"Without an eyewitness to tell me that they did actually see someone dead? It could go either way."

Fake deaths, wild rumors, a rebellion's leader ordering her men not to inform others of her death; in a world with magic and a fair number of immortals, Caesar wouldn't put it past more than a few to have a 'off-screen death' in reality. One could never be sure. That might not hold as true in other worlds, however, and he was aware of that.

"But I'm not sure I would call it optimism," he added with a shrug.

The kidnapping group. Now that was... something.

"Please tell me those are circus runaways only pretending to be villains." He could hope! The sword fight was, at least, entertaining and garnered no further criticism. It would take up until the scene with the poisoned wine to get a groan out of him. "This is getting embarrassing to watch!"