Proofreader: Kagenesti

Chapter 31 - Slavery

Riin's POV

Edge of the Stoney Forest - Time, Early summer.

Fifth day traveling alone.

I walk over to the dead ‘boss’, not bothering to take the arrows back since the three might have bent the arrowhead. He don't have much on him, a dagger, - better than my kitchen knife, so i take that one and five silver coin in his pouch and nothing else of value on him, with that done I turn and walk away. With the earliest light of the morning sun I make it back to Coal, who, if you want to know, is still standing where I left him without a care in the world, chewing on the grass around him, untying the knot on his reins I pulled him towards the other dead runner. Looting the money from the dead bandit, a mere two copper and one silver, dragged my lazy horse towards the new silent bandit camp.

A quick check up on the rest of the horses to make sure they were tied up, before starting to look around the dead bodies. But my clean up work was stopped by soft cries in one of the tents… Ah, almost completely forgot about that. Walking slowly over to the tent ‘door’ I readied my knife behind my back as I opened the tent ‘door’. What is was met with was a naked young woman, - about twenty I would guess. If you look away from the blue and purple marks and knife scars marring her body and the dried up sperm, she was pretty beautiful, with long copper coloured hair going to the small of her back and if the light was not playing tricks on me she had clear green eyes. Her hands were tied behind her back and her feet were tied together as well, not running anywhere like that. Her eyes grew big as I entered the tent completely, she open and closed her mouth a few times, before trying to cover herself up by pulling her knees to her chest. I walked over without a word and pulled a blanket over her body, not that I was embarrassed by the sight of her nakedness but she didn't seem to be able to have a conversation with me while being naked. I sat myself on the makeshift bed on the other side of the tent, as far as way from her as I could without going outside, not that a few feet does anything in my opinion but it seemed to calm her down just a tiny bit.

With that done we sat there looking at each other for a bit… finally she seemed to want to talk to me. Her voice was hoarse, properly from screaming, but otherwise clear, one of those voices that is just calming to listen to.

“T-The bandits?”

“Dead.”

Her eyes grew even bigger for a few seconds, I waited for her next question to come.

“All of t-them?”

“Yes.”

Silence passed between us for a few more moments.

“T-Thank you.”

She didn't seem to have anymore that is wanted to say at the moment, so now it was my turn to ask the questions.

“Where are you from?”

She took a moment to let the question sink in before answering.

“I come from a small fishing village on the mainland.”

Mainland… Guess that's why she didn't bother with giving me the name of her village as I would have not have a clue where is was located anyway.

“You are far from home then.”

She looked down as she answered, her voice a mix between sad and angry as she spoke.

“Yes, very far indeed.”

“How did you end up here?”

She quickly looked up at me again, her mouth opening and closing, a while passed without her answering my question, okay, I'm not going to waste my time on a bitch who is not going to talk. I stood and moved toward the ‘door’.

“No!”

Her voice was desperate.

“D-Don't go!”

I turned to face her once more.

“Are you going to answer my question then?”

Her eyes grew moist, but after a short while she nodded her head.

“M-My family s-sold me.”

And then she broken down into a crying mess. Does slavery perhaps exist here as well, if so a lot of easy money can be made, I need more information on this.

“Why?”

A while passes as she draws in air and calm herself down enough to talk again.

“M-My stepfather needed money to b-buy a new b-boat, s-so they s-sold me.”

Okay, not really the answer I was looking for… Let's try that again.

“Is that legal?”

She drew in a few more calming breaths before continuing, as she speaks up she is looking down at the dirt on her feet.

“It is, yes.”

“So our kingdom has slavery?”

Her eyes quickly look up at me before they fall down to the dirt on her feet again.

“Y-Yes.”

Hmm, that's good to know.

“What marks a person a slave?”

At that she slowly turn to the side revealing a roughly one inch long and one inch wide, kind of eighth in a square form or it might just been a square with a horizontal line in the middle, on the top of the side of her shoulder.

“That is?”

Her eyes dart quickly to mine.

“The slave mark of Asperd Kingdom.”

“I see.”

With that I stand, I need to loot the rest of the bandits so I can get moving again, I walk over the dead bandit on the floor and start to check his pockets for any coins he might have on him. Northing… I move to check the bags on the floor, all the while the young woman is staring wide eyed at me. I find a pouch with ten silver in it, a iron or perhaps it's steel, dragged and a bag of unwashed cloth by the smell of it. I put the ten silver in my own pouch and move the dead body to the side so I don't have step over it as I leave the tent. Once more I'm stopped by her desperate cry.

“W-Wait, Please!”

I turn halfway to look at her once again.

“W-Where are you going!?”

I raise a brow at this question, which seems to kind of give itself as I'm standing in a fucking tent ‘door’ … Women I tell you, no brain cells.

“Out, I left a mess.”

“A-Are y-you coming back, r-right?”

I give a short nod before walking out, I'm not done question her, so of course I'm coming back, silly little girl.

Outside my little clean up starts by the two dead guys who seemed to have pissed themselves as I used [Bloodlust Aura], haha, it was no wonder that the other three looked so confused at them when they dropped down, grown men pissing themselves, haha. Two more fine daggers and twelve silver coins to my growing collection, I drag them into the campfire, remembering about the drunk I took out I go to retrieve him from the field, ten copper… drunktard, he too goes in the fire pit. After a little hard work with the rest of them I have eight bodies sitting in the campfire cooking slowly on the last flames, I'm now a total of fifty copper and twenty silver richer. I decide not to drag the captain and the last runner back, to much of a walk with deadweight, hehe, did you get it, deadweight, ah, I'm the joker himself.

Starting with the ‘half-tents’ I look for anything useful or worth coin. I find four oak bows of normal quality, a good hundred some iron tipped  arrows, two simple iron swords, a romance book… I have half a mind to throw it out but decide to save it for mother. Fifteen silver and five copper, two good iron tipped spears and a simple silver ring.

Now it's time for the ‘boss’ tent. As I open the tents ‘door’ I find a disturbing sight, if I have to say so myself. A young girl around eight or so, missing her left arm and left eye, the other arms hand is nailed to the wooden pole holding the tent up, her weight is supported by her as she is standing on her toes to not worsen the wound on her hand. She too is naked with fist marks in the fine colour range of yellow to dark purple and if I'm not all that mistaken the dried stuff on her is sperm, the mark at the left arm socket looks to be a burn mark, while the eye is from a knife or a fork by the looks of the extra cuts down her cheek. Her legs are bound by a chain to the pole so even if she lost her balance she would have no chance of escaping her guard. The slave burn mark is placed just above her right breast, below the collarbone. Her body was malnourished and her small form was nothing to really look at, as I looked her over she was shaking so much that I would not have been surprised if she passed out from fear. Speaking of the sun… She fucking passes out… Fucking hell, all she had to do was keep herself awake… Sighing heavily, I move to get her down as she is ripping her hand in two by the looks of it, I grab hold of her and pull out the nail, fresh blood coat my hand. I slowly lower her down to her knees, I then undo the chain around her feet. Grabbing the nearest blanket I wrap it around her, I rip a part of and wrap it around the wound to stop the bleeding, with that mess done I can finally start to look at his stuff.

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After looking through his items I'm a good two freaking gold and fifty silver coins richer, what the fuck does he need all that money for anyway, but who cares now they are mine. I also find two scrolls in a leather casing, with the slave mark in the middle of the paper, slave owning papers perhaps? I need to ask that woman about that. I find the right part of an iron shoulder plate set. Very nice if you ask me, still a little big for me but very useful for some light and easy protection.

All my fine new items are placed next to Coal, I walk back into the ‘boss’ tent and grab the still unconscious girl, I then bring her into the tent with the women, I need some more answers.

As I walk into the tent that the women is waiting in I spot her still sitting in the same place that I left her in… Well, at least she didn't try to run away. I place the still unconscious girl next to her, she looks horrified at the small form next to her, I rise a brow at the look she is giving me.

“Do you have something to say?”

“E-Eh, n-no of course not, I-I'm sorry.”

Her eyes fall down to her feet once more.

“I need some questions answered.”

A quick look up at me.

“Anything I can help with I will.”

A smile forms on my lips, good I like this type of woman, the obedient kind.

“I found papers with the slave mark in them, are they the ownership statements?”

“Y-Yes, you need to redo the blood seal.”

Blood seal, are they using blood magic for the slave marks?

“Redo?”

“T-The last owner of the papers was the b-boss, if he is really dead, you need to redo the blood seal to c-claim the papers.”

“And if I don't desire to do so?”

Her eyes grow big and frightened, she half jumps out of the bed, letting the blanket fall down around her, leaving her body fully exposed for me to see, she then falls on her knees in front of me.

“P-Please! Y-You have to, please!”

Well this is a first, begging to be reenslaved, never saw that coming that's for sure, something along the lines of ‘oh please give me the papers’ or ‘please set us free’ but not this.

We sit there for a while, her naked on her knees begging me to enslave her once more and me just staring at her.

“Why should I do the blood seal, you will only be extra mouths to feed.”

She looks at me, tears form in the corner of her eyes, slowly falling down her cheeks, small sobs begin to escape her.

“P-Please, the s-slave mark can not be undone once it's p-placed on the body. I-If no one hold o-ownership of the papers, t-than w-we will s-suffer horribly until we d-die from the magic within the m-mark itself.”

Hmm, so the slave mark is like a life sentence… Mixed with a form of blood magic… But if that is so, the slave brand on the body and the mark on the paper, they must ‘only’ be connected by magic… If blood magic really is used in the making of a mark and to identify the owner, then blood directly on the slave brand itself should work as well… In theory at least.

You have understood a small part of how [Blood Magic] works as markings!

Hmm, so some of my theory is right, well let's try it out nothing else to be done.

“How do you know who holds ownership of you?”

Her quiet sobs stop for a brief moment, she cast a quick look up at me.

“T-The status m-message will change.”

Ah, so the world system will change the ownership according to the bloodmark, smart.

“Will I get a message as well about this?”

Her eyes grow big with newfound hope.

“Yes!”

Good, time to see if my little theory is spot on. I take out my dagger, her eyes quickly dart to the weapon as she pushes herself away for it, I cut into my fingertip.

“Come here.”

She slowly crawls towards me, I grab her arm and press my bleeding finger onto the brand, holding it there for a short while. While I do so I keep ‘pushing’ my will of ‘branding ownership into the mark’. After few seconds goes by with this, something starts to happen, the brand starts to glows in a soft red color before it fades away as if it had never happened.

You have gained ownership over [Slave: Lark]! You have gained the [Blood Magic] skill [Blood Mark]!

Okay so it can be done with only doing a blood renewing on the brand itself and not the paper, time to experiment a bit with my new ability on the broken slave.

Hm, I need more information to gain anything more useful out of this.

“If an ownership paper is destroyed, what happens to the slave?”

Her eyes grow wide and she starts to shake a bit, still after a few breaths she answers my question.

“The brand on the slave will release a magical fire from within, resulting in the burning of the body from within.”

She is visibly shaking at this point.

“Only the body burns and nothing around it?”

She shakes her head slowly… That's not an answer, annoying.

“Speak up!”

Stupid woman. Her eyes dart to my knife for a quick moment when I raised voice.

“O-Only t-the b-body, not a-anything e-else.”

Ah, it seems raising my voice spooked her quite a bit… Oh well, new question.

“How fast does the burning of the body happen?”

She is looking at her feet, still shaking.

“A-Around an h-hour or so?”

… Did she just answer me with a fucking question, I raise an eyebrow at this, not that she can see it as she is staring hard at her feet.

Hmm, so if my idea holds then my blood mark on the slave brand itself should overwrite the magic on the paper… So, even if the paper is stolen or destroyed, the blood mark will still stay on, marking the slave as mine. Time to do some testing! I move to the still passed out girl on the bed, placing my bloody finger on the slave brand on her chest. I wonder if the [Blood Mark] works the same as the [Bloodlust Aura] skill, where it can be activated with a ‘word’, no harm in giving it a try.

Activate [Blood Mark].

Skill [Blood Mark] activated, slave brand overwritten. You have gained ownership over [Slave: Ellette]!

Okay, first part of the test complete, time for part two. I stand and walk over to the leather casings which contains the slave papers. I find the document which has, Human - Ellette, Age eight, in the top middle written on it, and tear it up, now I will have to wait and see if my theory is somewhat true. At my little ripping of the paper Lark is staring wide eyed at my handiwork the whole time, looking from the ripped up paper and over to Ellette who is still out, amazing if you ask me.

“Wait here until I'm back.”

She is still shaking and looking nervously over at Ellette, but answers be fast enough.

“Yes, master.”

I rise a brow at that, it is the [Slave Mark], making her address me as ‘master’? Oh, a question for another time for now I need to prepare some food and find some more water. The time spent here is adding an extra day to my travel plans, but the loot is worth it for sure. I make my walk into the woods with my bow in hand and quiver on my back, following the signs of the foot depression in the dirt and the broken sticks, after a steady five minutes walk I find a lake, with a small stream. I fill up the ten waterskins the bandits had with them and put them into a small makeshift shoulder bag.

With water no longer being a problem, I focus on setting up a few snares for the night, some fresh meat will do me good. Food and water done I make a quick round around the lake to see if anything edible is growing there, other than a small pouch of forest berries, I have no luck, but it's okay I still have all the food from the bandits camp that need to be eaten, what I don't eat will make it back home. Speaking of home… How does mother and father feel on the whole owning slaves issue? Hmm, I will leave that alone for now, if they hate them, I guess they can be sold for some easy coin.

I make it back to the camp and give the horses some water, put some more firewood on the campfire and start to warm up some of the meat and vegetable the bandits have left over, a quick and easy meal for my hard work. Hopefully by tomorrow evening I will be back home, for some of mother's cooking.

My relaxing is broken by Lark's voice.

“Relax, please relax, Ellette.”

Ah, the brat is finally awake. I make my way to the tent, walking in I'm met by the sight of Lark holding Ellette down on the bed. Had I been in an older body and had Ellette not been a child with parts missing I would totally dig the double chick combo. Ellette is trashing around the bed, seemly trying to escape, brats so annoying to deal with I tell you.

“What is going on here!”

The small ‘fight’ stops the moment they hear my voice, not that I'm sounding very manly, being in puberty will do that to you. They both look ‘up’ at me, their eyes wide, I find it a tiny bit funny that they fear a eleven year old… Kid, yes I'm not an adult, yet! Lark is the first to speak up.

“F-Forgive us, m-master, she was j-just scared when she a-awoke.”

Scared of what? I was the last thing she saw before passing out and no matter how you look at it, I'm not a scary looking person. I mean no matter how you look at it, there is nothing scary in a four feet something young kid walking in a tent door. I give Ellette a once over look, she begin to shake the moment my eyes fall on her.

“You are no longer tied to a tent pole and have a blanket covering your body, exactly what is scaring you to the point of you trying to run away, do tell.”

Her shaking only gets worse the longer I stare at her, fucking hell this is why I hate dealing with brats, always sucks fucking cry babies.

Moments tick by without any answer from her, my anger keeps growing, her quiet sobs and her shaking is just getting on my nerves. I let out a small growl at my annoyance at the girl.

“Fine! Have it your way!”

[Bloodlust Aura] activated.

The moment the aura hits them, they both freeze in their spots, they are not moving a muscle and by the looks of they they are not breathing either, not that it is my problem at this moment.

“Speak up, girl!”

All I get is wider eyes and more shaking, shitty brats and their annoying crying. I take a deep breath, calming myself.

[Bloodlust Aura] deactivated.

They both fall as far back as they can hugging the blankets around them, staring wide eyed on me, but she still don't speak. My jaw is getting thicks, that's how annoyed I'm at the moment, don't kill her, don't kill her, she is worth money, do not kill her, deep breath, relax and count to ten, breath in, breath out, deep and calming breath. After my little relaxation time I open my eyes to the sound of a blanket falling, only to find Lark kneeling in front of me, her head pressed down in the ground, - still naked I might add, the brat on the other hand, is still frozen on the bed.

I look down on Lark, I don't understand this woman, why is she protecting the girl so much, from what she has told me she is alone here, meaning that the brat is not family, so why.

“What are you doing?”

Her voice is shaking as if there is no tomorrow.

“P-Plea-se f-forgi-ve h-her, m-mast-ter.”

It takes me a moment to understand her shuttering with her head presses down in the dirt floor. Then it clicks, she want me to forgive the fucking brat for completely ignoring me… no way, not a fucking chance in hell.

“Get up and go check on the food.”

Her breathing stops as I speaks, but she finally acknowledge my order.

“Y-Yes, m-master.”

By the sound of her voice she is on the brink of crying, not that I care, I can't stand being ignored by anyone especially not a fucking brat.

Doing my best impression of a welcoming smile, I turn my focus onto Ellette.

“Now, how to best deal with insubordination, won't you tell me?”

Tears run down her face and she is shaking, yet she remains silenced.

“Fine have it your way, girl.”

If she has no intention of talking, she has no need for her tounge, I pull out my knife as I move towards her, I grab her jaw and force her mouth open, my fingers slide into her mouth.

Nothing… Hmm, well that explains a lot. The girl is also missing her tongue, which much be the reason that she is not talking… Well, has she ever fucking heard of nodding or shaking her head… I pull my fingers out of her mouth, drool is not my thing. If the wound is anything like her arm or eye, she will need something to help the healing of the skin, I need a closer look.

“Open your mouth, girl.”

Scared eyes are looking down at the knife in my hand, oh for fucks sake, I put the knife back in the belt. She slowly starts to open her mouth.

“Lark! Get in here.”

My shouting seems to scare her again as she clamps her mouth shut, I raise an eyebrow at that. The tent door open and reveal Lark… Naked… Fuck me, it's like taking care of a bunch of fucking children, I can only shake my head at this.

“Find some goddamn clothing to wear, woman.”

Her eyes grow big and her breathing quickens.

“F-Forgive m-me, master.”

I wave her off, I'm not even going to go there, no way that I'm having a ‘please make sure to put clothing on’ conversation with a twenty year old.

“The food?”

“R-Ready, master.”

Good, finally something other than the dried meat that I have been eating for the last few days, I walk out, time to eat. I also need to make food that Ellette can get down without damaging her wound anymore, perhaps some long cooked meat or finely cut grilled meat… I need to think about that. For now she will have to deal with the veritable stew. Minutes tick by with them not showing… how long does it take women to put cloth on anyway.

“Are you two dressed?”

“Yes, m-master.”

Okay… Do they need some fucking command to out of the tent or want…

“Well, get out here then.”

They slowly come out from the tent, unsure and uneasy, they in a way remind me of newborns.

“Come sit, eat, we leave at dawn.”

They stare at the empty log across from me, slowly they move towards it, always keeping me in their sight. I can't for the life of me be asked to care about what they are thinking, I'm hungry and for once actually tired.