Kaiser of the New World

The bitter cold continued to assault Kai, the small bit of protection offered by his armour not all that helpful considering the circumstances.

Slowly, Kai began to raise his hands above his head as a show of defeat, not wanting to accidently give Ezekial a reason to chop off his head before he even got the chance to plead his case.

Kai felt the tip of Ezekial's blade press even further into his throat, making him resist the urge to take a step backwards.

"Heyyyy, buddy, why exactly are you holding a sword to my throat at this very moment where we are meeting again for the first time in a month and the last time I met you we were getting along with each other?"

Laughing nervously as the tip of the blade to his throat got pressed even further into him, Kai tilted his head ever so slightly as he waited for Ezekial's response.

Ezekial continued to stare at Kai, his hand not wavering a single bit.

"Why would I not? You are the one who caused all this in the first place?"

Kai's smile weakened, his mind wondering what the hell Ezekial meant by that. Sure there was an extremely obvious answer, but he needed some time to prepare his... argument.

"What do you mean? We got along so well when we last talked. All of our training sessions together, all of the times where you brutally beat me up just so I could get better at fighting with a sword, all the times you made me lie down in the snow for hours just so I could do some half assed ambush on a rhino bear that could easily trample me.

You even technically gave me Wristology. That book ended up being very helpful, each exercise helped me get better with wielding a sword.

Are you telling me that you're going to overlook all the precious moments that we've shared over the last six-"

"Enough!"

Kai flinched, he actually flinched when Ezekial shouted. This was the first time the blue haired swordsman had shown so much emotion.

It was then that Kai noticed all the extremely obvious things that he had missed while under the mind hex.

The subtle disdain in his eyes when he looked at Kai, the way the edge of his lip curled upwards whenever he spoke, the way the look in his eyes was the exact same as The Host's when she was looking down on all the humans that she had tortured for a whole six months before sending them into the wild.

Ezekial was just like Castillian and Anastasia. He possessed that same arrogance that they had, that same contempt that they had, that same condescension that they had, only he was able to hide it much better than they had.

Castillian's had been obvious, Anastasia had been blinding him with her mind hex, but Kai had genuinely believed that Ezekial was a good guy, if a little naive that he had all his blind faith in Castillian just because he took him in as a child.

Hell, it was a common trope that someone higher in a chain of power would kill someone's parents and then go to the child saying that they could help them get revenge, even though it was them that committed the deed. The child would then give their blind loyalty to their secretly two faced benevolent sponser.

Castillian had even said that he saw the potential in Petunia. Even though Kai wasn't sure exactly what potential he was seeing, it wasn't that outrageous to say that he could have seen the potential in Ezekial and killed his parents so he could gain full control of a talented child.

Of course, even if that theory was true, which it probably is, Ezekial didn't seem like the type of person who cared about finding out what happened to his parents.

Ezekial smirked coldly, holding back the urge to swipe his blade across Kai's throat then and there, ending this farce once and for all.

"What gives you the right to address me so casually? A horrible, disgusting creature like you should have never even been allowed near me, let alone His and Her Majesty."

Kai smiled weakly.

"Disgusting creature? You're not on about me, are you? Ezekial, we're such good friends, what's with the sudden insult-"

"You have no right to call me by my given name! You shall not sully my name with your bumpkin tongue. And why are you talking like that, extending all your sentences?"

Kai's eyes widened slightly in response to Ezekial's words, was he really...

Calling him a bumpkin!?

"Bumpkin? I'll have you know that even though I was raised in the countryside, I am no bumpkin. Why are you acting so cold all of a sudden? As for why I am unnaturally extending all of my sentences, I have no idea what you are talking about."

Ezekial shook his head and chuckled, the tip of his blade threatening to cut Kai's throat open with the small movements.

"Why am I acting so cold all of a sudden? It is not all of a sudden that I started disliking you, I just did not like you in the first place.

Every time you smiled made my heart ache in displeasure, every time you laughed made me want to vomit, every time you touched me made me want to bathe myself the entire night, the only thing that stopped me was the fact that you would probably touch me again the very next day.

You are a disgusting, puny pest that should have never been allowed near His and Her Majesty, let alone in this castle. I have no idea why His Majesty allowed the Second Queen to goade himself into bidding on you, I'm sure that she will face some serious backlash once you are back in your cell!"

Kai's eyes widened slightly, hearing that Ezekial had known the whole time where he had been.

But it still kind of hurt Kai that what Ezekial was saying was basically a reverse love confession. Heart ache in displeasure, every touch made him feel unwell. Even though Kai wasn't into guys, he was still a little bitter that he has been turned down so brutally by someone he thought he had gotten along with.

Ezekial laughed at Kai's shocked reaction, his perverse pleasure in the current situation growing even more.

"Oh yes, even though Her Majesty may have a cooldown on her Innate Ability, you will soon be back under her spell, your revolting self acting as her pet again, a fitting fate for someone of your calibre."

Every insult made the small smile that had been on Kai's face dim a little more, his eyes slowly turning duller.

For some reason, the blizzard seemed to get even stronger, even colder, even heavier. The wind was whipping around the two men standing in the courtyard, two poles unmovable by even the strongest weather in the current moment.

"So this is who you really are." Kai said blankly, lowering his hands back down to his sides in the process. He had only lifted them up as a sign of peace, but now he wasn't so sure he actually wanted that.

"Who I really am?" Ezekial chuckled. "You have no idea how hard it was to be around you every training session, every spare. You have no idea how much self control it took to not break every bone in your body on the very first day. It got a little easier to resist the urges as time passed, but now they're back in full swing.

I'm sure that Her Majesty won't mind if I break a couple of your bones before I return you to your cell, as a safety precaution of course, we wouldn't want you breaking out again now would we?"

Kai remained silent, his gaze dropping to the ground as his shoulders trembled. A moment later, a small voice escaped from his mouth.

"And what about Petunia, what about her?"

Ezekial's eyes widened slightly at the sudden question, but then the courtyard was suddenly filled by his laughter. He dropped his sword to his side as he clutched his stomach with his other hand, doubling over with laughter.

"That gremlin? Oh, she was even worse than you! So needy, so whiny, so horrible. Every night when I had to style her hair made me question what someone of my power was doing, it took so much not to move my hands down from her disgusting locks down to her neck and snap it like a twig. But what His Majesty wants, His Majesty gets.

I have no idea what he sees in that peasant child, but he would be upset if I harmed her. That's all it was. If I had the choice, I would have killed her or sold her off long ago, who would want such a whiny brat staying here for so long?"

So that was the truth of the matter. Turns out, Ezekial was even more of a monster than Castillian and Ezekial were, which kind of made sense. Kai remembered seeing in a book that those who were the kindest had the same amount of darkness inside them, and Ezekial was no different.

"Now, I am an extremely generous person, so I will ask you this. Do you have any last words before I beat you to the brink of death? You probably won't recover for a while after all."

Kai's head did not lift up from the ground. He was still as a ghost, like he had lost all sense of fight in him.

After a few seconds, Ezekial heard a small voice come from Kai's mouth.

"You asked why I was extending my sentences earlier, do you want to know the answer?"

Ezekial lifted his sword back up to Kai's neck before answering.

"I don't see why not. Tell me, you disgrace, what's the answer."

Kai suddenly whipped his head up, a wide grin on his face as he quickly hopped backwards.

"Because I was buying time you fucking dickhead, obviously."

The next moment, the entire courtyard, no, the entire castle trembled as the ground beneath the courtyard caved in, making Kai and Ezekial both fall down as a horrifying roar came from beneath them.