As Will was making his way towards James' courtyard, he noticed that Princess Belle was following him, but he paid it no mind and figured that they were probably just heading in the same direction. After all, she was a princess and he was just a lowly slave, not worthy of the attention of a royal. Ignoring her, he continued on his way.
When he finally got to where he was going, he noticed that Princess Belle was still following him, so he decided to ask, "May I ask if you are following me?" while trying his utmost to not sound disrespectful. After all, if he offended her in the slightest, he would undoubtedly be killed by the king himself in the most cruel way possible.
"Yes. I want to get my brother to stop hurting you. No one deserves to be beaten by that lunatic every day." She said this with a steely resolve and determination deep in her eyes.
Will was stunned, but he decided not to say anything because he could see the determination in her eyes. He could tell that she wouldn't leave even if he asked,. Even if she would leave if he asked, he wouldn't dare to because she was the princess. As such, he decided to just continue with his duties.
...
As Will was doing his duties throughout the day, Princess Belle continued to follow him around, looking for her brother.
At this point in time, Will was watering the massive garden, when a small rock suddenly hit him in the head. He didn't even need to look to know who threw it. His heart sank as he knew that it was time for his beating of the day. 'if only it wasn't when I was watering the garden. This job will be 100 times harder to complete after he beats me,' he thought. He didn't even have the thought to resist Prince James but instead was thinking about how much harder it would be after he beat him. The reason he thought this was because he had to carry around heavy watering cans back and forth from the faucet (outside faucet) to the garden and water the plants.
"My lord," Will didn't dare to be disrespectful in hopes that Prince James would go easy on him today.
"What are you doing? You need to hurry up if you want to water this whole garden," Prince James chuckled evilly.
"May I ask what you mean, my lord?"
"I mean that Brent broke his leg and can't do anything to help you today." It was obvious from his tone that he had broken Brent's leg himself just to make Will suffer. This was one of Prince James' favorite tricks. He would disable the other slaves, beat Will severely, then force him to do all of the work of him and the other slaves combined while suffering from the pain of being beat.
At this point, Princess Belle was taking a break and strolling around the garden enjoying the scenery, so she had no idea that Prince James was preparing to make Will suffer.
"Okay, my lord, I'll get started right away on that," Will said, hurrying off, hoping to avoid today's beating or find Princess Belle. After all, although he didn't really want her help, he would obviously not reject it if it could get him out of a beating from Prince James.
"And where do you think you're going?" Asked Prince James, clearly enjoying Will trying to get away. He enjoyed it when his slaves would try to get away from him by doing their work, but every time, he would always rip away their hope of escape and beat them senseless. He truly was the cruelest of the cruel in this world.
"Going to get started on the watering of the plants, of course," Will responded, trying his best not to be disrespectful. However, inside, he had already accepted his fate. However, despite accepting his fate, he did not give up hope. After all, this was his way of life.
"Not quite yet. Come here. Now Please," Said Prince James with the cruelest of smiles.
Knowing that it could no longer be avoided, Will simply accepted his fate and walked over, bowing in front of Prince James. Seeing this, James proceeded to punch Will in the stomach with the full force of the peak of the third level of the foundational realm. Being at only the beginning of the first level, Will could only manage to take this one blow before collapsing on the ground struggling to catch his breath.
The difference between each stage alone was a big difference of strength, let alone two whole levels difference.
This was just the beginning though. James then proceeded to kick Will in the gut while he was down on the ground so hard that Will nearly barfed out what horrible breakfast he had this morning. James continued to kick Will for the next few minutes.
Every hit was just weak enough that it wouldn't break bones but strong enough to make Will thoroughly suffer.
...
A few minutes later, a surprised gasp sounded as Princess Belle came back only to see Will on the ground with blood leaking out of his mouth and Prince James standing over him and kicking him while laughing, seeming to be in bliss from hearing the grunts and groans of pain from Will.
"Stop it!" she yelled, to which Prince James turned around in confusion as to who was there.
"Belle?" he asked as she came running over.