Chapter 24 Prisoner

"What are you talking about! I've never received any orders from a king!" Leo shouted. Officer Thorn, still holding onto Leo, pushed him towards the door and out into the street.

Leo could hear the voices of Rosalia and the chief protesting, but the Lieutenant just waved them off and told them to stay out of it.

Several people could be seen walking around, and when they saw Leo with manacles on his wrists and someone from the military pushing him, they knew he was being arrested.

Several villagers were shouting out at what they considered an injustice to their savior.

"Let him go, he saved our village!"

"That man is a hero!"

"You have no reason to arrest him! He's innocent!"

Leo had become someone that the villagers felt very indebted to, he had saved their lives and allowed them to live freely from this day onwards. So naturally they felt angry at the military.

Leo was pushed towards a large horse drawn carriage. The entire carriage was just a large cage on wheels, aside from where the one controlling the horses would sit.

There were several sections within the large cage, creating barriers between prisoners. All the bandits Leo had caught were already inside the cage, spread over different sections.

Leo was forced into the cage and placed in a section by himself. The military knew he had captured the bandits and that they would most likely attack him if they were put together.

Lieutenant Briggs and Officer Thorn walked to the front of the cart and got up onto it, Officer Thorn then took the reigns and the cart start moving.

Leo could feel that his power still wasn't working, and that he couldn't do anything in this situation. He felt like he was a slave again...

With nothing that could be done, Leo sat in the cage and waited. Anger welling up inside him.

A week had passed and Leo was getting more furious by the day. The carriage was stopped and Lieutenant Briggs climbed off, he then walked around the cage giving each of the prisoners their first meal of the day.

When he walked passed Leo, he threw the food into the cage and Leo spoke to the him before he could leave, "You're making a mistake, this is a misunderstanding."

The Lieutenant looked at Leo and shouted, "Shut up! You're a criminal, and based off the crime you've committed, you'll be lucky if you don't get executed. If you want to plead your case then do it at your trial."

Lieutenant Briggs climbed back onto the cart and it got moving again. The day carried on, and just as night was approaching, the sight of a city could be seen in the distance.

"We should be there in about an hour." Officer Thorn said while looking at Lieutenant Briggs who just nodded in reply.

The city of Veneria has a large 15 meter tall wall circling it. The wall was around 5 meters thick, making it extraordinarily strong. The entrance to the city that the carriage was entering through had a large gate made of thick metal bars that could be lowered to defend the city.

,m The carriage entered through the gate and stopped for a moment when a man in armour stepped in front of the carriage.

"Where are you taking these prisoners." The man asked the Lieutenant. "We're taking them to the castle dungeons, they're all involved in a capital crime and are to be tried in front of the king." Lieutenant Briggs replied.

The man stepped aside and let the carriage through. The city was beautiful. The buildings were built with a classical architecture style, using gold and white as the colour scheme, the amount of gold on a building seemed to increase the closer to the castle the carriage got.

Close to the walls of the city, the buildings were mostly a plain white colour. The gold didn't start appearing until further in.

The people in the streets would all move away when they saw the carriage coming, several mothers were seen ushering their children away, telling them to stay away from the criminals.

When arriving at the castle, Leo couldn't help but be in awe. The castle was massive, it had multiple spires peaking out from behind its walls, showcasing black flags with the same insignia of a red Phoenix that can be seen on the militaries outfits.

The carriage didn't go into the castle through the main entrance, instead it entered through an entrance so far from the main gate that you'd find it difficult to even find.

The carriage stopped outside near the stables. The prisoners were all taken out and taken through a set of double doors and into the dungeons of the castle.

Leo was taken seperatly to a different section of the prison. Rather than prison cells made of iron bars. This section was just solid walls with doors attached every 10 meters.

One of the doors was opened and Leo was pushed inside, his manacles were taken off and Officer Thorn spoke, "Your trial will be held tomorrow, I'll be collecting you in the morning." With that, she turned and left.

The cell Leo was in had a bed and a toilet in it. On the wall was a single window shaped like a square that was about half a meter big.

~Sigh~ 'This is quite the fuck up...' Leo lay on the bed and picked up his left hand, staring at the ring on his middle finger.

'Im surprised they didn't take my ring. They checked me for weapons but that was it. If they didn't think I could have something like this ring, then it must be something that's either extremely rare, or nobody knows about it at all.'

'How did they take away my power... I can still feel it there, but I can't use it. I've still been able to absorb power while we traveled here, but I can't do anything with it. At first I thought one of those that arrested me had an ability that did something to me. But now that they aren't here, it would most likely have gone away, so what's stopping my power? '

After a while Leo managed to fall asleep, he was nervous about the trial the next day and had struggled at first, but fatigue got the better of him.

The morning came and Leo could hear the metal door to his cell being unlocked. When the door opened, Officer Thorn walked in, "Let's go, they're ready to start your trial."