Yes. This is a good life here.

After a long pause, you murmur to yourself: "The happiness of life...depends on the qualities of your thoughts."

"What's that?"

You shake your head. "Nothing, Albina." You look up at the stars, imagining yourself running with and among them. "Just...a thought. Something I heard, once." You look back down at her. "Of course we can stay here."

"Really?!" You nod, and Albina flings her arms around you. "Oh, Gaius, you've made me so happy!!"

You embrace your future wife with all your strength, heart swelling with joy and a strange peace as you imagine the life in front of you. Albina pulls back slightly and kisses you hard, tongue probing into your mouth. You reciprocate eagerly and feel your cock rising as your hands rise to Albina's breasts, gently running your hands over them through her tunic. Albina's own hands quest lower, shyly but unhesitatingly finding your cock, and she begins to pull you back toward a shadowed corner of the courtyard.

That's the first place you lie with your wife, and the first chance she has to lie with anyone. She moans your name as you cum deep inside her, her legs wrapped around your waist, and you let out a groan of ecstasy. You gaze down lovingly at her pale body, dappled in the light of the stars and the complex shadows of the leaves on the trees, then lift your gaze again to the heavens. In your heart, you feel a level of satisfaction that you never knew was possible, and that you know has nothing to do with your climax. As Albina pulls you back down to her to nuzzle into your chest, you know that what you're feeling is peace.

***

Your life with Albina on your estate is a good one - and a long one. With no more bandits in the area, the estate begins to turn a tidy profit, and you're able to live more than comfortably out here in the countryside, even if you occasionally miss the amenities of Rome. For the first few weeks of your marriage, Albina is insatiable, and you barely even think of anything else. By the end of the year, you have a child: a beautiful daughter you love more than anything you could ever have imagined. Roughly a year after that, you have a son, and two more children follow before you decide to stop risking Albina's life and return to your use of silphium. Your family grows and thrives in the estate, and the sound of your children racing through the halls and courtyard fills you with joy.

Meanwhile, the estate grows, though never to the point where you become a famous man. You're known locally as the man who organized the expedition against the bandits {if Reputation >15}for the rest of your life{else}for a few years, but fame is fleeting{endif}. As you grow older you become lightly involved in local politics, but it's not really satisfying for you. Instead, you turn to philosophy, and make a bit of a name for yourself corresponding with some of the best thinkers in the Empire. You doubt your works will ever be collected, but oh well. It's enough that you've had the thoughts. You don't need other people to know them.

Your philosophy leads you to shift your position on slavery, and you begin to manumit your slaves one at a time as you grow older. It's not possible - unfortunately, you come to believe - to release them all at once and keep the estate viable, but you create a system in which anyone who works for you for three years is granted their freedom; you have enough money to continue replacing them. In your heart, you know that this still isn't right, but if there's a way to avoid slavery without ruining your family, you don't see it...or you don't have the courage to do what is required.

When your **** finally comes, it is the peaceful **** of a satisfied old man, surrounded by your friends and family, in the home your family built.