Chapter 25: Mythical Power or is it Conqueror?
Vlad got pushed to walk continuously by Belpel's guards, where he compiled without much fuss.
Getting to the usual building designated for torturing and keeping the noisy slaves in check, he was now admiring the new room they took him to. It even had a chair with armrests prepared in a corner for someone to watch the spectacle.
Entering inside the room with calm steps, the guards quickly bounded his body on some metal chains that left all his body opened up for the guards and the new visitor to see.
He was now alone there, bound by metal chains, left staring in empty places.
"Heh, my patron still hasn't come to watch my show?" asked Vlad when he was left alone in this dark room.
His waiting wasn't that long since he said that.
The first to enter were the guards closer to Belpel, each holding various torture devices that already turned Vlad bored. Next to enter the room was Belpel, together with a fat guy small in stature covered in jewelry.
'Ohh, you fatass, you still haven't lost one gram of weight. Still the same idiot as ever. Now what? Tsk, to think he would have me imprinted in his mind for doing actually nothing.'
Looking at the men coming inside, especially the fat guy, he laughed and greeted the fatty.
"Master Mayer, it's been a while since we last met. I'm delighted to meet you again after all those years. Why didn't you come to visit me earlier? Right, I was thinking of something, after you see me tortured to start and finish, what do you say. Can you set me free? I think I can pay you back the money you spent on me easily."
"Ohh, you actually had a change of mind and started talking intelligible words? Brat, your offer doesn't sound bad. But as you grow up, your value also increases, from 300.000 𝔅 your value should be about 500.000 𝔅 simply as a human being.
When we add the value you can bring me by working here, your worth increases yet again, jumping to maybe 1.000.000 𝔅. Do you understand what I'm saying here?" explained Mayer to Vlad how much his value was to him.
"So let's say I accept your offer. How much time are you letting me start getting your money to pay you back?" calmly asked Vlad while staring at Mayer's eyes.
"Maybe some months, as long as you get me my money."
'Hoh, this fat fucker is so easy to manipulate. Sure, when you talk about money with him, it's truly easy to shift his thoughts to be more favourable to me and forget about our short incident.'
But before Vlad could say something, Belpel, who looked with cold eyes at Vlad, turned to speak to Mayer close to his ears.
"Master Mayer, I'll say it simply to you. If you release this freak out of your camp, the first person he will target is you, so I suggest you keep him here chained until you feel satisfied with his situation and later kill him."
"Hoh, that's what you think, dear Belpel. If it's like this, I will listen to you. It's not like it matters if I let him root in these chains."
"Hey kid, we have no deal. This guy told me you're too dangerous to be released. So I can only let my guys torture you and release you back to do your jobs in the mine."
Vlad's eyes turned frosty as he looked to Belpel's eyes, whereas the guard noticed the intense stare of the young man and only sneered, thinking.
'Do you think I will let you get away, after killing 6 of my good men, you little piece of shit? . No way I'll let you manipulate this stupid pig. He's mine to profit.'
Meanwhile, Vlad thought something totally different.
'Damn you, Belpel, you schemed against me big time and even tried to kill my brats. Now you are even messing with my chance of getting out? If I don't kill you, don't you call me Vlad Dracula, motherfucker. Ahh, all my time spent on this plan down the rain. Amazing.'
"Sigh, Belpel. You'll really regret this choice of yours to interfere with my plans."
"You think I'm those weak guards that would be scared of that weird stare of yours, kid?"
Replied Belpel as he approached Vlad, and grabbing his face with his large palm and patting it a bit jokingly before fisting him hard in his stomach and face.
Vlad groaned a bit, but that was all. His eyes maintained their coldness while looking at Belpel.
The guards who looked in his eyes trembled a bit, but they didn't get the chance to linger much over that feeling because Belpel screamed at them.
"Go ahead, guys. Start the torture as planned. No break, constantly hit his opened wounds until he can't move."
Mayer Loftso also nodded his head and said in his high tone.
"Go on, it's time for this little fuck to pay for the curse he cast on me, so I never have beautiful nights with women. Worry not, brat. I'll let you live for a bit more before I kill you."
"WHAT? How did I even cast a curse on you, you idiot!? I did nothing wrong to you. NOTHING. What problem do you have with me? I understand you don't like my face and that you are my master, but this doesn't mean you have to punish me for no good reason."
Said a sinister voice that sounded more like a distorted voice of an adult in the dark chamber, getting right in Mayer's fat ears.
Hearing what Vlad had to say and scoffing off at his treats, he turned towards the guards. Not even being able to wait to see Vlad's blood being spilt, he screamed toward Vlad before turning to the guards.
"HMPH, YOU DARE TO DENY YOUR CURSE! WHEN MY SERVANTS AND EVERYONE AROUND ME TOLD ME YOU ARE THE FAULT OF ALL THE FAILURES I HAVE! SINCE THE TIME I BROUGHT YOU, PEOPLE SEEM TO LOOK DOWN ON ME!
ME!? GRAND MAYER LOFTSO, THE GREATEST MERCHANT TO EVER BE BORN IN KAYSANG!?"
Vlad stared coldly at Mayer and kept quiet, no longer wanting to have an argument with a retard person that has been fed lies about his so-called "curse".
"ENOUGH WAITING, PUNISH HIM! TORTURE HIM! JUST MAKE HIM SUFFER!"
The guards reacted, taking their unusual whips, and turned to look at Belpel for confirmation. They saw the latter nod his head with a cold face.
Then the guards began whipping him ruthlessly.
Blood gushed out from his back, yet this didn't stop the guards from whipping his back.
After some long minutes, Vlad's entire back and floor got bloody, but he didn't let out many screams of pain, only breathing out slowly when the guards would hit his opened wounds.
Looking at Mayer's face while being whipped when finally the guards stopped to take a break, this break gave Vlad the chance to do something.
Focused on Mayer's face, the reaction was reciprocal for the opposite side.
Suddenly as they were staring at one another, Mayer could see in Vlad's eyes the figure of a dark entity that appeared as a beautiful youth, who held in his hand an inverted torch. After seeing that thing, his fat self began sweating a lot.
Breaking the eye contact, he turned to Belpel and asked in a scared yet annoyed tone.
"Why doesn't he screams? Is he not feeling any pain?"
Belpel sneered and responded while giving Vlad a strong kick on his stomach that made him puke all the food leftovers from yesterday while also letting a scream of pain, unable to hold this one.
"See, that master, of course, he also feels pain, but he does a good job at faking that he's fine to manipulate the guards into thinking that he's some sort of monster, unable to feel pain."
"I see, that scream of his sounded nice. Let me hear it again."
"Gladly." responded Belpel to Mayer while punching Vlad again in his stomach and ribs, even cracking some of his ribs. The crack got heard loud and clear for everyone in the chamber.
When Belpel broke some of his ribs, Vlad screamed from the top of his lungs in pain. His eyes turned red and started tearing up a bit, hardly being able to contain the pain he felt from having his ribs cracked.
'Motherfucker not my ribs. Argh, this fucker knows to torture someone.'
Going back towards Mayer while wiping his first of blood, he asked Mayer.
"How did those screams sound? I even managed to make the little shit cry."
"Great, truly great dear Belpel, you're totally something else when comparing to that slow Gif."
After saying that, Mayer quickly started screaming towards the resting guards to continue their torture.
Going back to their job, they began whipping on his back, and when they touched his broken ribs, he would let his accumulated screams.
Finally, after an hour of suffering, Vlad couldn't hold his scream of pain when the whip dug into his wounds and got deeper into his back.
The floor and space around Vlad turned into a small puddle, where the boy was now in total silence. However, one could hear his breaths.
While Vlad got himself tortured and bloodier than ever, Mayer got disgusted by the view he saw.
After looking around the boy's space, and the pathetic state he was in, signaling Belpel, he turned to leave the building.
The guards that tortured the boy were the only ones left in the building. They used some water buckets to splash Vlad's back to at least clean him a bit, and one of them said.
"Do you want anything else?"
Lifting his head slowly to look at the guard talking, with his cold green eyes that seemed to sometimes turn black, he replied in a small cold voice.
"Get me out of here before I make up my mind to kill all of you."
The guards felt a tremor around themselves, along with a cold sensation running on their feet and back. They felt compelled to do as Vlad said, not wanting to offend this crazy guy even more and later find themselves dead.
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The guards took him out of the torture chamber in a quick manner.
When he was out, with blood dripping from his back, he walked slowly, not to disturb his broken ribs too much, crawling his way back to his shack. It was quite the distance.
Walking straight up and gritting his teeth in pain, he got back fortunately without any incidents following him around. Well, not really without incidents. When he passed the zones crowded with people, the miners would recognize his face and would flee in panic back to their respective shacks.
Back at his home, he noticed the two boys lying on their bed. They were Kipset, and Inorra followed by an old man looking focused from a chair, observing if they were fine.
When the old man noticed the newcomer, he got up from his sitting position. He quickly got up and picked a jar of his special fish ointment not far from him and got ready to clean up the boy's injuries and treat him.
"Come here, kid, let me see how nasty your wounds are."
When the old man played around with Vlad's open wounds and savoring the boys suffering, rebuking back.
"Fuck me, old man, can you stop touching around my open wounds. I might be a freak who has a high pain tolerance, but at one point, it gets me too."
"Haha, you jest, if I do not clean your wounds properly, your wounds will get infected. So just shut the fuck up and let me do what I have to do." laughed a bit old Nius while touching a deep cut Vlad had on his back.
'Sigh, lad, you should see your back wounds. Those fuckers really didn't give you a break and even used those nasty torture devices from the Noble houses. Arghh, I feel like killing that arrogant shit Belpel.'
'But, if I do, I might draw the attention of those annoying assassins. If I kill them, more of them from the New World will appear. By myself, I can't protect the Vermilion House along with Kaysang. I need more able men.'
Vlad could only scream a bit. Fortunately, he didn't disturb Kipset, but Inorra woke up, unable to sleep properly.
When Inorra noticed that Vlad came back alive, the first reaction was to be happy, but not long, he got sad when seeing how deep his back got wounded. Inorra could hear Vlad yelling at the old man and watch him touch almost intentionally his back cuts deeper.
"Curses! Old man, do you want me to curse generations of your ancestors? Stop that. Ahhh! You did that intentionally.
Damn you. I will steal all your cigars, and when we play our games, I'll smoke them all, you old junkie, and sell them around the other miners! Have you heard that? I'm talking seriously!"
"Come on, lad, this is not cute at all, just be a good boy and let this old man treat you as I always did. You're no longer a little boy after experiencing the stuff you did."
Vlad's body hair rose up instantly and jumped up like a cat's hair when threatened.
Like this, his treatment continued for a while. Luckily for Inorra, he wasn't in such a bad state to need more sleep and watched the show staged by a young man and an old man.
After restless minutes passed for Vlad, the last stages of his treatment started. Old Nius brought up his fishy ointment to spread over his back.
Whenever Nius touched with the ointment his wounds, Vlad would hiss like a snake for the only reason that the ointment reacted almost instantly with his injuries. Giving him a feeling of getting burned and cooked over the fire.
When finishing spreading the ointment and making fun of Vlad, he started to touch his ribs and place them in line, later bandaging him before saying.
"Lad, you got easy with only 2 broken ribs. You have to take it easy the following days so they can heal fast. No sudden movements or any odd activities of that short. Just stay quiet in your shack so you can heal, I'll help you with the food until you get better."
"Thanks, old man. I really don't have enough words or know enough words to thank you for all you did."
Nius smiled gently at him, waving his hand to stop him from saying more words. Later he turned to look at Inorra, who was staring at the two doing their circus by the side.
Embarrassed a bit, old Nius coughed a bit and asked Inorra.
"How do you feel, little Inorra? If you wonder how your arm is doing, I managed to put him back in place. Now you have to let the bones heal themselves. Let your body heal up. That means no mines for you, especially for Kipset."
Turning to look at Vlad, who was face down on his bed, he said to him.
"Lad, I hope you can manage to help out your roommates with their food while they are incapacitated by the time you're getting healed. Right, I also can give you some advice as to what you should do."
"Hoh, go on, do tell me."
"Hehe, listen well, lad. At night, the canteen at times is badly guarded because of some idiots from Belpel's faction that don't care about guarding, instead of moving around the Chaotic Zone to search for women."
"Hoh, so those guards that are wandering weirdly at nights are from Belpel's guard? Should I kill them instead?"
"Better not, it will have those fools changed, and the chance for the steal is out."
"I see. I'll think about that. No need to worry, gramps, worst-case scenario, you would need to come and treat me with your graceful callused hands."
Slapping the boy's head softly, he turned to bandage the rest of his wounds after letting the ointment do its effect. Looking at Vlad's bent head, he smiled and patted his head gently while starting to pack things up to get to his hut.
"Take care, little Zagreus, and don't forget to look after Inorra and Kipset. As for your food, I'll let a kid get them to you." said Nius when preparing to leave.
"Thanks, old man. As always, I'm much indebted to you. I don't even know how to pay you back for your grace, and I'm not joking here at all. When I grow up and get out of this mine, if you ever have a request to ask, I will be there to help regardless of how hard the task is."
"Just don't ask something that would kill me for sure. Keep in mind that this small body of mines will grow enough that people like Belpel would be crushed with only some attacks."
Hearing that, old Nius could only smile, saying.
"When that time comes, lad, maybe I would come to look for you. At that time, you will make a name for yourself for sure after I ask you that request of mine." ending that, he started to leave the boy's shack.
"Wait, what problem do you have, old man. Come tell me, let me prepare myself, so I can help you."
"No need, thanks for being yourself. There are so many fake people in this world, people that are getting rescued, and after they heal, just stab you in the back. I can feel your genuine desire to help me, but you're still too young to help. So take good care of yourself until then."
"I see. Well, I'll wait for that request, gramps. It doesn't matter the time. I can only hope with my help, I'll solve your problem."
Turning to look at Vlad with a warm smile on his face, the old man said. "You will. You will be the most important helping hand for this old man. Just wait patiently for my summon."
When the old man left the shack, Vlad asked Inorra while faced down on his bed.
"Inorra, we still have some food left from the time I entered that annoying adult's shack, right?"
Thinking for a bit, Inorra replied while facing the roof while sitting on his bed. "Yes, we didn't consume anything from what you got last week."
"Good, this food will come in handy for the next few days, and together with what gramps will give us, it will suffice for a while. If we need more, I will go steal from the canteen or the other shacks."
When hearing that Inorra could only grit his teeth, aware that Vlad could walk closer to death this way, he already disturbed the waters enough for a newcomer. If he keeps going like this, it wouldn't be long before most people here would gang to kill him.
Getting up from the bed, Vlad went to the storage built by him from the wood he stole for food. He also dug a hole in the ground to keep things preserved for more when inside the storage.
Checking for a bit what was inside, Vlad picked to eat a hard bread gritting his teeth in pain because even walking to the storage caused him immense pain. Walking and dropping the bread in water to get it softer, he started eating and preparing to sleep.
'Damn, I hope I don't dream that thing again. It's already starting to annoy me.'
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With the coming of the night, four men were eating and talking in the big shack until finally, someone broke out and laughed out at the talking old man.
"Haha, teacher, stop joking. How could a smelly brat have Conquerors? Or whatever mysterious devil power you are talking about. A kid who's 12 years old can awaken his Conqueror's and not the rest of his haki? That's unthinkable. How long had I trained, and there's no reaction or result, and for a devil fruit? Those are harder to find than a needle in the haystack."
"Hmph, I know what I have seen. The boy has unlimited potential, so you better don't look down on him. If you two were now the same age and with all that experience of yours, you would still be crashed."
"Teacher Nius stop looking down on me. I get it. You are dissatisfied that we still haven't awakened haki, but what fault do we have? We try out damn best."
"Ahh, don't worry. I'm not angry about that. I'm angry about the fact that you look down on that boy I took under my wings. If I tell you he has something in him, regardless that it is a mythical fruit or the Conqueror's, who are you? A little officer of mine to question it?" asked Nius, a bit annoyed by Gif's comments concerning Vlad.
"Now, now, no need to quarrel, teacher Nius. So let us 3 fools understand better. Why do you say that you don't know if what you've seen is Conqueror's or not?" asked Vem while bringing some calm to the heated exchange between Nius and Gif.
"How should I describe it to you? Haki, especially Conqueror's, is a unique trait of only a handful of chosen ones. People who literally hit the jackpot when it comes to natural selection and ancestry. However, this doesn't mean that all of the Conquerors are the same. Saying that would be lying.
"From what I understand after training myself all those years, haki and especially Conqueror's draws upon your spiritual trait."
"Draws upon your spiritual trait?" asked the three guards, a bit confused.
"Fuck, how should I explain it to you in a simple manner. So let's say you are a peaceful person, you never liked to enter into conflict, yet you are still a worthy ruler. This would make your Conqueror's go in the direction of your mental state, the spiritual trait. If you clashed wills with such a person, the effects of the clash would differ compared to a person who is a natural-born killer, a messed up person who could kill you without batting an eyelid."
Vem finally understood a bit and asked.
"So, teacher, what you felt from that boy?"
"Darkness. A frigid cold that would remind you of your worst nightmares."
Vem and the rest who were listening to Nius looked at him with shocked eyes. Ramoth asked, a bit shaken by what Nius just revealed. "Teacher, are you suggesting that kid is dead?"
Nius facepalmed himself and looked at the musclehead.
"No moron, people who die, they do it for good. The kid probably suffers from some mental trauma that messed him up into believing that life is worthless."
"Ohh, so this also explains his weird character that doesn't resemble at all a kid. He's intelligent at times, almost ice cold. However, he can also be too impulsive, which hits him in the back." said Vem, who had a pondering face.
"Well, old man. What do you think about the kid? Big chances he is Lucius's son?" questioned Gif with a pondering expression while drinking some wine.
"I would love to think it like this since he resembles a bit Lucius, his eyes and the structure of his nose resembles the Vermilions. Meanwhile, the other parts of him most likely come from his mother, like his jet-black hair and the rest of his facial features." calmly added Nius while eating some of the food from the canteen that they have probably stolen.
"How do we test if he is a genuine Vermilion? You know blood tests are usually bullshit traps created by those scamming alchemists." asked Ramoth, the muscled guard, while looking at the 3 around him.
Nius just shook his head with an annoyed face when hearing that question, he wanted to respond ambiguously, but Vem was faster than him and responded with a proposition.
"I've read stories that the Germa Kingdom of North Blue has some weird weaponry and other interesting stuff. Wouldn't they have a way to check if the boy and His Majesty Opheltius are related?"
Then with this response, the rest of the guy's old and middle-aged expressions turned brighter than when discussing certain things.
"That's right, little Vem. Those Germa's are weird ones. They should have something for sure. Good, this will be something we ask them after taking the kingdom back. Any complaints?"
"NO, SIR." replied the other soldiers to the old man.
"Good, then let's start eating. Right, Vem, Gif, you should take some more food for little Zagreus. He will be out of action for 1-2 weeks because of that arrogant piece of shit. Kids, are you sure I can't kill that mutt?"
"Don't do it, teacher. Think about it. We might have found our little prince. Are you willing to endanger him and the plans to retake Kaysang from the hands of the nobles?"
"Right. Fine, I will stay quiet."
......
A/N: Is it conquerors or a mythical devil fruit? Answer this one if you're curious.
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New plots are shown to you guys, the future seems interesting after the Royal Guards take back Kaysang.
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