Although Mark Reuss was shocked and angry, he did not have the ability to stop the people in the stands, and he did not dare to stand up and interfere with Commodus's decision. All he could do was to sit in the stands and glare at Commodus.
Now, he could only hope that Commodus was fair and would consider his loss. After all, he still owned Zhang Heng. All he did was borrow his gladiators to perform in the Amphitheatrum Flavium. Although the organizer of the gladiatorial show had the right to decide the life and death of the gladiators and whether or not to grant them freedom, the school that supported the gladiators had to compensate them for their losses.
The question was, how should Zhang Heng set the price now?
In Mark Reuss's eyes, Zhang Heng was priceless. After all, he was the strongest gladiator in the history of Rome after Sethnets. How much was he worth?
But the problem was that this was just his opinion. Generally, the compensation standard was based on the price the gladiator bought and the number of years the gladiator had performed. However, Zhang Heng did not pay much for these two things.
According to Gaby, Zhang Heng was bought for an average price, and that was because he was an Asian. The number of years Zhang Heng had performed was even worse. Zhang Heng rose to fame so fast that he almost became a household name overnight. According to this standard, even if Commodus was kind enough to let Zhang Heng go, all he had to do was to compensate him a few thousand sestertius.
However, Mark Reuss had suffered a huge loss. Even with a conservative estimate, Zhang Heng could bring more than 30,000 gold coins to the arena a year. Even if Zhang Heng only worked for three years, he would earn 90,000 gold coins. Now, he was left with only a few thousand copper coins. Mark Reuss would be left with a huge sum of money.
So Mark Reuss was now the most nervous person in the entire Amphitheatrum Flavium. However, the little hope in his heart was shattered by Commodus's next move.
The young emperor held this gladiatorial show to win the hearts of the people. How could he go against the voice of the people? Besides, Commodus himself was worried about how to take Zhang Heng away from Mark Reuss. It was rare for him to have such a good opportunity. As long as he made Zhang Heng a free man, he could naturally make this oriental man his own.
Of course, if he were to let a gladiator become his confidant, the old fogies in the Senate would definitely protest and be dissatisfied with him. However, it was not the first time he did such a ridiculous thing. His two current advisors were not from good backgrounds, and the reason he recruited new people was to compete with the old guys and the old forces.
The Empire was like an old man in his twilight years, needing fresh blood to revitalize it.
Commodus had always believed in this, so he did not care about the feelings of the poor owner of the gladiator school.
The young emperor took the training sword that symbolized freedom from his entourage and threw it in front of Zhang Heng. At the same time, he announced loudly, "You have earned this for yourself."
His move also triggered a new round of cheers. The people seemed to be happy that their voices were being taken seriously. The Empire had welcomed a good emperor who loved his people like his own children.
However, Zhang Heng, who loved his people like his own children, made Mark Reuss faint with anger. When Mark Reuss opened his eyes again, Zhang Heng had already picked up the wooden sword.
This also meant that the latter had regained his freedom. From now on, he had nothing to do with the Victor Arena.
Mark Reuss, who had just opened his eyes, passed out again.
Just a second ago, he was the biggest winner of this gladiatorial show, looking forward to the new future of the Victor Arena. However, the next second, he fell from the clouds and became the biggest loser in the blink of an eye.
Even Sartonilos and others, who performed poorly, survived. After this battle, their reputation would definitely be severely damaged. However, there was still a way to repair it. What's more, the mountain that was pressing down on them had disappeared. They still had a chance to reclaim the throne in the future. On the other hand, Mark Reuss was miserable. He won the performance, but the gladiator was gone.
The ups and downs of life were nothing more than this.
Perhaps the only thing that could comfort him was that the Germanic Bach performed well in this gladiatorial show. His performance was stable, second only to Zhang Heng and Terufelos. However, how could Bach compete with Zhang Heng's popularity?
…
Zhang Heng was a little surprised when he picked up the wooden sword. He also knew the rules of the arena. Almost no gladiator like him would be granted freedom after only a few battles. That was because the audience would want to watch their favorite gladiators perform a few more times.
Moreover, the timing of the call for his freedom was also ingenious. Just when everyone was discussing what to reward him, the number of rewards kept increasing. The crowd fell into a state of fanaticism, and it was at this time that the most valuable reward, freedom, was thrown out.
So the crowd subconsciously shouted together. In other words, this was actually a premeditated guide and use of public opinion.
The question was, who was the mastermind behind this? Zhang Heng first looked at Commodus. Of course, he knew that Commodus wanted to pull him into his team. This was also what Zhang Heng had been deliberately guiding Commodus to do. Hence, he was undoubtedly the beneficiary of this matter. However, after getting along with the young emperor, Zhang Heng had also deepened his understanding of the young emperor. Commodus should not have reached such a high level yet.
This matter was done very cleverly, almost without leaving any traces behind. The mastermind behind this had quite a superb political skill. He was good at leveraging the power of others.
Obviously, such a person should not be a political newcomer like Commodus.
Zhang Heng thought about it, and the only possibility was probably the political force behind the Balance Blade. According to the agreement between the two parties, if Zhang Heng helped the Balance Blade, the Balance Blade had to guarantee his freedom in the end. Although it would be after the task was completed, Zhang Heng could not rule out the possibility that the Balance Blade saw this opportunity and paid him a part of the reward in advance. At the same time, it would also make it easier for him to get closer to Commodus.
If this was the case, Zhang Heng was afraid that part of his previous conjecture would be confirmed. The Balance Blade was not as pure as it claimed to be, maintaining the balance of the world. Instead, it was a tool in the hands of a certain political force. It was just that the members of the organization did not realize this, or rather, some members like Dadatis did not realize this. They thought that the political force was helping them. Little did they know that the relationship between the two parties was actually reversed.
Other than that, Zhang Heng also received two long-awaited system prompts. One of them was a reward of 100 game points for winning the gladiatorial show, and the other was a reward of 50 game points for restoring his freedom.
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