My success and failure

~Dusan~(February 20 79AD):

Nothing special today. I did fight a few fights after my mood improved... In that I won a few gold coins, of which most were taken by Guildford.

Well I am not angry. I have no idea what to do with the coins I have now anyway. So I decided to shop!! For us, slaves, it is impossible of course. We lived inside cells or practiced fighting.

When we practice, there would be others to keep guard and watch us all the time. So it was easier to sneak out when we were in cells. Soooooo, I had maximus pick the cell lock. He did it just using a small stick, without breaking the lock or the stick! But once open, it was impossible for us to lock without the keys.

Last time Guildford found the locks open and he knew right away. But this time, I had planned it out pretty well.

This time Guildford was pretty busy. so the servants would open the cell. It was easy to fool them! We had enough time from dust till dawn.

The plan was executed smoothly. Well I didn't plan it out that well I guess. The shops were all closed!! This didn't strike our minds( ･ั﹏･ั)...

"Hey, we'll break into the shops, take what we want and then leave the money on the desk!! How about it?", Maxi said.

"Eh? Ohhh... Okay...", It took me a while to process what he said. Don't ask me why, I just wasn't thinking straight. Yeah the idea was really dumb. All of the ideas in fact. But still, it was scary to execute. That gave us the thrill, putting our lives on line!!

So we broke into the first shop, which was apparently an antique shop. Which meant we could get nothing useful...

Before dawn we came back, with a good dagger made of celestial bronze which caught my fancy. I left a gold coin there as payment... Quite pricey, I know... Maxi took some ring for himself. And that's how the two gold coins I had was spent. Yes!! I got two gold coins!! Don't say 'only'! That's too much for a slave in fact!!

We came back safely inside our cells. Mr.Servant came to open the cell.

"Why is this cell open? Did anyone escape?!", He shouted.

"No. It was locked!", I said.

"Ohh, then why is this open??"

"Master Guildford didn't lock it properly yesterday I guess... None of us really noticed it. If we did, we would have definitely escaped!"

"How dare you!!"

"Sorry... For stepping out of the line..."

"Hmmm... That makes sense... But don't ever try to escape!! Master is rich!! He can easily catch you!!"

That's exactly why we didn't escape when we got the chance. Doubt cleared??

Well that's not what I wanted to tell you guys... But I just wanted to brag, you know!

Oh yeah, back to the point... After many games, we had lost quite a number of gladiators... And Guildford had also gambled and lost many times... So yeah, basically, he didn't have any money left. That means, he might sell a few of us. That meant, I'll might be separated from my friends once again. That's Kwame's prediction. Complete bullshit, I know!

"We get him money!! He wouldn't sell us!!", I argued.

"No. You don't understand. He still has about 15 gladiators left. He would sell about 5 of them for ridding himself from the burdens of debt. He'll continue to be an entertainer, with the rest of us. Once he gets enough money, he'll be able to get himself more slaves.", He lectured.

But I must say, KWAME IS A PHILOSOPHER!! Soon Guildford came and informed us the same thing. But only just 5 slaves would be sold. The probability of me, Kwame and Maxi being sold was really low.

It was really low, but not impossible. And whose the unfortunate one? ME!!

I was chosen as one of the 5 and taken to the slave market, where I spent days feeling listless...