Chapter 23

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Tied Up Man's Story (1 Chapter Only)

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My name is Caesar, it's a name that has been in my family for generations. I'm the fifth Caesar, sense we were royalty, or that's what I was told. But how could royalty fall so far? From king to peasant to slave. How could a royal family fall so far that they can't even pay for their kids' lives? Why would someone have a child if they couldn't pay? I know of people who had children for external reasons like rape or trying out sex for the first time. But my family thought of it as a duty, how can they stay so arrogant after being the lowest of the low for at least 2 generations in a row. How?

When I was about 6 years old my family sold me, not so they could pay off a debt, but so for a short time they could feel what it's like to be royalty. They sold me. Their own son. For pleasure. The last thing I remember about my family is my little brother crying and my parents talking about how they would spend the money. My little brother was the only one who cared. My older brother hated me, to the point where he introduced the idea of selling me to my parents.

I remember the bag, it smelled like rotten vegetables and grain. It felt like a swarm of bees stinging my face, every time I slightly moved. It was dark. I didn't wake up again for hours. I woke up to food being shoved in my face, with a muscular but slim man. He just held a bowl of mush out to me and stared. I grabbed the food from him and he kept waiting. I took a bite and nearly threw up, it was horrible. I grew up in a non wealthy family butI have never eaten something this horrible. It had no smell but the taste was sickening. The man just laughed at me, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver colored square necklace. He handed it to me and said.

"Welcome, I'm glad you could join me. You may not know what's happening but hold this tight. Eventually the only thing that keeps you sane will be the gods above."

"Sane?"

"You will learn after your training."

"What does the square stand for?"

"The church and the gods. It's a joke among people like us, for recruits like you they end up holding those necklaces tight and praying with them every night. But by the end, if you live, you will give up."

"Why?"

I remember him just walking away, never turning around. The first thing that I did was examine the necklace. It was divided diagonally with 2 lines. Forming 4 triangles, each had shapes inside. The shapes could barely be made out, I could only really tell they were there when I rubbed my hand along it. Remembering what the man said I prayed for the first time in my life. I asked the gods to tell me what would happen in the future. I got no response.

After that day I entered a cycle, got trained to the point where I could hardly walk for one day. The next day I hand different techniques shoved into my head. Those were my rest days, I learned to fight those days. Twice a month I would fight another person who was locked away like me. We had 2 options: kill or subdue. I never had to kill for what I believe to be 3 years. I had been subdued around 2 times but after the second, they promised I would die. So I had to fight harder, with less restraint.

I killed a person during the next fight and the one after that. Something changed. I no longer got even close to losing and I kept winning, I never subdued an opponent again. After about a year of killing I got a mission, I was told that if I complete 500 assassins. I would be free. During this time I never stopped praying, I was only more driven after being given a chance at freedom. If I was set free I could become a priest! The gods have kept me alive so far! They surely want to make sure I live up to my full potential. They must have already forgiven my sins and future sins. Right?

I had completed around 26 missions before I first lost. I nearly died if it were not for the gods protection I would be dead. They must have granted me a chance to escape, it took around 5 days to patch myself up and heal to a point where I had confidence to complete the mission. I did but much more carefully. I completed the missions smoothly until number 103. Where I was told that for my 100th mission I would have a harder one. At that point I thought I just miscounted the amount of missions I did so I started again from 100. That mission took me 2 weeks to complete, it was also their only mission to that day that required me to disguise myself as another person.

I made my way up to 334 missions when they notified me for my 300th mission. They must have been making errors right? I passed the mission in a month, 10 missions after I got an easy one. It should have been simple, I just had to kill a kid. But I had to disguise myself again and I would have to dress as a servant. Now this restricted my movements greatly. Over the years of training I had gained hidden but strong muscles, they would easily tear the disguise if I moved too quickly.

I walked in and headed straight to the room of my target, while I didn't like killing kids. I had done it before. Too many times before. I sneaked into the room and got taken down. I was forced to comply with a guard. He tied me up and didn't let me speak for a whole night. He didn't even need to wake the girl after taking me down. He just went straight back to his carving, he barely looked back at me. How did he defeat me so fast?

After a while I got dragged to a field and the man touched my back. But I felt something change. I felt an orb of heat in my body. I then felt pain, burning pain spreading front the heat to my arms, one arm at a time. But I felt myself move away from where my hand pointed. Did the gods finally bless me? They must have! When I break free, the other assassins won't be able to touch me! I'll go straight to the church and become a priest. They won't deny me when I have these powers right?