RE:volt! Chapter 23: Deceit
"Refuse…" Bruno said, repeating the word that came out of Ark's mouth with a stunned look as every slave within the barracks paused their breakfast and stared at him. "Refuse… You…"
The knight narrowed his eyes as he towered over the boy before him.
"Who the fuck do you think you are to refuse me?" Bruno spat, cocking his fist back.
"I-I'm not worthy!" Ark squealed, flinching back like a scared child to avoid the man's fist.
Yet the fist never came.
"Tsk." Bruno paused, staring long and hard at the boy before he grabbed Ark by the scruff of his neck and brought him close with scent of alcohol hitting Ark's nose. "Do you know what I'm offering you boy?"
Ark blinked, his eyes wide.
"I can't take a squire unless they consent. It's not something that can be forced." The man whispered. "Think long and hard about this."
"I'm… I'm not w-w-worthy s-s-sir." Ark stuttered out with Bruno tossing Ark to the side with a sour look on his face.
Much to Ark's surprise when he looked up, Bruno had a look that was a cross between sorrow and disappointment. Not the anger that Ark was accustomed to.
The Knight clicked his teeth but said nothing, storming out of the barracks and leaving Ark to sit in the dirt.
No one within the barracks moved, every slave still as to not accidentally draw the man's ire if he came back.
Finally, when everyone was sure Bruno wouldn't return, Thirty-Three and Thirty-Four approached Ark alongside Nine whose real number was Forty-five.
"Are you ok?" Nine asked, poking Ark on the nose.
"Yeah." Ark said, eyeing Thirty-Four and her brother. "I kept my end of the deal."
"Right." Thirty-Four said with Nine cocking her head in confusion. "We'll keep our end."
Ark nodded, his attention more on thoughts of Bruno than it was the red heads.
What the hell was that? Ark thought to himself, the man's expression vividly painted in his mind.
****
It wasn't long before Bruno's squire was selected. Unsurprisingly, Thirty-Three had taken the spot. With an announcement made in front of the entire gathering of combat slaves, letting everyone know the boy's position.
Although he wasn't given any new quarters or privileges besides training and extra rations, Thirty-Three now possessed some authority over all the other slaves. A corporal in the midst of hundreds of privates.
Ark now had an in, a person on the inside that wasn't just Ninety-Nine, someone that owed him. A seed that would need to grow some before fruit could be plucked.
Days passed, with Ark focusing on his core suppression training at night in the Reality Sphere with Irelix, expanding his understand of his dual core before Thirty-Four would wake up and practice hand to hand fighting and other techniques with Ark in the back of the room.
"Do you know what you did wrong?" Ark said as Thirty-Four hit the dirt hard, the girl furrowing her brow with curiosity.
"I… I saw you were going to punch then tried to react. But then you tricked me." Thirty-Four huffed, rubbing her red cheek where she'd been punched.
"Of course I did. It's called a feint." Ark replied deadpan as he crouched down and brought himself to the girl's eye level. "Body language is a form of speaking. Just as it can tell you what an opponent is about to do, it can also be used to lie."
"Then what's the point of this training?" Thirty-Three asked, causing Ark to turn to the boy.
"All warfare is based on deceit." Ark said, mirroring the words of Jasper. Although he resented the mage for the situation he was in, there was still truth in the man's words. Ark was living proof of that.
"Deceit?" Thirty-Four asked.
"It means to lie." Ark explained, the two siblings sharing a look.
"I see." Thirty-Four said, climbing back to her feet. "Let's go again."
Between the daily beatings, stale food, and non-stop marching, the night trainings with the two siblings soon became one of the few pleasures Ark had.
During the day, Ark was a meek, soft spoken child that tried not to draw attention to himself, while at night, he became an instructor.
A week passed, before most, if not all of the barracks were crowded around Ark, children of all ages enraptured by the boy explaining and demonstrating a maneuver known as a guillotine choke on the blonde Nine who had enthusiastically volunteered.
Everyone was quiet, not a sound made for fear of the helpers finding out as they listened intently to the boy.
"Now this is important, you wrap your hand around your opponent's neck, then your other, around the shoulder around his back, and then interlock your hands." Ark said as Thirty-Four raised her hand, a system Ark stole from Jasper that the magician used when addressing townsfolk's questions whenever they arrived on extermination missions. "Yes."
"What does enter lock mean?" Thirty-Four asked with the other children nodding and wondering what it meant.
"To knit something together or connect something." Ark explained, releasing Nine and putting his hands together in a clasping motion.
Thirty-Four looked down at her hands and clasped them together, mirroring Ark's action.
"Interlock." Thirty-Four repeated with some performing the same action.
"Wow. Monkey see, monkey do." Irelix commented, ruining Ark's mood.
"Shut up lizard." Ark spat with Nine cocking her head, the girl looking at Ark inquisitively.
"What did I do?" Nine asked.
"No, not you. Nothing." Ark sighed, rubbing the back of his neck before clearing his throat. His eyes settling on Thirty-Four as she clasped and unclasped her hands.
Perhaps in a different life, Ark could see her as a bookish child, an inquisitive girl with a book in her hand who would make many boys her age stop dead in their tracks..
Alas the collar around her neck denied her that fate. Instead of reading, learning, and attending school as most non-slave children did, Forty-Four was stuck being raised to be an illiterate attack hound.
"Why are you so smart?" Nine asked suddenly, drawing everyone's eyes.
"Am I supposed to be dumb?" Ark countered.
"No. But you know alot of stuff." Nine said, poking Ark on the nose.
"Because I pay attention." Ark said, putting the girl in a surprise choke. "Knowledge is power. The more you know the better."
At Ark's words Thirty-Four's focus seemed to spike, her entire attention focused on him as if what he said had unlocked something in her.
Knowledge is power. Thirty-Four said to herself. I like that.
Of course Ark was unaware of the core memory he'd made for the girl as he went back to teaching and demonstrating more techniques.