*Interlude*

It has been rainy day all day. The first thing he sees is a cage. After looking at his surroundings, he figures out that he is in a cage inside a carriage.

After assessing his situation, he understands few things:

1. He cannot remember who he is and what happened to him before.

2. He still retains enough common knowledge to know that he is currently a slave on sale. He understands that the moment he sees other people inside the same cage that has tattooes of collar on their neck.

3. He does not have his left arm anymore. But it does not feel uncomfortable in any way. It's as if his body and mind are already used to the sensation of not having the left arm.

He looks at few slaves on sale just like him.

There are goblin slaves. All of them are either shorter or as tall as him. As for whether they are adults or kids, he does not have enough knowledge to differentiate that due to their similarity in height. Same can be said for their facial structures and other physical traits that they have, they are just too similar in his eyes.

There were also elf and dark elf slaves. All of them are adult men. Their traits are easier to analysed in his eyes.

Then beastmen slaves can also be seen. Some of them are male kids and adults.

He finally realises that he is the only human slave in this cage.

Upon his realization, the carriage arrives in a town that he is not aware of.

He tries to read the name of the town from the sign, but he realizes that he cannot read.

He sees many races walking inside that town which is a rare case because towns or villages in this continent should be based on a single race's authority. He does not understand the concept of interracial town yet.

As the carriage sets up a big tent inside the town, he tries hard to remember the reason that caused him to become a slave.

There are usually two ways for a person to lose their human rights:

1. They are a bandit or criminal who was heavily punished by authority to become a slave. A magic slave collar is also a countermeasure to stop them from doing anything outside their master's orders.

For slaves on sale, the ownership falls to their sellers. It will be given to the master who buy the slave once the purchase has been made.

2. They are beings with weak astral bodies. The status in society depends on how well you can use magic. Astral Body is the pool of mana that people or monsters have in their body so thar they can use magic. The weaker the Astral Body, the lesser the capability of a person being able to use magic.

To differentiate how weak or powerful as astral body is, people use the concept of "Level".

There are seven levels of Astral Body, Level 0, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, Level 5 and Level 6

The average level of people from different races depends on the race but they are usually between Level 2 or Level 3.

For example, Human, Beastman and Goblin's average level would be Level 2. While the average level of Elf and Dark Elf would be level 3.

Level 4 and 5 means that the person's capability of magic is above average which enough to call them talented.

Level 6 is a legendary level that only few people in this world have. They can use all kinds of magic and have almost unlimited amount of mana at their disposal.

Level 0 is similar to level 6 in a way that only few people in this world have it. But their case is the opposite. They cannot use magic at all because they don't have Astral Body.

Astral Body can also be considered a limb for human beings. Any person without Astral Body would be considered being whose value is even lower than a person in this world.

That also applies to level 1. Due people with Astral Body Level 1 being almost unable to use magic to work or even protect themselves, their value as a person is also at the bottom in society of mankind.

The difference between level 0 and 1 is that level 1 is not rare and can still use magic on a very small scale.

After thinking about the possibilities, it is most likely that his reason to become a slave is the latter one. But he cannot be so sure because he loses his memories.

"WHAT!? There are no more female slaves you say!?"

A shout interrupts his thought, he looks outside and sees a dark elf man talking to lizardman, a race of a person with lizard head and human-like body even though it is covered by hard scales.

The carriage is now inside a very big tent. It is a little bit dark but he can still see the surroundings outside the cage.

"Well, they have high demands in slave market so..."

The lizardman which seems to be the slave seller tries to talk politely to a dark elf male wearing light armors such as arm guards, leg guards and chest guard. His right hand is wielding a spear which holds a green-coloured blade on it's spearhead.

That dark elf man is none other than Panthos Genuma.

"Then the first thing that you should do is to restock those slaves!"

The dark elf man shouts at at the slave seller.

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"Never mind. I'll choose the slave myself!"

After saying that, the dark elf man walks towards the cage and notice the one-armed boy.

"Human?"

He notices the boy who stands out among the rest due to the fact that he is the only human inside the cage.

"Ah yes. Human slaves are popular so I only have one left at the moment. Would you like to test his capabi-"

Panthos suddenly moves his hand forward into the cage and grabs the boy's black hair.

"M- Mister!?"

The lizardman is flinched by Panthos' sudden action.

Rather than feeling the pain, the boy's mind is filled with fear by Panthos' sudden action.

Not known to the seller and the slave boy, Panthos' action is a result of him detesting a certain individual with black hair.

People with black hair is rare in Elverwad continent. Races other than human usually does not have black hair despite their variety in hair colour from birth.

When people notice a person with black hair, the first thing they would usually think is humans living in Sanrock Continent. Of course, this only applies to those who are knowledgeable enough about other continents.

"Alright, I'll buy him"

After thinking that he might be able to take out his resentment to that boy, Panthos decides to buy that human slave.

.....

....

...

"You don't remember your own name? You don't need those, "brat" is enough for you."

Upon knowing that the boy has amnesia, that's what Panthos says to him.

And thus, the slave boy's new life is to work under the 2nd strongest adventurer of Liasr Town.

While living as Panthos' slave, the boy receives physical abuses every time he is upset about something. Apart from being his punching bag, the slave's job is to support him during fight and gather the materials taken from monsters, animals and plants.

The boy's Astral Level is 1. He cannot use any magic so Panthos usually use him as a bait to draw the attention of monsters.

Panthos is actually a self-sufficient adventurer who does not really need a slave to help his job. He just wants someone to beat up to relieve his stress. If the slave dies, he just buys another one. That's his value of what a slave is, a disposable tool. And he has more than enough money to buy cheap slaves just to satisfy his mental needs.

At least he still gives the boy food which is either hard bread or leftovers from his meal like bones or unwanted vegetables.

He uses the same treatments over his previous slaves before all of them died due to his harsh treatment. Therefore, he is quite infamous for treating his slaves worse than people's usual treatment towards slaves.

However, the boy hears from rumours that he used to be the strongest adventurer in Liasr Town especially in terms of magic in that town. In the society where magic decides a person' value, no one dares to talk back at him except Rimikia the receptionist lady and Liasr Guild Master.

However, things change when a certain elf adventurer came to Liasr Guild. From what the boy heard, it's a black haired female elf with attire full of black colour wielding a strange-shaped sword.

Back then, that elf adventurer never showed any respect towards Panthos despite being only a C-rank adventurer.

Thus, Panthos challenged her to a duel only for him to be beaten by that elf. To make things worse, that elf beat him without using any magic despite Panthos fought using his strongest magic against her.

This permanently scarred Panthos' pride together with the fact that the guild promoted her to A rank not too long after their duel.

This incident is the root cause why Panthos started to hate black-haired people which makes his decision to buy the one-armed boy as a slave.

That boy meets that elf few times together while working as Panthos' slave. However, despite being one of the causes of his suffering, he never harbor any negative feelings towards that elf.

It is similar with Panthos. That boy only feels scared but never dislike him.

It is because he cannot imagine any better situation for himself. Despite having common knowledge, he cannot imagine himself to ever be in better situation that he is currently in.

He can feel pain and sadness but he won't ever mind it.

He thinks that his situation will never change.

However, even without his memory, he can still learn new things as time itself can only move on.

On a certain night, Panthos shoo him away because that slave boy will be a bother when Panthos goes to a brothel.

It is not unusual, that boy is given a free time during this period. He will usually wander around town until he feels tired and sleeps outside.

However, things goes differently on that night.

While wandering aimlessly, he feels something touch his foot. He looks down and found an orange-like fruit near his right foot.

That fruit is called Lagange. The skin is inedible despite being soft. People usually use the inside part of the fruit for cooking seasoning due to the sour taste that it produces.

That boy does not know about this fruit despite remember some of the common knowledge. Thus, he picks up the fruit out of pure curiosity.

"Oh my. Sorry for the trouble.."

Then he notices a middle-aged beastwoman come up to him. Her clothes suggests that she is a nun. She has horse ears and tail but the nun outfit covers the ears.

That boy realizes that she misunderstood him of helping her picking up the Lagange. But he decides to just handed over the fruit as he does not know what to do with that fruit to begin with.

Upon receiving the fruit, the nun says something that would surprise the boy.

"Thank you."

The nun says that with a sincere smile. That causes the boy to experience a mysterious feeling that he never felt before.

His life after amnesia has been always about being shouted at or being ignored. He thinks that it is what is natural for him and it will never change.

However, upon seeing someone thanking him for the first time, he becomes curious to what is different from his previous belief.

From that day onwards, he tries to help everyone in Liasr Town who needs help during his free time.

He does all that not because of his moral sense or anything, but because he wants to feel more of that mysterious feeling that always appear when people thank him.

However, most people who receive his help will usually regard as him being kind. He never get close to people other than helping them so no one truly understand what he is thinking.

The major reason as to why no one tries to get closer to him is because he is a human. People in Elverwad usually dislike human race due to humans discriminating other races in Brahmastra continent. Despite the boy's help, the boy is still unapproachable due to the facts that he is human and he is a slave that works under the infamous Panthos Genuma. So most people would usually just say "Thank you" to him after being helped and do nothing more than that.

Since being thanked is his goal, he is not unsatisfied with people treatment around him.

The only thing that will frustrate him is when he wanted to help but cannot help other people. For example, when working as slave, he often looks at people needing for help but he cannot do that due to him still in his working time.

Even so, it's a fact that people's view towards him was gradually getting better after he decides his activity for his free time.

Few months have passed after the incident with that nun. Due to having a purpose in life, he manages to struggle and stays alive working under Panthos.

On a certain morning, he walks on a quiet street to meet his master who went inside a brothel at previous night.

Then he suddenly hears a voice of a girl.

".... gununununu...!"

"?"

Since the voice comes from the well near the inn, he looks at the direction of that well.

He spots a black-haired girl having difficulty in lifting up a bucket filled with plain water.

He thought that the girl would most likely fall due to the weight of the bucket so he wants to help her just like his daily routine in his free time. He does not realise that meeting with his master become a priority lesser than the priority of helping that girl.

When the girl stumbles upon a rock and gradually loses her balance, he rushes towards her hoping that she would not fall for real.

He manages to hold the bucket using his right hand on time preventing the girl from falling.

After looking closely at that girl, he realizes that the girl is also a human race just like him. The first human he ever meet in his life after his amnesia.

That is the first meeting of Shion and the nameless boy with amnesia.

*End of Interlude*