#If Royce knew about Hadrian's kill count when they first met he would have been even more confused

[ladyminaofcamelot]

I love that while Royce may be the horrifying assassin man who everyone associates with death, realistically speaking Hadrian probably has the higher kill count. Royce went after individuals and occasionally anyone who got in the way of his killing those individuals, but Hadrian participated in wars and massacres. On multiple occasions. He probably killed more people in one night than Royce did over the course of a year. And there's something about this dichotomy that is soooo interesting to me, especially because I think it really colors how they view death and killing. Like yes they were both brought up with a very different foundation on the subject, but the way they've killed has also been different. For Royce, he either figured the person deserved it or it was personally beneficial for him (very them or me). But Hadrian often felt like he didn't have to. These were just guys doing their jobs. These were guys he fought alongside just weeks ago. These were people defending their city, or taking it back, so of course the idea of killing is more disgusting to him, even just based on the way he did it in the past. This also makes it understandable why being a gladiator would have some appeal, because he only has to kill one to five people in one go rather than ten or more, and all of them (theoretically) choose to be there for no other reason then to fight, so of course it feels more noble than what he was doing before, until the tiger.

It's just so fun that everyone considers Royce to be the more dangerous because he's more volitile, which is an accurate assessment, but if either of them should really smell like death, it's Hadrian.