Chapter 3: Announcement

The man left without a backward glance, as if Ishiki were nothing more than a bad memory he was eager to erase.

Under the suffocating pressure, Ishiki’s stomach heaved, emptying its bitter contents onto the cold stone in a state of utter disgust. There wasn’t much to empty—he couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten, but his body tried its best anyway.

Even the two guards were heaving heavily, using the wall for support like drunk men.

’At least I’m not alone in the suffering. Misery loves company, right?’

’And just… who the hell was that and verdict! He said verdict. Curses… Verdicts usually come with executioners and pointy objects.’

The questions swirled in Ishiki’s mind, but it was hard to form a coherent thought after his body had so thoroughly betrayed him.

He pushed himself into a sitting position, dragging in a few shuddering breaths. As the world stopped spinning, messages began to flood his vision, bright and intrusive as the pop-up ads from back home.

[Admin 81 – What a pathetic Trial]

[Admin 292 – That was disgusting]

[Admin 77 – With no skill, this kid is going to die soon]

[Admin 70 – Is this Trial even fair? All players are supposed to have skills. It’s an execution without the skill]

[Admin 97 – The Trial Scenario is definitely glitched… haha, poor kid]

Ishiki looked at the messages and they almost drove him mad.

’poor kid?’ Ishiki’s teeth ground together. He could practically hear the disembodied snickering. ’What are these scums enjoying? Is this some kind of cheap entertainment for them?

He couldn’t help but get angry at the sight of some of these ’Admins’ expressing a sense of joy about his disgusting state… some were even excited on how the trial would end.

He calmed himself down.

’Let me recap, I survived apocalypse, and then woke up as a powerless glitched bastard prince in medieval prison, now heading to my execution while these bastards watch me for fun.’

A bitter laugh bubbled up.

’Curses… Mom always said I would do something memorable. Pretty sure she didn’t meant dying as a bastard prince.’

Suddenly, a heavy THUD broke the charged silence.

Ishiki looked up. One of the guards—the one who’d enjoyed his work with the spear a little too much was unconscious on the floor.

He failed impressively to suppress his smile glaring at the fallen guard. “Tch…”

’Serves you right, bastard.’

The remaining guard barked for help. The fallen man was quickly dragged away, and another guard took his place without ceremony. The new guard was younger, with a nervous energy that was painfully out of place.

He also wore the same outfit… a heavy metal armor around the chest and the less flexible parts of his body, beneath the armor there was a piece of hard red cloth covering most of their bodies.

The new guard looked into the cell, then at the scrawny young man chained in the corner. His expression was a mixture of revulsion and… pity?

’What are you looking at, fool?’

Ishiki glared back with his icy blue eyes, half-lidded by his messed-up black hair that ran down to around his nose in the front and to his upper back in the rear. He probably looked like a drowned rat.

“Hey… what are you looking at?” the older guard snapped at the newcomer.

“I… I think… we should give him water,” the young guard stammered.

“Are you fucking dumb?” the older guard retorted. “Do you even know who that is? Don’t dig your own grave by helping him.”

Ishiki listened with interest, desperately wanting the answer to that million-yen question: who was he?

The question echoed in his mind as he remembered the mocking title in his status window: [Half Royalty].

So he was a royal… a royal in chains.

’Did I commit some heinous crime? Murder? Treason? Tax fraud? Or was I just born this unlucky? Because at this point, either option seems equally plausible.’

Well… his questions would be answered pretty soon.

The guards’ argument was cut short by the sound of drums, a steady, melodious beat that felt ancient and out of place.

It was the kind of sound he’d only read about in history files, reserved for shrines and castles and important ceremonies where people probably died.

Ishiki heard the melody, alerted by the unfamiliar sound. ’Drums?’

It was his first time hearing the beats of a drum.

Then… as the sudden shock of the moment melted down, they both turned towards the cell. The older guard brought out a key and opened the gate of the cell.

The metal door creaked open and struck the rock wall with producing a clank that echoed through the silent hallway.

“Come on out!” The guard barked, gesturing Ishiki to stand up.

Ishiki gritted his teeth. ’If I could move properly, I’d smack that sorry face of yours. But alas, I can’t.’

He took hold of gaps in the wall and pushed his body upright, looking wearily at the guards through the curtain of his messy hair. One of them bent down and picked up the loose end of the chains binding him.

He jerked it toward himself without an ounce of mercy, while the new guard looked the other way—the coward’s compromise between conscience and self-preservation.

“Move, bastard!” the guard cried, pulling at the chains like he was walking a particularly uncooperative dog.

The movement of cuffs around his wrists and ankles sent shivers of pure agony through his limbs. But he had no choice. He was a prisoner, and prisoners didn’t get to make demands.

’I will kill you…’ he swore silently, his gaze locking onto the guard’s back. His gaze flickered to the new one, who was looking on the other side. ’And I hope you beg to be killed.’

.

.

.

He was dragged from the cell into a grim corridor lined with more cages. The world outside his small prison was a labyrinth of stone and despair, lit by the weak, sputtering flames of ancient lanterns.

’Just how old is this place…’

“Ugh…”

Ishiki tried to focus, but the pain wouldn’t let him. With each step he left behind a trail of blood. It wasn’t in the least the kind of experience anyone would want to experience.

Most of the cells were empty, save for piles of bones, but a few held the hunched shapes of the living, their gazes as dead as the stone around them.

“Finally… the bir-d has lef-t the c-age. Soon- it wil-l bl-ow the wi-nds of fre-edom.” An old, crackling voice said, hidden in the shadows.

The guards in the front stopped, the older one jabbed his spear inside the cell, hitting someone.

“I have told you to stop with your bird blabbering, old hag!” he shouted annoyingly and then yanked the chains once again pulling Ishiki.

As he was dragged past, Ishiki saw an old woman crumpled on the floor, tears tracking through the grime on her face.

“Th-e bir-d will lo-se its pa-st… its fu-tur-e… and eve-ntua-lly its-elf,” she muttered.

’Has she gone crazy living here or something?’

Ishiki thought about it, and deep down, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of something like sympathy. She’d probably been down here for years, maybe decades, with nothing but darkness and bones for company.

But he quickly crushed that sympathy like stepping on a bug.

’I’m in no position to feel sorry for anyone but myself.’

Another yank of the guard brought him back to reality and this time, what he saw made him flinch and tremble.

As the prison area ended, an enormous hall… so big and pristine that anything Ishiki saw in his life felt like a joke.

Two bright chandeliers reflected light from dozens of lanterns, igniting the whole space in a fiery glow that hurt his darkness-adjusted eyes.

There were drums being beaten into a constant rhythm on both sides of a path that stretched, until it ended at the feet of the same imposing man — Now sitting on a throne.

Ishiki’s blood ran cold, there were about 20,000 figures on either side of the path, their hungry eyes looking at him with resentment so strong, as if they would shred him to pieces if they got the chance.

’Wha-’ He tried to take a breath, but the air burned his lungs, and he let out a pained squeal.

Before he could process the scene, the guard shoved him forward. The heavy balls chained to his legs threw him off balance, and he fell to the ground, coughing up more blood.

“We Want Revenge!”

“Make the Bastard Pay!”

A stone hit him.

“Repent for your Sins, Devil’s Child!”

’Wait… what the fuck did I even do?! I just got here! I didn’t commit any crimes! Well, not in THIS world anyway!’

The crowd went absolutely crazy, as if they’d been waiting for this moment their entire lives. Like he was the embodiment of every bad thing that had ever happened to them, and now they finally had a target for their rage.

Through the pain, Ishiki forced his head up, his eyes finding the man on the throne, whose face remained a mask of cold indifference.

The man slowly rose, his gaze sweeping over the pathetic excuse of a human before him.

Then, he spoke the words that turned Ishiki’s world upside down.

“The seventh son of the Emperor will be executed in two days, on the night of the full moon.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep