Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 158 - 62 Too Overdone

Chapter 158: Chapter 62 Too Overdone

The intensity of the official propaganda campaign had quickly exceeded Aske’s expectations.

The next morning, as Aske emerged from Fire Island, he heard noisy sounds from outside.

Although the barracks were theoretically divided among The Azure Longsword, City Guards, and Spartans, since the City Guards were stationed at the top floor 24 hours a day and the Spartans seemed to have their own dwelling, the large communal sleeping area outside remained empty, inhabited only by Hood.

And this young guy had disappeared early in the morning.

Today, Ellie, who was responsible for guarding the books in the room, was hugging the books and slept soundly, her brilliant blonde hair sprawling across the pillow as she muttered something about "protecting everyone" in her dreams.

Aske stared at her beautiful sleeping face, hmm, better not to disturb her.

He left the barracks room and came to the large communal sleeping area, only to realize that the noise was coming from even farther, outside the door.

Leaving the barracks again, he followed the noise to the stairwell and saw a large crowd of unfamiliar citizens gathered below the stairs, with Hood trying frantically to maintain order.

Seeing Aske appear at the top of the stairwell, a burst of excited shouting erupted from the crowd:

"The Cangqing Sword Saint!"

Aske: ???

Huh?

Immediately, the citizens below started frantically taking photos with their phones, the snapping sounds merging into a chorus.

"What’s going on?" Aske, completely baffled, looked towards Hood.

Having been a professional gamer in his past life, Aske was occasionally recognized and surrounded by fans when he went out; hence, he was quite calm about this small spectacle.

To the onlooking citizens, this seemingly transformed into some kind of "master’s demeanor."

After some explanation from Hood, Aske finally understood.

You guys are on fire!

From 11 o’clock last night, the Crusaders began continuous bombardments from down the mountain, causing panic among the citizens and sleepless nights due to the vibrations and loud noises.

(Most of the girls were resting on Fire Island, so they weren’t affected)

What to do with insomnia? Watch TV, play with phones, browse CM.

Just in time, a late-night variety show in Olin City, in conjunction with the official promotional campaign, did a feature (slightly mockingly) on The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps, successfully capturing this wave of viewership and greatly spreading the fame of The Azure Longsword within the city.

How much did this variety show hype The Azure Longsword? It can be seen from the fact that they gave everyone nicknames.

Handing out nicknames, a traditional program preserved by the lower-class Sirius populace, can be traced back to the legendary heroes of Ancient Sirius in the First Epoch, such as "Filial Son" Oedipus (this man killed his father and married his mother), "Loyal" Jason (this man abandoned his wife), "Honest Man" Odysseus (proposer of the Trojan Horse, known for his various deceits), etc.

Not only mocking mythical heroes but also generations of Empire Emperors joined the list of receiving nicknames.

For example, the short and ugly-looking John II was nicknamed "Handsome"; or Leo VI, who lost battles, nicknamed "Sage," etc.

For this reason, Aske was utterly indifferent to the nicknames given by the Sirius people. If these folks, like Hood, gave him a nickname like "Chairman" or "Producer" (mocking that his group was full of pretty girls), he would still be unable to clear his reputation even by jumping into the Yellow River.

What the hell is this "Cangqing Sword Saint"?

"Probably praising your great martial skills," Hood responded.

Aske was highly skeptical of this. "Sword Saint"? That nickname sounded sarcastic!

"Ah, this, there are definitely critics, after all, last night the TV hyped you guys up too much," Hood helplessly spread his hands, "But it seems many people believed it, and they are even taking this nickname seriously."

So, the critics use it sarcastically, while the fans take it as a badge of honor?

Aske was utterly speechless. Even as a professional gamer in his previous life, he had never encountered such a complex fan base; therefore, he could only resort to his usual attitude:

Just ignore it.

"I’m leaving this to you," Aske patted Hood on the shoulder.

"Huh?" Hood looked confused.

Seeing Aske turning to leave, the crowd blocking the stairwell suddenly panicked. A few young girls even forcefully squeezed to the front and shouted up the stairs,

"Can I have your autograph, please? I’ve been waiting here since 5 a.m.!"

"Knight of the Azure Longsword! Knight of the Azure Longsword! Ahhh, Knight of the Azure Longsword!!"

"Is your team still recruiting? I’m young and beautiful, I like to sing, dance, and rap. Consider it, big brother Aske!"

"Ahhh, ah ah ah ah!"

What on earth is all this... speechless, Aske didn’t look back and continued walking upstairs, just to see Eleanor pushing open the door to the stairwell.

"What’s all this noise about, so early in the morning?" Her blonde hair was a messy, tired look with a hint of bedhead; she held a water cup in her left hand and a toothbrush in her mouth.

The crowd below became even more excited:

"It’s the Knight of Dawn!"

"She looks even more splendid in person than on television!"

"Look, the Knight of Dawn is brushing her teeth!"

"She even looks good with toothpaste foam!"

Eleanor: ???

"Let’s go back inside for now," seeing that a few fan uncles were about to break through Hood’s defense, Aske hurriedly pulled and pushed the bewildered Eleanor back inside.

————————

The television was replaying yesterday’s program, with the girls of The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps watching the screen in astonishment.

"Knight of Dawn, Eleanor," Nora seriously announced Eleanor’s new nickname, "Brave Eleanor, Guardian of Justice."

"Stop it," Eleanor weakly lifted her hand, "I’m dying of embarrassment just listening to you. Don’t you have that nickname too? ’Angel’s Light’?"

"That nickname isn’t too bad," Nora said with her chin propped up, "Knight of the Azure Longsword, Angel’s Light..."

"What the hell is ’Northern War God’?" Sigrdrifa exasperatedly complained, "At least make it ’Valkyrie,’ right?"

"It’s better than ’Dark Night Assassin,’ that low-grade nickname." Mia covered her face.

"I think ’Dark Night Assassin’ is pretty cool," Miel said, "I’m ’Elf Gunner,’ we could team up."

"It’s not about that," Mia said, "A nickname like ’Shadow Assassin’ clearly shows no effort was put into it. It’s just taken words associated with ’assassin’ like ’shadow’ and ’dark night’ and randomly assembled them."

"Look at scheming woman’s nickname, ’Rose Mage’! The quality of her nickname is completely different from ours! What gives? Is it just because she has a big chest?"

"Do you have a problem with your sister’s figure?" Medea teased, smiling as she touched her head. Mia angrily snapped her teeth at her but Medea quickly withdrew her hand.

"Comrades, is the issue whether the nickname sounds good?" Aske stood up, speechless, "The problem is we’re already exposed in the media!"

"I personally don’t mind, but some people in our team have sensitive identities, not suitable for public exposure, right?"

At that, Eleanor guiltily looked up to the sky, Nora silently stared at the floor, and Medea helplessly held her forehead.

Thira quietly sighed in relief, glad she always wore a mask from the start to finish.

"Ah, whose identity is inconvenient to expose?" Sigrdrifa still hadn’t caught on and asked, tilting her head.

"You ask them yourself, I need to take this call," Aske said as he picked up the phone that was vibrating on the table.

"Hello, are any of you using a secret identity?" As Sigrdrifa casually asked on one side, Aske had already answered the call on the other, and his eyebrows gradually furrowed.

"Thira, Peggy, you two come with me."