monarch

The King and Robert were awakened by the warm sunlight streaming into the room through a chink in the curtains.

Edward squinted his eyes and looked at the clock held by Eros, the little god of love on the mantelpiece opposite. Judging from the hour hand on it, it was just after ten o'clock in the morning.

"Good morning." Edward gently tugged on the bell rope hanging on the post beside the bed. Not long after, a servant opened the door and walked into the room, holding a silver tray in his hand. Two cups of tea.

They finished their tea quickly, Robert threw off the covers and jumped off the bed.

"We look like an old married couple of 20 years," he said as he put on his slippers.

The king chuckled, "Why don't you ask us why we are here?"

"Your Majesty is finally willing to speak?" Robert sat on the edge of the bed, gently stroking Edward's long hair that was scattered on the pillow with his fingers.

The king also sat up, with his hands on Robert's shoulders, a little blush on his face.

"I was thinking... Now that everyone understands the relationship between us, we might as well go a step further." The king said to Robert in a low voice, as if a little embarrassed, "I have arranged the chapel at your home, Someone offered to perform a little ceremony for us, and he promised to keep it secret... Besides, he has no proof, and if he told others, he would be considered crazy. Life is short and fate is unpredictable. If you want it, I want it Before the war..."

The king bowed his head, his face looked red as if on fire.

Robert understood what the king meant, "Are you going to tell me that you can't wait to marry me and become Mrs. Dudley?" He laughed narrowly.

The king raised his head and glared at his "fiancé", "Don't forget that I am a king, and I want to give you the title of queen." He looked at Robert triumphantly, "You still don't say 'Thank you, Your Majesty' ?"

Robert hugged the king into his arms, and he maliciously blew on His Majesty's earlobe.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." His low voice made the king's bones go numb. Edward hurriedly pushed him away, got out of bed with a flushed face, put on his dressing gown, and stayed away from this apparently dangerous place. A beast that does not know contentment.

"I'm afraid you should go back." The king changed the subject. "Newlyweds should not see each other since the eve of their wedding. Although we spent the night together last night, at least we should stop sticking there now."

"But in my opinion, we have been married for a long time, my dear lady." Robert lay on his back on the bed, like a rascal on the street, looking at the white dressing gown he was putting on himself. Edward whistled.

"Seriously, how did you find the priest who presided over the wedding?" Robert suddenly remembered something, "It's hard for me to imagine that a priest would be willing to preside over such a ceremony. A basic rule, are you sure he is willing to preside over this ceremony?"

"I'm not looking for a priest." Edward shook his head, "It's an Oxford scholar who has spent his whole life sorting out the customs of these ancient civilized people from ancient Roman books. I have read some of his research and must Admit that we are nothing but dirty savages compared with these ancients."

"You asked a scholar to officiate at the wedding?"

"Yes, he is an authority on marriage customs in ancient Rome," said the king. "It always seems a little nondescript to apply Christian rites to us."

"You are the leader of the British Church and the guardian of religion." Robert laughed. "Although you are often deviant, if people hear your words, they will still be dumbfounded."

"Religion is just a tool." Edward shrugged and pointed to his dressing gown, "It's like clothes, you wear different clothes on different occasions, wear thicker ones when it's cold, and change them when it's hot The thin one depends on our needs."

"Are there any customs in the ancient world that we can learn from?" Robert asked. "It seems that in the time of the Greeks and Romans, same-sex couples were quite common, but I don't seem to have heard of examples of marriage."

"Nero once castrated the young Sporus, dressed him as a woman, and married him according to the ritual between man and woman." The king smiled slyly, "Obviously we will not follow his old practice."

Robert looked at the king confidently, "Destroy your source of happiness? No, I don't think you are willing to do this."

The king punched Robert in the chest, "Maybe I will one day, if you don't serve well."

"I promise to satisfy His Majesty." Robert pecked Edward's nose lightly.

"I've discussed it with that professor," the king said with an unconcealable smile, "We will only hold a simple ceremony, first a small divination ceremony, then we will exchange rings, and finally give Afu Rodite sacrificed, and prayed to the god of love that the chain between us would never be broken."

"It sounds very pagan." Robert commented.

There was a knock on the door, and the servant who had just brought in the tea opened the door and walked into the room.

"The chapel is ready," the servant announced to the king. "Your Majesty and Your Excellency may change their clothes now."

"Need to change clothes?" Robert asked in surprise.

"Since we want to learn from the ancients, we must learn the whole set." Edward pushed Robert excitedly, "Go next door and change."

"Is there anything else on Your Majesty that I haven't seen?" Robert leaned close to the king's ear, whispered something, and then quickly ran out of the room, leaving the red-faced king alone in the room.

The servant brought Robert to the room on the opposite side of the corridor. There was no furnishings in this room. There was a lonely table in the center of the room, and a long snow-white robe was placed on it. Regal purple trim.Such robes are called Toga Praetexta (Toga Praetexta), which was the costume of the king during the Roman Empire, and during the Roman Republic, the consuls of the Republic also wore such noble robes in major festivals.

Two servants took off Robert's dressing gown and put him on a pullover called a tunica.Then they put the robe over his left shoulder, and wrapped the fifteen-foot-long robe intricately around his body many times.When the robes were at last put on, they placed a wreath of laurel branches on Robert's head.

Robert looked at himself in the full-length crystal mirror. The person standing in the mirror seemed to be a real aristocratic citizen of ancient Rome, fully dressed, ready to give a speech at the Senate, or to participate in the triumphant return after the victory in the square. Mode.

"Look at these Romans, these masters of the world, this race that wears the toga!" He couldn't help repeating Virgil's famous words in a low voice.

The door behind him was pushed open, and Robert, holding the hem of his robe in his hand, turned around.

The king also wore a robe of a similar style, but his robe was purple and decorated with gold threads.His Majesty's robe is called Toga Picta, a noble purple color exclusive to the emperor.Only the emperor and the generals participating in the triumphant ceremony are eligible to wear noble purple and gold-rimmed robes on their bodies.

The king also wore a laurel wreath on top of his head, but His Majesty's laurel wreath was made entirely of gold, and the thin gold leaves on it were like real laurel leaves, only more dazzling.

"You look like Cicero." The king looked Robert up and down.

"And you are like Augustus," said Robert, holding out his hand to the king.

The two went downstairs holding hands, walked into the garden, and walked towards the chapel in the corner of the manor.

Weeds came out from the gaps between the stones on the path, and a lot of moss grew on the smooth stones.Robert carefully led the king. He looked up. The huge crowns of chestnut trees almost formed a dome of branches and young leaves in the air. The sunlight was divided into mosaics by dense paper strips. A complex shadow like a spider's web was cast on the ground.

The chapel is located at the exit on the other side of the garden. It is a simple country chapel, and next to the church is the marble tomb of the Dudley family we have described before. The latest resident, Jane Gray Miss just moved in just over a year ago.

When the two walked into the church, Robert found that the small church he had come to attend weekly as a child had changed drastically, from a Christian fortress to a pagan temple.The flags and banners on the beams were taken down, and the decorations of ancient Greek-Roman polytheism were hung up; in the place where the priest preached, the crucifix and cross that had been placed there before disappeared, replaced by A marble statue of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, or Venus as the Romans called it.Venus is naked, showing her elegant body lines to the outside world without hesitation, the expression on her face is not clear because of the light, and at her feet, the holy fire in the altar is burning blazingly .

An old man in a snow-white robe was standing there. He had smooth long hair that fell on his shoulders like a stream of water, and the big beard on his chin made him look like Raphael's Plato in The School of Athens.A Greek or Roman priest, Robert thought, roughly looked like this.

The old priest walked up to the king gracefully, and bowed deeply to His Majesty in purple robes, just like his spiritual predecessors did when they greeted Caesar, Augustus and Trajan the same.

"Thank you for your help, dear professor." The king reached out and shook his hand.

"It is my honor to serve His Majesty." The priest said, "In fact, I have always expected to reenact the ancient sacred ceremony...just considering the view of the church door..." He smiled awkwardly, "I should thank His Majesty for giving me this rare opportunity."

"In that case, let us begin," said the king. "I remember the divination ceremony first?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." The priest quickly walked to the other side of the hall and picked up a tray from the table there, "Your Majesty will offer the bread used for sacrifices to the gods."

"The ancients regarded such bread as a tax paid to the gods, right?" the king asked the priest as he picked up the bread.

"That's right, Your Majesty." The priest watched the king throw the bread into the altar, and he walked back to the previous table and picked up another tray.

"The ancient Greeks would kill a sheep in front of the altar as a sacrifice, and try to figure out the will of the gods by observing its internal organs." The priest seemed quite regretful, "However, His Majesty insisted that such a scene should not happen at the wedding ceremony. superior……"

"I still insist on it now," said the king. "Although I have full respect for the ancients, I still cannot accept seeing blood on my wedding."

"This kind of oracle may be biased." The priest sighed, lowered his head, and concentrated on observing the plate of bloody internal organs.

"Just do your best." The king made a face at Robert.

"The gods agreed to bless the marriage of the two." After about 2 minutes, the priest finally raised his head, his face was full of joy.

"Thank the gods." There was a smile in Robert's voice, and the king shot him a warning look.

The priest took out a small box from his robe. He opened the box, and inside was a pair of rings made of gold. The shape of the rings was quite unique, each in the shape of two hands held together.

He handed one ring to the King and the other to Robert.

The king took Robert's right hand and put the ring on the other's ring finger.

"My Hephaestion." He squeezed Robert's fingertips lightly.

Robert held the king's right hand in his hands. This hand, which was always cold on weekdays, felt soft and warm to the touch now.

He slowly put the ring on the king's ring finger.

"My Alexander." As he said, he approached the king, and their lips touched lightly.

The priest stepped forward again, this time holding in his hands two golden cups full of wine.

"Now, please sacrifice to the God of Love, both of you, and ask her to bless your marriage."

The king and Robert held hands, walked to the altar, and they looked at each other.

"To Aphrodite." They said in unison, and poured two glasses of wine into the altar.

The flames in the altar jumped up suddenly, and the bright flames illuminated Aphrodite's face. On her face was the iconic faint and mysterious smile.