The day after
"Burn the fucking whore. Can't go anywhere without seeing hanged bodies nowadays." CornWall demanded angrily.
*Tsk*
CornWall clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"What would the slaves think? Seeing as their guardian angel is now dead." Wall quipped..
"Guardian Angel? What do you mean??"
"Oh my… and I thought you would know, seeing as you bring her to your room every night."
"S…Sorry father."
"Just watch yourself, the attendees are people after all, they aren't cheap. So please. Be gentle with them."
Wall left with a smirk in his face, amused by Maria's suicide and CornWall's actions.
"What a terrible way to start off the day." CornWall sighed. "
Her lifeless body was dragged outside of the estate and right before the sun set. Her body was set aflame, burnt to ashes by the blazes. A black smoke loomed over the tall walls of Freiheit and despite the dark sky, the smoke was clear for all to see, the fate of Maria. While, Frei just watched.
"Poor lass, gotta make you wonder what made her do it." Berg asked.
"Doesn't fuckin' matter now does it? The girl's dead, nothing we can do now except collect her ashes, which probably would be worth more than us combined." Arthur jested. "Shit, I'm jealous!"
"God help us all." Johnny said, almost pleading.
"There ain't any God 'round here pal, if there was any we would've been freed into paradise by now."
"That's probably where she's going." Berg replied.
"And that's why I'm jealous!"
"You don't have to be. A mercenary like you would have the highest possibility of being sent to hell anyways." Johnny replied sarcastically.
"As if we weren't already here. Outside those damned walls, there are countless of em', hanged bodies I mean, can't ride your steed anywhere without smelling their foul stenches." Arthur said.
"Well, I am here with you, that's already hellish enough for me." Johnny replied sarcastically.
"Didn't know you learnt how to jest, good one. I liked it." Arthur said, in a surprisingly fulfilled tone.
"I wouldn't know, the imperial lands weren't in such states before." Berg said, "and now that I think of it, I've not seen anything past those walls or anything outside of this place for… 25 years."
"I got lots to tell you, big pal,"
"Work while you guys talk, you don't want to make Mane whip you, I bet he enjoys it real good." Johnny said, "Wait. Frei, do you want to hear Arthur's stories?" He asked, "F-Frei?"
Frei didn't respond.
He stayed silent throughout, even when he was whipped in the back by Mane, he only uttered a quiet "Sorry." A word which he learnt from Berg and Maria. During the bloodletting, he did not react in the slightest even from the excruciating pain of the blade carving, slicing into his flesh. The only times he'd react to Wall's actions was whenever he'd conjured the finger-shaped knives. Frei would glared at Wall's fingers, every single fiber of muscles and the flow of mana surrounding his fingers.
Wall noticed Frei's glaring, but dismissed it, disregarding it as the bitter anger from a simple kid. After Wall left the basement, Frei would wait mindlessly, expecting Maria to come, that somehow she may be still alive to see him again and tell him the stories he'd anticipated day to day. Days passed, with the arbitrary release , he'd sometimes worked all day or spent the time kneeling, arms chained, awaiting for the usual routine of bloodletting.
Then a tear was shed from his eyes unconsciously as he was kneeling with the only company being the haunting yet familiar silence. All of a sudden, streams of uncontrollable tears began to flow out from his eyes, reality hit him. He gritted his teeth and began to sob at his loss yet soon enough his sorrows were replaced by a bitter rage. His body tensed up and shackled hands formed a clenching fist, he clenched so tightly blood began to seep through the wounds caused by his nails. For reasons which he'd perfectly understood, he felt his heart and his blood boiling as if ignited.
Frei felt rage, all at the name that was constantly uttered by Maria, the name "CornWall" which Frei instinctively pinpointed to be the cause of her suicide. His thoughts went rampant, clouded with morbid scenes of CornWall being whipped and tossed into a cage where he was forced to fight, against someone who would beat him without any remorse or hesitation. Frei swung his fist as an attempt to hit the imaginary CornWall, only to be halted immediately by the immovable chains.
He thought about how he'd escaped this place and beat him, just like how Wall personally taught him. Moments passed as his thoughts and imaginations continued to go wild, then he saw that he may be stuck here for the rest of his life, unable to fulfill his thirst and desire. This thought was something he was perfectly aware of but was shunned to the very depth of his mind after his failed escape attempt. He could still feel the arrow's tip in his calf.
'Perhaps that's why it happened.' Frei thought, regretfully after his energy had died down. Then he heard the growls of his stomach, crying loudly for food, he felt his head nauseating and his body weaker than ever. His eyelids were unable to stay open and right before he fainted to the growls of his hunger, he had a thought, 'I should have appreciated her more."
CornWall frowned in frustration, "You asked me to walk down a flight of stairs from upstairs while holding a water bucket and I did. I think that should at least warrant me an answer."
"And what warrants you to talk like that to me? Talk politely." Wall demanded.
"What?" CornWall said, giggling at the ridiculousness, "Why should I? For my entire life you treat me, your first son, as nothing. Meanwhile you treat Haydn like he's the first son. I do not get it."
"Just go back. I got business to do." Wall said, not even looking his son in the eyes.
"Not before you answer my question first."
"Haydn had been different since he was born, a prodigy even. You wasn't even anything, all you do was leeched off my work and my wealth, if you were me, you would invest everything towards the prodigy too."
The two argued while Frei watched, glaring at CornWall.