Hey chapter 24 is heere (> w <)
Thanks for editing it Panacea-san (^_^)/
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The torches' light flickered across the jails' bars, in a dark room full of groans and unpleasant smells. In one of those dark damp jails, a man from rabbit beastkin was sitting in the farthest corner away from the others, holding his stomach.
*Growwwlll~*
His stomach was screaming for the sixth time today...
His originally golden hair dirty and dull, wearing almost nothing except rags as pants, the man was looking at the ceiling with a blank face...
'I'm so hungry'
Thought the man. Since there were no windows, he no longer had any sense of time and could only wait or sleep time and hunger away.
Rubbing his withered limbs, the man closed his eyes slowly and familiar faces popped up in his mind..
"Elma....Rick...I wonder what they are doing right now..."
His voice sounded weak as he spoke.
'...I hope they are okay...it would be bad if they had to pay for my mistakes...'
The man was sold into slavery, a common thing if you couldn't pay your debt.
This happened because he managed to make a way for beast-people to use magic...
Back in the heroes' era, people used to make human sacrifices to summon the heroes. The sacrificed humans needed to be a virgin from royalty, along with ten magicians, then they would begin the summoning. As time passed, one of the summoned heroes disagreed with the way the kingdom summoned them and created 《magic diagram》, a way to call upon the heroes without using human sacrifices, using the ancient technique to gather enormous amounts of mana and using incantations to activate them.
The magic diagrams are written in symbols no one can understand and so, once the heroes died, people could only use the ones they left them. But there is one magic diagram that was created not to summon the heroes, but to create a fire, a small fire to camp outside. Creating a fire is an easy thing to do and because of that, the existance of the magic diagram to make the small fire was long forgotten...until this man found it...
An eery old lady offered him a small ancient magic book which cost him three months worth of food for his family.
He always was fascinated by magic despite being born as a beastkin and he understood the magic book didn't have any value between his hands, but still, his curiosity win over his common sense... a little peek wouldn't do any harm, that what the man believed. He read the magic book and he found out about the hero's magic diagram.
Excited, thrilled and happy, that how the man felt. Something that he had longed for suddenly appeared in front of him, the way where he could actually fullfil his childhood dream.
Everything went fast from that point on, he found some ways to create another magic diagram, some noble got interested in his experiment, signed a contract with him, lent him money and published his magic diagrams.
For the first time, he felt reliable as he managed to make money for the family. He was happy until everything crashed down, the people started to get angry over the magic diagrams, the noble lost money and got angry at him, the bunny ban fell into debt because of that contract, and was lastly sold as slave.
The man smiled bitterly as he remembered what happened to him. Althought he was sold as slave, he wanted his brother and sister to be happy..
The man did say to his little brother to run away and he hoping that they did.
'At least they should have run far away from that noble right now..'
*GROOOOWWWLLL~*
His stomach cried louder than before and he just held it tighter, hoping the food would be distributed soon...
As if his small prayer was heard, footsteps came from the stairs. A bulky man with a scary face appeared, he was one of the slave house employees, he often beat up the rebelious slave and broke their spirit, that is why the other slaves often made some distance between them and him when this man came, but not the bunny man. When he was sold to slave house, he knew it would happen so he had been obedient from the start, besides, he had a bad eyesight so he didn't really know how scary the bulky man was.
Hoping for food, he smiled when he saw the slave employee walk towards him.
"...oi, someone is buying you"
Those words made his face freeze for a moment.
"Eh?"
Still utterly surprised, he didn't move and the employee pulled up his chain which made him suddenly stand.
"Come here, I need to clean you up so you'll be presentable"
Said the employee while dragging him. The man started to pull himself together and asked the employee.
"W-why?"
"Don't know and don't care. So stop talking to me"
The employee answered him nonchalantly but he could hear hints of annoyance in his voice.
He couldn't do strengh related work, he was clumsy and easy to fool, the slave manager knew that, so he assumed that he would be hard to sell...
Remembering stories he heard from wives neighborhood's gossip, useless slave were generally used unmercifully. Some were used as furniture materials, meat shields, human sacrifices or sex toys...
*Gulp*
He could feel sweat form on his face as he keept thinking about the worst ways to die under his new master. The employee cleaned him, put some shirt and once again pulled him upstairs...to meet his new master..
'Think happy things! Happy things!...my master might be a beautiful women! Not so bad right!'
A wishful thought crossed his mind as he walked towards the door but all his hopes were crushed the moment the door opened.
Although he couldn't see well, he could see the handsome demon in front of him, with dark red hair and sharp eyes that give him a menacing aura, scary but handsome, the type that would make obdient, small girls who need protection, fall for this demon immediately, completely different from unreliable, clumsy, old looking him...he felt pathetic compared to this guy.
"Although he is useless, this guy can be used as a good meat shield"
'Even my fate is already sealed?!'
Wearing a light armor, it seemed the manager assumed the demon tribe man was an adventurer or something similiar..
"No...not meat...shield"
"Eh? This person is really clumsy and weak, if it as bag carrier, I can give you stronger one sir"
The demon shake his head
"Collection? Human sacrificial? Or-"
The manager kept voicing one possibility after another. It was actually forbidden to ask their customer but his manager was either a busybody or the impolite kind of person.
The demon keep shaking his head and the only one possibility not mentioned by the manager..
'C-could it be, se- no! Nonononono! I-it can't be right?'
His face got paler as his imagination ran wild and the manager seemed to think the same as him because his face was pale, green and red at the same time.
The money have been handed and slave colar have been put on him. His body trembeling and covered in sweat out of fear of what might happen. When they walked out from the store, he felt a warm breeze and sunlight after a long, long time.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
"You're late"
Said a young lady while standing near a carriage. Wearing a white dress and black hat which complemented her wavy light blue hair and her slender body. She walked closer to them and stopped right in front of him.
"Is this the man?"
Asked the girl while peering up closely towards him. Her gentle, bright purple eyes looked at him while a cute voice came out from her small, pink lips.
'C-cute!'
The man was in a trance because of the woman's beauty.
"You are the one they called Dema, right?"
The women asked him while slightly tilting her head, making her look more adorable.
"Y-yes!"
"Great! I have been looking for you!"
The women smiled brightly making his cheek redden
*Ga-shu*
But suddenly his eyes were covered by a big hand, gripping hard at his head.
"AWAWAWA!"
"...What are you doing?"
"! I'm...sorry..."
The demon man let go of his head
"...suddenly...felt..annoyed..."
"? You mean his face made you annoyed?"
When the women said that, he felt an invisible knife stab at him and he clung at his chest.
"Really? He does look clumsy and unreliable.."
More invisible knives stabbed him, right at the heart...
The women put on a pair of spectacles at his darkened face and smiled cunningly
"But that just makes me want to tease him more, you can see clearly with specs right? I hope it was the right size"
*Ba-dump*
The moment, it was kind of the perfect moment when one man falls in love with a beautiful woman which is smiling brightly in front of him....
....
Only if the demon man wasn't glaring at him with such a dreadful killing intent...
"Well, we need to get back now, I can't wait to talk with you!"
The woman grabbed his hand and started to pull him towards the carriage but the demon man seperated their hands with his, putting them in the awkward position of three people holding hands with each other
"?..Arke, what's the matter?"
The woman glanced at the demon boy who was apparently named Arke who wasn't saying a word. Arke looked downward and then once again sent him a glare full of hostility
"...you have been acting weird for a moment now...what's wrong?"
".....I'm feeling...irritated..."
" ? Irritated? Why?"
Arke just shook his head and looked at the women in the eyes. After a long silence in this awkward position which made people gaze at them weirdly, the woman was the first to break the silence
"....I will enter the carriage first"
The woman pulled her hand and entered the carriage with a smile, leaving two grown men, still holding hands, behind... not managing to withstand the people's gaze, Dema started to talk.
"U-um! We should follow her, right?"
"......"
He tried to pull back his hand but Arke's grip got stronger instead. Once he realized what he was doing, he let go of his hand and apologized
"...s-sorry..."
"N-no, it's okay"
When Arke apologized, he sounded really down which made Dema let his guard down, because once they entered the carriage and the woman started to speak passionetly about magic diagrams, Arke once again glared at him full of killing intent, the trip ended up to be dreadful and tiring for Dema...
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Rune/Crev's Pov
"So, you have found him?"
I'm talking to Shena through [Xarka Cristal] and the cristal shone with a soft light.
"Yes."
Just as expected of her, Shena was really interested in those kids' older brother and agreed to help. Four months have passed since the first time I met Elma and Rick and now I'm inside a ship, sailing to the North continent.
What happened to them afterwards?
Shena sent her subordinates to pick up the kids and trace down their brother. As for the noble man, he fell into deep debt because a fraud which might be Shena's doing because the noble man's assets and fortune actually fell into her hands.
"This will be really interesting!" Shena chirped happily.
"You sounds really happy, is development really good?"That comportment Isn't really normal from her, well , except when she was planning to ruin domebody's life anyways...
"Well, it does have so much potential! Having another magic related inventor like him really helps my work, besides..." She trailed off, and I prepared myself for the true reason of ther good mood.
"...Besides?"
"I don't know why but lately Arke's reactions are really amusing"
"....huh?"
"And this Dema guy is also amusing, I have a hard time to hold my laughter whenever they are together, really entertain me... "
Just what exactly happened between them ?! For Shena to say such words, now I'm really curious now !..
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Note: Pana-chan kindly make some character introduction from the childhood time (^ w ^). I will also add other character later. Thank you Pana-chan (^_^)/
Erm. Hello hello, Pana-chan here !
I saw you guys had problems with who's who, I decided to do a little recap on characters !
Name : Rune
Role in the game: Main character's little sister, officially deceased.
Profession : Adventurer known as Crev
Species: Beastkin, wolf variant.
Background: Otherworlder that got reincarnated as a main character's family member. Frail and beautiful, she attacts lots of strange people. Kidnapped by slavers at age 4-5, rescued by the organisation Ancagon and a member ever since.
Childhood arc Characters : ( Chapters 1 - 5)
Name : Eden Rectival
Role in the game: Hero's Party member
Profession : Swordsman
Species: Beastkin, wolf variant
Background: Rune's siscon doting brother. After his sister's kidnapping and supposed death, he throws himself in learning to fight for revenge against the Minister that caused her abduction in the first place, which leads him to leave his village and join the prince's party.
Name :Adien Millie
Role in the game: Eden's mother
Profession : Stay home mom
Species: Beastkin, unknown variant
Background: Eden and Rune's mother. A caring woman, was deeply afraid of Rune's poor health in the earlier stages of her life.
Name : Troff Aegeus
Role in the game: Eden's father
Profession : Warrior
Species: Beaskin, wolf variant
Background: A rough man, but not cold. He cares about his children and delight in showering Eden with 'tough love'.
Name : Esta Revanna
Role in the game: Eden's party member
Profession : Lance user
Species: Beastkin, feline variant
Background: A girl born and raised in Rune's home village, she clearly has a crush on Eden, which in the game led her to join the Hero's party with him.
Extra characters : Doctor Alba (Diagnosed Rune's 'illness') , Neit ( Esta's younger brother)