Starlit Myth

Chapter II: New

As the carriage distanced itself from the capital city, so did the fear inside Lucas body grew stronger with each minute. He sat quietly in the carriage, between the boxes and he did not dare to utter a word for the anxiety that the driver will throw him out, the carriage was the only safe space for him right now.

He had no home, no family, no brothers or sisters, he was exiled and that was all, nothing else. The life he had seemed like some kind of painful illusion. He held the knife and cried, tears falling on the carriage floor, "I'm sorry mom... I'm sorry... please forgive me..." that's all he said for one whole week.

After one week, the old driver was so annoyed because of the little brat inside his carriage, if he could, he would throw the boy out to be monster food but he got a big pay from the Imperial Castle to transport him outside of the empire's borders. After all he was heavily dependent on this license and his deals with the castle which were his main income for most of his life.

Even so, he hated this brat for wasting his precious time. The so called "trip" continued, three days passed by and the carriage stopped near a pond. The driver lit up a fire and cocked himself some meat while Lucas watched from afar, he wasn't even allowed to sit near the fire or even eat. His belly sent signals of fain and hunger, "Mister Allen, may I eat?" Lucas asked but the answer he received was shocking, "no." he grunted.

Lucas watched this scene with frustration, he couldn't eat but Mr. Allen could? This was clearly not fair in his eyes! But of course, it did not change Allen's behavior at all, in fact, this is only made him feel better about Lucas's miserable condition, he even smiled in this scene. He was a lowly man.

The night passed quickly, but for Lucas, it was a pain in the ass, his anger grew with each hour, he didn't slept well. His face became pale due to lack of proper diet. Lucas lost most of his weight. This was an early hour in the morning, Mr. Allen slept inside the tent, he woke up and got ready. After thirty minutes, Lucas packed the equipment into the carriage and they went on without speaking to each other, it was obvious that Lucas became a slave!

The carriage drove slowly on the roads for several hours. Mr. Allen sat on the bench, tending to the horses, those animals were more important to him than the former prince. Lucas himself sat at the back of the carriage, he drew his knife, his last possession and checked it, moving it around slowly, like cutting a butter. He felt more relaxed each time he held the knife, the carriage suddenly stopped, "brat. Go out and bring some food." He ordered him, Lucas frowned but didn't say anything, he was weak. But no matter what, he swore he would kill that bastard as soon as possible. He was furious about the treatment he got.

Lucas sheathed his knife and hid it under his shirt. As soon as Lucas jumped off the carriage, he felt chill in the air, he had bad feeling, but he had to obey. He walked out of the road and entered the forest, "my big brother is already destined to become the next emperor, he's so strong, my little sisters, Maria and Keira are more talented than me..." he murmured to himself, "so after all I'm just trash... maybe I should give up..."

He walked for thirty minutes without even noticing, but the further he walked, the stronger the weird chill got. He did not care about it, he just tried to find what his master told him about and complete it. That was the easy way, just obeying like he did under his mother. Lucas was totally depressed.

He pulled out his knife, his only treasure, and cut some branches from the trees. It took him 2 whole hours to collect all the wood he needed and just as he was about to finish, he heard a manly scream from a familiar voice. He dropped the woods and ran. He ran and ran through the brown woods and the green leaves as fast as he could, but he was slow, although he had the Hero Bloodline within him, he was a failure, his slow movement resulted the new nightmare that is yet to come, a nightmare who will sweep the clean and unclean as one.

After thirty minutes he got back to the the place where the carriage was, he expected to hear Mr. Allen shout at him for not bringing the woods but he found something else. Lucas saw the destroyed road, the few pieces that remained from the carriage and a corpse.