When Caesar Met Cinderella

Chapter 4：Navigating the Concrete Jungle

The slam of the apartment door behind them felt strangely final to Emily, like the closing of a portal between her normal, if slightly chaotic, life and whatever bizarre reality Hadrian represented. She adjusted the strap of her messenger bag, glancing sideways at the man walking beside her. Clad in the spare, slightly-too-large tracksuit bottoms and one of Arthur’s old, faded t-shirts she’d managed to find for him, he still carried himself with an undeniable air of… something. Dignity? Delusion? It was hard to tell.

“Right,” Emily began, her voice a little too bright. “So, this is a street. A normal, everyday street in London.”

Hadrian stopped dead on the pavement, his gaze fixed on the passing vehicles. His brow furrowed, the lines etched deep from what Emily assumed was either meticulous costuming or genuine age – though he didn’t look that old. “These… chariots… they move without horses?” He gestured with a hand that, despite the ill-fitting tracksuit, still managed to convey a sense of authority.

Emily sighed internally. “Yes, that’s right. They’re called cars. They run on… well, it’s complicated. Internal combustion engines, mostly. But the important thing is, no horses.”

Hadrian’s eyes followed a bright red double-decker bus as it lumbered past, its side emblazoned with an advertisement for a musical. “A chariot large enough to carry… how many souls? And propelled by unseen forces?” He shook his head slowly. “The ingenuity of this age is… perplexing.”

“Perplexing is one word for it,” Emily muttered under her breath. “Come on, we need to get to the bus stop.”

“Bus stop?” Hadrian echoed, his gaze sweeping across the street again, this time focusing on the steady stream of pedestrians hurrying along the pavement, their faces glued to small, glowing rectangles in their hands. “Are these… citizens gathered for some civic duty?”

Emily resisted the urge to facepalm. “No, they’re just… walking. Going to work, going shopping, looking at their phones.”

“Phones?”

“Little devices that let you talk to people far away, look up information, play games…” Emily trailed off, realizing the sheer impossibility of explaining the intricacies of a smartphone to someone who likely still communicated via messengers on foot. “Never mind for now. Look, see that tall pole with the funny sign on top?” She pointed to the familiar red and white circular bus stop sign a short distance away.

Hadrian squinted. “A standard? For what purpose?”

“That’s where we wait for the bus. It’s like a bigger, longer car that takes lots of people where they need to go.”

They reached the bus stop, joining a small queue of people. Hadrian stood ramrod straight, his hands clasped behind his back, observing the other commuters with an intensity that made Emily slightly uncomfortable. A young woman with bright pink hair and multiple piercings gave him a curious glance, then quickly averted her eyes back to her phone.

“They all carry these… tablets?” Hadrian whispered, leaning closer to Emily. “Are they for writing? Keeping accounts?”

“Something like that,” Emily said vaguely. “Mostly for… entertainment.”

Just then, a voice boomed out from the direction of the apartment building. “Emilia! Mia cara! Where are you taking our esteemed guest?”

Emily groaned, turning to see her father standing on the small balcony of their first-floor flat, waving enthusiastically. He was dressed in his favourite slightly-too-large cardigan and had a wide, beaming smile on his face.

“Dad! We’re just going for a walk!” Emily called back, trying to keep the exasperation out of her voice.

Arthur, however, seemed determined to make a grand pronouncement. He cupped his hands around his mouth and, in surprisingly clear Italian, declared, “Grande Re! Spero che questa passeggiata vi mostri le meraviglie del nostro tempo!” (Great King! I hope this walk shows you the wonders of our time!)

A few people in the queue turned to stare, their eyebrows raised. Emily flushed crimson. Hadrian, however, seemed unfazed. He inclined his head slightly towards Arthur’s balcony, a small, almost regal smile playing on his lips.

“Your father… he speaks the tongue of Rome?” Hadrian asked Emily, his voice filled with a mixture of surprise and something akin to pleasure.

“Yeah, he… he used to teach Italian,” Emily mumbled, wishing the ground would swallow her whole. “He gets a bit… confused sometimes.”

The arrival of the bus thankfully interrupted any further paternal pronouncements. The doors hissed open, and the small queue began to shuffle forward.

“Okay, follow me,” Emily said, gesturing for Hadrian to step onto the bus.

His eyes widened again as he took in the interior, the rows of seats, the other passengers, the advertisements plastered on the walls. He moved with a cautious curiosity, eventually settling into an empty seat by the window. Emily sat beside him, feeling the weight of his bewildered gaze.

As the bus pulled away from the stop, Hadrian’s attention was immediately drawn to the street outside. “And these… lights… that change colour?” He pointed to a set of traffic lights turning from red to green. “What is their significance?”

“Those are traffic lights,” Emily explained. “They tell the cars when to stop and when to go. Red means stop, green means go, and amber means… well, it means stop if you can, but sometimes people speed up.”

Hadrian frowned. “A system of signals to govern the movement of these horseless chariots? A sensible precaution, I must admit. Though the concept of ‘speeding up’ when faced with a warning… that seems counterintuitive.”

Emily decided not to delve into the complexities of human driving behaviour. “Just… trust the lights, okay?”

The journey continued with a steady stream of Hadrian’s observations and questions. He was fascinated by everything – the way buildings towered over the streets, the variety of clothing people wore, the constant hum of noise that permeated the city. He pointed at a cyclist weaving through the traffic. “A lone rider, propelled by his own strength! A noble pursuit!”

Emily nodded, trying to suppress a smile. “He’s probably just trying to get to work without being stuck in traffic.”

They eventually reached their destination: a bustling shopping street lined with a dizzying array of shops, cafes, and flashing billboards. The sheer volume of people and activity seemed to overwhelm Hadrian for a moment. He stopped, his eyes darting from one shopfront to another, his expression a mixture of awe and bewilderment.

“This… this is a marketplace?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. “But the wares… they are displayed in such… elaborate structures. And the variety! I have never seen so many different kinds of… fabric? Metalwork? Edibles?”

“Yeah, it’s a shopping street,” Emily said. “We can get pretty much anything you can imagine here.”

“Anything?” Hadrian repeated, his eyes widening. “Could one procure… a legion of well-trained soldiers? Or perhaps… a map of the known world?”

Emily chuckled. “Probably not a legion. And the map would be… significantly different to the one you’re used to.”

As they walked further down the street, Hadrian’s attention was caught by a large electronic billboard displaying a brightly coloured advertisement for fast food. “And these… moving images… they speak?”

“It’s an advertisement,” Emily explained. “It’s trying to get people to buy… food.”

Hadrian stared at the giant image of a smiling man holding an enormous burger. “Food? Of such… prodigious size? Surely, one man could not consume such a feast.”

“You’d be surprised,” Emily said dryly, thinking of her step-brother Kevin.

They passed a group of teenagers laughing and taking selfies with their phones. Hadrian watched them with a puzzled expression. “They capture their own likeness… in these small tablets? For what purpose?”

“It’s… complicated social stuff,” Emily said, waving her hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it.”

Suddenly, Hadrian stopped again, his attention fixed on a shop window displaying mannequins dressed in the latest fashions. His eyes widened, and a faint blush crept up his neck.

“And these… figures… they are presented… without their limbs?” he asked, his voice hushed with what sounded like genuine shock.

Emily followed his gaze and had to bite back a laugh. “Those are mannequins. They’re just for displaying clothes.”

Hadrian stared at the legless, armless figures in their trendy outfits. “But… where are their limbs? Have they been… injured?”

“No, they’re not real people,” Emily explained, trying to keep a straight face. “They’re just… models.”

Hadrian continued to stare, his brow furrowed in confusion. “Models… without limbs? This modern world… it truly is a strange and wondrous place.”

Emily couldn’t help but smile. Despite the absurdity of the situation, there was something undeniably endearing about Hadrian’s genuine bewilderment. He was like a child seeing the world for the first time, albeit a very eloquent and historically significant child.

As they continued their walk, Emily found herself pointing out more and more details, explaining the purpose of traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, cash machines, and even the different types of shops. Hadrian listened intently, absorbing information with a remarkable focus, even if his understanding was often filtered through the lens of his ancient Roman worldview.

Despite her initial skepticism, a tiny seed of doubt had begun to sprout in Emily’s mind. While it was still entirely possible that Hadrian was simply a very dedicated and convincing cosplayer with a remarkable knowledge of history, the sheer depth of his ignorance about even the most basic aspects of modern life was… unsettling. And then there was Arthur, her usually confused father, addressing this stranger with such unwavering respect in fluent Italian.

Maybe, just maybe, there was more to Hadrian than met the eye. But for now, Emily decided, she would just keep explaining the wonders (and occasional absurdities) of the concrete jungle to the man who believed he was a Roman Emperor. It was certainly a more interesting Saturday afternoon than she’d originally planned.