Kaiser of the New World

Yelena was someone that Kai had been close to the moment that he got here. After their first meeting, he hung out with her every day, doing odd jobs or going into the city with her whenever she had to run some errands.

At least, he thought it had been every day, but it was actually one day every couple of days because of the mind hex. That also explained why Yelena never mentioned anything about so much time passing or even talked about anyone else, she had been playing a character.

The woman Kai had been the closest to in this place was actually the Second Queen, and he didn't know what to say.

Did the Second Queen seriously disguise herself as a clumsy, motherly maid just to get close to him, or did she have some other purpose for all of that? Maybe it was just that since it was her that bought him she wanted to get some value out of her money, but the seemed kind of dumb.

It also explained why she disappeared that day Kai met Ezekial in the hallway, if he had spotted her then her cover would have been blown instantly.

"Are you sure? It seems kind of dumb for a Queen to pretend to be a maid."

Cecilia shifted as she shook her head, not really sure of herself.

"There's no way for me to be certain, but the Second Queen is the only woman in this Subdimension that I have seen with green hair, so it's the only explanation."

Kai sighed. He could not even begin to imagine why the Second Queen had done all that, it was just too strange.

At least she wasn't as bad as Anastasia. While Yelena had technically lied about her identity, at least she didn't attempt to turn Kai into her pet.

Just why did everything have to be so confusing?

Looking back at Cecilia, Kai noticed that she had practically reverted back to her old self. Her gaze was glued to the ground, and her hands were gripping onto her arms in an effort to keep her calm.

She probably thought that she had failed her mission again without even realising that she had. If Kai had been meeting with the Second Queen so often and she hadn't even realised, then it was no wonder that she was so put down.

Just as Kai opened his mouth to console her, he was quickly silenced as he heard the sound of squeaking slowly getting louder and louder.

Leaning out and tilting his head to the left in an effort to see what was making the noise, it was only after a small rat came into his line of view did Kai realise what had been making the noise.

Remy was panicking, constantly squeaking as they pounced onto Kai's leg.

Frowning, Kai reached out and softly patted his new familiar's head, trying to calm them down.

"What's wrong? Why are you so scared?"

Remy stood on their hind legs, wildly swinging their paws in Kai's direction, but he couldn't decipher what the hell the rodent was trying to say.

"Calm down, I have no idea what you're doing, try something else."

Stopping the squeaks, Remy thought for a moment before beginning to slowly walk up Kai's shin using their two hind legs. They rested one of their front paws on their side while trying to look as apathetic as possible.

Kai quickly caught on, realising that he was playing charades with a rat. Times really did change.

Or did they? The current situation made him think back to the time that Noelle had called him a knock off Snow White, and Kai had brushed it off before beginning to think that maybe she was ever so slightly right after contracting Umbra, but maybe she really was right after all.

Racking his mind, Kai thought hard about what Remy could possibly be acting out.

They were on their hind legs, meaning they were probably trying to imitate a human. They were resting a paw by their side, maybe holding onto a sword? And that blank expression on their face...

Kai's eyes widened as he clicked his fingers.

"Does the person have blue hair?"

Remy squeaked and nodded their head instantly, hopping up and down on the spot as a way to show that Kai was correct.

Still, Kai was a little confused, why was Remy so scared of Ezekial?

Hopping off Kai's leg, Remy dashed over to the wall of ice beside Kai, stopping just before they crashed into it. Standing on their hind legs once more, the rodent traced a funny looking semi circle on the wall using their claw. Their claw didn't leave a mark, it was far too weak to damage the ice, but Kai still saw the action.

But Kai had no idea what Remy was trying to say this time, a semi circle? What correlation did a semi circle have to-

"A door."

Kai turned around to look back at Cecilia, who had spoken up to answer. She seemed to have gotten over her dislike of Remy, but she still wasn't sure of herself.

Remy squeaked wildly, indicating that Cecilia was correct, making the Queen blush slightly, happy that she hadn't accidently embarrassed herself.

Then, Remy got back down on all fours as their body trembled, their eyes closed as if they were charging something up, something fierce-

"Rawr."

Kai's eyes widened at the strange sounding squeak, a either strange noise for a rat to emit. Actually, it didn't really sound like a squeak, it sounded more like...

"A roar?"

This time, Remy let out some excited squeaks before hopping back onto Kai's leg and spinning in circles on the spot, happy that they had understood what they were trying to say.

Glancing back down at Remy, Kai placed a single finger on the rat's body to stop them from spinning and asked:

"So, to clarify, Ezekial went through a door, a door which you couldn't get through, and on the other side of the door there was a roar?"

Remy nodded frantically, showing that Kai was correct.

Kai frowned slightly as he started to brainstorm. Did Ezekial just keep a pet somewhere in the castle or something? Or was it more than that?

Sighing, Kai softly patted Remy's head as the rat let out a soft squeak before lying down on the ground beside Kai's leg, presumably to rest as they had gone through so much in a short amount of time.

"You done well buddy, maybe that will be something we can make use of."

Remy let out another soft squeak before falling asleep.

Turning away from the rat, Kai looked back towards Cecilia, who was still kneeling in silence with a confused look on her face.

"Do you know what they're on about?"

Cecilia hesitated for a moment before shaking her head in response.

"No. While there is many doors in the castle, none of them should contain any beasts, much less anything that can roar."

Kai sighed, pinching the brow of his nose in the process.

"So there's a secret section of the castle containing some unknown beast that Ezekial pays some visits to?"

Cecilia stared at the ground blankly before nodding again.

Leaning back against the ice even more, Kai glanced back down at Remy and thought for a moment.

"It would be nice if we had one of those translator brooch things, maybe then we could just ask Remy what they saw."

Now Kai was really upset that Telepathy was locked away by the collar, it would have made things so much easier.

Cecilia quickly looked up from the icy floor, a confused expression on her face as she tilted her head.

"Translator... brooch?"

Kai nodded.

"Yeah, Castillian and Anastasia both has one, that's how we talked. Actually, now that I think about it, where's yours?"

Cecilia shook her head softly before speaking again.

"There is no such thing as a translator brooch, the System has the innate property of translating anything someone says so that everyone can understand it.

However, the brooch they wear, the reason you couldn't understand them sometimes isn't that the brooch was turned off, it's that it was turned on. It distorts what they're saying so no one can understand them, it's a safety device basically.

If you really did need a translator to speak to people, did you think that everyone you met in the city had one but you didn't? That would make much sense."

Cecilia paused for a moment, realising that her words may have been seen as condescending, so she quickly added on:

"Sir."

Kai sighed again. That was yet another thing that he had been lied to about, making him resent Anastasia even more.

Oh well, at least this lie was a good thing, it meant that Kai wouldn't have to learn tons of different languages once he got out of here just to speak to people, it would all be automatically translated.

Still, now that he knew the truth about the item, he wondered what Castillian had said to him while smirking the first time they met, it was obviously some sort of insult, but it's not like Kai hadn't made fun of him either.

It also meant that humans and animals had some sort of language barrier that even the System couldn't overcome, but there was some that were able to speak, like the stag back in the Dome. Telepathy also solved that problem, so it wasn't that bad.

After that, Kai and Cecilia spent a few more minutes chatting before she got up, excused herself and left, leaving Kai with Remy.

Leaning back against the ice even more in an attempt to get comfy, Kai took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

He was halfway through the time he had given himself in this cell, so he had to make good use of the time left.

He would soon be attempting to break out of here after all, he was on the home stretch.