Rise of the Blood Prince: From Slave to Emperor

Unlike the neatly dressed Liscal, Kenon was a bit shabby.

But he didn't give off the same feeling as an ilima. Looking closely, he had a slave's brand, so he seemed to be an overseer of slave origin.

"We'll return to your room now."

Kenon said. Then Aslan spoke as if he'd been waiting.

"Can't I wash up?"

"You mean bathe?"

"Yes."

"That's possible."

Bathing was more expensive than eating. The interesting thing was that it looked almost identical to a modern public bathhouse.

Rough stones were laid to prevent slipping, and grooves were carved so water could drain. And there was even a huge bath.

There weren't many people. He'd thought the water would be quite dirty, but it wasn't. It was kept quite clean.

And he could confirm one interesting point.

Just because you were a slave didn't mean you couldn't enjoy things here. As long as you had money, even gladiator slaves could enjoy a good life.

As long as you had money.

Aslan immediately noticed that this kind of system could actually be poison for gladiator slaves.

If they got used to this lifestyle, the number of people trying to escape gladiator slave status would decrease.

Aslan washed his body thoroughly. And he bought new clothes to wear. Rather than clothes, it was more accurate to say he draped cloth over himself—baggy, crude clothing, but it was better than what he'd been wearing before. At least it didn't look like it would tear soon.

Aslan returned to his room and drank alcohol. Then he sat cross-legged to practice energy circulation breathing. While doing so, he organized the information he'd gotten from the dining hall once more.

'Come to think of it, I didn't even ask their names.'

He suddenly became curious about the two men's names.

***

He practiced energy circulation breathing from evening until dawn, then slept briefly at dawn.

He'd crossed the big mountain of dantian creation.

From now on, all that remained was accumulating energy in that dantian.

Fortunately, thanks to earning some galands, he could still drink plenty of alcohol.

With alcohol available, Aslan's growth rate was very fast.

Not long after fighting Benjol, he'd already reached another level.

Though it was only very weak internal energy by martial world standards, it was a very precious asset for Aslan currently.

His routine after waking was to head to the training ground first. It was to meet One-arm and One-eye who'd shown him kindness.

Kenon followed behind Aslan at an appropriate distance. But he didn't come close. However, when they entered the training ground, Kenon didn't enter at all and waited outside.

Slaves were already out in the training ground, working up a sweat.

Liscal was in the center watching new gladiator slaves while talking with another overseer.

There were those training hard next to him, and those leisurely warming up in corners.

Dus was also among such groups.

Oben and Isaac were in a somewhat different place from them.

They were in a place on the outskirts of the training ground, in a corner where you had to turn around, so it looked like they were training separately by themselves.

Aslan could only tell they were there after walking around the entire training ground once.

"You came out?"

"See. I told you he'd come out. It wasn't because of his background, right?"

One-arm and One-eye recognized Aslan immediately and approached.

"Come to think of it..."

"Come to think of it?"

"I didn't ask your names."

"That's right? We didn't tell you our names either? Even though we're gladiator slaves, we have names. I'm Oben."

One-eye said with a hearty laugh.

"I'm Isaac."

This was One-arm.

"Just because you're not participating in training doesn't mean we can stop you from watching. Take a good look. There'll definitely be something helpful."

After speaking, the two sparred with each other. Both held wooden weapons. Their skills weren't bad.

Flaws were immediately visible to Aslan's eyes, but that didn't mean their skills were terrible. Especially, it was clear they were very experienced in combat.

However, he also saw fatal weaknesses, and if those were exposed, they wouldn't live long.

'Should I help them as much as they helped me?'

He'd already confirmed that the information these two had given him yesterday was true. Unlike Liscal, Kenon answered questions very well. So he'd asked about the information he'd heard yesterday, and it was confirmed as fact. That meant these two had really shown Aslan kindness with pure intentions.

So he was also pondering, because just fixing the big things visible to the eye could make them much better.

Oben's weakness was being too aggressive. He had good strength and stamina.

And he knew that about himself too well. So his body seemed to have many minor wounds.

So far he'd been lucky that losing one eye was the extent of major injuries, but with that style, it was clear he wouldn't last long.

Plus, since both his stamina and strength were good, he relied too much on just those.

Combat required controlling strength and weakness.

That made it easier to seize the initiative.

But Oben couldn't do that. While that might work against opponents weak to being pushed hard, Oben could become very good prey for veterans who endured well and then exploited openings.

Isaac was similar to Oben.

Maybe because they were close friends, their fighting styles were quite similar. The difference was that Isaac's physicality was somewhat inferior to Oben's.

Instead, he was more capable of controlling strength and weakness. So if the two fought, Isaac had a greater possibility of being advantageous.

But currently Oben was sure to win. The reason was that Isaac had a direct injury.

Specifically, his back.

Isaac definitely had back problems. He was fighting while completely avoiding movements that overused his back, and because of that, you could see the flow of combat being interrupted.

'It's right to repay kindness with kindness.'

Just as he was about to tell them what he'd thought, someone came running from over there. He wasn't as big as Dus, but he was a large black man.

"Chira! You overslept again!"

Oben shouted. Chira seemed unable to speak and communicated with Oben using gestures while blinking his eyes.

Chira had physicality that would make your eyes go round.

Long limbs with cleanly sculpted muscles. A thick neck.

Watching him move, he wasn't lacking in flexibility either. And watching him run, his elasticity was very good too.

His movement was like bouncing and running like a horse.

So Aslan thought Chira was as excellent a gladiator slave as Isaac or Oben.

But that wasn't the case. Chira was a new gladiator slave who'd just fought his second match, and he'd lost both of them, so they said he couldn't even guarantee he'd survive his next match.

From Aslan's perspective, it was incomprehensible.

'Why with that kind of physicality? Is it because he can't speak? Or does he have mental problems?'

While Oben and Chira were talking, Isaac slipped over and spoke to him.

"That's Chira over there. We call him Chira because he's from the Chira tribe. As you can see, he can't speak. He's under a curse. He's excessively sturdy but can't speak, so he couldn't handle training. That's why we're looking after him."

"That's how it works?"

"It does. Liscal permitted it."

"That guy gives such permissions too."

Hearing that, Isaac chuckled.

"You really don't think well of Liscal?"

"Not particularly..."

"Liscal's a good overseer. I don't know how he treated you. But in this business, someone like Liscal is a good overseer. At least he doesn't use gladiator slaves as disposable goods."

"Not using them as disposable goods..."

"He gives sufficient opportunities. That alone makes him a good overseer."

"I don't really understand."

"You'll know when you experience it. When you meet an owner who uses you as disposable goods, gladiator slaves really die in droves."

"He seemed like he wanted to use me as disposable goods."

"That's why you should reduce the alcohol. And win. Keep winning and survive. In this business, owners can't treat gladiator slaves who keep winning and popular gladiator slaves carelessly. You have the potential to be both. If you win the next match, learning boxing properly with money would be a method too."

"I'll do that."

"After learning boxing, it'd be good to learn fighting too. You're fifteen this year, right? Starting next year you'll have to compete in fighting matches. You might even end up in gladiator matches."

He had no intention of reducing alcohol at all. The Drunken Immortal Method was martial arts that grew using alcohol as a medium. Since he'd already created a dantian, he'd have to drink even more alcohol from now on. But there was no need to explain that process.

"But when did your back start bothering you?"

"?"

Isaac, who'd been watching Chira and Oben's sparring, opened his eyes wide. It was an expression like he'd seen a ghost.

"How did you know that?"

"I know medicine."

"You... weren't you from crown prince background?"

"That's right."

"But you know medicine?"

"In Maran, we don't discriminate about such things. So I ask again. When did your back start bothering you?"

"..."

"You can't believe it?"

"No... no. It's been about a year."

"I can fix it. That back. You use your feet more because of that back, right? That's why your stamina depletes quickly."

Isaac looked even more surprised this time.

"You..."

"Please don't say anything."

"You know about combat..."

"Yes. But please don't say anything."

"Our mouths are very heavy."

"Yes. I'll trust you. But if I could fix that back, would you do it?"

"If you could fix it, my lifeline would be a bit longer."

Isaac's back was also called disc symptoms in modern times. But it wasn't serious. However, if left alone, it would gradually become serious, and later even movement could become uncomfortable. So such things could be corrected by consistently doing a few back exercises good for discs.

Aslan taught Isaac several such movements. While teaching postures, he touched Isaac's back using energy. Since his internal energy wasn't deep, he couldn't give tremendous effects, but even that should have loosened blocked energy and blood to some extent.

"Doing this movement will really improve my back?"

"Try it for a few days. You won't lose anything, right?"

It was confusing. Even physicians had said there was no treatment method for his back. He'd heard he couldn't be cured without treatment from a high priest or recovery mage, so he'd completely given up on his back.

But Isaac decided to believe Aslan's words. The words he'd just said couldn't come out without deep knowledge of combat.

It was insight to discover there was a back injury just from briefly watching sparring. It was hard to consider it ordinary insight.

Most of all, he had no particular reason to lie.

"If you try it and it doesn't help, you can always quit."

Aslan said with a bright smile.

"Seeing that smile, I can't refuse. I'll definitely try it."