"Lady Meribelle, it's rather unexpected ro find you here. May I ask what you are doing with out prisoner?" The man looked around before sternly locking eyes with Meribelle. He was clearly trying to threaten her.
"I was here to--"
"She came here by luck. As you can see, I was breaking out of this prison. I'd say you have to thank her I'm still here." Eric cut her off in defence.
The advisor was not convinced. But he didn't care to push the matter further.
He took out a scroll rolled it open.
"I would read this to you. But that would be pointless. I will just sum it up for you. I came here to interrogate the murderer who dares to commit such a crime within the royal grounds." The man threatened, this time to Eric.
"Interrogate me? I suppose that's protocol. But you see, I didn't do it. I was framed. I can never lie, you know that more than anyone." Eric tried to defend himself.
"This is not the place for such talk. As such, we will move you to another floor for interrogation. Take him." The man turned around, ordering his guards on the way out.
Maribelle was powerless. She could onlt watch as the guards drag Eric away. Among the seven party members of the hero Eric, only she remained loyal to him.
But loyalty is nothing when one is kept in the dark.
Maribelle didn't know it, but her story was about to hit a cold dead end. She didn't know, but Maribelle could feel it approaching.
Eric was taken to a secluded space below the castle. There, inside the eerie room, he sat, across him was the advisor.
"Eric, you are hereby accused of the murder of your party member, Jeanette. She was your fiancé and was to bear your child. Your brutally killed her, tore her corpse open and ripped out the baby inside her. Will you admit to this or not?"
"I will say it again, I did not kill anyone. I was drugged at the feats the night before."
"So you are saying she was killed in the room? The room which was assigned to you and her? You didn't kill nor hear anything in the dead of night? Yet somehow, you were found drenched in her fresh blood and dead body?"
"I don't know how that happened. And I can not explain it myself. But I can tell you i am innocent. You can test my blood for any poisining."
"I am afraid that would be futile. Poison wears off in a day or so. And you've been in comatose for over a week. Unless you claim you are the killer, his majesty can not allow you to leave the castle ground. Whether you're alive or dead." The advisor said.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Eric questioned confused.
Everyone seemed to have something to hide.
"There are just way too many things to consider. But all of them can go away if one thing happens. You have to admit to the murder. I have exactly one year to get the confession out of you. Don't make me resort to other 'measures'." The man responded nonchalantly and left the room.
The creaking of the doors echoed.
Eric was left in the dark once again. His mind filled with questions he didn't know answers to.
Who killed Jeanette?
Why did they kill her and leave him alive?
Why didn't his party members help him even after all that time?
How come everything seems to have been orchestrated than just a random coincidence?
Since that week, a routine came into play for him. He would be interrogated four days a week.
The remaining days would be spent in his cell alone. Maribelle would visit some days to feed him and keep him up to date with other matters.
From their time, he noticed a few things that were alarming and worrying.
His party members were now fully after political power. His name, was not just dragged in the mud, but his reputation was utterly destroyed.
His heart ached and somehow filled with happiness when he thought of how they are enjoying their lives.
Sad as he wanted to live with them. But happy because they were moving along with the world. Unlike him who was stuck in the past.
For about three months, it was simple interrogations. But things began to change.
They began to torture him. Every single day of interrogation ended with his body filled with new bruises and scars. Every inch of him coloured scarlet from his own blood, even his hair.
Regardless, Eric did not break. His morals remained intact and his heart unwavering.
Maribelle was his only consolation in life. The only person who worried and loved him.
The only person in the world who would cry for him, and even waste her powers on healing a body that would be wounded as bad again in less than a hundred hours.
Maribelle visited him for about exactly eleven months. From there on, she never showed up.
She went missing without a word. Without a promise of returning. And without leaving a trace to ever be found, not that he had anyone to ever help in finding her.
He tried to ask the guards of her whereabouts, but they just spet on him, laughed and ignored him.
That's when it hit him.
Not only did his allies turn on him, reality had also turned on him.
With pain being the only thing he knew. The man endured it. But the body and mind of a man can endure so much.
Slowly, his will to fight began to crack. He was falling apart as a person.
One day, while he was in the interrogation, while he usually remained silent, he spoke this time.
A simple sentence that would finally bring him and his enemies peace.
"Just let me die already..." Those were the words he uttered the excruciating pain of reality.
Words that were the end of his misery.