Without Remorse (Male!Yandere! X Reader!)

Chapter 11

With time you were able to hold conversations normally with Arte. Arte still didn't fully trust you though. You could see that he got very jealous whenever you were in the same room as another male. You figured he would inflict harm on the men if they had any interaction with you so you never spoke to them for their sake and yours.

As for Arte, he still maintained his violent streak, just never in your presence. He also tried to maintain his anger for your sake. He knew getting you to love him would be difficult due to how he is. You had became more open with him though and was more relaxed. He had taken that as signs of affection. Sooner or later you will learn to love him.

It was one afternoon when you finally had the courage to ask him something on your mind. You both were having tea when you finally asked,

"Why are there mainly female slaves in the empire. Men are more able bodied. Wouldn't they be more useful?" You were thinking of your dad. You never truly understood why the men were killed and you wanted to understand why your dad died.

"F/n." Arte begins. "The empire of Roan has a bloody history. Civil wars have been common in the past as well as rebellions. All of which were started by men. Now the percentage of slaves in Roan is less the ten. Most of which are people who live in the outskirts or poor villages. The majority of the people who live in Roan are people who are able to support themselves. They don't oppose slave trade because it doesn't affect them directly. But if the slaves were to revolt, then there will be people who support and don't support."

"You are not answering my question."

"You are a smart girl F/n. Why do you think the men die?" You think about it for a moment and then you understand why.

"In order to control the slave population, you kill the men because they are the ones with the mentality to fight back."

"Correct. Women and children can develop this mentality too but they are either too upset they lost a husband or father to fight back. This way breaks them. Prevents them from even thinking of fighting back. With them staying at bay, there won't be revolts and the majority of Roan will be happy."

"But this way of ruling is cruel. The villages day after day try to make ends meet. They try to pay the taxes and fend off from raids. Can't you be more lenient in punishments?" You were trying to angle for more freedom for the villages. Since you had some control over him, you were going to use it.

"You don't think I tried?" He says with a blank look. "I had just became Emperor. My father believe it or not was much more cruel than me. I decided to be more nice with the villages. How they pay me back, pretend they can't pay up when they managed to accumulate a surplus. F/n. There are villages who can and can't survive even if I didn't implement the rules. What I am doing is simply speeding it up." 

You were stunned. Arte's justification for wiping out villages that couldn't pay the tax was that they were basically a waste of space on it way to collapsing on itself. "Innocent people died because of this Arte." you say quietly.

"F/n. As innocent as they might of been, they were presenting a threat to me."

"How?" 

"Because, in order to maintain an empire like this, mercy isn't something that can be given lightly. F/n. Innocent people die all the time. In wars, raids or just simply getting stuck in the cross fire. You can't save them all." Arte abruptly gets out of his chair. "I need to go and clear my head." As soon as he is gone, Regina pops up.

"I see you are getting along quite nicely." she says sitting on the chair Arte was in. "So, what did you say that had him running off?"

"I asked about the slave system and the reason why he murdered the men of the villages who couldn't pay up.

"Ah. Well. It certainly wasn't an answer you were hoping for was it." When you don't answer she continues. "This is politics. F/n. This is all merely a game of who gets the most power. Arte as of now has the most. In order to keep the position he has, he needs to prove he deserves it."

"But to do such things-"

"This Arte's way of showing who the boss is. He will murder, torture or start wars to prove his points. It is because of his actions, people fear him. It is because of this fear, no one opposes him. Also F/n, I don't know where you are from but the majority of the people are getting by okay. You may have been in the minority, but in Roan, if the majority is happy, then everyone is happy. Time for you to open your eyes and realize that." Regina gets up and proceeds to walk away when she stops and turns to you with a smile.

"Is there something you would like to ask me?"

"Yes actually. Arte being the a$$hole he is, left me in charge of all the wedding details. Would you care to help me?"