023 - Rodrick’s Story

The evening after we exited the dungeon we all sat around a table in our inn, drinking something and waiting for Rodrick to start his explanation.

I was curious why a person would have such a reaction to a slave freeing herself from the collar.

“As you should know…” he began, “I once was from a noble family. While we were low nobility, and weren’t rich or had much land, we were happy with our lives. Reigning over a small village was enough for my parents, as we sat at a minor trading route and could live happily in a small mansion.

But one day everything changed. Black clothed slavers with creepy masks came from the woods that were surrounding the village, all of them capable of fire magic and therefore easily overwhelming the guards and few escorts. Killing only few men, those bastards took all the women in the village, even my mother and sister…..

My father was desperate, and while I was still too young to do anything, he left to search for those slavers, carrying all our meagre wealth that had been hidden.

He came home changed.

Leading an entourage of enslaved women, he gifted each person that had lost somebody to the slavers one of them while bringing the grim message: All people caught in this village had been sacrificed to a dark god.

The gold he had needed to buy those slaves came from selling the equipment he had taken of their dead bodies, or so he told. And he had killed them with the help of some mercenaries he had payed with our life savings.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

For the next few days the village was in grief, but the slaves were treated nicely, as they reminded them of their lost ones.

And one night, all slaves ripped off their collars, just like you Aria, and started slaughtering the whole village while screaming their prayers to the same dark god that the other villagers had been sacrificed to. My father was strong, so he could hold back our few slaves for enough time so that I could escape, but… he couldn’t escape himself………”

Rodicks voice toned down into a whisper at the last words, a few tears rolling down his cheeks.

Then, as if to drown the past, he drank half of his beer in one go and finished his story in a voice a bit louder than necessarry.

“And THATs how I became an adventurer.”

Shelica, as the only other one who hadn’t heard this story before, cried a bit and had started cuddeling me, but I remained relatively unfazed, as I had read many cruel stories in my past and present life.

“I forgive you.” was all I said to that, and soon after we all went to bed.

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well, another chapter! (even if short)

one other is already done too, ready for tomorrow