Roger picked up the food and ate it to his heart's content, like a condemned prisoner enjoying his last supper.

He shared the remaining food with others, and each person got a small portion, a very small portion.

Some people were happy, some were disapproving, but no one refused.

Roger walked towards the stone wall. He had a plan in mind, but he was not sure whether it would succeed. He could only try his best.

He prayed to Fate not to mock him again this time.

Roger arrived at Heller's cabin. He ran in pretending to be frightened and fell to his knees directly.

He said: "Sir, I, I killed someone."

Heller held the wine glass and looked at him with squinted eyes.

Roger continued: "I, I didn't mean it. He opposed me and I taught him a lesson, but he dared to resist. I really didn't mean it. Sir, you have to believe me."

Heller's eyes widened, and he had a scowl on his face.

"You killed my slave, that was my slave. I remember I said that no one can kill my slave without my permission."

Roger knelt down and took two steps, stepped forward and hugged Heller's thigh.

He defended: "My lord, I am doing this for your benefit. He, he is a villain and a scoundrel. He eats your food and lives in your house, but he refuses to work well and does not let others work well. He asks you, sir."

income has decreased.”

Heller's anger subsided a little: "You mean I raised a loser?"

Roger looked confident: "Sir, without this troublesome guy, your output will not decrease, but will increase."

Heller looked suspicious: "Are you sure my output will increase?"

Roger swore to the sky: "I promise, sir, when the mine is harvested today, you can see it with your own eyes."

Heller seemed to believe it. He said: "You can step back. I will take a look in the afternoon, but if the output decreases, I will let you mine all night until the shortfall is made up."

Roger was temporarily relieved, he admired his acting skills.

He thought that future generations might be able to win Oscars based on this level of performance.

At least, he was really trying his best to perform.

After finishing work in the afternoon, the slaves came to the stone wall gate to hand over the ore they had collected for the day.

Heller appeared on the stone wall, and the guard collecting the ore opened the box.

Roger pushed, dragged, and shouted to get the Arab slaves to line up according to his requirements.

The Greek slaves just threw the ores into the box in the same noisy manner as usual.

The Arab slaves poured the sulfur ore into the box one by one in the order specified by Roger.

When the box was almost full, the guards shook the box.

So the box on the Greek side was empty and could be filled again, while the Arab box had almost no changes.

Seeing that there was no room left, the guard closed the lid and opened the next empty box.

When all the slaves handed over the ore, the guards discovered that the Arab slaves had handed over half a box more ore than usual.

Roger flattered Heller and announced the good news. He shouted to the wall: "Sir, you see, the output has increased!"

He was very nervous. He didn't know if Heller had noticed his little trick.

In fact, production has not increased at all.

Based on Roger's observations in the past few days, he found that these guards used the loading capacity of boxes to evaluate the day's output.

The size of the ore collected by slaves is different.

Those who are physically strong often use wooden crowbars to pry up large pieces of sulfur ore;

The weaker ones will collect some broken small ores with their hands;

The weaker ones will sweep the powder on the ground with their hands to collect it.

What Roger is doing now is not simply maintaining order.

He adjusted the order of slaves in the team based on the size of the ore they collected.

He asked those holding the powder to pour the ore powder into the box first, then the small stones, and finally the large stones.

Under his arrangement, the gaps between large and small ores are always empty and will not be filled with fine ore powder.

This is why no matter how hard the guards shook it, there was no change inside the box.

Roger awaits Heller's sentencing.

Heller said: "I don't want a next time, Ruggiero, remember I have the final say in this mine. Guard, give him a whip."

Heller turned and left.

Two guards carried Roger to the execution rack.

Roger knew that he had passed this level, and Heller did reward him. He replaced the larger punishment with a smaller punishment. This was Heller's kindness.

The guards tied Roger to the execution frame, and a guard whispered in his ear: "I'm sorry."

Roger knew that the guard had been affected by the yeast, and he replied: "I forgive you."

The whip was drawn up, avoiding the vital points, and he felt burning pain.

Roger was carried back to the shack.

At night, when the guard was watching the man getting food, he specially left a portion for him.

An old and frail Arab slave brought Roger's dinner in, and no one dared to swallow his rations.

The next day, while Roger was lying in the shack recovering from his injuries, the Greek translator Christodulus came to visit him.

Dulles looked around and asked quietly, "How did you do that?"

Roger pretended not to understand: "What did you say?"

Dulles lowered his voice: "I know you played a trick.

"The Arabs under your command are working as usual, I don't see them working particularly hard.

"So I'm sure your production hasn't increased at all.

"You must be playing some trick, but I can't see through it."

Roger hesitated for a moment. The Greek in front of him could report directly to Heller. Perhaps he came to ask questions now because of Heller's instructions.

But he was determined to take a gamble and said, "Yes, I did a trick."

So Roger explained his method in detail.

Dulles was very surprised: "Can we still do this?"

Roger suggested that the other party try it too.

After Dulles left, Roger began to wait uneasily, like a gambler waiting for the dice to stop rolling.

Roger did not wait for the guards sent by Heller to capture him.

When it was time to hand over the mine, Roger's little ears heard Dulles yelling, using Greek that he couldn't understand, seeming to direct the Greeks to line up.

Roger knew he had won the bet and had a friend.

He heard that the Arabs had returned to a chaotic state without his command.

He heard several Arab slaves muttering: "Are those Greeks stupid? Why did they get into our queue?"

He heard the last statistics of the output from the guards. The Greeks were the same as usual, and the Arabs were the same as yesterday, with a little more than half a box more than before.
Chapter completed!