless possibilities swirled dizzily through her mind.
'Did that girl actually drag her sister into this ridiculous behavior?'
If that were true, she would have no defense if someone accused her of raising her child poorly.
Both heirs to the title of Pharaoh shared a hobby too shameful to even speak aloud.
The matter was so mortifying she couldn't even complain about it to anyone.
And if word did get out, the blame was bound to land squarely on Cleopatra.
How could she argue if people said this was what happened when a Pharaoh neglected Alexandria to spend all her time in foreign lands?
Arsinoe observed her stiff expression with a peculiar look of her own before standing up.
"Doesn't Marcus always say that seeing something once is better than a hundred explanations? I'll just show you. Come take a look."
"She won't mind if we just walk in? My daughter thinks she's all grown up lately. She spouts absolute nonsense about me needing permission to enter her room."
Not that she had any desire to set foot inside a room plastered with Octavian.
Even if her daughter begged her to visit, she'd rather just tell the girl to come outside instead.
"She's out right now anyway. The room is empty."
"Is that so? Then I won't decline..."
Cleopatra stepped through the doorway, only to freeze, the rest of her sentence dying in her throat.
'What in the world is this?'
Arsinoe followed her inside and let out a heavy sigh as Cleopatra stared blankly at a room that looked nothing like she had expected.
"As you can see, my daughter is in a similar state. I'm really in no position to judge you."
"This... is Sophia, isn't it?"
"Mhm..."
Arsinoe's daughter hadn't fallen for Octavian at all.
Her niece's spacious bedroom was plastered with portraits of a beautiful young woman.
There was even an astonishingly detailed, life-sized statue standing proudly in the room.
Aside from the subject of the obsession, it was remarkably similar to the room Cleopatra dealt with at home.
The subject was someone Cleopatra knew well: Marcus's eldest daughter, Sophia.
The living goddess currently receiving the highest reverence in Rome.
A portrait of Sophia hung directly opposite the door, looking almost as if it were welcoming visitors inside.
"Since when has it been like this?"
"As you can tell, it's been quite a while. See that small sculpture next to the bed? She actually commissioned a famous Greek sculptor to make that."
"I am well aware. My own house is littered with sculptures of Octavian. You can certainly tell they're cousins. Their tastes are exactly the same..."
One heir to the Pharaoh's throne was obsessed with her older half-sister, and the other was a devoted follower of that half-sister's husband.
She couldn't hold back a sigh at the absolute state of their nation.
"Truthfully, these girls probably have very little identity as Egyptians. Their father is a god of Rome, and they grew up entirely under Roman influence."
"I suppose so... That's why we always stressed that they were meant to inherit the title of Pharaoh. I never expected things to turn out like this... But no matter how much I think about it, I just don't understand. Octavian is a man, so I can at least grasp that, but why is she so obsessed with another woman?"
"I asked Marcus about it once, and he told me women have a tendency to become deeply infatuated with other women they consider cool or beautiful. I don't really understand the details myself, though."
"Is that so? I suppose women might have a stronger tendency for that than men do. Still, you have it slightly better than I do. Clinging to Sophia is much better than fawning over Octavian."
"Really? You think so? Octavian isn't so bad. It's not like she's seriously trying to seduce him; it's just pure admiration. Isn't it more natural to react that way toward the opposite sex?"
Cleopatra shook her head firmly.
Arsinoe maintained a fairly decent relationship with Octavian, so it made sense she would see it that way.
But Cleopatra was a different story.
Regardless of how anyone else felt, she absolutely could not tolerate her own daughter swooning over Octavian.
If the object of her affection had been Sophia, she might have been able to let it slide.
"I just can't bring myself to like that boy Octavian. I don't even know why."
"That is really strange. I think he's quite a fine young man. He's polite, handsome, and highly capable. Doesn't he seem flawless? Do you really think Marcus would have earmarked him as a son-in-law so early on for no reason?"
"I'll admit he's capable. But is his polite behavior truly genuine? No one knows what he's actually thinking on the inside."
"With logic like that, you could paint everyone in the world as a villain. Has Octavian ever actually done anything to offend you?"
"No."
Arsinoe gave her a flat, incredulous look.
"Then it's literally just your imagination. Why are you being so difficult? Are you really that upset that your daughter is infatuated with a man?"
"You have it backward. It's the fact that my daughter—of all people—is clinging to Octavian—of all people. That's what I don't like."
"I honestly don't get it... In the grand scheme of things, we're practically all family now anyway. Disliking your own family over some vague gut feeling is a little petty, don't you think?"
"You're one to talk. Weren't we the loving family that tore at each other's throats every chance we got when we were younger?"
In the Ptolemaic Royal Family—and indeed in most royal houses—family members weren't subjects of affection, but targets of competition.
Arsinoe let out a bitter laugh as she remembered how obsessed she used to be with tearing Cleopatra down.
"That was only because I thought the title of Pharaoh was the whole world back then. Our relationship with Octavian is completely different, isn't it?"
"Ugh, I don't know. I just don't like him. Maybe we were enemies in a past life. Sometimes I even wonder if we have some ill-fated history, like he murdered me or something."
"I never dreamed you had the makings of a mystic."
Despite the biting sarcasm, Cleopatra stood firm in her belief.
"Even if we are family, we won't see each other's faces that often anyway. Once we leave for Alexandria, that's that."
"That's uncharacteristically naive of you. Doesn't that mean we should try to foster a better relationship? Honestly, even though I find my daughter's behavior a bit pathetic, I don't really have any intention of stopping her. Sophia might find a younger sibling acting like that a bit overbearing, but it certainly won't make her hate her. From that perspective, you could call it a brilliant survival strategy. Though I doubt my daughter is actually thinking that far ahead."
"But still, she needs to have the self-awareness of an heir to the Pharaoh..."
"Honestly, Pharaoh is little more than a hollow title now."
Arsinoe drove home the painful reality.
Her sister was certainly not an empty-headed woman.
She only appeared that way because of her relaxed disposition; in truth, she possessed sharp judgment.
In some ways, she might be far more pragmatic than Cleopatra herself.
In the past, Cleopatra had dismissed it as a simple lack of royal awareness, but recently she had started to wonder if this was actually Arsinoe's personal method of survival.
"It is obvious that the title of Pharaoh will eventually be reduced to something like a Roman governor of Egypt. Perhaps it already has. But as someone bearing a title that has endured for thousands of years, she should at least have a bare minimum of responsibility, shouldn't she?"
"Isn't that lingering attachment rather than responsibility? And the most crucial point here is that our children don't share that sentiment at all."
"Hah... Right. As you said, that is the biggest problem."
"Have you even seen them use the Ptolemaic Royal Family name lately? They only use it reluctantly when we're watching. They're already far more comfortable using Roman names."
Cleopatra was already painfully aware of that fact.
When she first found out, she had been both dumbfounded and furious.
She knew that Cleopatra Selene had always resented the traditional name she received from the Ptolemaic dynasty, but she had never imagined the girl would go so far as to create her own Roman name.
She had adopted the Latin word for 'life'—Vita—as her new name.
Arsinoe's daughter was no different, parading around Rome calling herself Marcina.
"Vita, my foot... The sheer audacity."
"She must have found it embarrassing to use names like Cleopatra or Arsinoe in front of her friends."
"Why does a descendant of the Ptolemaic Royal Family even need friends... Never mind. There's no point in complaining about it now."
"These children are different from us. We just have to accept it."
One sweeping glance around the room was enough to prove they had been fully Romanized a long time ago.
Their Roman identity was far stronger than their Egyptian one.
Once that inclination took root, no amount of scolding from their parents was going to uproot it.
"Should I have just locked her up in Alexandria? I should have forced her to wait until she was fully grown before receiving a Roman education."
"If you had done that, she might have grown up as an immature royal completely disconnected from reality. That might have actually been worse for the future of Egypt."
"So it was inevitable. In a way, I suppose this might have been his master plan all along."
"You think this was Marcus's intention?"
"I've suspected it for a while. We view these children as the next Pharaohs and Egyptian royalty, but does he truly see them the same way?"
She could say with absolute certainty that he didn't.
It was highly likely that Marcus had planned to thoroughly Romanize their daughters from the very beginning.
Because doing so would make them far easier to control once they eventually ascended to the Egyptian throne.
The meticulous care he took to provide the girls with a high-quality education had likely been a calculated step in the Romanization process.
"That doesn't necessarily mean Marcus did anything wrong, does it? He simply did what he was obligated to do as the leader of Rome."
"I'm not blaming him. I just always thought he doted on his daughters endlessly, so it's a bit of a shock to realize he was quietly scheming behind the scenes this whole time."
"That's true. Looking back, Marcus was the one who constantly arranged opportunities for them to bond with Octavian and Sophia."
"He really doesn't miss a single detail."
Even though they were family—or perhaps because they were family—he had been all the more meticulous.
Sophia and Octavian were poised to inherit the future power of Rome. Having a good relationship with them would serve as a massive safety net for their daughters.
It was an undeniable fact that living as Romans rather than Egyptians would be far more beneficial for the girls' futures.
Hoping the Ptolemaic dynasty would endure was, just as Arsinoe had pointed out, little more than a lingering delusion.
The title of Pharaoh was like a sun that had shone brilliantly since the dawn of human history.
But even the most brilliant sun must eventually descend from its zenith.
And as time continues to march on, a new sun inevitably rises.
'What about Rome, then?'
Whether this sun called Rome was currently ascending, resting at its absolute peak, or already beginning its descent, no one could truly know.
One fact alone was certain: a nation might endure for a thousand years, but no nation could last forever.
As for what thoughts Marcus himself harbored on the matter... neither Cleopatra nor Arsinoe could even begin to guess.