The speaker's face twisted into a sneer of pure disgust at the King's claim.
"Well, King of old Tameria. Be as you are, but keep it to yourself, and be warned. For if you act on your sexy gay urges, you too will end up in the stocks just like this man!" The speaker proclaimed, pointing at the blond captive. "Your fate would mirror his. You would be taken by our strongest guards and forcefully stripped and bound to endure the same punishments this man will." "And what would that be?" Barric asked. "You shall see soon enough," the speaker warned him with a sharp leer.
The man cleared his throat and returned to addressing the crowd as a whole.
"For his sexy crimes of homosexual behavior, brother Cinaedus is sentenced to sexual reeducation and remasculinization."
The crowd gasped.
The speaker went on.
"He will be locked in the stocks for a week while his reeducation takes place. It will consist of the traditional feeding of the meats and beating by the meat. Please hope for our lost brother's recovery, lest he suck the cock of debauchery yet again. Now... let the first steps of his reeducation begin!" the speaker announced, stepping down from the platform.
He was soon replaced by two larger men, once carrying a golden tray of long sausages and the other carrying the weight of his grim duty. The men stood on either side of the imprisoned man's face and finally the horrid punishment began.
The man with the golden platter handed the solemn man a length of sausage. He held it for a moment as he stared down at Cinaedus with heavy eyes.
The crowd was silent as they waited with baited breath for the dire punishment to begin.
"Do not hesitate my brothers!" the speaker broke the silence. "It is your duty to punish and reeducate him for his own sake!" he reminded them.
The man holding the sausage nodded and reached down to grasp the prisoner's chin before pressing the long sausage between his lips.
Cinaedus accepted the length of meat and took his punishment with grace.
The man pressed the meat into his mouth, but then pulled it back and then pressed it back in yet again, repeating the process.
The crowd cheered as the punishment had finally begun.
"That is right! Make him partake in the great flavor of our finest meats so that he may remember the true diet of a warrior!" the speaker yelled.
Some of the crowd yelled and cheered at the odd punishment, some of the men remained silent as a single tear ran down their faces, but nearly all of the women sighed and crossed their arms at this ridiculous display. Some of them pinched the bridges of their noses, while others looked down with their foreheads in the palms of their hands.
Barric recognised nearly all of these looks as something he had seen Layla do plenty of times in the past. The disapproving gaze of someone watching others do something so unfathomably absurde.
The party watched in silence as the prisoner Cinaedus was lewdly teased by the lengths of meat before being forced to consume each one.
Finally the silence between them was broken as Sylas was the first to speak.
"I thought I almost had human customs figured out, though apparently I have much to learn," the demon said.
Barric sighed.
"I can assure you this is no human custom I've ever heard of. In fact this is barbaric," the King informed him.
"What in the fuck…" both Quinn and Layla said at the same time.
Hana licked her lips.
"What a waste of meat. Perhaps I should commit some gay crime if they will fill me with their finest meats… Ha!" she laughed at her own entendre.
Once the plate of sausages was finished the men left the platform, but soon returned with a huge crystal pitcher of milk. The man with empty hands grasped Cinaedus by the hair to lift his nodding head while the other man held the pitcher to his lips and began to pour.
"Yes!" the speaker shouted again. "He will partake in the milk of our finest cattle to strengthen himself once again!" he said, seeming a little too excited about everything that was going on.
The man continued to pour the milk far too quickly for Cinaedus to drink and he struggled to keep up. There was simply no way he would be able to drink it all after all the meat he had just eaten, so the excess poured from the corners of his lips and down his chin pathetically, dribbling down to the wood below.
The party watched in silence once again as more of his punishments took place, one right after the other. The pair of men left the stage and returned again and again with different things each time. Each punishment was more heinous than the last and just as homoerotic, until eventually they were on the final punishment of the day. The man who had carried all of the food had just finished giving Cinaedus his fifteenth slap across the ass with a huge length of sausage while the other man broke down into tears from the crushing weight of his duty.
He was removed from the stage just in time as the punishments had finally come to an end for the day. The speaker returned to the wooden platform and looked out over the crowd of horrified men and disappointed women.
"That concludes our public reeducation for the day. Let this be a lesson to all of you about falling for the temptations of vile buggery. We will resume at the same time tomorrow, no please disperse," he concluded, taking a step down from the stage and stepping through the crowd straight towards the King's party.
Barric stepped forward to meet the man first and the pair came to pause as they stared down each other.
"It would seem I have not properly introduced myself," the speaker began. "I am Pedicator Draucus, or rather the Duke of this city. It is to my embarrassment that you had to witness our public reeducation on the day of your very first visit, but such behaviors can not go overlooked. I hope you can keep your sodomistic urges to yourself whilst you stay in our city, gay King," Draucus warned him.
"Well, I-" Barric began, but was immediately cut off.
"But it is no matter, for I will be keeping an eye on you!" Draucus told him, licking his lips as he looked the King up and down. "I shall be off now, if you would like to know more about the ways of our city please do come visit me in the main palace. Tell them… the Pedicator sent for you," Draucus finished, turning his back to the party and taking his leave.