Without much purpose left in my life or energy to continue to go anywhere, I just rested until the morning under an olive tree near a small pond on the edge of the slums.
Those types of places used to be our favorite hanging spots when we were young.
We used to have olive wars and I’m the best with ranged weapons so I would win every time.
Snoopsi always just sat down and read a book or drew something, his drawings of dungeons are what made me want to explore a dungeon.
Ostel was always on my team and the only person worth mentioning on the enemy team was Dawn, he wasn’t good at throwing olives, but his strength was no joke…
He’s probably the strongest Slayer.
All of that is irrelevant now though, Ostel is dead, Snoopsi left Home, Dawn is the personal servant of some young lady, Niya is basically just a nanny for Kiyoko now and I don’t want anything to do with this place anymore.
I guess it’s true what the book said, ‘home is where your heart is’… My home is all gone.
I stopped here to rest but, granted, sleeping wasn’t really possible with the bittersweet memories, and the cold that kept me awake for most of the night.
Either way, the sun didn’t really care about my needs or wants, it just made the choice to rise again and forced me to go back to the red haired prince.
I had some time to think about it throughout the night, I guess the prince really was Niya’s way of keeping me alive. She clearly knew I’m supposed to be under his command.
“If you care about me, just go back to Leo, she said.” I guess I might as well, I’m done with Slayer, I’ll ask the prince to let me go if we manage to complete our mission, this guy seems like a pushover.
***
“The assassin from the king’s announcement?! Why is he walking around in the upper district like that? Is he heading to the palace?”
“Shhh, he might hear you! this guy is a murderer remember?” Tch, this fucking word again.
I glared at the 2 retarded girls whispering next to one of the street stalls and they turned their heads, before I could even say something though, someone yelled in my direction “Lifes! What are you doing here?! You’re supposed to be at the Villfers’!” Prince charisma ran towards me, I guess he dropped the act of the evil prince…?
He soon arrived and the girls gawked, they seemed awestruck by his sight.
“Ahem, worry not dear citizens, this slave is coming back from carrying out his master’s orders. He will not harm any of you.” Must be rough, being this smooth…
The prince took my arm and dragged me behind him into the palace’s gardens.
“Phew, thank the first I was passing by, why are you here, Lifes? Did you escape? no that wouldn’t make sense. What did you do, Lifes?”
“Charisma guy, let’s make a deal, if I help you and we succeed, you remove all charges from my name and make sure I can enter all of the dungeons on the continent freely, what do you think?”
He scratched his head as he looked at me, his brows furrowed.
“What in the name of Simon the Saint are you talking about, Lifes? Why are you here?! Do you even think you’re in a position to make any demands? you’re supposed to be my slave, remember?”
“*Sigh* Listen, this old fucking man said I can go, he doesn’t care about me anymore. You don’t seem like the type of person to force someone into being his slave so I figured I might as well try…”
He clenched his fist and bit his lower lip “You know nothing about me, don’t just assume I can or can’t do som-”
“Trust me, I can tell, I’ve seen you for long enough, nobody can fo-”
A harsh slap to my face shut me up.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“You’re just a slave, don’t you dare talk to me like that anymore. Now follow me, I’ll introduce you to the head of servants and he will teach you how to act properly.”
Guess I hit a sore spot somehow.
Weak piece of trash, can’t even face his own weakness without lashing out. Loser.
After following the weak prince for a short while, we arrived at the backyard of the palace, he stopped in front of an area with a floor that was just 2 thick lines of marble with some grass in-between.
On the marble floor there were 2 women, each standing on 1 part of it, dressed in some type of black and white uniform.
The younger girl was incredibly pretty too. The older one seemed a bit… tired? Either way they were just folding clothes they picked up from a long stone table.
Prince shitland turned to me and smiled faintly before saying “L-Lifes, I’m sorry about earlier, I lost my cool there, forgive me.”
Apologizing to a slave? Whatever, this guy just can’t handle his own emotions, as expected of someone so weak.
“My prince, may I ask what brings you here? I see you have company.” An older man asked from behind us. He was wearing some type of black and white uniform and gave a small bow in our direction.
“Corolio, this guy here is Lifes, the new slave that will come with me back to the academy city. He grew up in the slums so please teach him what is expected of a royal servant.”
“With pleasure your grace, rest assured, this old dog can teach new tricks pihihihi.”
Huh? “Pfft, hahahahhaha, good one old man!” This grandpa is just too funny!
“*Sigh* As you can see, he’s quite the wild one. Well, Coro, I’ll leave it up to you.”
The prince turned around and waved to us before walking away.
My attention was drawn to the young girl’s voice as she was excitedly looking at the flowers in the garden. I didn’t even realize there were flowers there.
Looking at the black haired servant running her fingers through the different flowers reminded me of Niya during our monster hunts. Ironic, considering their hair colors.
One flower in particular caught my eyes, it was her favorite.
Without thinking I walked towards the girl and asked “Hey, what’s the name of this flower?”
I guess I frightened her as she suddenly jumped backwards and lifted her hands as if to defend herself.
“You there, why is a peasant in the royal garden?! Who let you in here?” The older lady ran across to our marble platform before grandpa said “Milinda, this is Lifes.”
He also joined us next to the flower patch.
“Lifes, the criminal that was sentenced to serve the young prince.”
“W-what? Back away from Mia you filthy murderer! Don’t you dare harm her!” The old hag pulled flower girl away from me.
Hearing her really pissed me off “Tch all of y-”
“No Milinda! It’s ok he only startled me a little bit as I didn’t notice him that’s all.”
The young girl quickly walked up to me and grabbed one of my hands.
“Hey, Lifes? My name is Mia, nic-” I jerked my hand away from her.
“Murderer this murderer that, at least I’m not a weak piece of trash like the rest of you, grandpa just hurry up and show me what to do. You 2 better not fucking talk to me anymore, I’ll kill you. I’m a murderer, remember? Tch.” I bit my lip and turned around.
As we walked away, the soft and now shaky voice of Mia was heard from behind us “It’s called Violesa, the flower you asked about! P-please don’t kill me.” Why is this retard trying to talk to me again, she wants to die?
Grandpa put his hand on my shoulder and snapped me out of my thoughts
“Pihihihihi, quite the first impression you make don’t you? I let things go for today, however, I’ll allow no more of that threatening aura you exude.
Even the flowers cower in fear at your sight.”
“That’s just because those flowers were taken care of by weak losers like this old hag. All they do is judge people they don’t know.”
“The flowers do?”
“This much is fucking evident, right?”
The old man just sighed, let go of my shoulder, and gestured to me to follow behind him.
“This ‘old hag’ as you put it, she has had her child taken from her by a group of bandits when she was out for some errands in a nearby village.
Before Mia came to the palace, Milinda was but an empty husk hence why she is protective of the child.
Would you forgiv-”
“Pahh, just like I thought, a weak loser who hardly has the guts to fight their Makhshava demons.” My stomach hurt for some reason, I guess I’m more pissed than I thought.
Grandpa turned around and had a slightly angry expression on his face before he looked at me.
His eyes softened and his face relaxed before he let out another deep sigh “We have some work to do so let’s not waste any more time.
Hurry along now, pitiful child.”
He turned his back to me again and started walking towards a door that seemed to lead into the fancy residence of the royals.