The guards stood there looking at the sleeping Caesar with complex eyes for a few minutes before finally one of the guards took a deep breath and tip-toed over towards Caesar.
Sweat streamed down his face as he got closer, his back was already drenched by the time he was a foot away from Caesar.
*gulp*
The guard gulped down his saliva and slowly moved his hand towards Caesar"s shoulder and nudged him… "marshall… your free" The guard cupped his hands in front of his mouth and whispered towards Caesar"s ear.
Caesar squinted his sleepy eyes and slowly raised his upper body, he looked at the guard that was next to him curiously for a second before yawning loudly.
"Yawn"
Caesar wiped the tears that formed under his eyes and slowly stood up, he stretched his limbs and looked at the guards.
"What are you guys staring at?" he asked inquiringly
The guards were at a loss for words for a few seconds before finally one of them got a grip and replied respectively "Marshall, no… Crown Prince, you are being released on the orders of King Crowley"
Hearing the guards refer to him as crown prince made him shiver in discomfort, "refer to me as the marshall please" he said with a dead-pan expression.
The guards looked at him confused for a second before replying loudly "yes, Marshall!"
Caesar nodded in acceptance and started walking out of the prison cell… "my father worked much faster than I expected" he grumbled quietly while walking out of the cell.
After Caesar left the cell the guards just quietly followed behind him. The prison was damp and dark, there was only one walkway. On both sides of the walkway were many different prison cells. remnants of human bones were still in the cells.
Caesar looked at all of this and thought to himself silently "it seems that the guards here don"t clean up their prison cells, at least they put me in a relatively clean one"
*step*
Five pairs of footsteps echoed throughout the prison, Caesar noticed that there were no other prisoners here so he turned around and looked at the guards behind him curiously "where are we? And where are the other prisoners?
The guards had a troubled expression on their face as they explained to Caesar calmly "our prison has 10 levels, the lower the number the further down you need to travel, we are currently at level 0… There is only 1 other prisoner here"
Caesar stroked his chin, "who is the other prisoner?" he asked curiously.
"A dwarf that snuck into this kingdom, when a few of our guards tried stopping him he killed them in a fit of rage. Locke Pheles happened to have been the one that captured him, your grandfather" The guard said respectively and patiently
"Hmmm, take me to him. He sounds interesting" Caesar hummed for a second and said to the guards with a smile.
The guards hesitated for a second before saluting and saying: "as you command marshall!"
They turned back around and entered into an even darker part of the prison, one of the guards lit a torch as they moved deeper inside.
*creak*
The guards opened a large iron gate and led Caesar into a very s.p.a.cious square room, in the middle of the room laid a decently sized cage. Caesar squinted his eyes and saw a small lump under the covers inside the cage.
The guards halted their steps and stood at the iron door "w-we are just going to stay here Marshall… to keep an eye on the surroundings of course" the guards made a quick excuse.
Caesar didn"t pay them much heed and slowly walked towards the huge cage, as Caesar got closer to the cage he could see the lump under the covers visibly move.
*sniff*
*sniff*
"Err, what is that d.a.m.n smell" a very rough and deep voice echoed throughout the square room.
Slowly the covers were pushed from the bed and a 3ft tall muscular looking man waddled out, he had a long red beard and flowing red hair. His facial features were rough and were overall quite ugly.
The dwarf yawned lazily and sat on the ground cross-legged, he started picking his nose with his right hand and started grumbling nonsense…
"Man… where is the ale when you need it, I also want to marry one of those s.e.xy elf women hehe"
"Ahem" Caesar cleared his throat loudly and grabbed the dwarf"s attention.
The dwarf raised his eyes and looked at Caesar…
"Huh, what the f.u.c.k are you?" The dwarf looked at Caesar with confusion whilst picking his nose.
Caesar didn"t mind his rude tone and introduced himself "I am the marshall of the kingdom"
The dwarf looked at Caesar dumbfounded for a while before roaring in laughter "HAHAHA, I KNEW SOONER OR LATER ONE OF MY KIND WOULD INFILTRATE"
The dwarf held his stomach while rolling around laughing, after about 15 seconds of laughter he noticed the confused expressions of the guards and inched closer to the gate.
"OI! You should have told me the humans didn"t know… let me out already"
Caesar stroked his chin in contemplation while looked at the dwarf, "does he know that I am not a human?" thinking to here Caesar looked at the dwarf and put one finger over his lips.
"Shuush" Caesar made a shushing sound and walked closer to the cage, he crouched down so he could be eye level with the dwarf and smiled at him.
A vein popped above the dwarfs right eye, "oi you ain"t tryna mock my height are you?"
This time Caesar chuckled softly and tilted his head at the dwarf "do you want to leave from here?"
The dwarf looked at Caesar as if he was r.e.t.a.r.ded "no s.h.i.t I want to leave here, hurry up and let me out or ima tell those guards over there you ain"t human"
Caesar stood back up and smiled even wider "are you good with making weapons and traveling?"
"Of course I am you dimwit, stop asking me these stupid a.s.s questions and let me out. G.o.d d.a.m.n" The dwarf replied frustrated
"Haha, what is your name dwarf" Caesar calmly asked in spite of the dwarfs frustration.
"They call me stone toe joe, but my friends just call me Joe"
"Okay Joe, I"m going to let you out of here but you have to promise me something"
Caesar paused here and Joe"s expression turned anxious again "what is it? Hurry the h.e.l.l up and tell me"
Caesar opened his lips gently "be my subordinate"
"Haaah, forget it. I"m not going to work under no pretty boy like you" The dwarf let out a long sigh and said angrily.
"Is that so? Well, that is truly unfortunate" Caesar said with a regretful face as he started to slowly step away.
*step*
*step*
With each step Caesar took the more anxious Joe got, once Caesar was halfway towards the iron gate he roared out "WAIT, I-I AGREE ON ONE CONDITION!"
Caesar turned around with an "as expected" smile and asked him "What is the condition?"
"You gotta give me ale, you need to supply me with ale at least once a week," Joe said after thinking for a while.
Caesar stepped back towards the cage and stood in front of Joe, Caesar subtly put a white glove on his right hand and offered a handshake.
"Oi, why the f.u.c.k did you just put a glove on? You calling me dirty?" The dwarf grumbled as he shook hands with Caesar.
Caesar took his hand back and tore off the glove, he tossed it to the ground somewhere and introduced himself again "my friends and family call me Mephes...o...b..t you can refer to me as Caesar"
"Caesar huh, weird name you got there buddy but I like it"
Caesar didn"t respond and put his hand on the lock, he squeezed tightly…
*crack*
The lock crumbled and fell to pieces, the gate slowly swung open and the dwarf looked at Caesar warily… "holy s.h.i.t man, what race are you?"
Caesar just shook his head wryly and led him towards the entrance of the prison, the guards looked at this scene dumbfounded. They couldn"t hear their conversation but they saw Caesar break the lock and open the gate.
Caesar lifted his hand to calm them down "don"t worry, the dwarf that was imprisoned here is no longer. Only my subordinate named Joe is left" Caesar said with a comforting tone towards the guards
The guards looked back and forth between Caesar and the dwarf before finally sighing and saying "as you command marshall"
"You guys can go first, leave us," Caesar said towards the guards.
"Yes, sir" the guards saluted and scrambled out of the prison room.
Caesar started to walk out of the prison room as well, the dwarf followed behind him in silence. "I heard you killed some knights" Caesar broke the silence and directed a question at the dwarf.
"Hmph, do I act like someone that would kill some knights?"
Caesar looked at Joe up and down before finally nodding vertically, "yes"
"Psh, well I didn"t. I was f.u.c.king set up… I made armor and weapons for some rich n.o.ble but they didn"t want to pay so they framed me instead and here I am"
"How long have you been down here?"
"d.a.m.n I don"t know, probably 20 years? I lost track of time a long time ago, dwarfs live a lot longer than humans so I wasn"t too worried about it but d.a.m.n, not having ale for such a long time is making me go insane"
Caesar nodded in comprehension as the dwarf went on…
"Those b.a.s.t.a.r.d guards only gave me two meals a day, there ain"t even any women down here man… I haven"t seen a woman in 20 years" Tears threatened to fall from Joe"s eyes as he said that last sentence.
Caesar chucked, they made it to the surface after walking for about 10 minutes… Once they walked into the sunlight Joe started to run around with his arms spread wide.
"HAHAHA, IM FREE YOU b.a.s.t.a.r.dS" he roared out in laughter
Caesar looked quietly at all of the people with dumbfounded faces looking at him and the dwarf, "it looks as though they were going to try to surprise me when I got out of the prison" he thought to himself
His father Crowley, Ahri, Sebastian, a large number of elves and knights all looked at the dwarf curiously.
*sniff*
*sniff*
Joe"s large nostrils suddenly moved, he abruptly opened his eyes wide and grumbled "I smell women"
He observed all of the people looking at him and his head suddenly stopped and he stared at a beautiful purple-haired woman, saliva started falling out of his mouth as he rushed towards her with open arms… " I"ll treat you well!"
Before he could even take three steps Joe felt a huge force hit his back causing him to crash into the ground, his face went 1 foot deep in the cement. Caesar had placed his right foot on his back while smiling widely to the others.
"Thank you for waiting out here for me, and congratulations my father" Caesar bowed respectively whilst his foot was still pressuring Joe to the ground.
Crowley"s smile was twitching as he asked "who is this?" as he gestured to the dwarf on the ground.
"Ah, this is my friend Joe… We became great friends while in prison together" Caesar said as he slowly lifted his foot from the Joe.
Joe pulled his face from the ground and glared at Caesar "what"s your problem brother, I was just trying to test my luck with the ladies… back in my day, I had lines of women trying to take my hand in marriage.
Caesar looked at Joe with doubt "I"m sure you did, I don"t care if you try to court a lady" Caesar said in a sarcastic tone.
"But…" suddenly Caesar"s voice turned serious and he crouched down to become eye level with Joe.
"If you try to court someone that is mine, then we"ll have problems" Caesar"s voice contained killing intent as he whispered in Joe"s ear.
Joe started sweating profusely "well d.a.m.n, let a brother know first…" Joe mumbled as he started looking for other women in the crowd.
Caesar put his hand on Joe"s shoulder and looked towards his father "Although you are king now, I"m sure there are many problems we need to solve, after all being crowned king isn"t so easy… I suggest we go over it together over dinner father" Caesar smiled while pressuring Joe"s shoulder.
"Ah, y-yes I guess that is a good idea, come lets all head towards the dining room"
Caesar and the rest all started moving towards the palace, the rest of the crowd dispersed leaving only Caesar"s family along with Ahri and Joe. As they were making way to the palace Caesar whispered in Joe"s ear "control yourself, I know you have been in jail for a long time but people won"t take to kindly to a random perverted dwarf… plus I heard that the relations between dwarfs and elves were bad"
Joe nodded his head sadly "I will control myself, anywho… why did you want me to become your subordinate by the way?" Joe quickly changed the subject and asked curiously
Caesar looked up the sky and said in a quiet voice that only him and Joe could hear "after settling things in the kingdom I need to go on an adventure to a very dark place"
Joe"s eyes opened wide as he stuttered "y-you d-don"t mean that place?"
Caesar didn"t answer his question and just continued walking towards the palace.