After agreeing to bribe the officers, they took me back to the infirmary, where I enjoyed rest and food as long as I could pay for it. Not even a week had passed, and my life savings had dwindled considerably. At that rate, I could only keep paying them for a few more days, so I decided to use that time to recover from my injuries as best I could and try to unleash a sliver of magic at least.
Although, no matter how hard I tried, it seemed impossible.
I trained at night so that the officers wouldn't notice what I was doing, and I used the days to sleep as much as possible.
But one morning an officer woke me up.
"Boss, Boss," the officer shook my shoulder gently. I opened my eyes and immediately got scared. At that moment I feared an attack or that he would charge me even more money under some excuse. "The Hero wants to see you."
The Hero…
It was strange to hear that word when they were talking about someone else. And it was also strange to think that people had already gotten used to using it that way. Surely at that moment the world remembered me as the terrorist and not as the Hero.
Anyway, I got out of bed and followed the officer through several corridors until we reached an interrogation room just like the ones in the movies: small, with gray walls, a concrete floor, a two-way mirror, a table, and a couple of chairs. The only unusual thing about that room was that Lancel was there. He was wearing the Hero's suit, the one I used to wear. It was a magical artifact, much less powerful than the XyzqvqzyX armor, which Dark had stolen a long time ago, but it still granted considerable power to whoever wore it.
Just seeing him in that white suit with the gold cape bothered me a lot. It was his uniform, the clothes he was supposed to wear when he was working, but I felt like he was mocking me, like that was a betrayal by someone I once considered my best friend.
"The other inmates attacked him, Boss, but we saved him," the officer told Lancel, who kept staring at my bandages.
"Leave us alone," Lancel told the officer, and the latter left.
"You still haven't found Dark," I told him because that was the only reason he would come to visit me after so long.
"I didn't think you'd paid for protection so soon," he replied.
"What else did you want me to do?" I asked him as I grabbed the Bephelometh's collar that was still around my neck. "I can't do anything with this on, and all of you abandoned me here."
"What did you expect? We need to fix your mess. But speaking of which: we can get you out of here. We just need your help."
"Do you think I'm dumb? You've already convinced everyone I'm a terrorist. Why would you release me when all of you celebrated my capture that much?"
"We want to help you, you dumbass."
"If you want to help me, then help me survive in here."
"And you think I can do that? You know the Hero can't do shit. Or what do you want me to do with the officers? Scold them? Ask them to please stop accepting bribes? Or do you want me to tell Tantrum about it? Gimme a break. Besides, you wouldn't be here if you hadn't let Dark escape."
"Do you think I let him go for fun?! Do you think I didn't try to stop him?! I ended up on the ground about to die!"
"And whose fault is it, you piece of shit?! Who the hell would think of fighting Dark alone when he was transformed like that?!"
"What other choice did I have?! You all ended up on the ground after the first attack!"
"And then we got up! If you had stayed there for more than a second to help us, we all could have tried to stop him! But no! The Hero had to leave his friends there to save the day all by himself!"
"I had to stop him! I'm sorry, but I couldn't stop him and heal all of you at the same time!"
"You couldn't stop him, that's for sure."
"Well, at least I tried to do something, you couldn't even do that!"
Lancel immediately grabbed me by the neck, gathered some magic in his hand and with it opened Bephelometh's collar.
"Say that again," he told me. After so long, I felt all my magic coursing through my body, so I gathered it in my hands and used it to heal my wounds as quickly as possible. As much as I wanted to hit Lancel with all my might at that moment, I knew very well I didn't stand a chance against him.
All the pain disappeared almost immediately.
Unfortunately, I used so much magic in such a short period of time that I soon felt tired and dizzy, so I fell to my knees and vomited on the floor. Lancel approached and slowly placed the Bephelometh's collar around my neck.
"We're giving you a chance, Bert. If we don't help you, who will? So either you let us help you, or you cling to your pride and do it all on your own, as always."
After saying these words, Lancel left the room and left me alone. I remained on my knees, trying to catch my breath, consumed by a rage so intense I could barely control it. I screamed and hit the floor with all my might. He had only come to mock me, to remind me that I had no choice but to do what they wanted. I had considered him my friend, I had trusted him and the rest of my team, but they had only been interested in me because I was the Hero. When that ended, I ceased to be of any use to them, and they abandoned me.
And now they only remembered me because they needed me again.
I screamed again until my throat burned.
I don't know why I trusted him so much. Ever since I became a Hero, I knew that several superiors and officers were corrupt. Why did I think my team was different? I should have known better. It was my mistake to trust them, to think they were different when everyone around me was extremely corrupt and treacherous.
I slammed my fist into the ground with all my might again, and to my surprise, it cracked from the impact. I looked at my hands, and they weren't injured; quite the opposite, in fact: a sliver of magic was emanating from them. I reached for my neck, thinking Lancel hadn't properly closed Bephelometh's collar, but it was closed, draining the little magic I had released. After a few seconds, it absorbed it completely. I tried to release more, but I was exhausted.
An officer came in and took me back to the infirmary.
Days passed, and I continued with my training, only each time I could unleash more magic when I set my mind to it.
Even though my savings were practically gone, I kept bribing the officers to let me stay in the infirmary longer.
One day I told one of the officers guarding me that I wanted to have breakfast in the common dining room because I was already bored of being in the infirmary for so many days.
"Well, if that's what you want, Boss, go ahead, but we won't be able to protect you from all the inmates. Just so you know."
Even so, we went to the dining hall. I headed toward the line and stopped to pretend to tie my shoelaces. Next to me was an inmate I'd seen before in almost the same situation.
"Don't turn around," I told him, "but if you help me, we can all escape."