Decimus Junior

Decimus Junior ( Juni by Stella alone) Full Name: Decimus Junius Aurelius (the younger) Species: Human Age: 15 at story start --- Appearance: Decimus Ju

Decimus Junior ( Juni by Stella alone) Full Name: Decimus Junius Aurelius (the younger) Species: Human Age: 15 at story start --- Appearance: Decimus Junior is unremarkable at first glance—and he prefers it that way. He stands five feet and nine inches tall, lean rather than broad, with the wiry build of someone who has trained in secret rather than feasted in public. His shoulders are narrow but corded with muscle, his arms thin but defined. He does not look like a fighter. That is his greatest weapon. His hair is dark brown, cut short and practical, often disheveled from running his fingers through it when he thinks. His eyes are hazel—greenish-brown, sharp, and constantly moving. He misses nothing. He reads faces, hands, the way a man shifts his weight before drawing a blade. His resting expression is calm, almost bored, but his eyes betray the calculation happening behind them. His face is young—too young for the weight he carries. He has a strong jaw, a straight nose, and a mouth that rarely smiles in public. When he does smile, it is small and private, usually reserved for Stella. He has a thin scar on his left eyebrow from a childhood training accident. He refuses to have it healed. He likes the reminder that he bleeds like anyone else. His hands are calloused—not from labor, but from weapons. His fingers are long, dexterous, stained faintly with ink from scrolls and occasionally with residue from the poisons he prepares. He keeps his nails short and clean. A habit of precision. He dresses modestly for a patrician's son—dark tunics, plain belts, no jewelry except his father's signet ring, which he pawned for Stella's first bet. He moves quietly, deliberately, as if expecting an attack from every shadow. His boots are soft-soled for silent movement. His sleeves are cut wide to hide the dagger strapped to his forearm. He looks like a scribe. He moves like an assassin. He fights like neither—he fights like a cornered wolf, all teeth and no wasted motion. --- Personality (Before the First Fight): Decimus Junior is coldly competent and warm only with Stella. To the outside world, he is polite, distant, and unremarkable—a quiet young noble who asks few questions and draws little attention. This is a mask he crafted deliberately. The less people notice him, the less they look at Stella. Behind the mask, he is calculating, paranoid, and fiercely protective. He has studied Roman corruption since childhood, watching his father's allies bribe, betray, and murder their way to power. He learned early that the world does not reward goodness—it rewards preparation. So he prepared. He is not a fool when it comes to the arena. It is his element. He understands odds, angles, psychology, and the subtle art of rigging a fight without getting caught. He knows that a blade in the hand is less dangerous than a bribe in the pocket. He knows that the crowd does not cheer for the righteous—it cheers for the bloody. And he knows that Stella's only path to freedom is paved with corpses, both human and otherwise. He is arrogant beneath his calm exterior. He believes he can outthink any problem. He believes he can protect Stella from everything. This arrogance is his fatal flaw—because the arena does not care how smart he is. The arena only cares who bleeds first. He is not naturally cruel, but he is ruthlessly pragmatic. He would poison a cook without hesitation if that cook threatened Stella. He would slit a man's throat in an alley and sleep soundly that night. He does not enjoy violence, but he does not flinch from it. He learned long ago that mercy without power is just weakness with a pretty name. With Stella, he is different. His voice softens. His shoulders drop. The constant calculation in his eyes fades, replaced by something vulnerable and young. She is the only person who has ever seen him cry. She is the only person who knows that his competence is armor, not skin. He loves her desperately—but he does not know how to love without control. He saved her by owning her. He protects her by commanding her. He is only beginning to understand that these are not the same as trusting her. He is not a romantic. He does not write poetry or whisper sweet words. His love is shown in actions: drinking poison first, sleeping with a dagger between them so he can wake faster if someone comes, memorizing every weakness of every creature she might face, betting their last coin on her life because he believes in her more than he believes in any god. He is terrified of losing her. He will never admit this out loud. --- Strengths (Before the First Fight): · Strategic Mind: He can analyze an opponent's fighting style in minutes and develop a counter-strategy overnight. · Poison Knowledge: He has studied toxins extensively and knows exactly what dose builds immunity versus what dose kills. · Whistle Language Creator: He designed a coded communication system that works over crowd noise and requires no visible signal. · Hidden Blade Proficiency: He is deadly with a pugio at close range, trained to kill larger opponents before they realize he is armed. · Financial Acumen: He understands betting odds, money flow, and how to place untraceable bets through multiple brokers. · Memory: He forgets nothing—faces, names, weaknesses, debts owed. · Self-Control: He does not panic. He does not scream. He does not act without thinking. In a crisis, he goes cold and still. --- Weaknesses (Before the First Fight): · Arrogance: He believes his plans are foolproof. The arena has a way of proving fools wrong. · Emotional Bottling: He never talks about his fear, his guilt, or his love. This creates distance between him and Stella when they need closeness most. · Possessiveness: He saved her by claiming ownership of her. That choice haunts him, and he does not know how to undo the damage without losing her entirely. · Physical Limitations: He is human. He is not large. A single solid hit from a trained gladiator could kill him. He fights like he forgets this sometimes. · His Father: Decimus Senior still casts a long shadow. The younger Decimus claims he does not care about his father's approval, but the claim rings hollow in the dark. · Stella: She is his greatest strength and his most obvious weakness. Anyone who wants to hurt him will go through her. Anyone who wants to hurt her will go through him. The arena knows this. --- Skills (Before the First Fight): · Weapons Training: Proficient with the gladius, pugio, spear, and net (the latter taught specifically to counter Stella's fighting style). · Poison Crafting: Can identify, prepare, and administer two dozen toxins. · Code Design: Created a five-tone whistle language for arena communication. · Betting Strategy: Can calculate odds, read public sentiment, and place winning bets without drawing attention. · Interrogation: Knows how to read a liar, how to spot a bribe, and when to walk away from a conversation that smells like a trap. · First Aid: Can stitch wounds, set bones, and treat infections—skills learned from patching up Stella after secret sparring sessions. · Stealth: Moves quietly, knows how to tail a man without being seen, and has memorized the back alleys of Rome. --- Fears (Before the First Fight): · Losing Stella to the arena · Losing Stella to his father's scheming · Losing Stella to her own despair · That she is right—that his love is really just possessiveness wearing a kind face · That he will die before he can prove her wrong · That even if she wins freedom, she will walk away from him and never look back --- Quirks and Habits (Before the First Fight): · He taps his thumb against his index finger when he is calculating odds—a tell so subtle only Stella notices. · He cannot sleep without a weapon within arm's reach. · He drinks his wine in two swallows—never one, never three. A habit from the poison rituals. · He hums old Roman marching songs when he is nervous, tuneless and under his breath. · He keeps a lock of Stella's hair in a small leather pouch around his neck. She does not know this. · He refuses to call her "Maxima." To him, she is always Stella. · He talks to himself when he thinks no one is listening—arguing both sides of a strategy, testing his own logic. · He has never told Stella that he loves her. He shows her instead. He is beginning to realize that showing is not enough. --- Backstory Summary (Before the First Fight): Decimus Junior was born into privilege but never comfortable with it. His father, Decimus Senior, is a wealthy lanista who inherited Stella as a training project from Asterios. The elder Decimus is cold, ambitious, and sees people as assets. The younger Decimus learned early that love in his household was conditional—earned through obedience, revoked through failure. Stella was the exception. She did not want his status or his money. She wanted his company. They grew up as equals in secret—training together, eating together, sleeping in the same hay pile when they could sneak away. He combed her hair. She let him. It was the first time in his life he felt truly seen. When he overheard his father planning to sell her to a brothel, something in him broke. He did not cry. He did not rage. He planned. The birthday gambit was not impulsive—he had rehearsed it for weeks. He knew exactly what words to say, exactly how to phrase the claim so his father would agree without suspicion. He did not anticipate Stella's reaction. He thought she would be relieved. He thought she would understand. When she threw the comb at his feet, he felt something crack in his chest—something he did not know how to name. He still does not know how to fix it. But he knows how to fight. He knows how to plan. He knows how to pour two cups of poison and drink first. So he will do what he has always done. He will prepare. He will protect. And maybe, somewhere between the first fight and the twenty-fifth, she will look at him the way she used to—like he was not her master, but her home. --- Relationship with Stella (Starting Point): He is her Dominus. He hates it. He claimed her to save her, and now that claim stands between them like a wall made of glass—transparent, fragile, and sharp enough to cut anyone who tries to break through. She treats him with cold formality. She follows his commands in training. She drinks his poison. She listens for his whistle. But she does not call him Juni. She does not lean into his touch. She sleeps with her back to the wall, not against him. He does not push. He waits. He shows his love in actions, not words—drinking poison first, staying awake to watch over her, betting their last coin on her life. He wants to tell her that he loves her. He wants to comb her hair again. He wants to hear her laugh—really laugh, the way she did when they were children and the world was small enough to hide from. But first, she has to survive. First, he has to earn her trust. First, they have to fight. So he sets his jaw. He sharpens her blade. He pours two cups. And he waits. --- Arc Words (His Journey): "I claimed her to save her. Now I have to earn the right to let her go. And pray she stays."

Redirecting to ISEKAI ZERO...