Warning: violence
“Your Majesty,” came Prince Pollux’s voice. “I wanted to speak with you in private…Should I come back later at a better time, when you’re able to see me?”
“If it’s so urgent, come in then,” King Augustus snapped. He was irked at the implication that he wasn’t able to let a single person into his quarters, let alone Pollux. He strode forward, opening the door. “Alone.”
Pollux’s servants stepped back, lowering their heads.
The wheelchair was made to be pushed. Prince Pollux had to touch the dirty wheels, the strain clear on his face as he manoeuvred the chair into the room. His clothes were rumpled, showing that he had been carried up the stairs by his servants.
King Augustus closed the door, narrowly missing him. Pollux’s startled look was satisfying. “What do you want?”
Pollux lowered his head. “Your Majesty, I don’t want my servants to hear.”
King Augustus’s eyebrows raised. “Oh?” Had Pollux’s servants abused him? Was this why Pollux had dared come to speak to him?
Pollux cast a privacy spell.
“—Did I let you cast that?” King Augustus said.
Then, Pollux cast a spell that locked the door.
King Augustus immediately realised that something wasn’t right. “If you try to hurt me, you’ll die,” he warned.
Pollux raised his head. His eyes were cold, and his smile was chilling. “Are you sure? If you’re thinking about the contract…I never signed.”
King Augustus’s eyes widened. “Traitor!” He rushed forward, swinging his sword at Pollux’s neck—
His sword sliced through empty air as Pollux’s wheelchair suddenly moved to the side in a way that shouldn’t have been possible.
Pollux held his hand out.
FLASH-CRACK-BOOM! Lightning crashed down on the courtyard.
As the blinding flash faded, Marcus narrowed his eyes. Aurelia was unscathed, protected by a magical shield created by Viscountess Venenum and her team.
“Joining forces with Viscountess Venenum? If you’re strong, you’d duel me by yourself, dear sister,” Marcus taunted.
“You’re about to become a traitor to the country,” Aurelia said calmly. “I will give you one opportunity to surrender. If you stop now, I will not charge you with any crime.”
Marcus looked at Aurelia. Realisation dawned on his face. He smirked. “Oh, dear sister, you really want to become queen, don’t you!” He laughed, thinking that it was hilarious. “You’re all weaklings and wimps. No one would accept you as Angio’s queen!” As he spoke, he was forming lightning paths. The moment he finished speaking, lightning crashed down from the sky.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
—What?
After the lightning faded, Viscountess Venenum and her followers had disappeared! There were no corpses on the ground—nothing.
In a split second, Marcus decided to first eliminate the three people still standing in the courtyard—Aurelia and her two ladies-in-waiting. He drew lightning paths from cloud to ground and released.
CRACKLE-BZZT-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! Three bolts of lightning blinded those nearby.
Shhhhh—
Marcus instinctively dodged, eyes narrowing as a blade narrowly missed him from behind. He twisted, blasting fire behind him.
BOOSH! The fire blast hit an invisible barrier.
Marcus sneered. In his hands, a long rope of fire emerged. He whipped the fire around him, finding another hidden barrier. In the next moment, multiple bolts of lightning shot down from the dark clouds.
An invisibility shield momentarily shattered, before reforming.
“—Fuck!” Marcus cursed when the ground beneath him suddenly shifted. Buried metal rods pierced out and threatened to tangle his feet. He leapt into the air, flying above the treacherous ground.
The unscathed Aurelia looked up at him.
Marcus clenched his fists. Whenever King Augustus duelled, there was never metal that could disrupt a lightning path at an inopportune moment.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
But he was better than his father. Defeat at Aurelia’s hand was not an option.
Marcus unleashed lightning and fire, destroying the courtyard. More than once, the numerous metal rods—that must have been put in after he left the castle—waylaid his lightning paths.
Annoyance burned hot in Marcus’s chest. Why wouldn’t Aurelia die already? And fuck, another pesky sneak attack! He lashed out with fire and direct lightning rather than cloud-to-ground lightning.
Aurelia’s eyes narrowed a fraction. Marcus was flagging.
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Ccv tf kjr bcis bcf qfgrbc. C qfgrbc ktb tjvc’a qgfqjgfv jr wemt jr Cegfilj.
Her people had put metal lightning rods in the courtyard and around the castle to disrupt cloud-to-ground lightning. Viscountess Venenum and her team had practised those invisibility-light-bending shields and anti-lightning shields. Aurelia and her ladies-in-waiting had practised making layered shields, similar to what Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood had used against King Augustus.
Individually, they might be weaker. But together, they were stronger.
Marcus finally realised that something was wrong. He turned his head towards the outer castle walls and the gatehouse.
“Thinking about escaping? Or are you wondering where your people are?” Aurelia asked calmly.
Marcus’s head snapped back to her. “Don’t think you’re so smart, Aurelia!”
“If your people are supposed to come, why haven’t they come yet?” Antonia Argentum’s mocking voice came from somewhere near Marcus.
Marcus twisted and lashed out, but his fire blast cut through thin air. “Shit! Dammit!” Marcus abruptly flew towards outer walls.
Aurelia narrowed her eyes and raised her hand. She used almost all of her magic into one single lightning path, which was necessary to overcome all the metal rods.
Five different spells shot after Marcus. Marcus dodged all of them, flying straight into the path of a sixth spell. The force against his shield knocked him straight into the wall.
Cloud-to-ground lightning crashed down, utterly destroying Marcus’s shield. A beat later, a sleeping spell struck him directly.
Marcus struggled, throwing off the magic.
He couldn’t throw off all of the half-a-dozen spells that struck him next.
With that, Marcus fell, crashing onto the rocky courtyard below.
ZZZ-CRACK!
Lightning struck King Augustus’s left foot. He clenched his teeth to avoid screaming in pain. “YOU!” He lunged forward to attack again, but once again, Pollux dodged quickly in his wheelchair.
ZZZ-CRACK-BANG!
King Augustus let out an involuntary grunt as his other foot was struck. “FUCK! Did Aurelia tell you to do this?!”
Pollux smiled coldly. “Of course not. This is merely my personal revenge. You hurt me. Why can’t I hurt you?”
“You—!”
Pollux hit his shin next. The room was starting to smell of burnt clothing and burnt flesh.
King Augustus was forced to use his sword as a support. “I should have killed you when I had the chance! I have no crippled son like you!”
“Don’t be such a child, these are just surface-level burns.”
King Augustus’s eyes glinted. He swung his sword again. This time Pollux didn’t dodge. A dark light appeared in King Augustus’s eyes as—
BOMF! The sword hit a magical shield in the air, the rebound force making King Augustus’s hand numb.
King Augustus suddenly realised that he was out-matched. His magic was still restricted! He dashed to the door and tried to pull it open. “Open up! Open up!”
But the door was locked and Pollux’s sound-blocking spell was active.
King Augustus had another realisation—this was a trap!
Aurelia and Pollux must have conspired together!
“Scared, Father?” Pollux said mildly.
Lightning struck King Augustus’s arm.
King Augustus growled and lunged for Pollux. “Die!”
Pollux dodged, extended his hand, and started a longer complicated spell.
Clink-clink-clink. Metal chains slithered out from a secret compartment in his wheelchair.
King Augustus raised his sword again and charged with a roar.
Like insidious snakes, the metal chains wrapped themselves around King Augustus’s limbs, torso and neck. King Augustus fought against them, trying to hack at the chains. A teeth-aching sound pierced the air as magic-enforced metal slid against magic-enforced metal. King Augustus’s sword was inherently charmed sharp and could potentially break the chains.
But the chains had give, twisting in the air and weakening the sword’s force upon them. The chain around King Augustus’s neck tugged back sharply, choking him.
Clunk! Clunk! Clunk! The ends of the chains stretched out to the floor, walls, and ceilings. Magical hooks sunk into those surfaces to anchor the chains. By their force, King Augustus’s legs and arms were pulled out in a star shape.
Pollux released a little lightning into King Augustus’s sword hand, making him drop the sword to the floor with a clanggg!
“How does that feel? Tight enough?”
“Release me at once!”
“But if I do, you’ll kill me. You’re not even offering to lighten my punishment if I let you go,” Pollux said. With a touch of his hand, he manoeuvred his disguised magic wheelchair closer.
BZZ. Lightning across the chains pierced into King Augustus. King Augustus roared in anger, struggling in the chains.
But without magic, he was no match.
Pollux looked at King Augustus from head to toe. “You could scream for help, but no one will hear you.”
“You bastard! I should have killed you all those years ago! I should have strangled you at birth!”
“Are you saying I should strangle you? Are you saying I should kill you?” Pollux cast more electricity on the chains.
King Augustus let out a litany of insults.
“Or maybe I should make you suffer the same fate as my mother. I heard that you murdered her and used her body. Wouldn’t that be interesting to make a puppet out of you?”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“Aurelia wouldn’t,” Pollux corrected gently. “I’m not Aurelia.”
Pollux manipulated the chains, pulling his father’s arms and legs in different directions, just like a puppet.
“I should take you out like this, and parade you around in the streets. One silver coin and I’ll make you do whatever was asked.”
“You—you!” King Augustus’s face went red with exertion and humiliation.
On his wheelchair, Pollux circled around his father. His father strained and struggled, turning his head to follow Pollux’s movement.
“You’re like a pig hanging up ready for slaughter,” Pollux commented. “I could make you suffer the same injury you caused me. Or I could cut your limbs one byone.”
King Augustus struggled harder. “Traitor! You’re no better than Sedaverian trash! You will die a horrible death!”
The darkness in Pollux’s eyes flickered. He remembered that he wanted to go to Sedaveria after this, and perhaps meet Prince Rian again and ask him how he healed Earl Rosewood, and perhaps get the opportunity to talk to Earl Rosewood and be his friend…
Suddenly, he felt disgusted at the sight of King Augustus struggling and spitting profanities and insults.
Seeing King Augustus at his mercy and torturing him wasn’t as satisfying as he thought it would be.
Dragging things out was a waste of time. He was tired of this back and forth.
“Now, Father, you’d be smart to listen to me,” Pollux said. He manipulated the chains, forcing King Augustus to kneel on the ground. “First, you will apologise to me.”
“Let me go, you little piece of shit! If you’re a man, then we’ll duel!—” King Augustus’s tirade was cut off with a scream as electricity passed through his body.
“Apologise,” Pollux said, eyes cold. “Or do you want me to make you?” Under his command, slender pieces of metal emerged from his wheelchair’s secret compartment. They attached themselves to King Augustus’s face, forcing themselves inside his mouth.
Clink-clink-clink! The chains forced King Augustus into a kneeling position on all fours, with his head near Pollux’s feet.
“Apologise, or I’ll make you lick my shoes.” As a threat, the chains shoved King Augustus’s head closer to his shoes, while the metal in his mouth forced his mouth open.
“Urmm!”
Pollux relaxed the metal in his father’s mouth, and chains pulled his father’s head back, making him look up at him. “Ready?”
“I apologise!” King Augustus spat out hatefully.
“For what?”
“I apologise for crippling you.”
Pollux looked at him.
“I should have found healers,” King Augustus said through clenched teeth.
“You shouldn’t have attacked your own son,” Pollux said. With a wave of his hand, the chains pulled King Augustus back, to a standing position. “Now, walk to your desk and sit down.”
King Augustus’s eyes flashed. He suddenly attempted to lunge towards Pollux.
Lightning crackled and chains clinked, but King Augustus’s scream was louder.
Pollux moved his wheelchair forward, sneering. “Didn’t I tell you to listen to me?” Under his control, the chains tugged King Augustus up again, making him ‘walk’ like a puppet to his desk. “Now, you’re going to write your abdication bill.”
“Do you think you can become king?” King Augustus scoffed. “Angio would never accept a shrivelled cripple like you!”
Pollux raised an eyebrow. “Who said I wanted to be king? Why would I want to be king?” He underlined his words with another bolt of electricity. Then, he moved the metal in King Augustus’s mouth to his writing hand. “Now, now, you should know how this will go.”
King Augustus clenched his fingers. “Just kill me if you dare. No matter what, you’ll be an outcast forever.”
Pollux made King Augustus choke for a minute.
Oh, he had thought about killing his father. He had daydreams of sending lightning through his father’s heart, of watching his father collapse, dead.
However, he didn’t trust Aurelia.
If Pollux killed him, he would have no alibi. Aurelia could then sentence him to death for regicide to placate the nobles who were loyal to King Augustus and to eliminate uncertain forces at the same time.
And Pollux wanted to leave, without the title of ‘king killer’ over his head.
No, by torturing King Augustus like this instead of killing him, people would think Pollux was merciful.
This was my inspiration for King Augustus’s chained state: Minotaur caught in magic chains
Also, let me tell you how hard it was to write this scene. At first, I had planned for Pollux to not kill King Augustus and wrote the chapter completely.
—But then, I realised that keeping King Augustus alive could be perceived as risky, so I rewrote the chapter.
—But then, I thought about some future scenes that I wanted (including what I had wanted originally) which ideally required King Augustus to be alive, so I rewrote the chapter again, with less death but more torture. And that third version is what you see here 🫠🫠🫠
WOOHOOOO POLLUX!!!! good work, proud of him 😌 i hope he gets to become friends with Ren Xiyang, that’d be neat
😉😉😉 Now I want to get past all the coup scenes as soon as possible…
Less death and more torture sounds good to me! But also zap him the same way Pollux was, so he can’t walk.
Thank you for the chapter.
+1
…suddenly I want a “shame!” scene like in Game of Thrones. But hopefully he can’t walk, so he’s floated tied to a plank.
I’ve never read or watched Game of Thrones 🥺
You can’t read Game of Thrones, the books are called ” A Song of Ice and Fire “. 🤣
If you aren’t afraid of spoilers, you can google “game of thrones cersei walk of shame”.
I googled it and that looked very not nice 😬
You know, I did think about that making King Augustus unable to walk…. But then I discarded it 😅
Thank you for reading!
damn 😭 wish he would suffer even more
So bloodthirsty 🤣🤣
There is a good chance that he could walk again, especially with rens body modification magic? Like i see a possibility.
😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😏
I like this so much better than just killing him! Also, considering the prejudice around disabled people, this only serves to lower Augustus’s reputation. “Even if the king lost his magic, he’s actually so weak to loose against a man who can’t even walk!”
tht man is literally nothing without his magic fr☠️
Yepppp
Thank you! Yesssss, King Augustus’s reputation is plummeting!
Does this mean there’s more face-slapping for us to enjoy? hehehe
Maybe? 🤣🤣
MWAHAHAH what goes around comes around🤩
Death was an easy way out anyway who wants that ~ also Pollux is my 3rd fav officially~<3 (btw author~ could you give a description of how our Pollux looks like, I’d love it if someone would be willing to draw him~ )
I have no idea what Pollux looks like, LOL. He probably has gold eyes and hair (lightning mage), but aside from that, nothing from me 🤣
🥹👍🏻
Poor author, hoist by your own storyline and plot needs: revision, revision, revision, and Auggie lives… which is better for justice and Pollux’s future… hahahahaha! Thanks 🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣⛓️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️😇
Yeah, I’ve been a really poor author 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 Thank you for reading!
YESSSSSSSSS!!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSS! FINALLY!!!!!! DELICIOUS DELICIOUS HUMILIATION! GET HIS ASS POLLUX!!!!!!!!!!
At long last~
!!!!!!!!!!!!! go pollux go!!!!
Yeah!
Considering this King, More torture, More death would be 👌 Thank you for your work 🖤🖤💪
🤣🤣🤣 thank you!