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  "Well, shit," Eric said, gazing intently at a small help screen. He would use them to pass the time, learning the intracicies about the world and the system of the divine weapons. Now he was face to face with a very serious issue. He had just finished a passage on the Divine Clock, about how the ones held by the countries are merely recreations of the original. The location of the original, dubbed the Celestial Clock, was lost after the country hosting it fell. Apparently, the next rank up was at lv100, which Eric was dangerously close to with his chains.

  "Where should we start looking?" Draco asked when Eric broached the subject to them.

  "Right now, the only one I know of for certain belongs to the king," Eric said. "Which means it's going to be very hard to find."

  "We should find another country that has one," Elas suggested. "At the very least, Bagonia might have it."

  "Bagonia? Isn't that a flower?"

  "It's a small country whose almost as powerful as Lorain," Elas elaborated. "In terms of resources, Lorain is much larger and varied, but Bagonia is the center of the world when it comes to magic. If the two went to war, it would be a close call as to who would win."

  "Then we should head to Bagonia," Eric said decisively, but a still silence told Eric otherwise. "What's the problem?"

  "Bagonia is a nation of mixed species," Elas said nervously. "Humans aren't treated very well over there. It's almost synonamous with how demi-humans are treated here."

  "Then there's no problem," Eric said simply. "If we protect each other, nobody's going to do anything."

  "It may not be that simple," Elas claimed, looking at the demi-humans. "If three demi-humans arrive with slave sigils on their bodies tied to a human, that's automatic execution."

  "Alright," Eric waved the idea off, "I was thinking of setting you guys free anyway."

  "Really?" Draco and Lilly questioned simoultaneously.

  "Sure, I trust you guys," Eric explained. "Besides, you should know me well enough, I don't have any ill intentions."

  "I'm afraid it's not that simple," Elas cut in before the celebration began. "There are ways of tracing old magic that's been erased, even years after it's been cast. If you're going to Bagonia, it's going to take a miracle. Or maybe, a show of good faith." There was a hint behind Elas's words, so Eric listened to hear what he needed to do.

  "Ah," said the plump slave trader out the front of his tent, "I see my heroic customer is back." Eric and his party approached the alleyway leading to the tent where the slaver held his stock, then stopped at the front entrance. "Tell me, how have my products been working out for you?"

  "I'm afraid I've come across a dilemma," Eric said, his voice soft and mellow.

  "Is it discipline?"

  "No, it's with their level," Eric lied to him quickly. "They've maxed out at level fourty and I'm at odds on what to do."

  "Ah," the slaver said in understanding, "I see the issue. The Divine Clock requires a good relation with Lorain and the church, both things you lack."

  "Yeah, so I'm here for a different purpose," Eric spoke as if he didn't want to say what he was saying.

  "Do tell."

  "Well, after some discussion, it was decided that another Divine Clock would most likely be in Bagonia. The problem is, I'd be killed for having slaves there, even if I free them. So, I was really left with one choice."

  "You want me to mark you as a slave?" guessed the slaver in some surprise. "I suppose that would grant you passage through the marks, and would explain a magical connection between master and slave. As long as nobody looked closely enough, that could get you into Bagonia without a problem."

  "That's not what we where thinking," Eric said, looking back at his companions. With a heavy sigh, Eric told the slaver, "I'm going to be stealing all of your slaves, and then I'm going to be attacking your suppliers."

  "W-what?! How could you do such a thing?!"

  "As a grand gesture of good faith towards the non-humans, I'm going to be ending slavery," Eric announced to the slaver. "It's nothing personal, but I suggest you tell me everything, then find another line of work."

  It took almost two months to track down the final organization that operated in the slave trade. It had been long and tedious work, more so now that Eric had an entire city worth of people following him wherever he went. Freeing slaves wasn't difficult, it's what you did with them once they were freed that became the problem. The caravan would move slowly, often taking longer routes just so that everyone could fit along the roads. Eric was annoyed at the delay, but constant thanks and prayers from the various people he's freed often sidetracked his annoyance. When Eric was dragged to a wave, he would eradicate the entire horde within a few minutes and close the door before going back to his caravan.

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  When the cages were broken and the slaves were freed, families reconnected and many tears were shed. Sometimes Eric would be attacked out of pure fear, but he kept a profound understanding that these people didn't know how to react to freedom. Sometimes they would call to fight back against the injustice, but Eric ignored those particular calls. He didn't want a revolution, he just wanted a way into Bagonia.

  The final base was actually close to the Bagonia border, most likely to attack any caravans that were passing through. Some of the freed slaves picked up weapons to fight, but Lucia, Draco, and Lillith held them back. Eric and Elas approached an old ruin that had been cut into a mountain, then Elas stood by the entrance while Eric entered into the ruin alone. After a while, tremors could be felt inside of the ruins, as if the mountain was shaking.

  People started coming out a little at a time, passing Elas who stood at the entrance with an aura of ice around her. She guided the slaves to freedom, taking them in groups to the people waiting. It took all day to clear the entire cave out, but eventually, Eric emerged with a group of children that were missing limbs or had other disabilities.

  "These are the last ones," Eric said grimly, holding the hand of a a little girl with one arm.

  "Oh my gods," Elas said, putting her hands to her mouth in horror. "Who could do something like this?"

  "Someone who got theirs in the end," Eric confirmed, looking back at the entrance of the ruins. "Come on, we need to get these kids to their parents."

  Elas helped a kid who only had one leg while Eric carried a boy with no legs, making their way back to the encampment. When Elas and Eric arrived, there were tears of joy and of pain. Not everybody was accounted for, some parents were missing children, some wives were missing husbands, leaving most families incomplete. It was an intensly sobering day for people, even though slavery had all but been abolished. Eric was silent for most of the night, even as a celebration/fugue had begun.

  "What's the problem?" Lucia asked, sitting next to Eric with a drink in her hand. "You just did something amazing! No one else has to suffer because of those people." Lucia's happiness was not as contagious as she had hoped, because Eric just gazed at the bonfire as people danced wildly to improvised music.

  "When I was homeless, the thing I hate the most was being pitied," Eric confessed. "There was always this look in people's eyes that told me they felt sorry for me. It made me so angry back then, I used to take it out on people who didn't deserve what I did to them. That look made me feel like nothing would get better, as if I couldn't escape from being poor without people giving me money. Like I was helpless.

  "Now, when I'm freeing these people, taking the chains from around their necks, I feel like I had that same look on my face.... I don't want to pity them, they don't deserve pity. They just want to be happy." Lucia had a sweet smile on her face, feeling that Eric had somehow said something romantic.

  "Everybody wants to be happy," Lucia said, offering the rest of her drink to the big man next to her. He took it, then sipped it to get the right taste down.

  "What is this?" he asked with his spirits raised.

  "It's a kind of juice," Lucia giggled, looking at Eric with a distant gaze. "Eric, do you like me?"

  "Absolutely," Eric confirmed, and he wrapped his arm around his tiger companion.

  "Do you think I could... kiss you?" Eric had a chill run down his back while he was drinking, then some of the juice became caught in his throat. He started coughing heavily, trying to clear his airways while glancing at Lucia.

  "I'm sorry," Eric apologized, "I don't think that would be a good idea." He had a weak smile, and Lucia tried to match it with a tear in her eye.

  "Why would it not be good?" Lucia asked, the smile fading quickly.

  "Because you deserve better than me," Eric claimed, and he believed every word. Even if he didn't want to.

  "Why? What makes you think that you are any worse than us?"

  "Because I'm the bad guy," Eric said plainly, "and I've come to terms with that."

  "But... you're a hero?" Lucia said in confusion.

  "I'm not a hero. I'm just a bad guy who needs to fight something worse because of some stupid, divine quest. What I did in my old life, I had to drag people into my own personal hell just so I could hope to get out. There are things that I did, people I hurt, it's all just so messed up when I think about it, there's no way to justify it." Eric looked at Lucia and said with a solemn tone, "I'm the bad guy."

  "Well," Lucia hugged Eric's big arm and pulled him close, "I like bad guys." Eric scoffed with a mean grin, then he petted Lucia between her cat ears. Eric sat there, drinking and watching people dance as he thought and thought. As much as he wore the label of 'bad person', he always wanted to be a hero to someone. To save someone when they were at their lowest, to be the one person who could be counted on to save the world.

  But he would never be able to do something like that. A dumb brute who can't even save his own sister, how could he be a hero?

  In the morning, Lucia woke up with a pounding headache and a bottle in her hands. She was located on the log that she had been sharing with Eric, but the big man was nowhere to be seen. She walked around the impromptu camp that had been set up to house the hundreds of demi-humans, watching as families slept together in the early morning hours. She saw Draco with some part-gecko girl, Elas was in an igloo, and Lilly was nuzzled next to twenty other rabbit demi-humans. Lucia searched and searched around the camp, but nowhere she looked could she find Eric.

  'Maybe he's out hunting,' she convinced herself, but there was a niggling doubt that betrayed her. On her search for Eric, she hadn't even caught a whiff of his scent. Normally she could track a person by scent, but Eric's had almost completely disappeared from the camp.

  "Hey, there's a note on your back," said an old man who was part dog. He peeled off a piece of paper and handed it to Lucia.

  'Lucia, take the others and search for the Celestial Clock. There isn't a lot of time before the next wave, so I'm going to get some experience. Make sure you move quickly, you don't want to miss out on the experience! Don't worry about seeing each other, we'll all arrive at the wave in five weeks. See you there!'

  'PS. You're all free. Make sure you rank up!'

  Lucia practically ripped her chestplate off right there, and true enough, the slave sigil was no longer present. The tiger-girl informed the others, only to realize that Eric had actually left them. Draco and Lilly were ecstatic, Elas seemed level-headed about it, but Lucia was on the verge of tears. It took the entire trip to the Bagonia border for her to calm down and see reason behind it. This way, Eric wouldn't be hindering the three as they went to find the Divine Clock, and with them seperated, they could earn a lot more experience points.

  Fifty miles away, Eric was running at a full sprint towards the capital of Lorain. He was using various skills as he went, levelling them up as he moved faster and faster towards the center of the country. He had just remembered something he had seen during the assault on Vicky's carriage, and he needed to confirm it at the castle.

  It had nothing to do with the tears in his eyes, of the breaking in his heart, or the idiocy of running from a good thing.

  He just really needed to be somewhere else.

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