The need to adapt

"Civilization is not by any means an easy thing to attain. There are only two ways by which man can reach it. One is by being cultured, the other by being corrupt."

-Unknown

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The Castle dungeon,

Greenfields.

...

In a dark candlelit room, Levi sat on a wooden stool with one leg crossed over the other as he stared at a blindfolded Gilbert with a bored, detached expression on his face.

The previous young master of Redwater has been held under sensory deprivation since his capture. His ears and eyes covered, hands and feet tied, hands in thick leather gloves, detained without any privacy, always observed, day and night: He was been tortured.

A thick hemp rope hung down from the ceiling with its lower half wrapped firmly around the young man's waist, barely long enough for him to walk around in a small circle. Unable to sit or lean on any support for hours straight his legs wobbled from the strain.

"Remove the blindfold," Levi ordered calmly staring at the faint whip marks on the young man's bare torso.

With a few rough yanks by a young knight standing to the side, the blindfold, earmuffs and mouth gags were removed, exposing Gilbert's haggard face.

Gilbert flinched at the touch, briefly looking around confused. Slowly his unfocused eyes rested on a young effeminate face, seeing a small smirk form on the corner of those supple lips his heart shook.

'Devil.' Gilbert muttered subconsciously, shuddering as he saw this ever-familiar face. A flash of dread, despair and fear appeared in his eyes.

Seeing this Levi chuckled.

"Seems your training has started to pay off. Somehow you managed to avoid cursing me the moment you saw me and even found a cute nickname for me this time around. I guess this is best, Or else I was starting to think we should extend this for a week more."

Shuddering, even more, the fear in Gilbert's eyes grew fourfold.

Smiling, Levi stood up walking towards his captive standing just far enough to avoid the stench wafting of Gilbert's body.

"Are you ready to do as I said?" Levi asked softly with the weak candlelight casting a gloomy light on his face.

Gulping Gilbert struggled to suppress his fear. Forcing himself to maintain eye contact, he spoke.

"I-I will write the letters, j-just pl-please don't kill my family." Gilbert stuttered with the last ounce of courage he had left in his frail body.

Raising a brow Levi said with derision. "How filial of you, so worried about your family. But what makes you think you are in any position to negotiate with me?"

Turning his back on the bound Gilbert, Levi continued in a mild voice. "To be honest with you we really don't need you to write the letters back to your father. This is all just out of convenience, even if you don't do it I am not really bothered."

"But you should be. Remember, this is the only way you can still be of use to me. If I find no value in you again I see no reason in keeping your mother and sister alive any longer, feeding them with my resources. Also, I suppose you would have to spend the rest of your pathetic life in this room."

Hearing Levi's gentle voice Gilbert shuddered even more. Sobbing softly droplets of tears fell from his eyes and snot flowed out of his nostrils.

"Pl-please." He croaked. But looking into Levi's eyes he saw no leniency or sympathy, only detached indifference.

Hatred flashed past his eyes.

Stifling his sobs he nodded. "Ok, *sniff*. Ok, I understand. but please, I have a small favour to ask of you."

"What?" Levi asked with a raised brow.

"If my father eventually falls at your hands, Please let me handle his burial."

Levi paused for a second before smiling.

"Sure."

...

A few meters away from the two, Lancelot stood shrouded in the darkness watching as Levi skillfully manipulated Gilbert.

It's been many days since Redwater was captured and Gilbert detained. Initially, when the young man was brought into detention he was very unyielding and adamant.

But Lancelot couldn't blame him for his stubbornness either, even he felt Levi's requests were too outrageous. The young lord on the very first day of interrogation demanded that Gilbert write fake letters on Redwater's successes to Duke Hera at the capital.

Apparently, Levi discovered that the father and son duo maintained constant communications with each other and was worried that the Duke might get suspicious if he didn't get any new messages over time so he tried to force the young Hera to betray his father.

Normally when a noble was captured they could be ransomed, but for various reasons, they obviously couldn't ransom Gilbert. That being the case the next best thing to do is hide the young master away to be used as a bargaining chip in the worst-case scenario that they lost to the Duke.

But to Lancelot's dismay, Levi decided to torture Gilbert into submission.

Worriedly he explained how treacherous that would be. For one mild torture might not be enough to force the young noble to submit soon enough for his submission to be relevant.

And while more intense forms of torture would work those are generally not used on members of the aristocracy. Nobles are very valuable individuals, but this value can easily be diminished with a few major scars or the loss of a body part.

Although Lancelot didn't believe duke Hera was impossible to defeat, he also didn't necessarily believe they would win, hence he started to plan ahead.

Adamantly he insisted that if they couldn't elicit a submission in time from Gilbert with just beatings and starvation they would just have to hope that the Duke is to busy to notice anything wrong.

Thinking the young lord had finally decided to let go of this he soon forgot about it and moved on to other more pressing things.

Well, that was until Levi proposed a different kind of interrogation, something he called sensory deprivation.

The young lord demanded that Gilbert be forced to stand for periods of some hours at a time, during which he was hooded and gagged, his hands bound in crude leather gloves while being subjected to constant sporadic beatings.

A guard would on occasion randomly walk up to Gilbert and flog him on the torso with a soft leather whip. The blindfolded Gilbert who couldn't be sure when the next beating would arrive was always tensed, unable to relax and flinching at the slightest touch or sound.

Levi also made sure the young Hera was deprived of sufficient sleep, food and water just permitting enough to keep Gilbert alive.

Not even bothering anyone to ask the young Lord where he got the inspiration for such a terrible technique Lancelot observed with morbid fascination and a bit of trepidation.

During the first few days, Levi struggled to make any major gains due to his inexperience in interrogation. But gradually he got better while Gilbert finally started to crack.

Walking up to the young Lord, Lancelot glanced at Gilbert who stared at his feet with lifeless eyes as a guard released him from his bondages.

Seeing this and glancing at Levi's detached expression Lancelot shivered to wonder how much better he would fare if he was made to substitute Gilbert.

"Sir Lancelot, when the guards are done helping our friend here out of his restrictions arrange a room and a warm bath for him. A warm meal will probably also be well accepted so make sure the castle chef whips up something lovely for him." Levi said causing Gilbert's eyes to glimmer with a fervent light.

Seeing this Lancelot and a few conservative knights gulped or shuddered. At this point, it was obvious that Levi had Gilbert tightly wrapped around his little finger, in total submission without having to inflict a single injury aside from light bruises marking Gilbert's torso.

"Oh and don't forget to make sure the letter would be ready before sunset today, If not just send him back here for more... enlightenment until he is ready to cooperate."

"Yes my lord," Lancelot replied.

Walking out of the dimly lit cell Lancelot watched as Levi's expression slowly changed from being detached to looking tired.

Sighing, Lancelot said as they walked down the hallway. "You know you didn't have to personally deal with Gilbert, I could have done it in your place."

Lancelot watched as Levi shook his head.

"I was absent during the attack on Redwater, I can't be absent here as well. My continued absent would weaken my image as a leader further in front of the knights, I just can't afford for that to happen, not at this point when what I require the most to survive is their total loyalty and obedience."

"But still..." Lancelot said but he was interrupted by Levi.

"I understand what you are driving at but I am starting to think you are getting your priorities wrong here Sir Lancelot. Gilbert threatened our existence, there is no way I would grant him any leniency even at the cost of my own well-being."

"Besides I have to adapt. I can't avoid any of this anymore, not with my identity."

Lancelot sighed again. "I understand my lord but I felt this could have been avoided. Nowadays every time I see you I feel I know you even less, this is changing who you really are"

Levi shook his head helplessly again. "I am taking no chances, Lancelot. Do you know how horrible the feeling of hovering on the edge of death is? Can you afford to let Javi or Junita experience this, just out of consideration for my personal well-being?"

Unable to answer that question Lancelot kept quiet. Replaying Levi's words in his head he felt something was wrong with the statement but he could lay his finger on what it was.

"I thought as much. Well then put an end to this newfound hypocrisy of yours Lancelot, and get your head in the game. Besides I never changed, this is how I have always been, and most probably always would."

Although he was sceptical about Levi's last words, Lancelot strangely felt that he was being honest. Looking into those limpid brown eyes he gave up reluctantly on trying to convince the young lord otherwise.

"So with the assumption that we defeat Duke Hera what do we do with Gilbert and his family," Lancelot asked opening a large oaken door for Levi to walk outside.

Walking into the light Levi thought for a moment, pausing.

"Kill them, preferably with a painless poison. While they might no longer be a problem the grudge still exists, that is something I just can't tolerate." Levi said remembering the hatred in Gilbert's eyes. With a straight face, he walked away.

Staring at Levi's frail back in the distance, although Lancelot felt that the young Lord made a wise decision he felt very worried inside.

"I just hope you are okay, kid."