Emperors War

He had lost track of the days, but his internal clock was telling him it had to be at least a few months since he was taken and locked away. He was thrown in this hole with no light, given a single meal a day without anyone telling him when they would let him out.

If they wanted him dead, why didn"t they just kill him right away?

At first, he thought they were trying to ransom him off for money. Sure, he got caught trying to poison that brat Aker, but so what? Didn"t that little ungrateful trash come in and steal from him first? Wasn"t everything the fault of that trash, wasn"t he really the victim here? Why wouldn"t he try and get revenge on someone who had so clearly stole everything from him?

But after a few weeks there was no discussion of ransom. There was no move to get his hair, fingers or anything else for proof of life. There was simply no indication that they had any intentions of trying to collect a ransom.

So, then what were they keeping him locked up for? Why did they keep him alive taking care of his needs, even having the doctor come by and check his vitals to make sure he wasn"t malnourished and at risk?

After he realized that they weren"t trying to ransom him off the thought that they were trying to teach him a lesson filled his mind for the next month or two. He would sit and ponder asking himself "what did I do wrong that they are trying to teach me a lesson?".

After considerable thought he couldn"t figure out where he had made a mistake. He had tried to poison Aker, sure that was true. Aker is trash so poisoning him shouldn"t matter, someone who interferes with him should die.

He had tried to poison Aker with Limon powder in the kitchen. It was simply a brilliant plan wherein he walked up to Aker apologized and asked for his guidance. Since most of the other apprentices kept clear of Aker, when he walked up Aker stopped and paid attention to him. He could see that Aker was slightly joyful that someone in the kitchen would actually come and talk and exchange ideas with him.

While Aker was showing him a trick he said he had learned from some planet called earth which admittedly he had never seen before, he took the opportunity to sprinkle Limon powder on Aker"s food.

Limon powder was tasteless and odorless and was impossible to detect after it had integrated with the ingredient. Now that he had put the powder on one of the ingredients there was no hope for Aker.

Limon powder worked by slowing the brain synapses communication with the body. When someone tried to move, they still could it would just be delayed. They could still see and process information at the same speed as normal they just couldn"t move their body the way they wanted. Due to the delayed synopsis it stopped the brain from being able to use any form of communication. Essentially a person could walk and move albeit with great difficulty but couldn"t tell anyone they had been poisoned.

This was an entirely different poison from say Timeless, as that poison worked by slowing down all brain function and creating the sensation to the brain that every second could be hours, days, or more depending on the strength of the poison.

It was the perfect plan to kill Aker. Aker would still be forced out into the arena wherein he would have to fight some magic beast, but because of the Limon powder he wouldn"t be able to fight back at all. Aker would be shredded to pieces even unable to scream.

Aker who had been subjected to death everyday wasn"t capable of catching the sinister glint in his eyes as they spoke. Aker had faced life and death daily, but he had never faced the greed and envy of man in this capacity. Aker had never learned the extremes that people would go through because of their jealousy and desires.

This wasn"t Aker"s fault as Vance had been protecting him from this the entire time he had been in The Pit. Perhaps it was in Aker"s best interest to not mention the a.s.sa.s.sins or the reciprocal was true, and Aker was missing out on vital lessons he needed to learn. The possibility existed that he would struggle for an extended period after finding out about the a.s.sa.s.sins, however there was every reason to believe that he would overcome it just as he did every other obstacle that was put in his path. Was it that Vance didn"t trust Aker to be strong enough to accept it and overcome it? No....it was that Vance had grown to care for Aker too much and didn"t want him to face those hurdles.

It was the normal practice to send the next generation to war beginning at the age of twelve for tempering in the well-established families. Admittedly when the next generation entered the battlefield it was under the guidance and protection of the elders, so the risk was minimized, but that didn"t stop them from developing the mindset they needed. Aker missed out on an opportunity to temper his mind even further under the direst of situations, it was a mistake to shelter Aker to such a degree that after this incident Vance would acknowledge that he needed to correct as much as it hurt him.

Leaving Aker"s reject station, he thought he had successfully poisoned him and was giddy with excitement. He had never been to the arena fights despite working in the kitchen at The Pit"s, but today he was going to watch and see how Aker died.

When he got back to his station there was another apprentice waiting for him. The apprentice informed him that the head chef wanted to see him. His excitement was further enhanced upon news from this apprentice, he thought that Sampson had come to his senses, when fortune came it would be a flood.

He was going to kill the trash that humiliated him during the annual advancement test and Sampson was now getting ready to acknowledge him and his cooking.

He was all smiles as he walked out of the kitchen and towards Sampson"s office, his future was now brighter than ever.

"What did the Executive want with that apprentice" the curious Novice Cook asked the apprentice who delivered the message.

"I don"t know, someone else asked me to let the short and stubby apprentice know that the Executive Chef wanted to see him. I looked around the kitchen and he was the only one who fit the description, so I told him. I think his name was Amber or Aster, it was something like that. I quite paying attention to him after the Executive Chef called his cooking garbage." The apprentice who delivered the message to Alfred looked up and into the sky as if though trying to pull a memory out. At one point the apprentice he was just talking to had a bright future in the culinary world, but he destroyed it and became irrelevant. At the point he became irrelevant was there any reason to remember his name?

"How could you forget, his name was Alfonso, at one time he had reached all the way to a Level 2 apprentice....or was it Level 3? How could you forget his name of all people, he was the one who stupidly tried to challenge Senior Aker....hahahahahaha...remembering back to him thinking that he could compete with him makes me laugh every time... Sometimes when I"m stuck and it feels hopeless, I always say to myself "Well at least I"m not Alfonso", that"s how I could remember his name you know. I"m not the only one who does that, it somehow works to know that no matter how bad it is, there is someone out there who has it worse than you....hahahahahaha...every time I can"t help but laugh when I think about it." The Novice Cook was departing wisdom to this apprentice, who upon hearing the words shook his head up and down realizing that it was good advice.

"Well at least I"m not Alfonso, Senior thanks so much for the great advice. In the future if everything is going wrong I"ll catch my breath and remind myself of that."

Alfred who forever wanted to be remembered in the culinary world would become the mantra of all culinary experts in the future when they needed to calm down and put everything in perspective, unfortunately he had fell so far from relevancy that even his remembered name would be wrong.

Alfred who had been instructed to meet with Sampson walked to the back of the kitchen and down the hallway that led to Sampson"s office. Sampson as the Executive Chef had a ma.s.sive private office which of course was filled with only the most sophisticated furniture and art.

As Alfred knocked on the door and was invited in, he felt a thump to his head as soon as he walked through the doorway which caused him to lose consciousness.

"Did you hear me! Do you understand how important I am? I come from a family with a long line of Advanced Novice Cooks, we own restaurants and businesses on ten different planets in two different Solar Systems. My family is not one you can afford to mess with. It"s not just my family, I"m also important to the Executive Chef at The Pit the famous Sampson. He had once told me my cooking was almost art and not only that but when you abducted me, he was just getting ready to promote me. Once he knows what you have done to me it will be over for you. Just let me go and we can forget about all of this." Alfred"s voice was no longer shaky and scared as he spoke about his family and Sampson coming to his rescue, he was waiting for the aura of fear to permeate into the cell from whoever had taken him hostage.

This entire time he had not heard or seen the people who had taken him, he only knew that a doctor would check on him every now and then to make sure he was fine. Other than the interaction with the doctor who didn"t talk and seemed lifeless, he knew nothing. He was living in h.e.l.l, a fiendish torture of sensory deprivation for months. There was no light, no talking, he was just left in the dark to his own thoughts.

"Listen here little boy, there is no one who wants to save you. I had felt it beneath me to speak with such a peasant, however I wouldn"t want such hideous words to be left in the universe unchallenged....." Sampson couldn"t take it anymore and had to respond to this uncivilized and vulgar beast. He dares speak such dastardly words into existence? He, Sampson, the beautiful creator of art that has enthralled countless people wanted this pathetic excuse for a cook to be his apprentice? Sampson would sooner commit hari kari than acknowledge this speck as his apprentice.

"Your parents had already sent a letter disavowing you, they didn"t want such a trash failure to be a.s.sociated with them for fear it would affect their business and name. As for me and whether I would accept you as an apprentice....hehe...hehe.....boy I don"t even know your name, and before you try and tell me, forget about it as I don"t care and won"t listen. Your existence itself is meaningless to me the moment you did something as barbaric as trying to poison someone. To think you would desecrate the sanct.i.ty that is food with poison in my kitchen! If I didn"t need you, I would have already killed you."

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Sampson"s heartless and sanctimonious voice filled Alfred"s ears; only now did he truly understand how hopeless his situation was. A moment ago, he was threatening his unknown perpetrator with his family and his would be master.

Within seconds he found out that his family had disavowed him and that he was threatening his would be master with himself.

"What do I do? What do I do? Should I beg? I don"t believe he would yield to any type of begging based on his earlier outburst. Maybe he"s lying about my family disavowing me? That shouldn"t be right, after the humiliation I suffered it should be there is a high chance that they acted without hesitation. I have no support so there is no chance of threatening, even if I still had my families backing it wouldn"t matter to Chef Sampson. Why did it have to be him? I know I"ll apologize, once he sees me apologize, I"ll promise to follow him. I"ll learn everything he knows; I"ll listen and obey his every command, and then some day when I"m strong enough I"ll get my revenge on him for locking me up like a dog."

Nodding his head after affirming his next action Alfred lowered his head and spoke with a tinge of regret in his voice "Chef Sampson I apologize for using poison in your kitchen. I know that I was wrong and promise to never use poison on any dish ever again."

After apologized he felt he had nailed that apology. Of course, he didn"t care about using poison on food, he would do what he had to do, however, he needed Sampson to believe he meant it and after reviewing his apology he was pleased with his performance.

"Good little boy, I"m happy to hear that you understand the error of your ways. It should be that the heavens will be more inclined to bless you in the next life for realizing your mistake. It pained this one"s heart to think about you facing your death while still not aware of the serious crime you committed against the highest of powers."

Alfred suddenly shook as he heard Sampson"s words, his mind went blank and his previously smug thoughts were filled with anguish.

"Wh..whaaat doo you me.....mean in myyyy next liffe?" Alfred stuttered through his words, his heart racing, fear overwhelming his ability to think.

"What is there to explain little boy? Why did you believe you were being held down here, hidden away from the world? Did you somehow think that you weren"t going to die? Hahaha....hahahahaha.... I thought only that Little Boy could make me laugh in this world, to think there would be a second person. A moment ago, I was under the impression that you were apologizing for desecrating the beauty that is cooking as your final confession of which I was prepared to accept. To think even a Neanderthal would be so ignorant as to believe they would be able to walk away after all of the trouble we have gone through."

As Alfred heard Sampson"s words tears and snot began flowing down his face. Initially it began slowly but as Sampson spoke the trickle of snot and tears turned into a flood as sobs emanated from the dark cell that Sampson was hidden in.

Each step Sampson took was to the rhythm of "No this can"t be real" "No this can"t be real" "No this can"t be real".

"Go give him the poison, put the mask on him and throw him in the prison cell."

Sampson spoke to Baker who had been keeping an eye on Aker. It was him who had discovered that Alfred had attempted to poison Aker and it was him that informed Sampson and took the poisoned dish away from Aker claiming he wanted to study it.

When Baker asked to take the dish away that Aker had made with the poisoned ingredients he agreed immediately, Aker had grown rather fond of this bearded cook.

Sampson and the group had been racking their brains trying to figure out who they could get to play the part they needed and when Sampson heard about Alfred"s move he didn"t hesitate as he knew he had found the person they were looking for.