4. Cruelty is what fuels me

When oracle Alice was being given tribute as the first Oracle to be murdered,when the light shone upon her she arose from her glass coffin all her wounds healed her skin glowing as golden lights floated from it and above all she stood taller than ever her body perfect.

Remember this very well no other Oracle has ever been murdered yet however when the Corinthians tried to do so, they were proven wrong and Ophelia she was hailed supreme by the Corinthians, now be best to remember that your lady before the Corinthians only we were acknowledged by Ophelia as such we are the chosen of her and only us.

Now unfortunately Our class will have to be cut short here as I am to attend a wedding in 3 hours,but please do be noted your highness theology will be the most essential during your marriage to the Arkish.

I shall your lordship please do wish me luck with those heathens.

I shall miss our sessions Lady Aizel you are my greatest student I have never met someone as talented as you in the fields of intelligence.

You flatter me However I must disagree my memory cannot represent my intelligence.

Well we shall see Your highness,now if you will excuse me I believe you have your music lessons in fifteen minutes do have a splendid time, he said as he picked up a piece of pork from a nearby plate and ate it as he exited the room.

Aizel stood by herself emotionlessly without a thought and she would've done so for the next fifteen minutes had a certain sound not caught her attention.

Turning her head she saw a cat by the window of the room, she walked closer to it and inspected it upon which she noticed it's belly was stretched, the cat was pregnant yet however it was still rather skinny clearly hungry without a doubt.

As she started closer at it she noticed the cat was staring at the plate behind her which was filled with meat.

Walking back she picked up the plate and headed back to the cat, picking up a piece of meat with her gloved hand she placed it on the window bar and backed off a sizeable distance while still remaining close.

The cat at once jumped to the meat and began eating away.

Yet while the cat feasted Aizel started in a frozen stature with her hands trembling, until she pulled the plate back to her head and with all her force threw it right at the cat shattering as it hit the window bar sending shards everywhere.

Aizel watched as the cat fell off the window and as that occured she picked up a shard from the ground and headed to the window, at just the age of eight she was much taller than even boys of her age so she leapt it with eaze landing on a flower bed covered in blood which had a trail leading to the forest.

She had just noticed it was raining. The droplets soaked her dress as she stared at the sky, yet right then and there she dropped her head down and searched for the trail of blood.

It'll be hard to find the vixen in this weather. All the blood shall be washed away.

Unfortunately for the mother cat she spotted a spot of blood under a nearby tree, which she slowly made her way to, while she took the plate shard in her hand and firmed her grip.

The cat was laying next to the bark of the tree it's feet were bleeding clearly from the glass shards that but it.

Aizel still without emotion grabbed the cat by it's neck, it tried to claw at her causing her to let go however now with both hands she grabbed it's bloody front legs and pulled it back as the cat cried a snap was heard she had broken it's bones, and so with the shard still in hand she grabbed the cat by the neck pinning it to the ground as it desperately struggled to get out of the pin with its back legs, than shard in hand she brought it closer to the cats abdomen and pierced it and sliding it as the cat wailed in pain, Aizel didn't stop but continued until the slit was as large as possible.

Then she reached out her hand and shoved it in there yet there was no reaction from the cat this time, it was dead. Using her hand she ripped off its stomach and out she pulled a deformed piece of pink flesh which was in an odd doll shape.

As she stared at it a slight smile broke into her drenched face which reflected under the droplets sliding down.

—--------

Do you think I'll get along with my wife?

Where did that question come from Alfie?

I just thought of it now what if we don't get along.

Listen here Alf the philosophy is quite simple: women exist to bear our children when you choose a wife you choose based upon the qualities you want your heirs to inherit, that's all.

I just think it's unfair like they shouldn't choose as well.

Alfie listen here we are not nobility we are the royals, as such it is out divine duty to ensure our dynasty continuously survives The house of Siegfrid has existed since 30 000 years ago back when we still fought with stones in the glory of Lord Lucius, as such we are not restricted by the need of mutual respect.

I feel like that's a pretty terrible argument.

It ain't now just watch the duel will you, it's been three days since you woke up and you've been acting out of character ever since you recovered, you helped your maid up last time when she fell, you haven't destroyed any windows, and above all you haven't even touched your rifle it's just collecting dust, so just watch the damn duel already we're in the arena for god's sake.

Carl pouted,the entire day so far had been him laying down on a bed on a balcony of a colosseum watching a fully armoured knight killing slaves from Corinthia Left and right.

Yet what else could he do now it's was not in his right mind to argue with his brother, on one hand he believed what he said but on the other, his past life's personality conflicted with it so he snuggled up into the blanket next to him, yet however he was still a child and his attention was quickly taken over by the duel occurring below.

A man in a tattered coat was pushed into the arena by others in Arkish uniform, he looked forward to see a fully armoured man in the middle of the arena with a bloody axe in hand surrounded by red snow which shone like the stars illuminated by the lights around the arena to light it up, he stared in despair until he felt a sudden hit to his hat.

It was a short sword they had thrown at him, yet he didn't have any time to think as he soon heard a horn and the armoured soldier in front of him began to march towards him slowly through the snow covered ground.

Kneeling down he grabbed the shortsword and immediately turned to face him without a proper stance he awkwardly held the sword.

The Arkish soldier or rather executioner as would be more fitting lifted his axe and gradually closed in on him until the Corinthian finally got behind a wall, it was soon to be over is the only thing everyone could think, yet however as the Executioner lifted his axe over his head the Corinthian suddenly threw his sword right at his head, and dashed away to the middle.

The armour however was made of much too advanced steel to be penetrated combined with the padding underneath it just pestered him and he soon regained his stance, and this time he turned to face the soldier with a loud growl, and instantly he began charging at him with his axe dragging behind him.

The Corinthian however stood still in the middle of the arena where he waited for the executioner to arrive.

As he ran towards him he reached the centre upon which he slipped the centre of the arena was covered in blood all of which had frozen in the cold weather of Arkenshire.

Immediately the Corinthian slid on his knees towards the soldier grabbing him by his staggered knees and dropping him down, he than crawled behind where he grabbed the dropped axe, using it as support he stood up and lifted it above and slammed it at an opening in the middle of the helmet and chestplate ending the executioners life who desperately tried to regain his footing while slipping upon the red ice.

Dead Silence filled the arena until a shout was heard.

Murderer the heretic has murdered the executioner, similar shouts and swear were all heard around them.

What's going on Alex.

What happened is the damn heretic just murdered our soldier.

Didn't he win the battle.

It's a damn execution not a duel Alfie.

But you called it a duel.

Shut up he wasn't supposed to win it's as simple as that.

You there soldier hand me your gun.

At once my lord a soldier walked forward and knelt presenting his rifle to Alexander.

Alex brought the rifle up aimed it and pulled the trigger, but by fortune he had missed hitting instead the corpse of the dead executioner, upon which the bullet deflected landing on the nearby snow.

Carl watched the sight with great reminiscence, technology had developed differently here the whole damn planet was the size of Jupiter however only a portion of it remained habitable.

The fact that in two months a child was born and the chance of dying during labour was nearly non existent created a population much to large to handle even for a planet the size of Jupiter if common people were lucky they could live up to the age of 200 while royals up to 500 yet however they all stopped ageing at the age of 30 as such the birth rate never subsided till their deaths.

This gave a scarcity of resources causing religion to grow to an extreme point where it was integral to life, and so nations were all built on religion not on race or culture, in fact the remaining countries today had all been a part of the same culture and people whom were decided by religion.

This all continued giving spark to a never ending war until, the discovery of a fire which was said to forever leave a land barren, wherever it went plantlife never grew again, rather than the soil they said it positioned the water, as such it was forgotten intentionally never to be heard of again,

Leaving the remaining chunk in a situation of crippling underpopulation and a far too large landmass to be able to wage wars effectively.

People focused more on connecting their nations better too organise their sparse population, inventing railways,telegrams and electricity, of course this however required better metalware so it soon became that high quality metal was much more abundant and guns became more of a secondary weapon due to their inability to penetrate armours, yet why did they do all this was it to recover from the damage done, no it was so they could wage wars again even when no one had a population of one million they still waged war.

ALFIE can you not hear me.

Wha what.

You spaced out again, anyways I need you to aim the gun for me.

There's no stand I can't handle the recoil, I'll hold the gun you aim it simple as that, Alex grabbed a chair and brought it to the balcony edge where Carl climbed on standing, Alex knelt behind him and held the gun between.

Carl by instinct grabbed the gun he had done this many times before and so he in this moment of confusion he did what he had been doing for soo long, he aimed the gun right at the Corinthian soldier, who now was on his knees waving his arms at the balcony screaming on top of his lungs unable to form a sentence.

Carl using two fingers grabbed the trigger and with great force pulled it back firing the gun.

The recoil sent him back into his brother, the sound it defeated him for a almost half a minute but when he heard again he could hear the chants of the crowd, everyone screaming Glory to the Grand Duke as loudly as they could, getting up from his brother whose first response was to say, spectacular shot Alfie the bastards dead.

His eyes opened wide from those words running to the railings he peaked through the gaps in the middle the man was lying flat on the snow now stained with his blood, yet however he did not feel the dread he thought he would instead he felt an energy like never before, almost how a man on cocaine would describe the effects.

Carl did not know what to feel he knew nothing of this feeling he was going through, so he did the only thing he could think of.

Alex I'm not feeling good I need to take a nap I'll go back to my Villa.

It's been days since we attended the arena together but fine go and sleep.

—--------

It had been three hours since he left back to his villa, at current he lied down at his bed staring at the ceiling in his pyjamas overstuffed with feathers artic silk was far to rough to sleep in.

Carl like a ghost started into nothing until finally, he turned to a stand covered in cloth, he got up and walked to it, upon removing the cloth there was a gun which had an odd attachment on its bottom and it's trigger and brace much more smaller in size compared to the rest of the thing.

Awkwardly he put it aside the stand and opened a drawer underneath said stabd, at first glance it looked empty but after pushing it a bit the lower part came out it was a false bottom Alex had installed for him, out of it he took a round wooden tube and a wooden box.

Opening the tube he took out a lever which he attached to his gun and from the box a single bullet which he placed into the rifle and reaching again he took another which he placed into his pocket.

Slowly he made his way to the varanda it was closed tightly and locked but after some struggling he reaches the lock and pulled it open, the cold wind attacked him at once his room had been heated from a fire, yet now he was in the cold harsh weather of Arkenshire, without a single bother of the cold though he made his way through the snow covered veranda onto an elevated platform and shaked the snow off until it revealed a pole with a weirdly shaped top.

Lifting the rifle with all his strength he placed it on the pole after some fiddling it eventually attached itself, pulling it down however was much harder as he struggled to do so but finally he brought it down to his level and aimed.

There was a clear view of his personal garden since it was only two in the morning there were still many slaves attending to his frozen garden filled with ice sculptures and carvings.

By now he could hardly feel the cold his skin felt numb but his mind could still function well, he searched for a slave not near any ice sculptures he didn't want to damage them even though they were replaced every month.

After almost half a minute a lone girl catches his eye looking closer he realised she was even shorter than him which likely meant she was younger, she had started off by herself and was playing in the middle of the snow not near any sculptures, pulling the gun he aimed it at her, she was still playing about doing God knows what.

Carl could feel a sudden rush when he aimed it at her she was currently waddling about through the snow making her really slow, as such she was the perfect target.

As he fixed his sights at her not even a single thought whether it be mercy or excitement crossed his mind, and so he pulled the tiny trigger.

Again he was dead for at least half a minute, only difference being the smoke from his rifle had created a mist he couldn't see through.

But once it cleared he saw it well enough red snow just like in the arena, the difference being that he couldn't see the body this time, she had fallen right into the snow, yet as he gazed upon the sight he suddenly saw a woman running towards the girl, neither God nor demon guided him, he reached into his pocket and took out the spare bullet loading it into the rifle, the woman was now kneeling at the red snow holding the body of the girl he had shot down, so without much need to aim his sights he steadied his gun.

Yet before he could fire suddenly he was pulled back and carried inside.

Your Grace your cold as ice we need to attend to you at once, he saw at least twenty people both soldiers and servants running all around his ginormou room yet he thought nothing of it he was far too sleepy to do so, and so he drifted off to sleep without a single thought of remorse

Carl felt nothing his whole body was numb no pain or feeling as he was laid down on the bed and wrapped tightly in his blanket.

He couldn't hear what was happening neither could he move his body, but where ever he looked he saw people rushing about running around his room