Chapter Text
Inside a quiet, obscure dungeon’s lowest floor sits a break room. Inside this room there enough supplies for up to 10 at any given time, the room itself is stacked with bags of coff beans, hkat leaves, and various other narcotics meant to keep the floor’s guards up to snuff. The guards themselves are a mixture of young and old, all sharing a single characteristic between them all. A Skill Ceiling. Being unable or able to meet that ceiling in particular, for many city guards, who usually come from a commoner background, this is the absolute peak one could reach without being extraordinary. Meanwhile, for Nobles who failed to get into the Royal Knights even with their connections, this is where they go to hide their shame, using the excuse of ‘guarding the Kingdom’s most notorious criminals’ to say they actually accomplished something with their lives, and say that they aren’t complete disappointments to the expectations set by their families. In previous years, particularly after the Demi-Human War, this place was brimming to the fill with prisoners of war, specifically captains, generals, certain foot-soldiers, and this place was used to extort information useful to the knights as well as to torture the prisoners. However, nowadays the prisoner population had dwindled down to 14, not counting the corpse in a certain cell opposing ‘Pride’, the old man had passed about a week ago but none of the guards had been willing enough to dispose of the body. ‘Pride’ was definitely the most famous prisoner on this floor, but even he had a lack of lustre. After several ‘interrogations’ by both the guards and actual Royal Knights turned up nothing, as well as ‘Pride’s’ visible weakness and lack of gusto, the consensus reached was that this was not a sin archbishop, and instead was just a regular witch cultist. After that revelation, much of the jubilance the men felt rapidly evaporated at that, and they returned to their usual boredom.
“Siiiigh—” exclaimed Callem, a man in his late 20s sighs trying to bring attention to himself from the other two.
“Hm?!” Absol, the youngest there, begins to open his mouth and give the attention Callem seeks, before he gets cut off by a hand covering his mouth.
“Not. A. Word.” Nills barked loud enough to stop the young man from falling into Callem’s trap, desperate not to give him even the slightest bit of the attention he desires.
“aghhhhhhh! FINE. I was GOING TO SAY, we need to absolutely remove that corpse from this floor, it’s attracting bugs.” Callem yelled out, as he his face turned pale with disgust leading him to pick out handkerchief to plunge up his nostrils.
“Ya ain’t wrong kiddo, i really is startin’ to stink in her’e. Perhaps, one of us can call a few guys from up top, to handle this” Nills’ adds, feeling just as nauseous as the younger man when it comes to the rotting corpse. Both however, fail to see the sweat begin to grow on Absol’s face, which came from another source entirely.
“Uh-Im- Hold On Guys! I can tinker with body again and use some incense to fight off the smell so we’ll be fine! You won’t worry at all. Plus its a looooooooooooong trip to the top, so why not just handle it with some incense” The Youngest Knight rushes out, desperate to prevent the corpse’s removal for his own personal reasons, all the while hoping he comes off as ‘kind’ to his two companions.
“Ya too sweet lad! But I fear we’d be takin’ advantage of ya eve’n more tha’n we already ha’v.” Nills adds, with respect towards the young man, completely oblivious to his true intentions in stopping the corpse removal.
“*Sniff* Yeah Man- You’re the best~ Sacrificing your own incense to make sure we don’t strain ourselves taking the body upstairs or die from the stench of its rotting flesh, you really are the best.” Callem whimpers out, tears streaming down his face at the generosity. “N-Nah... it’s FINE, after all its always kind to respect your seniors you know! Yuppp!” The Youngest guard spits out a cobbled together response, luckily for him the other two buy it and turn to stare at the lad with adoration for his perceived selflessness.
“Keep ya wits bout’ ya’self lad, and I’m sure you’ll do fin’e. Hell, yer’ probably have a chance at joinin’ the Royal Knights themselves” Nills reasures the Boy, as he pats his shoulder.
“Yeah Man! Keep that attitude up and you’ll end up outta here in no time.”
His two Seniors throw back at him, wilfully unaware of how agitating the thought of leaving this place is to the Man their complimenting.
“Ahem, AHEM! That’s all-well-and-all-but-can-we-talk-about-something-else!?!?!?!” Absolutely pleads, as the sweat begins to level off. “Like....... OH! The Half-Elf’s failed expedition to the Pleiades Watch Tower, any thoughts on that?”
“That Lass’ outcom’e was expecte’d but still Sad.”
“What’s so sad about the Half-Devil failing to reach the Witch’s seal. Frankly, we should be glad that no-name isn’t threatening us with a harder time.”
Still she ha’d that Gal’ Anastasia with her’ so I’d thought ‘id end better than what we got!” Callem barks out, as he finally finishes his incomprehensible tirade.
“Phffp- That Damn Karagi Fox isn’t much better. She’ll sell our homeland out to her Karagi’s merchants. Hell they’d probably sell the Royal Jewels for a dime and handover Priestella to those lying Dogs.” Callem adds bitterly, before dissolving info a long winded and arduous rant on this topic, which soon quickly dissolved into yelling about business ownership rates, and burgundy coloured carpets. All before being cuttoff by a door slam.
*SLAM
From the door, entered Asher. He was a lanky knight Older than both Absol and Callem but still younger than Nills. His eyes were absolutely dead, he began to stagger towards his bed, each step looking like it was pained, before turning to look at Absol, to whom he said a choice set of words...
“Your. Turn.” He manages to make out in a worrisomely raspy voice before completely falling onto his bed and immediately passing into a deep sleep without even changing or wiping away the sweat that stained his clothes.
“Ah. Well I’ll be at it then! Don’t worry I’ll be sure to use the incense to get rid of the smell.” Absol added before while waving towards his fellow guards.
(A/N: Any Italics is Subaru’s internal thoughts interrupting the observations.)
Rows of cells remain perfectly quiet, those which still host ‘alive’ residents are as quiet as the ones lacking.-
“Except one, Old Man Ishmael’s cage is still blinking with lights, though he’s still sleeping for his ‘100 years’. The Old Man really was my only companion throughout all these years, hell when I first started and thrashed about for Mili and Beako, he was the one to calm me down.” A slightly annoying voice rings out.
“OI, Don’t Call Me Annoying I’m No— Okay so you might have a point, so What?!” Subaru chirps out ignorantl—
“HEY, I’M NOT IGNORANT! After soooooooo long in this cell, I’ve reached Nirvana~” Subaru squeaks out.
“HEY—“
AS SUBARU SAID, it took him a couple decades to appreciate the tranquility of repeating a week for 100 or so years. This is not to say he was alone, for companionship he had Ishmael, who was the second oldest resident in the cells or ‘Pitt’ as he preferred-
“The Pitt’s oldest resident was a Dog Man named Billy, he was a famed arsonist back in the day, but got outcompeted and eventually caught. Still, a very solid guy and funny to boot.”
Ishmael was unsure of why he was jailed, but he claimed it was due to the Lugunican Government and Royal Family catching onto to him evading their spiking of the water supply-
“The Old Man was really nice, he was the only one who believed me when I told him about being a forgotten knight. Hell, he even said “A greater organization is behind this, either the leader of the Witch Cult or Six Tongues” though I would put much stake into what a conspiracy theorist like him says.”
Just then, a click was heard, as the sounds of footsteps got closer and closer to the end of the hall. Normally, the guards stick to the entrance as they imagine no one would be able to break out from here. So, when Subaru heard the footsteps he knew who it was.
*CLACK*
?
*CLICK*
??
*CLACK*
???
*CLICK*
I SAID. When Subaru heard the footsteps, he instinctively knew who it was from.
*CLACK*
*CLICK*
“Oh? Are you asking for me?” Subaru piped up, with a confused tone and idiotic look on his face.
YES DUMBASS! He’s. Almost. Here.
“Well you don’t have to be so uptight about it. *AHEM*. The only person who’d willingly come to this obscure corner was the youngest of the guards, Asher!”
Absol, Dumbass.
“Right! So, Absol visits this corner every shift, and he goes into the Old Man’s cell. And makes some weird noises? I think what he does is called Somnophilia?”
Necrophilia.
“But isn’t that the act of having sex with corps-”
Don’t. Question. ME.
“Fine, FINE, be touchy about my inquiries you prick. You’re almost as uptight as that bastard Julius. Speaking of which, it is pride month, should I get him something? Nah, he’s a prick, also 90% sure he doesn’t know what he is-”
*CLACK*
*CLICK*
“Huh? He usually takes till 3 to finish. Must be a patrol night-”
Absol cleaned himself up, before zipping his pants and returning to the barracks. Before leaving he lit the incense next to Ishmael’s body to clear up the rotting stench of the flesh of the dead man as well as the sinful actions he’d just committed against that very corpse. The reason for Absol’s early return, was to be called on patrol duty which had become necessary due to the rise of Witch Cult reprisals.
“I think they got the gist with my explanation. You really don't gotta repeat and go into overly detailed diatribes” Subaru added, pushing the narrator to consider other work.
Fine. You Have A Go AT IT.
So, I- I mean Natsuki Subaru’s been here a whileeeeee. How long exactly can’t say? I seriously overreacted for a while and stopped functioning, this obviously led to more deaths and more time in That Place with Satella. Now, whenever we met she was always crying, and repeating the phrase.
“I’m Sorry”
“I’m Sorry”
“I’m Sorry”
“I’m Sorry”
“I’m Sorry”
“I’m Sorry”
At first I was crying and begging Satella to ‘end it’ and ‘let me die already’. I mean sheesh Natsuki Subaru, if you keep crying in front of cute girls like this you won’t have any of that manly pride intact. But yeah, it was preeeetty rough and I wasn’t diligent at all. Honestly, I thought I’d lose it completely, have my mind entirely stop functioning and be left a mindless husk like the rest of the geezers in this place. Luckily, I had the world’s most persistent conspiracy theorist to keep me company and comfort me. ‘Call me Ishmael’ a cliche line but definitely welcome after all this time. So, Ishmael claimed to have been on a hunt for the White Whale with his captain Ahab, but ended up deserting once he realized the true nature of the great beast. In truth, the beast was controlled by a higher power, the Lugunican Government. So, I obviously wrote him of as a schizo, but then he said “Great Mabeasts weren’t created by The Witch of Envy” and said they were “created by The Witch of Gluttony, Daphne” which he really shouldn’t know. So, when I asked him were exactly he heard it, he couldn’t give me a normal answer. A detail about Ishmael that I’ve forgotten to mention to you is the fact he wears an Iron Mask/Helmet at all times. Apparently, its completely optional with no guard mandate to keep it on. He wears it because he ‘claims’ it can help him hear the thoughts of other people, and that using The “Machine that lets me read peoples minds when I want to” or “Psychopomp” for short, he could hear the thoughts of Lugunican Royal Knights and Sage Councillors. Now, he was right about that stuff, but I still wanted to know where he found it from. I felt like a Math Teacher asking a kid to show how he got that answer when his equations were wrong.
*Chirp*
”Oh! Hello Birdy?” Subaru chittered, at what he saw
The bird was white and had a strange gleam in it’s eyes. Honestly, it felt like someone was watching through those eyes. But, I quickly shook out of my paranoid ramblings and remembered ‘It’s Just a Bird. Ishmael is a Conspiracist, don’t stoop down to his level’ and then everything felt clear. Oh right the bird! It had a glowing pebble in its mouth and made a nodding motion towards me.
“Do you want me to open my mouth?”
At that question the bird ferociously began to nod it’s head up and down, and only sped up the longer I took to open it. Eventually, though I ended up opening wide, to which the bird dropped down the glowing pebble into my throat. *CHIRP* it loudly declared before flying away.
“Awww. I thought you’d wanna be my friend Birdy!”
Suppose that ones on me. Birdy probably used my digestive system to dispose of something they no longer need. It’s depressing, but the most logical response to ‘Natsuki Subaru’, after all that guy was annoying as hell. I still remember when I embarrassed myself in front of all those people in the capital, and then the fight with-
*CHIRP*
Oh its the bird, and is that a keychain?!?! Hell, I remember those keys from the interrogations, way to go Birdy! The Bird flew gracefully between the jail bars and dropped the keychain to the floor with a *THUNK*. Finally, a way out so I don’t have to keep lazing about. Though, I probably should fulfil the old man’s request before I leave. “When you get out of this place, and you WILL. I want you to take my Mask with you, MY Psychopomp. It will be extremely necessary for your travels.” So, with my next step set, I pushed myself up and grabbed onto the walls as a crutch