Five years ago.
Boston is the pearl of the kingdom. The majestic capital city is mind-blowing. Its size is impressive, its architectural style is sublime. Enchanting sights are on each step: here is the royal castle imposing its almost tangible power and influence, a little further, there’s a magnificent tall tower of the merchants' guild. It casts a shadow on half of the city. Every day the joyful or disappointed roar of the crowd comes from the arena of gigantic proportions, reminiscent of the Colosseum.
The capital is the face of the kingdom for a reason. It delights, shocks, inspires awe in any guest or tourist who first visits it. It is home to millions of people, an always busy anthill, surrounded by high strong walls that even an army of giants could never climb over or break through.
Today the atmosphere in Boston couldn’t be more electric. Passers-by kept talking about the impending bloody battles of the strongest slaves in the whole empire. The king himself had organized this significant event in honor of the recent successful defense against the attack of supreme beasts.
In any kingdom, ordinary people love three things best of all: beautiful girls, good booze, and spectacular fights. And now, more than two hundred thousand spectators filled the stands of the arena in dense rows. They shouted, laughed, debated excitedly. In short, everyone couldn’t wait until the bloodshed began. Some were placing their bets, others had come to have a good time, unwind, get a sense of a victory.
The event had been specially organized to develop a positive mindset, in other words, to let the common people have fun. As for the noble families, they had a different treat. The gentlefolk couldn’t care less about feeble slaves fighting with weak beasts. The high-born would rather devote their time to family squabbles or training.
However, today Jurich Stone, the patriarch of the 1st rank family, had arrived at the arena. His appearance surprised everyone present, including the king himself, who had to attend the event that he had organized.
Jurich was graceful. He had the beauty of a true warrior, i.e. he was tall and broad-shouldered with somewhat rough but attractive features. His muscular body gave the vapors to the most desired and unreachable ladies. His cold and determined gaze sent the most ferocious enemies to kneel and beg for mercy. Everyone in Boston knew Jurich had moved the Stones to the first place in just a few years. Nobody knew when exactly he became so influential or where he came from, but everyone was certain that no ordinary man would have his power and no equal.
His wife Diana was walking arm in arm next to him. She was a beautiful, fragile-looking blond woman. A fat boy and two little girls were following them. The girls could both overshadow the sun itself, so dazzlingly charming they were. It was difficult to take eyes off this family, so perfect they seemed.
Waves of conversations and rumble of whispers spread above the arena.
«This is sir Yurich himself! Why has the patriarch of the family number one come to see the slaves fighting?!» … «Geez, look at that beautiful girl. It’s Elsa! I heard that she is already in the middle stage of the superior phase, and she is only ten! What an extraordinary talent!» … «Every time I look at lady Diana I understand that I have chosen the wrong wife.» … «Shut up! Your face must be missing my frying pan!» … «Is this charming girl his youngest daughter? Uhm, I’d love to have one like that... Why is heaven so kind to those in power?» … «Daaaad!»
Yurich sent his greetings to King Michael’s box. The bearded man smiled at him. Then the patriarch seated his wife next to the central place. His ten-year-old daughter tugged at her father's sleeve, demanding to be seated on his lap, which he did not refuse.
The little sweetie named Juno froze awkwardly nearby until Diana sat her youngest daughter next to her. The fat boy sat on his father’s side, his fiery greedy eyes devouring a hefty slave. He had put a lot of money on him.
With warmth in his voice, the father addressed the girl on his knees:
«Elsa, I’ve brought you to the arena for a reason. You have to learn an important lesson. I want you to focus on each slave, on their relations, on how quickly their behavior changes depending on various factors. You will tell me everything you’ve learned from this lesson at home, will you?»
«Yes, daddy.» – The beautiful girl nodded with a radiant smile, comfortably sitting on his lap like a nymph. She seemed to be the happiest daughter in the world.
Juno looked enviously at Elsa, who didn’t leave her father for a second. It was plain as day that she would take her father’s words, lessons, and beliefs as a law. What a stupid sister... The father favoured her for the attitude as if it was some merit! But Juno wasn’t like that. She would never kowtow to her dad to get his love! Juno had always been pretty annoyed by her sister. Elsa copied their father’s character, had an incredible talent in development, and it drove Juno nuts. She wanted to surpass Elsa at least in something, to prove herself, to attract attention, but... Apart from her charming looks, Juno had nothing to boast of.
The five of them were sitting in the Stone’s restricted area, surrounded by well-drilled guards.
The speaker came to the center of the arena. He respectfully greeted the king, patriarch Stone, and wished their families to have a nice time.
The warm greeting from the speaker of the Royal Family Grand (0) suggested how respected and influential the Stone family was. All the more, the patriarch himself had arrived!
The speaker made an impassioned opening speech, pointing to the slaves in shackles. After the signal, the bars on the sides of the arena dropped, and terrible wild creatures ran out: tigers, poisonous tentaculipedes, huge tarantulas, snakes, slugs, and many other vile creatures.
The slaves’ shackles fell off. They grabbed their weapons at the nearest racks and jumped headlong into the attack.
A fierce battle began. The beasts were visibly inferior to the people who were well prepared for the fight. The odds were obviously against the beasts.
The chubby boy named XiaoBai was trembling with impatience, the chair under him creaked dangerously. He had just done a great deal of work, bribing the supervisor, the armorer, and the breeder. The breeder weakened certain beasts with special poison. The armorer planted an enchanted mace in the set of weapons. And the supervisor had a talk with slave number six and gave him the necessary instructions on how to win.
Now, this very slave seized the mace and attacked the weakened beasts following the advice of his secret “benefactor.” The more he would kill, the better.
XiaoBai was just bursting with excitement, his thick ripple folds quivering, his fists clenched tight. He had put a tidy sum for the victory of the slave and couldn’t wait to fill his pocket with money!
The compacted sand was soon soaked with blood. The people got injured less often, so basically, it was the beast’s blood. Many in the audience understood that it had been arranged so that people would win, but it did not spoil the fun and the thrill of the show.
Juno watched another tiger get his head mercilessly chopped off, her eyes wide-opened with horror. The girl swallowed nervously and squeezed her mother's hand pitifully. Diana comforted her, stroking her tenderly.
The children were introduced to blood and cruelty at an early age. It was a custom and had to be done.
The fight lasted a couple of hours. New batches of monsters kept arriving... The slaves took turns to rest. They rallied together, confronting the beasts. They covered each other and helped at the critical moments. In the future, their friendship could get stronger than metal.
By the final round, three people out of a hundred had been killed. The audience was pleased, anyway. The blood was shed, and they didn’t care if it was human blood or not.
The mighty hydra was the main target of the last round. All 97 slaves had united and ripped the lethal beast apart. It didn’t stand a single chance. The slaves were demonstrating the best fighting spirit that had been running in human blood since the beginning of time when people united against a common enemy. The last round was relatively quick and simple, but the audience enthusiastically applauded and cheered nevertheless.
Almost a hundred of slaves stayed out of breath but with smiles on their faces. They were shaking their hands, patting each other on the back, fist-bumping. They survived. They did it.
Yurich carefully removed Elsa from his lap, stood up and raised his hand to attract attention. He proclaimed in a thunderous voice:
«I've never seen a more ridiculous fight in all my not-so-boring life.»
A loud echo of his scornful words swept across the arena. A deathly silence followed them. The impressive man was the focus of everyone's attention. King Michael looked at him, questioningly.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The patriarch continued with a straight face:
«We have suffered enormous losses while protecting our realm from the supreme beasts. Families were left without breadwinners, children lost their fathers and elder brothers, wives turned into widows! It is only reasonable that we must honor the memory of the victims with a grandiose performance in celebration of our glorious victory! And all I see today is a languid waving of weapons at weakened beasts! There’s no intrigue, no drama, no emotions running high! There are only three human sacrifices. Will this victory ever satisfy us?!»
Hundreds of thousands of people looked at each other uncertainly. Then many of them began to nod in agreement. In a couple of seconds, the buzz of voices supporting his words rose above the arena.
King Michael smiled sourly. He rose from his seat and answered the same resounding voice:
«Patriarch Juric. You know perfectly well that we’ve been trying to make a good impression on the whole kingdom. Today people must defeat the beasts in the battle. Otherwise it will be an insult to everyone here. People have won the war, they can’t lose on their own grounds. If you wish to add something to this event, I am willing to heed your advice!»
Jurich looked at his wife with a boyish grin on his lips. Diana could not take her loving eyes off him. He turned his look on Elsa. Her facial expression wasn’t very different from her mother’s. Then he returned to the king:
«A fight for survival will be the perfect end of the day. I will grant freedom to the last surviving slave as well as a decent job and a hundred thousand of spheres to boot!»
The audience burst into an uproar. The spectators lost their heads over the patriarch’s generous reward:
«One hundred thousand?! I am going downstairs to chop them all myself!» … «Hehe! A wise offer from a wise man!» … «Yeah! We all want to see a slaughter!» … «Let the slaves fight to the last! Stab them in the guts» … «Patriarch Yurich is making history! Bravo!» … «That's right! Did I pay two spheres for nothing?!» … «Patriarch Yurich has a point! He should be a king, a candidate from the people!»
Yurich sat down, pleased with himself. Elsa returned to her father's lap with a joyful scream.
«You're so cool, daddy! I will remember your lesson for good!»
Yurich pretty sat down back, and Elsa with a joyful scream returned to his father's lap.
The audience wouldn’t calm down. Loud cheer resounded in favor of the patriarch’s words. It got deafening after the idea to make Jurich the new king.
Michael frowned with annoyance. The death of the slaves was going to cost him dearly. However, he had organized the show to maintain the spirit of his citizens, so why not?
The king asked for attention. In a few moments, everybody was quiet.
«We’ve started the war with the inhumans for a good cause. However, slaughtering people is an ugly thing. Let the slaves decide if they will fight to their death so that only one of them can get freedom and comfortable life.» – The king finished his speech and took his seat, thoughtfully looking at the slaves.
No one dared to question the king's words. If slaves agreed to fight, so be it. If not, nothing could be done. Therefore, the audience had to support them fervently to kill each other! Or else... Everyone in the audience thought something along the lines. A moment passed… Then another... And the cheer in support of the fight had engulfed the whole arena.
Almost a hundred of slaves dispersed across the sand, holding tight their swords, their faces pale from excitement. Those who had dropped the weapon picked up the first one they saw. Their recent cohesion in the battle with the hydra was forgotten. The tension was growing, the air was thick with bloodthirst. The incessant hubbub from the stands pressed every fighter, urging them to start the battle.
XiaoBai snorted, displeased. {Dad... Do you want to bankrupt me?! If they do not pay me out the winnings, I’ll personally squeeze the money out of you with interest for my moral damage and wasted time!}
Juno tightened her grip on the armrests of her seat in fear. As long as she remembered herself, she had never seen people kill each other. There were injuries at the tournaments, competitions or sparring, sometimes the fighters crippled someone, but it never came to killing. And now she was in for a massacre of a hundred people!
Juno asked herself a reasonable question: “Why?!” She had read lots of books where people committed murders out of strong hatred, great jealousy, or for another important reason. But what was their motive now? A single cozy place under the sun, one for the whole crowd, was in the spotlight. A real massacre was about to start. The slaves had just become comrades-in-arms, shaken hands with each other, slapped each other on the back, smiled, and they were going to ruthlessly kill each other. How could they possibly fight after the terrible battle they had lived through together?
Juno’s worldview what the root of all her doubts. When she was a child, she concluded from books and her mother’s stories that people were the most intelligent, kind-hearted and peaceful race on the planet. There must be a good reason for them to kill someone from their kind. However, her father was going to prove the opposite! His speech meant the massacre was inevitable. What was going on? Was it a practical joke? No, he wasn’t like that... The truth had always been on his side, his words carried a lot of weight.
Juno looked at her father, at the content smile on his face, and her heart filled with overwhelming mixed emotions. She wanted to understand what he was thinking. She knew him well. For strangers, he was the head of the family, a ladies’ man. The patriarch had conquered the hearts of millions of people, and the members of the Stone family were no exception. He appeared from nowhere, tricked patriarch Bai and married his daughter. Soon he became the next esteemed patriarch Stone. Those who were close to Yurich could always rely on him. His words had crucial importance. There was no point arguing with him. Yurich had always been sympathetic, fair and gracious, albeit a bit too emotional.
And only the closest people knew that Yurich had one peculiarity... He suffered from emotional fits. When he lost his temper, he wasn’t himself anymore. He had to see Diana to get over a fit. They disappeared for half an hour, and then he was back to normal again.
Juno knew her father well. That’s why his words were so shocking for her. He had always shown a respectful attitude to other people’s lives. He pardoned criminals, he did not kill or cripple his enemies when he had a chance to, he did not execute traitors... Simply put, he appreciated life. Then why was he acting like that? Slaves are people, aren’t they! Was he having a fit? She didn’t think so... Definitely not.
Juno's gaze returned to the arena. The slaves hadn’t started the battle yet. They didn’t seem to want it at all. It made the anxious girl more and more confused. She had just had an idea that her father might be wrong... Could it get more absurd than that! But then she came to think of it. Why should her father always be right? What if she was right today? If she was, she could triumph not only over her father but also over Elsa who Juno hated more than anyone else. Elsa had always taken everything their father said or did for her own decision. It was good enough for Juno to doubt his judgement. The slaves were sensible people, they wouldn’t fight with each other.
The girl's eyes flashed triumphantly. The anticipation of victory filled her heart. Could she finally stop being jealous of her sister?! At least for an hour... Or better for a couple of days! That would be great! Juno hadn’t known the true essence of human vices yet. She was sure that she was right.
«DIE, ASSHOLE!» – A strong beefy slave roared and chopped off the head of his fellow who was standing with his back to him.
«ААААААH!» – Another slave gave an agonized cry and killed his rival who was standing nearby.
A moment later, each of the half-naked slaves brandished their weapons and started slaughtering those who they considered brothers in arms not so long ago.
Juno lost the color in her face. Her clear eyes that had never seen death or torments reflected all the fury of the slaves. The mighty blows of the sharp weapons chopped off the heads and limbs, heartbreaking screams meant more bloody wounds. They broke each other's necks, crushed their bones. Their faces were wild, ruthless faces. Nothing human was left in them.
Juno’s outlook cracked at that point. Those savages didn’t have a drop of reason or kindness she believed in. There was nothing sacred for them. Why did the father appreciate human life at all if they were so vile, betraying their friends for questionable reward? They were at each other's throats, killing their kind for a slight chance at the place in the sun... Only a while ago, they shook each other's hands, smiled friendly to each other, fought against the common enemy as befits truly brave people, and now they turned into villains.
Juno was so appalled at the scene that she nearly fainted when suddenly a thought flashed across her unstable mind. It dispelled all the chaos in her head. The slaves were no people. It all added up. Her belief in people, the most intelligent, kind-hearted and peaceful beings on the planet would stay strong. It wouldn’t shatter over all this nonsense. Her father valued human life, he would never have suggested anything like this if they were people. He did not appreciate slaves’ lives because they were no people. It made perfect sense. The answer had been staring her in the face all along.
Juno calmed down, but the filthy feeling of betrayal wouldn’t go away. She didn’t only see people killing each other, she lost to her sister again... As usual. But... It served her right! She should have never doubted her father’s words - what a silly girl. Her father was always right.
“Slaves are no people.” This affirmation would be growing and developing in Juno’s mind, acquiring new shades of meaning. The closer to the social bottom, the less human is left in people. The slaves will betray, stab a knife in the back of a brother in arms for a vague hope of improving their miserable situation. These creatures have no honor or dignity. The absence of education and proper upbringing turns them into immoral, dishonest barbarians. Living in the scum, feeding on food waste makes them selfish, self-serving, greedy for any material benefit. The lack of decent entertainment, goals, and interests makes them indulge their carnal desires and use their energy for violence. Extreme poverty kills everything human in people. They turn into animals in their early childhood. It’s their destiny to entertain and be of use to those in power.
As Juno was growing up, she discovered her sadistic tendencies. She was a high-born lady, her word was the law, and she was never ashamed of that. And yet, Juno hid her inclination from others. She thought it might send the wrong message.
All her life, Juno could not surpass her sister in anything. The eternal feeling of envy and inferiority was gnawing her from inside. It didn’t let her sleep at night, it tormented her with nightmares. However, when she humiliated someone, suppressed them, surpassed them both physically and mentally, her whole being was impregnated with insatiable, unforgettable happiness.
Each time she made someone suffer physically or emotionally, waves of pleasure gushed through her young body, exciting her from inside, making her heart beat faster. She was drooling at the thought to experience it all with Elsa. Her unshakable dream was born. However, she had to be content with little until then.