Wait! I'm not a Demigod, I'm a Gamer!

Chapter 35: Dungeon

Everything feels cold. Everything is dark. It should be scary and yet...the hand stroking his hair is calming his nerves. He couldn't see who it was, but he got a familiar feeling that he knew this person. He could feel that he is lying on this mysterious person's lap, and he found this very comfortable. He sighs happily, drawing a deep chuckle from the person. "You awake?" The voice was a bit masculine, reminding him of a person from past life. "C'mon kid, it's time to get up." He simply groans and nuzzles into the person more, refusing to face reality. This action causes the man to laugh softly and to give him a light shake. "I know you want to sleep more, but your friends are waiting for you." Just then he hears more voices softly joining in, rousing him even more from his sleep. Yuuya turns away from the new voices, rubbing his head more into the man's lap. He feels a warm breath over his ear as his hair is being brushed away, "It'll be okay, Sakura. You're not alone." Hearing his old name, his eyes finally open, but unfortunately before he could look up at the mysterious person, everything grows white.
The next thing he feels is dampness and freezing metal. His body is sore unlike the comfort he originally felt earlier. He groans quietly as his senses come back to him one by one. Next, he smells mold and rust surrounding him, making him feel queasy. Not wanting to smell the disgusting scent anymore, he focuses on the next sense: sound. He hears many hushed voices around him, not quite close to him, maybe a few feet from him. "How long do you think we'll be down here?" The question came from a man that Yuuya had some idea that he knew. "I'm not sure, no guards have shown up for a while. Perhaps they are still focusing on the repairs in the capital." A feminine voice answers, one that sounds very familiar to the groggy beast-man. "I'm more worried about him. He's been out for a couple of days now. Any signs Sam?" That was a voice Yuuya knew all too well. "Gunter? Is that him?" He hears some rustling and some chains clinking as someone is moving closer to him. "Nothing...I'm really worried. What if he has a fever? The last time he used so much mana he developed a fever and it was bad! Our village doctor couldn't do anything, imagine what would happen if he developed one down here..." He hears Sam's worried tone, his voice quivering at the end as he thinks back to the time he rescued half the villagers. He hears more rustling and more chains rattling before another voice chimes in, "I'm sure he'll be fine. You used that amulet on him before they took it away. That thing must've done something to help him. He'll wake up soon, don't give up." Yuuya can't help but smile at Damian's confidence despite the underlying worries hidden in his words as he tries to calm his friend. "Oh guys...I'm sorry for making you worry..." Not wanting to upset them any further, he decides to make himself known to group. He opens his eyes before shutting them quickly as he groans loudly at the sudden brightness. The sound draws his friends' attention as they all rush to him. "Yuuya!" "You alright kid!?" "Are you in any pain?" There were too many voices speaking up and it hurt his sensitive ears, he tries to raise his arms up to cover his ears but quickly realizes he couldn't separate his arms easily. He peeks one eye open to avoid another splitting headache and sees his arms bound in metal shackles chained down to a pair of shackles on his ankles and up to a collar around his neck. Question marks pop up above his head before everyone questions him again loudly making him flinch and cover his ears carefully with his bound arms. When they see their friend curling into a ball, they quickly look to the others and shush loudly. "Shhhhhh! Quiet! Can't you see you're upsetting him?" Sam asks as he turns back to Yuuya, waiting for his friend to recover. Anytime someone would try to raise a questions to the beast-man, Damian would send them a death glare that silences them instantly. It took a couple of minutes before Yuuya finally notices the lack of noice. He slowly uncovers his ears and rolls over to look at everyone, finally taking in the scene. He notices he's in a single cell all by himself while everyone was in separate cells. Callian, Ivory, and Brutus were in the cell to his right while the rest of the Solarclouds were in the cell across from them on the other side. Gunter, Sam and Damian were in the cell to his left. There were other adventurers and some civilians that Yuuya recognizes from his regular quest runs in cells across from him. They were all watching him with various looks, some in fear, some in worry, some in interest, some in relief. A couple of bangs gain his attention, he sees his friends leaning in close to the bars as they try to get as close to the beast-man as they could. "Yuuya, Are you okay? How do you feel?" Sam questions worriedly. Yuuya frowns as he sees the states of his friends, they are covered in bruises and dirt, they too are shackled around their wrists and have tight collars on their necks. He slowly gets up, stopping halfway when his vision spins a bit as he tries to gain his balance. Once he felt he had control, he continues to stand to his full height and carefully walks over to them without tripping, the chains rattling as he walks. Everyone watches wearily as he walks over to them, the beast-man not having said a single word. He finally reaches them after what feels like an eternity and raises a hand to their faces, their eyes widen in surprise as they see the concern in his eyes, concern directed at them. "What happened to you guys? Did you get caught in the fight?" His voice was rough from being asleep for a few days, giving his words an added effect that made their faces blush brightly. This makes Yuuya grow more worried as he feels their faces grow hot. "Are you guys okay!? Do you need to lie down?" Gunter laughs at the trio as he watches the entire exchange. "Glad to see you're alright son." Yuuya takes in the ruffled man, sporting the same bruises, if not even more than his friends, and restraints around his neck and wrists. Yuuya frowns and looks between them. "What happened then? Where are we?" He doesn't remove his hands as he looks around at his surroundings, slightly getting exciting as his gaming instincts kick in. "This looks like a dungeon...Cool! An actual authentic dungeon!" He knows he should be more worried, but he cannot help fan girl over the setting. Gunter sighs and crosses his arms, "Welcome to the Royal Dungeon." Yuuya looks over, his questions from earlier coming back. "If we're in the dungeon...why are you all here?" He steps back a bit to look at Callian and the Solarclouds, "Why are you here? You didn't do anything wrong." Callian sighs as Ivory points at him as she asks back, "Why is a beast-man like you doing here in human territory?" A few beats of silence go by before Yuuya gasps loudly as he grasps his ears and looks behind at his tail, groaning inwardly as he realizes what he has done, his secret is out. The Solarclouds nod as Gunter chuckle while Damian sigh in annoyance as Sam watch worriedly. "You dropped your disguise during the fight or did you forget." Yuuya drops to his hands and knees as depression over his stupidity takes over, "I completely forgot..." He rises his head to look at Callian and the others, confusion still in his eyes, "You still didn't answer my question...why are you here?" His face grows pale as a thought comes to mind, "Don't tell me...They're here...because of me...Were they accused of harboring a beast-man from the Royal Guard and were arrested because of it?" He couldn't bear the thought and needed to know the truth before his mind devoured him from the inside. "Were you arrested because of me? Because the Royal Guard found out I was a beast-man..." Callian gives him a sad look, "Yuuya...It's not your fault-" Yuuya whimpers as tears form in his eyes, he can hear it in his tone. That tone parents use when kids make a mess when they were simply trying to help or were just having some fun, the kind that even though the parent still loves their child they still need to teach them what they did wrong. He has heard this tone many times in his previous life from his older siblings, mainly from Ren, and has dreaded all the time while trying to avoid from hearing it ever again before he died as Sakura to now. He couldn't bear to hear the rest and curled into ball as the tears fall, he didn't even realize he was sprouting out a string of apologies. He couldn't help it, his past life instincts kicking in as he hugs himself. "Yuu..a...Hey...It's...ya...okay...think...panic..." He couldn't make out the words as his breathing started to pick up, making it hard to breathe, "Ren...help me..." *Bang!* The sound instantly stops his apologies. "Yuuya." He hears someone, but doesn't make a move. "Yuuya look at me." He still doesn't move, his body shaking as guilt eats at his core. *Bang!* The sound makes him jump, a whimper escapes his lips. "Sir! What are you doing? You're scaring him!" "He needs to focus on something in the present not whatever is occurring in his mind." "Do you have to bang on the bars?" "It's the only thing that can gain his attention right now." He can faintly hear the conversation, still having a hard time focusing on who was talking. "Yuuya, can you please look at us?" He curls further into himself, he still couldn't help feeling shame. *Bang!* This time he can't help letting out a yelp. "Sir! That's enough!" "I'll stop when he starts talking again." He feels a warm hand on his back, making him jump a bit. "Yuuya, it's okay. Shhh." The hand gently rubs calming circles on his back as the voice whispers comforting words, slowly bringing him back to the present. "It's okay, Yuuya. Everything is alright." He can finally focus on the warm voice, registering the captain of Solarclouds. The shy beast-man carefully turns his head to look behind him and sees Callian was the one rubbing his back as he smiles gently at him, happy to finally gain his attention. "Hey, Yuuya. You feeling better?" Yuuya sheepishly nods and scoots closer to the man, wanting to keep the physical contact going a little longer as he sits up, wiping the tears away. With his vision clear, Yuuya looks up and sees everyone watching him closely with concern in their eyes. It was then, Yuuya sees Gunter holding a rock the same size of his fist close to the bars, allowing him to figure out where the loud noise was coming from. "Yuuya." He snaps his head hearing his name, staring wide eyed at the other captain. "Are you okay now?" Yuuya blinks before nodding slowly, silently happy the man hadn't removed his hand yet even though it must be rather uncomfortable in this position since he too was in chains. "Good. Now, let me explain. We were arrested for defending you. They were trying to kill you." Yuuya's ears were slowly folding down before springing back up at the mention of his close death. Seeing him surprise, Callian continues, "The Commander was about to spilt your skull open when Sam and Damian came to your rescue, knocked the guy off his feet. The other knights were about to surround them, but then we came to help them. I rather choose my friend over them any day, even if they are a beast-man." Yuuya can't help but fidget with his hands as he avoids eye contact. "Sorry for not telling you..." The hand on his back resumes its gentle massage as Callian speaks, "Hey you had every right to hide your identity. In all honesty, and I'm ashamed to say this, but if I had first met you as you are now, I'd probably attacked you..." Yuuya looks up through his lashes, still afraid to receive some sort of lashing, but only finds Callian's eyes filled with shame as he looks down. "Remember I told you stories about my friend, Reed?" Yuuya nods, idly remembering the man telling him of his childhood friend, and not liking where this was going. Callian continues, "Well...ten years ago, we got separated from our families during a beast-men attack. We managed to keep evading them for a while until I...twisted my ankle..." Flashes of the memory cross his mind as he recalls the event, the pain in his heart coming in waves. "I couldn't walk and the beast-men were closing in on us...Reed pushed me into a tree stump, told me to stay low until help arrived, and then...he was gone." Callian remembers the fear of being in that stump, whimpering out quietly to his friend, not wanting to be spotted but also wanted his friend by his side again. "I don't know how long I was in that stump, but I didn't want to wait for help, not with my friend out there. So...I crawled out and went looking for him. It took me so long to find him, but by the time I did...the beast-men had already surrounded him." Yuuya stares at Callian with worry and carefully moves closer to him without dislodging his hand that is still on his back that has gone motionless when he started talking about Reed. "Even though he was outnumbered, outmatched, practically out everything...he was grinning." Callian is no longer in the Royal Dungeon as captain of the Solarclouds, he's back as that child, clutching his leg as it burns while tears stream down his face, staring in horror as several beast-men circle another child around his age with vibrant brown hair pulled into a ponytail. Despite the grim situation he was in, the child smirks and lifts his head up, showing off his bright cognac eyes. "I don't care how many of you are there, I'm not backing down!" A few of the beast-men laugh mockingly at the young man while the rest grumble in irritation. "Seems like this kid needs to be taught a lesson!" "I say we slice into his flesh before we eat him!" There were cheers as the young man grips his sword tighter, unknowing that young Callian was watching a few feet away. "No, please Goddess..." The young child pleads desperately as he could do nothing to help his poor friend. His friend simply smiles and raises his sword while speaking one last time before he is swarmed, "I will never let you hurt my friend..." A warm hand on his cheek brings him back to reality, back to the present, back to the Royal Dungeon. He sees Yuuya's worried face, his ears had folded down, a clear sign of how concern the beast-man is for his friend. He hadn't realized he was crying until he felt Yuuya gently brush the tears away with his fingertips. Callian smiles as he softly grasps his hand and holds it in place while he continues, "He fought them with a cheap sword and with low magic spells...with everything he had...to protect me...and I couldn't do anything but watch." He rubs Yuuya's hand with his thumb, finding the pain in his heart starting to fade piece by piece, "Since that day, I have grown to distrust beast-men as many other people have, but then I met you." Yuuya's ears stand up tall suddenly, his eyes widening as he waits for the man to continue. "Yes, you did look human to us, but you helped us. You did so much for everyone here." He raises his free hand up to motion all the people locked up with them. "You provided us your supplies, your aid, your comfort, your time, even your life! Yuuya, no one has done has much as you had. We owe you so much and I am proud to call you my friend." He curls his hand into a fist and places it over his chest, "And I would gladly stand by your side over those guards any day, even if it means being thrown into the dungeon." Yuuya's ears flatten against his head again as he looks around and asks in a low voice, "Is...everyone here...because of me?" Callian sweats as he tries to answer the beast-man's question without sending him off into another panic attack. "Uh uh well you see um the thing is uh-" Ivory and Brutus sigh in annoyance as they watch their captain stumble over his words, his earlier confidence long gone. "Captain, this is why you need to learn when to stop talking." Ivory lectures as Brutus sits next to the flustered man, "What our clumsy captain is trying to say is, we chose to stand by your side and get arrested. We knew full well of the consequences." Yuuya opens his mouth to argue, but the man holds up his hand to signal him not to, "Please allow me to finish." Yuuya closes his mouth slowly and nods, allowing him to continue, "We knew we would be sent to the dungeon, but you have done more for us. You have changed our lives for the better, hell, you nearly died fighting the Sacred Beast to protect us!" Brutus holds out his hand to Yuuya with a warm smile, "How could we not defend you?" Yuuya looks up at him and slowly takes his hand, warmth filling his heart. Ivory sits on the other side of Callian as she huffs, "Even though it was a shock seeing you sprout out a pair of furry ears and a bushy tail...seeing you struggle to keep everyone safe and saving us, made it hard to fear you, rather we were worried about you." She slides her hand through the bars and places it on his hand, careful of his ears, and rubs his hair gently. "Thank you for saving us, without you we might have lost two of our members and many more." Yuuya's cheeks darken as he tries to form a sentence, "B-b-but what-what about everyone else here?" Gunter clears his throat to gain his attention, accidentally dislodging Ivory's hand off his head and letting go of Callian's face and Brutus's hand. When he got the beast-man's attention, Gunter explains, "When we were arrested, the Royal guards escorted us straight to the castle through the streets. Everyone saw us...and you." Yuuya's face grows pale as he points to his ears, "A-and th-they saw my-" "Yup." The Guildmaster cuts him off his sigh. Yuuya hides his face in his hands as he thinks, "Craaaaap..." Gunter continues as he ignores Yuuya's inner dilemma, "Everyone was freaked out by your appearance, but then a few people questioned why we were in chains, some of them were old clients of the guild. One of the guards made the mistake of explaining the charges, ha! Shit got crazy from there." Yuuya looks up from his hands as Gunter swings the chains a bit in boredom, daydreaming about the day's events with a smile. Sam continues, "It was a surprise really. People tried to get the guards to remove the chains and drop the charges since we had saved people from the Sacred Beast attack. Some of the residents even got violent..." Damian jumps in with an eye roll, "Hence why there are so many people here. It's not just because of you Yuuya. They're here because they were either too dumb to pick a fight with the Royal guards-" Several people shout out their disagreements at the ombré haired man as he simply flips them off while continuing, "or they were too loyal to the guild and to the adventurers to watch us get arrested. Plus, you did heal a lot of the wounded, you saved many of these people's loved ones. Pretty sure they'll choose to help us rather than go with the Royal guard on this matter." Yuuya looks down for a minute to think before looking back with determined eyes as he inches to the bars across from him. He grasps the cold metal as he stares at the many people that are chained in the same matter as his friends. He takes a deep breath before speaking, "Thank you and...I'm sorry. I appreciate you sticking by our sides, I promise to get you all out of this mess somehow. This is all my fault..." Yuuya looks down as he stares at his reflection in a puddle below him, his ears twitching slightly as he thinks, "Maybe it would've been better if I had just come out to everyone that I was a beast-man in the beginning...or if I had just made Yuuya a human instead..." Yuuya shakes his head at that last part and slaps his cheeks, "What the hell am I thinking!? That would indicate that I would know I was gonna die, much less gonna get transported in some fantasy world in the body of my avatar! God I'm such an idiot..."
Seeing the beast-man injuring himself, which is slightly disturbing the pair, Sam and Damian call out to Yuuya to further assess their friend's health. "Yuuya, how do you feel? Does your leg hurt? Do you have a fever?" Sam questions worriedly as he tries to press closer to the bars. "Do you feel dizzy? Hungry?" Damian asks, trying to get to Yuuya through the bars as well with no success. Yuuya looks up at them and moves over to them, getting as close to them as the bars would allow. "I'm okay, a bit sore, but other than that I'm fine. I am bit hungry, how long was I out for?" Sam reaching out through the bars to feel Yuuya's forehead, feeling warmth but no sign of a fever. "A couple of days thankfully, but still. We saw and heard the Sacred Beast biting down on your leg." Yuuya winces at the memory and looks down at his leg, his pant leg still torn from the injury but the wound long gone from when he healed it. "Yeah that wasn't great, that hurt a lot. Thought she was gonna tear it off." Yuuya snaps his head back up and frowns at his friends' injuries, the bruises still bothering the beast-man. "What happened to you guys?" Damian and Sam look away as Gunter snorts in mild amusement, "Like Callian said earlier, these two knocked the commander on his ass when he tried to cut your head off. Picked a fight with anyone that dared got too close to you." Yuuya frowns and holds his hands up to cup each of their cheeks, making them blush lightly. Yuuya focuses on his light magic and brings his mana to his hands as he thinks, "Heal." Nothing happens, confusing the beast-man. Yuuya pours more mana into his hands to activate his light magic, but still nothing happens. He grunts in effort as he tries harder, making his friends realize what he was trying to do. "Yuuya stop!" "It's not gonna work." His friends plead as they each hold his hand as Yuuya pants a bit in exhaustion. He slumps forward as he tries to catch his breath, "What the-why isn't my magic working?" As if hearing his thoughts, Gunter moves closer to the group to point to the collar around his neck, "The collar around your neck is a mana suppressor, it stops your magic from forming by disconnecting your flow of mana. We all have one." Yuuya looks around and sees everyone wearing the exact same collar as him, making him frown. "This is annoying! Screw this, if this thing stops magic then it can't stop skills." Yuuya grips the collar around his neck and starts to pull, the metal creaking under the pressure. Everyone in the cells adjacent to his can hear the sound and jump in surprise. "Wait Yuuya! What are you doing?" "How is this possible?" "Stop!" The collar breaks as Yuuya snaps it open, allowing him to sigh in relief as he feels his mana flow freely once more. "Much better." He opens his eyes and sees everyone with their jaws dropped, he tilts his head in confusion and asks, "What?" Sam and Damian are the first to explode, "What!? Did you seriously just say what!?" "How the fuck did you do that just now!?" Gunter leans over and looks at the broken collar, seeing no sign that the collar was ever weaken from use before. "This is very strange..." He idly comments as some of the Solarclouds members shout out, "Strange!? This is impossible!? No beast-men has ever removed those collars with pure strength before! They're made from duranium, that's the strongest metal in the world!" Yuuya sweat drops as he gingerly picks up the pieces while thinking, "If they're this freaked out over me breaking it, wait until they see me fix it..." Yuuya puts the pieces down before he moves back over to his original spot to cup his friends's cheeks, instantly silencing them. Yuuya smiles at them as he focuses on summoning his light magic once more while thinking, "Heal." Thankfully, a white light emits from his hands and lights up his friends' faces, their cuts and bruises disappearing in mere seconds. This stuns everyone in the dungeon, having never seen a beast-man perform light magic before. With their wounds taken care of, Yuuya claps his hands in a prayer position and stretches his arms out while saying, "Area Heal." A wave of white light stretches out and hits everyone, their bruises and wounds disappearing in an instant. Everyone gasp as they inspect their bodies, until a loud crash is heard as if a large metal door is being opened. "What the hell was that?" "Don't know, let's check it out." The group grow pale as they stare at the broken collar by Yuuya's side. "Fuck...Yuuya! Hide it!"  Yuuya snaps his head up, having to take a moment to collect himself, and grabs the collar. "One sec." Damian leans over to the side and sees a couple of guards slowly walking their way over to them. "Fuck! We don't have time, Yuuya just-" Another light cuts the ombré haired man off as Yuuya uses his light magic to repair the collar and quickly clicks it back on. Not wanting to deal with the guards just yet, Yuuya lies back down and pretends to be asleep. The group just stares at the prone beast-man, questioning what they had just witnessed. "What the fuck did he just do?" Damian whispers just before the guards reach their cells. They immediately cease their chatter and glare at the guards. The guards pay them no mind as they move over to Yuuya's cell, staring in fear as Yuuya continues to lay on the ground, trying to pretend he was asleep. One guard pulls a ring of keys from his hip and uses a key to unlock the cell. They carefully enter the cell and walk over to Yuuya, not noticing the beast-man was awake. "This is dangerous, we should just leave." The guard closest to the cell door states worriedly, eyeing his partner as he leans down. "Oh relax, this thing has been out cold for a while now. Doubt he'll get up now." Damian growls at the guard and bangs on the bars, "Don't you dare call him a thing." He threatens darkly. The guard simply laughs at his warning and continues to observe the beast-man closely, "Or what? You gonna burn me? You ain't got your fire magic anymore kid." The other guard started to get restless, "C'mon man let's just go. There's nothing here. He's still sleeping, that was probably just our imagination." The guard starts to poke Yuuya, almost like he was trying to get a reaction out of the beast-man, "Whatever. I want to know how this thing managed to beat a Scared Beast. I heard this thing can use several magic types and has magical items and yet the mages at the Magic Tower haven't figured out how he did that or how the magical items works." The more he pokes, the more Yuuya wants to laugh and roll away, having to use every strength in his body not to move. The other guard had had enough and quickly pulls his companion out by his neck, "I don't care, let's just go. I don't want to be here when he wakes up. I hear beast-man have an insatiable appetite and will even eat humans if they're hungry enough." The pair quickly lock up the cell and leave the dungeon in the same fashion, not looking back once. Once the coast was clear, everyone lets out a sigh of relief. Gunter leans over and says, "They're gone kid." Yuuya spasms for a bit as he tries to get the feeling of the guard's poking out of his system. "Oh thank god! I thought he was never gonna leave." The group laugh at the ridiculous scene as they wait patiently for the beast-man to be done. Once he has settled, Ivory asks, "Yuuya how did you fix the collar?" Yuuya blinks for a second before he begins, "Oh! I used light magic to piece the collar back together. I basically rewinded time to a point where the collar was in one piece and in working condition." Ivory stares in awe at his exclamation, more question marks pop up above her head. "But I don't understand-" "So, you're awake." A chilling voice cuts her off as everyone tenses up, knowing full well who that voice belonged to. Yuuya looks up and gulps nervously as he sees the Commander of the Royal Guards right in front of his cell suddenly appear in cloud of black smoke.
Hawkcolt glares darkly at him as he opens his cell door, the gate creak ominously. Yuuya backs up a bit as he enters his cell. Everyone stands to their full height as they watch him wearily. Hawkcolt stops a few feet away from Yuuya who has yet gotten up, still sitting on his butt, and is staring up at the man. Hawkcolt narrows his eyes as a black tendril suddenly wraps around Yuuya's neck slightly choking him in the process. "Yuuya!" Everyone shouts, this only infuriates the man. "Silence!" He looks over at Damian, seeing his son stare at him in fear and anger. "How could you defend this thing!?" The tendril tightens its grip, choking Yuuya even more. "Stop it!" "Leave him alone!" People shout at him, but he ignores them, focusing solely on his son. "How could you protect this savage? The very thing that took away your mother from us? That ruined our lives!" Yuuya is lifted up, his feet no longer touching the ground. He gasps as he tries to breathe, black spots appear in his vision. Damian eyes widen in shock before glaring darkly at his father. "Those beast-men may have killed mother, but Yuuya didn't! He was there when I needed help! And the only one that ruined our lives was you!" Hawkcolt's eyes go wide at his son's exclaims, his blood going cold. The black tendril disappears, allowing Yuuya to breathe as he coughs to catch his breath and clear the dark spots. Seeing him stunned, Damian continues, "Mother's death was hard on both of us, but I was a child. I needed you. All you did was train me to be a knight, you never once thought about what I wanted or how I felt. You even pushed the blame of mother's death onto me, a mere child who couldn't even defend himself! I hated you for making me think that I failed mother, for not protecting her." Damian couldn't look at his father's hurt look anymore, his own emotions getting to him. "If you want to push the blame then fine, where were you when we needed you?" Hawkcolt opens and closes his mouth a couple of times, unsure how to answer, "I...I was-" "You were what? Busy? Yeah, that's what mother always told me whenever I asked her if we could visit you or when you would come home." He looks back up, allowing his father to see the unshed tears in his eyes, making his heart ache, "I miss mother too...I wish she was here, but she's not and we have to live with that." Hawkcolt's eyes grow sad as he tries to go over to his son, "Damian..." Hearing his name sparks a new wave of fury in him, "If there's one thing I've learned in life, there are bad people-" He leans over to stare at Yuuya who is still holding onto his neck, rubbing it gently, "And good beast-men." Hawkcolt narrows his eyes softly and looks down at Yuuya, making Yuuya nervous once more. Worried his father might try something again, Damian continues, "Yuuya is my friend and I will never forgive anyone if anything happens to him...even you, father." Hawkcolt stares at Yuuya a few seconds longer before sighing and turning his back on him. "The trial will be held tomorrow before noon. I suggest you all get some rest beforehand. The entire royal family will be there along with many nobles." He turns his head to look at Yuuya in the corner of his eye, "I also suggest you refrain from breaking out of your restraints from this point onwards." Yuuya blush at being caught and nods. Hawkcolt faces forward and steps out of the cell, locking it once more. Before Hawkcolt leaves, he looks over at the groups and gives out one last advice, "Please be careful tomorrow. Many nobles harbor a deep hatred for beast-men and for people who stand by them." With that, he disappears in a cloud of black smoke just as he had arrived. Everyone sighs while Yuuya tenses at the man's departing words. "I got a bad feeling..." He thinks worriedly.
A little distance away from the group, off in the corner, there stood two hooded figures in dark brown cloaks who are also breathing out a sigh of relief. "That was close." Says one figure as his bright orange eyes shine in uncontainable worry while he sheaths his dagger. The other figure nods as he too puts his own dagger away, "Agreed, would have hated to kill the commander over this." He leans over as his cyan eyes observe the anxious beast-man rub at his neck while the other prisoners try to console him through the bars. Not wanting to be caught, he leans back and looks towards the other figure. "I do think it's time we take our leave brother. Mother would want to hear that he's awake." His brother nods as he holds up a rolled up scroll, "Yeah, doubt any of the guards will try to touch him after what their commander just tried to do. Let's go, mother will also want to hear that he can break out of those restraints easily just as well fix them." He opens up the scroll and a light blue fog flows out of it and wraps around the pair, making them disappear without a trace.