Chapter 5

Arthur turned looked at the boy intently and said and said, "so if you were a noble do you reckon, you're family still has a lot of money and influence because if they do I'd like to know now," the boy turned and said "I'm from the planar family," seeing Arthur had no reaction he was shocked "I'm Lukas planar." seeing Arthur still had no reaction he was amazed "how do you not know it was headline news!" he breathed in and started explaining "the noble system goes emperor, royals, dukes, earls, barons and knights, counts, viscounts, peasants and at the bottom prisoners it is also a meritocracy where even the lowest peasant can grow to be a duke however only the family of the emperor can be a royal unless that person is elected by all of the social standings, my family was at the rank of duke so I doubt the emperor punished them for a stupid child's actions but the news that I was courting the emperors daughter Alicia was no surprise as a matter most people thought the emperor reacted too harshly." Arthur looked at him and decided to tell him about some of his past he believed if anyone understood the cruelty of people of a higher rank it would be this boy. He slowly began "to tell you the truth all my life I've been a prisoner and just recently I was a peasant at least, but now I'm a prisoner again originally I was a prisoner because my mother was raped by a noble and she couldn't get justice so my father tried to kill the man but failed and was killed, eventually my mother committed suicide then at he age of seven I killed the man and his whole family then I was captured and force to work in the lead mines," he turned to Lukas and stated " I will become emperor whether I have to kill steal or extort I will achieve my goal I want to make this empire fair," he turned to the door with a look of grim determination because there were sounds coming from the other side of the door he crawled back into the cage and locked them both he wanted to see what would happen. He hard a voice as the door opened "I know you want the boy to be released but your father said he was in here for his life we can't disobey him and you're going to be getting married soon so it's better if you forget him," Arthur recognised her as the woman from the carriage her voice was very elegant and was obviously trying to calm someone down then another voice higher pitched but still having the same refined edge to it shouted "yes but fathers dead why should we bow our heads to a dead man and I don't want to get married to that perverted man I love Lukas," he heard the crack of a slap and saw Lukas wince but he was happy at the same time Arthur suddenly realised who it was it was the empress and her daughter Alicia that loved Lukas. He looked at Lukas and whispered, "distract them on my signal and I can get us both out of here," Lukas just nodded he'd already said he'd devote his life to this man. Arthur lowered his head as he saw three people enter the imperial prison the first being the man he'd knocked out in the carriage the second was the woman he now recognised as the empress and trailing behind her was a beautiful young lady with flowing silky gold coloured hair with eyes that felt like they could look into your soul one was green and the other was blue her skin was pale but she had red rosy cheeks it was not a surprise that many men had their eyes on this amazing young woman. The man who'd entered first introduced himself first as Marcus Welan the current military commander then the empress introduced herself as Fiona Regnus she looked calm cold and calculating and but Arthur knew there had to be more to her else she would not care about her husbands wishes since he was dead she also displayed emotion in the carriage she was the most interesting of the three and finally the girl who looked subdued and lonely you could also tell something important to her was in this room as she was staring at everyone in the room intently so in Arthurs opinion the headstrong knight the cold calculating accountant of an empress and the broken hearted damsel in distress. He burst out laughing and the three tuned to look at him he laughed and spoke "well your highness what can I do for you," he said with a mock bow and a voice dripping with sarcasm. She looked at him and laughed "I was intrigued because I thought you were an anomaly, but I found out you were nothing but a scared child," Arthur was laughing so hard he was rolling around on the floor then his face became emotionless and he spoke with a determination that chilled them to the bone "lady you try killing your first man at seven being thrown into the lead mines and killing several more by your standards I'm a serial killer it's ridiculous how you think I'd be scared of anything after that." The four people looked at him shocked even though some of them knew the first part Marcus was the first to regain composure "my main question is how did you escape a lead mine those places are meant to be impenetrable inside and out to stop people revealing their location." The empress then started talking "you're the boy who escaped without leaving any evidence behind except for three body's!" Arthur hissed in rage "I left behind two body those bastards killed my best friend and I mean you didn't care about them anyways you sent them to prison," he replied with a grin that suggested something then he looked over at Lukas made eye contact and nodded his head he raised it pushed the grimy hair out of his eyes and groaned "Alicia is that you are you here for me," she turned shock written all over her face "Lukas, Lukas are you okay, oh god what have they done to you," this was when Arthur made his move while everyone was looking at Lukas and Alicia jumping out the cage he grabbed the empress wrapping his arm around her throat and growling to the others there "don't move or I kill her," Marcus looked horrified that he let this happen and Alicia was looking at him as well not so much terrified but interested he slowly walked to Lukas's prison cage and handed him his belt and said "stand up and get ready to leave," Alicia looked horrified and Marcus was surprised "why Lukas why are you betraying me!" Alicia was crying Arthur just said, "he's doing this all for you he's going to get stronger so he can come and be with you and you heard your mother he's in here and your getting married because she sees you as more of a slave than a person," Alicia looked at him and was crying because no matter how much she denied it she believed it was true she was a pawn for her mother to use to further her political gains it was cruel but true but she was happy because she knew she had a pillar to lean on whenever she needs and that was Lukas she was distraught and happy at the same time she felt betrayed and loved it was a very strange feeling suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder it was Marcus and he was pissed he screamed "GUARDS!!," then looked at Arthur "you can take Lukas but we'll be keeping the girl," the empress was just realising how sad she was because she had truly betrayed and she was just realising but at the same time she was happy with Marcus's actions. She was cold and calculating and had only felt love for one man and now he was dead she had nothing to live for except revenge and choosing another emperor.