Chapter 2: Incomplete Possession
Chapter 2: Incomplete Possession
[Who the hell are you, barging into me out of nowhere? You’re asking who I am? My name is Varius. I am a priest of the great sun god Elagabal, the grandson of Julia Maesa, and the son of Julia Soaemias.]
(Translator’s Note: Julia Maesa was a member of the Severan dynasty of the Roman Empire who was the grandmother of emperors Elagabalus and Severus Alexander, elder sister of empress Julia Domna, and mother of Julia Soaemias and Julia Mamaea. She wielded influence during the reigns of her grandsons as Augusta of the Empire from 218 to her death, especially on their elevation to emperors.)
(Translator’s Note: Julia Soaemias Bassiana was a Syrian noblewoman and the mother of Roman emperor Elagabalus, who ruled over the Roman Empire from 218 to 222. She was one of his chief advisors, initially with the support and accompaniment of her mother Julia Maesa)
“Varius? A priest of Elagabal? What the…”
(Translator’s Note: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, c. 204 – 13 March 222), better known by his posthumous nicknames Elagabalus and Heliogabalus, was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager.)
(Translator’s Note: Elagabalus simply Elagabal was an Arab-Roman sun god,[2] initially venerated in Emesa (modern-day Homs), Syria.)
At that moment, a memory suddenly brushed past my mind. It sounded like a name I’d heard somewhere. Maybe from a book…
But that…It definitely wasn’t Korean, so how was I understanding it?
[Why did you suddenly enter my body and control me?]
“Control you? I’m just… this is my body.”
[Don’t talk nonsense! This is my body!]
Ha…I couldn’t believe this. Dropped into some random place, arguing with a teenage boy.
“Wait. You can feel that I’m inside your body too?”
Then this was…Like one of those web novels?
But not a clean reincarnation, and not a complete possession either… some kind of split personality?
How could something this ridiculous even happen? I couldn’t believe we were even having a conversation.
Was it actually possible for two consciousnesses to exist in one body?
Then, out of nowhere, I thought of Shiono Nanami’s The Romans. In the flimsiest, most half-baked way possible.
(Translator’s Note: Nanami Shiono is a Japanese author and novelist known for her works on the history of Italy, especially those dealing with ancient Rome and the Renaissance period.)
“Wait… you said you’re a priest of Elagabal. Is this the Roman era?”
[What kind of… obvious question is that?]
All at once, I was thrown into chaos.
Elagabal…? Then the name Varius…
Was that the name used before Emperor Elagabalus took the throne?
Emperor Elagabalus…? I’d definitely heard it before. Maybe in a history book. But I couldn’t remember exactly what kind of emperor he’d been.
“Then… is this Rome?”
[Rome? Rome is very far from here. This is Emesa, in Syria. It’s my family’s homeland.]
Syria? Emesa? I was getting more and more confused.
I got sucker-punched in an alley—how did I end up inside the body of a child in Roman-era Syria?
“Is this a dream? A hallucination from a concussion?”
[It’s not a dream! I don’t know who you are, but get out of my body right now!]
I tried to get up from the bed again. This time, I managed a little better.
I planted my feet on the floor with small legs. I looked for a mirror.
In one corner of the room was a mirror made of polished bronze. I staggered over to it.
The moment I saw the reflection, I couldn’t help but be shocked. The bronze mirror didn’t show details clearly, but still…
A boy who looked about twelve was staring back at me. Curly black hair, big eyes, smooth skin… it definitely wasn’t my face.
“This… I look like this?”
[Yeah. That’s what I look like! Can’t you get out already?]
I watched the boy’s mouth move in the mirror.
It moved exactly as I spoke.
“So… there really are two people in one body?”
[Per… son… al… ity? What is that?]
“It’s a thing. Ha… damn it. What do I do? Anyway, since I came crashing in like an alien, I guess I owe you an apology.”
[Alien? What’s that? Are you a ghost?]
“A ghost? No. I’m not. I came here by accident from a distant future.”
[You’re saying you came from the future? You expect me to believe that?]
“Yeah, believing it is the weird part. But I don’t have any other explanation, so from now on… let’s try to get along.”
[What are you saying? This is my body. You should be the one leaving!]
“Even if you tell me to leave… how? I don’t even understand what’s happening.”
Just then, a voice came from outside. A woman’s voice, in a foreign language that sounded like Latin. I couldn’t understand a word.
[Mother is calling.]
“Mother?”
[Julia Soaemias. My mother.]
But I could understand this kid perfectly—so why couldn’t I understand his mother? What kind of… incomplete possession was this?
The door opened and a beautiful woman walked in. She looked to be in her mid-thirties, dressed in luxurious clothing.
About the same age as I was before possessing this body… and she was already the mother of a twelve-year-old?
She looked like she’d stepped out of an ancient Rome drama.
She said something in Latin, but I couldn’t understand it at all.
[Mother is asking if your body is okay. She says your fever hasn’t gone down for days…]
“Fever?”
[Before you entered me, I was very sick. I’d been suffering from a fever for days.]
Ah… that was when it finally clicked.
Varius must have been burning with fever and nearly died—and in that moment, my soul slipped into his body.
So reincarnation—or possession—this absurd thing really had happened.
Julia Soaemias came closer and placed a hand on my forehead. Her expression was worried.
[You should answer. Say, “Melius sentio.” It means, “I feel better.”]
I hesitated for a moment. But I didn’t have a choice.
“Me-li-us… sen-ti-o…”
My pronunciation was awkward, but Julia Soaemias looked relieved. After speaking a bit more in Latin, she left the room.
[Now you understand, right? This isn’t where you belong. I am the owner of this body, and you are an intruder. I want you to leave.]
“An intruder… I didn’t come here because I wanted to. I just got sucker-punched in an alley and this happened.”
[Alley? Sucker-punch? What are you talking about?]
What was I supposed to do?
Screw it. Since it was already like this… I had to explain my situation to the kid.
The year 2025. A country called Korea in the East. A normal thirty-five-year-old. And the story that I got robbed in an alley and probably died.
He wouldn’t understand “office worker,” so I couldn’t even bring that up.
Varius… Elagabalus…
He was silent for a long time.
[2025…? Then you really did come from the future?]
“Future… more like a completely different world. What year is it here?”
[It is 215. Emperor Caracalla is ruling.]
(Translator’s Note: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, better known by his nickname Caracalla, was Roman emperor from 198 to 217 AD, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father and then ruling alone after 211 AD. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Emperor Septimius Severus and Empress Julia Domna.)
215. Let’s see… I’d have to calculate…Yeah. That was more than 1,800 years in the past.
So I really was in ancient Rome.
“Then… you really are Elagabalus. The Roman emperor…”
[Hey. I’m not Elagabalus. I’m Varius. And what do you mean I become a Roman emperor? Emperor Caracalla is only twenty-seven and ruling just fine. Aren’t you mistaken about something?]
“How could I be? I came from the future…”
Even saying that out loud was embarrassing.
If I knew more, I could explain it properly. But this kid…How was he only twelve and talking like that?
Was a twelve-year-old in ancient Rome just different from the clueless kids in my era?
I searched my memory again.
Emperor Elagabalus…
He was definitely one of the Roman emperors, but I couldn’t remember clearly what kind.
Only a vague memory that he was rated among the worst of the worst…
[Because you came from the future, you know I become emperor? Is that true?]
There was anticipation in Varius’s voice.
Damn it… I hesitated.
I wasn’t sure, but I remembered reading only bad things about Emperor Elagabalus.
But telling him now…
“I don’t know… I don’t remember exactly.”
[But you’re saying I do become emperor, right?]
“Yeah… probably.”
The situation was so bizarre, it hit me again. Two people talking inside one body.
But it was reality I couldn’t deny.
I really was inside the body of a twelve-year-old boy in ancient Rome. Varius—who would become emperor in just a few years.
And after he became emperor…He’d be called Elagabalus.
A new life had begun.
No—two lives coexisting inside one body.
“Ghk… my head, all of a sudden…”
[Why—what now? Are you sick again?]
My head started to split with pain. Like a flood of chaotic data was pouring into my mind…
And I passed out again.
I dreamed. A very disgusting dream…
Becoming emperor in a few years was fine, but—after only four years on the throne, I was stabbed countless times like an animal by those Praetorian bastards… and thrown into a sewer.
And that wasn’t the end.
Maybe the sewer was too small, because they dragged my already-dead body back out… and hauled it through the streets of Rome. Laughing and jeering the whole time.
Later, when even that bored them, they wrapped iron chains around my body… and threw me into the Tiber River.
Damn it…
Was it really acceptable to treat someone who’d been an emperor like a dog or a pig?
Ugh—as I sank into the water…the four years Elagabalus spent as emperor flashed before my eyes.
I couldn’t help but be horrified.
How did a boy who looked so delicate end up living like that?
A wicked emperor so depraved he deserved a “triple crown.”
So even after being raised to emperor with such difficulty, he couldn’t die with honor—he was killed at eighteen in such a gruesome way.
“Ugh! Hah! Hah! Hah!”
[Why did you suddenly pass out and start sweating like that… did you have a nightmare?]
“Ugh… I finally learned something specific about you.”
[Huh? About me? You mean my future?]
“Yeah. Your future. No—my future too, now.”
[If it was a nightmare… does that mean something bad happens?]
“Yeah. Two years from now, you become emperor.”
[What? Two years? That soon? How is that possible?]
Should I even tell him this? Wasn’t this basically leaking fate? What if lightning struck me and I got dragged to hell?
Damn it—I already got robbed and ended up in Rome… and now I’m going to hell too?
But we were going to face it anyway in a few years. Wouldn’t it be better to tell him?
“The problem is what comes after. Are you a pervert?”
[What? Pervert? What does that mean?]
Hah… saying it out loud was ridiculous.
I didn’t know what it was like in my era, but…asking a twelve-year-old in the Roman era whether he was a pervert?
“No, I mean… whether you like girls, or you like boys… that kind of thing.”
[You mean that kind of thing between men and women, or between men? Is there anyone in this world who doesn’t like that?]
…What?
He said that like it was nothing.
“With that delicate face, you sure act like you know everything.”
[At our age, we’re already approaching the time to marry. You think I wouldn’t know? I guess your future society is different.]
“Not exactly… but yeah.”
In my era, kids watched porn in elementary school, so I didn’t really have the right to talk.
[So in your future world, “pervert” means that?]
“The word itself isn’t the point. You—no, we, I guess… you definitely become emperor, but the problem is you get killed just four years later.”
[What? I get killed after four years? How does something that absurd happen? What were the imperial guards even doing?]
His language really was different. It didn’t sound like a twelve-year-old at all. He was talking like he could be friends with my thirty-five-year-old self.
“Damn it. The problem is you get betrayed by the Praetorians you trusted.”
He fell silent.
Even if he was a kid, hearing you die… wasn’t something you could laugh off.
If anything, the younger you were, the more normal it was to cling to life.