Rise of The Holy-Realm Rebel

The party resumed its journey at dawn, and three days passed. Even if I had spent that entire period suffering alone. However the carriage began to slow its movement at some point, but I decided against opening my eyes.

Having laid my full body on the wooden platform that served as a seat for we prisoners, I had made certain to secure myself with chains to ensure I never rolled off.

The journey had been bumpy, but that experience paled compared to the suffering I endured. Over the days I gradually felt life and vitality slip out of my grasp.

I slept most of the time and for good reasons. Why would anyone remain awake in that state?

The carriage came to an abrupt stop at some point and the chattering of several men reached my ears. I wondered what all that commotion was about until I heard that we had reached the said camp.

My ears perked up, but I had no energy to feel excited or even feel doom. I even took a few moments to resume wondering how I perfectly understood the language that era spoke. I had invested energy in that topic a couple days ago. All to distract myself.

A few minutes passed and the carriage resumed its movement, albeit, this time around, slowly.

Throughout these three days, a few others had been brought into that carriage, but none of them had lasted one night. Every time a different person came to offer them a chance to eat well by demeaning themselves, they had all taken it.

Of course, I never tried it out since like the first batch, those men never returned. I considered them either dead or in another carriage. Probably dead still. Those men seemed far too cruel to be capable of kindness.

"Hey," someone interrupted by rest, a soldier. I grumbled, understanding what he wanted.

"Get up," he commanded. I obeyed, albeit my actions had grown sluggish. I sat up, raising my head to look at him.

Our gazes locked he saw the deadness in my eyes and flinched... surprisingly. He covered it up with an act, however. My face had become hollow and pale, and I had grown thin from lack of sustenance.

"Get down," he commanded, disappearing around the carriage. I obeyed.

The second my feet touched the ground a wave of dizziness hit me. I lost my balance and found myself on the ground.

It was an unexpected event, but not surprising.

I had not stepped out of the carriage once throughout the journey, were it not for my empty stomach I would have puked.

The man returned and scoffed at my pathetic state. I didn't care and did what I could to stand. He went into the carriage to detach my chains, before proceeding to pull me forth with it. Had I the key he used, escaping would not have been difficult... Or so I deluded myself into thinking. All to distract myself.

Trees stood around us as usual, it was close to evening time so the sun's radiance barely affected me. Still, I kept my eyes half closed. Open enough to not trip on anything, and closed enough to trick my mind into thinking I was still resting.

All around us a similar scene to what I experienced unfolded. Other carriages with more than one individual had their passengers connected to each other's chains before being led by one person. Like animals to slaughter.

We walked for several minutes before a sight other than trees caught my attention.

The trees slowly receded into the back and another landmark unfolded in our sights. A hill caught my gaze, but the small stone castle situated on it had more of my attention. It could be seen even from our position.

My gaze finally descended and I beheld the stone wall that hid the insides of that place from the rest of the world. It stood at 7m in height and was made purely from piled-up stone. It looked old.

A thick wooden gate stood before our party, and several armed men welcomed us. Of course, all remained hostile towards us slaves.

Thankfully none of us tried anything too fishy and our entry into the base ended smoothly. Then again, most of us had barely eaten in the past few days. I wondered if they had intentionally starved us to limit resistance. It seemed like a logical reason.

An unspectacular scenery reached my eyes. The insides of the base contained several short black buildings seemingly erected randomly.

A fountain with the statue of an ascending bird, however, stood at the very center of that rather spacious compound. I looked at it for a second more, before looking away.

On the other side of the compound close to the wall, a short fence square existed, and plants grew inside it. I deduced it was sort of a farm.

We were gathered towards the fountain and a few men approached us from what looked like a path to the hill's top. The hill itself was at least 20m in height but somehow wasn't too huge. In truth, its very existence did not seem natural.

Armed soldiers surrounded us and their attention grew even more wary when the three men from the stone castle arrived before the fountain. One of them stood on its edge and swept his gaze on us, his eyebrows creased a tiny bit, and I wondered why I was even attentive enough to notice.

'We probably look half dead to him,' I thought.

"Good day, valiant men of Yukov. I welcome you to the place you will spend most of your lives in… if not the rest of it," the man started addressing us, and he immediately struck nerves.

"My name Is Sub-general Ivon, and as you might have guessed it, but I am in charge of this camp."

"Many of you may know this place to be one of the fortes under Yukov's control. But it is now a part of the empire's property."

"Of course, you too are part of the empire's property," he declared with a smirk, and our hearts burned with violence. Especially my fellow slaves. They had a connection to that place and as such hatred bloomed from their eyes, ripe and ready to spill blood. If only they had to energy to carry it out.

"Hahaha!" Ivon chuckled, unfazed. "Feisty. I expected no less, though," he nodded in approval. "The empire would like to employ that great mental energy of yours into its projects."

"I was informed many of you were starved… intentionally so, and yet it seems you would not hesitate to slit my throat if given the chance," he chuckled again, rubbing his throat seemingly nervous. It was obvious that was an act.

"Believe it or not, but I understand how you feel. As such, I hope we get to work together to help the Empire achieve its aims," he bowed.

"And yes, they will inform you on how things would be from now on. You are the first batch of slaves arriving here after all," Ivon revealed.

"We have made sure to create something that you would be able to work with. I hope you all like it."

Ivon left after that, and although his tone had remained annoying all through his speech of sorts, I could only hope his words about something we'd be able to work with, were true.

Not too long after, someone else stood on the fountain's edge to address us. He listed a set of rules we'd follow from then on. We could only agree.