A/N: Hey, here is the author. The fanfic is not on hiatus; I will finish it I have to admit that I was not giving it much priority, and I was concentrating on other things. So I will try to put out chapters daily or at least every 2 days until I finish this long one and start arc 3. Have a nice day!
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The beeping started as a distant buzzing sound, but within seconds it became a deafening screech that drilled into his brain. Kaoru gritted his teeth until he felt them grind. The pain was like a rusty nail sinking between his eyes, pulsing with every beat of his heart.
Everything was black.
He tried to open his eyelids, but the light that filtered through his retinas was only a sea of blurry spots, like looking through breath-fogged glass. Gradually, the shapes became defined: walls of mossy stone, puny torches spitting black smoke and casting twisted shadows on the ground. The air was thick, stale, and laden with the smell of dry urine, rusted iron, and something else... something sweet and rotten that made his nose wrinkle.
"A dungeon?"
"Damn it... Where am I?" He muttered, but his voice sounded distant, alien, as if someone else had uttered it.
Then he felt it: two pairs of callous, cold hands were dragging him by the arms, his metal boots slapping the ground with a military rhythm. Kaoru twisted his neck with effort, and the emblem etched on his breastplate—a dragon devouring a sword—confirmed what he already feared.
Lunara's royal guards.
But what really cut his breath away was his reflection in a pool of dirty water as he passed: a black-and-white striped prison uniform, sleeves torn, hands imprisoned by steel shackles as thick as his knuckles.
"This can't be happening."
"Hey! Where the fuck are you taking me?" He spat, jerking against the hands that held him.
The guard on the right didn't bother to respond. Instead, he nailed a knee into his kidneys with the precision of one who has done this a hundred times.
"Shut the fuck up, you scumbag."
Kaoru coughed blood, the pain burning like liquid fire in his back, but he didn't have time to recover. He was dragged like a sack of flour toward a demolished wooden counter, where a woman with a sharp face and hair pulled back in a tight bun was flipping through a book bigger than her head.
"Number 872. Go ahead."
Kaoru blinked. "872? Is that me?"
The woman—an official with eyes as dead as a fish in a market—didn't even look up as she recited her sentence:
"Charged with smuggling of prohibited substances, unlawful association with the Black Bone Syndicate, possession of narcotics with intent to distribute, aggravated kidnapping of a servant of the Danton household, and disorderly conduct with the use of unauthorized magic."
"THAT'S A FUCKING LIE!" Kaoru stood upright, the shackles creaking under his strength. "I saved that girl! It was that son-of-a-bitch Dante Kreuz who—!"
A punch to the stomach bent him in half, spitting bile and saliva onto the floor.
Next time it'll be my sword in your neck, scum, the guard snarled, adjusting his gloves.
The woman sighed, as if this was the fifth innocent she was seeing that morning.
"You have the right to a defense. Anything to say?"
Kaoru looked up, blood dripping from his split lip onto the floor. Around him, the processing room was crowded with prisoners.
A demihuman with reptilian features, green scales dulled by dirt, chained hand and foot.
A human woman with a bruised face, muttering prayers under her breath.
A giant man with 4 arms writhing against reinforced chains as guards cut him down.
"Have them check the records!" Kaoru spat. "Look for Bell, the maid! She'll confirm that I was only trying to help her!"
The woman pointed her pen at the crystalline artifact on the table.
"Place your hand on the sphere."
Kaoru looked at the object. It was round, the size of an apple, with engraved red moons that pulsed like a heart. Something about its glow froze his blood.
"No." He recoiled instinctively. "Not until someone listens to me."
The guards wasted no time. They grabbed him by the shoulders and slammed his face into the table, smashing his cheek against the cracked wood.
"LET GO OF ME, YOU FUCKERS!"
A knee to his back silenced him.
Shit. Magic. I have to use magic.
He concentrated all his mana into a desperate cry.
"SHAMAK!"
Nothing...
Laughter erupted like whiplash all around him.
"Hahaha! Another one who thinks he's special!" A demihuman stag with broken horns doubled over in laughter.
"The cells have anti-magic seals, asshole." Spat a woman with tear tattoos at another group of prisoners.
Kaoru blanched. Antimagic?[1]
He could feel his mana, but it was as if something was strangling his veins from the inside, preventing it from flowing.
The bureaucratic woman grabbed his bloody wrist and crushed it against the sphere.
The crystal lit up with a flash of red, spitting out a cold diagnosis:
Elemental Affinities: 2 (Water/Yin). Mana storage capacity: 150% over average human. Physical Ability: Average Human Risk: Moderate
The woman arched an eyebrow. "Level 2 necklace. Basic physical restraint."
Before Kaoru could react, something icy closed around his neck.
A black metal collar, thick as a halter, with a blue crystal device embedded in the throat.
And then he understood. The mana was no longer responding.
He couldn't even feel it now. It was as if someone had cut off his arm.
Moments later. A brutal thrust sent him flying into an open cell. Kaoru fell flat on his face, his face hitting the stone floor with a wet crunch.
"Enjoy your stay, little shit."
The grille closed with a final clank.
Kaoru gasped, pain and confusion clouding his thoughts.
"My head... "
Then, a raspy voice made him wince.
"Kaoru?"
Kaoru looked up.
Johan, pale as a corpse, with a purple eye and cracked lips, was chained to the opposite wall.
"Johan, what happened to you? Are you all right?" Kaoru crawled toward him, the chains of his shackles scraping against the stone floor. The cell smelled of dampness and excrement, but what burned his throat the most was the smell of dried blood emanating from Johan's wounds.
The historian lifted his head with effort. His lip was split, one eye was swollen shut, and bruises were spreading under the collar of his grimy striped uniform.
"I'm all right... or at least I'm still alive." He spat a red clot onto the floor.
"What happened to the carriage? Why did you go to the alley"? Kaoru clung to the rusty bars that separated them, feeling the icy metal bite into his skin.
Johan let out a bitter snort. "I was worried, you idiot. I told you that area was dangerous. When you didn't come back, I went out looking for you. That turquoise-haired sumbitch attacked me from behind. I didn't even see him coming."
Kaoru clenched his fists. "What about the carriage?"
"The land dragons are trained. I ordered them to return to the hotel. I left a letter explaining what happened...in case we didn't return".
"Why do you appear so defeated if you did that?" Kaoru looked at his face. There was something else, something Johan wasn't saying.
The historian let out a sigh that sounded like a confession. "Because I do not think that letter will be helpful."
"What?"
"We're in a hell-ass dungeon, Kaoru, not a prison.... We were charged with smuggling and kidnapping, but that's just the facade. All of us here will be executed when the festival is over."
Kaoru felt the ground tilting beneath his feet. "How are you aware of that?"
"The guard here is corrupt, as you've noticed. We are used as scapegoats. They'll close the case with our death, and no one will ask any more questions."
Johan gestured with his head toward the hallway, where other prisoners—gaunt humans and demihumans in thicker chains—huddled silently.
"Look at their faces. They already know."
Kaoru fell against the icy wall. They had stolen his clothes, his grimoire, and even his self-respect. And now he found that they had stolen his future as well.
"Fuck..."
[Time later]
"Btw" Kaoru pointed to the metal necklace at his throat. "Do you know anything about these devices?"
Kaoru touched the device embedded in his throat. He noticed how it robbed him not only of mana but also of strength. Each movement was heavier, as if he were wearing full armor.
"Not much, but I guess they're to keep us from escaping." Johan shrugged. "Mine's just ordinary iron. I was born with a defective gait. I can't use mana even if I wanted to."
"A defective gate?"
"Some people are born with weak or damaged magic gates. Others break from using mana beyond their limits."
Johan rubbed his chest, as if he could feel the magical organ under his skin.
"In my case, it was a mistake of birth. I could never even feel the flow of the mana."
Johan leaned back against the wall, closing his good eye. "Enough talk. If I'm going to be decapitated in a few days, I at least want to get some sleep."
He settled down on a pillow of rotting straw and covered himself with a cloth that smelled musty.
Kaoru struggled with a smile. "Don't be so pessimistic. Maybe I will figure out a way to save our asses.
But Johan didn't reply anymore.
The silence that followed was more eloquent than any reproach. Kaoru had dragged him into this. And now they would both pay the price.
In the hallway, the shadows of the guards lengthened, cast by the torches that were never extinguished.
"I am useless..."
[1] Fanfic addition.