Chapter 804 Attack Me

Zhang Heng heard the quarrel coming from outside and recognized Commodus's voice, so he walked out of the house.

"His Majesty."

"Your Majesty?" The little slave girl was startled, "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 also asked the little slave girl to go back to the house first.

"Why did your Majesty come to see me so late?"

This is a good question. Commodus himself doesn’t know why he wants to see Zhang Heng so much.

After watching the bullfighting performance in the afternoon, he couldn't calm down for a long time. Zhang Heng's heroic figure on the back of the bull often appeared in his mind. In addition, he had just received bad news, and there seemed to be an undercurrent in the Senate. Some people greeted him with a smile on the surface, but privately they were communicating with others about what they wanted to do. Commodus felt a little irritable, so he left the palace and took a walk here.

Of course, these things cannot 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 worried about something."

"How do you know? Are you able to read minds?" Commodus asked in surprise.

Zhang Heng did not answer, but turned around and walked back into the house. After a while, he came out with 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 someone who has led an army to fight, so you should have practiced how to fight."

"Of course," Commodus was quite proud when talking about this, "A qualified emperor needs to be able to lead troops to fight. Although most of the time I don't need to charge into battle, my martial arts are actually quite good. , I can knock down two ordinary soldiers by myself, and my father also praised me, but I'm still not as good as you."

"That's okay," Zhang Heng put on a defensive posture, "I don't know why you are worried, but I think I can make you forget your worries, even if it is only temporary."

"No, no, no," Commodus waved his hand, "I can't, I am the emperor, I shouldn't do such a thing, if others 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 the Dior house for dinner, right?"

The young emperor laughed when he heard this, "Haha, Senator Dio is the most powerful person in the Senate. If my rule wants 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, my performance that night was not good enough, and 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 no longer important. 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 and agree first. I still have a lot of things to do and I can't stay here for too long."

…………

That's what he said, but Commodus didn't expect that he would only play for an hour.

Of course he couldn't beat Zhang Heng, so this was not so much a gladiatorial game as a gladiatorial teaching. However, Commodus did not feel the dullness and tedium of practicing swordsmanship before. On the contrary, there was always an inexplicable feeling. The motivation was hanging on him, making him forget the passage of time. Zhang Heng deliberately controlled his own strength, and the strength he displayed was a little higher than that of Commodus.

But even at this point, the young emperor could never jump over. However, this also prompted Commodus to constantly reflect on which of his previous actions was wrong and where he could improve further. When he finally made up for this flaw, he felt a sense of satisfaction. There will be new challenges emerging.

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 very well how much Commodus likes gladiatorial combat. Although Commodus finally became a gladiatorial maniac due to his betrayal by Lucilla and the reason why he gave up and let himself go, this love is indeed in his bones. It's hard to cover up things. 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 tiredly, he realized that so much time had passed.

And as Zhang Heng said before, a lot of his worries have indeed disappeared now, replaced by a sense of satisfaction after discovering his progress.

"I just realized that it would be so interesting to compete with others." Commodus said while breathing.

This is a bit embarrassing for standing up and talking. You must know that most gladiators are slaves who were sold to gladiator schools. They risk their lives to fight with others in every performance. If they are not well trained, they will be eliminated. He was sent to the mine to mine, and he was trying his best to survive every day. How could he enjoy the teaching treatment of Commodus?

But Zhang Heng did not refute. He could see that Kang Maode was in high spirits, so of course he would not say anything that would disgrace the scenery.

In fact, during his time with Commodus, Zhang Heng gradually understood the young emperor's temper.

Unlike the records of tyrants in history, at least when he was twenty years old, Commodus did not show any characteristics that brought disaster to the country and the people. On the contrary, Commodus now seems to be walking on thin ice and conscientious because he has a father who is too awesome. Let him always live in the shadow of his father, so no matter what happens, the first thing he thinks about is what my father would do here.

He tried hard to maintain the oath he made when his father was dying, and wanted to become a qualified leader and continue Rome's past glory, but he didn't know how to do it. Although Aurelius had trained him, that was not the case. At that time, he was still under his father's wing, so everything went smoothly. However, once Aurelius died, especially after Commodus returned to Rome from the front, he found that the political situation here was far more complicated than he imagined. Much more complicated.

He needs to deal with pressure and temptations from all sides alone. What's worse is that he only has one direct blood relative left, one sister, who seems to have little interest in helping him. His mother was gone long before his father died, and there is no political Experienced elders can provide him with advice. Commodus appears hesitant and doubts himself when making decisions.

Zhang Heng somewhat understood why the Blade of Balance wanted to attack Ortrus.

In this case, the advisors and friends around Commodus had great influence on him. Zhang Heng himself did not believe in any oracles at all. Apparently some people felt that Otrus had too much influence on Commodus. Only when he is older will he want to use the hand of the Balanced Blade to get rid of him.