Royal Blood: Chapter 4 (Patreon)

I’m starting a new story called Royal Blood! Here are the first Patreon chapters! If you enjoy it, swing by the story page on Royal Road and drop a rating? It helps a lot!

Chapter 4: Blood and Grit

They tell you getting knocked out was different from falling asleep. Guess now I knew why. The sharp cut between then and now made me jolt as I woke up.

A pair of hands caught me around the shoulders before I could so much as open my eyes. I was forced back down. I groaned, a headache pounding between my temples like a bowling ball.

“He’s waking up, boss!”

“That’s why I told you idiots to bring the knockout gas.” A pair of rough boots came into my vision. “Garrotes, honestly. This little piggie even woke up slower than usual.”

The pair of hands hauled me into a sitting position as my eyes blinked open. In front of me was a new person. He wasn’t wearing the same cloak and mask as everyone else; instead, he had an open, high-collared coat. My eyes tracked up the knot of scarring at the base of his throat, and the cold, dead eyes set above it.

The moment I saw his face, I realized that I wasn’t getting out of here alive.

“So, you’re the low-tier prince everyone’s been blabbering about?” His hand snaked out, catching my chin in a vice-like grip. I struggled, but I might as well have been caught in a steel trap. The difference in our strength attributes was too high. The man turned to the side and spat. “You all should have grabbed a fucking rose. Would have been worth more.”

He shoved me backwards, and the man holding me let me hit the ground. I massaged my jaw, realizing that I wasn’t even bound.

Though, if they were racing against me waking up, maybe they wouldn’t have had the time. There wasn’t even a gag over my mouth. A glance around the room revealed why. We weren’t in some back alley or beat-up old house, no. I was in a large basement. The stone beneath me was cut and polished, and there were witchfire torches on the walls, casting the entire room in a bright blue glow.

We were in one of the mansions of the inner city. They might have even come up through the sewers.

“Can’t we still ransom ‘im back, boss?” One of the other toughs asked.

The Boss backhanded him hard across the face. He went flying nearly as fast as I had, crashing into an empty shelf and shattering it. “Keep your damn mouth such, Brance.” The man’s grey eyes burned. “The palace knows your name now. Think it’s so easy to get rid of something like that? Huh? Think it’ll be simple?”

The other two men shared a glance, but said nothing. Slowly, I shifted my legs back underneath me as the man in charge continued to rant. “The augurs have been scrying non-stop since you showed up here!” He pulled a jade pendant out from under his silk shirt. The stone on the end was carved into an intricate, twisting shape, and every few seconds it flickered with green light before fading.

“They’re going twice as hard now that they have your name too, imbecile. And the Imps have Scryers who can cut through every ward in the city. This was supposed to be insurance! Not a necessary part of our escape. Until all three of you failed to kill one little girl.” He kicked Brance again, sending him sprawling across the room. “She didn’t even have her sub-class yet.”

Brance groaned on the ground as the boss stalked away. His features were set into a rictus of cold rage. As he paced, I saw hilts of blades peeking out from underneath his clothes.

“We…got out with something, didn’t we?”

The boss snorted at the other man’s words. “A worthless prince. The castle will sooner kill us all then pay a ransom for this one.” He turned to look at me. “Or am I wrong?”

My sister will pay for me. I bit the words back. She might, but the palace would be on lockdown now. There was no way they’d be able to slip a message through to Elysia, and that would expose them.

“Raxus will see you all hang,” I said instead. “Just stab me and get it over with.”

The man gave a grunt of laughter. “Look who’s such a hard man.” He crouched down in front of me, leaning forward. “What if I don’t want to ‘get it over with’, hmm? I’m a very angry man, and I have lots of time on my hands.”

“Why were you trying to kill my sister?”

He gave me a light slap, it was still enough to make my head spin as I hit the ground.

“You don’t get to ask the questions here, low-tier prince.”

I groaned, pushing myself back to my hands and knees.

For overcoming a painful tribulation you have gained +1 Endurance

+4 exp

Nice, now I only needed that about 25 more times, and I could die a level 4 instead.

“If I’m dead anyway, what does it matter what I do?”

The man snorted, rising. “Hey, Brance. This little brat has more stones than you do.” He turned to where the other man was still lying on the floor. “Get your sorry ass up, you worthless piece of—”

I jumped, hand reaching for the stone around his neck.

A hand closed around my wrist. I grunted as I felt my bones creak.

I reached out with my other hand and—

—I came back to a beat later, sprawled out in a heap against the far wall. I could feel the bruises forming against my back, and the headache had redoubled as something hot and wet ran down my neck. I was bleeding.

“—completely worthless. Even let a level three get the jump on you.” My eyes blinked open just in time to see the Boss shaking his head as he tucked the anti-scrying amulet back beneath his shirt. The silk must have been enchanted, because I couldn’t even make out a ruffle in the fabric after.

I grunted, pushing myself back up into a sitting position.

For perservering on in the face of hopelessness you have gained +1 Endurance

+4 Exp

“Why’d you send them then, if they’re so worthless?”

The man’s eyes tracked back to me. “You know,” he said conversationally, “most people are a bit more careful before drawing my attention.” Still, it looked like the anger had mostly drained out of him, and I was probably dead anyway.

Might as well go out my own way.

“How’s that working out for Brance?”

The man gave another sharp laugh. I was starting to think everything about him was sharp. Case in point, he gave another sharp kick to Brance’s side. It would have been an ideal time to make a break for the door.

Too bad it was on the other side of the room.

The man walked over to me, eyes glinting. “Observe.” I shivered as I felt his skill wash over me. I’d heard that it was possible to defend against Observe, but of course I was at least 20 or 30 levels lower than him, so fat chance of that.

“No quests at all, huh?” The man gave me a sharp grin. “You’re even more fucked than I thought, boy, and you’re looking pretty fucked right now.”

I glared up at him. “What else is new?” I spread my arms. Admittedly, it would probably look a little cooler if I wasn’t a 10 year old, but I wasn’t going to let him walk all over me. “If you’re just gonna say the same shit everyone else has told me for the past ten years, you might as well just cut my throat and save both our times!”

He stared at me for a long moment. “How’d you get to level three, kid?”

“Why do you care?”

I felt an impact in my shoulder. When I looked over, I saw a thin stiletto buried up to the hilt in my arm. It didn’t even hurt until after he yanked it out.

Then it burned.

I grunted, half doubling over. I pressed my other hand against the wound, my tattered shirt already growing damp with blood.

“You’ll answer my questions now, boy, or you’ll die screaming.” His lips split into an even larger smile, showing bright white teeth. “And not today.”

I huffed out a breath, pushing myself up to my feet. The man watched me stagger upright in amusement.

For struggling onward—

Yes I fucking get it, 4 exp. Unless you’re gonna bail me out, you can shut the fuck up.

I took a moment to catch my breath, before glaring up at the man. “I worked for it. Every single experience point.”

He folded his arms. “Your stat totals are a bit inflated, but not that much.”

I shook my head. “I haven’t spent any points.”

He frowned, eyes glinting again. This time I managed to hold back my shiver as he activated his skill. “20 unspent points…” I met his eyes as he looked over me in a new light. “Your family didn’t buy a single monster from the frontier for you to kill?” He seemed a bit incredulous now. “Didn’t finance a single expedition to the Southern Continent?”

I shrugged. “Like you said, I’m worthless.” Killing things did give Exp, but there were precious few monsters these days, for a whole host of reasons. While it wouldn’t have beggared the imperial family by any means to get me to level twenty, it would have cost a great deal of coin and influence. And for what? A useless prince who would never grow stronger on his own?

I understood the cold calculus of my father’s decision. The image of the Royal family mattered more to him than a single son, no matter my mother’s entreaties. Better I be weak and out of sight. That this man had heard of me at all meant something, but my head hurt to much to piece it together.

The boss stared at me for a moment more, before he came to a decision.

“Grab that sack of shit and bring him over here.” At his words, the other two thugs leapt to comply, dragging Brance over in front of me. They held his arms fully extended, pressing him chest down against the cold stone floor.

The man looked at his subordinate. “You know, it’s not even really your fault they got your name.” His gaze tracked to another of the men, who quailed. “But it was your fault for missing the throw. And I have no use for assassins that can’t hit a target.”

Then he turned to me. “How much do you know about scrying?”

I blinked at the non-sequitur, but with the wound still throbbing in my arm, I hastened to reply. “It…is used to locate people and objects. The level of familiarity you have with the target increases its effectiveness.”

“Familiarity like, say, a name.” The man grinned. “Thing about names is, they go away when you die. After that, you’re just a corpse.” At that, Brance finally started to struggle, thrashing against the two men who held him. The boss continued. “But you…low-tier prince or not, everyone in the Palace is familiar with you. They probably have years of mementos or even actual memories to choose from as a focus. I could burn your bones to cinder and cast the ashes into the Kandrel, and the Royal Augury would still be able to track down every single grain.”

I couldn’t help myself, I shivered at the image.

“So really, we’d be carrying you out of here underneath a ward anway.” The man shrugged. “Brance isn’t so lucky. They just have his name, and I don’t put up with dead weight.”

I swallowed. It would take an idiot to miss where this was going.

“So, I give you two less things to carry, and you let me walk out of this room.”

The man chuckled, face splitting into that white grin. “Got it in one.” He reached into his coat, pulling out the same stiletto he’d stabbed me with, still slick with my blood.

I looked at the knife. “Why?”

He flipped the weapon over, presenting it to me hilt first. “Stay alive long enough, and you might find out.”

Brance continued thrashing on the floor as I took the weapon. It was…an easy choice, even for someone raised on Earth. What was I supposed to do? Refuse? Die as well? For what?

I brought the knife down on the back of his neck. Once, twice, three times, fo—

You have slain Brance Athson (lvl 25)

2,500 exp awarded

You have reached level 4!

Error! Double Level Overflow detected, remaining exp lost

Current exp less than 10% of next level threshold

Current exp preserved instead

10 Stat points awarded

And that was why I couldn’t just kill monsters. There weren’t enough monsters in all of Norvusk for me to reach Elysia’s level with my main class, let alone sub classes. Hell, Brance was nearly ten times my level, and I got a pitiful fraction of the exp I’d normally get, because someone else was holding him down for me.

Then the feeling of his blood on my hands penetrated through the fog of shock clouding my thoughts.

I turned to the side and vomited.