Chapter 116: Fury

A week had passed since I joined Culex’s army.

Becoming an official member of Culex’s army came with a few perks, and the first was a room of my own.

The bed had a soft mattress, a wooden dressing table with a mirror that was only slightly cracked, and a private bathroom with a proper toilet seat, a real bathtub and a shower.

After days of squatting over a hole in the floor, I had nearly wept when I saw it. Peter would have wept too, so I let it happen.

The luxury had a price.

Cleaning the bathroom cost three coins, and the palace only offered it to people who served Culex.

The people who just lived, I had started calling them the "guests" in my head, and the word suited them far too well.

Getting in had been easy.

The rule was that I had to defeat one of his soldiers, so I did.

It took a few exchanges, and I made sure to stumble twice, gasp loudly and win by what looked like pure luck. When it was over, I stood there shaking and pale, apologizing to the man I had just beaten. Peter was a very committed actor.

The other soldiers were slowly adjusting to me.

I would not say they liked me, but they had accepted me, which in this place was a kind of affection.

The seniors still bullied me now and then. One of them "accidentally" spilled soup on my boots, and another liked to call me "one star" in a singsong voice.

I smiled stupidly at all of it.

’Laugh while you can,’ I thought. ’I know where all of you sleep.’

The food was the second perk, and it was a real one. Soldiers ate better than the guests. The meat was properly cooked and seasoned, the soup actually had vegetables in it, and nobody checked it for poison twice. Also, once a week we were given free alcohol.

I felt a little guilty for about three seconds, then finished the bowl.

The hunting schedule was the third perk. Soldiers only had to hunt once every weel, instead of nine times in ten days like the guests.

It was an enormous difference, and it was also the cleverest part of Culex’s system. He fed his army with comfort and kept his victims too tired to ever think about revolting.

I was assigned to Captain Daniel’s faction, which had five members besides the captain. Our job was to keep order while food was handed out and to patrol the palace while everyone slept.

Safety, the captains called it. I called it a very convenient excuse to walk everywhere without anyone asking why.

I had expected a lawless den of monsters.

The palace had rules instead, and they were stricter than I thought. Anyone caught raping, murdering or stealing from another person was hanged in a formal ceremony in front of the whole hall. Culex was a tyrant, but he was a tyrant who liked order. Somehow that made him more frightening.

Captain Daniel was the strangest surprise of all.

From what I had seen, he was not a bad man. He had been a priest before he was dragged into this realm, and when the mess closed around him, he chose to become a captain so things would not spiral out of control.

He spoke softly and never kicked anyone.

He even blessed the food sometimes, quietly, when he thought nobody was looking. I wasn’t sure what to do with a man like that. He was still part of the machine I intended to break.

Our uniform was a tight green shirt with high shoulders, paired with black pants. It looked like a military uniform that had lost its discipline halfway through. On the chest of each shirt was a coiled dragon, and beneath it were stars showing how strong the wearer was. Mine had one star. I was the last in the faction, the weakest of the six.

It did not bother me. It was all acting. A man who hides a monster inside him should be grateful for a single star.

At my hip hung a sword with a black blade, a gift Culex had handed over personally as a starting item. Its name was Fury, and it was an Awakened rank gift. I had expected something grand from a king’s present, so I had read its description three times.

The Gods split apart the five verses. Shadows of Evil merged and caused Fury.

The description seemed to have a deeper meaning than it looked like but I didnt paid much attention.

The blade was sharp, and I had learned not to look down on a gift that came from Culex’s glass cases.

Tonight, I was walking the second floor, south-east section. The corridor was long and dim, with torches burning low between the doors.

Behind each door slept five exhausted people, and the whole floor smelled of damp stone and old sweat. My boots made soft sounds on the floor. Somewhere far below, a bell rang once and fell silent.

’Another peaceful night,’ I thought. ’Nothing to report. Nothing to do. Maybe I can finally think about how to...’

"Ahh..."

I stopped.

The sound slipped out from a door a few steps ahead, thin and breathless. I tensed at once. My hand flew to Fury and the black blade slid out of its sheath without a whisper. My heart had begun to pound. Had someone been attacked? Was it a thief? A murder, in my own patrol?

I took one careful step forward, then another. My spiritual power gathered, ready to steal a thought or an ability the moment I needed it.

"N-nghhh... Ohhh..."

I listened for a second.

Then I listened for another.

With the moaning came the sounds of what felt like clapping.

My brain was slow, but it was not stupid. The rhythm of the voice, the way it rose and fell, the second voice that joined it with a muffled groan, the creaking of what was obviously a bed and the clapping. All of it formed a very clear picture. I did not need a System notification to explain it.

My face twisted. I lowered Fury by an inch, then another. Every muscle in my body tried to curl inward at the same time.

’They are having sex...’

Of course they were. Why wouldn’t they be? I had walked a hundred nights in the corridors of an army of frightened people, and I was only now shocked that some of them were looking for comfort in the dark. It was a very human thing to do. It was also very much none of my business.

Though, they should’ve been... quiet.

I stood there like a statue, holding Fury in front of a door that was making the sounds, wearing a shirt with exactly one star.

’This is the job,’ I told myself bitterly. ’Maintain order. Ensure safety. Do not die of embarrassment.’

I slowly sheathed my sword.