As they passed through the gate the guard had questioning look on his face, but let them pass without further questions.
"Sister, why did you not tell that guard who I was?", Micheal asked.
"As I stated there will be an announcment released to the entirety of the clan in a short while, Father and Mother will want to see you first before telling everyone that you have returned safely." Sayaka stated bluntly.
As they walked down the road towards a small mansion Micheal's eyes were darting left and right taking in everything they could. He saw various groups of people, some with pointed ears, some with animal attributes (i.e. ears, talis,claws, etc), some held bows, others held swords or staffs. What caught Micheals attention about most of them however was that almost 70% of the people he saw where all earing a collar of some sort.
"Hey, Big Sis, why are those poeple wearing collars?", Micheal asked quietly
"Those people are slaves. Some wee sold into slavery either as Crime Slaves or Debt Slaves, while others where born into slavery. The Debt Slaves are used as Guards and as infintry in the clans army until they pay off their debts at which point they are released and given the option to either remain or leave. Crime slaves however are forbidden from ever holding a weapon again and are used as manual labor, they perform the repairs to the clans holdings and work the fields. As for those who are born into slavery they are made into slaves to pay for the sins of their parents, unless one of the parents is a free-man in which case the non slave parent decides whether or not the child becomes a slave. Everyone has to follow the rules if they are to own a slave such as Debt slaves cannot be used for......Mature activites were as crime slaves can. The rules regadring such things for those born onto slavery however are a moral grey area." Sayake told him before recognition appeared on her face,"One of the rules for us Direct Descendants is that upon the awakening of our Essence we are to recieve a Slave who is to swear an eternal loyalty oath, the only rule is that it has to be someone of the opposite gender, my slave, Gustov, is a Lycan who was born into slavery, and has served me loyally for years to the point that he has more than earned the freedom I granted him."
As Sayaka finished telling these things to Micheal she saw that he had a look of both confusion and expectance.
After walking in scilence for another 10~15 minutes they had reached the main house, as soon as Sayaka and Micheal set foot beyond the walls surrounding it the door burst open and out walked 4 people 3 men and a single woman. Micheal looked at all of them and used 'Identify', unfortunatly all he was able to see was the names and age of the 4.
Bastion Phoenix Age 88 Male Karl Whirlz Age 38 Male Katja Phoenix Age 35 Female Ashura Phoenix Age 35 Male
"Sayaka, is this him? The boy you claim to be your missing brother?," asked Karl.
"Yes, Uncle Karl this is him," Sayaka said
"It is him I can feel it, I would know my baby boy anywhere, after all I DID carry him for 10 months," Said Katja.
This caused all the people in the area to turn towards her.
"That maybe so but his blood still needs to be tested, Boy hold out your left arm." Ordered Bastion as he removed a small silver dagger and a small black orb.
As micheal sent Sayaka a confused look only to see an stoic look upon her face, he held out his left wrist as he was ordered to, as he did a flash of silver cut horizontally across leaving a cut at the base of his palm. Blood slowly began to flow from the shallow cut onto the orb causing it to shange from it's black color to a crystal clear one, only to have it change once more to a deep red color akin to fire.
"He has passed the test and he is indeed my grandson", Bastion said with a hint of joy in his voice. "Come tonight we celebrate his return and tomorrow he shall go through the assessment to deem how his training shall start since Sayaka has reported that his class is Monk."
"I agree whole heartedly father but there is still the fact that since his Essence has awoken he needs to receive his first slave to tend to him as per the clan rules, I shall take him to the slave housing to help him choose and inform him of the rules of owning a slave." Katja said.
"Ah, your right Katja how could I forget, you go with him whilst things are prepared here and Sayaka explains in detail on how she found Micheal." Bastion said sheepishly as he motioned for the rest to enter the main house.
Katja reached over and gentle grabbed Micheals hand and started chanting,"Oh Spirits of Light I beseech thee to come forth and restore the flesh of the wounded {Minor Heal}." As she finished chanting her hand glowed with a soft white light and Micheal felt the cut itch for a second as it healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, resulting in him staring at his mother with surprise written on his face,"I Didn't know mother was a White Mage," He said.
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"Silly boy, I'm no White Mage I surpassed White Mage and Class Up'ed to Priestesss when I was Carrying you. It was your father that conviced me to persue the path of healing as it meant that he would have another reason to protect me, I initially wanted to Class Up into an Undead Hunter but he was convinced that if I did so it would mean loosing me, that fool he walks the path of the demon monk but still worries about his family." Katja said with love flicking in her eyes.
----15 minutes later---
"The rules for owning a slave are rather simple, yet can very from each catagory of slave, crime slaves: cannot carry weapons, must have at least 1 meal a day, and must have the bare minimum housing, can be used for experiments and other such activities, can never be freed. debt slaves: may carry weapons, 3 meals a day, and commoner housing, cannoy be used for experiments and other such activities, are only slaves until they work off their debts. As for those born into slavery, the conditions are up to the master." Katja explained as they arrived at the slave's housing.
Upon seeing Katja and Micheal aproach the gaurds infront of the housing inquired as to the reason for the visit, only to be order to summon out all of the young female slaves.
A few minutes later, all of the requested slaves were lined up in front of them.
"Alright Micheal it's time for you to pick your slave, if you so choose you can make requests of shorten the amount of slaves to choose from." Katja said
Micheal looked at all of the slaves present, some looked confident whilst others looked scared, before stating,"I wish to see those only born into slavery, if possible."
roughly 95% of the slaves were sent back to the housing, all of the ones sent away looked a little upset, whilst the remaining slaves looked confused. Micheal started using 'Identify' on the remaining slaves before he pointed at 5 slaves and said that the rest could leave. The remaining 5 slaves looked confused, what was so special about them that this person had singled them out.
Natalia Female age 13 Class Knight LVL 1 Race: Dragonewt(Fire)
Hitomi Female Age 7 Class - Race: Half DemonKin(Oni) Half BeastKin(Black Cat)
Wendy Female Age 10 Class Alchemist LVL 1 Race: Elf(High)
Cassidy Female Age 11 Class Witch LVL 1 Race Gnome Jean Female Age 12 Class SpellSword LVL 1 Race: Human
After taking another glance at the remaing 5 Micheal fell grew curious,'Why does that girl, Hitomi not have a class while the other do, has she not awakened her class or does she just not have one.....interesting....', after a few minutes of being quite Katja asked," Is there a problem with Micheal?"
"No, Mother I was just thinking. I pick her", Micheal said whilst pointing at Hitomi.
"Alright then, Please follow us young lady, we will take you to preform the ceremony to make my son your master and teach you the rules that you will need to follow." Katja said
Looking scared Hitomi lowered her head and quickly stood 5 paces behind Micheal, matching his pace step for step. Noticing this Micheal smiled slightly, whicch Katja noticed before Micheal started Taking steps that looked out of place, long stpes ,short steps, random stops, and many other strage steps only to notice that after a few falters the girl managed to match his pace once again. 'Interesting she can copy my movement techniques begginer steps.... I wonder what else she can do.' After a few minutes of this Katja reached over and slapped Micheal on the back of the head and told him to stop teasing the girl. "Yes, Mother" was all he said before fixing his steps.
Shortly after they arrived at a small cabin with 3 rooms. A bedroom an empty room and the main room. Katja pulled the girl to the bedroom and told Micheal to stay put and not to peek. After a few minutes of silence he heard a loud splashing sound and a young girls quite scream, the splashing laster about 5 minutes before a small tub was kicked out the door by Katja. 15 Minutes after that they came out from the room, Katja looking as she did when she entered, Hitomi bathed and in a set of clean maids clothes(image link at the bottom), Hitomi then bowed to Micheal and quietly said "Master."
Micheal felt his face flush for some reason and his breathing became a little ragged, KAtja saw this and chuckled to herself," It's time for the ceremony, come along you two." Katja stated as she walking into the seemingly empty room, only to see that it held a few items of a shelf not to far away from them, namely a branding iron and a blade similar to the one that Bastion had used on Micheal to test his blood.
Katja closed the door and had Hitomi expose her back to her, berfore grabbing the branding iron and chanting," Spirits of Fire, Hear my call, Ignite", a small flame came into existence and merged with the branding iron making it red hot and maliable, she handed it to Micheal and told him to imagine a symbol that would become his slave seal. Closing his eyes Micheal tried to picture a symbol but couldn't stop seeing Hitomi in her outfit standing next to him, eventuall the image began to fade his silhouette fadede and became white whilst hers became black eventually they started swirling together and a portion of their silhouette's flew into each other before stabilising in a perfect circle. He then felt a tug and opened his eyes only to see that the brand had changed to become the circle he had in his mind, and Katja pulling the branding iron out of his hands before setting it onto Hitomi's back leading to her screaming in pain. "Micheal take the blade and cut your finger, just enough for a drop of blood to flow out, make sure you drop that blood onto the brand you have made." Katja ordered him in a rushed voice.
After doing so he felt a sudden throbbing pain in his head only to have it quickly fade away and felt a presence in his mind folloing it's direction had him looking directly at Hitomi's back.
"Congradualtions Michealm, this girl is your first slave, I'll lead you to the small house that has been set aside for you and allow you to get aquainted with each other."