I'm awake. I'm lying in a dark place where only torch lights are occasional cast on my face, momentarily blinding me, when guards walk by. This place is quiet and more so lonely.

I realize that Flara and I really only started our relationship a week ago but when you feel lonely you can't help crave a connection with another person. To be honest we had yet to anything more than kiss or hug each other... because although physical connection is something we crave I think we both realized we hardly knew each other. That is why we simply talked and talked and we laughed as well as smiled. I can say that in my entire life the past week I've felt more complete than I have my entire life.

Finding someone who shares your pain is a beautiful thing and a hard thing to find in the pile of shit that is the world. And for me I feel that she completes me. I am young and a fool but I don't care if the biggest piece of shit in the world it won't change how I'm feeling at this moment without her. Without her here I'm simply alone and hollow.

*clink—clink*

It has been however many days and I finally hear the sound of the lock. I squint my eyes due to the torch light. I'm grabbed from my cell and pushed down the narrow corridor. The smell of death pervades over all of my other senses, I'm lightheaded at the moment. My body feels like lead. My feet anchors me here despite my wish to leave this place. I want be angry yet my body and mind are sluggish.

***

I'm now standing before a throne. On that throne sits a rather... "heavy-set" man. His nose takes up a good part of his face but it's smashed, like a pig's. A pig is right. This fat bastard of a king has so many rolls of fat it makes me gag. His face and body is aged. This king is 153 years old. His fat rolls are covered in disgusting wrinkles! This man wants to ruin my life, a fat bastard of a king! Yet I know... that no matter much I struggle I cannot resist the Royal Decree.

It is the strongest known grimoire. Or perhaps I should call it an artifact? It is a grimoire that can be passed on. No one is born with the Royal Decree. From what I know when the king dies, based on whom he chooses, the Decree will swallow their grimoire and form a connection with them. The Decree is an all powerful grimoire that is passed down a family line. This is the reason why the kingdom can rule over the entirety of this continent.

It is also the reason I cannot resist. The will of the king is equal to the will of god.

I am kneeling before this fat piece of shit. It makes me furious inside but I have to endure. I can't do anything to get me killed before I sort this out. I need to comfort Flara, for all I know she could be somewhere in this castle crying. I can't let her cry.

"Your majesty I present Kyte Mangantaire of house Mangantaire." The voice of the man who led me in echoed throughout the hall. Only now do I realize how I realize how large this hall is. It is adorned in crystals and marble. Paintings of kings and their glory. Yet in all of the hall's opulence it feels so empty and meaningless to me.

The king looks down upon me. He puts his stubby hand to his fat chin with a certain arrogance that shows in his beady eyes. Something about that look pisses me off, he is looking down on me like I am nothing more than dirt—nothing more than shit. "So you are the one messing around with my daughter? I normally wouldn't mind since I have thirteen of them. However, it seems she is a popular choice for the three great families." The Mangantaire is one of three great noble families.

The three great noble families each rule over a third of the continent with their power having been allocated by the king. My Mangantaire family rules the southern third. The Kumar family rules over the northeastern third. The Welting family rules over the northwestern third. All three families then allocate their own land to lesser nobles to better rule so it forms three factions within the kingdom with the royal family standing over them all as a commanding voice. This system has lasted for the last several thousand years thanks to the domineering control of the Andrane family and its Royal Decree.

From the king's words that means that the one I will have to fight with someone from the other two families for the right to marry Flara. This bullshit.

"Meet your rival in love, Gauren Welting." I think I hear him snickering as he says this but I can't tell because his fat lips make it sound more like a snort. Fucking pig face.

I can hear the tapping of boots on the marble floor behind me. I turn my head to see him. He has blonde hair and bright green eyes. He is tall and skinny, like a walking skeleton. He is wearing a tidy blue and silver robe. When his eyes meet mine he sneers. I was locked up... yet this guy looks like he just went to a powder room. My eyes harden. I don't know what he sees in my eyes but he startles slightly and his sneer erodes. I look back at the king.

I think he noticed my realization because he says, "You were sentenced to punishment for attempting to taint my daughter before you had yet to be formally betrothed." Then he says something more startling. "While we are on this subject, bring him in!" My grandfather walks in, he is bound in chains. The chains are glowing with runes. My grandfather is... beaten and bruised. I want to be happy seeing this but something about how my grandfather is holding himself makes me feel... sick inside.

The king pulls out a golden scroll and unrolls it. "Kyte Mangantaire by my decree you are to answer all of my questions truthfully and to the best of your ability until I tell you to stop." A golden light shines from the decree and I can feel it piercing my mind. I give a forced nod in response to the king, the pain inside my head at the moment is too much for me to give a complex response.

"Did this man, your grandfather, place you and my daughter in the same dorm room at the Royal Arkler Academy?"

Something inside my mind forces me to respond despite my resistance, "Yes your majesty."

"Does your grandfather condone sexual activities on academy grounds?"

Fucking hell. "Yes... and he himself partakes in these... activities..."

"Did your grandfather try and coerce you and my daughter into partaking in sexual acts?"

I try to resist this answer but the reality is, "Yes."

"Did you know about this dispute over marriage rights?"

"No." If I did I might not be in this mess.

The kings wrinkles crinkle in thought. "Did you take my daughter's purity?"

This question startles me into a coughing fit. "*coughing* No your majesty."

"This makes things easier now doesn't it. Gauren you heard him, he didn't touch her." The king gets up from his throne and walks towards my grandfather who is on his knees bound in chains and gagged. The gag is there to prevent stronger magic that require incantations. "Well old friend it seems you truly didn't lie. Like you said, you are as guilty as charged." The king unfurls his golden scroll once more only this time chains pour out from the paper. An intense pressure fills the room. "With the power invested to me by the almighty god I hereby sentence you to death. The crime is going against the wishes of the king. I permit you final words before you die."

My heart is feeling heavy yet I don't know why. It's this vague feeling that if my grandfather was to die I would lose something important. My grandfather's gag turns to ash, he faces the ceiling but his eyes look as if they are looking past the ceiling and piercing the heavens. "I want my grandson to know I loved him. I want my son to stop being so serious... There are things I wish I could have changed but they had become habits in my old age... *mumbling*" my grandfather suddenly put his head down and is mumbling something incoherent. The mana in the room... it's fluctuating. The king's face scrunches up as he says the simple commanding phrase, "Die."

"No!" Before I knew it I was running towards my grandfather. I don't know why. I feel my insides hurting from this vague feeling.

The silver chains pour out of the decree. They twist and bind my grandfather's body. They tighten and crush his body. They suddenly emit a bright light. *Poof...* A bloody mist coats my face. The chains recede leaving nothing but a pool of blood. I don't know why but I'm on my hands and knees... this indescribably horrid feeling inside... I want to tear it out of my chest... instead I get tears. My hands and face are covered in his blood

I hear the king's heavy steps going up to his throne but I don't look... all I can see is my grandfather's blood. My tears cloud my eyes. I feel defeated and kind of angry.

"We are done here for now, I will call for you both later. Someone please take the crier elsewhere!" I hardly hear these words.

I'm being dragged from behind. I let my body be dragged from the hall but in my rage I left the king with these words, "How dare you! How dare you kill him before I could kick his wrinkly old ass! Damn you!"

{CHAPTER END}

[NEXT TIME ON MAGIC IS OVERRATED...]

[I Will Make Them All Eat Shit]

•—•—•—•

This chapter was short but incredibly important. Some more information about the world. The death of everyone's favorite perverted grandfather. This is where things get tricky you see. I have several paths forward I could take from here that I have been trying to decide on. I have a lot to do this weekend so I'm going to live my life then come back and see what happens. As I said, I'm a whimsical person.