Emperor Has Returned

Fourth day.

Juan was lying down at a corner inside a cave.

Around him, the sound of pick axe and heavy breathing rattled throughout the cave.

Construction to expand the Colosseum dungeon was in place. But, no adequate lighting had been set up in the cave and furthermore no proper equipment was handed out.

Using limited torches for light, blunt pickaxes to pry away at the wall was good as it got.

The dungeon underneath the Colosseum was sturdy with a stone structural base, but at the cave it was but all rocks and dirt. To add fuel to fire, ventilation and drainage had not been properly set up as well.

No spaces in the dungeon were given to slaves as it was already used to accommodate beasts and creatures who had better treatment. Therefore, they were making more room for their own containment space.

No designer nor director was sent to manage the construction. Instead, a few guards were placed so that slaves didn’t slack off.

Juan was also brought to the cave to work just like any other slave. But he wasn’t in a state to help with the construction work. He was dragged along on the sole reason that; a slave couldn’t be left alone.

Juan didn’t do anything. Slowly, he was dying.

The inspector ordered his soldiers and tried to throw Juan into a pit full of monsters. But a crazy woman had put a stop to that.

The crazy woman tightly held Juan and screamed out loud anytime the soldiers would approach him.

The inspector wasn’t daft enough to throw a ‘valuable’ woman into the pit.

Instead, he ordered no food to be given to Juan.

‘4 days…..’

There was no sunlight coming through inside the cave so he only count in days when he went and returned to the cave.

For 4 days, the woman shared her food with Juan. It could be said that the woman forced Juan to eat her share rather than Juan wanting to eat her food.

Juan’s body was entirely made from mana but without nutrients, it wouldn’t function properly.

The food that the woman gave was just enough to sustain his lifeforce.

Just barely.

Juan slowly but surely was creeping closer to death. Only the feeling bones could be felt when one gripped around his wrist.

Who would have believed that the resurrected emperor would die from starvation.

But for him, starvation wasn’t painful. Instead, the thing that pained him was the face of his son appearing every time he opened his eyes.

Rather than the proud, majestic appearance he showed all his life, the face of his son covered in blood came to his mind.

‘Gared. If you are alive, are you too suffering?’

Juan on purpose tried not to hear about the events that had occured after his death.

Luckily, a Colosseum wasn’t the right place where you could leisurely discuss history.

**********

Time passed.

As slaves started to grumble about when their meal was to arrive, a disturbance was heard outside.

Clattering noise of metal chains, loud shouting, along with a spine chilling low growl from a creature.

Slaves who were digging a hole immediately flattened themselves against the wall in fear.

“Hold on properly!”

A black wolf the size of an adult man walked into the cave.

Its eyes glistened as if it had been starved for a couple of days.

“A demonic creature.”

Differently shaped compared to a normal monster, their looks resulted from gods altering their appearance often in part of their humor.

With most gods killed, their race survived by breeding over and over. Many still existed.

“What, this cave construction still hasn’t ended yet?”

The men who entered the cave behind had metal poles holding the creatures’ necks in place.

As if that wasn’t enough, two men on each side held metal poles in their hands.

The men looked around the place uninterestedly.

“Hmm, the place has become plenty wide enough, why don’t we let them loose now?”

Screams and pleas came out from everywhere. The men let out a cruel laugh. They had no intention of releasing the creatures.

They actually weren’t guards but were slaves just like the cave digging slaves.

Only difference was, they became gladiators from fighting multiple times in the Colosseum arena.

Gladiators who survived three battles would receive a completely different treatment compared to a normal slave.

Their status was right below a typical soldier and the work they received were mostly related to physical and weapon training.

The highest ranked gladiator titled ‘Champion’ would get treatment on par with the director. Because of this, there were many cases where commoners living a difficult life would self volunteer to become a gladiator.

Amongst them, one person had recently done exactly this. The bald man.

He arrived the same day as Juan did, but due to his violent personality, this one attribute helped him to be dragged off to become a Gladiator before anyone else.

Bald man, who seemingly wanted to be recognized by other gladiators, acted with more violence than usual.

After seeing the slaves’ frightened expressions, they reeled back the creatures in satisfaction.

Being pulled back with force, the creatures distorted their body and growled. Having starved for a long time, they appeared extra sensitive today with the amount of fear they could sense in the air inside the cave.

“Our ‘Butterfly’ seems to be hungry.”

Everyone refused to believe that was the creature’s actual name. A gladiator looked around the area then spoke. Every slave frantically diverted their eyes away.

“Is there anyone who can feed our ‘Butterfly’ some food?”

Of course, nobody wanted to get involved with a creature. The gladiator pointed to a few slaves. He had no intentions to wait around for a volunteer.

“You and you. Follow me.”

“Eeeeek! Um…. I have to work here. Sir! Uh…… instead, there is a fellow who does nothing here!”

Before the bald man could even properly select someone, one slave shouted out as if he was waiting for this moment.

The person that the slave pointed to was Juan who was lying down at the corner of the cave.

The gladiators finally noticed Juan for the first time.

“What is that? Thought it was a corpse.”

“He…He’s alive! To…Today morning, I saw him being fed!”

“Why are you guys so afraid, it’s not exactly something dangerous that we are making you guys do….. And why is he lying down? Is he sick?

A gladiator approached Juan and lightly kicked Juan’s leg. Juan’s skinny leg wobbled weakly as if there was no strength left.

“It might break if I touch him again. There is nothing but bones left.”

“No… No sir! He looks like that but actually his belly has a bit of weig ….”

“Someone shut that guy up.”

The bald man hurriedly, closed the gap and slapped the slave in the face. The slave screamed as he clutched at this smashed nose.

“Did we say we were feeding it humans? What if our expensive creatures fall ill doing so.”

The gladiators on purpose created a misleading atmosphere but no one was going to point that out.

One creature, finding Juan curious, strolled over towards him while sniffing.

Suddenly, a sharp female scream echoed throughout the cave.

“Kyaaaah! Child! Child!”

It was the sound of a crazy woman. The pot she was carrying fell to the ground, spilling the porridge inside. The crazy woman ran over and lashed out at the creature’s face. Surprised at the sudden attack, Woof! It barked loudly in response.

Freaked out, the gladiators pulled the chains back to stop the creatures from causing havoc.

If creatures were to create a mayhem, all slaves being executed is a given plus consequences would fall upon themselves as well.

However, the female didnt care one bit about this and continued to hug Juan tightly whispering.

“Child, mom will protect you. Mommy will protect you.”

Her hands like a padlock, hugged Juan interlocking him.

After a while, the gladiators had struggled but finished calming down the creatures. No doubt anger was filled to their heads.

“This bitch….”

The bald man grabbed the crazy woman’s hair and pulled.

The woman didn’t let go of Juan even while screaming. Attached, Juan was also dragged along with the woman.

“This bitch is actually crazy.”

The gladiators noted, after observing her behaviour.

Loosened eyes with disheveled hair, and constant mumbling.

There was no sense of ‘normal’ with her.

“Is she mad? Gotta say, the inspector takes in virtually anyone these days.”

“The event is not long to go. Even someone like her can be used. A lovely match I suppose, a corpse and a crazy bitch.”

The gladiators snickered while looking down at Juan and the crazy woman. And then, one of the gladiators swiftly gazed up and down at the crazy woman’s body.

Noticing his senpai’s gaze, the bald man grabbed the crazy woman’s chin and turned it side to side.

“Although she’s mad, doesn’t she look alright? After a wash, she could look promising.”

“There’s no time for a wash.”

Between the gladiators, a nasty laugh could be heard. The bald man promptly separated Juan from the crazy woman.

One of the gladiators punched her stomach as she started to scream. The woman fell silent.

“I’ll keep an eye on this fellow”

The gladiators eyed each other with evil in their eyes. They strapped the creatures tightly to a stone pole.

The gladiators started to pull the crazy woman towards a dark end of the cave.

The bald man licked his lips as he looked at their backs. He peeked at the corpse like Juan and threw him to the ground.

To point out guilt, Baldy muttered.

“If you ain’t gonna work, then at least your mother should be doing double the work. Right?”

Juan didn’t answer. Baldy wasn’t expecting a response either so he headed over to the crazy woman’.

Inside the dark part of the cave, the gladiators were just about to grab the crazy woman’s body.

“Hehe, senpais. I’m allowed to at least watch right?”

“You… newbies should get in line….. Huh. What is he doing?”

About to growl at baldy, a gladiator noticed someone and tilted his head. All gladiators’ attention followed suit, towards the baldy.

Baldy, about to panic with all the gaze directed at him, realized that everyone was actually staring behind him.

When he turned around, Juan was standing there.

A skeleton-like skinny boy stood still.

Ever since the first day they met, he only lied still like a corpse, so baldy was startled a bit more than other gladiators but quickly regained composure.

However, looking at Juan standing still, he felt something alien.

Between the gladiators, an awful silence grew. Someone whispered softly.

“That….. Is he alive? Maybe an undead?”

Juan didn’t say anything. He didn’t even look at them. He just stood still.

The gladiators didn’t even swallow their saliva and continued only to stare.

It felt like someone was holding their necks in place on the spot.

Not just the gladiators, the slaves were all frozen in place and stared at Juan.

The only sound heard inside the cave was low breathing and sound of chains inaudibly clanging.

‘Chains?’

Through all gladiators’ heads, a thought passed.

Their attention redirected to the stone pole that creatures were strapped to.

The creatures were on their stomachs, shaking. Then spastically, they started to twist their body and struggle.

In doing so, the clumsily tied chains started to loosen.

Then, Juan turned his head towards the gladiators.

Simultaneously, all creatures let out a loud ‘bark!’ as they broke their chains and started running. The gladiators and slaves all started screaming as they ran away.

But the direction creatures ran towards, wasn’t at gladiators nor slaves but towards the cave exit.