Aether : Calraem

Chapter 21: A King's Despair

"Haah... Haah..."

It was a dark room under the castle. King Marcus Saint The Third was tied to a chair. He was stark naked and sweating uncontrollably. His was gasping for air. His vision was blurry and the amount of pain he currently felt was immeasurable.

How many days had he been here? He didn't know.

All he knew that this was the result of that damn pirate. After their hope had been stolen along with his crown he was summoned by the Emperor. He had been looking for a multitude of ways to explain what happened but he kept it with the truth. The more he thought about it, the more it didn't make sense to him.

Why did Kaizoku know about the summoning in the first place? How did he know where to do the raid? The forest they had chosen had one of the oldest temples on Delterra and the forest itself had no longer become common. He even knew what time to appear... Then the answer had popped in his head.

A spy.

That could have been the only answer to this. He had done everything according to plan. A spy must have sold information to that bloody pirate! By the time he reached the summit he immediately told the Emperor what happened. The Emperor only laughed at him and called a special band of knights to cease him. He had been in this torture room ever since.

"If it makes you feel any better... I sorta sympathize with the likes of you." Someone said as they approached.

Marcus recognized the voice. It's the voice of the Emperor's second son. The one who's been torturing him for last few days (If it had even been a few days... His sense of time was extremely unreliable at the moment). The voice that spoke to him was Marshall Valtus.

"How... Long... Have..." Marcus was trying to speak between heavy breaths but he didn't have the strength to speak any further.

Marshall paused for a while as he thought about it. As if he remembered something he walked over to the corner and grabbed a lamp and lit it. It was surprisingly very bright and most of the room could be clearly seen now.

"If you're asking about how long you've been here don't bother. It's not going to make you feel any better."

Marshall had long white hair. His face well groomed and had glowing blue eyes. He was wearing white robes and had a large smile on his face. His eyes are what terrified Marcus. They looked to be enjoying the scene of him being covered up in blood and dragged to the point of despair.

The room itself was filled with torture devices. A saw, a club with nails, an assortment of knives, a torch blower, a bucket of mucky water and a towel, a bucket filled with parasitic insects and many other things the king had never seen before. The way humanity had mastered the art of torturing was terrifying. Now it was being used on their king no less.

"You know, I've been thinking about it for a while now but man you're stupid. You're probably the dumbest king The Emperor had put in charge for a while now." He grabbed a metre long spoke and continue talking as he walked closer to Marcus.

"'E-Emperor Valtus! I b-believe that there was a spy among us!'" Marshall burst into laughter as he repeated what King Marcus had told The Emperor.

"It was hilarious. My brother and I tried our best to keep our silence because we knew what father was going to do. You see, our father despises idiocy above all else and when you pointed out an obvious statement, you only dug your grave."

He stuck the spoke into Marcus' thigh. Marcus wailed as the pained shot through his entire body. It was unbearable. He didn't want any of it any more. He wanted to die. He wanted to move on the next world already. If he lost just a little more blood then this would be over.