Klaus fell to his knees. The rope not only held back his magic, but also slowly drained it, and since the prince had already managed to get a fair number of blows trying to save his friends, he had almost no strength left.
He tried to get up, but his legs wouldn't obey him, so he did the only thing he had the strength for. He raised his head and looked fiercely into his younger brother's face.
Abel stood in front of him, legs apart and hands clasped behind his back. Now his expression was not as friendly as it had been at dinner. Now Jiro's son radiated arrogance, and a smug smile was frozen on his face.
"How I dreamed of seeing you on your knees," he said coldly. "Now you will not be able to brush off my power and will appreciate it at its true worth!"
"Bastard! Take off this damn rope, and we'll see which of us will fall to our knees."
"Brother, I put it on you with such difficulty. Can't you call this a victory?" Abel was surprised.
"You?" Klaus smiled bitterly. "As far as I remember, when your dogs twisted me, you sat aside and shook like a leaf in the wind."
"You!" Anger distorted the cousin's face, and he took a step closer to the prisoner, taking out a leather whip from behind his back, which Klaus had not noticed at first. Abel swung it and brought it down hard on the prince's back.
The burning pain made the prisoner grit his teeth, but he could only suppress a scream, releasing air from his lungs with a loud hiss. No, Klaus would not give this degenerate such pleasure. Taking a couple of breaths, Klaus raised his head again and smiled crookedly.
"A whip? Seriously? You are a highborn arse from a collateral branch of the royal family and you use a tool of punishment for slaves like a common trainer!"
"Shut up! I use it exclusively for you! It is perfect for disfiguring your body and then hanging it on display! Uncle will be pleased with me!"
"So you are doing this on the orders of my father? Or yours? You have not changed at all, as before, you cannot make independent decisions. You have always acted on someone's orders, and unlike August."
"Don't say his name in front of me!" and Abel swung the whip again.
This time the blow landed on the prince's chest, grazing his face from cheekbone to chin. Klaus could not keep his balance and fell to the side. He felt wet tracks on his cheek. The whip cut his cheek until it bled.
"Get up! I won't let you get off that easy! Hey, you! Bring him to the wall!" he addressed someone, but the prince did not see who else was watching his humiliation.
Two pairs of strong hands grabbed the prince under the arms and dragged him to the wall. Klaus did not resist. He did not have the strength for this, and what difference would it make? The rope completely blocked his magic. His hands were tied behind his back, and this significantly complicated the task.
The soldiers led him to the wall and froze in indecision.
"Sir," one of them addressed Abel uncertainly. "How can we hang him? His arms cannot be lifted." And he, as if to prove it, tried to lift the prince's tied hands, from which he bent in half and hissed in pain when he felt that his limbs were about to part with his body.
"Okay, throw him on the floor for now, and when he loses consciousness, we'll hang him up."
The soldiers obediently lowered Klaus to the floor, and he leaned his back against the wall.
"What do you want from me, Abel?" He croaked. "Kill? Punish? Humiliate?"
"Three out of three, "Your Majesty," he grinned. "I want you to feel worthless. I want you to beg me for mercy, or better yet, beg me for death. I'm here to show you my superiority."
"What do you need this for? I understand, it's the order of the king and father, but what does it give you? A place on the council? Good lands? Do you really need all this so much?"
"I just enjoy it," Abel shrugged. "You always ignored me, and I tried so hard to get closer, but no. For you, there was only August. And even when that bastard died, what did you do? Nothing. You still ignored me like I was nothing!" Abel had already started shouting, and his face was red with anger.
"So you just harbored a grudge? Abel, you really are a loser," Klaus grimaced in disgust.
"Shut your mouth!" He covered the distance between them in a few steps, raised his fist and hit Klaus right in the face.
Blood gushed from the prince's nose, while Abel screamed in pain and grabbed arm.
"I broke my arm, fuck! Are you really made of stone or something! Arsehole" and out of anger he kicked Klaus in the stomach.
- Bring a doctor! Immediately! - he shouted, leaving Klaus lying on the floor and bleeding, he went to the table in the corner, where the brands were laid out in neat rows, threw everything on the floor with his good hand and sat right on it, pressing his injured hand to his chest.
Blood was pouring into Klaus's mouth, and he did not have time to spit it out, so with a little effort, he tried to turn his face, burying it in the floor, and then he saw it. A small knife was shining in the place where he had recently been sitting, but the prince clearly remembered that it was not there when the soldiers dragged him away.
It turned out that one of them had dropped it. No, if the metal had fallen on the stone floor, it would have definitely attracted attention. There was only one thing left. Someone had left it there on purpose. A small hope gave Klaus strength. On the third try, he got into a sitting position, pushed off with his legs so as to get closer to the wall again and sat down half-turned to Abel.
The cousin had no time for him now. He was not used to pain. Abel had never had to fight, except for blows with half-strength training weapons, just as Klaus had never been hit with a whip, and the prince's face had never been hit.
Feeling the sharp tip of the knife, the prince picked it up with his free fingers and pulled it towards himself. The ropes tied his wrists and hands, and Klaus only had his fingertips moving, so cutting the rope was not easy. He literally tore his freedom out millimeter by millimeter. He freed all his fingers, then his wrists, and the rope gave in, but at that moment the soldiers with the doctor returned to the basement. The prince tried to press his back against the wall as discreetly as possible, hiding his free hands.
He had little strength left, so he did not want to risk rushing headlong into an attack. Moreover, he did not know how long he would be standing guard at the door and how many he would need to bypass to get to the exit from the estate. He did not think about what to do next. The portal he made to move from "his" room, the prince gave to Gorald. He only had the one they came through. How to get to the ruins? He'll think about that after he gets out.
- Why does it hurt so much! Give me something to relieve the pain - Abel screamed, stopping the doctor halfway to Klaus. The prince understood the latter's confusion.
If you look at the completely healthy Abel and Klaus covered in blood, it is easy to guess for whom the doctor was called, who wisely kept silent and hurried to his master.
The soldiers remained standing near the door. Abel was busy with his injured hand. The prince tried to assess the situation and what he saw did not please him at all. There were no weapons here. Of course, you could use the iron pins on which the brand was put, but they were lined up in an even line far enough away that the wounded and almost exhausted prince had time to reach them before the soldiers stopped him. A small knife? It was of little use.
"What will you do next?" the prince decided to first find out his brother's intentions. "I mean, after you've played enough of the offended girl."
- Shut your fucking mouth or I'll make you do it!"
"Do you want to break your other arm?"
"It's not broken! It's just that your face is like a piece of stone!"
"Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot that your pampered hands have never participated in a real fight!"
"You're in this situation now and you continue to sneer at me? Arrogant bastard! I only wanted to beat you up good, but now you won't get off that easy! Before you die, I'll make you experience such humiliation that your filthy soul will not be able to find peace, and our country will remember this for centuries!"
"How scary!" Klaus continued to provoke his brother. "Do you have enough imagination? Or will you run and ask for advice?"
"Well, that's it! You asked for it!" Abel pushed the doctor away, who fell to the floor in surprise, grabbed his whip from the table and rushed straight to the prince.
This was what Klaus had been counting on. In a fit of anger, Abel did not notice the smile that blossomed on the lips of the heir to the throne. His brother approached the prisoner so close that his whip could reach the victim and cause maximum damage. He swung and aimed the torture device straight at Klaus's face, intending to turn his beautiful appearance into a bloody mess, but the blow missed its target. The whip was intercepted by a hand cut with a small knife.
Despite the fact that Klaus managed to intercept the whip, the blow was still felt. When the leather end wrapped around his wrist, it left a bloody mark, but the prince did not get distracted by the pain and, while his brother was at a loss, grabbed the end of the whip harder and pulled it towards himself, along with the owner.
Abel could not keep his balance and fell forward, releasing the whip and putting his hands out to soften the blow. When he raised his head, his face reflected genuine horror. He found himself nose to nose with the former prisoner, and he was smiling very unkindly at him.
Abel tried to get up quickly, but did not have time. Klaus grabbed him by the hair and abruptly lowered his head down. There was a disgusting crunch, followed by a heartbreaking scream. Klaus broke his brother's nose.
"Now everyone disperse, if you want your master to stay alive." He shouted to the confused soldiers.
"Everyone back," Abel screamed nasal, the prince was already holding him by the neck from behind, and a weak electric discharge was spreading through his fingers.
Holding his brother with one hand, leaning on the wall with the other, Klaus stood up. He caught his breath and stood like that for a couple of seconds. He could not see the faces of those who were leading him to the wall and therefore could not say whether they were the same people or not, but among the soldiers he clearly had an ally whom he must remember, but not give away.
Straightening up, Klaus slowly walked to the door.
"Move your legs," he ordered Abel and he, shaking with fear, began to take awkward steps. "Out of the way," he addressed the soldiers and they obediently took a few steps to the side.
As Klaus passed them, one of them whispered loudly to the other: "He won't be able to escape up there, there are plenty of guards there. Unless, of course, he thinks of using the secret door behind the tapestry with the dragon." The second one looked at the speaker warily and hissed: "Keep quiet, maybe he'll hear." And Klaus took another quick glance at the guards to remember his ally. He went out into the corridor. There was no one there. It seemed that Abel hadn't expected Klaus to escape at all. It was even good that they had underestimated him, although... He wouldn't have gotten out if it weren't for the knife that miraculously appeared behind his back, which was now in his pocket.
He turned in the opposite direction from the exit, and Abel became nervous.
"Hey, where are you going? The exit is on the other side!"
Klaus decided not to waste his energy on talking, but only squeezed his brother's neck tighter, as if telling him to be quiet.
The secret passage, to Klaus's delight, led outside the castle, which meant that there was still a chance to reach the portal. All that was left was to reach the ruins of the house, but in this state and with a prisoner in his arms, the prince doubted that he would be able to overcome the road.
"I can't go any more! Klaus, where are you taking me?" Abel whined, but the prince himself did not know where they were going.
They left the castle through a tunnel in the ground, covered with illusion magic. Yes, Uncle definitely didn't care about the laws when his inventions were useful to him. A rope to block magic, a concealing barrier that worked so well that after the young people got out of the hole, they couldn't find it anymore! He would like a sword now for peace of mind, but alas. There is only a small knife and a minimum supply of magic. Speaking of the sword. The prince promised to return the katana at all costs. He had become attached to this weapon and knew that he would never get the same one again.
"Shut up and move your legs, as soon as we find some shelter, we'll take a rest."
The prince did not want to admit it, but he himself could barely move his legs and was afraid of losing consciousness, then he would definitely be finished. If Abel did not kill him on the spot, he would return him to his torture chamber and then no allies would help him. Personally, the prince would prefer the first option and hoped that if anything happened, his frightened and tired brother would not bother himself and would simply pierce the prince with something sharp.
They practically crawled to a lonely tree surrounded by several earthen embankments. Yes, the shelter was not ideal, but they had no other. Klaus let go of Abel's neck, who immediately collapsed without strength, and he himself, leaning his back against the tree, slowly sank down.
"No nonsense, brother," he croaked. "I don't need to touch you to kill you, and if I see even one suspicious movement, you're finished!"
"I'm not stupid!"
"Really?"
Abel just chuckled. Even a fool would have understood the situation he was in. Jiro's son knew perfectly well that even such a beaten and weakened Klaus would be much stronger than him.
"Stop whining!" the prince shouted at his brother and winced from the pain in his broken nose.
"You broke my nose! And the painkiller is already wearing off!"
"How interesting, first you threatened to beat me and humiliate me, and now you yourself have become a hostage."
"You… you… I hate you," Abel blurted out.
"Maybe you could tell me what I did to you, other than the so-called neglect? Since we're just resting here for now."
The young man was silent for a bit, and then finally spoke:
"You humiliated me! I always wanted to be closer to you, but you only humiliated me! But you idolized Augustus! But why? That impudent bastard was so arrogant! He was only interested in entertainment, and you, the crown prince, were always so correct and unapproachable, you followed him everywhere like a devoted dog!"
"I don't remember humiliating you."
"Your disdain was humiliating in itself. At court, everyone was whispering that I was unworthy of the heir's company, even though I was the closest relative! Everyone laughed behind my back when you gave me the cold shoulder yet again."
"And you say that I humiliated you?" Klaus shook his head. "What nonsense! I am not a very sociable person by nature, if you haven't noticed it yet. I didn't pay attention to you? And who are you? A girl in love, to be so fixated on this?"
"Shut up! You just don't understand anything! You are the only son in the family and you got everything from birth, and I always had to wrest a little bit of my father's attention, his praise, his respect! I thought that if the crown prince recognized me, then everything would change, but you preferred a lecherous dog! August was always popular at court without you. Father extolled him! What did he do to deserve this? By being born earlier?" Abel spat out, forgetting about the pain.
"August," Klaus said thoughtfully, remembering how he first met his older brother at the age of five.