25. Pain

Yes, he received the death penalty from the King. Especially with the demands of the people who heard the news, demanded that Claude receive a fair punishment.

"In the end, the scene of death at the age of 17 still happens, but the difference is, I will be sentenced to death," Claude said to himself. No matter how much he protected himself, maybe he should get this scene. If he becomes a writer later, Claude doesn't want to torture his characters anymore.

"I object!" Claude defended himself. He felt he shouldn't lose and surrender just like that; he had to find a way to survive and go through this death scene.

"The wounds I suffered before, I almost died from them, it's not fair if I receive a heavy punishment," Claude defended himself.

"If you knew, since I was a child, I was always tortured, and treated unfairly by my mother, I was imprisoned, and no one helped me at that time. I was saved by Kane to get out of there; he's the witness to how evil my parents are."

"Murder is still murder, no matter what his defense is, you're still a damned criminal!" Michael yelled.

Unfortunately, no matter how many times Claude explained, in the eyes of the people, Claude was still a villain. The people watching the trial agreed with Misca's words; no matter how much Claude defended himself, he was still considered the villain here.

"Shut up, or I'll slaughter all of you! I'll make you all into corpse dolls if you talk too much," Claude said angrily.

"I should also deserve justice; I'm also a victim. And just so you know, Your Majesty is the one who ordered Xavion and my mother to burn the forest just to suppress Kane and me who ran away! He caused damage through my mother; if he didn't order my mother, maybe I wouldn't be angry and too emotional to kill my mother." Claude continued his defense.

"If you don't believe me, you and Father can ask Xavion; he's the witness, right, Xavion?" Claude asked.

Xavion was also there as a witness. "No, that's just slander; I wasn't ordered by anyone. I was there because I was just fooling around, and then Claude suddenly set fire to the forest, and his mother forbade it, but Claude killed her." Xavion shamelessly lied.

"LIAR!" Claude yelled in anger. Claude hugged himself; in the end, he had no one close to him, no one he could trust.

"We'll be the ones to kill him first so that the massacre he mentioned doesn't happen." The King immediately responded while sitting on the throne.

"All right, is this what you want? Huh?" Claude took a sword from the guard near him. He aimed the sword at his own.

"I will die if this is what you want. I have no one who believes in me," Claude brandished the blade onto his neck and made Xavion freeze in place when he was about to snatch the blade away from him.

****

Death, that was what Claude wanted to hope for was that the sword would cut off his neck, but unfortunately, he was saved by Xavion and managed to survive without injury.

But why does he still have to be imprisoned too? Why does he still have to be punished? If that's the case, it's better if he doesn't have to live. He felt unfair because now he was actually behind bars, in the basement.

'I was desperate, at first I wanted to survive but why as long as I was in this world I felt it would be better if I just died, being Claude was too torturous for my mental state.' Claude lowered his head, he remained silent in the corner of the other prisoner's wall, his face flushed, tempted by Claude, Claude himself was starting to feel uncomfortable being watched.

'I'm going to go crazy fast being here.' The movements of the imprisoned people seemed suspicious.

'Would it be better for me to just stay silent without putting up a fight? I just want to die sooner, I'm afraid I have to be hanged in front of everyone.' said Claude, quite afraid of the punishment, he wanted to die but didn't want to feel the pain.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I won't trust anyone anymore," Claude said in a very small voice.

While he was in prison, Claude deliberately did not eat so that he would die quickly. The only food the guards gave him was Claude's attention, he had no intention of eating it for whatever reason. He just wanted to die and die, because this was the least painful way.

"Hey kid, do you want to starve to death on purpose, eat your food if you don't want us to take it," said the people there, laughing out loud.

Claude also gave them their food. Claude's food looked tastier than the other prisoners.

"I was just joking but…." The person who asked for the food started to feel bad.

Xavion almost twice a day he came to see Claude, Claude never ran away from there but what Xavion saw was that he started torturing himself, many plates of food were still full there, some of them were empty because other prisoners had eaten them.

Claude also lay down facing the wall more. He slept more and only had to wait a few more weeks to die.

"Eat, so you can survive," said Xavion

Survive? Claude couldn't help but laugh when he heard that. "You mean survive to die again?" asked Claude curtly.

'I'm going to die, he lied that I'm here because I'm going to die in a few days or months, liar.' Claude closed his eyes again.

"Liar," Claude was heard saying.

Claude walked away, hiding behind another prisoner. Not wanting to see Xavion again or anyone else, he has given up hope and will wait for his death when it comes. Why survive if this plot tortures him too much, especially since Xavion's slander has such an effect on changing a person's point of view?