Chapter 5 PRISONER OF MIZERANIA

Cold bars in front of him; dusty, rough and solid wall on his back, left and right with no window to let light pass through. He's been living inside that cage since Herald captured him more than a week ago. Torturing him by giving no food at all is not enough for Herald that from time to time, he sends someone to clang the iron bars loudly so he won't get a wink of sleep and on other times, a pair would come to beat him with wooden planks while being tied on both arms and legs.

Twenty-four hours, thirty-six, three days, six? He already forgot how many times the clock tower behind the place rang. Jamillah and Jheon are waiting for him yet he can't even utter the names of his only family. She must be panicking now, thinking where he went and why he left them and Jheon must be missing his father now.

"Where are you taking him?," the chief of the guards asked when several people marched to the prison where Agni is kept. They tried to stop the group but no one gave care to the guards stationed by Herald.

"Commander Agni de Lohr?," the intruder called to the old-time friend that's lying on the cold floor of the cell.

Agni looked up at the owner of the voice and saw the familiar bulky body of the emperor's Genesis Knights' leader. He laughed dryly seeing him on the same white and gold armor that is so noticeable in the battlefield as if telling the enemies that they are the one that need to be targeted. Finally, someone he can talk with came for him.

"Yo, Old Luther, why come late?"

Luther laughed with his beard shaking in the air. His loud and clear ha-ha's freshened the cold and dry atmosphere in that place. Although he hated that laugh before, Agni felt relieved and for the first time, the man's stern voice became music to his ears.

"Agni!," Luther called to him, "Time to stand up, buddy, the emperor needs you to report to him."

"Heh," Agni scoffed. The emperor, what a joke. To think that that child is the one to save him from Herald.

Emperor Lycus Mizerania is a kid who sat on the throne when he was only sixteen years old. Heroic, valiant, wise, that's how the Mizeran people describe that bright child who managed to seize the throne from his tyrant father who only spends his time in leisure and wasting the empire's treasury on his concubines. He's ten years older than Lycus but the young emperor managed to do all that thanks to his uncle who helped him do the politics and Luther who stood beside him as his indestructible sword together with the Genesis Knights he originally belonged to.

"He seems to miss the genius swordsman of Genesis Knights so he asked me to fetch him to talk over some tea and biscuits."

Agni sat and leaned his beaten body on the rough wall to look better in front of his previous comrades. "He's just looking for someone to laugh at his childish jokes, old man," Agni answered. "That brat feels so lonely because only wrinkled and brute oldies are in his perimeter. He wants to see someone fresher than your old face."

Luther laughed out loud at Agni. "You never changed, brat. Not maturing even for a bit and still dissing your seniors."

"Heh! Are we going to stay here or not? If you're here only for visitation, then scram. I'll use this time to sleep."

"Still impatient, aren't you, brat?" Luther moved away and used his sword to break the wooden lock that is used in the cell. He's expecting it to be a little harder but the wood is softer than what he imagined. If Agni isn't tied up, he's sure that he can flee by simply crushing that cheap lock. He stared at the poor guy and at the bruises that were visible on Agni's limbs. Holding his sword firmly on his hands, he broke the hard metal chain that's limiting his movements.

"Took you so long, old guy."

"Damn brat," Luther spat back to Agni.

Agni tried to stand up on his own. It's good that there's no major wounds like before where he's stabbed on his stomach. Aside from shallow cuts and large bruises that turn deep violet in color, he's completely fine and healthy. He stretched his arms and legs as if refreshing his whole body that became stagnant for the whole time he's being held captive.

"Stop dilly-dallying, brat. The emperor requested for you to show up tomorrow. You should get immediate treatment first."

"Ah yes, there's that too," Agni said lazily. He's not interested even a bit about the empire. In fact, he's more concerned about his wife and son than the emperor. He wanted to go back to Rosmerta now if he could but that looks impossible with Luther watching him because this old man is a great fanatic of the throne and he sees the words of the ruler as words of gods.

Luther escorted him back to Epona Palace and sent him straight to the imperial physician for a quick fix. "Brat, what happened to you?," Luther finally asked after the physician left once he finished bandaging Agni's wounds. He sat on the chair beside Agni's bed and crossed his arms to start listening to his story. "What happened on your trip to Ceridwen?"

Agni tried to explain exactly what happened that day. It was early in the morning in the camp of the Mizerania Empire when he received a letter telling him to go to Ceridwen, a point in the map that's in the middle of Rosmerta Forest, Mizerania and Cerunos. It is an old city that's abandoned after being attacked by demonic beasts. Because of its history and position in the map, it is considered a neutral zone so he went to that place with only few people with him, all for the sake of a ceasefire negotiation with Cerunos as stated in the letter that has the seal of Cerunos' commander.

They were travelling in a small party; two carriages that held their supplies and eight men riding their own horses, a total of ten people when thirty men, dressed in the same armor of Cerunos soldiers appeared from their left and right. They were surrounded by them with three more archers waiting from a vantage point in one of the old buildings. Technically, it's a losing battle but no one from the group surrendered.

Leonard, his right hand man, immediately took the survival route and assumed leadership on the group while he's still in panic, thinking of the best way to attack the people around them.

"F*ck!," Leonard cursed when they saw their group getting surrounded by enemies. "Kris! Drag the commander back to the camp!," he shouted to Kris, the youngest in the group. "Go back and save your own asses. Mizerania needs the commander with them, f*cking drag him back there and don't dare to look back."

Holding back his tears and shouting at the top of his lungs, Kris did as he was told and tried to forcefully take Agni out of the scene. However, aside from being the youngest, Kris is also the weakest in the group. He's their baby brother within the bond they created in the camp and he can't make the giant Agni move in his place.

"Get out of my way, Kris," Agni scolded him when he tried to pull Agni's hand. "It is you who needs to run away as fast as you can. Among us, I am the one who has the highest possibility to survive this - not you."

"But-"

Agni held Kris' hands and dragged him towards the direction they came from and attacked the two Cerusian soldiers that tried to block his way. Dealing critical hits to both of them, Agni successfully made an exit for Kris. "Get out of here, weakling! You have no place in a battlefield like this!," he shouted after he pulled Kris and pushed him to the gap he made. But before Kris could even make ten steps away from the place, an arrow pierced him directly in his neck, killing him instantly.

Agni saw this and that's when he discovered the existence of three archers above. He yelled and slaughtered the two Cerusian soldiers nearest to him in anger after witnessing Kris fell dead on the ground and saw the other side losing all the same, his teammates getting annihilated by the hands of Cerusian bastards.

"And that's what happened on that accursed Ceridwen City. I managed to survive after walking with a half-dead body to the Rosmerta Forest when the ambushers left, believing that all of us were dead. Even I did not expect myself to survive because I've been shot by arrows on my back and skewered by a sword passing through my stomach."

"I see. I now get the idea of your survival," Luther said knowingly. "Your attackers thought that it would only be a matter of minutes before you breathed your last breath and let time witness your death. Anyway that's-"

"And that Herald," Agni said, stopping Luther midway in his sentence. "That Herald told me that he's the reason why our group ended up like that." He gritted his teeth as the scene flashed back in his mind when Herald hinted at his betrayal.

Luther's eyes widened in shock. "Did Herald told you he did it?," he asked, threading on his own words carefully. He can't believe that a son of a marquis would do something like that.

"He did not say it directly but I am sure that it is him. That devil sold us out."