"There's just no respect," Harold sniffled before he wiped the snot that had started to run from his nose. "I try. Really, I try so hard, but they just take all of my work for granted."

Abraham patted Harold on the back as he chugged a barrel of rum. "I know how that feels. Years of excellent work without any appreciation."

"Yes, exactly!" Harold bemoaned. "I'm the one that has to put up with those brats. Yet the board never seems to recognize my years of service. It's no wonder I make concessions for certain wealthy donors here and there."

"Of course," Azrail agreed with a nod. "It's only natural to help those who help you."

"Yeah!" Harold stared with a rather serious face as he nodded at Azrail. His cheeks held a tinge of red, and his arms seemed unable to keep still. With his hands punctuating every word.

"So, you took bribes then?" Abraham asked.

"What? I would never." scoffed Harold. "I did give preference to certain students with wealthy families, of course."

"Of course," Abraham and Azrail agreed in unison.

"But that wasn't for me, or not directly," Harold continued, "but with more funding, surely the board would see what a great benefit I am to the school. Right?"

"If they never noticed you, how would any amount of money change that?" Abraham asked as he casually rocked the cask he had sitting on his knee. "They'd just look past you and see the school's improvements as a side effect of something they did."

Harold's face grew redder and redder. His breath reeked of not just the alcohol, but an underlying rot. No doubt from the countless ulcers sitting in his stomach.

"No, they knew I existed." Harold paused as his hands tightened into fists. "They had to! They're the reason this brat got away with so much. I wanted to expel him, but he snuck into a school board meeting, and went over my head."

Harold picked up the mug at his side, and angrily threw it against the floor. "HRRRRAAAGGGHHH!!!" he screamed.

"Incompetent fools! Without their interference I would've been able to fix so many of the problems in the school, but no." He scoffed. "They insist on quality of life for the students, not results. Pfeh. Weak minded fools, the whole lot of them."

"Interesting, so you crave their acceptance and appreciation, yet you loath them completely and absolutely." Azrail commented as he crossed his legs.

Harold let out a defeated sigh. "It's dumb, I know. I know what I've done. I've turned a two-bit academy into the envy of the nation. Heck, most of them never have to deal with children. They only see the difficulty of being a parent. But try and wrangle a couple thousand of them. It's a world of difference, but they think they know better. They think..."

Harold stopped mid-sentence and started to smile. "Heh heh...hawootie waaa, hooowhoo fwaaaa!" he laughed.

"Their rules and restrictions slow progress. They keep useless things like art and music while keeping me from expanding important things like sports." There was an almost maniacal undertone to Harold's words now. "If...if they were just out of the way. If they saw the truth I face every day, or...or..."

"Truly, the only proper reply to such fools who would use the brutish tactics of politics is to bring unparalleled violence down upon them."

Abraham and Azrail looked startled, and slowly started to turn while Harold grinned wildly. "Yes, yes! Not a bad suggestion."

The hollow king was sitting there. His normally vacant expression had been replaced with a cruel smirk as he held a half-full goblet of rum.

Despite his change in expression, he was completely still as Abraham and Azrail looked over at him. There was no doubt, he had been the one who spoke.

But while the two of them seemed to grapple with this change, Harold was completely oblivious. But why wouldn't he be? He hadn't been around the hollow king long. He hadn't seen him rise when his sword was disturbed. He hadn't seen his spectral visage. For all he knew, this was business as usual.

"Did he just..." asked Abraham.

"Yep." Azrail replied.

"Could he always?" Abraham asked.

"Don't know," replied Azrail.

The two of them stood up and walked towards the nearly naked man.

"Hmm? Things feel somber all of a sudden," Harold remarked. "Don't tell me you boys are afraid of a little violence!"

"Hootie hwaa whoo fashooo!" Harold laughed.

"Besides," Harold continued as he grabbed a fresh goblet and filled it with rum from the spigot of a leaky cask. "It's only hypothetical you see. There's no real violence."

The hollow king's smirk grew. "Not yet." his voice was strange, almost like a whisper, but somehow with even less substance to it. Like the forgotten spirit of speech as it desperately clung to this reality.

"Fwooha dooobiite bwaaa bwhooo!" Harold laughed even louder.

"Now you, I like you. Even if you tend to slouch." Harold nodded.

"So, you speak now?" Azrail asked.

The hollow king sat there. Completely still, almost like he was a statue. It made it hard to believe he was speaking only moments ago.

Abraham walked up and put his foot firmly on the hollow king's chest. "So what? We're not good enough for you to chime in for? Just the kid wrangler here?"

Harold snorted derisively. "Principal or headmaster if you please. I do not wrangle."

Abraham seemed to ignore Harold as he leaned in closer to the hollow king. When they were so close their noses touched, Abraham finally spoke. "Don't gotta say anything do you? You already know you can't beat me. Despite that sword and strength, you can't kill me...it eats away at you, doesn't it?"

Silence.

Azrail put his hand on Abraham's shoulder. "I don't think you should try and antagonize hi..."

Abraham shook his hand off roughly and snarled. "Stay out of this you walking mouth."

He turned back to the hollow king and wrapped his hand around the frail man's neck. "Your silence cost me quite a bit you know..."

Abraham started to squeeze as he complained, "You gave that blowhard even more room to monologue you big idiot! If you coulda just piped up now and then, we could've both saved a few hundred braincells."