Towards Destruction – Prison Dialogue

<Side : Barkl Ar Sirenniid>

『Martyr’s Moon – 14th (Morning)』

【Day 4 of the Imperial Invasion】

I stretched my stiff shoulders and gazed out the window at the morning, where even the birds were silent today.

“Haa… I guess I can’t help but feel sluggish if I don’t sleep in my own bed.”

Then, quietly walking, I looked down at the note in my hand.

“Why did the Doctor… give me something like this?”

It was a certificate of illness. However, the disease and symptoms written on the paper were all false. In other words, it was a fake, but with this, I could skip physical activities like training and spend some time in the sickroom.

It was one of the things the guards wanted most.

Two days ago, the Doctor explained a plan to me.

“A plan to escape the Empire…”

I muttered softly, replaying the conversation from then.

The Doctor said he would help my sister and me escape the Empire, which was suffering from the Sultan’s tyranny. I don’t know what kind of contract he made with the Spirit of Smoke, but the plan was to escape in the chaos of the Spirit’s disturbance.

And the reason he told me this was because of my deceased Father’s request.

How much of it is true and how much is false… But there was no room to doubt it.

It was okay if I was having a hard time, but I didn’t want my only remaining family member to suffer because of me.

Yes, for my sister’s sake…

“I don’t know what price the Doctor wants…”

The Doctor left the room without saying anything after that, and this certificate of illness was neatly folded on the table.

I guess he wants to keep me in a safe place and monitor me, to thoroughly hide the escape plan.

Since I agreed to the plan, we’re in the same boat.

I can’t figure out his intentions yet, but I thought there must be a reason he left this, so I didn’t return to the guard barracks and slept in the sickroom bed for two days.

“But why hasn’t anyone come looking for me?”

Also, another strange thing… Even though I’ve been away for two days, my fellow guards haven’t come looking for me.

Perhaps because someone who was once a prince has fallen to the rank of a mere guard, there are quite a few guards who harass or slander me.

If I said I was sick, they would say I was exaggerating, and if I said I was tired, they would say my discipline was lax, and they would have scolded me in every way, but neither the day before yesterday nor yesterday did anyone come to find me.

“What should I do now? And the Doctor hasn’t come to see me even once…”

I left the sickroom to look for the Doctor, who had strangely disappeared, and soon after, I ran into two familiar people.

“Oh… Captain… no, Arc Captain! And even the Doctor. Good morning!”

Arc Captain and Patient Councilor. The two of them were arm in arm, coming from the opposite side.

[Tch… Barkl, is it?]

“Yes… But is something wrong? Arc Captain. You don’t look well…”

[Yes. I don’t feel good. I’m annoyed that you, a mere soldier, dare to call me by my name so freely.]

But a completely different reaction came from the familiar voice.

“……Excuse me? What did you just say…”

[Are you deaf? Didn’t you hear what I just said? I said it makes me sick and disgusted that you call me by my name as you please!]

For a moment, I wondered if I had seen it wrong.

Arc Captain often frowned, but I had never seen her so angry in front of me.

Besides, the person who told me not to call her Captain, but to always call her ‘Arc Captain’… is showing such a sharp reaction?

On the other hand, Patient Councilor… was ignoring me with an expression that showed even less interest or concern than usual.

[Do you understand! Don’t ever call me by my name again. Call me by my title… Captain… Who else would be the captain of your organization besides me? Haa… You have no sense…]

“Th, that Captain…? Something seems strange today…”

[Enough. Barkl, former prince. Can’t you see my daughter is angry like this? If you say any more, you’ll only provoke my daughter’s anger. And of course, my anger as her mothe… Father. Silence is sometimes golden.]

And their relationship… felt closer to lovers than a close father-daughter relationship.

It’s just my imagination…

[I can’t stand it. Barkl. You deserve a proper punishment. What should we do, Fa·ther♥]

[Yes. No matter how much we warn you, we can’t forgive the original sin. You must pay the price for daring to call my daughter’s name without permission. Barkl, former prince♥]

“Yes…!? N, no… wait a moment…”

I wanted to believe that.

That Doctor, who was always exhausted, the man who always had a listless face while sighing…

With just one conversation with Arc Captain, he put on an unusually relaxed smile.

[I won’t listen to any objections. Close your mouth. I can’t guarantee the safety of your neck if you speak?]

[To think you haven’t been able to pay attention to your words even after all this time… For that pathetic ma… man, it would be good to have him learn manners and cleanliness by cleaning the underground prison.]

When I tried to say more, Arc Captain cut me off by holding her arm even tighter and told me to clean the underground prison.

[Did you understand? Barkl. Go clean the underground prison right now. You were a prince, so you know about the dirty prison under the Imperial palace, right? My Father and I will be away for a while for important Sexual perversion repair work, but…]

[If you slack off while we’re gone… Remember that you’ll feel that cleaning the prison was a very gentle punishment.]

I didn’t understand this situation at all, but if I argued any more, it wouldn’t end with just words.

I, who had once trained in martial arts, could tell.

During the short time we were talking, the two of them were emitting intense murderous intent towards me.

[Then we’ll be going. I hope we don’t have to see each other again. Barkl.]

[No, Arc… Let’s meet again with a smile when we meet again. It will be soon.]

I could only stare blankly at the two people who left with playful words.

I couldn’t take the words they left behind as a joke.

And… I ran into another familiar person in the hallway where I was standing blankly.

A shadow rushing from the opposite side of where Arc Captain and the Doctor had left.

“Whoa, watch out…?”

I almost collided with the person who was covering their whole body and rushing forward without looking, but I felt a familiar feeling when I saw the fluttering hair.

Could it be…

“…Barkl?”

The person who barely stopped in front of me raised their head and checked in front of them.

“…Sister?”

Materi Ar Sirenniid. My sister, my only remaining blood relative, and my precious person.

My sister’s hair was more disheveled than usual… Is that even the clothes she usually wears? It feels tighter than usual today.

“Sister… Are you sick?”

Her tanned brown skin was shining with sweat, and she was clutching her chest unnaturally and flinching for a moment.

She was panting as if she had run in a hurry, and she was looking at me with shaking eyes.

Could it be… Did the Sultan do something strange to my sister again…! But it was rumored throughout the Imperial palace that the Sultan hadn’t called my sister recently.

Then why…

I was worried about my sister and reached out my hand, but my sister slapped my hand away and took a step back.

“N, no. I’m okay, Barkl. I’m just… not feeling well.”

My sister looked uneasy. Like she had suffered something she couldn’t tell me.

“…Sister, did the Sultan…”

When I asked carefully, my sister avoided my eyes and covered her face with her hands.

“I just… I think I have a bit of a fever. My body has been hot since last night…”

“Is something wrong?”

“Sorry, sorry Barkl. I, I… I’m going to go to the Doctor’s sickroom.”

My sister left those words and ran off again in a hurry.

I couldn’t grab my sister, and I could only watch her running away blankly.

“Haa… What’s so strange about everything today?”

My sister has been skilled at Sand Magic, a special Magic of the Imperial family, since she was young. She is especially specialized in creating elaborate and solid Equipment using sand. On the other hand, I… lacked magical talent. All I could do was wrap sand around my arm and strike.

My sister always encouraged me and helped me gain confidence. Now, instead of prolonging my life, she’s even doing the disgusting work of giving her body to the Sultan…

So I wanted to help my sister even at times like this, but I missed even that opportunity.

“Haa… I’m really… a helpless human being.”

Sighing, moving my powerless steps to the underground prison was the only thing I could do.

Even so, I had one thought in my mind. Is something changing in the Empire… no, in the people I know…?

–

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『Martyr’s Moon – 14th (Noon)』

【Day 4 of the Imperial Invasion】

The underground prison was the most secret place in the Empire.

It was where those who the Sultan had directly ordered to be purged were imprisoned, and where those who were a political threat to the Imperial palace were confined.

The spiral staircase leading down to it was already filled with the smell of rotten flesh and blood.

“Ugh… the smell…”

I covered my nose and went down the stairs step by step.

I carefully took a step in the dark underground prison, and there was a stone floor full of damp moss. Chains that had rusted because the blood hadn’t been properly wiped away.

The faint groans and the sound of shackles being dragged from here and there reminded me that this was a place that had been forgotten for a long time.

Even when I was a prince, I only knew that such a place existed, and I heard that unlike in my Father’s time, when he managed it a little, management had stopped under the Sultan’s rule.

It was my first time coming down here myself.

“Clean… this place?”

From where to start to why I had come to this point, I felt countless cycles of thought, and then I found a poorly closed prison door.

“That’s… a torture chamber?”

I suddenly became curious and carefully looked inside through the half-open door.

There…

There was a huge man sitting chained up.

Brown shaggy hair, shoulders that seemed to have been trained to the extreme. Even with large muscles. He looked similar to me in height or even taller, but the word huge suited him.

“…Who is it?”

Holding my breath, I observed the man with his head bowed, and then the man slowly raised his head and made eye contact with me.

“Hoo… Who are you! A guest in this damp space. I’m really glad!”

“Ugh… My ears…”

A voice so loud that my ears rang.

He had a volume as if he didn’t even care that this was an underground prison.

And it wasn’t just big. A voice full of confidence and vitality.

It was as if he wasn’t a person being tortured in an underground prison, but a person who was voluntarily enjoying imprisonment.

If you narrow your eyes and look at him closely, you can see his firm muscles clearly revealed without a single scar.

I had experience training my body as a martial artist, so I immediately realized that his body was far beyond the level of a normal human.

“What the hell… is this man?”

Come to think of it, there was a rumor that had been spreading in the Imperial palace for quite some time.

The rumor that the Spirit of Smoke was pregnant. And that a man who had impregnated the Spirit was secretly imprisoned somewhere.

“Could it be…”

I recalled the story of the man that the dancers had gossiped about.

Unkempt brown shaggy hair.

A loud voice that would make your ears fall off.

Unnecessarily large muscles.

All those characteristics… perfectly matched the man in front of me.

“Are you… perhaps the man who impregnated the Spirit of Smoke?”

When the man heard my words, he burst into hearty laughter.

“Hahaha! Yes, that’s right!”

When he admitted it in a bright voice, I was speechless for a moment.

No, if you’re being tortured for something like that, shouldn’t you complain about the injustice if it’s a false accusation, or speak in a weak voice if it’s true and you’re exhausted from torture?

But this man… was so confident.

“My name is Gunther Owen. But who are you?”

His gaze was directed straight at me.

But I felt something strange.

The eyes of the man who called himself Gunther Owen were not focused properly and were blurry.

“Could it be… Are you blind?”

When I asked with a question, Gunther nodded casually.

“That’s right. I can’t see. Instead, I’ve had the opportunity to step into more of the world.”

“What does that……”

With those words, the relaxed smile on his lips made me even more confused.

Does this man really not know what situation he’s in?

Or does he know but is acting like it doesn’t matter?

As I was wondering, Gunther raised his head as if looking straight at me again.

“I can feel various auras from you.”

“…Aura?”

“Yes. I can’t see, but instead, my other senses have developed in many ways.”

He showed exaggerated movements such as sticking his nose towards me or pricking up his ears.

“There are several people’s auras mixed in your body. You are a pure white aura. It’s a pure soul that’s hard to find even in my hometown or in this Empire. But… I can feel a very ominous aura attached to that pure aura.”

“Ominous… aura?”

I couldn’t even understand how he, who couldn’t see, was looking straight at me, but what bothered me more was his words.

“Don’t misunderstand me.”

Gunther continued in a serious voice, not in the hearty voice he had before.

“I can feel that you yourself have a clean and pure aura. But… I don’t know the path you’ve taken so far, or what’s happening up there…”

His voice became even lower.

“The ominous aura clinging to you… gives even me, who has lived for many years, goosebumps.”

“Yes……?”

I didn’t know what to say. I just came down from above normally.

Nothing happened—

“…No.”

I closed my mouth.

The strange feelings I had felt since just a few hours ago came to my mind.

Arc Captain and Patient Councilor, who seemed to have changed.

My sister, who had an unknown reaction.

I didn’t have a way to express or prove all of those things logically, so I dismissed them as just a feeling, but…

Starting with Gunther’s words, which he said unintentionally, I started to wonder if it was just a feeling.

“Haha! It seems you’re also a pitiful person caught up in something.”

Gunther smiled lightly and continued.

I didn’t know exactly what was happening in the Imperial palace yet. But starting with what happened just now, I was sure that something was wrong.

Then, Gunther revealed a little about his identity and said.

“I used to have a job called ‘Shaman’ in my hometown far away. My role is to listen to people’s worries, offer solutions, and sometimes exorcise evil spirits.”

He laughed lightly, saying that his trained body was also part of that job.

However, that smile soon turned into a serious expression.

“I’m advising you. I don’t want a pure soul like you to be defiled. Because I believe that only such a pure soul is the hope that will illuminate the world.”

“That’s an overstatement… No, what are you that you’re saying this to me? In the first place, I can’t trust your words…”

I was momentarily fascinated by the words that came into my ears, and I forgot that this person was a prisoner.

Did the Spirit also get cooked and eaten with these words…!?

But Gunther didn’t care about my words and continued in a serious voice.

“So, I wouldn’t recommend going up there after this.”

“What?”

“This isn’t just a feeling. It’s an intuition that has been built up over many years.”

He asserted.

“I guarantee you, there is an untrustworthy evil swirling up there.”

“It might be better to stay by my side, it might be a way to get through tonight safely. After that… I can’t guarantee it, but if you stick with me, I’ll get you out of the Empire.”

I couldn’t open my mouth for a long time after hearing those words.

There was persuasiveness in this man’s voice, though it lacked any credibility. Even if I considered it Magic… his guess, without stepping a foot outside the prison, chillingly matched the unease I felt.

This man, Gunther Owen. Despite being blind, he seemed to see through everything.

“…You probably don’t believe me, do you? That’s understandable. I’m a prisoner, and you… well, I don’t know your position, but if you came all the way here without knowing my situation, you must be a prison janitor.”

Gunther’s voice brightened again, as if the fact that he was imprisoned didn’t matter at all.

I swallowed and decided to briefly believe his boastful words.

“Honestly… I don’t know what’s going on.”

“Haha, I understand. I understand. You must be confused to hear such things suddenly.”

Gunther lightly shook his wrists bound by Chains.

“But you, I want you to think carefully about what you’ve experienced so far.”

“What happened today…”

At those words, I unconsciously retraced the events of the day.

Captain Arc and Patient Councilor. The two of them had become strangely close, and they treated me with a completely different attitude than before.

Sister’s face looked more dazed than usual, her skin felt strangely hot when I held her hand, and her clothes seemed too tight.

I unconsciously looked down at my hand.

The warmth I had felt when I held Sister’s hand a little while ago had already disappeared…

“Purple…”

Then Barkle remembered the street scene he had seen from the hospital room window since yesterday.

Under the scorching sun, a faint Purple mist was barely visible. At first, I thought some clumsy merchant had burst a dye, causing the Purple mist to ripple.

But the Purple mist hadn’t disappeared even when I left the hospital room this morning. I wasn’t very interested in what was happening on the street, so I immediately turned my gaze away and went outside, but now that I think about it, people were walking around with strangely blank faces in the area where the mist was lingering.

Yes, just like Sister.

“It’s too strange to call it a coincidence.”

As I muttered lowly, Gunther grinned.

“Yes, it seems you’re starting to see things little by little.”

“…Even so, I don’t know what the hell is going on.”

I ruffled my hair and agonized.

I’m usually not good at reading the atmosphere. When people’s moods changed, I simply thought they were tired or had changed their makeup style these days.

But… I now realized that there were too many ominous things to dismiss as mere feelings.

“Which of your five senses do you trust the most?”

Gunther suddenly asked a question.

I thought for a moment and answered.

“…Sight, I guess.”

“I don’t.”

Gunther raised his bound hand and pointed to his own eyes.

“My eyes are blind, but my other senses have developed instead. Smell, hearing, touch, and taste. And… my sense of instinctively sensing danger has also grown.”

He slowly shook his head.

“I am now… feeling an enormous ‘sense of incongruity’ throughout this entire Imperial palace.”

“Incongruity…”

Things that I had thought were simply my feelings until now. But if even a man who was imprisoned here, who had nothing to do with the Imperial palace, was feeling the same unease…?

Gunther quietly added.

“As I said before, I don’t recommend you go upstairs right now.”

“…Then, what do you want me to do here?”

“At least for today, it’s safe to be here. I said that before too, didn’t I?”

“Hoo… What are you going to do with those tied arms?”

I sighed, which I had been trying to hold back, and looked down at Gunther.

“This place is safe? This is an underground prison full of rotting prisoners.”

“Haha, that’s why it’s safe.”

Gunther said naturally.

“This place is as good as abandoned. In other words, the danger lurking above hasn’t even glanced at this place. And… I’m quite strong. If I don’t have a weapon, I can smash anything with my fists, and if I have a weapon, I can use it.”

Hearing those words, I inadvertently looked towards the stairs. The dark spiral staircase I had just come down.

It was unpleasant and damp when I came down, but now it was so frustrating to go back up…

Gunther noticed my silence and said quietly.

“What are you doing? Keep me company. Even though we’ve only met today, I think we’ll get along quite well.”

Those words somehow sounded sincere.

In the end, I decided to spend that night in the underground prison.

The reason… I still don’t know.

I was worried about Sister, so at first, I was going to reject his words and go up, but when I explained Sister’s appearance to Gunther, Gunther shook his head, saying that Sister was already beyond help.

I couldn’t abandon my precious family. But I know very well.

My siblings had competed to protect me, offering their own necks to the Sultan’s sword and being killed.

It was a life sustained by the blood of countless family members. Sister had also lived desperately, defiling herself to protect my life.

One day, Sister told me. If my life was in danger, and her own life was also in danger, I should protect my safety without looking back.

I denied those words and got angry at Sister for the first time.

But Sister calmly said. Think about the lives you carry, and only think about surviving. Family is more important to her than anyone else, and she will somehow try to live.

Foolish Sister… Family is more important to me than anyone else too.

If I had refused Gunther’s offer and gone upstairs to find Sister, would Sister have been angry?

After a difficult 고민 for the first time in my life, I… finally decided to follow Sister’s wishes and seek safety here…

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