Imprisonment

"Hey, kid! Can you hear me? Damn it! He's not waking up? The ministry sure did a number on him,"

Everything was black from his perspective it wasn't a surprise considering his eye were one of the few things damaged. His ear can't hear a voice but a constant ringing till it grew clearer and then the voice of a stranger. Garry couldn't move which was more or less expected after the things that led up to the present

'I remember now. Earlier in the morning, Frederick asked me to go into his room... he locked me up until the guards appeared and they start beating me until im crippled. I had it coming. I just didn't want to expect that my siblings would be the ones to rat me out, but it's not their fault. If I stayed and kept this whole thing a secret then my family including the servants will die,'

"Hey, do you hear me?" The road came to be rocky and as the voices grew clearer his body trembled along the rumbling of the van

"You're an Arcanist, right? Do you want to live? Oi, we don't have enough time. Tell me your answer now!!" The voice of a man shouted at him and even points out his reason for ending up in the slammer

"Live? What's the point? My bones are broken... there's no coming back from this. Urk! It h-hurts! Just leave me alone, don't let me hope. Not anymore..."

As disheartened as his tone may have been Garry regarded his condition as nothing but an annoyance. If there was a way for him to escape he would've undoubtedly been used as a tool and worst he might get discarded. Instead of trusting the words of this stranger, he chose to make peace for the remainder of his time. But all of that came to an end when a scroll was thrown banging on his head for him to receive another bruise

"Your arms are broken but the least you can do is touch that scroll! You can doubt right after you try, there's no risk, right? I know you're conflicted but all of us are meeting the slammer and you're going to die. What's it gonna be Arcanist?"

'Touch the scroll? What's that gonna do? Whatever... let's get this over with–'

He plants his face on the scroll and just when he was about to give up and move on with his life he felt a strange feeling. It crept up to his body and soon he could feel his body having the strength to once again walk and have once again open. He couldn't believe it, his body was healed from something that came from nothing but a piece of paper

"Don't get so surprised, kid. I ain't doing this for free, it's a pain to say this but this is just one of my many plans. We could've busted here and now but my crew isn't here, just pretend to be a cripple. Lastly, you don't have to find me, I'll find you, and don't do anything weird. Stay down... understood?"

Before he could say a word the back door opened and the guards arrived to pick the freshly picked inmates. "Here we are folks, Desarteou... one of the finest prisons you'll ever get to see. Consider this an honor for this prison is home to the most dangerous criminals. That includes this cripple over here, we made sure to do the procedures, he's helpless,"

Garry was then escorted to his cell once he lied down and feigned to be a cripple. Even though he's healed it's more or less healed his bones but all his bruises remain. Either it was a flawed scroll or he lucked out to retain his bruises for the guards to not suspect the slightest thing. On their trip to his cell, they passed murderers, terrorists, rapists, and all others till he was locked in a cell. But apart from the rest, his bars were something special with every form of contract left him drained

'... why do I feel so tired? Is this sucking my mana? Is that it? But I heard it's painful. That means... the last day here will be agonizing. I heard Arcanist's mana is sucked dry and the process was efficient but painful to the wizards and sorceresses in question,'

As much as he's scared to cower in fear he couldn't do anything but remain crippled in the eyes of the masses. He stayed on the cold and dusty floor until he fell asleep in such a chaotic environment where he was the center of the show. Guards from every side had their eyes on a single bar apart from the rest, to them he was the greatest threat. And as this motionless routine goes back and forth a day passed and before he could bask in his meal he was whisked away by the guards

'Where the hell are they taking me? Oh no! Is time already? But I thought it would take a week or so, then why? Why are they taking me and where?'

He couldn't do anything for the guards would've beaten him senseless if he slip even for a second and his bones will break. The first experience was already enough after recalling his femur twist, arms dislocated and his knee crushed by their batons. Garry awaited the end point of his travel and after a long and restless night in prison he's face-to-face with his brother

After the guards place him on his seat they left for the siblings to talk in peace. "... im sorry. You've been through a lot just from the sight of your wounds. I have nothing to say, I did what I think was right. As much as you don't mean any harm, you awaken as an Arcanist. If we kept you then all of us will–"

"I know..."

Frederick couldn't once face his brother in the eye but his words had no lingering rage and even the slightest change. To him, he was nothing but a sibling who thought of the right thing, seeing his smile Frederick wept, and down goes his cold exterior. He banged on the glass divider as the two had finally made amends but the time couldn't be so late for them to change

"Brother there has to be a way. You're the successor of the Kettle family there has to be something! We just need to delay your death sentence,"

"Give it up. There isn't a way, Fred. This is my time, it might be a week but I want to cherish everything. There's no reason to do anything that's bound to fail–"

Frederick lashes out as tears proceed to drip from his eyes. "Would you please just listen to me! I know you want to take hold of all the responsibility but you don't. This is why I hate you. You're so selfish, you always want to do it your way. You quit being a child you took the reins of the family by yourself without ever consulting me. Now you're gonna die and you're doing anything–"

"Even royalty dies!" His brother's rage-filled tantrum was extinguished by a few words that came from his mouth

"Garry... what do you mean by that?"

"I've been meaning to make amends with you a long time ago... but the moment I told you to stop in your dreams of joining M.O.S.E I knew I did something wrong. Who would want an ignorant brother, so I read every history concerning Arcanists just to have something to talk to you about. From what I learned the higher your status as an Arcanist the more you draw suspicion," Frederick was baffled by such a secret that he couldn't do anything but hear him out

"Many believe that Arcanists originating from a powerful family to even royalty are expert sorcerers that have taken their place. That's the reason why I got beaten to a pulp, they were afraid that I might kill them, even though I can't. Consider this chat of ours as a miracle, some of the texts say that they kept the family from ever reaching the captive. They say something about manipulating them or activating their curse so they could act accordingly in their need," As Frederick heard of his declaration a guard appeared in his back and sucker-punched him in the gut

'We were played... right from very the beginning they were waiting for this!!'

"You devil! To think you'd manipulate this innocent child to doing your bidding, don't you know shame?" Fredericks's eyes were turned upside down when his very words were played on the monitor but most of their chatter was trimmed to a flawless evidence

"Garry!!? You fucker! Who the hell are you? You got the balls for messing with the Kettle's–" Before he could say anything else Frederick was overwhelmed with fear for a prescience riddle with death emerge

[Desarteou Warden: Elyra Umbler]

"My oh my! It seems the devil has taken control of this poor little boy. Shhhhh it's okay now, we'll have that fiend executed so needn't worry. Your curse will be seized upon his end. Guards take that devil away!! We must separate them or else the curse will remain active in this poor lad," An elderly woman in her retirement creepily stroked Frederick's plump cheeks as she stares down at his older brother

"You old hag! Let go of my brother!!" He didn't forget his act but all he could do was scream as the guards take him back to his cellar where he awaits his end

'Hey, kid! Can you hear me? I'm that person you met a while back... it looks like you still have a reason to live eh? Why don't you and I have a little team-up, it wouldn't hurt right? You already knew that your visit was nothing but a setup. Those fuckers want you dead, so I can confidently say you'll agree, right?'

For some unknown reason, he'd heard the voice of the man he met before, and just like from the beginning his motive never changed. "I'm listening... I'll do anything to escape. I'm worried about them. That woman urgh scheming hag!! She's framing me for something I didn't do, I might hate being an Arcanist but im willing to go so far to escape,"