“How did it go?” Mark Reuss rubbed his hands as he looked at Zhang Heng with eagerness.
The latter swung the two Persian swords in his hands and nodded. “Not bad.”
“I’m glad you like it. I’m counting on you this time,” said Mark Reuss. “For the honor of Victor Arena, we must win the championship of this gladiatorial show.”
“I will do my best.” Zhang Heng said.
“Very well. I know I can always count on you.” Mark Reuss patted Zhang Heng’s shoulder with satisfaction, “Other than you; we also plan to send Bach, Habitus, Carnero, Mulkazan, Paral, and Milo. All seven of you will compete with the gladiators from other schools. But of course, I place most of my faith in you. Other than that, I have also asked Gaby to find out about the gladiators from other arenas and mark out the ones you need paying attention to. However, the name list won’t come out until tomorrow. Oh, yes, I need you to attend to a dinner tonight.”
Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.
“I know, I know, we had an agreement. But this time is different. The dinner will be held at the Dior Senate’s house. He is one of the most powerful people in the entire senate. The entire empire’s most influential people will be attending the dinner tonight, and that includes our new emperor. They want to know what the gladiators look like before the show. All the gladiators are required to attend this dinner. Later, I will get someone to get you a new set of clothes.”
Mark Reuss turned and walked out of the house but stopped walking when he reached the door. He then paused and added, “You’d better use the remaining time to take a shower and spray some perfume on yourself. Believe me. It’s never a bad thing to make yourself popular in front of these people. What you are about to face is the most powerful group of people in Rome.”
…
Zhang Heng’s slave girl was very diligent. Just as Mark Reuss left the house, she hurriedly headed to prepare items Zhang Heng needed for a good bath. But as soon as she opened the door with the wooden barrel in her arms, she could not help but yawn. And the next moment, the wooden barrel in her hand fell to the ground. Startled, she bent down to pick the barrel up, but she suddenly felt extremely sleepy. Unable to resist this drowsiness, she finally fell asleep on the ground while holding the wooden barrel.
Zhang Heng then looked at Dadatis, who walked in from the door. Surprised to see him, he said, “Did you just come to see me in broad daylight?”
“Don’t worry. I’m very careful. No one sees me,” said Dadatis. “You’ve kept to our previous agreement and earned the right to join the gladiatorial performance. I’m here to tell you your next goal.”
“Hmm?”
“If everything goes according to plan, you should receive an invitation to the dinner tonight. This is a rare opportunity for you. We need you to approach someone there and impress him if possible.”
“Who is that person?”
“Our new emperor, Commodus.”
“So your target is the new Roman emperor?” Zhang Heng wasn’t too surprised when he heard the name. Perhaps he already knew that Commodus had been actually killed in an assassination. With Dadatis joining the gladiator school, many things had become self-explanatory.
Commodus was probably the Roman emperor that liked gladiatorial battles the most. And he also had a weird habit—watching the fight from the stands didn’t seem enough for him. For him to fully enjoy the battle, he would descend into the battlefield and join the battle. Consequently, he died in a somewhat ironic way—death by strangulation in the bathtub by a gladiator.
“Maybe, maybe not.” Dadatis’s answer was ambiguous.
“You had better be honest with me. If my target is s Commodus, I am afraid I will quit the test,” Zhang Heng said.
“Why?” Dadatis asked in a serious tone.
“I may be a foreigner, but I am not stupid. I know the consequences of assassinating a Roman emperor.” Zhang Heng replied indifferently, “The conditions you offered aren’t good enough for me to take this risk.”
Dadatis looked into Zhang Heng’s eyes, and after a while, he gave in. “Well, I can assure you that your target this time is not Commodus.”
“Who is my target then?” Zhang Heng asked, “Are you still planning to hide it from me at this point?”
This time, Dadatis hesitated for a long time before finally replying. “Altrus, Commodus’s most trusted advisor. He has royal blood flows in his body too. Before he met Commodus, he was a low-life in the city of Rome. And now, his fate is changed completely. He and another young man named Clint are Commodus’s right-hand man, and they are inseparable from Commodus. He is most likely going to be the second most powerful person of the empire in the future.”
“Why do you want to assassinate him?”
“This is the oracle from Kreis. Our responsibility is only to execute it, not to ask why,” said Dadatis. “The plan is simple. Altrus’s whereabouts have always been a secret. He knows that many people have become very jealous of him, and he’s paranoid at almost all times to prevent an assassination. Since he has to always execute Commodus’s order, Commodus becomes the only person who knows his whereabouts.”
“So you want me to get close to Commodus and get to know Altrus’s whereabouts?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Dadatis said. “Commodus isn’t like the other emperors. He likes to interact with commoners, especially with the gladiators. You can use this fact to your advantage to get close to him… gradually get to know him better. Consider it as making a new friend.”
Zhang Heng thought for a while before asking, “If I complete this task, that would mean I pass the test, right? Can you promise me that you will not bother me again?”
“Yes. If you get it done, you will be my successor and become the Balance Blade’s core member. As I said before, our management is actually very loose and free. Until the next oracle comes, the members of the organization can do whatever they want.”
“Until the next oracle arrives?” Zhang Heng asked rhetorically.
Dadatis rolled his eyes and said, “I know what you are thinking. You don’t have to worry about it. You are not the only core member of the Balance Blade. They will not necessarily call upon you to carry out the order. Although it is not a written rule, the same member will usually not perform two consecutive tasks under normal circumstances. However, I can’t guarantee that it will not happen in the future.”
Zhang Heng wasn’t too worried about the future. Once he completed his main quest, he would get to leave this dungeon. Even if the Balance Blade were extremely powerful, they would not be able to cross over to the real world to hunt him down. Besides, Zhang Heng felt that Dadatis had given him his best to teach Zhang Heng everything he knew. It would not be ethical for him to ignore and abandon him. So, Zhang Heng considered it as a repayment for the combat knowledge that Dadatis taught him. He decided to help Balance Blade to find the whereabouts of Altrus.
After a while, Zhang Heng said, “Leave this matter to me.”
