As soon as Paolo and Shinzo reached the wooden bridge to the castle, two guards stepped in front of them, their weapons crossed on each other. They stared down at the two children like insects, their lips in constant stiffness.
"No one is allowed to enter the castle," one said gruffly.
Paolo punched both guards, the two landing down in heaps. Paolo stepped on their unconscious bodies, smiling down at them, not very nicely. "Well we don't need your permission."
Shinzo stared at the collapsed bodies in awe, a solid realization that his captain had the blood of a sadist running through his veins.
"Aren't you coming?"
Shinzo snapped out of questioning his choice of following Paolo before running after him.
.....
After beating the guards at the door, the two boys slipped in, checking their surroundings for any nearby guards.
"Where do you think the king's room is?" Paolo whispered, the two standing in front of two divided pathways.
"No idea, should we just check all the doors?"
"This is a castle not a cottage that would take too long," Paolo said. "If my memory serves me right from the books I've read, the kings room always tends to be at the end of the hallway. Let's check all the doors at the end of the hall. You take the right, I'll take the left."
Shinzo nodded. "Fine, but how will we contact each other?"
Paolo thought carefully before dragging Shinzo by the chain of his handcuffs into a room where they had thrown the guards they beat up earlier. He searched their bodies before pulling out two white circular devices. The device had a smaller circle, the receiver, over a bigger circle. At the side of the bigger circle, numbers ranging from one to nine and the number for that particular device were imprinted.
He smiled triumphantly, shoving it into Shinzo's pocket. "Use the communication hub to tell me when you find the room."
Shinzo nodded. "Will do."
The two separated down the two hallways, Paolo moving as stealthily as he could. He got to the end of the dimmed hallway, pulling at the door at the end. Unfortunately, the king didn't seem to exist in this particular room. But something else caught his attention, a book.
Being the sticky fingered book nerd that he was, he reached out for it. On the pink cover, Aizawa's name had been written in cursive blue. He flipped through the page then stopped at one of the last pages with something written on it. He glazed through the words, his brain frantically putting pieces together.
He dropped the open book, forcefully pulling open the cupboard. A purple bottle sat idly inside, grabbing it immediately. He unplugged the cap, sniffing it before finally concluding.
He picked up the book again and stuffed the bottle in his pocket before hurriedly scurrying out of the room.
.....
Shinzo opened the door at the end of the hall, sticking his head in to make sure he got the right place. A huge king-sized bed contained a man with clammy pale skin, breathing heavily. Heavy bangs accentuated under his almost lifeless brown eyes and his black hair lay lazily on his face like soggy noodles.
A cough came from the sickly creature on the bed, forcing himself to seat up and take in his visitor. Shinzo quickly ran to the king's side, steadying him as best as he could with his limited wrist movement.
"S-Shinzo, what are you doing here?"
Shinzo showed him his handcuffs. "Your advisor is being a pain in the neck."
The martial artist explained what had been happening to the island since the king's sudden illness, including how they had to sneak in to meet him. The king's scowl got deeper and deeper with each telling until he ended up looking even sicker than before.
"I-If that's what's going on, I have to help my people." He struggled to stand up, but Shinzo stopped him.
"You don't need to move. Just give me a letter with your official seal that'll stop the madness."
The king nodded, pointing at the table beside him. "If you could get my stamp and a piece of paper from there."
Shinzo did as he was told, grabbing a golden stamp and a clean sheet of paper alongside a black ball point pen. The king took the pen between his hands, writing down rules against increase in homage and also to restrict Aizawa's movements. As his shaky hands moved to press the stamp, the door pulled open.
Aizawa stood at the door with his men, the stamp clattering from the king's fingers. He snapped his fingers and about five men surrounded Shinzo. The martial artist gritted his teeth, his annoyance seeping in at being unable to do anything because of the handcuffs on his wrists.
"I advise you give in willingly Tanaka, those handcuffs are made of energy suppressing metal, you won't be able to fight back even if you're strong."
The king straightened up abruptly, heavy coughs escaping his lips. "G-guards cease this nonsense." The guards didn't listen, their weapons still pointed at Shinzo. "This is an act of treason I hope you know. You swore loyalty to-"
Another one pointed their spear at the king's neck, stopping his angry speech. Aizawa's lips turned into an ugly sneer. "The royal guards of Lutas might have sworn loyalty to you, but these men swore their loyalty to me."
Shinzo glared at him. "What did you do to the royal guards?"
"For eight years, I've been replacing the guards with my men. All for my plan to take over the island." Aizawa snapped his fingers, more guards stepping into the room. "This in itself is a foil to my plan, but that's fine I have a backup plan, take them away."
Shinzo struggled against the guards as they grabbed him by the arm while the king didn't even have the energy to move. As the guards pulled them away, Shinzo glared at Aizawa.
"Just know once I'm out of these, you're dead."
Aizawa smirked, the door closing slowly behind the retreating men. "I'd like to see you try."
.....
Shinzo banged at the iron bars, his chains hitting fiercely on them. "You're all dead you hear me, all of you."
The guards at the downside of the hall didn't pay any attention to him, doubting the possibility of a brat killing them.
The king coughed, the brat in question running to pat him on the back. "Your sickness is getting worse."
"I-I'm sorry for getting you into this mess," the king said, covering his lips. "If I had noticed his evil scheme earlier, I could have easily handled this."
Shinzo soothed his back, feeling sympathetic for the poor king. "Don't blame yourself, I promise to help you."
A sudden vibration in the pocket of his karate pants suddenly reminded him of the existence of the hub located in it. He looked out to make sure the guards stood far off before using his two hands to pull out the device from the pocket.
"A h-"
Shinzo shushed the king, looking around to make sure no one heard his sudden outburst before pulling open the receiver.
"Shinzo where are you, we have a problem."
"Before you talk, the king and I have been taken hostage by Aizawa," Shinzo said in a low voice. "You have to come help us, we're in the dungeons at the bottom of the castle. You can get there through the basement."
"Wait what happened, fill me in immediately."
Shinzo told him what happened in the room and Paolo's sigh passed through the receiver. "I had a hunch that would be the problem. Listen up, I found a notebook that belongs to Aizawa. It contains the ingredients for a poison known as Vitose poison. It's a poison that slowly eats its way through your systems till there's nothing left. My hypothesis is that Aizawa has been giving it to the king and if my readings are right he'll die in thirty minutes if he doesn't get an antidote."
Shinzo turned to the king who began to wheeze blood, his sickly face scrunched up in one of pure unadulterated pain. "Die, heavens no, how do we get the antidote."
"Never fear, I'm making it right now. I've read a whole book on poisons so I'm well acquainted with this one and its antidote. The kitchen here happens to have a lot of ingredients."
"Wait, how where you able to enter the kitchen?" Shinzo hissed.
Paolo stopped crushing the herbs in the white bowl he used, turning to the kitchen helps he had tied up. "I'm just too good."
"How long will it take you to get here?"
"Five to six minutes."
"Good, we'll be waiting." Shinzo ended the call then turned to face the king. "We'll be fine, someone's coming."
The king nodded helplessly before falling into another coughing fit, this time blood spurting from his lips.
Shinzo pat his back, silently staring through the bars,
.....
Paolo walked past the dungeon guards he had just beaten up, twirling the keys between his fingers. One, barely clinging to consciousness reached out for his hub, but a blade pierced into his hand, Paolo smiling down at him as he screamed his lungs out.
"Don't think you're smarter than me."
Paolo headed down the dimly lit dungeon before finally finding Shinzo and the dying king in the dungeon.
"About damn time," Shinzo snapped, steadying the king in his arms. "Hurry, his pulse is slowing down."
Paolo turned the key, handing Shinzo a small white bottle. Shinzo removed the cork, placing the antidote between the king's lips. The bitter flavor spread throughout his mouth, slowly bringing life to his deathly face.
Shinzo let out a breath of relief as his breathing steadied and his brown eyes slowly lit up.
"It'll take a while for him to heal because the antidote has to fully restore his organs."
Shinzo nodded. "As long as he is fine, I can rest easy." He stretched out his arms. "Now release me."
Paolo used the key in his hands to unlock Shinzo's handcuffs, the metal falling to the ground. Shinzo flexed his wrists, frowning at the marks that the iron had made to his pale skin.
"What do we do about Aizawa?" the king asked weakly. "He has all those men on his side and I doubt the guild can contact any adventurer at such last minute."
"Don't worry about that, we'll deal with it," Shinzo said.
"But you can't fight at least a thousand men."
Shinzo cracked his knuckles. "We just need to get rid of the leader and the lackeys will crawl back into their holes."
The king opened his mouth to protest, but the two boys already had their backs turned to him. Paolo smiled, giving the king a thumbs up. "We'll be fine your highness just leave Aizawa to us."
The king sighed. "I can't change your mind."
Shinzo shook his head. "I made a promise to that no good Aizawa." The martial artist, pulled his hair up, his lips set in a thin line. "And I'm not one to break promises."