Chapter 261: Chapter 267: Teaching Lessons.

As Yamaria and the other hostages began to stir it became clear within seconds that they had already realized their situation. After a few moments, some of the younger ones began to whisper. Fear, uncertainty, doubt, the emotions took hold of them and a quiet panic began to overtake them, spreading even to some of the older and more experienced members. Still, we stayed silent. We had all agreed beforehand that I would speak first… After that, Kai could do what he would with his sister, and we would then leave them all to their own.

Finally, Yamaria’s eyes settled upon the throne in front of her, upon me, who sat atop it. After another moment to prepare myself I finally spoke, I had been mulling it over the entire time they were unconscious… What exactly was it that I would say to her? How would I say it? I never came to a conclusion I really liked, and in the end, I just did the best I could, my nerves from public speaking causing more gaps between my mind and body than the fighting did.

My voice echoed larger than my size would suggest and rang more sternly than a father speaking to his son. “There is very little in this world that I hate more than this nation… And yet, I am trying to save it… I suppose maybe that’s what patriotism really is…” I uncrossed my leggings and leaned forward, folding my hands and resting my elbows on my knees. “I’ve only been here a short while, shorter than the time you’ve spent here. In fact, one could argue I have only just recently arrived, living out the past dozen years in a place isolated from the nation's true self… And yet, I still hate it. The nonsensical government, poor policy, the idiotic banning of magic, and even the way we decide our king. This nation is built on nothing more than the pride of adults acting like children… I hate it so much it makes my blood boil until I nearly wake up the dragon sleeping inside of my soul…”

Everything fell silent, there were no whispers anymore, no panic, and some of them had even stopped breathing, hanging onto my words as if I was about to order their execution.

“And yet… With how much I hate this place… There is one thing I admire about it… In the end, maybe that’s why I still have hope…” I pulled my sword off my back and flipped it in my hand, stabbing it into the ground, cracking the stone and making half of them jump at the sudden noise. “Here, the strong protect the weak, and, at least in some small sense, that gives the weak a chance to have and develop a strength of their own. It’s a noble duty to protect those weaker than themselves, and so a noble must be strong, for if a noble is weak, who then will they protect?”

I sighed, as my thoughts finally began to order themselves. “Yamaria Alshadora… You betrayed this ideal… And in doing abandoned your only redeeming quality, becoming everything that I hate and nothing more… That is why you are here… This is where that path has led you…”

Still, silence remained, as if I was a Roman emperor at a coliseum, and the crowd was waiting for me to decide if the gladiator should live or die…

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I slowly unwrapped my hands, watching the skin start to bleed again as I stood up and walked down the stairs to meet them face to face. “You have become the very definition of weakness… I want you to think back to every time you’ve been beaten, every time you’ve worked until your hands have bled.” I clenched my fist and watched as blood dripped down to the floor and stained the stone underneath my feet. “You’re blood is as red as mine! So whether you are weak or strong, it doesn’t change anything. How many of you grew up hoping they would steal, rather than fight with a sword? Which of you wanted to be this way… You might say you had no choice… But there is always a choice… In fact, I’m giving you one right now… You can all stay here, hopelessly abandoned by reality and the cruelty of this nation, destined to rott and be sneered at your whole lives… Or… You can work for me, and I can teach you how to live with honor. And what that word really means…”

I rewrapped my hand and caught my sword as my brother threw it to me. Sheathing it again, I simply stepped past them and walked out the door. Whatever Kai had to say to his sister wasn’t important to me… At least not as much as a bit of sleep. That was already the second time in one night I almost started crying from stress, not to mention I hadn’t had a good night's rest in 3 days.

When the others were finished we agreed we would simply leave them all bound, and let them figure out the rest on their own. Would they all simply regroup and attack me all at once to take back their marks? Well… It was a possibility… Which is why I had a backup plan. ‘It’s hard to get revenge if they can’t even find me.’

Once again approaching Frostbite's door I knocked, and once again I heard her breath change ever so slightly. I tried to turn the handle… And sure enough, it was still unlocked…

Throwing open the door I marched right in. “Frosty! I’m back. Did you miss me?” ‘I really shouldn’t talk to her like my pet dog… But if I tried talking normally I’d probably freak out and mess up my words… It will be hard for me to keep a poker face after all that’s happened already…’

She was perched on one of the four corners of her bedframe like a cat ready to jump and take out a bird. “Why… Why are you back… Please leave…”

“I brought a friend with me. You two play nice alright?”

She let out a slight whine before standing up and falling backward, bouncing as she hit her mattress. “We’ve met…” She grumbled.

“We have?” Isy asked, timidly wandering into the dark room.

“It’s better if you don’t remember…” She grumbled back, relaxing her grip on her knife. “So what do you want this time?”

“Oh, we're sleeping here tonight.”

“What!” She shouted, grabbing her knife again and sitting straight up. “WHY!”

“Because we took down your sister's whole guild and stole all of their marks, it’s better if they don’t know where we are… And they’d never guess we were here. Especially because of our earlier interactions… It's quite genius really. So, can we stay?”

“If I threaten to kill you will you leave…”

“If you do it nicely.”

Her eyebrow started to twitch before she covered her face. “Fine… Just hurry up and shower… You're getting dust all over my room…”

‘So she likes things to be clean? That’s surprising. She doesn’t actually own much, and there would be no reason for her to be attached to this room after only a day. You know, I actually don’t know much about her at all. In hindsight, it’s probably a stretch to assume we’re remotely similar.’