Leo stood rooted in the place even after the crowd began to disperse. He had seen people die, in fact, thousands of disciples died in the war between the Voodoo sect and the Sacred Order, but he had never seen such cruelty. He didn’t give much value to the lives of others since people were so fragile and he didn’t put much faith in relationships either since he never had a particularly strong connection to anyone except for his father who was now dead.
But seeing this woman heroically taking head on the whole empire as if all she needed to pass the storm was to wait and smile, made him admire her bravery and stupidity to no end.
‘What if …’ Leo suddenly got a similarly moronic idea, ‘Ok … let’s see what’s going on in there first!’
He quickly made up his mind and mixed in the crowd. While he didn’t owe Lana anything, his time in Kinta was rapidly running out and no matter how he looked at it she was his best chance of getting out of here. Of course, he could try to ‘officially’ switch masters and become a cook to someone important, but even if one ignored his inability to explain his origins, there was a high chance he would become one of those male-slaves who pulled carriages or worked in the mines. As the result he would die in few years anyway.
There was one thing he noticed that for some reason gave him a tinge of hope. When the whole ordeal was over and Lana was brought back to the castle, people dispersed and Leo could finally observe what the castle looked like.
The first thing he immediately decided was that there was no chance for anyone to sneak in both during the day or night. The castle was built in whitish stone and it’s walls were tall without any possibility to scale unnoticed no matter how dark it was outside or how quick one might be.
But there was a constant flow of male-slaves going in and out through the castle gates carrying wares and pulling wagons. Leo had an inkling he could try to blend in and slip through, but the question was how to do it the most effective way possible and what in the world was he supposed to do after he got inside.
He obviously had no clue how to spring Lana free, but the idea alone made him excited and brought an adventurous feeling. Trying to flee the city on his own seemed too desperate, but he was unwilling to do nothing and become an actual male-slave.
The first thing Leo did was he found the closest marketplace and ‘under the orders of his master’ sold all the pelts in one go. Obviously he had no clue what they were actually worth, therefore when the merchant lady offered him a price, he scowled and said his master was going to kill both him and the merchant if he got hoodwinked. Just as expected, the merchant doubled the price while Leo still had no clue if it was enough.
Afterwards, few stalls further away, he bought an extremely large basket, one that could easily fit two people inside, spending almost two thirds of the money he just earned. Despite its size the basket was several times lighter compared to the pelts he just sold and Leo almost felt as if he was carrying a large chunk of air on his shoulders.
The next part was as easy as it was hard.
Once again pretending to follow the nonexistent master, he strolled the streets near the central square and the keep’s entrance, stealthily observing the flow of the male-slaves. His idea was to find the most inconspicuous load he could take in the name of the keep and then blend in with the local male-slaves from the keep on the way back.
Unfortunately male-slaves were not given tasks they could complete independently and all trips to the markets, shops or even to the mines were led by women. Only in the late afternoon Leo discovered three older guys who continuously carried firewood from a nearby warehouse and since it seemed to be his only option, a plan was born.
When the sun set, Leo found a larger reclusive estate and hid the basket in its back yard. Afterwards under the cover of the night he went on a stealing spree in the neighborhood, first alleviating the terrible hunger he felt during the past days and then stealing a bunch of supplies including clothing, leather armor, a couple of weapons and more random other stuff he wasn’t sure whether he was going to need or not.
After returning to the back yard, he went over his haul and changed into more appropriate clothing. Now he wasn’t wearing the dregs he used to, but still looked like a male-slave, although one of a higher standing.
Finally feeling more comfortable, he broke in a couple of houses where according to the signs on the front lived local doctors. There he stole some bandages since seeing how Lana was whipped today, she would definitely need them if he managed to get to her. This time Leo did his best to take as little as possible in hopes his deed would get unnoticed, but in the darkness he wasn’t completely certain he took the stuff he intended to, to not speak about not leaving any traces.
During the night he kept inwardly praising Anna for her teachings, because those were the main reason he had to knock out only one guard after being noticed by her. If he had to compare himself with how he was before he arrived to Dreadlands, Leo had to acknowledge he would've been caught already during the first couple of break-ins. While spending months with the super-women who technically were his masters, not only he had grown stronger and faster, he somehow managed to develop a bunch of other useful skills as well.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Leo swore to himself that if he ever got to return to the bunch, he would focus even more on his personal training and try to squeeze them dry of their knowledge. While being a Qi gathering stage cultivator was nice, in the world without Qi in the air his status was useless. In addition, according to master Shaw, his current main task was to strengthen his physical body and Dreadlands were turning to not be the worst place for that. Of course, being a male in this realm was a nightmare, but Leo persuaded himself that he has been in worst situations before and this one probably will resolve itself.
Strangely enough in stressful situations Leo slept like a baby. The next morning he also woke up only after the streets were already busy and it took him some time to choose the proper moment to mix in the crowd unnoticed. Jumping over the wall separating the back yard and the street was not as hard as to do it stealthily with the huge basket in hand, but fortunately it was still early enough and he didn’t attract any attention.
A short while later he was already not far from the warehouse, but the castle’s male-slaves were not there yet therefore he took another long roundabout loop through the busy streets.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Unexpectedly the warehouse manager greeted him with a curse.
She was a plump woman of a ball-like stature – almost as wide as she was tall. She sat near the entrance and ate something greasy, but seeing Leo approach with the large basket on his shoulders pointed her fat finger at him apparently angry he disturbed her breakfast.
“I was told to come.” Leo defended, “The firewood …”
“You don’t look like the rest.” She said with furrowed brows, “Who’s your master?”
At this point Leo realized he slightly overdressed in the darkness and his attire didn’t fit a regular male-slave at all – the clean linen shirt was more or less fine, but only few could wear green trousers and leather sandals. Unfortunately there was nothing he could do about it now and he went along with the script he prepared earlier – he sadly sighed and motioned with his head towards the keep as if embarrassed he was sent here.
“Hmm?” The manager was confused by the reaction, “You come from the castle? But I haven’t seen you before … you’re not from Kinta … that means … you belong to the inquisitor! Did lady Meda Matas punish you or something?”
“Mhm.” Leo nodded inwardly sighing with relief. This woman could easily chat with herself – she probably never got bored.
“Then what are you waiting for? Go! I’m not helping you – it’s your punishment, not mine! There’s no way I’m gonna provoke her!” Manager opened the gate to the warehouse and sat back down, but this time continued to curiously observe the young male-slave who most likely was the plaything of the celebrity from the capital.
Surprised by how easy it went, Leo walked in and saw long rows of cut firewood that filled two thirds of the warehouse. He went over to one side and began to slowly fill the basket, wondering what exactly should he do in the keep.
He came here according the saying ‘the early bird catches the worm’, but apparently he came way too early. Fortunately the fat lady not only figured all the necessary excuses out by herself, she even provided him with a useful information.
“I’d say you should hurry up.” After a brief moment the manager said, “Everyone is looking forward to see the second part of the show and if you linger about you won’t make it to the castle till afternoon.”
“Thank you!” Leo honestly said.
There was still some time till noon, but the manager was right – too many people enjoyed watching the evildoer getting brutally punished. Both last night and this morning Leo overheard multiple conversations of people making bets how long will Lana last and while executing a criminal was fine by his standards, torturing others went too far.
When his basket was full, Leo swiftly put it on his shoulders surprising the manager with the strength that didn’t fit his small stature. Realizing he had once again done something out of order, he quickly asked the first thing that came to mind.
“How long do you think the bitch will last?”
This was how the most people formulated it on the street and apparently the warehouse lady was dying for someone ask her this question.
“I’m absolutely positive she’ll make it through today. Tomorrow though, that’s a different question.” She immediately answered, “What does your master think?”
Leo almost tripped at the unexpected question, but quickly recovered and said, “Most likely she’ll be transported to the capital.”
Then he ignored the manager murmuring to herself ‘I definitely need to make a bet!’ and left while she was closing the warehouse again.
‘Alright! So far so good!’ Leo said to himself with a smile.
The earlier encounter was amusing, but he was more delighted by the fact that he barely felt the weight of the large basket on his shoulders. Both immortals turned out to be correct – to carry the Cleaver whole day every day was a great form of training. Of course, outwardly Leo didn’t dare to show how easy he had and walked as if the weight of the whole world pressed down on him.
The square in front of the keep was full of people and it was possible to hear the crowd already from the warehouse. Even though he walked very slowly, pretending he was carrying a heavy load, it didn’t take long for Leo to arrive.
In one aspect manager turned out to be wrong. The square was packed, but at both sides of the castle there was an empty part wide enough for a wagon to pass. Apparently it was some kind of an unwritten or maybe a written rule to leave enough space in case someone important needed to get to the castle and currently those ‘important’ people were the male-slaves like Leo and their guards.
The public lashing was done to entertain the citizens, therefore the male-slaves could only continue with their daily duties. In the current case Leo was not against it and carried his basket towards the castle gate, preparing for the next ‘interview’ and trying to think where should he bring the firewood once he’s inside.