The Sinful Life of The Emperor

Section I, Dream Rise House.

Kiba was standing next to the table where Rufus was cuffed. Rufus' chest was filled with fragments of broken flesh and bone. A medical droid started emergency treatment to stop the bleeding.

Next to Rufus' table, the other revolutionaries were cuffed. Each of them was fuming with anger at the words spoken by Kiba.

His excuses made them vexed to no end but they tried their best to not curse him openly. As far as they were concerned, he was a madman and they didn't want to offend him.

"Your expressions say you don't believe me," Kiba smiled awkwardly while scratching the back of his head.

The revolutionaries, on the other hand, gritted their teeth in frustration.

Obviously, we don't believe in you!

Do you actually expect to trust in your words that it was a mistake?!

Even if it was a mistake, how would you explain the current state of Rufus?!

"Claudia, they seem to be envious of Rufus," Kiba said with a grin on his face, "They are comrades so we can't let their relationship break due to envy and jealousy."

"W-what?!" Yuzi was horrified.

Just how did the subject change so quickly?! Weren't you talking about integrity just a moment ago?

So why are you bringing the relationship among us?!

Envious of Rufus' bloodied state?!

None of us want to be in Rufus' shoes so there was no question of jealousy!

"N-no! We never doubted your integrity!" Simon shouted.

He has witnessed the torture carried out by Claudia and this was the last thing he would ever want for himself.

"You are the most honest man we have ever known!" Another revolutionary said in a very sincere voice.

"Y-yes!" The remaining revolutionaries readily agreed. They never thought a day would come when they would fear their enemy to this extent that they would praise him.

The only revolutionary who remained silent throughout was Mailo. After the destruction of his memories, his consciousness was no better than a newborn.

"Hmm," Kiba put a hand on his chin, "But few minutes ago your expression was saying that I lack integrity."

"You misunderstood our reactions!" Yuzi hastily said. She wished the cuffs would magically disappear so that she could run away from this madman.

"I misunderstood?" Kiba's voice turned stern.

"N-no, of course not," Yuzi felt her throat turning dry, "It was us who failed to express our thoughts properly."

"She is right," Simon quickly added, "We are sorry for our earlier behavior."

"I see," Kiba nodded his head, "Well, Claudia, you can start."

~step~

Five droids slowly walked forward from a corner of the lab.

"WHAT?!"

"We already apologized!"

"Please don't do this!"

"W-we would answer everything you want to know!"

The revolutionaries begged with teary eyes. They were trained to not reveal secrets even under torture, but the training failed under the influence of Claudia.

Just thinking about how Claudia carried out the torture frightened them out of their wits. They didn't feared death but now they dreaded living under such environment.

Much to their horror they realized that living was truly the most scary part. The pain from death was momentary but the same wasn't the case for living.

"You would answer everything I wish to know?" Kiba asked with a smile while the droids arrived next to the confined revolutionaries.

"Yes! Everything!"

"Just ask us!"

"But please stop the droids!"

"You might lie though," Kiba said while stroking his chin.

While he didn't knew how the revolutionaries functioned, he believed the revolutionaries would be trained in such a fashion that they would have a fix answer for a specific question.

The higher ranking members of revolutionaries would keep this as a fail-safe in case the low-ranking members give in torture they couldn't handle. This would even make separate interrogation useless since the revolutionaries would have training for this as well.

He couldn't afford to rely on false details now. Like if he asked them how to use their communication device, every single of them might state a same method. But there was a very strong possibility that the method might activate self-destruction function of the device.

Similarly, they might answer wrongly on the conspiracy which harmed Felicity. While he could obviously confirm the truth in due time, but that would waste a lot of time and efforts.

Of course, everything so far was only plausible if his guess on how the revolutionary functioned was correct.

But he has reasons to believe his hunch was correct seeing how he failed to read the memories of Mailo.

"I won't lie," Yuzi said.

"Me neither!" Simon and others shouted together.

"What about you?" Kiba asked mutilated Rufus. His mutilated and skin-less body made it difficult to judge his expressions.

Rufus hated Kiba but he didn't dare curse or act brave. Nor did he doubt Kiba's ability to inflict more pain on him.

"I would answer whatever you wish to know," Rufus said in a shaky voice. He wanted to bargain for freedom but he knew that was impossible.

"Wow~ I have such cooperative guinea pigs," Kiba signaled the medical droids to step back.

Cooperative guinea pigs?!

Rufus felt his blood boiling up in anger and resentment. Some veins on his body even snapped into two.

Kiba ignored Rufus' reaction and stretched out his hands to remove tiredness. He was feeling sleepy but now he wouldn't sleep at such a crucial time.

"Claudia, please bring a chair," Kiba said. He would ask questions while relaxing himself.

[[Yes, sir.]]

A humanoid droid stepped forward carrying a chair on its hand. The droid placed the chair behind Kiba.

"Bring me some eatables to enjoy while I hear their answers," Kiba took the seat.

[[Please give me few minutes, sir.]]

Claudia's tone was filled with delight. From the last 12 hours, she was extremely worried after anger took over his mind and changed him for worse.

But now he was the same master she has known ever since she was created. Maybe the world considered him as evil and deviant, but to her, none of those labels ever mattered.

For her, he was more than just her master and creator. He was her everything...