After that, the king and Lovino exited the throne room. Antonio led Lovino through the castle and showed him every room in the enormous building, passing by some pretty maids of his along the way. Lovino said nothing throughout the tour.

Eventually, Antonio got too worried about him and stopped walking.

"Are you alright, Lovi?" He asked.

Lovino said nothing and shook his head.

"You certainly have something on your mind," the king said and shook his head in disappointment.

The castle, in all, was bigger than any building Lovino had ever seen. Even in Italy, where architecture was praised, he never saw much in his small Sicilian village. The ceilings were very high, with detailed, gold-plated designs. Solid gold chandeliers hung low from them. Stained-glass windows and thick, red carpet rolled throughout the hallways. Lovino focused on the art and patterns of the castle, for he thought they were beautiful.

Soon, the tour was done, and Lovino was shown his room where he was to sleep in the night.

"But that will come later, obviously," Antonio said. "For now," he snapped, "you will change into this." A maid had brought a set of grey servant clothes for Lovino.

What he had on then was a dirty, white, button-up shirt with a brown vest, dark pants, and laced-up boots. He had a brown cap that he lost when it fell off during his struggle with Antonio's men.

Lovino took them, "Where can I go to change?"

Antonio shrugged, "here is fine."

"I'm not changing here," he said with a scowl.

"You will. Hurry up."

"What if I don't?"

"I won't feed you tonight."

"Tch, fine," Lovino said and immediately started to strip.

Normally, he would have been perfectly fine stripping in front of another man. But Antonio was eyeing him… And, did he just…? Lovino could have sworn he licked his lips. Fucking pervert.

Lovino continued to strip; blush on his cheeks.

Eventually, Lovino got into his uniform; grey button-up shirt, black tie-cravat-thing (he couldn't really tell what it was), grey pants, grey boots, black cloth belt, and a black do-rag. He pushed up the sleeves.

"That's a good boy," the king smiled. "That uniform fits you perfectly, Lovi!"

Lovino slumped, "So, what happens now? How do I move on? What do I do?"

"Follow me," Antonio turned around and walked down the hallway.

That's when Lovino got the idea to try to kill him.

Not right then, obviously, there were too many witnesses. Besides, he didn't have a weapon. But, he noticed, there were plenty of knives and swords in the palace. He could choose out of a number of fine blades. He would kill him when they were alone, yes. Steal a knife -a small one, it can't be obvious-, wait for them to be alone, kill him, run away.

Yes, yes. Good plan, Lovino. Your freedom is near.

They walked for a while until finally the king entered a room.

"I just wanted to talk alone," Antonio said. "This is the only room that my maids cannot enter."

The room wasn't as dolled up as the rest of the castle, but it was still pretty. Technically, the room was just for Antonio, used for maps and such. He didn't allow the maids to enter because one; it was classified information, and two; he didn't want them to 'organize' the maps.

"Sit down, Lovi dear," the king gestured his hand towards a chair. Lovino complied.

Too bad I can't kill him right now, Lovino thought, I don't know if I will get another chance to be alone with him like this again.

Antonio sat down in a chair opposite to Lovino and crossed his legs. "So, you're wondering what you will do here, is that correct?"

Lovino held his hands together on his lap and nodded.

The king rested his head on his left palm and smiled, "Your job is to do anything I say. It's that simple. I will not punish you if you do not obey, but there's not much else you can do here."

"Well, can you give me some examples as to what I will be doing?"

"Hm," Antonio thought, "Things like, say, dressing me, bathing me, serving me food, helping me; mostly personal things. I've got enough maids, you see, I don't need you to do anything that has to do with cleaning. And it'd be extremely nice to have a personal servant."

I wonder how good his blood will feel on my hands… God, I really want to kill him. But for now I'm going to have to do anything he says. "I promise to obey you, your majesty."

Antonio grinned, grinned, and said, "I sure hope you will, Lovino Vargas."

Lovino gulped and shivered a little. The king looked like he had a cheery aura, but the vibe that he was giving off screamed 'sadist'.

The king's face returned to normal, "Well, that's basically it. Now, we are going to eat soon, so come follow. I'm having a great feast in your honor."

They both got up at the same time and exited the room.

Lovino eyed nearly every blade that was displayed while they were walking down the hallway towards the dining room. He was walking behind Antonio, so he wouldn't be able to catch him taking one.

So far so good, he thought.

A little later, Lovino saw the perfect blade. It was on the smaller side, perfect for hiding. Not to mention it looked sharp as fuck.

He subtly walked over to the knife and took it; thieving skills coming in handy to silence any noise. He hid it inside his shirt against his breast, the tie (cravat-thing, whatever) covering up the shape of the blade against his shirt.

They continued walking towards the dining room, Antonio not showing any sign that he caught Lovino stealing the knife.

Inside, there was a gigantic, elongated table, just as fancy and expensive-looking as the rest of the palace. Maids worked to get the all the food onto the table, and there was a lot of it. Lovino then realized how hungry he was; literally starving. After all, the sailors rarely gave him food.

"Lovi," Antonio called.

He turned his gaze to the king.

"You will sit next to me, yes?"

Lovino nodded politely, "Yes, your majesty." To be honest, he was feeling quite giddy.

He dodged all the bustling maids and followed the king to his chair on the end, promptly sitting in the chair next to it -but carefully, not to let the knife slip out.

Antonio was distracted by another maid -probably asking him about something-, so Lovino took the time to look at all the food put on the table. Jesus, there was so much. Lovino couldn't even see the table anymore.

Paella, chicharron, tumbet, migas, escalivada; many dishes Lovino recognized.

Finally, Antonio said 'let's eat' with the snap of his fingers and everyone took something off the table.

Poor Lovino was still deciding what to eat first.

Finally, Lovino took about five items off the table and put them on his plate, immediately starting to scarf down the food.

"Wow, what a hungry boy!" One of the maids said. Lovino blushed at that comment.

After he swallowed, Lovino asked Antonio, "Did you already tell them about me?"

"Yes," he replied, "they already know. In fact, most of them are excited to have another man in the family."

"This is not a family."

"Fair enough," he replied and they both continued eating.

Lovino wasn't talking to anyone else except Antonio throughout the entire dinner, and Antonio was getting worried.

"You should get to know some of the maids, all of them are very friendly," he told Lovino. "And you are going to work with them for the rest of your life."

Lovino turned his gaze to the maid sitting to the right of him.

"Hello, Lovino!" She smiled. She was extremely beautiful and very different-looking from Sicilian women.

"H-Hello… May I ask your name?"

"Maria," she replied. "It's nice to have you here, Lovino! We will all enjoy your company!"

The rest of the maids sitting around that area nodded, but Lovino thought he saw one of them glare at him.

Maria and Lovino chatted throughout the rest of the dinner, and soon it became dark outside. He was glad to have made a friend in this godforsaken place.

Antonio stood up, "Everyone, the dinner is now over, have a good night!"

Most maids -along with Maria, who said goodbye- stood up and left while some stayed and cleaned.

He turned to Lovino, "Did you have a good dinner?"

Lovino nodded happily.

"That's wonderful, Lovi. I'm sorry my men starved you on that ship, my condolences. You will be fed decently from now on."

Lovino then remembered the knife that he completely forgot about during the dinner.

It's still here. I might have a chance to-

"I am taking a bath. Care to help?" The king demanded more than asked.

"Yes, your majesty."

Yes, he thought, here's my chance!

They both walked in a slightly less confident way -due to the food- to the bathroom.

Once in, Lovino noticed Antonio locked the door. Lovino decided to keep his eye out for anything suspicious.

There, the king's bath was already ready -one of the maids must have filled it-, so he stripped and entered the bath slowly, sighing at the warm water.

"Come over here, Lovi, and help me wash my hair."

Here it was; Lovino's glory moment.

He walked behind the king carefully, taking in a beat between his steps.

He then slowly removed the blade from his shirt -which was now warm because of his chest- and lifted it above Antonio's back before noticing a slight glint of something shiny in his discarded clothes…

Shit.

Before he processed what was going on, the king swiftly took the shiny item from his clothes and pressed it against Lovino's neck, creating a trickle of blood down his neck.

"Now, Lovino, you will tell what is it that made you think I was an idiot who paid no attention to what was happening around him."

Lovino's heart beated in his ears. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

He was caught. Now he was going to be killed.

The king pressed his blade harder against his broken skin.

"Fuck, ow."

"Tell me, dammit."

"Alright, alright… I don't know. I just thought I could get away with killing you."

Antonio removed the blade and took Lovino's, who didn't resist.

"Just please don't kill me!" He pleaded. Dammit, he probably looked like an idiot.

"I won't kill you, Lovi dear," the king rose from his bathtub. "I like this danger. It makes my heart beat faster. It's fun."

Lovino seemed like he couldn't stop breathing so erratically.

"You're extremely fun to play with," there was that sadistic arua again. Lovino shivered.

"How did you figure it out?" Lovino asked.

"I'm observant. I heard a break in your step pattern, that's when you took the knife. That, and you acted too nice during dinner."

"Damn…" he breathed. "So, I won't be punished?"

"If any other event that might lead to my early death happens, then you will be. But for now, no. This is a warning," he put his mouth to Lovino's ear again. "To show you that I am never letting you escape this castle," he whispered.

Lovino realized that he stopped breathing for a moment.

"You will learn," Antonio finished and took his seat in the tub again. "Now, wash my hair."

Lovino -out of fear- complied to the king's wishes.