Chapter 1 -  Slave

"Haru... Are you listening to me?" – asked teacher Amane.

"..." – only silence in response and nothing more. I raised my head calmly at this woman, whose business is to get in my hair.

"Don’t waste your time on him, teacher Amane. Just have patience for two months" - blurted Takeda from the back rows.

"Ms. Boy as usually behaves as Smarty pants~"

In the end, teacher Amane just kept silent, and I continued staring out of the window.

I am Atsuki Haru, I’m 18, ordinary schoolboy. My life is as dull as ditchwater. I study, work and survive in this world. I turned eighteen last month and was kicked out of orphanage. They gave me a room in mean streets and little living allowance.

I knew it from the very beginning, so I saved some money. But I can’t imagine my future anyway. My classmates don’t treat me as a person, I have no relatives, and all my friends are on the Internet.

I’m more than 190 meters tall, rough face, quite long hair and silver fringe, hiding my left eye. I was born blind in one eye. But fringe helps me to keep it secret. I am quite fit, thanks to it few dare to deal with me.

No one at school knows that I'm from orphanage and that my life is so bad. Only the teacher Amane treats me as a person. She does not ask annoying questions and sometimes asks how things are.

She knows that I am an outcast in the class and somehow encourages me, but it does not help much. I'm pissed off with pity, I immediately feel like a measerable person. But, I'm not like that. Once in all these years of beatings, fights and humiliations, I have not broken down.

When the lessons were over, I went to work. I deliver different postal goods. I have a small area where I deliver things, so I have time to deliver everything to the addresses and return home in the evening.

I'll have a bite, listen to music, feed the tarantula and then go to bed. Then everything repeats itself. Even on weekends, I'm on my feet. You have to hump for pennies to pay bills and buy everything you need for life.

When summer came, our class decided to go on a trip, in a couple of days. I initially refused, but then there was an incident, because of which, I had to go to get out.

On Sunday, I went to the club, but not for the sake of putting it out, but to work for a bouncer. The club is on the outskirts of the city, and they pay even more than for courier work. As always there was a queue, and I let who match the dress code in.

Two hours I worked without incident, until eventually came the violent trio of guys. They were dressed normally, but drunk and passed without waiting.

I am wearing a suit, a white shirt, even shoes.

"Come on brother... Let us in..." - gave out the most riotous and tall of them.

"Nope ... you're drunk. Sober yourself and return" I answered very calmly.

"Fuck you... I want to pass and I will do!"

He was one head lower than me and it looked ridiculous when someone with such appearance tried to threaten me.

"Man, sod off, or I'll throw you away" I answered quite calmly.

As a result, he started to advance to me, and I put my hands up and held him at arm's length from myself, holding him by forehead.

Then the guy did an unexpected thing, he took out a knife and almost cut my hand. I pulled it in time and smacked him in the jaw. He fell, and his second friend attacked me, but I just kicked him on the knee, he quickly fell down, and the third began to call someone and yell:

"You're already dead, boy!"

After couple of minutes came head of the club. Britain with beard who hired me. I delivered him some kind of box.

"What is this noise, Atsuki?"

"Couple of brassies, Mr. Ramsey," I answered calmly.

Ramsey dragged the most violent of his hair and looked at his face.

"Shit... This is the son of local yakuza"

"Is that a problem?"

"A bit. Dump from the city for a couple of days? I will deal with him, he owes me"

"As you say. I hope I will not lose my job?"

"No. I'll call you. Throw them in the trash-bin and you can be free"

That's exactly what I did. Three drunk people went to the backyard directly in the garbage bin. With hands in my pocket, I went home.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

In the morning I called teacher Amane and asked about the trip. The money is very decent, but while I was working for Ramsey, I had a stash. If he said to disappear from the city, then better so I will.

 ****

In the afternoon I was wearing a school uniform waiting for a bus on the school grounds. The class discussed what is cool in Tokyo and what cool things there and what they are like. The usual bullshit, which I do not like.

Headphones suppress unnecessary information. With a backpack with change clothes, sneakers and snack I sat in the bus, which quickly pulled up and we began to take seats in the seats. My class. Nerds, athletes, popular and not. Everyone is here.

Teacher Amane arranged a roll call. Only I did not hear my name because of the headphones. But, she came up to me, stuck out her left earpiece and cried:

"TWENTY THIRD! ATSUKI HARU HERE?!"

I looked at her like a patient and just nodded.

"Hmphh..." She let go of the steam and continued the roll call.

Four hours later we were in Tokyo. I lived in a room with three other guys, but did not communicate with them. I watched the sights, listened to the edge of my ear with the guide. On the second day, Ramsee called me and said that had settled everything. On the third day we went home.

We were unlucky, it began to rain cats and dogs, in addition, we drove at night, so particularly nothing was visible. The whole class was sleeping, and I listening to the tracks and stick to Tetris on the phone.

A couple of seconds later the bus began to brake. I hit my head on the bus seat, and with a sharp turn, I hit my head again, only against the glass. There was a crack, and I felt pain.

The phone flew off somewhere, the class woke up and started screaming. I somehow grabbed the seat, but it did not help me. I saw through the broken glass that we are falling from the cliff, and my whole life swept before my eyes.

Even before the impact on the ground, I lost consciousness.

"Arrhh... aaarrrhh... Damn! I moaned from the headache"

I opened my eyes and the sun blinded me for a couple of seconds. I rolled onto side and took hold of my cracking head. For a couple of minutes I just lay there and came to my senses. I was so bad that I could see black dots in front of my eyes.

Soon I got up on all fours and started to puke. My whole dinner left my body. In an incomprehensible state, I stayed for a while. When I sat down, I began to look at what was around me. Fields, open fields, you can say even arable land. I did not even understand where I was.

The eye began to gain sight and only then, I remembered about a double strike of my head. I had to tear my shirt to tie my head. Looking to the distance, I was looking for a bus and someone from the class. But, there are no people here, as if there is none at all.

I had to get to my feet and go along the road. A couple of times I was beaten to such a state, so the concussion for me is not in the first. But, at least I knew how to get to the hospital.

So quiet and unusual. When I remembered about the phone, I did not find it in my pockets. I only have a little money and a card of a high school student. I was met by some people on horseback and with a crew behind me.

I was surprised to see knights in armor. One of them came up to me, he was short in armor. His face is covered with scars, and he graces like a homeless man.

"Uris wias ..." he said something strange.

"What?" - I asked and immediately got on the face with a truncheon.

I already went dark for the second time.

....

I woke up already in the cage, which was pulled by two horses. Captured men, women and children were next to me. I immediately felt uneasy. In my head, I thought what was going on, but there was no obvious answer.

They took off my jacket, belt and sneakers. I stayed in a torn shirt without a left sleeve, trousers and socks. In the evening, we stopped, we were still in a cage. Three men, including me, two young girls and three children.

One child had pointed ears and very light skin. For some reason, he reminded me of an elf. Long hair and very unnatural blue eyes. Prisoners whispered quietly, in a language I did not understand.

I was completely lost, did not understand what to do. I thought how to escape, but there were no options. When one of the men spoke loudly, he was struck on the head with a baton. Keep silence and wait, that's all is left.

At night I froze and began to tremble. It was not cold to me alone, so I had to endure. At night, when I fell asleep, I thought that I would not wake up. In the morning I opened my eyes, a dead child was dragged out of the cage. He got frozen to death.

Fear, as well as a sense of complete lostness, took over me.

In the morning we were given bites of bread. The guard gave me a bigger scrap, and I eagerly ate it. I understand, if I want to survive, it is better to eat while they give. Three days we were on the way to somewhere, I still did not understand a single phrase. In addition to "Uris" - it seems this is some kind of insult.

We arrived in the city and we were dragged out of the cage with the remaining slaves and taken to the market. In my socks, I squeezed dirt, people threw out evening pots on the street.

I got into some early Middle Ages. Low-rise wooden buildings with stone cladding. I no longer doubted that I was in another world. Everything is not as colorful as described in textbooks or films.

We reached a certain square. Many different people screamed in a language I did not understand, undermined and traded. Smells awfull. We stood in front of some peasant in a long robe. He looked at us with his fat, arrogant face.

First he looked at the children. He quickly bought a witty child and gave him gold for it. He bought the second child for a pair of silver. Then he went to the girls. He tore off their clothes and watched if they are virgins or not.

He gave a silver for the first, and four for the second, I so understood this is important in this world. I stand side by side and see everything that the fat man gives for each. Then he examined the two low men in their thirties, maybe more.

They are thin and he gave two silver for each. Soon he came up to me. They tore off my shirt to show me my torso. The fat man looked at me with an interested look.

A couple of times he patted my torso, then my stomach, soon my back, made a couple of circles around me. He said something and I was put on his knees in front of him. He lifted my fringe, and then his gaze changed.

The slave soldier said something in a very reluctant voice, and the knight stomped with rage from anger. The fat man gave six silver for me, and after the knight with his gang left.

I was chained to the post for the collar, there were some signs on it.

"Your are a slave," the slaver said, but I understood him.

"Ah ..." I wanted to say something, but he ordered me sharply.

"Shut up! Do not talk and make any sounds!" - he growled.

For some reason I obeyed him and closed my mouth. My mouth could not even make a sound, as if I had been bewitched, or I was mute at all. After a couple of minutes, I just came to the post and waited.

People passed around who looked at me like an animal. Stink, cold and fear, that's all that surrounds me now. I can only wait, sit and wait. After all, there is nothing more I can do.

A boy, a slave, handed me a thin sheet.

"It's for you to somehow keep the heat."

" ... "- I could not answer anything and just nodded.

He covered himself with a sheet and listened to what others were saying ...

"~ How long will I survive here? ~ "