The gladiator arena would have to wait. I needed the satisfaction of completing an actual questline. I took myself down the roads to Cirpio. Just as I was leaving, I saw an army marching out of the gates. I had to check to see if the lord I was looking for was among them. He was. It was honestly a stroke of luck. If I had been any later, I would have missed my chance to talk to him. I asked to speak to him. The herald was dismissive. He had every right to be though. I was just a commoner. He was the servant of a general of the imperial army. "I need to speak to him. Please sir!! I served under his son and I need to speak to him about something important!" The herald crossed his arms. He looked me up and down. He was skeptical now. "Which son was it?" he asked me. I blinked at him. "Does it matter which one I directly served under?" I responded. He nodded his head with a smirk. I was getting tired of dealing with him. "Lucius Vesnius Protacius. I served with his brother Lars at one point, but not directly under him." The herald's eyes widened. "Come. He will want to hear it."
Under the circumstances, I had no choice but to obey. I was brought to where he and his officers were waiting. They were all in shiny armor. Each and every one of them was on horseback. The lord was a middle aged man. He looked at us and sighed deeply. "What is it that we had to delay our departure? What's happened to my son?" he asked. I took out the promissory note and said "Your son owes me a debt. One that I would like to be paid." The look of utter disdain on his face did not deter me. I did not care if he liked me. I wanted money. He came to me and reached down for the note. He read it and scoffed. "That's it? 10000 lin for a tournament warhorse? That's not a bad deal after all." he said. He reached into his inventory and gave me 10000 lin. It was pocket change for the senior nobles. I now had 21,753 lin. Hopefully, that would be enough to take the gladiator pits of Ainon by storm. He looked at me with disdain. No one likes to have to pay other people money for debts. "Will that be all? A debt collector without protection is vulnerable indeed." he asked me. It was a threat.
I had no reason to delay him any further. "No, my lord. I pray for your success on the campaign." I said before bowing. He dismissed me with a wave of his hand. I could go after they had cleared the area. I was going to need to go all the way back to Ainon anyway. There were beasts and bandits that I had to fight to get here. There would be just as many on the trip back. It was annoying, but I made it. I was level 9 when I returned. There were a few shops still open when I got through the gates. I put my money to good use. I bought decent scale armor and a kite shield to go with my new pike and longsword. That practically drained me dry. I only had 214 lin left. The shitty inn cost 1 lin a night. All I needed was a bed to rest in. Resting brought your HP back up. I was then ready to sign up at the gladiator arena. I was known as David. I only put my first name in. The registrar added "Liberi" due to my status in the empire as a free man. Looking at the menu, I was not even a citizen yet. I was registered for fights by the staff. If no one here wanted to fight me, a slave would face me instead.
Very clearly, great minds thought alike. Being a border province, it was not a wise investment to buy property here. That meant the nobles were not interested in anything that Ainon had to offer. The nobles that already owned all the land were simply stuck here. They had to defend their lands, or everything would be taken from them. It explained why Lucius and Lars were so tenacious about the war. They were native to the area. Any movement of the border with the Western Empire would take some of the pressure off their lands. There were only so many men and goods the game would generate at a time for them. That was a mechanic of this world. Things done in the world had knock on effects. I was right to want to move. There was only 1 other private gladiator here. He did not want to fight me. That meant that he and I were both going to have to face the gladiator slaves. I was fine with that. In fact, the first 3 weeks were me and the other gladiator on the upper card. He was a native citizen and had a high win rate. He did not fight often. He only came out to crush penal slaves.
