Chapter 04 [arc four]

Her behavior put the king off the moment she accepted the glasses. They were meant to enhance her experience, but her mind was overwhelmed. He could see that the little human girl was afraid of the constant attention she was receiving. As soon as they started to walk, she hurried to grab his hand and squeezed it. She pressed herself close to his side instantly. The man had never seen her behave like this before. Even when she had been huddling by the healing bed, the slave hadn't looked so out of it. He found himself enamored by the expression on her face.

The way her eyes get brighter from her tears glistened in them. How her mouth opened as she struggled not to voice her fears and dislikes about the situation. It all fascinated him. He hadn't seen a maiden in years and now he had one that was over-emotional in his grasp. She was young, but he expected a girl raised as a slave to be hardened and closed off to strangers. Most of the slaves he encountered had nothing but an empty abyss inside of them. They went about their duties robotically and could be compared to useless dolls. The feelings that could provide comfort to their situations had been beaten out of them over the years. But the redhead wasn't like that at all.

And he knew he was at fault for that. When he put her into the body of the slave girl, she was supposed to be in there for some time. He had been told by the shamans she would wake up and be treated like any other slave by Kaname. That the world she came from would make her strong enough to take it. He was angry to find that instead; the man had treated her worse compared to all the others. The ogre king wanted to come to find him and strangle the man when he saw her legs. This anger and confusion grew when she started to break down so often. A world of peace had left her weak and the memories of the slave girl she replaced didn't help at all.

The maiden acted like a child who was enslaved sometimes. She was polite when needed and scrambled at first to avoid attention. But as her stay went on she started behaving oddly. Her tongue came out sharper, her rage was more vocal, and she even went as far as to hit him. The shamans had told him that the limitations of being a slave would stop her from fighting. She wouldn't be able to fight back when the time came, as her instinct to serve would kick in. That would make her the perfect maiden. Instead, the situation was the exact opposite of that. The slave girl protested against his behavior and how imprisoned her without fail. It made him wonder.

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"Are you sure you're okay? You've been shaking for the entire ride." He watched with curiosity as she froze and hesitated to look his way. She stopped shaking with a nervous lip bite as he continued on. "Here. You can wear it until we get back to the palace and then I'll make you soup."

The demonic man found his chest warm at the sight of her eyes watering once more. He knew the woman craved a meal with someone to keep her company at night. She wanted to rest with someone that would treat her with kindness. Lilibet told him every word of her worries and insecurities after their language lessons. The slave girl really opened up when reading and absorbing more of the demonic tongue. The ogre king was fascinated by how vulnerable those activities made her behave. He wanted that right now. He craved to see her let go and cry in the train compartment.

The feelings had towards her were puzzling. He could never hate her. Sacrificial maidens were too pure to hate. But he found himself growing more and more annoyed with her antics. Silently, he watched as she sniffled and covered her face. He could see through the glasses, every non-human could, so he got a front-row seat to her misery. And it left him wondering if he had taken things too far. The staring would only grow worse once they sat down to eat. He purposely ignored Lili's comments on the redhead, needing to wear her collar. In plenty of cities, slaves weren't required to wear them by law but by principle.

The residents expected slaves to know their place and to wear their collars and chains regularly. Anyone who didn't would be treated badly if they weren't already publicly confronted, along with their masters who disrespected the unspoken rules of the city. As soon as the redhead stepped out of the car, the non-humans in the distance noticed she didn't have one. And while they were judging him with their behavior, they were eviscerating her. He had dropped her into an overtly hostile environment to teach the teenager a lesson. The king wanted her to learn how this world would treat and see her. To them, she was property.

She huddled in his jacket and avoided eye contact as the monorail finally came to a stop. "Couldn't you just use a portal to get us there faster?" Her legs swung back and forth by habit with a sigh.

The ogre king thought about it. He could have, but he'd rather she not know his capabilities yet. "Possibly. But I wanted you to experience normal transportation that isn't accessible to you slaves."

That was a lie. The man figured he did it to make her emotional response to the situation blossom. If they had just jumped through dimensions and possibilities, she wouldn't have cried. He wouldn't have seen her face contort as she struggled to hide her anxiety from outsiders. Just thinking about it made his mind feel satisfied. No, he was lying to her, but she didn't need to know the truth.