“What do you mean by letting loose sometimes?” The young emperor was a little puzzled.
Dior smiled, “You like gladiatorial fights, don’t you?”
“No, I just watch it occasionally to relax,” denied Commodus. “I am too busy and have a lot of things to do every day. In fact, I am thinking about issuing new coins before leaving. What I meant is that I want the people of Rome to get to know me through these gladiatorial performances. As for those living in more remote places, however, I’ll need to let them know that the empire has a new emperor. Hence, I plan to ask someone to cast coins with my head on them. The emperors of late have done similar things too…”
“Yes, yes, I can understand that you need to rule such a big country. You must be exhausted now. All the more you should loosen up and enjoy yourself in this rare time of leisure, right?” Dior said. He beckoned the servant to bring two more glasses of wine before taking one and handing the other to the young emperor.
“You need to relax. We won’t talk about politics tonight.”
The young emperor hesitated and took the glass of wine and drank it, “Okay, let us take a good look at the warriors here.”
The owners of the gladiator schools had been waiting a long time. After getting permission, they stepped forward to pay their respects to Dior and Commodus. After that, they began to introduce their gladiators.
“Your Majesty, this is the giant Terufelos. He is a Sarmatian. He was sold to the northeast of the empire when he was still a boy. I found him in a very remote copper mine and bought him over. At that time, he was so skinny because he did not have enough food every day. But I knew he was born to become a gladiator. Once fed and the iron pickaxe in his hand replaced by a weapon, he would become a great gladiator. And he did not disappoint me. I took him on tour, and no one could defeat him. His body contains infinite power, just like a beast,” said an old man that looked like a dried corpse. He then nodded to Terufelos, and the latter walked out of the crowd.
Admittedly, his gigantic figure must have exerted a great deal of pressure on the people around him. Seeing him making a move, Commodus’s guards immediately tensed and drew out their weapons one after another.
“It’s okay,” Commodus said, “Let’s see what he is going to do.”
Terufelos did not speak. Instead, he walked towards the fountain in the center of the front hall. He rubbed his hands, bent down, and with only one hand, he picked up the marble statue in front of the fountain, the height of a person.
Upon witnessing the scene, all the guests who had come for the banquet tonight exclaimed in amazement. His master was elated as well. On the contrary, the owners of the other gladiator schools had a solemn look on them. Since they had experience dealing with the gladiators, they knew that it was easy for their gladiators to defeat him. There were many gladiators with outstanding strength, but they could not do what Terufelos just did. With this overwhelming power, he was slated to become a strong contender for that gladiatorial show’s championship.
Terufelos then swung the marble statue twice and put it back to its original position, before returning to where he stood.
“If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed that such powerful people even exist!” Commodus exclaimed in excitement. “Your nickname is Giant, isn’t it?”
Terufelos nodded.
“It suits you well. I wish you good results in the gladiatorial performance later.”
Commodus seemed to have released his long-repressed interest. He then followed Dior to talk to the next gladiator.
“His name is Ellaxois, from Diatilla. He achieved a proud record of nineteen consecutive victories. And he is very good at using the trident…”
“Danaus, a Thracian gladiator. Everyone is aware that Thracians give birth to many outstanding gladiators, and among them, Danaus is the best one. He is especially good at slicing his opponent’s throats…”
“Julicia, a Celtic. His body is amazingly flexible, and no one can beat him in close combat…”
“…”
As Dior and Commodus continued to walk, they saw more and more gladiators. All of them had their own legendary tales, and they were the trump cards of their respective arenas. Since they were a lot of them here, there was not much time to introduce themselves.
Except for the Sarmatian, who had a unique look, Commodus could not remember the names of most of the gladiators. He would only look at each one for a short while before moving on to the next. Zhang Heng knew that if this went on, he might just not complete the task assigned by the Balance Blade. Although he had made a name for himself during this period, coupled with the way Mark Reuss promoted him, lots of people in Rome now knew his name.
Zhang Heng was, however, still a rookie, and his battle record was nowhere nearly as glorious as veteran gladiators who had fought for many years. Strictly speaking, although he was the talk of the town, he wasn’t even close to becoming a legendary gladiator. And his biggest disadvantage was that Commodus had just come back from the frontline, and he happened to miss the time of his rise to fame. The emperor also needed to attend to many things, so it was only logical that he had never heard of his name.
Zhang Heng knew that he had to find a way to attract Commodus’s attention.
At present, Commodus had suddenly stopped in front of a gladiator, pointed, and gasped in surprise. “Are you Sartonillos?”
“Yes, your honorable majesty. I didn’t expect you to know my name,” Sartonilos bowed.
“Of course, I know your name! I went to see your gladiatorial show with my sister before leaving Rome. More than once, they said that Sethnets is old and that you are the strongest gladiator in Rome right now. What do you think? Are you confident enough to win the battle this time?”
“I will dedicate all the victory and glory to you,” Sartonilos said.
Just when the two parties were talking happily, Commodus heard someone speaking in disdain.
“I don’t think His Majesty would take a liking to someone that lies.”
Sartonilos’s face changed suddenly. He looked in the direction where the voice came from and found that the person who just talked was an Oriental man. Sartonilos did not remember that he had seen this Oriental man before. Earlier, when the gladiators were gathered at the front hall and were waiting, the latter made no moves that attracted attention. Sartonilos, too had no idea why Zhang Heng would provoke him now.
Sartonilos wasn’t the kind that allowed someone to provoke him. He respectfully said to Commodus, “Your Majesty, can I deal with this matter?”
Commodus figured what he was going to do. If it were placed in the past, he would probably reject Sartonilos’s request because his father was with him. This time, though, he remembered what Dior told him. There was no need to be too serious since he was here to have fun this evening.
So he smiled and said, “Of course.”
