The entire wagon shakes as it hit one of the small rock on the dirt road, the tremble causes the Cyclops body to shakes while she asleep in the back, causing her to let out a snort while snoring. Nesto tightens his grip around the reign making sure it doesn't slip his hand, while Neya is sitting beside him and gazes deeply into the book in her hands.

Nesto turns his head to check on the Vizrez, and he finds that the cyclops woman still asleep after scratching her belly with her fingers. He turns his head back to the road then he wipes the sweat off his forehead, he looks up, and notices the afternoon sun proves to be causing the heat he is feeling right now.

He glances at his master beside him, unfazed by the heat because of her immersion reading the book she held. Nesto took out a napkin out of his jacket and laid it gently above Neya's head. She notices the napkin and turns to look at her butler with one of her eyebrow raised.

"What's this?" Neya ask,

"It should keep the heat and the sun ray away from your head," Nesto said.

"Why? The sun doesn't bother me that much," Neya said.

"I don't want you to get sick, my cute master health is important to me," Nesto said.

He notices her master smile before she gazes back at her book. He looks at the open grass plain beside the wagon, at the edge of plain there is foliage of trees that is preventing him from seeing even further. He looks back at the road with something bothering his mind.

"Sorry to bother you again, Miss Neya. But I have a few questions I want to ask," Nesto said.

Neya raises her head back up, then she places the book at her side before answering, "Sure, go ahead."

"Why did you offer Vizrez to come with us, aren't you uncomfortable with people?" Nesto ask.

"I am uncomfortable with people, I know that. That's why I need to overcome it if I want to become strong, and another reason why I want her to joins us is because of you," Neya answers.

"Me?" Nesto said.

"I'm sure you need another helping hand to protect me," Neya said with a smile on her face.

"Do you doubt my ability to protect you?" Nesto ask.

"I really want to believe that you alone can protect me, but I just can't, even though I know how strong you are," Neya answers.

"That's depressing to think that my master doesn't trust me fully," Nesto said with an exaggerated gloomy face.

Neya let out a giggle before saying, "Well, you did lie to me."

"I'm sorry, I did," Nesto apologies, but this time his face show guilt.

Neya look away suddenly feeling depressed, "No, I'm sorry I brought it up."

"This conversation turns depressed fast, let's change the subject, shall we?" Nesto said in an upbeat manner.

"Okay, what do you want to talk about?" Neya agree,

"Did you receive any letter from your friends?" Nesto ask.

"I did! They told me that they are studying new things at the Academy, and they also tell me that they miss me greatly," Neya reply with an excited tone while swinging both of her feet back and forth.

"Did you heard anything from the boy you like?" Nesto asks, but that question seems to cause his master to fall into silence while she pulls her legs closer to her chest with her hands.

"Neya...?" Nesto let out.

"He never replied... Lets... talk about something else," Neya said then she let go of her legs.

"Can we talk about the magic incident that happens in the mountain because after we left, you never once speak of it," Nesto ask.

"Do we have to?" Neya asks while her butler gently nods his head.

She let out a sigh before saying, "The lecturer back at the Academy once warn us that magic is not our friend, and the incident proves it. I understand why you don't want to teach me any magic spell. The spells are dangerous just like you say, and every time somebody used it, the user or somebody else wind-up hurt," she raises her burned right hand, and gazes on it.

"Is the incident, the reason why you are having a new set of nightmares?" Nesto ask.

"In my nightmare, I dream that I was the strongest magic user in the world, but when I look down at my path of destruction, I saw you laying on the ground, lifeless," Neya said.

"I don't want to be that strong if it means I would hurt you," Neya continue.

"You know, I was wrong to tell you that magic is dangerous because I know someone who used magic to heal others," Nesto said.

"Still, I think I'm going to stay away from magic for a while until I can learn more about it," Neya said.

"As you wish, my master," Nesto said while gently placing a hand on her master head to comfort her.

After moving his hand away, Nesto notices a caravan stopping on the side of the road when he looks closer, he sees there are many caged wagons lining up at the sides of the road, inside of it contains human slaves. It seems that the caravan is transporting slaves, the owner must be a slave trader.

When the wagon that Nesto in on finally gets closes to the caged wagon, he can see the humans inside it more closely. The condition they are in is horrible, Nesto can smell the putrid stench coming from the caged wagon. The humans were not in great conditions, skinny because of starvation, multiple bruises on their body, dirty as if they never shower before, and seem lifeless as they lay on the cage floor.

One of them sees Nesto, a small girl. She rushes to the cage bar and yells out, "Please help us, sir!"

Her scream caught one of the guard attention, he then takes out his leather whip and smacks the cage. The sound of the whip shock the girl, her eyes begins to water as she back away from the cage bar. Nesto can only look, he has no way of helping that girl without endangering his master.

Nesto's wagon is about to pass the end of the caravan when he sees the slave trader, an elf with a sadistic smile, and wearing extravagant cloth. The elf stand, his chest puff out while overlooking his goods from afar. The elf's eyes alone show Nesto that this man doesn't view his kind like the same as any other living being.

Just a few feet away from the caravan, Neya calls calmly while her face looking down "Nesto..."

"Yes?" Nesto ask.

"That elf earlier... He..." Neya fingers start to dig into her palms.

She grinds her teeth, "He did bad things to me before... I met you."

Her butler notice a tear flow down her cheeks, that tear was not out of sadness, but pure hatred and rage. "I want you to kill him!"

"Slowly and painfully... I want him to feel it!" Neya said.

"Are you sure?" Nesto ask.

"I'm not asking, I'm ordering you!" She looks at her slave with bloodshot eyes.

"As you wish, my master," Nesto stops the wagon and drop down with his saber beside his waist.

He takes off his jacket and hangs it on one of the hooks outside the wagon wall. Nesto walk calmly toward the caravan, his eyes slowly turn cold and uncaring. One of the guards notices him and walk closer to him, "Stop right there!"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The guard's words caught his other friends attention including one that holding a crossbow. Nesto dash, grabbing the guard collar, then taking out his own dagger, and stab it through his jaw. The guard face was shocked as he gurgles from his own blood.

The other guards face turn to fear, the one with the crossbow quickly aim and fire his crossbow. Nesto used the guard his holding as a shield and let the arrow pierce the guard's body. While the one with the crossbow tries to reload his next shot, Nesto drops the body and run to the other guard while taking out his saber.

He slit the other guard throat before he could take out his own sword. He makes his way to the other and did the same thing before heading to the one with the crossbow. When he finally reloads his crossbow, Nesto already close to him with his hand on the crossbow.

The elf screams as Nesto pierce his saber through the guard's heart. He looks behind the dying guard, and see his target running to the front of the caravan. A loud crash can be heard behind him, Nesto glances behind him, and see Vizrez slam one of the guard body with her shoulder to the side of the wagon. The wagon almost topples before swaying back to its original position.

"A fight just after a nap, I thought this journey was going to be boring," She let out a roar, and the guards near her back away.

"What the hell is that?!" The guard shouted.

"I'm not a thing, I'm a woman!" She charges at the guard with his bone sword at her side.

Vizrez slams the guard she targets earlier, and he was thrown far away from his original spot. She then swings her sword, cutting a few guards in half while she let out a laugh.

"Run! Run!!" The guards near Vizrez shout after dropping his weapon and start to run away.

Nesto pulls out his saber out the elf chest and takes the crossbow from the guard's hand before the elf drop to the ground. The slave trader used all of his energy to run as fast he can away from the caravan. Nesto aims the crossbow at the slave trader, he raises the front part of the crossbow a bit higher, and pull the trigger.

The arrow flies upward before coming back down and pierce through the slave trader on his calf. The elf let out a scream of pain from afar, as he lay on the ground. It doesn't take long for Nesto to catch up to the elf crawling on the ground.

Nesto stands atop the injured elf, he squats down and grabs the elf's hair with his hand. He then dragged the elf by the hair back to the caravan, the elf let out an agonizing scream. After a quick trip back to the caravan with the slave trader in tow, Nesto leans the elf's body to the wagon, and take out a dagger he got from the dead guards.

He stabs the dagger through his shoulder and making sure the dagger stuck to the wagon wall behind him. Nesto back away and let the elf entire body hang from the dagger inside his shoulder.

"Why are doing this!!" He whimpers.

Nesto looks at his side and sees his master walks closer to him accompanied by Vizrez. The cyclops woman let out a smile showing her sharp teeth while her weapons resting on her shoulder covers with blood.

Neya turns to face her torturer, "You violate me, humiliate me, torture me, and break me," She said with seething rage.

"You are... the slave... the queen daughter! You escaped?!" The slave trader said surprise.

"Suffer!" Neya said and nod to her head to Nesto.

Nesto brought the elf pant down, then he takes out another dagger he got from the dead guards, Vizrez looks away when Nesto reach down, and grab it.

"Wait! WAIT!!" The slave trader scream as Nesto cut it from his body. He let the man pride fall down to the ground while blood pouring out from where the thing used to be.

Neya frown turn to a grin while he sees the man suffers in front of her, all those years of pain he did to her flash before her eyes. Then she remembers what her father looks like, she suddenly realizes the horror of what she just did. She turns her head away, and say.

"End it, I don't want to see anymore," then she starts to walk away from the horror.

Nesto jabs the dagger through the man skull and took out the dagger from the elf shoulder. He let the body fall to the ground, then he sees that his hands become bloody again.

"Erhh, What a show, almost ruin my appetite," Vizrez comment as she walks away from the dead body.

"What are we going to do with all this human in the cage?" Vizrez ask.

Neya turns her heads to look at the humans in the caged wagon, she wanted to forget, "Which one of you can steer a wagon?"

They all look at each other, then a few of them raised their hands, "Okay, if you want to be free listen to me, I need five people to steer the wagon into the forest so we can escape, can you do that?" Neya ask.

They nod their head at the same time, "Vizrez, free them," Neya order.

"Okay chief," Vizrez walk to the caged wagons and begins to break the cage locks.

Nesto stands still while staring his bloody hands, "Nesto?" His master call, snapping him back to reality.

"Yes?" Nesto said.

"I'm..." She looks away and back at him, "I need you to cover our tracks."

"No problem." Nesto let out a small smile.

After a short while of getting prepared, All wagon head inside of the forest leaving Nesto behind. He watches them leave after they were gone from his sight, he starts to bury the blood stain ground with dirt, then he uses a large tree branch to cover the wagon tracks, and footprints.

After a long while of retracing the wagon tracks while covering it up, he arrives at the caravan park near a lake. He looks at them and sees a few numbers of new people among the humans that he didn't see earlier, two elf, and one wolics. Nesto walk closer causing his master to spots him, she waves her hand slightly and turns to face the other three people that are talking to her. He walks to her side while she is talking to the male human and male wolics.

"You three were going to be sold at black market, right?" Neya ask.

"Yes, but thanks to you, we are free," the male human thanks.

The three of them dress in dirty rags, he notices one of the elf eyes fill with despair. There something familiar about the elf girl despite the despair in her eyes, Nesto shakes his thought away and took out another napkin. While he takes out a napkin, a locket accidentally dangles out of his pocket.

The short elf girl walks closer to Nesto, she then stabs him in the gut with a makeshift knife. Nesto was shocked, then he looks down at the elf girl face, he sees her tears are running down her cheeks while she clenches her teeth together with animosity, and glare at the man she just stabs.

A name appears in his mind—Vesstan the bounty hunter.