RE:volt! Chapter 18: Just a Child
In the morning, it didn't take long before the entire Constantine Estate was in an uproar. A slave had escaped. An elderly apothecary that had poisoned all the patients within the hospital save for one.
Ark.
For days helpers and slaves alike spoke about the incident as soldiers under the employ of the Constantine estate searched high and low. During that time, Ark was kept under intense scrutiny, the boy locked in a small cell with a dragon in his head and a system screen to keep him company while he was being questioned constantly about why he was alive and all others weren't.
Ark's answer was that he was a child, that the woman couldn't bear to kill him.
"So you're telling me the apothecary said all this to you before leaving the cell?" Head Overseer Delia asked. The woman in yellow leather sitting in front of Ark with her legs crossed and thin brown brow raised as she tapped her yellow crusted fingernails on the wooden desk.
"Yes ma'am." Ark said as the woman stood up, walking around the lavish office that was filled with various trophies and bottles of liquor owned by the overseer. "She said she couldn't and that she was sorry."
"So then she escaped. And you didn't feel the need to try and notify the guards? To yell for help?" Delia asked, hovering behind Ark and making the hairs on his back stand on end.
"I-I didn't know she was escaping." Ark replied, feigning innocence as his eyes eyed the bookcase nearby. It was a quick glance, one he took while the overseer was behind him.
"Hmmm. You wouldn't be lying to me… would you? Loyd?" Delia said, placing her thin hands on the boy below her and massaging Ark's shoulders as she purred in his ear with breath that reeked of alcohol. "Your shoulders are so tense."
Ark blinked but kept a calm despite the yellowing eyes staring at him.
"I'm not ma'am."
"But you have lied to me before…" Delia said, the tanned skinned woman raising her brow as her fingers suddenly dug into Ark's shoulders. "Isn't that right? Imagine my surprise when I learned that my pair of aqua blues was at the center of this debacle."
Ark clenched his jaw. "I-"
"Shhhhh." Delia said, licking her lips. "Don't talk. We all make mistakes… Just think about how you're going to make it up to me."
Delia was now sitting on the desk in front of Ark, rubbing the side of his face with every ounce of self-restraint Ark possessed being used to not kill the woman in front of him.
"Do you know what happens to slaves who do naughty things?" Delia whispered, leaning down to stare at Ark, their noses nearly touching. "They get punished. Do you want to be punished?"
"No ma'am." Ark replied, whimpering and shrinking back, acting like a scared child.
Unfortunately this seemed to arouse Delia, the woman biting the bottom of her lip, a slender finger already poking Ark in the chest.
"So innocent." The woman said, already flustered. "If you want to atone, all you have to do is one simple thing… do you want to know what that is?"
"W-what." Ark grimaced, his hand balling up as she stuck out her tongue and licked his ear.
"Get nak-"
"MA'AM!"
Suddenly the door of the office burst opened, followed by the red sashed Ninety-Nine entering into the office space seemingly out of breath.
"WHAT?!" Delia barked, her expression twisting instantly from lust to fury as she was interrupted and rose from her sitting position.
"M-m-master Constantine demands your presence immediately Head Overseer!" Ninety-Nine spat out, attempting to bow to the woman who wrapped her hands across his neck and slammed him into the nearby wall.
"You-!" Delia began before the words sunk in and she let the man go. She adjusted her yellow vest before scowling at Ark.
"Escort six-two-six back to Bruno's camp. Go. NOW!" Delia spat with Ark and Ninety-Nine not needing to be told twice.
******
Walking side by side quickly through the grounds, Ark let out a sigh as Ninety-Nine shielded his own eyes from the sun and gazed down at the boy.
"You ok kid?" Ninety-Nine asked.
"Y-yeah." Ark let out. "You really saved me there."
"That was close wasn't it?" Ninety-Nine said, making Ark's brow raise.
"Were you watching?"
"I was listening in." Ninety-Nine replied, looking left and right, scanning the grounds.
"So our master needing her?" Ark narrowed his eyes. "That a ruse?"
"Oh, that was true. The urgency however, wasn't." Ninety-Nine replied, tamping his temple with a bit of a smug look on his middle-aged face.
"You sly dog." Ark chuckled.
"You should steer clear of her six-to-six." Ninety-Nine cautioned, the pair nearing the barracks area.
"Easier said than done." Ark grimaced. "But it seems she's become very fascinated with me."
"Just try. Soon she won't be much of a problem."
At Ninety-Nine"s words Ark stopped in his tracks, turning to stare at the trustee.
"What do you mean?"
Ninety-Nine sighed. "You notice her eyes boy? That yellowing? She's got liver rot. Probably dead in a month or two."
"Huh." Ark said, staring blankly at the man.
"What?"
"You're surprisingly very knowledgeable." Ark said, continuing on.
"There's a reason I'm a red sash and not out working the fields like the other dregs boy." Ninety-Nine replied before the two stepped into the barracks area and quickly clamored up.
Knight Bruno spun, the man pausing his talk with his instructors as Ninety-Nine and Ark stood beside him with their heads bowed.
"Ay, my favorite little punching bag returns." Bruno said, eyeing Ark up and down. "How was your vacation?"
"Va-vacahsion?" Ark said, purposely mispronouncing the word.
"Ah, right. How was your break you uneducated piece of shit?" Bruno said, correcting himself.
"Uhm. G-g-good sir." Ark said as Bruno placed his baton on Ark's shoulder. His body tensing up as he made doubly sure to suppress his core.
"Is that so?" Bruno said, his baton beginning to tap repeatedly on the boy's shoulder. "That's good. That's real good. Seems as though you're real rested. Not to worry though, I'll put those rested muscles to good use."
"Th-thank you sir!" Ark barked, swallowing the indignation and causing Bruno to widen his eyes and turn to his helpers.
"Ha! See that? NOW THAT'S the enthusiasm I like to see!" Bruno roared, thumping the chest of one of his helpers and pulling back his baton. "Go, get to your barracks. Lunch is in ten."
"Yes sir. Thank you sir." Ark replied, rushing off to his bunk as Ninety-Nine took his leave.
****