The dark hallways of the castle stayed silent. It was so silent that it was easy to hear the whispers of the wind and the scratching of claws on the stone floors.
However, the silence came to an abrupt end as a pained scream resounded throughout the hallways.
"Silent, you stupid slave!" Luka shouted, his voice echoing in the empty corridors.
With his right hand, he was grabbing a brown hair of the slave, pulling it harshly. The female slave was in tears, her face contorted in pain.
The door beside them opened, and red-eyed Mitch appeared, his face twisted in anger.
"I've been trying to sleep, you fucking slave. Don't you know how to stay quiet?" He kicked the slave across the face with his heavy boot.
The slave let out a cry of pain, blood spilling from her mouth. She cowered in the ground, but then Luka yanked her hair and pulled her up.
"Mitch, I don't want to wake up our father, so why don't we teach her some manners in the courtyard?" Luka said with a twisted smile.
"Hmph." Mitch put on some warm clothes before nodding and then followed after his brother.
Luka just dragged the slave behind her.
She was wearing dirty brown rags that barely covered her body, and her face and neck had plenty of whipping marks.
It was clear that she had way more of those marks underneath her rags, but so far, they were somewhat hidden except for the marks on her legs that seemed deeper than the marks on her face.
They stepped out into the night air, going down the stoned path of the courtyard towards the fountain in the middle.
The courtyard was beautiful despite the ugly showing of the two brothers. It had a stone path that went through the courtyard, and it was lined with some beautiful trees with lanterns dangling from the branches.
Those lanterns gave the courtyard much-needed light, and it was really beautiful.
A couple of benches were placed throughout the courtyard. The courtyard seemed like a miniature park, if anything.
Luka tossed the slave to the fountain, who started hugging it like it was her only lifeline.
From his waist belt, he took out a leather whip, and with a flick of his wrist, he cracked it against the ground.
The slave's face paled as if she could already feel the sting of the whip on her back.
"Will you go first or me?" Luka asked.
"Well, it depends on what she did." Mitch said with a yawn. "If it's some atrocious offense to our family, I will give her a taste of my mighty wrath."
"She was murmuring some shit in her sleep." Luka said. "I happened to walk past her cage, and she was murmuring about freedom. That's unacceptable talk."
"Oh, she is desiring freedom?" Mitch scoffed and looked mockingly at the female slave. "I thought we told her to never dream of such a thing. Is she stupid or just really bad at listening?"
"Who knows, but I guess I will have to remind her again." Luka moved the whip over his shoulder.
The slave lowered her head, closed her teary eyes, and braced for the whip to come crashing down on her back.
At that moment, a hand grabbed Luka's arm, preventing him from striking the slave.
"?!" Luka turned around with a look of surprise.
Mitch turned around as well, and his look turned from shock to confusion.
"Who the hell are you?"
"I sure came across an interesting sight," Julian smiled slyly at the two young men.
With his dark hood, he was hiding his crazy hair, but the two young men were still able to see Julian's sharp-looking eyes.
Luka yanked his arm back and jumped away from Julian in surprise.
"Oh?" Julian rubbed his hand. "What a strong pull. It looks like you two aren't nobodies, after all."
"I asked you, who the hell are you?!" Luka screamed.
"An intruder?" Mitch's eyes shook, and he looked around the watchtowers. "Why haven't the guards alerted everyone already?!"
"Well, you guys should've chosen better guards." Julian said with a smirk. "They were all overweight and lazy. I easily took care of them."
The slave looked at the three with tears rolling down her face. She didn't know what was happening.
"You chose the wrong place to come to." Luka and Mitch said with gritted teeth.
'They're both Middle Stage Martial Champions.' Julian thought. 'I think they're about two years older than me and Kiernan. They're twins as well.'
"I have a question to ask." Julian cracked his knuckles. "Where're you keeping the money hidden?"
Luka flicked his wrist, and his whip came flying straight at Julian.
Julian chopped his hand at the whip and cut straight through it as if his hand was a sword!
The whip fell to the ground in two pieces.
"Shit!" Luka tossed the broken whip away and moved to his fighting stance.
He looked at his brother, Mitch, who nodded back, and then they rushed at Julian at the same time. They attacked from both flanks.
Julian, using his forearms and knees, blocked their combined strikes and kept defending masterfully until he saw an opening.
With a rotated shoulder, he punched forward and smacked his fist across Mitch's face, sending him tumbling to the side.
Luka kicked him in the knee, lowering his balance, and then punched Julian in the face with a straight punch.
"Tch…" Julian backed off, but Luka and Mitch were already on top of him, raining down blows from all sides.
With his slapping defense, he deflected the punches away while leaving behind some red marks on their skins.
With their combined strikes, they pushed Julian backwards, and soon his back touched the harsh tree bark.
Seeing the chance to strike, they lunged forward for the final blow and punched ahead.
However, Julian suddenly placed his feet on the tree bark, and using it, he propelled himself up into the air, did a couple of backflips before landing behind the two twins.
He elbowed Mitch across the face, making a bleeding cut, and then punched Luka in the liver, causing him to double over in pain.
"Argh!" Mitch stumbled to the side.
"Agh…" Luka couldn't breathe, his vision starting to blur.
"Huff, huff…" Julian wiped the sweat off his brows. "Is that all? Come on."