Three men and one woman stared at me with astonishment for a moment before a guardsman named Frank cleared his throat.
"Are you all right, miss?" He asked me.
No, I wasn't. My body was shaking, my ass hurt, and I was looking at armed guardsmen who had a higher level than me.
[Guardsman: lvl 125]
[Guardswoman: lvl 122]
[Guardsman: lvl 134]
[Guardsman: lvl 118]
One of them was so red in the face that the probability of him attacking me was really high. He must have been pretty angered by me for delaying them.
Thoughts of escape did not leave me, but its implementation was now completely impossible. I was so scared I was glad I was standing at all.
When I was asked by the guardsman if I was okay, I just nodded.
"Well, people, do your work," guardsman Frank ordered.
The other guardsmen began inspecting Scoreby's wagon and its contents, while guardsman Frank stayed with me. He has the highest level of them all.
[Guardsman: lvl 134]
"Miss, if you want to enter Castiana, you must have an ID card. You don't have it, so we need to ask you a few questions and verify your identity. You may be surprised, but it's our captain's job. I'll take you to Guards Barracks, where the captain will ask you some questions. I'd appreciate it if you could give me some information I could give our captain before meeting you."
"…" I nodded.
"Very well," Frank said. "Liam, I'll take her with me. Nice to see you and say hello to Marlen for me."
"I'll tell her, Frank," Scoreby smiled. "Miss Grey, I wish you good luck in your life."
"…" I just nodded again.
I wanted to tell him more, maybe thank him, but I couldn't do it right now. I was sorry.
"Please follow me," the guardsman told me.
I didn't want to, but I did not have much choice. My steps were wobbly as I followed him. We went through the city gate, behind which we entered a small guardhouse. The fact that no one was inside didn't calm my nerves, and dark thoughts began to fill my mind.
Frank sat down at the table and pulled a pen and paper from the drawer.
"Sit down, miss," he pointed to a chair across from him.
After a moment's hesitation, I tried to sit in a chair, but what followed was an awkward attempt. The back of the chair made it quite impossible for me to sit. More precisely, my wings and tail did. I could have twisted the tail aside, but I had a bigger problem with the wings.
"There's a stool over there," the guardsman pointed to a wooden stool in the corner of the room.
I immediately exchanged it for a chair. Now I was mad at him for not telling me sooner. I could have saved myself this humiliation.
"Tss…" I hissed in pain when I finally sat down.
Yes, I forgot my bruised ass. However, the guardsman didn't comment on that and waited until I was ready for interrogation.
"Can we start?" he asked.
I nodded "…"
"So, miss, from what Liam Scoresby said, I deduce your last name is Grey?" the guardsman asked.
"Korra…" I managed to say out loud.
The man looked at me and then asked. "Korra Grey?"
"Yes"
"Korra Grey, female, Slave lvl 92," the guard muttered as he took notes.
"So, miss Grey, did you come from Arda?"
"Yes"
"Did you come across the Traim river? Is that so?" he asked.
"Yes"
Guardsman frowned. "Didn't anyone catch you crossing the border?"
"Yes," I replied but hesitated. "I mean, I haven't met anyone."
He smiled at my answer, even though I didn't think it was good news for border guards.
"Who was your master?" He asked me.
At that moment, I began to breathe hard, and even a growl-like sound came out of my throat.
"Frederic Dungreen," I said.
Guardsman Frank wrote this name down. "How long have you been his slave?"
"I don't know," I said, sighing. "… Months, maybe more than a year."
"Well, that would be enough. As I said, this is not my job, but our captain's," said the guard.
Then he took a black plate covered with runes from another drawer and placed it in front of me. It was a magical tool. I knew it. I just didn't know its function.
"It's an Identification Tablet. Put your hand on it, please." the guardsman said. "Don't worry, it'll just verify your name and profession, nothing more."
All I could do was trust him. Frederic Dungreen used something similar on his slaves, but the magical tool was not so small and did not have a tablet's shape. However, it showed him all the system information about the slaves.
My hand shook as I placed it on the plate. As soon as I touched it, the runes on the Identification Tablet glowed. Guardsman Frank and I were now watching the text hovering over the plate.
Korra Grey
Slave: lvl 92
The guard took notes again, then took the Identification Tablet back. He folded the notepaper and put it in his pocket.
"All right, miss Grey," the guardsman said, standing up. "I'll take you to the captain."
"Okay," I nodded.
Even though I had to listen to the guardsman, my hands were still free, and my neck was without a collar. I got up from my stool and let the man guide me. Guard barracks were not built near the walls, nor in the city center. They stood somewhere between them. I couldn't pinpoint their position in the city when I didn't see its map.
But we walked through a part of town before we reached the barracks. My expectations weren't very high from the beginning, so I wasn't disappointed. Multi-story medieval buildings of stone or wood lined the streets, on which people moved together with horse-drawn wagons. It was an incredible sight for me, something I only saw in movies or in old pictures.
It was not a clean city, but which city was? As I walked barefoot, I had to watch my steps, not to step on something I would regret. The streets themselves were not lined with sidewalks, so people walked among the wagons. Luckily traffic here was not as heavy as in modern cities, and people on the streets seemed satisfied and happy to me. I envied them.
However, I didn't focus as much on my first walk through the city as I should. My thoughts were more focused on my upcoming interrogation from the captain in the barracks. It was a small stone fortress full of guardsmen.
Well, maybe that was a little exaggerated. There weren't that many of them. But I saw at least a dozen guardsmen on the courtyard. My own guardsman led me to the largest building in the fort. There I found myself in front of a young man in uniform sitting at a table overflowing with stacks of papers. I couldn't get rid of the assistant's impression.
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When we reached him, he looked up from the ledger he was filling something into.
"Frank, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the South Gate?" He asked.
"I'm just doing my job, Travis," he replied. "Do you know Liam Scoresby? He returned from Mitta here with Miss Korra Grey. She doesn't have an ID, so I'm leading her to the captain."
The man at the table looked at me and then frowned. "Do you have any information I can give to the captain or just the name?"
Guardsman Frank pulled out a note sheet he had written earlier and handed it to the assistant. He took it, inspected it, and sighed. "All right, Frank, take her to interrogation room number two. Captain is now with the mayor, so it will take a while."
"Sure,"
I was introduced to one of the interrogation rooms, a small room with only a table and two chairs. At first glance, it was not a pleasant room, cold, austere, almost reminiscent of a cell. I lived in worse conditions for months, and this room even has a window. It was barred, but it wasn't in the basement.
"All right, miss. You heard, the captain has a job now. You will have to wait a while,"
"…" I nodded.
"So I'll say goodbye to you here," the guardsman said, smiling and leaving the room.
As he closed the door behind him and locked it, I panicked. It was here, I went right into their arms alone and voluntarily. Not much work for them, and now they had me locked in a cell. All they had to do was put a collar around my neck, and I was back where I started.
I found the room corner as far away from the door as I could, curled up, and waited for my new master to arrive.
A loud bang, echoing through the room, woke me from my thoughts. I quickly raised my head to find the source of the noise and stopped. Next to the table stood a tall woman in guard armor. She looked directly at me, judged me, and thought about my price as a slave.
"I hate to wake you, but I have a pretty busy day today," the woman said. "Korra Grey? I suppose?"
"Yes," I nodded.
What? What did she say? I didn't sleep! I was just thinking, didn't I? Hmm…. Maybe I really fell asleep. After all, I was up all night. But how could I be so careless like that? I couldn't afford that.
The woman saw that she had my attention, so she sat down at the table, where she unfolded the papers she had brought with her.
"Please sit down," she said, pointing at the chair across the table.
I frowned. "Don't you have a stool?"
"I'm sorry we don't, turn the chair around," she said as she read the notes.
What did she mean? Turning the chair around, like sitting on it the other way round? It was a solution, but...yes, I'll do it, ma'am. Her gaze told me she didn't like my hesitation. Apparently, I was disrupting her schedule today. I turned my chair over and sat on it with its backrest in front of me.
Now I didn't have a problem with the wings and tail. But it wasn't comfortable either. Because of the backrest, I had to sit with my legs spread. I didn't mind. My problem wasn't with that, but with the fact that I was commando under my improvised skirt.
"Korra Grey, Slave level 92, former master Frederic Dungreen, in slavery for over a year," she read aloud from the notes. "Tell me, what kind of race are you?"
"Who are you?" I asked instead of answering.
I don't know where it came from. I was surprised that I found the courage to ask her like that.
"Castiana's City Guardsmen Captain Sanysia Rayden, so what are you?" She asked again after introducing herself.
I closed my eyes for a moment, then looked at her. "Would you believe I'm human?"
"I'd love to hear how one can have ears like you…"
So I started telling her my story and told her everything, including not being from Eleaden. I started telling my story from the beginning, how Fae kidnapped me, the experiments, the mutations, my death, the meeting with Mr. Scoresby, and finally, I described the way to Castiana.
Captain listened to me all the time and just nodded sometimes. At first, I didn't understand why I was telling her all this. I definitely didn't want to tell anyone I was from Earth. In the end, I came to the conclusion that there must be magic at work here or some skill that calmed me down and forced me to tell the truth. However, when I looked at Captain Rayden, I did not see that her class had anything to do with the interrogation.
[Warrior: lvl ??]
It wasn't the first time I saw someone with question marks instead of a level. When I was forced to choose the Slave class, my level was 1. I saw all the other slaves with question marks. Mostly one, only a couple with two. It told me one thing, this woman was powerful.
But it didn't change the fact that I told her everything without wanting to. Now I could only wait for her reaction. The silence that came after I finished my story was nerve-racking.
"How did you get across the border?" She asked.
Was that her first question? I was shocked.
"Eh, I don't remember," I said, scratching my neck. "I think I was still dead. As I said, I woke up on the riverbank, just a few hours walk from the bridge over the river."
"I see," she nodded. "This is a potential threat."
"Really?" I wondered.
"Well, it's not very realistic for the enemy to send an entire army of corpses down the river, but for an spy to cross the border this way could be possible," Captain Rayden said. "Well, what is Dungreen's profession, his level?"
"I don't know. He forbade me to look with one of the first orders I received from him," I told her.
He had a whole list of orders ready when I appeared in the cellar. It was just routine for him, just another test subject.
The captain nodded. "I thought so. What about his companions? Someone you saw?"
"If he was in contact with anyone, it wasn't in the cellar," I said
Other questions followed, but unfortunately, I was not able to answer most of them. Despite being locked up in the cellar with other slaves for months and in the presence of that madman, I didn't know much. He was a proper lunatic, but he wasn't stupid. The other people he dragged into the dungeon were from all corners of Arda. All the newcomers were drugged and had no idea in which city they were. The only information I had was the name of the river to which the sewers led. The cellar couldn't be far from here because the river could be heard from the sewers.
"Anything else?" The captain asked me again. "Please try to remember, even a small thing will suffice."
It was hard for me to remember the place of my suffering, but I tried.
"Hmm… I saw a letter on his desk once," I told her, trying to remember more. "I don't know what was in it or who it was from, but I remember the wax seal that was on it."
Captain Rayden immediately handed me a piece of paper and a pencil. "Please draw it for me."
I tried my best. It's incredible how one atrophies when you're not using something. My wrist was stiff, and my hand wasn't listening to my commands as I thought it would. Fortunately, the seal was not so complicated. Two crossed roses. Captain Tayden took my creation from me, inspected it, and placed it among the other notes.
"The last thing we have left is'," she said, placing the device I was familiar with on the table. "Your identification. This is the Identification Station. It's an invasion of privacy, but if you want to get an ID card, you have to put your hands on it."
"Why isn't the tablet enough?" I asked her.
"Because it's too weak, some abilities can fool it, and I won't let a threat into my city," Rayden said in a casual tone.
"I'm just asking," I said quickly. "That bastard used the same magic tool, I mean the station."
Captain Rayden immediately leaned toward me. "Interesting because it is not a commonly available tool. What else did he use?"
So instead of identifying, I started naming her magical tools that I saw in the cellar. I also added the non-magical ones, which I found interesting.
"Please," the captain pointed to the station as I listed everything I could think of.
I would compare the Identification Station to the size of a computer keyboard. The same blackboard was covered with runes as a Tablet, but two places were marked on it for hands and a crystal embedded in the middle.
I took a deep breath and put both hands on the station. The runes lit up, and the status screen appeared between the two of us.
Name: Korra Grey
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Age: 29
Class: Slave
Level: 92
Constitution: 39
Strength: 21
Endurance: 25
Dexterity: 23
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 10
Class skills:
Indomitable Will: lvl 108
Faint Presence: lvl 29
Lover of Work: lvl 8
Master's Toy: lvl 72
Silent Suffering: lvl 91
Odorless Odor: lvl 88
General skills:
Eleaden Standard Language: lvl 9
Flight: lvl 1
Nerve Poison: lvl 6
Night Vision: lvl 18
Good Hearing: lvl 23
Unnatural Regeneration: lvl 36
Lioness Strength: lvl 4
Poison Resistance: lvl 3
So that was it, my status in all its glory. According to the system, still human. A woman in her late twenties who became a slave here. My stats were quite focused on the constitution, or rather my health, vitality. This was Dungreen's job. He told me how to spend every point I earned.
My initial stats were not impressive at all. The highest-rated was the constitution and intelligence, both stats with 8 points. The worst was the strength, rated by only four points. Yeah, I had self-defense lessons, but I wasn't a very athletic person. It hardly mattered now.
My stats were what they were, and I couldn't change that.
Six class skills spoke for themselves. It was a combination of what the madman demanded of me. Not to collapse, not to be seen, a little strength, to listen to him, to be quiet and not to stink. Really nice list.
Everyone could acquire general skills, and there were eight of them. The first one I got was Eleaden Standart Language. I got it when he put a slave collar on me. Thanks to that, I understood everyone and was able to speak the local language. The rest of the skills were the result of experiments and mutations on my body. Flight, for example, was a completely useless skill. Even though I had wings, I couldn't fly and therefore, couldn't train this skill.
As I said, I had a lot of skills that I wanted to change.
"This is a real mess," Captain Rayden commented on my status.
"…" I could do nothing but nod quietly. She was right.
"Well, that's enough for me. I don't see a problem in giving you an ID," said Rayden, indicating that I could take my hands off.
I nodded and removed my hands from the Identification Station. The status screen disappeared, the runes stopped shining, and the captain cleaned up the station. She made a few more notes before packing everything on the table. She got up from the table so suddenly that it scared me.
"Follow me,"
I obeyed her, but keeping up with her was difficult. She was incredibly fast, even though she was only walking. Her target was Travis, her assistant I had already met.
"Travis, give her an ID. She's okay, standard procedure," she told him, handing him some form.
"Yes, ma'am," the man said, saluting.
Captain Rayden looked at me and smiled for the first time. "Miss Grey, welcome to Castiana."