Zhang Heng heard the quarrel coming from outside, and he recognized Commodus's voice. So, he walked out of the house.
"Your Majesty."
"Your Majesty?" The slave girl was taken aback, "Wait, are you really …"
"No one in Rome dares to pretend to be the emperor." Commodus waved his hand and asked the guards around him to step aside. When Zhang Heng saw this, he asked the slave girl to go back to the house.
"Your Majesty, why are you looking for me so late at night?"
It was a good question. Commodus did not know why he wanted to see Zhang Heng so much.
After watching the bullfighting performance in the afternoon, he could not calm down for a long time. Zhang Heng's heroic posture on the bull's back kept appearing in his mind from time to time. Coupled with the bad news he just received, there seemed to be undercurrents in the Senate. Some people greeted him with a smile on the surface, but they were secretly colluding with others. Commodus did not know what they were up to. Commodus was a little annoyed, so he left the palace and walked here.
Of course, these things could not be told to outsiders.
Commodus was about to congratulate Zhang Heng on his achievements in the previous gladiatorial performance, but before he could speak, Zhang Heng continued, "Your Majesty seems to be troubled by something."
"How did you know? Do you know how to read minds?" Commodus was surprised.
Zhang Heng did not answer. Instead, he turned around and walked back to the house. After a while, he took out two training swords and threw one of them to Commodus.
"Huh?" Commodus took the wooden sword, a little surprised.
"Attack me," Zhang Heng said, holding the other wooden sword.
"Uh, I don't know how to fight." Commodus looked like he had picked up something hot, and he hurriedly returned the wooden sword in his hand to Zhang Heng.
After that, he heard Zhang Heng said, "You have led the army to war before. You should have practiced how to fight."
"Of course," Commodus was quite proud of this matter. "A qualified emperor needs to know how to lead the army to war. Although I don't need to lead the charge most of the time, my martial arts are actually quite good. I can take down two ordinary soldiers alone. My father also praised me, but I'm still not as good as you."
"That's good," Zhang Heng put on a defensive posture. "I don't know why you're worried, but I think I can make you forget about it, even if it's only temporary."
"No, no, no." Commodus waved his hand. "I can't. I'm the emperor. I shouldn't do such a thing. If anyone else sees …"
"There's no one else here. As long as I don't say anything and you don't say anything, no one will know. Come on, this won't be harder than going to Senator Dior's house for dinner, right?"
"Haha, Doyen Dio is the most powerful person in the Senate. If I want to stabilize my rule, I will need his support. However, I really don't like him. That old fox wants more from me, but this is politics, isn't it? Why? Was my performance that night not good enough? You actually saw through it with just a glance. Oh right, I remember there were rumors saying that you are a prince or a general of the Great Han Empire. Is it true?"
"It doesn't matter anymore. I'm just a slave in the city of Rome now," Zhang Heng said.
"Okay." Commodus finally made up his mind and held the wooden sword in his hand. "Then let's play for a while. Let's make this clear. I still have a lot of things to do. I can't stay here for too long."
…
Even though he said that, Commodus did not expect that he would play for an hour.
Of course, he could not defeat Zhang Heng. So instead of saying that this was a gladiatorial game, it was more like a gladiatorial teaching session. However, Commodus did not feel the boredom and boredom of practicing swordsmanship. On the contrary, there was an inexplicable motivation that kept him going, making him forget the passage of time. Zhang Heng deliberately controlled his strength, and the strength he displayed was only slightly higher than Commodus'.
However, it was this point that the young emperor could not overcome. This also prompted Commodus to constantly reflect on which of his previous actions were wrong and where he could improve. When he finally made up for this shortcoming and felt satisfied, a new challenge would immediately appear.
It was a pity that Commodus had never played "Sleeping Wolf" before. Otherwise, he would find that the difficulty curve of the challenges he encountered overlapped with that of "Sleeping Wolf". Besides, as a person who understood history, Zhang Heng knew very well how much Commodus loved gladiatorial fights. Although Commodus eventually became a gladiatorial maniac after being betrayed by Lucilla, his love for gladiatorial fights was indeed something deep in his bones. And it was difficult to hide it. Even Dior could see it last night, let alone Zhang Heng.
When Commodus threw away the wooden sword in his hand and collapsed to the ground, he realized that a lot of time had passed.
And as Zhang Heng said before, most of his troubles had indeed disappeared. Instead, he felt a sense of satisfaction after discovering that he had made progress.
"I just realized that it's so interesting to compete with others," Commodus said while gasping for air.
Most gladiators were slaves who were sold to the gladiator school. They had to risk their lives to fight with others in every performance. If they did not train well, they would be eliminated and sent to the mines to mine. Every day, they had to find a way to survive. How could they enjoy Commodus's teaching treatment?
However, Zhang Heng did not refute him. He could see that Commodus was in high spirits. Of course, he would not say anything that would ruin the mood.
In fact, after spending some time with Commodus, Zhang Heng had gradually figured out the young emperor's temper.
Unlike the records of tyrants in history, Commodus did not show any traits that could bring disaster to the country and the people when he was twenty years old. On the contrary, Commodus was a little cautious and conscientious. Since he had a father who was too powerful, he had been living in his father's shadow. So no matter what happened, the first thing he thought of was what his father would do if he was here.
He tried his best to keep the vow he made when his father was dying. He wanted to become a qualified leader and continue Rome's glory. However, he did not know how to do it. Although Aurelius had trained him, he was still under his father's protection at that time. Hence, everything went smoothly. However, once Aurelius passed away, especially after Commodus returned to Rome from the front line, he found that the political situation here was far more complicated than he had imagined.
He had to deal with the pressure and probing from all sides alone. To make matters worse, his sister was his only direct relative, and she seemed to have no interest in helping him. Before his father passed away, his mother had also passed away. Without an elder with rich political experience to provide him with advice, Commodus was hesitant when making decisions, and he even doubted himself.
Zhang Heng now understood why the Balance Blade wanted to deal with Altrus.
Under such circumstances, Commodus's advisers and friends had a great influence on him. Zhang Heng did not believe in the oracle at all. Obviously, someone felt that Altrus had too much influence on Commodus. That was why they wanted to use the Balance Blade to get rid of him.
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