The Golden Throne

Liu Feng followed the guard to the one place in the palace that he had never entered before. All of the other rooms, he at least had a peak at. But his father was simply adamant that Liu Feng could not be allowed to enter the dungeons. 

All of that built up some sort of suspense, and even terrified Liu Feng a little. He had no idea what to expect from the place where all of the most dangerous criminals of the kingdom were kept. He did have a prison built in Dilheim, but it was one of the humane ones, and not like how the old times did it.

Liu Feng sighed as he went down the stairs.

"Why do the dungeons always have to be below the ground? Kind of makes it common, and cringe. Way too often used." Liu Feng shook his head.

As expected, the dungeons were dark. There were light pockets along the stairs that led down to the basement, but they only barely illuminated the stairs. The rest of the staircase was still drowning in the shadow. Nothing could be seen, and Liu Feng had to carefully place each of his steps after another while looking down.

They arrived in a long hallway. The dungeons were dark, but they were not silent. Screams, shouting, and laughing could be heard at every nook and cranny. Liu Feng could not comprehend why anyone would laugh when such a grim situation has been placed before them, but he did not stop here to judge.

"Where are the priests from Jerusalem? It is better that we take them out of here. Or else, Jerusalem will start attacking us immediately. I do not want that, certainly." Liu Feng said, chuckling.

The guard who led Liu Feng here in the first place bowed and he went forward. Liu Feng put his arms behind his back and looked at the cells that were neatly lined up in front of him.

Behind the bars, many a crazy man stood, and even a few women were hanging from the ceiling. Looking at their faces, Liu Feng shuddered. The faces, especially those eyes, were truly terrifying to look at.

"Look at this! Who is this? A young man in the dungeons, yet he is not in chains. This must be one of those entitled bastards, coming to see what happens in the dungeons. Why don't you come in boy? We will teach you how we go about our day. In fact, we will also teach you how we relieve our urges." one of the men cackled as he looked at Liu Feng.

Liu Feng frowned. He wanted to retort, but even he did not like the concept of nobles gloating over the prisoners. That was because it was guaranteed that many people here were innocent. The dungeons were where every single criminal was thrown in. That included the commoners that offended the nobles, and that meant that anyone could be thrown in here for all of the wrong reasons. 

"Another reason why I need to get rid of the nobles. And fast." Liu Feng made a quick note. By now, the guard had returned.

"Your Majesty. The cell of the priests is a special one, and it will take some time for it to get opened. Do you wish to meet them now? You can speak to them through the bars." the guard said. 

"It'll take some time to open them? Then you are right. I better console them now, or they will misunderstand my intentions. I shouldn't have gotten them thrown in the dungeons immediately. There needs to be a more moderate prison for all of these petty crimes. All that the priests did was go against my order. People are bound to do that. This dungeon should only be reserved for the worst of the worst. The rapists and killers of the world." Liu Feng shook his head.

"Look at this kid! He thinks that only rapists and killers should be in a dungeon. Then why don't you come here and release every single person in this god forbidden place? Stop talking like you know anything, you prick." the same man spat as he said with a sarcastic tone.

Liu Feng looked straight in the eyes of the man who spoke.

"What are you going to do, little kid? Go and complain to your daddy? Or tell your mommy? She will talk to this guard and have him whip me a few more times. That is all that you can do, right? I dare you to come and sit here with me for an hour. Then, you will be begging to be released." the man snarled. 

Liu Feng shook his head.

"I am not in the mood to talk about this right now. Show me where that special cell is." Liu Feng asked the guard.

"Your Majesty. If you want, then I can always ask the keepers here to whip this insolent man a hundred times. This is an offense that we cannot let go of." the guard said with a clenched fist.

"What he said is reasonable. I also wouldn't like it when someone is staring at me like an animal in a zoo. And I am sure that many of the people here were wrongly put here. Probably by a noble. They would not like to see the very cause of their misery standing in front of them, gloating." Liu Feng shook his head.

The guard stood silent, thinking about what Liu Feng had just said.

"Show me where the cell is. I have so much to do in so little time. I cannot afford to waste any more time here. I would rather just take whatever shit I have to from the church and deal with that if it comes to it. But all of that would be another problem for the army, and they just fought a tough war. So take me there, and I will try and speak some reason into those priests." Liu Feng said.

They went deeper into this dark dungeon. With the only lights there being some lamps, it was almost black everywhere. 

"Why aren't there any lights in here? If it is like this, then you wouldn't even know if someone accidentally escaped. And it just looks so inhumane." Liu Feng asked.

"It is like this, Your Majesty because the prisoners will feel more remorse. And, it makes the torture techniques that we use to punish them even more effective. Some of the female prisoners even committed suicide before their term was completed. The guards who were doing, I mean, punisher her were shocked that she went to such extremes. But, she was a rarity in this hell. Rarely anyone would send such a gem to here. They would keep her for themselves." the guard said.

"I cannot believe that so many horrible things happen right under my nose, and I cannot do anything to stop it." Liu Feng shouted at himself. But he could not show this side of him to the world outside. Weakness was only going to destroy him.

They finally stopped at a cell. It was a little different from the other cells. There were two levels of bars between Liu Feng and whoever was inside. Liu Feng took a peek inside. All that he could see were two pairs of eyes. The cell was too dark for him to see anything.

"Do you have a torch or something? Bring that lamp closer to here. I want to see who I am talking to." Liu Feng asked.

The guard nodded and he ran to one of the walls. He took out the lamp from the wall and placed it right next to the cell. With this, the cell was a little illuminated, and Liu Feng could see who was inside. He saw two old men with beards going all the way to their knees. They had haggard appearances and looked like they were going through hell.

Liu Feng squinted as he looked closer.

"What is going on? These are not the priests that I saw next to the crown prince that day. Who are these two people? I thought that the priests were apprehended? What is going on here?" Liu Feng asked, furious at what was going on.

"There must be a mistake, Your Majesty. The priests from Jerusalem were apprehended the moment that you gave us the order. We went to where the information came from, and we took these two priests, who were the only priests there, to the dungeons." the guard said.

Liu Feng looked at the two inside the cell.

"Who are the two of you? I have never seen you." Liu Feng asked.

The old man closest to Liu Feng cleared his throat.

"No matter how much we shouted, those guards did not believe us. We are just farmers, dear boy. There is a mistake here. We have not done anything wrong. We are just here to sell our produce." the old man said with a soft tone.

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