The Dark King
chapter-154

Wanted

**********

The prison guard frowned and glanced into the cell. The light from the closest oil lamp wasn’t enough to brighten the cell. In the darkness, the guard saw a figure lying on the mattress.

“Come and eat.” The guard shouted out. He saw that the figure didn’t respond, so he pushed the cart and left.

…

…

It was raining heavily outside the prison.

It was the early rainy season as the ‘black snow season’ had already passed. Rain fell frequently. Everything was hazy as the rain covered the world within the giant wall.

There was a slight movement at the edge of the lake. A pair of black eyes looked around. Although the heavy rain blurred the vision of most, those eyes were able to see the everything. On his left, there was a tower positioned.

There were two fuzzy silhouette’s on top of the tower as he checked that direction.

“I haven’t eaten all day yesterday and including today’s afternoon distribution of food… ” Dudian’s eyes flashed, “Tonight is the last chance. The guards will come to distribute the meal. Even by chance, they don’t look for me, then at maximum by tomorrow noon they will be aware that I’ve escaped. At best I have half a day… … ”

Although his plans were successful and he was able to break out of the prison. But he knew that jailbreak was the first step. The real danger would be after this step when they would begin to hunt him!

He went out of the hole and began to crawl over the weeds. He used to tall grass and wrapped them around his body.

His body was soaked in the heavy rain. He crawled faster and faster as he reached a location far enough for him to stand up and run away.

Dudian was a little relieved as he couldn’t see the castle even if he turned back to check it. He dragged his tired body. He was barefoot as he walked on top of the grass.

“I don’t know in which suburb the Thorn Flower Prison is located… …” Dudian raised his hand to block the heavy rain falling onto his head. He checked the sky full of gray clouds. He found the direction from where the sun rays were penetrating.

Dudian calculated his position.: “The giant wall should be in the south, while the inner wall has to be in the north of my position. I have to walk north.”

According to the position of the sun, he identified the north and walked away.

The giant wall and inner wall of districts were parallel to each other. The was suburban wilderness and the radiation zone in between them.

The mud and sludge covering his body were completely washed away by the heavy rain.

Dudian stumbled around as he walked through the wilderness. The cold rain that poured on his body made him shiver. He was sniffing to check the surrounding to prevent meeting up with patrolling guards.

The rain finally stopped after an hour later. Dudian’s body also dried up afterward. It didn’t take long before he saw a fortress in front of him. The place was familiar. It was the fortress leading to the commercial district.

“Unexpectedly, Thorn Flower Prison is not located in slums or residential district, but it was set up in the wilderness of the commercial district.” Dudian wrinkled his eyebrows. If the prison was established in the slums, the others could get the prisoners out much easier. After all mobilization of forces would be a lot more comfortable. However, as the prison was established in the wilderness outside the commercial district then for forces to attack the prison had to go through the commercial district’s exit first.

In a sense, it was a line of defense that was thought up by the higher ups of the prison.

Moreover, the prisoners who wanted to re-enter the commercial or residential areas would be blocked by this layer of tight defense. The option left to them would be to wander in the wilderness or the radiation zone which weren’t good for survival.

He checked the weather. Although the heavy rain had just stopped the clouds were lingering, and it seemed that another heavy rain brewed.

The wall of the fortress was made of stones, rocks and sharp wood. It was more than 20 meters high. He could smell people on top of the wall.

“They should be soldiers patrolling along the wall…” Dudian thought about options as he stared at the high wall.

Suddenly he senses two different odors coming from the prison’s direction at fast speed. One of them belonged to a human while the other belonged to a horse.: “Are they already tracking me?”

He sped away from the fortress wall.

He ran about a kilometer and stopped. He sensed the previous smell which was still moving the same direction. It seems the person hasn’t changed and adjusted his direction towards Dudian.

“They aren’t aware of my jailbreak yet.” Dudian’s eyes turned cold as he thought about.

Da da!

A young man was standing on the black horse as it galloped.

They were passing through small woods when a figure jumped out from inside. The horse stopped is it raised its front hoofs high and whimpered.

The youth on horseback was shocked and unable to grasp onto the horse as he rolled down.

As he landed on the ground the figured rush over and grabbed a hard stone from the ground. Dudian raised his hand fiercely to hit the youth.

The youth saw Dudian’s appearance, and his pupils shrank: “You!”

Puff! The stone hit his face, and the youth fainted on the spot.

Dudian raised the stone and continuously hit back onto the youth’s face. He stopped when the sound of rupture echoed out. He was breathing heavily as he checked the dark horse standing by in confusion. Dudian grabbed the horse’s rope and tied to a small tree. He looked back at youth that he had killed a few moments ago. According to the armor, the youth was wearing, he should be a guard in Thorn Flower Prison.

There was a reel on youth’s waist.

Dudian opened it and saw that there was a sheepskin roll in it. He shook it open and saw his portrait drawn on the sheepskin roll. Under the picture, there was information about him: “Dean. Male. Sixteen years old! Wanted by the city authorities. 100 gold coins award to anyone who will give information about his whereabouts.”

Dudian wanted to tear apart the warrant. His mouth curled into a smile, “One hundred gold coins… I’m still quite valuable…”

One hundred gold coins, it was a sum which was difficult for an ordinary person from the residential district to earn in a lifetime.

“It’s not dinner time yet. Most probably the guards have felt that something was wrong, so they have returned to inspect the cell. It happened earlier than I have expected. Fortunately, I caught the warrant for arrest half way.” Dudian knew that this world was not like the previous information age. It took a lot of time for the warrant to be plastered over the various areas. He had to get ahead of them in terms of time.

He stripped clothing of the youth. Dudian’s threw the youth’s body into the bushes and put on his underwear, but didn’t wear the armor.

“I can’t assume his identity and get through the fortress!” The difference between his body and the armor was too much. The eyes of the fortress guards would see and discern the asymmetry. So he could be easily exposed.

Subsequently, Dudian led the dark horse into the woods. He used the stone to kill it and prevent his immediate exposure.

After he had been finished killing the horse, Dudian found few silver coins in the youth’s chest.

Through the sense of smell, he found that patrolling soldiers went away from the consequent part of the wall. He buckled over and climbed quickly as a spider.