Chapter 1: Nasty Beginnings...

"Do you think we'll ever be able to hug like this in public? Do you think I'll ever be able to look you in the eyes without someone trying to stab me?" Noah, a poor farmer man, asked his lover in his arms, Princess Emily. They were currently watching the stars on a stack of hay in his barn.

"I don't think so..." Princess Emily sighed as she snuggled in his arms. She then smiled at Noah, "Who knows? Maybe you can reach Rank 10 and steal the throne from my father."

"As if!" Noah chuckled as he hugged her. Rank 10 was not something a mere farmer can attain. Rank 10 was the pinnacle of strength!! He slowly closed his eyes as he whispered, "Goodnight, Emily."

"G-Goodnight...Noah." Emily hesitated as she spoke.

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Smack!

"Get up, scum!!" Noah felt a stinging pain from his side.

He awoke to being surrounded by 20 enraged guards, each pointing a spear at his throat.

"W-What's going on?!" Noah asked in fright. "What are you doing in my farm?! Guards aren't allowed on private property!!"

"Get the fuck up!!" a guard kicked his chin, causing Noah to lose a few teeth. "You are under arrest for kidnapping and assaulting the princess!!"

"EXCUSE YOU?!" Noah was offended. He had never even looked at a woman with the intent to make her uncomfortable, yet he was saying that the person he had held in his arms just last night was assaulted by him?!

"Shut it, trash!" Noah was hit in the back with the butt of a spear. "You have no rights right now! So, you better stop talking before we execute you on the spot!"

Noah grit his teeth. He had had run-ins with the castle guards before due to him loitering around and waiting for Emily, but this was on another level! He slowly got up and asked. "What's going to happen now? Am I going to be imprisoned?"

"You will be judged by his majesty!" the leader of the group stepped forward. "We will currently take you there, so cooperate while you still can!"

"I understand." Noah said as he cursed to himself. 'Shit...the king? I'm screwed.'

One of the guards stepped forward and put a collar around Noah's neck. Noah suddenly saw a box with the picture of a ball with a chain at the top right of his vision. It was the Imprisoned status effect! It locked all abilities to wield weapons, items, or Skills...not that he had any in the first place.

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Knock. Knock. Knock.

A knock came from Noah's room. He was currently changing. They couldn't bring someone covered in dirt into the royal throne room. Noah finished changing and sat in the corner.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Are you ready, Noah?" the voice of a woman sounded out from behind the door.

"Yeah..." Noah weakly replied as sat in the corner of the room, hitting his head against the wall.

The woman came in. She was wearing a dazzling blue scale armor. Her long platinum blonde hair swayed as she kneeled besides Noah.

"I told you two. One day you'd be caught...and that day is today. Get up and face the consequences." the woman said with a helpless sigh.

She was the only person who knew of his and the princess's affair. She was the princess's personal guard, Cathy. She had constantly warned the two to break off the relationship, saying that the consequences would be unimaginable, yet they didn't heed her warnings.

"If the king really thinks I raped his daughter, then how the hell am I going to escape the death sentence?" Noah asked as he stared at the wall with a blank expression.

"..." Cathy merely bit her lip. "G-Get up. His majesty is waiting."

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Noah entered the throne room through the giant doors. Everyone inside the room gazed at him with righteous fury. He looked up to the throne. A large, muscular, man sat there with a golden crown sitting atop his short silver hair. This man before him was one of the few Kings in all the lands, the Rank 10 King, Fidhi.

Noah could not help but shudder as he looked at Fidhi, who looked at him with a deadpan expression. Beside the king was a familiar face, it was Emily!

"Emil-"

"SILENCE!!" King Fidhi yelled as he released a burst of aura that caused everyone around him to start suffocating. "Noah Crone! For the crime of sexually assaulting my daughter, the princess of the Land of Power, you are sentenced to banishment!!"

Everyone in the room looked around with confusion. Whispers went around.

"Just a banishment?"

"What kind of sentence is that?"

"I guess I can start having fun with the princess."

The king continued. "You shall live in shame and guilt for the rest of your life! Bring them out!"

The guards quickly rushed out of the room and came back with an old man and woman, with them was a young girl that looked to be 12 years of age.

"Who're those people? Wasn't this trial for the boy?" Drun, one of the representatives of a Land of Gods superpower, asked.

A cold chill went down Noah's back as he saw his parents and little sister dragged into the throne room. "W-What are they doing here?"

"They will bear the punishment of housing a bastard like yourself!" the king said ruthlessly. "You will carry the burden of knowing that your parents are dead because of you, and you will not have the ability to do anything about it, for you will be in the Lower Lands!"

Noah started hyperventilating. He looked at Emily with a pleading expression. She just avoided his gaze. His family was put in front of him on their knees with their heads leaning forward. They all looked at him with cold expression. They didn't even say a word.

"S-Stop. Please. They have nothing to do with this." Noah looked to the king with tears in his eyes.

"You will know what it feels like to lose something and never be able to get it back, you beast." Fidhi looked at Noah with coldness in his eyes.

"Please! Kill me instead!! THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!!" Noah yelled. He had prepared for his execution day the moment he kissed the princess for the first time.

"You will know..." Fidhi whispered as the guards raised their execution swords.

"STOP! HEY! STOP IT!!" Noah struggled as Cathy held him back expressionlessly. He turned to Cathy and whispered. "Let go of me!! LET! GO!!"

"Any last words, Crone family?" King Fidhi asked.

"HEY!! STOP IT, YOU BASTARD!!" Noah struggled harder as he glared at the king and princess duo. "EMILY, DO SOMETHING!!"

Emily bit her lip and turned her face to the side. Noah's jaw fell as he witnessed her betrayal with his own eyes. "You...why?...WHY, YOU BITCH!?!?"

A single tear went down Emily's face as she saw the Crone family shake their heads, not even willing to speak their refusal of last words. She could indeed spare the Crone family, only implicating Noah.

"STOP IT!! FIDHI, YOU ASSHOLE!! IF YOU KILL THEM, I WILL NEVER LET YOU REST!!" Noah threatened the Rank 10 King. A mere Rank 0 Peasant threatening a Rank 10 King? What a joke! Yet, no one here laughed. They all sighed.

"Begin the execution." King Fidhi said, a cold smile on his face.

"STOP IIIIIITTTT!!!!!!!!!!!" Noah yelled as the swords swung down.

Thud.

His father's head fell to the ground.

Noah stared at the head. Tears stained his face as he looked at his father's head emotionlessly.

'It's just a dream.' Noah denied. 'I'll wake up in a minute, and I'll find Emily in my arms and my family at the house.'

"Next." Fidhi's cold voice snapped him out of his daze.

"Please!! I beg you!! I'll lick your feet, just stop!!" Noah cried as the two guards raised their swords above his mother's neck.

Thud.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!" Noah yelled, hoping that, somehow, his weak threats would stop the king.

"Keep the girl as a servant." Emily said as she looked at Edna, Noah's sister. She then said coldly, "We'll keep here alive. That way, he'd have a reason to come back. Every second you are stuck in the Lower Lands, your sister is yearning for death. That will stop you from settling down in the Lower Lands."

"..." Noah looked at Emily with shock. His shock then turned into pure rage as he looked at Fidhi. 'It's all because of him!! If Emily truly didn't love me, she'd have ended things a long time ago! It's him! HIM!!!'

Noah grit his teeth in rage. "I SWEAR UPON THE HEAVENS, I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD, FIDHI!!!"

A giant magic array appeared over Noah's body as a smaller magic array sealed his heart. Emily's lip quivered as she heard him. The king also sighed. Edna, Noah's sister, finally broke and started crying.

"Banish him!!!" Fidhi ordered as a portal opened beside Noah, who glared at him hatefully.

Whoosh!

Noah was thrown into the portal as his tears disintegrated into the portal.