Chapter 4 – Pride and Dignity

Illias threw the pebble in his hands with every ounce of power he had. The little rock smacked a woman in the forehead, knocking her to the ground.

The lady stood up and ran away in terror.

“That’ll teach you to speak about my brother!”

“He’s gone crazy! Crazy!”

Illias spat on the floor and picked up another pebble, just waiting for someone else stupid, dumb, or naive enough to say something bad about Max. Because Max hadn’t meant any of his words.

He wasn’t stupid.

He wasn’t dumb.

And he wasn’t naive.

He was a little brother to his big brother Max, who had done what all big brothers would do.

Protect their family.

Max stared in awe as he stood in the center of a giant hall of white stone and marble pillars.

Hundreds of peoples sat on the gradually rising seats that surrounded the floor level Max was held at with all eight legionaries surrounding him. People screamed and laughed and cursed and shouted at him, all of them dressed well and much better than any person he had seen except for the noble kids.

If he was being honest, Max hadn’t known there were so many nobles and rich people.

“Focus on the Praetor,” the legionary closest to him said.

Max stopped gawking and turned to look back at the judge before him and it was definitely a judge. The Praetor, as the legionary called him, wore a long white robe with purple lines and insignia demarcating his rank and status for all to see. Only the Emperor’s chosen and assigned wore purple of any kind, much less a full insignia on their chest. Max had only seen something like that once when the Royal Knights marched into the city a few years prior on an official visit to the Marquis.

“Silence!” the Praetor shouted, a wave of power washed the entire gathering hall.

Max was forced a step back into the legionary behind him.

He took a deep breath.

Survey the area, Max. You need to do better so they don’t surprise you with anything.

Max started on the far left and worked right. Slowly watching everyone and their reactions as they settled down. He tilted his head… The nobles, they were excited? They whispered to each other like the people surrounding the illegal dog fighting pits did. Were they happy to see him potentially dying?

He frowned.

Then he started to notice a few old men that did not belong. He dismissed the first two, but by the sixth one, they stood out to him.

“We have before us a dastardly kind!” the Praetor shouted. “A monster in human skin!”

“What? I’m not a monster–”

“Silence!”

A wave of energy threw Max off his feet. A legionary quickly picked him up without saying anything.

“The damned have no right of defence. You will suffer the consequences of your actions. To think someone would…” he paused theatrically. All the nobles leaning in, at the edges of their seats. “To think someone would try to steal a flame based Class Shard! You dare seek more than your birth? You dare attempt to touch upon the domain of your betters, my noble kin?”

Max felt boiling hot fire surge up his chest in the form of incredulous anger.

His betters?

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it’s taken without the author’s consent. Report it.

More than his birth?

What right do these bastards have to choose for me? I refuse to fall into this bullshit! I don’t care what they say or how they say it!

“Look at him, stare into eyes that have no mercy. Filled with malice and hate!” The Praetor shouted.

Max couldn’t hold it back anymore.

“I’m going to be someone whether you like it or not! You don’t decide my fate!”

“But I do! I decide your punishment and what your future holds, demon spawn. You’ve sealed your destiny with your outburst!”

The crowd roared in a chant.

Max struggled to make it out for the first few iterations until the masses finally got into sync and the word made itself clear.

“Death!”

“Death!”

“Death!”

Screw them and everyone in this forsaken building! Screw the guards! Screw the judge! Screw the Marquis too! They want entertainment? That’s it? They would execute me for just a moment of pleasure and joy? Screw the nobles too!

“You hear that, demon spawn?” The Praetor stood up with a smile, clean shaven. “They want your death and I concur,” he picked up his gavel and slammed it onto the table. “I, Praetor Augustus Justinus of the Grand City of Alba Marmore here by decree, with all power vested in me by the Emperor, may he be blessed with another five hundred years of glory… I decree death for the demon spawn!”