The Drunken Man

Far away on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Glaran, there was a massive forest surrounding a large town.

There were roads leading from the town to the outside world, but if a person was able to see on a map how big those roads were, they were practically non-existent. The roads weren't maintained, and the travel to and from the town was perilous. Because of this, there was no prosperity in this town. Only poverty.

And poverty brought out the worst from mankind.

This town was Morrowl. A sick town corrupted by vices of all kinds. These included prostitution, gambling, extortion, murder... etc. Most people's lives in this town were horrible since the day they were born.

Many times if you walked the streets you could hear laughter, screams, and moans of pleasure from the thin walls of the houses within this town. Slaughter and murder were commonplace in the neighbourhoods, with many wives and daughters being sold to gangs to settle debts the fathers and husbands couldn't possibly pay back.

Many try to go to sleep on the streets only to have rats gnaw at their toes during their attempts for rest.

There were taverns and inns that were the popular hotspots for the gangs, as they were usually marketed to the town as brothels and cheap liquor for the common citizen. Unfortunately, the 'brothels' were actually slaves that the gang had kidnapped from the poor families, and the liquor was piss poured into a glass for the citizens to drink in.

Good alcohol was a rarity in this town, along with good women. But, both wouldn't last very long in this town either way.

But regardless of the circumstances, a young man walked through the crowded streets of Morrowl as he held a bottle of gin in his hand.

He was a man that could be called beautiful to the common citizens. His looks could make the heads of both men and women turn in shock as they feel their hearts thump with feelings they themselves couldn't understand.

People on the sidewalks would huddle together when they saw him walk by. They would shiver in this man's mere presence as he walked with the demeanour of a monarch in his own land. Striding across the streets as he knew that nobody would dare touch him even if he was standing right beside them.

But, more than fear, the people looked at the man with reverence, affection, and trust. They looked at him as a national hero! What this man did to reach such status was truly a mystery to the outside world. But, everyone in the town knew how he had reached such a status. It was obvious to the citizens of Morrowl, that this man was the only one deserving the moniker of 'The Black King'.

But soon, a group of burly men walk out of a tavern as they looked to the floor with dejection. There were five of them, and among them was a bald man who seemed to be the group's leader. He walked with a pensive expression as he looked to the floor with frustration.

The bald man looked to the sidewalk where he saw a bony man covering himself with a thin sheet of cloth as he tried to hide his shivering self from the masses.

The bald man walked toward this emaciated man and kicked him in the head!

"Fuck that bartender! What a dick! Couldn't even handle a bit of touching. Watch me break your bones you little bastard!" The bald man shouted as he started beating the bony man into a pulp.

His gang usually frequented this tavern since they loved the bartender over there. Just that... they got a bit too 'touchy' with the man.

So, the bartender kicked them out of the tavern as he felt utterly disgusted with these men, and he also knew that his gang would protect him no matter what he did, so he might as well kick the bald bastard and his goons out from his establishment.

(Man that's some serious violation of the bro code there, especially if they ain't even your homie!)

But because they were kicked out, the bald man and his gang were extremely bored. And beating the shit out of a citizen of Morrowl wasn't exactly satisfying to him.

He wanted to have some fun tonight.

And 'fun' he got.

As the gang walked on the broken streets of Morrowl, they suddenly bumped into a drunken man.

They hadn't noticed who the man was, and the man didn't care enough about them to say anything. He staggered away without apologising for bumping into them.

Why should he apologise anyway? He was having a good time with that bottle of gin. So he didn't want to ruin his night by smashing some faces in.

As the drunken man staggered away, the gang hadn't been able to catch his face properly, so they were in the dark about the identity of the man. But, what they did see made them turn their heads around again to have another look at the man.

The man's face wasn't properly visible to the five of them, but what they could see, was an unusually beautiful and handsome face that made the hearts of the men thump in excitement that they themselves couldn't understand.

'Well, who gives a shit about an apology.' The bald man thought as he adorned a fiendish smile on his visage.

He finally found prey he could have 'fun' on.

His surrounding goons quickly took their eyes away from the drunken man and stared at their boss impatiently as they waited for their orders on what to do next.

The bald leader laughed as he started giving orders to his goons.

"We're going to follow this man for now. After a while, we'll slowly lead him into one of the alleys if he doesn't go there himeself," The bald man said as he looked at his gang to see if they understood.

The goons nodded their heads vigorously as they quickly turned around to look back at the drunken man walking on the streets of Morrowl by himself.

The gang started tailing him and blended into the surrounding crowds as they stalked the drunken man like wolves would a fat beautiful deer in the wild.

'This is going to be good,' The gang snickered in their mind as they thanked their boss in their hearts for bringing such a good meal right to their lap.

Well, the guy didn't actually do anything. But hey, that's how leadership works.

After following the drunken man for a while, he suddenly took a right turn into an alleyway. The gang quickly followed after him, only to be met with flaming barrels while drunken man stood in the middle of it all.

Why were there flaming barrels in an alleyway? Well, that's because it was the primary way for the residents to warm themselves up during the night and cook themselves food. Before this, the monarch had banned the civilians from cooking on the streets and setting up fire barrels on top of it. So, the alleyways were the best location to keep the flaming barrels other than the streets which the monarch told them not to touch.

The monarch allowed this practice of flaming barrels even when he told them not to keep them on the streets. He knew very well how it was to sleep with no warmth during the night.

But people also slept on the streets, so putting fire barrels next to them as they slept wasn't exactly safe. So the monarch of Morrowl made these rules in regard to the safety of his people.

Even when the entirety of Morrowl was his turf, he still allowed others to live their lives in this town. Not only that, he had even drastically improved the living standards of this place by introducing taverns and bars as businesses people could work at. Even though shady stuff still happened all the time, it was part of the course in this sick and demented town.

But, this was also why he was respected so much. Doing the good in Morrowl despite the evil in its borders. It was as if divinity had blessed the land of Morrowl for the slum dwellers. To give them hope despite the tragedies they faced during their daily lives.

As the drunken man stood in-between the middle of the barrels, the gang approached him from behind and the gang started laughing like mad jackals as they turned the drunken man around.

But their excitement quickly faded away, only for it to be replaced with horror and despair as they gazed upon that devilishly handsome face.

The drunken man had icy blue eyes, with black hair that reflected the moonlight shining from the night sky.

And only one person in this town had those features.

The Black King!

The leader looked at the figure standing before him in fear. The fire of the barrels reflected off his eyes while the moon shone on his bald head.

But that fire. That fire was the only thing he couldn't take his eyes off of as he looked at the Black King.

The man looked like a keeper of hell as he stood in-between the raging flames like a demon.

For the bald man, that fire only showed where he would end up after his death.

Hell!

Soon, the gang's laughter stopped as their hearts froze at who they saw now. They started shivering uncontrollably from the fuck up that they had just done!

"Ah..." One gang member said as his mouth was open wide.

"Ayo boss...I think we fucked up..." The goon beside the bald man said as he gulped hard at the sight of the man before him.

The bald man looked at the drunken man with absolute shock, mixed with a good pinch of despair.

'The fuck is this bad luck?! To run into him of all people. Of all the people why him!?' The bald man shouted in his mind as he tried to make sense of his luck.

The gang looked at the drunken man with clattering teeth as they saw their boss hold the man by his shoulder.

They were fucked!

"Hey, has anyone seen Sarah around?" The drunken man suddenly asked as he slurred his word in-between

The bald man shivered when he heard this.

He wanted to say something, but for some reason, his voice was lost with the wind, as if his vocal cords had been melted by the nearby fire barrels, he just gasped for air like he was drowning in the sky.

The drunken man lifted his head up when he didn't hear an answer. He looked at the bald man before him in confusion as he repeated his question.

"Oiii, I asked if you've seen Sarah anywhere around here," He asked once again. He didn't like repeating himself, so he had an idea of cursing at the bald man, but he decided against it.

But even then, he didn't hear an answer. He didn't know that the bald man before him was trying to his best to speak, but he just couldn't!

'This is going to be the death of me!' The bald man thought in his mind as he cursed his own luck. The poor bastard couldn't even speak. How sad...

After not hearing an answer, even after asking for the third time, the drunken man started squinting his eyes. His blurry vision wasn't exactly helping his eyesight right now, so he had to squint really hard to see who was before him, and also what was going on.

But, the bald man's heart went cold when he saw this. With his heart frozen, so was his body along with his muscles. He was frozen in place now, with his hand still on the Black King's shoulder.

'Oh Tarnian, please don't let me die like this,' The bald man said as he prayed to the God of Thieves. Hoping the god could steal his life before the man standing in front of him could!

Without knowing the existential crisis the man before him was going through, the drunken man tried scanning him as he squinted his blurry looking eyes.

He followed from the bald man's fearful eyes, then he closely looked at the arm of the man, as he followed it along until he saw the man's hand rest on his shoulder.

The drunken man suddenly opened his eyes wide as he shook his head violently, he scanned the man standing before him once again.

He honestly couldn't believe someone was touching him right now. He needed to double check this bizarre situation just in case.

After seeing the same result, the drunken man shook his head once again, he still couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Then he looked again for the third time.

He looked for the fourth time.

Then the fifth time.

The sixth time.

The seventh.

The eight...

Soon, after doing the motion over ten times did he finally stop looking. He was suddenly feeling dizy after all of that head shaking, but that wasn't why he stopped.

No, he stopped because he started to realise something.

He didn't know these people.

And they grabbed him...

'What...' The drunken man thought in his stupor.

'...'

'...'

'He actually dared to fucking touch me!?' The drunken man suddenly thought as he violently looked at the gang with an expression that could erupt multiple volcanoes.

'How dare they! Do they not want to live? Well who cares up to this point. They should just die.' The drunken man thought as he looked at the gang with unimaginable fury.

He looked completely sober now. His previous drunken demeanor wiped away, as if it never existed.

He wasn't drunk anymore. But even then, he could still barely think clearly as his mind was clouded.

The reason?

Because he was fucking furious!

The drunken man immediately broke the bottle of gin in his hand on top of the gang leader's bald head.

Splurt!

Soon, blood splurted out of his head as everyone looked at him in shock.

"What the fuck!?" They shouted out in unison as they looked at the demon standing among the flames in fear.

He looked at the gang with unimaginable hatred.

They had broken his rules. They had ruined his good night. And, they had ruined their own fucking lives!

Damian had had enough shit for one night!