[Flashback]

Being told that there were enemies within them, his thoughts froze for a moment.

“……..Eh?” (Mark)

Completely caught off guard from his declaration, he reacted with a dumbfounded noise. 

“Mark-san, were pressed for time. Please get the other heroes. They have to relay this information to HQ. If it doesn’t, the chances of winning this battle will decrease significantly.” (Kenshin)

His voice didn’t contain any emotion when relaying the information to Mark, making one think if he even cared at all. The tone of his voice and behaviour neither contained indifference nor interest on the topic. It didn’t seem as if he thought it was bothersome, just that, none of it contained any human aspects.

Normally, Mark, a commander in charge of 50 plus soldiers’ lives wouldn’t have readily acted on the words of someone who isn’t a soldier but Kenshin was the exception as he thought of him as a little brother and his own saviour and also his twin sister, Jen who he saved also.

Jen also thought of Kenshin as a little brother.

She wanted Kenshin to call her nee-chan. 

They covered for each other in the dungeon and also did tedious tasks without complaining or disobedience.

“……….Alright. Although I have some questions, I trust you so I expect you to answer them.” (Mark)

Kenshin was someone whom he could trust his life to so without a second thought, he ran towards the camping grounds straight for the four heroes.

----

A few minutes later, Mark and a group of four young heroes were walking behind him with tired expressions.

They were sleeping when Mark woke them up saying to follow him quietly.

“Hey Mark-san what’s going on? Why are we headed here?”

Ryo was an earth specialised mage who could erect a barrier of earth in a second asked.

“Just keep walking, we’re nearly there” (Mark)

Ryo, who felt that it was serious from the tone of his voice, carried on walking but with a more serious expression.

After reaching the place where Kenshin was, they were all wide eyed including mark who reached for his sword.

In front of them was Kenshin……..

…….with three bodies on the ground.

Two were knights with a crest that represented Windcoast city and both had a hole through one of their eye sockets. They were clearly dead.

The other was a silver haired, pale skin young man next to him unconscious on the ground face first.

He was unmoving but not dead. There were signs of life from his chest area moving up and down.

Mark was going shout at Kenshin thinking he had killed the two knights but was too slow.

“These two were dead before I before I killed them” (Kenshin)

Saying something so mindboggling, Mark and the four were surprised.

‘Did he slay them or what, which is it?’ was the question running through their head.

Still remaining vigilant, Mark reaching his limit asked.

“What is this?! Kenshin! Explain quickly because this doesn’t look good for you!” (Mark)

He snarled with his sword pointed at Kenshin and the vampire.

The group of four wasn’t able to get out of their confusion from the situation.

At first they see the guy they thought was dead appearing before them. A guy they didn’t pay much attention to and also someone of little presence.

The class heard from the stay behind group that he died from a horde of giant wasp.

 From hearing that someone who was summoned with them had died, the class began to change the way they thought about their entire situation and how they went about it.

At first they thought it was a game where they could revive again and continue from the save point but when they heard about Kenshin, all of those delusions were gone.

This made them become scared of fighting and refused to fight monsters for some time. Refusing to risk their only lives fearing they too would end up dead like their recently deceased classmate.

It seemed hopeless for some time but then a part of the class encountered an event that got them to regain their vigour. Hearing their encounter, the rest of the class also regained their vigour.

Though one exception was the teacher whose behaviour changed completely.

She began to act very unusual when the topic of Kenshin came up again when Mark and the Knight Captain came back from their search.

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Mark was saying that Kenshin might be alive and petitioned for the heroes to sweep the dungeon to find the person.

The class found it hard to believe that he might be alive seeing that he had to go up against a army of giant wasp

The teacher began to shake uncontrollably and lashed out at Mark, saying that would risk more lives if they chose to believe in his wild guest as well as adding to the trauma they had already.

Seeing the person they thought dead right there before them, they had lots of questions for him and was about to ask those questions but when the person admitted slaying the two ally knights in front of them, they were unable to react and stayed stock still.

Silence ensued.

It was quickly dispelled by Mark who asked him to explain.

“Parasites have invaded the bodies of these two soldiers. Like a parasite, it uses a host. It invades the brain, taking control of their motor skills. The host is kept alive unmoving until the parasite completely takes over the body replacing the previous host. Though they retain their host’s memories and experiences, the body now contains the parasites consciousness with the previous host’s consciousness gone.” (Kenshin)

Mark and the four were horrified at what they heard with aghast expressions.

 In the past, the human continent once had a magic in the curse system that would make a target a slave. The victim would not be able to refuse the command of their master, basically depriving them of their own will.

It was banned long ago due to it being labelled as inhumane as the victims will was basically ignored by the body. They were basically puppets.

Now, the slavery business now uses two methods: One was using a curse that gives the victim pain and in some cases kill them. The other was through normal enforcement of slavery without magic.

In the slave business, ‘slaves are property’.

That is a law officially recognised by the government.

If a slave were to be caught running away by soldiers, they would be captured and taken back to their owners.

They did not have the rights free people had.

On earth, its name is human trafficking.

Mark, upon hearing this method of control similar to one in the past frowned together with the other four.

‘Thud’

Kenshin abruptly threw a bag at his feet disrupting the group from their shock.

“That is the parasite that is used to control them.” (Kenshin)

Judging from the shape, there was something in there. 

Cautiously, Mark used his sword to slowly open the bag.

In front of them were two urchin like objects the size of a fist.

 Its body was coloured disgusting spots of yellow, green and brown. They were hairy like what you would find from mouldy food and the spikes were replaced with needle thin worm like appendages.

Both of them had punctures through them, it was possibly what killed the two parasites.

””””UGG!””””” 

Seeing the two parasites appearance, Mark and the four supressed the queasiness that originated from their stomachs.

“These parasites originated from a similar parasite. It was only able to take over creatures who are less intelligent like fish but due to modifications performed, they were able to breed a new type that could control humans. They are under the control of a General that has subordinates who can issue orders to them.” (Kenshin)

Kenshin pointed at the vampire.

“This one seems to call it a ‘crest’ as in slave crest similar to the curse magic the slave trader’s use. Also, this is one of those subordinates with the power to use them.  This guy also has inactive parasites on him that he uses for enslavement. I encountered their group going opposite your direction to regained territory” (Kenshin)

“Opposite our direction…. Wait, does that mean we passed each other without encountering the other?” (Ryo)

“No…. That noise earlier in the forest, was that-” (Mark)

“That was when I encountered them, that’s the source of the noise you heard. It seems that if one of the slaves were killed, the others would notice instinctively. Also, there is a limit to the range they can sense if one of them are killed, that’s why the recently infected slaves were not there” (Kenshin)

“....And you’re saying that those recently infected slaves…. Were they from our group? Is that what you’re saying?” (Mark)

Mark was still sceptical of his story but feared that it might be true. The same went for the four.

“When you first got to this area, did you send scouts to secure the area?” (Kenshin)

'Ah' 

After hearing the word scouts, a squads name leaked out his mouth. 

“………….….Scout squad Kurtis….” (Mark)