"Young Septimus, my daughter has already explained to me how you saved her from those thugs," said Cornelia, smiling at Septimus.
At first, Cornelia thought that Septimus was just a young man who wanted to seduce her daughter and take advantage of her family situation. Cornelia did not care if her daughter had a lover outside. But it would be very different if she brought that lover home, without keeping up appearances as a young noble lady.
The reputation of a noble family had to maintain its façade.
On the other hand, upon learning that this young man had saved her daughter, Cornelia's favorability toward Septimus had increased.
"You are welcome to stay and rest in my house until Atilia's father returns and rewards you," said Cornelia, grabbing Septimus' arm and pulling him closer to her chest while drawing him into the house.
Septimus, with no possibility of refusing and with a slight smile on his face, accepted, heading inside the house together with his two clones.
"Tell me, young Septimus, to which noble house do you belong?" said Cornelia, observing that two servants were willing to fight against a dozen armed guards, she assumed that Septimus belonged to a recognized house in Capua, which was why she behaved kindly.
"I am only a Roman citizen who trades in Capua, beautiful lady," said Septimus calmly to Cornelia.
Cornelia frowned slightly but continued guiding Septimus.
"I will go change and come back," said Atilia upon entering the house.
Inside the house, Septimus was treated with courtesy by the slaves while Cornelia rambled about the family history of her husband Marcus Atilius Severus' surname.
Atilia came out wearing a beautiful dress and sat on a Roman piece of furniture near Septimus, pouring herself wine as she joined her mother and chatted about the trivialities of Capua.
A slave suddenly interrupted the conversation.
"Domina, the master has already arrived," said the slave humbly to Cornelia.
The sound of footsteps slowly approached.
A middle-aged man interrupted.
"What has happened? I heard that Atilia had a problem," said the middle-aged man with an anxious expression.
Atilia stood up from the seat, running toward the man and hugging him while sobbing lightly.
"Father, I was attacked by some thugs, and that young man saved me," said Atilia in the man's arms.
"It is alright, by the gods it is good that no tragedy happened; the slaves have already informed me of what occurred," said the man while sighing in relief.
The man had been informed of the incident as soon as he arrived home, heading hurriedly to see how Atilia was and did not know all the details of the matter.
"My name is Marcus Atilius Severus; thank you for saving my daughter, I guarantee that you will be generously rewarded," said Marcus Atilius.
Septimus introduced himself and spoke a few kind words, while together with Atilia they recounted the story of the incident.
Marcus Atilius sighed in relief at his daughter's good fortune and gave a generous reward of 10,000 denarii to Septimus, slightly impressing Septimus with the large amount and with the wealth of the Roman nobility.
After receiving the generous reward, Septimus rose from his seat and said goodbye to the family of the Roman noble, managing to leave despite the reluctance of a young Atilia.
"What do you think of that young man?" Marcus Atilius commented thoughtfully.
"I know what you are thinking, but he is not of noble birth," said Cornelia, frowning.
"Even if he is not a noble, he knows his limits; if he were an opportunist, he would be trying by all means to ingratiate himself with our family," replied Marcus Atilius, contemplating the direction in which Septimus was heading.
"That only shows that he is a young man who lacks ambition; Atilia's marriage must be with a noble or at least with an ambitious elite," said Cornelia, frowning.
Although Cornelia had a good impression of Septimus, she did not want her beautiful daughter to marry someone of lower status and little money.
"I could tell that Atilia has feelings for that young man, and with the situation in Rome, a high-status marriage can be dangerous if the wrong side is chosen," said Marcus Severus thoughtfully.
Although the consuls Cinna and Marius control Rome and constantly persecute the supporters of Sulla, one must not underestimate Sulla's influence; if he manages to land in Rome together with his legions, a civil war will break out that will bleed all the nobles and elites of the Republic.
For Marcus Atilius, having his beloved daughter marry a simple merchant could keep her safe while the civil war passes.
Later, when Atilia becomes bored with the marriage to Septimus, they could divorce; Atilia's status as the daughter of an important member of the Concilium of the city of Capua gave her power in the relationship with Septimus.
Septimus was only a Roman citizen with a little money and no connections, incapable of opposing Atilia's will..
Cornelia frowned but simply nodded; she knew that her husband was right and was trying to protect their daughter.
While both of them were thinking about arranging a marriage between Atilia and Septimus, the latter had already arrived home.
Septimus was somewhat pleased with the reward earned for saving a noble; with the money, he could implement some of his plans. Although 10,000 denarii seemed like a lot of money, by comparison, forming a legion cost more than 2 million denarii; his small amount of money was not enough.
It was the right time to produce and sell sugar.
Sugar, in this period of time when the nobility lived in extravagance, would be an inexhaustible source of wealth, enough for Septimus to fulfill his ambitions.
Upon arriving at his house, Septimus mobilized two clones to buy a small warehouse and two other clones to buy beets at the market.
After two days, Septimus acquired a small two-room warehouse that cost him 3,500 denarii, using another 500 denarii to buy all the beets available in the farmers' market.
Another week passed, and Septimus used the 10 generated clones to keep them in the warehouse; he planned to manufacture white sugar. As a history professor in his past life, he had basic knowledge about the history, origin, and production of white sugar.
Producing sugar is not complicated knowledge for a university academic of the modern era.
Inside the spacious room, Septimus' clones grated the beets and soaked them in water so that the sugar molecules would fully infuse, thus obtaining sugar water.
Then, they added an excess of Ca(OH)₂ to the sugar water to dissolve the non-sugar molecules in a strongly alkaline environment and improve the stability of the sucrose molecules.
They repeatedly introduced an excess of CO₂ and Ca(OH)₂ so that they would react, producing a precipitate of CaCO₃.
Two clones used calcium carbonate, which has a strong adsorption effect on non-sugar molecules, causing their joint precipitation (a very simple chemical reaction equation).
As a result, Septimus obtained relatively pure sugar water.
Septimus' clones took advantage of the entire week to produce white sugar; Septimus currently had 20 clones distributed between the bakery, the smithy, and the warehouse, which also served to generate new clones.
Septimus' commercial plans included generating 20 clones and sending them to Naples to trade sugar.
Naples is a busy port for Rome, hosting large quantities of grain, slaves, iron goods, and jewelry that arrived daily from Egypt, Africa, Gaul, Spain, and Sicily and satisfied Roman needs.
With 20 clones as guards and merchants, Septimus could feel more at ease selling white sugar in the city of Naples.
While Septimus planned his future commercial expansion, the noble Marcus Atilius was listening from a slave about the results of the investigation into Septimus' background.
Marcus felt somewhat disappointed upon learning that the calm young man who had saved his beautiful daughter had assets of less than 20,000 denarii; it should be noted that to be considered part of the Roman elite, one's assets had to exceed 100,000 denarii.
Although Marcus Atilius felt disappointed, he quickly abandoned the idea of marrying his beautiful daughter to Septimus.
On the other hand, Septimus was planning his new commercial objectives without knowing that he had almost been forced to marry a young Roman noblewoman.