As Will was getting out of bed, one of the kids near him mocked, "Ready for another day of beatings?" This was one of the many kids that bullied Will. They constantly beat him up just because they were all around the peak of the first level of the foundational realm, much stronger than him.
Contrary to what they were expecting, Will replied with a smile. He said nothing, but his smile spoke more than words. He demonstrated his iron will and his infinite hope with that smile. It showed that he would not be pushed down by the happenings of life.
They could not help laughing to themselves. This boy seemed to look forward to beatings and no matter how cruel life was to him, he just didn't seem to get it that nothing would ever get better for him. After all, he served under Prince James, one of the most cruel people of them all, but he seemed to be happy to be beat each day. Of course the other children would look down on him for it.
As he was getting ready, all the kids around him were sneering at him, making no attempt to hide their disdain. However, Will did not mind at all and let them do as they pleased. After all, every day he was tortured by the dictator's son, Prince James, who was famous for beating his servants so bad that they would beg for death every time. For this reason, he had no reason to be afraid of them. After all, they could never hurt him as much as Prince James did every day.
After he was ready for the day, Will went to get some breakfast from the kitchen. The kitchen was a disgusting place that had bugs crawling on the floor, but there was a fridge and a stove and some pots that weren't dirty, so the kids could manage to make food that was safe to eat, but it would never taste good at all. It would usually end up tasting like sawdust and looking like bad oatmeal.
As he took his food, he went outside because of a lack of a dining room, sat on the ground, and started to eat, still smiling.
When he was done eating the awful food that tasted like woodchips, he then proceeded to go towards the castle where he served Prince James.
The castle was a magnificent palace made of only jade and quartz, all of the highest quality. It was a dream compared to anything Will had ever lived in. He couldn't help but think about how privileged the prince and princess were. their courtyards were second only to the king.
James' courtyard was on the western end of the palace and had everything you could dream of: a garden, pools, fountains, game rooms, a spa, and many other things that he didn't even use. There was even a place that was full of women with only one purpose: to pleasure the prince. Will was disgusted when he thought about the prince; he was a horrible man addicted to seeing others suffer. His personal favorite was beating Will to the point where he could barely walk. However, he never broke any bones for the fear that Will wouldn't be able to show up the next day to get beaten. However, no matter how much he beat Will, he would always come back the next day with a smile. His ultimate goal was to break Will so completely that he would never smile again. Only at that point would he be satisfied.
The princess's courtyard was exactly the same as James' with the exception of the building of women. In its place was instead a makeup salon where she went to pretty herself up. Her name was Belle, and she was the exact opposite of James; she hated seeing people get hurt and she hated her brother for all the people he hurt. She was benevolent and kind, proving to be the exact opposite of the rest of the people in the kingdom. When she could, she would even try to help the slaves and try to heal them up.
She generally didn't go out much on account of the fact that she was very beautiful and was afraid of people trying to kidnap and defile her, which had already happened many times. Each time ended in failure to capture her, but she knew that there was a possibility that someone could one day succeed.
As Will was approaching James' courtyard, he walked past the princess. He found it odd that she was out as she was almost never on this side of the castle. However, he paid it no mind as it was common for people to go to areas where they normally wouldn't go if they had business there
While she was walking, she happened to look over and see Will - who was battered and bruised all over his body, with some cuts as well - walking towards James' courtyard.
Seeing this she couldn't help but sigh, disappointed in those who would beat someone so defenseless. Approaching him, she kindly asked if he was okay.
Seeing the princess talking towards him, Will asked, "Me?" to which she responded, "YES YOU!" with a hint of exasperation. After all, almost every slave had the same response of asking if she was talking to them.
"I'm fine. why?" asked Will.
"Your whole body is battered and bruised. It looks like it hurts! I hate seeing people hurt!" she said.
Will responded with, "It doesn't hurt that bad, you don't need to worry about a lowly slave like me. I am not worthy of the attention of such a beautiful princess as yourself," with a bright smile on his face, showing that he was okay with his injuries.
Despite being worried about him, she could not help him if he did not want help. With that, she continued on her way to her destination.
When she noticed that Will was walking in the same direction as her, she asked, "Are you the servant of my brother?" to which Will responded with a simple "Yes."
She had a slightly hesitant look on her face as she asked, "How much does he hurt you?" She asked because she knew that her brother loved to hurt people because it made him happy and feel more like his father, the king. The king was known to be a dictator who severely punished people for the smallest of mistakes, sometimes even accidentally killing them.
Will answered this slightly odd question with a weird look on his face as he said, "Yes... But that's the life of a slave. I can't get out of it, so I choose to hope that things will be better in the future. It's why I don't mind these bruises; they are bad, and they hurt, but I know that they will heal, so everything will be all right."
This stunned her. She had never seen such a hopeful person in such a horrible position. Being the servant of her brother meant that he got severely beaten every singly day without restraint. Any other person would have lost all hope long ago, herself included. However, the fact that Will continued to maintain this mentality showed just how much hope he harbored.
After this unexpected conversation, Will continued on his way towards Prince James' courtyard.