#Side Story 49. A sword wielder wielding a liquor bottle (2)
* * *
Gladiator.
Warriors fighting in the Colosseum.
Death is the friend of all warriors, but they have to fight harsher than anyone else because they have to risk their lives just for the entertainment of the audience.
There are people in the world who mistakenly believe that…
But usually you find out.
It’s all advertising.
It’s just a story made up and spread by the organizers to increase the audience’s immersion even a little.
Sword fighting is ultimately entertainment.
That it is a play to show.
From winning and losing to the flow of battle and even life and death.
In that sense, a professional gladiator is an actor rather than a warrior.
They were closer to those who practiced how to win more spectacularly and fall gracefully rather than how to survive by fighting fiercely.
Of course, no matter how well-planned the play was, casualties were bound to occur as long as real swords were used.
nevertheless.
There were many people who wanted to become gladiators.
Of course, unlike sailors or miners who have to risk their lives on luck, if you have skills, your survival rate is high.
Excellent gladiators were able to obtain both enormous wealth, fame, and popularity.
Of course, only a handful of talented people could become professional gladiators, as a truly top-notch person must also be talented in actual fighting.
Rather, because of such rarity, being a first-class gladiator was a highly sought-after profession.
Even if you are the seventh son of a farming family who has nothing but your body, you can hit the jackpot in life if you do well.
“Plague.”
But if you have a large company.
Just as there are small and medium-sized businesses that are avoided.
There are two sides to everything in this world.
Even among the same gladiators, there were some who held the exact opposite position as professional gladiators.
That is a slave gladiator.
In Eastern languages, they are commonly called geomno (劍奴), and they were people who were forced to fight out of necessity, not because they wanted to.
Prisoner of war.
A vicious criminal.
Debtors sold for debt, etc.
Among all types of slaves, they are the lowest of the low, human trash who do not even have the right to live, let alone human rights.
Slave gladiators are the ones who reach the end of even such trash.
May it be sung in the Colosseum.
Also known as meat doll.
Or a blade rest.
Or…
―a living sacrifice.
Yes it was.
To prove that the Colosseum match was not a play.
Or a sacrifice prepared to appease the bloodthirsty majority of the audience, the wild beasts, and the very few gladiators.
It was Geomno who was brought to the Colosseum not to fight and win, but only to struggle thoroughly and die.
Therefore, in general, the match with Geomno was something to be welcomed.
Even if they are holding the same weapon.
It seems difficult for a child to defeat an adult.
Health status, martial arts experience, etc.
There was an insurmountable wall between professional gladiators, who had all the superior qualities, and mere slaves.
Even if there were ten slave gladiators, it was difficult to defeat one professional gladiator, and that is why the fight with Geomno was famous as a fighting game.
“It’s a plague, it’s a plague, it’s a plague!”
“Why the fuck…!”
“Those who will be punished! “You’re putting a top-notch gladiator like us into a match like this just because we’re a little less popular!”
Nonetheless, this moment.
The nine professional gladiators were all spewing out swear words with pale faces.
Even though I know that doing something like this in front of an audience that only third-rate scoundrels would do could lead to a decline in popularity and even a decline in income.
It’s like I can’t bear the fear.
Or as if I were going to die soon.
In that sense, it was truly a strange sight.
There are only 9 gladiators who can take on a lion with just 3, but only one slave gladiator.
It’s even more so because they’re frightened, surrounded by a small child in handcuffs and shackles.
However, no one in the Colosseum felt uncomfortable by the sight.
Even the surrounded boy.
Even the spectators watching.
And the two uninvited guests who watched the scene from the rooftop of the Colosseum without paying the admission fee.
“Hmm.”
Duung!
The gourd that was being tilted also stopped.
With both eyes narrowed.
While she watches.
As before, the match began with loud drum sounds.
That is truly absurd.
To make an unarmed boy in rags fight against nine men fully armed with swords and armor without even removing his handcuffs and shackles.
From anyone’s perspective, it seemed like the scene was prepared to show a one-sided slaughter rather than a fierce match, but…
for some reason.
The men didn’t move.
I just rolled my eyes frantically as if looking for a place to escape.
Just like that.
“…!”
That must have been why.
The reason why the white-haired boy who was watching them as if he was bored started moving first.
To be honest, the sight of him dragging heavy shackles made it seem like it was difficult for him to even walk on his own feet.
But looking at that.
The gladiators started a fight.
In particular, the gladiator, who had the misfortune of being the target of the boy’s approach because he was in the front, became contemplative and retreated.
“Boo!”
“Don’t run away, fight!”
“You’re still a gladiator?!”
But this is the Colosseum.
It was a place where you couldn’t survive if you made the audience angry with petty fights.
The gladiator stopped retreating due to the crowd’s boos.
He glared with resentment at his colleagues who did not come forward first, and eventually swung his sword at the boy who came right in front of him.
“Eat, die!”
Pot!
Is he really a professional gladiator?
Compared to the disgusting behavior from before, the sword he wielded was surprisingly sharp and sharp.
It was enough to blow off a wolf’s head in one fell swoop.
Clap!
“uh?”
But right after that.
The gladiator’s eyes widened.
Immediately after the boy twisted his body slightly, stretched out his arms, and exquisitely wrapped the handcuffs around his sword.
Because his sword bounced and flew away.
It was a sword that he never let go of even in the fierce battles that tore his grip for several years as a fierce gladiator.
Resistance sensitivity.
Without any sense of resistance.
So naturally.
It was only a moment later that he came to his senses after staring dumbfounded at the sword that flew over his head as if by magic.
It was after I felt the extremely cold and hard touch on my neck.
Only then did he realize the chain of handcuffs wrapped around his neck and the presence of a boy approaching in front of him, and his eyes widened.
“sleep…!”
Crump!
It was just a moment.
Bones break.
My raw flesh is torn apart.
How long did it take for a body with a strangely twisted neck to collapse?
However, the remaining eight gladiators did not miss that short gap.
“Now!”
“Hit everyone!”
The spear, the sword, the mace, the net.
It unfolds carefully from all directions.
The thorough training they took even when their colleague died proves why they are top-notch gladiators.
Degurrr.
But unfortunately.
Their attacks miss.
As if he had already expected it, the boy, who was already small, rolled around on the floor and escaped.
Of course, the boy was not safe either.
Even though they failed to pass the training, which even included a net, they left scars all over their small bodies.
nevertheless.
The boy didn’t really care.
Instead, he just raised his handcuffed hands above his head.
And that moment.
widely!
“…!”
The faces of the remaining gladiators were distorted when they saw the first gladiator’s sword, which had bounced high in the air, in the boy’s hand.
It wasn’t just because they realized that they had been playing into the boy’s hands from the beginning.
Because everyone knew.
As long as the boy didn’t dare hold the weapon.
The fact that the outcome of this match has already been decided.
And so…
…despair began.
* * *
“Ahh!”
“Aaaah!”
The gladiators struggled.
He poured out all the skills he had learned and trained, joined forces with his colleagues, and even created a few more wounds on the boy’s body.
nevertheless.
She thought to herself.
This is no longer a battle.
To put it bluntly…
-slaughter.
Just as there are no lions fighting to catch a rabbit, the overwhelmingly strong slaughter the weak.
It was a scene closer to an execution than a fight.
This was especially so because the gladiators, despairing as they saw their comrades dying one after another, eventually gave up the fight and began to run away.
But he fought until the end.
This person also ran away while being cursed.
In the end, the ending was the same.
As if it was a familiar occurrence, he was slaughtered by the boy who followed him slowly but like a skillful hunter, without any haste.
Like a prisoner on execution ground.
“Waaaa!”
“The best! “After all, a little monster!”
“I live to see you!”
Patter!
The audience cheered and threw all kinds of objects into the stadium at the boy who left the Colosseum covered in blood and corpses.
From flowers and handkerchiefs to coins and even silver coins.
All those things are the applause and praise they give to the boy.
Even though he was a ragged slave, it was proof that the boy was the king and protagonist, at least in this Colosseum.
nevertheless.
The boy actually showed no emotion.
He simply picked up a piece of bread from among the items that fell on the stadium and began chewing it slowly.
…Bread covered in gladiator’s blood.
Yes.
“….”
“Master.”
“Yes, I know.”
That was why.
The woman who was watching the stadium from the top of the Colosseum had never put a gourd to her mouth until then…
No. The reason I couldn’t give it is.
“He’s an interesting guy.”
A game that involves a lot of planning.
She did not consider it anything more than a snack until the target appeared.
But the boy’s presence was so shocking that even she couldn’t take her eyes off him for even a moment.
In terms of his talent for slaughtering top-class gladiators at such a young age, and…
“I understand why the leader of the Seven Dragons Association made the move himself.”
“Yes, probably to make them part of their clan.”
One side of the Colosseum.
When she saw the red-haired old man who appeared at the head table and heard what he said, she sneered.
The way of the Seven Dragons is to make outstanding talents into their own clan by making them sons-in-law or daughters-in-law.
It was natural for those with eyes to see to covet that gemstone.
In this Age of Bronze, there were few people who declined it because it was a straight path to wealth and glory.
“What do you want to do?”
“Whatever.”
The woman did not bother to explain.
After gesturing towards the head table where the leader of the Seven Dragons Association was, as if telling him to take care of it.
I just jumped straight down.
Extremely light movement.
But the results were by no means light.
Kwaaaaang!
“What is it?”
“Intrusion?”
“Who is it? “Are you a master of the Seven Dragons?”
The Colosseum was shaking and I was momentarily agitated when I saw her appear as if she had fallen in the middle of a crater that had formed in the middle of the amphitheater.
The audience was immediately shocked.
The moment the coat was flipped back due to the aftereffects of the fall, a
familiar face was revealed, next to the seven dragons… or, in a sense, better known to the whole world than the seven dragons.
“Yo…”
“Yong Yong Yong…!”
It’s like he can’t believe it.
Or as if he doesn’t want to believe it.
The moans that came out soon turned into screams.
“I’m a dragon slayer!!!”
“It’s terrorism! “The crazy knife-wielding bitch has appeared to cause terrorism again!”
“Hey! Save the lives!”
It was literally as if I had seen the reaper.
The frightened spectators tried to run away first, then tried to shout, then trampled and trampled each other and screamed.
Even as the sergeant-level expert of the Red Dragon Clan who suddenly stood up from the head table was cut down by the sword of a black-haired man who appeared as if from nowhere.
She didn’t care.
Rather than being agitated despite the commotion, he simply spoke to the boy who was quietly chewing the remaining bread.
“Young child, become my disciple.”
Is it because of that unexpected appearance?
Or maybe it was because the proposal was so unexpected.
Looking at the dragon slayer who killed two dragons, the worst terrorist with a wanted notice scattered all over the world, with dull golden eyes.
The white-haired boy said indifferently.
“What are you saying, this lady?”
Whoa whoa!
That was the moment when the Colosseum attack was added to the list of crimes committed by the infamous Dragon Slayer.
And in the midst of the chaos that destroyed the Colosseum when the safe was stolen, it was the moment when a slave gladiator was kidnapped with a cracked skull…
…and the moment when an encounter that would change the fate of the world took place.
