Chapter Text
We are 100 BC. To be exact in the capital of Italy: Rome.
A time when Rome was a rich country and yet there were great differences between rich and poor.
Mahiru was born into a poor family and his future never looked perfect. Since his family would soon die of starvation, Mahiru was sold to the coliseum. Fortunately, since he was only 14 years old and not very strong, he was not forced to fight.
Instead, he took care of the gladiators, kept cleaning, cooking and much more. In short, he was a "boy for everything".
Time passed quickly and Mahiru was 16 years old. Despite not leading the best life, he was a very active person and always tried to give his best.
"Mahiru! "
"Coming"
Mahiru quickly ran to the male voice that came out of the kitchen. Fortunately, he was almost done cleaning the swords, so he could go to the voice.
"You're finally here, quickly help me cut the meat, the gladiators are hungry," the cook said to him.
Of course, Mahiru immediately started cutting the meat and searing it right on top. Since he had been here for two years now, he knew his way around the coliseum and knew his tasks perfectly.
The boy didn't know exactly how his family was doing, since he hadn't heard from them since they had sold him. He wasn't angry with them for giving him away, but he wasn't going to visit or miss them either.
After all, they had to do it to survive. Besides, Mahiru didn't find it very bad in the coliseum, after all, he never went hungry contrary to the life he had lived before. He never had a big problem with doing a lot of things and was happy when he could help.
The only problem was that he was surrounded by death. In the meantime, he had gotten used to cleaning the bloody swords, but he still couldn't see the dead bodies without having an oppressive feeling.
In the beginning it was worse, but over time he got used to it and ignores it now as well as he can.
When he was 15 he had a friend named Sakuya. However, he died in a fight 3 months after they met. Through this incident, he had decided to never befriend with gladiators again.
"Mahiru what are you dreaming about ?! Bring this to the gladiators. "said the cook to Mahiru.
Mahiru was instantly torn from his thoughts and immediately reached for the finished food to bring it to the hungry gladiators.
When he was finished after a while and he was watching everyone gulp down their food, he slouched back into the kitchen. Since he had probably finished all his tasks, he could now also eat the food he had cooked himself.
But when he was back in the kitchen, the cook held a large bowl of meat in front of his nose. When Mahiru saw the bowl, he sighed. He had forgotten a person who also had to be fed. No, it was not a person. Much better fits creature.
Nonetheless, Mahiru grabbed the bowl and went to the creature that owned the food he had in his hand.
There was a new gladiator in this coliseum, to be precise, it's been 2 months since he got here. However, he was not human, but a large black lion.
The people who own the coliseum often hollow out animals for entertainment for the spectators, against which the gladiators have to fight.
Usually these animals die very quickly and are just puppets to make everything more exciting and to make the gladiators look better.
However, this lion was different from all other animals. As Mahiru had already mentioned, he has been living in the coliseum for 2 months and is still unbeaten till this day.
Just that he was a black lion was very special. But when he defeated one after the other gladiators, he became more and more famous among the spectators.
He actually liked animals, but knowing that the animal could end its life in just a few seconds was not a good thought.
The gladiators knew him and would not attack him out of nowhere, it was different with animals.
Mahiru arrived in front of the lion's cage sooner than expected. Mahiru couldn't see him because he was further back in the cage in the shadows.
Apparently the animal was sleeping again. Whenever he brought him the food the lion slept, which calmed Mahiru a little. After all, he would surely get scared if there was a large lion growling at him.
He quickly went to the cage, placed the bowl in front of the small gap in the bars and pushed the meat to the lion with a stick.
Despite that the lion apparently always slept, as he always ate what Mahiru brought him. No wonder when you consider that the lion had to fight against gladiators almost every Sunday.
When the bowl was safely in the cage, Mahiru quickly pulled the stick back and put it back in its former place.
After taking another look at the lion in the shadows, he turned around and went away. Now he could finally eat something, so he went back to the kitchen to get the food.
When Mahiru had shoveled everything on his plate, he went to the table where most of the gladiators had already left and sat down.
But he couldn't enjoy his meal for long because soon afterwards a certain man with long pink hair was standing next to him. It was an employee of his.
The other employees who had the same tasks as him found him a little strange, after all not everyone is so motivated to do slaves' work.
Also, through the experience with Sakuya, he had decided not to form close friendships with people, which made him even stranger.
Most just ignore him, but Balkia really wanted Mahiru to hate him.
" Well who do we have here? ", he said to Mahiru with a smile.
Of course, Mahiru immediately told the man to leave him alone, which of course he didn't. After several unsuccessful attempts to scare him away, Mahiru simply begins to ignore Belkia.
However, this made him even angrier, so he grabbed Mahirus's plate with food from which he ate and threw it on the floor.
Mahiru sighed and got up to go away and get a rag to wipe everything up. The man was so childlike and Mahiru avoided him as much as he could.
When he came back, Belkia was fortunately already gone and Mahiru was able to clean the floor without any problems.
The day came to an end pretty quickly and Mahiru was already lying in his bed, which shouldn't really be called a bed, as it was only a wooden board covered with animal skin, but it's better than nothing. As he was exhausted from the day he fell asleep quickly.
The next day was first like every other day. He confidently carried out all of his tasks, exerting himself on each one. He didn't run into the pink-haired man, which improved his day by a lot.
It was time to eat quickly and he had to go back to the lion to bring him some food. With the bowl in his hand, he walked to the lion's cage. But when he got closer he was frightened.
The door of the cage was open. Did that mean that the lion is running around freely here ?! Mahiru quickly put down the bowl with the meat and ran to the cage to see if the lion was still inside and to close it in an emergency.
Mahiru let out a deep breath when he saw the lion sleeping in its usual place. Now Mahiru just had to quickly close the door and lock it with the key that he had.
But just as he was grabbing the door, with the key in his other hand, he felt hands wrapping around him and throwing him into the cage. This all happened so quickly that Mahiru could not react anymore and when he turned around the door was already closed.
It was Belkia, of course it was Belkia. When he saw Mahiru's face he started to giggle.
"How can you ...!? ", Mahiru wanted to yell at him, but then the pink-haired man put his fingers on his lips and said:" You don't want to wake the lion, do you? "
Mahiru immediately winced and looked at the lion, who was still sleeping peacefully in its corner. After trying to get the lion to sleep, he looked back at Belkia.
He smiled at him and swayed around with the key with which Mahiru wanted to lock the cage a few seconds ago. He must have snatched the key out of his hand as he pushed him inside the cage. Since Belkia had now the key, he was able to lock the cage with Mahiru inside.
Balkia turned around and walked away. Again and again, Mahiru whispered insults after him, but could not utter a sound that was too loud. After he could no longer see Belkia, he looked back at the lion and pressed himself trembling against the bars.
Mahiru didn't want to die here. He just had to survive until a guard would come over and see him here. There was no way he could scream for help. Firstly, this would wake up the lion and secondly, the loud noises could cause him to attack him.
If he still had the keys he could easily get out, but unfortunately Belkia had them. Mahiru furiously hit the ground with his fist, still being careful not to make too loud a noise.
10 minutes had passed by now. It were clearly the longest 10 minutes in Mahiru's entire life in which he watched the animal's belly go up and down. The moment the lion woke up, it would all be over.
Since Mahiru never saw the lion properly, he now observed him more closely. He had a long black mane and raven black hair. His claws were longer than average, which probably saved his life many times. Despite that he was sleeping, he looked very threatening.
When Mahiru's heart was just slowing a little and he was coming to terms with his situation, he saw the lion's tail moving. Mahiru immediately winced again. As if it wasn't bad enough, Mahiru saw the lion slowly opening one of his eyes.
Now it was all over, the brown-haired boy was sure of that. After the black lion opened his other eye, Mahiru looked into it. Of course, such an animal had to have red eyes, it's not like it's scary enough already.
So far his hair was always in the way and so you could never really see the color of his eyes. But since the lion was just 7 meters in front of him and his mane was not over his eyes, Mahiru could see them.
At first the lion didn't seem to see him and stared into the air, but after a few seconds, he wrinkled his nose, and his head moved to the boy, who was now pressing himself even more against the bars.
To stare straight into the big red eyes was something completely different than looking at them from the side. Mahiru didn't even notice anymore that he had stopped shaking and just stared into the other's eyes.
Suddenly the eye contact was broken when the lion turned his head away again, laid his head on the ground and closed his eyes.
What the hell just happened? Mahiru couldn't believe what had just happened. The lion hadn’t attacked him, even less killed him, even though he had seen him.
Mahiru still couldn't believe what had just happened when he saw a guard walking along outside the cage. Immediately he reached out and whispered: "Help"