Zhang Heng heard the quarrel coming from outside, and recognized Commodus' voice from it, so he walked out of the house.
"His Majesty."
"Your Majesty?" The little slave girl was taken aback, "Wait, are you really..."
"In Rome, no one dares to pretend to be the emperor." Commodus waved his hand and asked the guards around him to step aside, and Zhang Heng asked the little slave girl to go back to the house first.
"Is there anything your Majesty wants to come to see me so late?"
This is a good question, and Kang Maode himself didn't know why he wanted to see Zhang Heng so much.
After watching the bullfighting performance in the afternoon, he couldn't calm down for a long time. The heroic figure of Zhang Heng on the back of the bull came to his mind from time to time. In addition, he just got a bad news. There seemed to be an undercurrent in the Senate. Some people greeted him with a smile on the surface, but they were connecting with other people who didn't know what they wanted to do in private. Commodus was a little agitated, so he left the palace and came here for a walk.
Of course, these things cannot be told to outsiders.
Kang Maode 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."
"How do you know? Could it be that you can read minds?" Commodus asked in surprise.
Zhang Heng didn't answer, but turned around and walked back into the room. 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 another wooden sword.
"Uh, I don't know how to fight." Commodus hurriedly returned the wooden sword in his hand as if he had picked up something hot.
But then I heard Zhang Heng say, "You are the one who led the army to fight, you should have practiced how to fight."
"Of course." Speaking of this, Commodus was quite proud, "A qualified emperor needs to be able to lead troops to fight. Although most of the time I don't need to go to the front line, my martial arts are actually quite good. , I can take down two ordinary soldiers by myself, and my father has praised me, but I'm still not as good as you."
"That's fine," Zhang Heng put on a defensive posture, "I don't know why you are bothered, but I think I can make you forget your troubles, although it's only temporary."
"No, no, no," Commodus waved his hand, "I can't, I'm the emperor, I shouldn't do this kind of thing, if other people see it..."
"There is no one else here. As long as I don't tell you, no one will know. Come on, this kind of thing can't be more difficult than going to Dior's house for dinner, right?"
The young emperor laughed when he heard the words, "Haha, Senator Dior is the most powerful person in the Senate. If my rule is to be stable, I need his support, but I really don't like him. This old fox wants to get it from me." More, but this is politics, isn’t it? Why, I didn’t perform well that night, but you saw through it at a glance. By the way, I remember that there were rumors outside that you were a prince or general of the Han Empire. Is it true?"
"This kind of thing is not important anymore. Now I am just a slave in Rome." 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 say yes first, I still have a lot of things to do, so I can't stay here for too long."
...
That's what he said, but Commodus didn't expect that he would play for an hour.
Of course he couldn't beat Zhang Heng, so this is not so much a gladiatorial game as a gladiatorial teaching, but Commodus didn't feel the boring and boring practice sword before, on the contrary, there was always an inexplicable The driving force was hanging on him, making him forget the passage of time. Zhang Heng deliberately controlled his strength, and the strength he displayed was a little higher than that of Commodore.
But it was just this point that the young emperor couldn't jump over, but it also prompted Commodus to constantly reflect on which of his movements were wrong before, and where he could improve. When he finally made up for this defect, he gained satisfaction and then went There will be new challenges.
It's a pity that Commodus has never played "Sekiro", otherwise he would find that the difficulty of the challenges he encountered highly overlaps with the difficulty curve of "Sekiro". In addition, Zhang Heng, as a person who understands history, knows how much Commodus likes gladiators. Although Commodus became a gladiator in the end, there is no lack of reasons why he gave up on himself after being betrayed by Lucilla, but this love is indeed in his bones. Things are hard to cover up, even Dior could see it last night, let alone Zhang Heng.
When Commodus dropped the wooden sword in his hand and collapsed on the ground, he realized that so much time had passed.
And as Zhang Heng said before, his troubles have indeed disappeared a lot now, replaced by a sense of satisfaction after discovering his progress.
"I just realized that it's so interesting to compete with others." Kang Maode said while panting.
This is a bit of a pain in the back when you stand up and talk. You must know that most gladiators are slaves sold to gladiator schools. Every performance is risking their lives and fighting people. If they are not well trained, they will be eliminated. Sending him to the mine to mine, trying his best to survive every day, how can he enjoy the teaching treatment of Commodus.
But Zhang Heng didn't refute. He could see that Commodus was in high spirits, so of course he wouldn't say anything to spoil the scenery.
In fact, during this period of getting along with Kang Maode, Zhang Heng also gradually figured out the temper of the young emperor.
Unlike the records of tyrants in history, at least at the age of twenty, Commodus did not show any traits that would harm the country and the people. On the contrary, the current Commodus is a bit cautious and conscientious, because he has a father who is too awesome. Let him live under his father's shadow all the time, so no matter what happens, the first thing he thinks about is what my father will do here.
He tried his best to maintain the oath he made when his father was dying, and wanted to become a qualified leader and continue the glory of Rome in the past, but he didn't know how to do it. Although Aurelius trained him, that At that time, he was still under his father's wing, so everything went smoothly, but once Aurelius passed away, especially after Commodus returned to Rome from the front, he found that the political situation here was far worse than he imagined. Much more complicated.
He needs to deal with pressure and temptation from all sides alone. To make matters worse, there is only one sister left in his direct blood, who seems to have no interest in helping him. His mother is gone long before his father died, and there is no politics. Experienced elders can provide him with advice, and Commodus seems hesitant when making decisions, and he will doubt himself.
Zhang Heng understood a little bit why the Balance Blade wanted to attack Otrus.
In this case, the advisers and friends around Commodus have great influence on him. Zhang Heng himself does not believe in the oracle at all. Obviously, some people think that Ortrus has too much influence on Commodus. When he grows up, he will want to use the hand of Balance Blade to get rid of him.