Although Mark Reuss was now frightened and angry, there was nothing he could to the spectators, and neither did he dare stand up and interfere with Commodus’s decision. He could only sit in the stands and glare at the people around him.
He could only hope that Commodus was fair and would take his loss into consideration. After all, he was still Zhang Heng’s master. All he did was let his gladiators perform in the Amphitheatrum Flavium. Although the organizer had the right to decide if the gladiator lived or died or if they should grant them their freedom, they had to compensate the school that owned the gladiator after doing so.
The question was, how much should Zhang Heng cost?
To Mark Reuss, Zhang Heng was priceless. After Sethnets, he was the strongest gladiator in the entire history of Rome. No one could put a price on him. However, that was just his opinion. Generally, this kind of compensation was determined based on the gladiator’s first price tag and with reference to how long the gladiator had been performing. However, it appeared that Zhang Heng had been bought for a low price and hadn’t performed much in the arena either.
According to Gaby, the money he spent purchasing Zhang Heng was what an ordinary gladiator would cost. One of his selling points was his unique race. As for the number of times that he performed, Mark Reuss would suffer the most here. Zhang Heng grew at such an alarming rate, transforming from the unnamed gladiator to one that everyone knew overnight. According to all these factors, even if Commodus was generous, he would only need to pay him a few thousand Sestertius.
This time, Mark Reuss had suffered from a significant loss. It was estimated that Zhang Heng could bring more than 30,000 gold coins to the arena in a year. Even if he only worked for three years, he would bring 90,000 gold coins to Mark Reuss. Comparing such a large sum of money to only a few thousand copper coins, Mark Reuss felt that he had lost a massive part of himself.
Hence, Mark Reuss was now the most nervous person in the entire arena. The only hope that he had in his heart was shattered when he saw what Commodus did next. He had only organized this gladiatorial performance to win the hearts of the Roman people, so wouldn’t it make no sense if he went against the people’s will? Moreover, Commodus was actually trying to figure out a way to take Zhang Heng away from Mark Reuss. It was rare to come across such a good opportunity. After turning Zhang Heng into a free man, he would hire him to assist him.
Of course, letting a gladiator become his confidant would definitely spark massive protests among the senior senators. However, this was not the first time he had done such an absurd thing. The two consultants that he had now weren’t from prestigious families. His aggressive recruitment of new people had proven that he wanted to fight against those senior senators.
The empire was like an old man entering his twilight years, and it needed some fresh blood to rejuvenate it. Commodus had always believed that it was for the greater good. Hence, he could not be bothered by the feelings of the poor owners of the gladiator schools.
After that, Commodus took the training sword symbolizing freedom from his entourage and threw it in front of Zhang Heng. At the same time, he announced loudly, “This is what you won for yourself.”
His moves had also triggered a new round of cheers. The people seemed to be happy that their voice was taken seriously. The empire now had a good emperor who loved his people like they were his children. Mark Reuss was so angry that he fainted after he heard what Commodus said to Zhang Heng. When he opened his eyes again, Zhang Heng had already picked up the wooden sword.
This also meant that the latter had regained his freedom, and he had nothing to do with Victor Arena from now on. Mark Reuss, who had just opened his eyes, fainted again. A second ago, he was the biggest winner of this gladiatorial show, and he was looking forward to the new future of Victor Arena. And now, he had become its biggest loser.
Although Sartonilos and others did not perform well in this performance, most of them survived. After this whole thing ended, their reputation would be severely damaged. However, they could still find a way to repair it. Besides, the giant obstacles that stopped them from climbing to the top were now gone. In other words, they would have a chance to get to the throne again in the future. On the other hand, Mark Reuss was in great despair. Although his gladiator school claimed the championship, he had now lost Zhang Heng permanently.
Life was riddled with ups and downs, and this was a prime example. Perhaps the only comfort Mark Ruess had was that Bach performed exceptionally well in this gladiatorial performance. He barely made any mistakes, placing him second only to Zhang Heng and Terufelos. However, Bach could never compare with Zhang Heng in terms of popularity.
…
Zhang Heng was also a little surprised when he picked up the wooden sword because he knew the arena’s rules. There were hardly any gladiators like him who were granted freedom after only a few battles. That was because the people of Rome would like to watch more of his performances.
It seemed the time and place where he acquired his freedom was unique. Just as everyone discussed what to reward him, the value of those rewards continued to increase as the crowd descended into a frenzy. It was then that freedom, the most valuable prize, was suggested by them.
The crowd subconsciously followed along and shouted together. In other words, this was premeditated coercion and the use of public opinion.
The question was, who was behind this plan? Zhang Heng then looked at Commodus. He knew that Commodus wanted to recruit him into his team. All this while, Zhang Heng has been deliberately guiding Commodus to act according to his will. He was undoubtedly a beneficiary of this incident. However, based on Zhang Heng’s understanding of Commodus, he knew that Commodus should not be able to pull such a highly devised plan.
The plan turned out to be flawless. Whoever had planned and carried it out must have possessed a superb political skillset. They were good at manipulating their strengths and knew how to fully utilize them. Clearly, a new ruler like Commodus could never come up with such a delicate plan.
Zhang Heng thought about it, and the only organization that was politically powerful enough to do something like was the Balance Blade. According to the agreement between the two parties, Zhang Heng was required to help Balance Blade complete specific tasks, and Balance Blade had to make sure that Zhang Heng could regain his freedom. Although Zhang Heng was supposed to get his freedom after he helped them complete the task given to him, he could not rule out that the Balance Blade saw a good opportunity to help him regain his freedom. So, they decided to pay a part of the reward in advance. At the same time, it would also allow him to get closer to Commodus.
If this was the case, Zhang Heng had just managed to prove some of his previous conjectures. The Balance Blade was not as pure as it claimed. Maintaining the balance of the world was not its only mission. It was also a tool in the hands of a certain political force. The members within the organization might not know about it. Or maybe only members like Dadatis did not realize such a hidden agenda. They thought that the political force was to their advantage, but they did not realize that the relationship between the two parties was actually reversed.
Other than that, Zhang Heng also received two system prompts. One of them was the 100 game points reward for winning the gladiatorial performance, and another notification was about the 50 game points reward for restoring the status of a freeman.
