As per usual, Rex had used his mana pulse, on a rather superficial level though, as such, he was well aware of the number of people outside this particular property. Now though, as they closed in on the gates, he had done a rather deep scan, quickly adorning his own adventurer overcoat, hiding most of his features from the people who would see him in a short while.
"Relax." he whispered, noticing the rather suspicious look Danica shot his way, seeing him hiding his own appearance "This will be fun. Trust me."
A few moment later, the two reached said gate, Igdan standing in front of it, his arms crossed and fangs slightly visible as he glared at the rather weak group of armoured men in front of him.
"And for the last time I repeat." he snarled "Not one of you cunts are going inside. Or what, you plan to try your luck and go through me?" his A ranker's adventurers cared, clearly displayed, much like Danica did back at Burge's bar, or whatever the place was named. 'Shit, I paid for the night, and never got back there.' Rex remembered suddenly. 'Should not waste money like that.' he reminded himself, watching the scene unfold before him.
"And again, we have evidence here that there are some stolen goods behind you, within these warehouses. All we want is to return said property to its rightful owner." One of the guards, with slightly more adorned armor spoke, the pattern of speech and the haughty tone in the voice giving Rex the feeling this particular fellow must have some roots in nobility.
"Now are you implying that I am a thief? Tired of living, are you?" yet another snar escaped igdan's lips, he was clearly acting his ass off, though there was also some amount of righteous indignation in his tone.
"Not at all. Someone as busy as you must simply be unaware of what little rat might have stashed away within your home is all." the guard spoke again, and rex could feel there was some kind of insult meant there as well, judging by the tone of guards voice.
"Whats going on here?" a new voice joined the ongoing back and forth, resounding from further away. A woman, in a rather form fitting leather armor, a bow on her back and surrounded by a group of well armoured and dangerous looking individuals approached the gate, yet another guard in the same uniform as the group already in confrontation with Igdan.
"Ah, princess Evelysandra. Thank you for you grace in assisting us in maintaining the order within your lands. Your grace truly knows no bounds." the guard captain, Rex classified the pompous noble something something that way now, was almost falling over trying to kiss up to Eve. "This here honored adventurer is a bit stubborn, and refuses us to reclaim some stolen property that is stashed within the premises of this warehouse."
Evelysandra looked at Igdan, then momentarily glanced at Danica and the hooded figure besides her. She then walked forward, and some five meters away from Igdan, bowed lightly, speaking in a calm and polite manner.
"Honorable adventurer. Please, allow us to enforce the law. We mean no disrespect otherwise." Igdan's brows furrowed, not quite sure what to do. Anyone else could be easily sent away, picking a fight, but an actual princess. Well, that complicated things. Thankfully, the one who could decide such things, his power alone warranting such liberties, spoke up, though in a rather odd tone of voice, clearly not how he talked before.
"I take it you have your tracking device with you, to pinpoint a precise location of said stolen goods?" The guard captain just glared at Rex, and not noticing A rankers card, yet still slightly wary, replied.
"But of course. We would not be here otherwise."
"Well then, no doubt the princess with follow through and witness this whole thing to the end, right?"
"There is no need to trouble her highness any further. She undoubtedly has more important things to do. Her goodwill and assistance already provided is more than we could have asked."
"I was not asking, nor suggesting." a cold, spine shivering killing instinct overtook the area, only three people, two personal guards and the princess herself recognizing it. "Or are you afraid that she will see your attempts to get your hands on the people who were wearing these." Rex continued, as from his space storage, the slavery equipment he had removed from the captives, formed a small pile. "Or do you perhaps want to reclaim those that served as guards for said property''? In either case, it is not happening. I bet that the princess is very much interested in the details though." he then looked towards Evelysandra. "World's indeed a small place. Heh. What was it? A couple of weeks since we met? Are you stalking me now?" he chuckled, removing the hood.
"A pleasure to see you again." Eve replied. "I do have to disapoint. I Was sent here on an official matters and was just passing by when this guard rushed to us and begged for assistance to ensure the proper application of the law. Though it seems to be more than meets the eye. So yes, I would love to see this through to the end."
"As I thought you would." Rex replied, a blood chain shooting from his sleeve, wrapping around the guard captains neck, locking him down. "Well? don't keep us waiting. Come on in." he tugged the chain, causing captain to stumble forward, nearly falling "Cant have the princess delayed any longer than necessary, now can we?" Downright predatory smile crept on Rex face as his free hand moved with deceptive speed, moments later holding a rather unique looking item in his hand. It resembled a snow globe with a small, dragonfly like construct inside, its body turning towards the same direction no matter how much Rex turned it.
"If you would do the honours princess." Rex spoke, stretching his hand in her direction.
"Of course. I was done with my official duties anyhow." Eve replied, walking over and taking the globe in her hands, Then, with her two guards, who recognized Rex, in tow and Rex himself, dragging the guard captain along like a lost puppy, they entered the property, walking forward as their compass showed. Soon enough, they stood in front of a group of teenage wolfkin, the compass pointing towards one of the girls, an ominous aura emanating from Eve, though that was more of her demeanor showing, not an actual aura like Rex would do.
"Guards, take this guard into custody. Extract everything he knows. This will not be permitted!" Eve spoke, anger clear in her voice.
"Swei, be a dear and take her highness to the other girls in the next room." Rex spoke up "I will permit myself to have a chat with this little friend of ours inside the interrogation room."
"Understood. Please come this way." She replied, asking to be followed.
"Only her." Rex stopped the two guards. "No men are allowed where she is going. You two, come with me. You are in charge of this piece of trash, are you not?" With furrowed brows, the two guards looked towards Eve, yet after her explicit order, they did as told. Moments later, Evelysandra saw the state of the few women in the other room, one of her hands moving to cover her mouth. While looking way better than when they were recovered, the sight was still not pretty and Evelysandra quickly could put two and two together. She gritted her teeth in anger, barely squeezing out a single phrase.
"Detestable scum." She turned around and stormed back, demanding Igdan to be shown where Rex and the guard went. She was about ready to get her own pound of flesh from the scum, but even more she wanted to find out who was the one behind this operation. Ignoring all the warnings Igdan expressed, she damn near tore the door open, rushing inside, only to stop dead in her tracks, the stench of sweat, blood and urine hitting her in the face like a fist.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
"It is lacking in ventilation. I can't deny that. But it is not nearly as bad as you make it seem." came over the voice of Rex, standing in front of the guard, who was chained, like many others inside. With gagged mouth, the guard was squirming and obviously screaming in pain, his eyes bulging and tears streaming down his cheeks.
"So, ready to talk?" a moment later, the guards body went limp, the assault of pain finally stopping. It was then that Eve could finally take in the whole of the room, numerous other prisoners, in much the same condition as the guard, were chained all around, making the place a little nightmare come to life.
"What is this?" she asked, feeling the need to retch. She was furious for sure, and while having seen some solid amount of gore and brutality, what with spending some decent amount of time in dungeons herself, honing her skills and gaining experience, this was on a whole another level. If she were to be asked to imagine the torture chambers of some of the more barbaric ruler's chief torturer, this would still trump such a theoretical place.
"Well, a treatment of beasts for beasts of course. What does it look like?" Rex asked back, clear confusion in his voice. And then, from one of the hung men's shoulders, the guard to be exact, out popped something small, still moving. That was the last straw, causing Eve to run out, and throwing up in a bucket that was luckily positioned nearby.
"Well, are we in a mood to talk now?" Rex asked, the torture stopping on the guard for a moment. He also used his own control over blood, something he could do within other living bodies now, though a small assistance of a carved rune was necessary still to achieve such, stabilising and suppressing the pain said guard was experiencing. Was it any wonder that the guard in question spilled whatever he knew the second his own gag was removed, numerous similar, pleading pairs of eyes looked towards the group of four men- the guard in question, Evelysandra's two knights and Rex, hoping they too could get the chance to spill whatever they knew, hopefully avoiding whatever their fellow men were going through. As it stood, only the ones taking part on the raping were going through any torture, the rest of the captors waiting their turn.
Both knights wrote down whatever names were mentioned, at some their expressions turned ugly more and more, no doubt some rather important names were mentioned, all of whom slipped past Rex's head. Not that he could not memorize them. He simply reasoned that it was Evelysandras and her royal families job to fix this. Not that he would refuse to help out, for the right price of course. He was an adventurer slash mercenary after all, even if the mercenary part was not official in any capacity just yet.
Once the guard finished talking, in panic swearing that it was all he knew, Rex turned his head towards the two knights. "So? Want to take him with you?"
"What about the rest?" one of the knights asked.
"Only those who are not actively being destroyed. These bastards deserve it, so they will still get the chance to enjoy such royal treatment for an extra day or two. What say you?"
"Urghhh" a rather unhappy groan came from the other side of the door since it was still open after Eve rushed out. "While what the ydid is indeed monstrous, this is just as bad." Eve added.
"Precisely. That is why I am donning it. Punishment fits the crime and all that. I am still on fence regarding the one that allowed and organized it. A piece of me says he deserves the same. The other says he deserves worse, for knowing what was to go down and still arranging it."
"They have suffered enough. Let us execute them, as they deserve. As a member of the ruling family within these lands, it is my duty and responsibility to do so."
"So be it. Though do note that should any of them live, I will have nothing to do with your family in the future."
"U-understood." came a slightly hesitant answer "Justice will be served."
"So be it then." Rex sighed, withdrew all of his torture constructs and melted then into a small, thumbnail sized ball and put it in his pocket. Then, he left the room, walking over to Igdan. "Leave the rest to princess people. We are out of here." With that, they moved to the room with teenage wolfkin, finding a rather empty corner and sitting down, relaxing for a moment, all the while Eve's knight called in the rest of her team, unchaining those captured from the bloody chains keeping them in place and applying their own bindings to ensure none would escape.
"So, what are you gonna do next?" Rex asked Igdan, his head directed straight ahead and his eyes closed.
"Wait for a week. A ship from our homeland will pass by. Board the kids and send them back. As for me and Danica? We will figure things out when the time comes."
"I suppose good luck with that then." Rex replied, sliding into a meditative state, working on both his comprehension and developing his body arts further.
With the extra hands from the rest of Evelysandra's escort force, the prisoners were loaded into the same carts Rex had used to bring them over, and on less than an hour, Eve left teh premises, apologizing to Danica and Igdan on behalf of her country for whatever role they served in the atrocities visited upon the wolfkin tribe, promising to do her utmost to have the true masterminds behind this whole operation to be made to answer for their crimes.
As that all was going on, Rex had an interesting question pop up in his mind, so now he was calmly sitting, fiddling with the snowglobe of tracking, as he eloquently named it, using his own mana as a precise tool, trying to understand what makes it tick. And, once he reached a bottleneck of sorts, he decided to request the help on the other part of this particular puzzle. It was rather simple to earn the girls permission to examine her, what with him being her saviour and overall good guy.
What he found was a rather complex rune of sorts, half carved into the girls back. And since she did not remember anything of the sort, no doubt she had been heavily drugged during the process. Thankfully, Rex could search for such a marking now without actually having his subject half naked as he did so and as such, he called over every other slave to be one by one, ensuring nothing similar was on any other person. And unfortunately, he needed to do the same with the traumatised women. Luckily, or sadly, depending on how one looks at it, they were mostly unresponsive, with only the woman who identified and subsequently saw the identified rapists suffer being slightly better, murmuring a few thank you's to Rex as he ensured none of them were marked.
Once he was done with the searching of said marks, finding another teenage girl similarly marked, he then proceeded to erase both marks and heal the wounds as best he could. At the end of the day, there would remain a small proof of the marks existence, once upon a time, though nothing overly dramatic. The two girls, like brave soldiers, held through the pain of the process, and once done thanked Rex once more.
"All done?" Ask Danica as she approached Rex, seeing the two teenagers leaving.
"Mhm." Rex stretched, glancing towards a window, a cloudy nights sky in full swing. "Catch ya later." Rex yawned and rubbed his neck. It was about time he left the place. Maybe he could visit the adventurers guild here and see if anything interesting was posted. He also had to do some ingredient searching. The erasure of the tracking marks had given him plenty of things to think about, expanding yet again the amount of knowledge Rex wanted to study, expanding his own understanding and comprehension of said subjects.
There was so much stuff to do and so relatively little time. The only silver lining was that with each increment Rex himself grows stronger, he would, eventually, have to spend less time grinding, allowing more more and more of research and brain storming.
"So, technically, you are free right now, yes?" Danica asked a moment later, her eyes locked on Rex.
"Yes? You needed something?"
"Yes. Come with me."
There was absolute silence as they walked, heading further into the property, leaving the warehouses and what seemed to be the workers quarters behind. That's where all the girls currently stayed. A few minutes later, the duo reached a smaller building that looked much cozier than anything else that Rex had seen on this property.
"The folks who ran this place used to live here, back when they owned it. We acquired it. like many other within cities we trade with. The tribe I come from that is. Come inside."
Once inside, Danica lead rex further in, until they reached a bedroom of sorts. A large, double bed laid in the middle of the room, fresh bedding covering it. A couple of old, but nicely looking wardrobes stood on either side of the room, giving off the feeling of home, as odd as it sounded. Rex's moved his gaze off of her for only a few moments, glancing over the room, but when his focus returned to Danica, she was already mostly naked, sitting down on the bed.
"Might as well get it done with, yes?" she asked, slight redness tinting her cheeks.
"I thought you would need some time. What with the recent events and such." Rex scratched his neck a bit awkwardly.
"No. Would not change a thing, so might as well."
"Don't mind if I do then."
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