The Divine Wolf... or?

Chapter 112: Suffering.

Without Ark knowing, an entire month had already managed to pass in the blink of an eye, or, well, not in his case. For Ark, the 5 weeks he had been held captive felt longer than almost his entire life combined. It was just too excruciating. Since he had been alone with nothing but pain and his own thoughts, Ark had gotten the chance to reflect a lot on himself, and his life for that matter.

Even though he never really thought that he had taken things for granted before, after this experience, he felt like his past life on earth was paradise!

In retrospect when he looked back at it, maybe he didn't have it that bad, at least compared to other people. Some people who were born in his past world had much worse lives than he had, he had just been too selfish and too self-centred to even really think about it. He felt a little ashamed. Sure, his life may not have been the best, but it hadn't really been all that bad either.

Well, thinking about it wouldn't really change anything, but Ark had nothing better to do, and so, his thoughts just ran wild.

This day was just like any other day down in the dark cell he was imprisoned within, well, for some reason, no one had come to torture him just yet. Instead of feeling relief, Ark just felt fear. He had already gotten used to the various torture methods they used on him, and he was afraid that something was going to change, for the worse.

The notion of it changing for the better barely even crossed his mind, he had resigned himself to his fate by now, which seemed to be torture until he died or the prince got bored.

He felt his consciousness swaying a little, which instinctively scared him into staying awake for a little longer. He had already collapsed numerous times during these five weeks, and each time he did, he was punished for it, and the prince was never lenient in his methods. The scent of this god forgotten place had already etched itself deeply into his nose, seemingly never going to disappear.

Ark smelled pretty bad too since he hadn't been able to wash himself during these five weeks at all, but he was already used to it by now. His once mysterious eyes filled with spirit just looked like two dull jewels now, which had been buried in dirt for far too long.

For now, this little corner deep underground was all that Ark had, and at the very least, he wasn't dead right?

...

In the grandest hall in the royal palace, a banquet was currently being held. The extravagant clothing of the numerous nobles and the tables filled with various foods and wines was like the polar opposite of Ark who was currently underground.

With no worries about the world evident, the nobles just chatted incessantly with each other, trying to earn favours and matchmake for their children, trying to set up their future for them.

Unlike the rest of the nobles, there were a number of nobles that evidently stood out from the rest. That being the royal family members of Estridsen, though the only ones present were the king as well as the third prince, everyone else was currently outside of the royal city, on numerous errands. The other group of nobles consisted of two children and a middle-aged man.

The two children were a boy and a girl, both around the age of ten, with captivating green eyes. The middle-aged man was from the looks of things the dad of the two children, seeing as he had similar facial features, as well as the same shade of green eyes.

Everyone present was currently holding their distance from this family since they didn't want to lose their heads after all. Approaching them would be like playing with fire. The grand hall was over ten meters in height and was simply massive, one of the biggest reasons for its sheer size was the fairly large elevated stage that stood in the middle of it.

This stage provided a great opportunity to entertain the guests, which was its main reason for existing.

Atop the stage, an old man clad in blue robes was currently in the middle of chanting multiple peculiar lines, before purple runes starting to overlap with one another in the air, and a weird sound reverberated throughout the hall. This sound drew the attention of nearly every single guest present, and all eyes were centred on the stage.

After a second or so, a majestic bird's cry sounded out in the hall, that was right, this old man was a summoner. The bird that was summoned was made to do some flips and tricks to amuse the audience, which proved to be quite the success, and the old man received plenty of applause and laughter alike.

The young girl's eyes were captivated by the bird that was summoned, and she tugged at the hem of her dad's sleeves.

"Hmmm?" With a gentle gaze, the middle-aged man looked at his daughter inquiringly.

"Dad, I want to have a cool pet! Just like that guy!" As she said this, the young girl pointed to the man on top of the stage.

"Eh, are you sure you don't want something cooler?" The man looked puzzled.

The young girl smiled brilliantly. "Can I?

"You're my daughter, of course you can!"

The young girl giddily skipped around a little, before giving her dad a big hug. Though the man was seen as a fierce warrior on the battlefield that was ruthless to his enemies, there was nothing he loved more than his family. Doting on his family was one of his greatest joys in life.

As for whether she would actually get a pet, that depended on whether she would still want one after they had returned home, it was probably just a whim anyway.

As he thought about it, his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sad howl of a wolf.

...

As Ark was sitting in his cell, like normal, he made an effort to stand up for once. He normally didn't, since it consumed some of his precious energy, which he didn't have much of, but lately, he had started doing it once a day. The reason was simple, instincts.

He didn't really know why, his only reasoning was just that he was a wolf, but whenever he felt especially lonely, Ark had started to get the urge to howl. Since he had done it multiple times without getting punished for it, it had become a habit of his.

It was his only way to express the loneliness and sorrow he felt right now anyway, and he decided to just let nature take its course, what was the worst that could happen?