"WAKE UP RATS! SLEEPING ONES WILL NOT GET FED TODAY HAHAHA!"

After the announcement echoed through the speakers, the sound of countless footsteps filled the air. Some walked calmly, while others ran or fought. Some prisoners didn't seem to move at all. The halls were filled with the musty smell of rusting iron and the sweat of multiple men. Blood stains were a common sight, and the prison atmosphere was as tense as it could possibly be.

Following the third great war between Eyne and Isha, it was clear that Eyne had lost due to the incompetence of their military leaders and the corruption in the border regions. Defectors at the border had smuggled in massive amounts of Isha soldiers, who had been preparing their operation for years, making their victory inevitable. The king of Eyne surrendered within two weeks, a very short amount of time for such a great nation to fall. Now Citizens, prisoners of war, and a mix of various other people have been arrested and put into so-called "reeducation camps" where they officially should've taught us the way of integrating into the Isha kingdom. However, they had another idea of integration. Making all the prisoners here into slaves had been quite profitable for these bastards. The mines we have been forced into are all horrible, every single one of them. Surviving here is as harsh as being dropped in the mountains without clothes or any supplies. Funnily enough, that was exactly the alternative to the mines which were at least protecting you from the winds even when a hungry horde of beasts wanted to eat you every few hours and you had to fight them off with just a mere pickaxe.

After Daniel and I hid in our houses for a few months, hoping to stay safe, a local man we had occasionally traded with reported us. The "Fanggruppe," an army branch assisting thousands of garrisons in the captured territories, eventually found and caught us. Even though we pleaded to be released, as we thought we didn't do anything wrong, they merely laughed and discussed promotions by our arrests, showing us no mercy. The worst part was that they separated us, abandoning us to our fates.

Just as I was clenching my fists due to the memories of the last few years' events, a grumpy voice behind me shouted in my ear. A man in his early forties was the source of the voice.

"Stop being so slow kid, your blocking the way god dammit! If I miss the roll call because of you..."

I turned my head around, facing the man with a threatening glare. He didn't seem all that strong so I deemed that I could go further.

"If you fucking shout one more time in my ear like that, I am gonna break that foul mouth of yours."

He seemed startled by my sudden threat, his expression shifting to a mixture of surprise and increased anger. However, before he could prepare a response, a warning shot from a guard's rifle rang out, leaving me momentarily bewildered

'That guy sure is excessive. Shooting at some inmates just because of a small argument.'

To prevent the situation from escalating into a wave of summary executions for all of us, I took a step back, choosing not to hurt the other man's pride any longer.

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'That guy sure was lucky, next time he dares to shout at me like that taking a finger will be the minimum,' I thought as I imagined the scene, a small smile appearing on my face. But it disappeared quickly when I realized what I was doing.

'Damn these past years changed me for the worse, what would Mother think if she saw me right now,' actually thinking about how she would have reacted if she were still alive. But then I scrapped the thought, remembering that she almost knocked Father out for barely scratching me a little.

'Nah, she probably would've cheered me on, father would've scolded me, I guess.'

As I arrived in the courtyard outside the hallway that connects it to the cellblocks, I made my way to find my designated standing post.

'Ah, there it is, inmate number 53.'

Sometimes it took a while before I could find my place in the row of lines we had to stand every morning in. That was because numbers changed pretty frequently. The prisons are still disorganized and many prisoners are either being relocated to another dungeon of the Isha kingdom, they have died in the mines or a soldier killed them. Yesterday I still had the number 24.

'Those fucking animals. Killing more than 25 people overnight in a prison with just barely 300 inmates is a horrendous crime and they don't even give a single shit,' as I thought this a small chuckle of realization left my mouth.

'Well, why would they. We were deemed enemies by our higher ups after all. And all those little ducklings obediently follow the one with the crown, how sweet.'

A sudden shout interrupted my thoughts, and I realized that everyone had finished gathering outside at their respective spots. Then the usual morning speech commenced.

"Yesterday, we lost 29 pigs to the mines. Oh, how sad it is to see their lives go away. Anyway, thanks to their deaths, you all need to work extra to make up for it. Maybe when you all go to hell, you can punish them for dying first, haha!"

That was the pedagogue assigned to our lovely school. His demeanor in public was almost identical to the one he would show here but no government official really cares about us, so protest against his actions and speeches is nonexistent. I even swore to myself that if I ever got out and learned the way of the sword, he would be the first one I would target.

'Well, his people took away my family's peace, it would only be fair to take him as well,' I thought. A smirk was about to appear on my face, luckily, I managed to hide it as he suddenly looked right at the person next to me. He was angrily glaring at our caretaker, and from the looks of it, his anger seemed more than noticeable. Even if suppressed, mana oozed out of him like a faucet letting out drops of water even after being drained.

'Probably a soldier,' I noticed, as I felt clear pity for the man.

It has been officially announced that the war has ended and Isha has emerged as the clear victor along with its military forces. The United Kingdoms of the Continent of Kreis 'UKCK' were unable to do anything against the illegal annexation of territories and the war crimes that were committed. This was mainly due to their dependency on two countries, Evyne and Aruv. Although the republic of Aruv has a clear stance against war and usually enforces sanctions, their efforts were unsuccessful due to the massive dependency on trade with Isha and the resources within the annexed regions of the kingdom of Evyne. Hence, most countries are against Aruv's suggestion.

Even though the war had officially ended, Evyne's military was still partially active. Numerous militias and independent rebel groups arose against the now-vassal state of Evyne. These groups were mainly led by generals or former navy admirals, and even though they claimed to fight for the liberation of Evyne, nobody really knew what kind of Evyne they aimed for. Besides, their chances were pretty slim, as they were spread all over the country probably without any major contact with each other and diminishing supplies.

"WARDEN!" The director shouted as usual. A man with a black uniform and white mask immediately appeared by the director's side almost like he appeared out of thin air.