[Vol. 1 : Gladiator life of a debt aristocrat.]
Irresponsible jeers and cheers rained down on me.
“Scatter your guts and die!”
“Kill them! Kill them! Kill them all!”
Well, there are some people who shout insults at me beyond the level of jeers, but even with that, I don’t hate this place, the circular arena.
Because here, under the soil soaked with the blood and sweat of gladiators, there is buried a mixture of desire, despair, and hope.
I could achieve my goal just by sipping shallowly from the spills.
…… I was lost in thought, the cheers got louder. It seems that today’s business partner has arrived. I think it’s time to turn my mind to work.
“Heh, it seems that even a lowly barbarian had the minimum amount of courage to appear in front of me without running away.”
He sniffed and mocked the young gladiator who appeared. I remember correctly his name is…… Aperia.
Of course, such words don’t matter much. Aperia is a gladiator, so running away from the match was not allowed from the beginning.
His dark brown hair and tanned skin are proof that he is a member of the Midarl, a barbarian tribe who’s living in the south.
They used to be very rare, but it seems that their number has increased a lot in the last ten years.
Of course, the barbarians aren’t coming here of their own free will, but because the war in the south of the Empire is going well, they’re just brought here as slaves.
Apelia frowns slightly at being called a barbarian by me.
Although he doesn’t get angry, he still seems to be a little unsure of his own position.
It was not a good thing for me to say, as I was the one who had provoked him.
If his emotions are shaken by words like that, he will never be able to withstand the shaking he will receive when he moves on to the next level.
I am a gladiator, so whether I am mocked or disgraced, I should ignore such things.
No matter what people say, the value of a gladiator is determined only by their ability and results.
When I saw that Aperia’s hand gripping his weapon was filled with more force than necessary as he took a stance, I twisted my mouth and sneered.
I tried to make my smile look as dirty as possible.
“Come on, you filthy slave. This imperial nobleman, Baron Luckel Fautash, will teach you a lesson!”
“Grooooooooo!”
Aperia swings his long sword with the spirit of ripping.
Both his stepping and sword speed were extremely fast for a low-class gladiator.
It’s even faster than when I watched the battle before, so it’s probably because they’re trying desperately to not die.
With his talent, thirst for power, and fear of death, he has the potential to become a top-notch gladiator.
…… But it’s still naive.
“You boar. Don’t think a sword without any tricks will work for me!”
I struck the center of the long sword that swung at me with my buckler, and sliced shallowly through the side of Aperia, who had lost his stance, with my short straight sword, Gladius.
Blood sprays from the wound, and the cheers around him became even stronger.
A small shield with a diameter of only about 30 centimeters does not fulfill the most important role of a shield, which is to block arrows, but even such a shield was not bad at being useful in an arena like this.
Aperia certainly has the qualities to become a first-class gladiator, but no matter how good his materials are, he will never reach a higher level unless he knows how to fight more cunningly and calmly.
If you become a high level gladiator, even if you are a gladiator, you can become a free man, and you can even make a good fortune.
But that is precisely why the road to becoming a high-level gladiator is so difficult, and the higher the quality of the material, the more people will try to drag them down by any means necessary.
However, from the point of view of the master of the gladiators, the showman, if he has obtained the material that will allow him to reach the upper level, it would be a loss if he were to fail halfway.
Therefore, it was my job, the villain of this arena is the one who teaches good gladiators the taste of defeat and setbacks so that they do not pass through the lower ranks based on momentum alone, and to drive them back to the bottom.
A sarcastic aristocrat who is confident in his sword skills and enjoys showing off his skills against gladiators.
That’s the setting I was given.
Compared to the swordsman who is naked from the waist up and fights with only mass-produced weapons, I even wear chainmail under my clothes.
In other words, it’s not fair at all, and when you consider my status as an aristocrat, there’s no shortage of factors that make me disliked by the audience and the gladiators.
But precisely because I was hated in this way. I was the perfect villain to liven up the scene.
If I win, the audience will be filled with frustration, and the matches that follow will heat up in order to vent that frustration.
If I lose, the audience will be overjoyed because they’ll see a noble lose.
Even if it’s not the Empire, pretending to be a noble is a serious crime in most countries, but I’m, Baron Luckel Fautersch, am indeed a proper nobleman.
Well, it’s not like I’m imitating a gladiator for the sake of immersing myself in the pleasure, but thanks to my status, I’ve been exposed to the overflowing desire that surrounds the arena.
Aperia, who understood that he could not get through to me by swinging his sword around in the dark, tried to be a little tricky, but in the end, it was nothing more than a tacked-on knife.
He was losing his strength and his movement slowing down due to the ingenuity he was not used to.
This will be fine for this time.
I hit Aperia’s jaw with the shield, and when he lost consciousness and fell backwards, I slashed his chest wide and shallowly with gladius.
The wound was large and there was a lot of bleeding, but the injury was not life-threatening.
Apelia, who had collapsed and was unable to move, was bombarded with the screams of a woman, the excited cheers of the audience, and the shouts of abuse.
There are voices telling me to kill him, but I’m telling him not to play around with it.
I want you to understand how many gold coins a talented swordsman will earn in the end before you say anything.
“Boring. Is this all you got? Well, you’re no match for me.”
He shakes his gladius to get rid of the blood and exits through the gate with a chuckle.
I say this, but the next time Aperia challenges me, it will be my turn to fall to the ground.
With his qualifications, that day won’t be far off.
Of course, there are a few others who are not up to the intermediate level, so it will be up to the showman to decide whether or not I will face him again.
