How long has it been since I was locked up in this cell?
I greeted the light of a torch in the dungeon, with a very lethargic expression as the guard of this prison drag me out of the cell.
I must admit, being stuck in that place had surely taken a great toll on me as I felt incredibly weak and looking at the condition of my body. I was beyond miserable.
I could see my bones sticking out of my knuckles, my skin had merged with my bones as I looked very skinny now. I even struggled to walk because I grew unfamiliar to it.
"You are being released, after 3 months of Solitary Confinement"
The guard escorting me muttered towards me with a hint of pity on his voice. I remember this guy, he was the one who called me a stupid mutt back then and threw me inside the cell...so why the sudden change in behavior now?
As I was being escorted outside of the dungeon, I looked back to my cell one more time and then turned to ask the guard about Roanoke.
"Can you tell me when Roanoke...the guy beside my cell, will be released?"
I weakly asked the guard as my eyes landed on the cell behind me, but when I did so. I was surprised to see that there is only one cell in this dungeon to begin with, and it was mine.
"Stop asking useless questions and get moving."
The guard seemed to have no idea what I was asking because he just discarded my words. To be honest, he was being kind already by not beating me up.
Before, back when I was being arrested...he keep whipping my back when I was moving so slow, but now....he really was finding me pitiful. But still, who is Roanoke? I thought he was a prisoner like me who lived in the cell next to me, but it turns out there is only one cell in this dungeon. So who is he? Was he just a hallucination that I made because I had gone crazy being alone in that place? But if he was just a hallucination, then how come he had a name? Or I think it might be because I went beyond crazy. I did hear some stories about how nobility kids had this so called "Imaginary Friend".
"Here are your belongings"
I was given back the clothes that I previously wore before I was thrown in jail. When I was arrested, I was made to strip these clothes off because personal belongings aren't allowed in the cell, so I was just thrown into the cell with nothing but a half naked body.
Putting the Crimson Robes that I used to wear back on, I smiled softly at the comfortable familiar feeling that I was having as I soon then left the dungeon and went back to the slums, to where I used to reside.
I wonder how my precious subjects are doing right now.
————
Upon arriving at the slums that I used to know, I was greeted with a desolate place. There was no one here anymore, not even the crackheads begging for money. It was just an empty, desolate, smelly place.
Going back to the shack where I used to reside, I found the place completely abandoned. The books that I used to collect are all gone as if the whole place has been ransacked.
I walked around more in my turf to find anything, but there is only emptiness.
I was left with nothing.
I just stood in this desolate place with a blank expression in my face as I heaved out a disappointed sigh.
What did I expect? This is the law of this place. Strength is everything, and now that I no longer have strength and others were already getting stronger than me? I am no longer The Law.
Not like I was expecting anything from them. But how could they take everything...even my books? Damned bastards. They cannot even read!
"Big Boss?"
I was about to turn away and leave the place with anger in my head but it was then when I heard a voice call out to me from behind.
It was a child whose age was around 12 to 13 years old.
"It really is you! Big Boss!"
The boy yelled with so much glee in his voice before he ran towards me and hugged me. His behavior suddenly left me baffled as I was confused to who this kid was but considering that he called me "Big Boss" which was only the term used by my subordinates to address me....he must have been one of my subordinates.
With his childish chuckle, The boy grew excited even further when I touched his head and patted him.
"I really thought you were dead! Everyone else thought so! T-that is why...."
Then the boy started crying, which left me in a precarious situation and unsure of what to do. How are children so difficult?
"Shush, stop crying and speak properly"
I reprimanded the kid in a firm tone before sighing. Then the kid, probably trying to stop crying, he used the hem of my robe to wipe his tears as he then sneezed on it, leaving snot around.
This damn brat....
Once he finished sneezing on the hem of my robe, he then swallowed his tears and tried to man up to speak properly when I asked him something important.
"Now, tell me what happened to this place, okay? Why is this abandoned and what happened to the items in my shack? I get that they want to leave the place but why take my things? Where did they go?"
"T-the other members did not leave the place....W-were attacked by a new gang, led by a man called Jeferson. He took every member of our gang and held them hostages"
Hearing his words, things finallly clicked into my head as I pictured everything.
The place might have been attacked by a new gang as what the kid said, but I can likely tell...no, my guts are telling me that they aren't just a gang. There is no way my place would just be destroyed that easily by a new gang, my men are tougher than how they look so they will never be taken down by a bunch of greenhorns.
Unless, those greenhorns aren't your average joe. Someone like....a Blessed, maybe?
But what made this strange though was that, Blesseds should not even bother taking over this place because they should be in the Academy to train and even the adult blesseds wouldn't touch this place because they find it not worth it, with this just being a bunch of scraps.
So why was this attacked? Unless...it is out of personal vendetta. The Butchers wouldn't do shit like this unless ordered by Levin....there really is no other powerful person which I made an enemy with the exception of...
Upon thinking about that, a face surfaced in my head. A face and a name, to be precise.
Viscount Marle. The mutt who I assaulted during the Ceremony.