Control

(Adam the mage’s POV)

(Continued from Planning, where he confronts the escaped peons)

I enter the room and point the bow and arrows at the goons that have at one time serve the slave dealer. Now they are acting all high and mighty in this room, enjoying the food and drinks.

“Hey, remember me?” (Adam)

“You bastard! Kill him!” (Peon X, Y, Z get their weapons ready to strike)

I let loose the arrows and it pierces them. It seems that they are the most likely people to have blabber out about my slingshot to these guys. I thought of letting them manage the slaves when I’m not present, but these people are more of a liability than an asset. They abandoned the slaves for their own benefit, and enjoy themselves while the slaves suffer from hunger and malnutrition.

“Urkh, Guahhh, Eaakhh” (Peon X, Y, Z injured)

The arrow pierced their vital parts, and they are all now lying on the floor. It seems that they never learn their lesson while in lockup, and continue to perpetrate more sufferings. Humans really don’t change their nature, do they? I will properly dispose of them this time. Having them as subordinates are a constant threat to my safety, and I don’t have time to always monitor them and turn them away from being retarded. Learning everything from scratch and doing everything myself is very tedious, but at least I won’t get betrayed.

“Have mercy on us.” (Peon X, Y, Z said in their weakened condition)

“I have given you guys plenty of chances to repent. What do you guys do? You sold my info to the imperial army, enjoy away all the food, and left the slaves to die of hunger and thirst. Do you have mercy on them?” (Adam)

“We are forced to cooperate” (Peon X, Y, Z begging on the floor)

“No more excuses. Bye.” (Adam)

I shot through their skulls with the arrows and end their miserable lives. Never would I imagine I could do this just a week ago, but now I’m killing humans in cold blood just because I dislike their behaviour. The arrow is stuck in the skull real hard and can’t be retrieved. I retrieve the other arrows that are not stuck and found that my lens is on the table and is being disassembled. I took out my gloves and wear them, and manipulate the tools that are not bloodied and reassemble my lens into one piece again. This is an important tool that helped me out a lot with my ranged combat, and I can’t enchant or obtain the necessary lens material now, so it’s critically important I don’t lose this lens.

I return back to the slaves with some food and water from the slave dealer’s room. I distribute them to the surviving slaves while doing a headcount of the slaves on a new list. After doing a slave count check, it seems that only 63 slaves survive the ordeal. Insectoid slaves were all killed, as their bodies are crushed. The human slaves suffered serious trauma due to malnourishment, abuse, and pain due to moving out of their designated zone. I corrode their slave seals, and I transfer them all to another cage and locked them up. I would need to deal with them properly after I got the other slaves ready.

I go to the beastman slaves and recount their numbers. It seems that most of them are strong warriors, so they resist to the bitter end. Most of them are now dead, and the few survivors are in a very sorry state. Human of this kingdom have discriminated against the beastmen race for a very long time, and even during my time here, for as long as I can remember, everyone said they hate the beastmen for they are traitor of humanity, they are savages that eat human whenever they can, they worked with the demons to destroy humans, and many more evil deeds. They claim that the beastmen race is born from the union of demon and wild animals or the union of traitorous human and beast or both. This kingdom practices the policy of killing any of them on sight, but it seems that there are demands for them since the nobles are willing to buy them.

All the beastmen slave survivors seem to be females, and they are in such worn-out state that they will probably die in a day or two if left like this without care. I release their slave seals by slow corrosion from contact with my hand and put them all on the makeshift bed. I haven’t released their chains for in case they suddenly retaliate against me, but I give them enough to recuperate on the makeshift bed. I give those who can still move or conscious some food and water, while I carefully cut the food to small pieces for those unconscious and unable to eat on their own. I feed them with water mixed with sweet stuff from the collection of the slave dealer to give them energy.

While settling the matter with the beastmen, I also take a look at the other slaves. The demi-humans are just as mistreated as the beastmen. Demi-humans are more lookalike to humans than their beast counterparts. While beastmen have limbs and tails that resemble wild animals, demi-human are mostly human except for their stature, eyes, ears, and nose. Some still have tails, but they are less pronounced. The elves and dwarves slaves were not as badly treated, but they would need care too for being dragged away from their designated spot and are suffering from the pain. I tell them to promise not to do anything rash or I will kill them on the spot, and they seem to understand. I corrode their slave seal slowly by touching them with my hands to free them from their suffering due to being away from their designated spot due to the magic cores with authority.

The other demi-humans are all in bad shape, but I can’t just release all of them one goes without proper crowd control. I am afraid they will think of rebellion the moment they are free from their slave seal. I drag whichever cage is nearby back to their spot to stop the pain induced by the magic core authority, and only release those demi-humans (mostly with animal features) that are very badly injured. The slaves this time didn’t give that much trouble except that they need more care to keep them alive. I use my first-aid knowledge from my previous life to stop the bleeding, to apply bandage and slings at broken limbs, and to give nutrition to those malnourished. Without magic, things may seem more inconvenient, but I still feel that doing this is better than just rely on magic.

I go all over the place to help and treat the slaves, hoping to save all of those that can be saved, while at the same time making sure they don’t suddenly attack me. The demi-human slaves are helpful, as they help the other slave survivors without me giving instructions to them, and I feel grateful to them. There is a big-sized demi-human girl who has small curled horns on her head, like an ewe, helping me out despite having injuries all over her body. Her tattered fur may have helped cushion many of the abuse they hurled at her. I put my hands on her slave seal near her heart, and slowly crumble the thing that causes her continuous pain as she moves around to carry nourishment to other slaves. She was grateful and bowed to me as she moves off. This is the first time I ever interact with other races earnestly, and getting such a gesture puts me in a bind as to what to do for a demi-human that bows to me.

One of the human slaves succumbed to her injuries, as she is so young, and the soldiers seem to toy with her too much. When I arrived and battled with the soldiers, she is already convulsing and lost her consciousness. I tend to her and give her some sweet drink, but she won’t swallow it. I opened her mouth to check for any obstruction, and I tried to use mouth-to-mouth to put some of it inside her, as I have only vague recollection if this method will ever work from my memory. The girl regains consciousness a while later, and I pour some for her to drink. It seems like her stomach is weak, so she can’t take any food. I continue to hold her in my arms to give her warmth and sing the song my mother used to sing for me when I was little. I continue to sing until she breathes her last breath on my arms, and I close her eyes properly. I truly regret not having the convenience of magic this time.

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It was supposed to be heart-wrenching pain to see another death, but probably due to my parents’ death, and multiple deaths and horrors around me, I’m now void of any emotion after the death of the girl. I lay her to rest on the floor to be handled later. I got up and mechanically go to visit the other slaves that are terribly affected. First in the list is the grand succubus I left for dead earlier. I felt a little bad for discriminating against another living being, but I couldn’t help it since it is a demon. But since I got discriminated and persecuted by humans, I can roughly relate to her. The beastmen are not a troublesome race that attacks their rescuer, even though I’m a human. The demi-humans are polite and thoughtful, unlike the savage and brute nature people claim them to be. This demon is alone, probably a child abandoned by the demons.

When I saw the grand succubus, expecting her to be dead, I was surprised. She is still alive, although in quite an unsightly manner. She licks the blood on the floor, tracing every drop of them. Her tongue is flexible and long, almost like a snake although not branched into two. She takes the blood of a dying soldier to recover her loss of blood, and she takes down the pants of a dying soldier. Her tongue coiled around the masculine part, trying to stroke it. A little white fluid is seen secreted out from the masculine part, which she took a little of them while her eyes look like she wanted to devour it greedily. I find it strange that a dying man can still take pleasure and responds to them. After a moment of taking in the fluid, the grand succubus noticed my presence and when she realized I was looking at her, she hid her head in shame. I pretend not to notice and approach her to check on the wound on her neck. It seems that the slit on her throat has been closed, with not much blood trickling down, although the wound is still there. I check her eyes and face to see if she’s okay. I never really know about demon physiology, but I didn’t really feel afraid of her. Her action is a bit disgusting, but I have heard of it from folklore and legend of my past life about the race of demons called succubus. Her being a grand succubus must means that she is a stronger mutation of the succubus race. Succubus rarely appears in the Demon Lord’s army, so the people never really spoke of them.

The grand succubus eyes look to be in focus and still lively. She looks weak, but with her slave seal removed, it may pose risk if she decides to attack me or the other slaves. I tried to talk with her in the kingdom’s language, telling her that she mustn’t harm anyone here. She makes a face that she seems like she did not understand what I said. I then use hand gestures, pointing to myself and the other slaves, then point to a blade left by the soldiers, and I make an X sign with my hands to indicate that she mustn’t hurt us. She seems to understand and spoke in demon tongue again.

“Aêfu buldar aremasu, göta keteba kèn” (grand succubus)

“Good, so you understand” (Adam)

I also seem to get what she said, so I patted her head. I take out my bottle of ointment and apply it to the wounded area to let it heal faster. After wondering what food do the demons eat, I pass some meat and water to her. She looked at me and took a bite at it. She seems able to eat human food. I pray hard that she won't betray us suddenly, for the demons’ reputation is bad, but so is mine, so I put my biased judgment aside for now and treat them all equally. One note for certain, the natural healing rate of the succubus is incredible almost to the point of scary, but I mustn’t simply persecute one for having powers that haven’t been comprehended.

There are several other beastmen in critical condition, and I seriously need healing magic if I were to hope to save them. No, I must stave away that thought. I am no longer a mage, and I will use all my knowledge of my previous incarnation to help me get through this ordeal. I ask the ewe demi-human to help prepare some boiled water. I get all the small knives available and get some needles and thread from the toolbox of the slave dealer office, and go over to the fireplace to disinfect the tools with fire and clean away the sooth on the equipment with a cloth. I begin to perform some crude operation on some of the beastmen who have their wounds festered or sustained open wounds. I would cut out the rotten part, apply some ointment, and stitch back the wound with needle and thread. Those who have large open wounds would be cauterized with a hot blade. The ewe demi-human and another long-eared demi-human has come to help me, and I’m very grateful. They help to calm the patients that got into panic and keep them still while I perform the surgeries. I also go to the demi-human side to check and perform surgeries on those I believe are in the worst off condition to save their lives. I’m truly sorry that I can’t use magic to cure some of them, so I have to cut off some limbs that can’t be saved, and stitch them back, all without using any anesthetics.

After everything was done, I realized that the day is turning to dusk. I was so tired with all the surgeries and disinfection that I basically wanted to collapse and sleep. However, I don’t dare to do so because there is still the kingdom soldiers matter, and I may be ambushed by some stray kingdom soldiers or by some belligerent slaves that have freed themselves. I prepare some dinner by cooking what has remained of the combined food supply of the left out army and the slave dealer. I picked some edible vegetation from the nearby forest, and capture some grubs from under some rotten wood, and carry some water from a nearby river with the horse’s help. I feed the horse with all the hay I can find on the way to the river and back.

The dinner for the slaves is some simple food that I used to eat during desperate times. The harvest for farming is not always good, and at lean times, my mom used to cook like this. The nutrition must have been sufficient for the body, as we seldom get sick during our childhood days even when we go on this diet for sometimes a month. The grubs I know have plenty of protein, although they may look unappealing. I made some soup with the wild vegetables, and prepare some soft meat with the supplies I found, plus one rabbit I caught while going to the river to fetch some water. This trip to rescue the remaining slaves has turn out to be such an arduous task, and I hope none of them betray or be troublesome to me because I can only tolerate so much. The remainder of the surviving soldiers will be subverted once the blade of Guilt is finished recharging, and that also will take at least two days, because the blade can subvert only three people per day.

After the food has been prepared, I had some of the recovered and unrestrained slaves to carry the food to the other slaves and feed those who aren’t able to feed themselves. Those that have finished will collect the bowls back and wash them in the kitchen. I permit them to move into the slave dealer’s area. I provide some cloth and a container of hot water and ask the ewe demi-human to wipe her body and the rest of the slaves together with those that can move and are unrestricted. The death toll will rise if we don’t treat them properly. So far, three more have ended up dead after I last counted the remaining survivors of 63.

I carried the food for the five surviving soldiers in captivity, because I don’t want them to inflict mental trauma on the slaves that suffered in their hands. Before I hand them the food, I made sure to engrave the slave seal on them with the strange creature in suitcase I found in the slave dealer’s office. The creature convulse and squirmed when it receives a drop of my blood, and I’m unsure if my negative mana state would even work on this mana-sensitive creature in the first place, but it seems to work alright. I will not repeat the same mistake I did with the slave dealer goons I left back then. After the slave seal has been established, I can see their status directly without appraisal, and I can manage them all in my head. It is a strange feeling, as I don’t feel repulsed at all with this kind of thing such as slavery. I adjust all their body status to passive and restrict them from running away from the perimeter of the slave dealer building. I also put a restriction on what they can tell to others, and they will not tell anybody about me or they would feel real pain when they try to do so. Without a magic core, it seems that there will have many loopholes to be exploited by the slaves, but I would take the chance because I couldn’t operate a magic core and it would just break it if I try to invoke magic to establish a contract.

Before I make my move back, I went to look at the grand succubus. Because she’s a demon, no slaves dared to approach her. I see that she has not touched her food. I take the bowl on the ground and begin feeding her before it got cold. She was very reluctant to me feeding her, hiding her face away. After I forcefully grab her from behind and spoon-feed her nicely, then she begins to eat the food. I guess the food must have been unappealing to her, or her diet must have been other things. I wonder how she eats the food that was served to her by the slave dealer before this. After that, I instruct some of the slaves on how to take good care of the sickly and to have proper hygiene until the time I come back. I made some extra food in the kitchen and I tell them that they just need to open the seal and reheat them for breakfast. Before I left for Amanda’s house, I gave stern warning to the slaves that unless there is urgent or serious matter, they must not leave the compound, and if I return to find the slaves missing or turn rebellious for no good reason, I would end their lives myself, and I really mean it.

After that, I got to the horse, and return back to the village and went to Amanda’s house. I brought three fishes I caught in the river earlier and I want to add it as extra dishes for Amanda and family since I will intrude in their dinner. Amanda prepared some extra food for my dinner, luckily. It seems that she has accepted my presence in her family, and we had dinner together, and I explain all that has happened at the slave dealer’s place to her and her family. Lillie was there too, and she seems quite upset for some reason. When I tried asking her about it, she just hit me on my chest. It does physically hurt me, but I gladly accept her hits as her brother. It seems that normalcy is to return to the village for a while, but I can’t dismiss the looming threat of the kingdom that will soon or later learn the demise of one of their army divisions. I must do something to protect the people I truly care for and don’t lose them again.