Chapter 3

Warning: This chapter contains strong language which may be offensive and/or inappropriate to some readers.

Her patience ran out when they did not even look back at her. She ended up crying and yelling, unable to bear her temper.

“Really, isn’t this too much? Don’t you guys even have a family? Huh?! I said that my brother is sick and will die without me. How can you be so cruel? Huh? I said I will pay you! How much money will you get if you sell me? I’ll give you the exact same amount. Please, please let me out!”

Eventually the man, who appeared to be the leader among them, raised his hand, making the carriage stop.

“…..Ah, you are really noisy. Shut your mouth, you little bitch.”

“Aren’t you the one who is acting deaf? Huh?!”

“Let’s hear it then….”

The man gritted his teeth and stared at Celestia. Two guards approached the carriage cage, perhaps under his direction. She shrank herself in one corner. But soon, the two guards dragged her out of the cage, taking out a club.

The other three slaves in the carriage looked even more frightened than her. They were in no position to help her.

The leader raised the club but stopped himself as if he was looking for a specific part where he could hit her. Since she was agile, she thought she could avoid the blow. But it only made her anxious.

She crouched herself, and shut her eyes.

But even after some time, she could not feel any pain. Instead, she heard a voice.

“What is the matter?”

‘Footsteps? Who is it?’

A tall man stood there, staring vacantly towards her side, probably at the trader. Celestia looked up at him, feeling a bit satisfied for the interruption. The two guards who were standing beside her looked surprised. The trader threw away the club in his hand in order to give the guest a courtesy.

“Ah, Sir, what are you doing here?”

“You look like a slave dealer, but you’re being too hard on her. I asked what was going on.”

“Yes, I am. She is a slave brought in from Golddina…..she was talking a bit too much…..”

“Slavery from that far?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm. Seems like there is a mess in the management of the Empire. I have been noticing people like you releasing slaves all the time. I have to visit there sometime and try to turn the situation upside down.”

It sounded strange to hear him speak like that. It sounded as if conquering Golddina was an easy task for him.

Golddina was an Empire full of magic. The Burg Empire was the only one that could treat Golddina equally. It was an Empire where the national power could not be dealt with by other smaller countries, and it was ruled by a king who enjoyed expanding his territory, and was extremely cruel.

‘Where in the world does a simple aristocrat talk like that?’

Celestia had never been this far from her home, her backstreet life. She had never been to any other city in Golddina or to Ma Eul. And she had no idea where she was being carried in a horse carriage.

“Don’t be so harsh to these simple slaves.”

“Yes!”

Appearing suddenly, it seemed like he was boasting about.

No, she was the only one who seemed to be out of her mind. Suddenly, a crowd of attendants arrived around him.

‘What do I do? Isn’t there any chance to escape? My life is really going to end if I get sold somewhere.’

Celestia hesitantly threw herself in front of the man. While keeping her face down, she tried to look around. She could see the trader’s face turning blue.

“You crazy bitch! What’re you doing!”

She saw the slave trader hastily trying to grasp her arm, but she spat out, as if she was ready to be decapitated. She thought it wouldn’t work, but she tried her best.

“Please, My Lord! Please spare me! Please let me go back! Have mercy on me!”

But there was nothing on his face but a hint of annoyance. It seemed as if he did not have any interest in her. Did she misunderstood him to be a compassionate person?

As her body was being dragged away from the man, she raised her voice.

“I have a brother. If I don’t return to him, he will get sick and die. My little brother can’t even come out of the house alone. There is no one else to take care of him but me. So please let me go back to him.”

The man, with the dark hair, laughed as if the situation was very funny.

‘How can you just laugh when someone is being sold!’

“So what am I supposed to do?”

“….Pardon?”

“If there is anything you want from me, shouldn’t there be a corresponding price that I’ll get? Do I look like a volunteer?”

Certainly, that was the primal logic of the world, even if it sounded heartless. It was also true that she had nothing to negotiate with him.

But she could not just give up.

What she learned in the alley was that no one was perfect, no matter how noble they were. There were people who came looking for places to hide something, whether it was drugs or women to spend the night with. Maybe there was something she could help the man with.

There would be only a few weeks within which she could repay him. She looked at the man desperately.

His sly, smooth face seemed impressive. It fitted perfectly with his tanned skin, black hair and red eyes that were not so common in Golddina. His cheeks were a bit sunburned.

‘Is he a nobleman or a knight?’

She could decipher his wide shoulders and well-kept body even if he was wearing clothes.One of the best explanations for one’s identity was their clothes. Rather than the luxury goods they had, the clothes worn by the people revealed their ranks, be it people from the back alley, the nobility or the Emperor himself.

The neck of the cape that he was wearing was covered in white ivy design, and the high-grade woolen fabric was undoubtedly imported from the far east. But she was very surprised at the presence of the purple fabric. In Golddina, it was not even worn by the nobles as it was the color that represented the Emperor. But the customs could be different in different empires, so she did not pay much attention to it.

All she could take it was that he was a high-ranking noble from a rich country who would never need her help.

Suddenly, her eyes fell on the back of his hand as she tried to draw her gaze out of despair.

On the back of his hand was a visible burn mark. It did not quite look like a burn but a rash. It had spread to the point where his fingers began.

That was definitely something that she knew about.

A negative reaction.

It was the very similar symptom Serangueban often had before he became a magic officer. One might not be able to operate his energy properly, but he might suffer from it if he used it too much.

‘I can’t just forget about it. I had already treated that jerk not too long ago.’

In Golddina, these symptoms were called excess energy syndrome, or negative reaction.

‘Why didn’t I just leave him like that? If I had just missed two days of his treatment, it would have accumulated on his hand and he would actually have felt the pain.’

‘Why can’t I afford the pills?’

‘I’m good at reading body language. But why did I help him when he was just standing on my support while making a path for his own life?’

She pulled herself away from the trader and fell back on the floor, with the help of the skills she had learned from the pickpockets.

“It’s clear that there is nothing that I can give you, My Lord. But I can do something. And that’s exactly what you want. So, we can make a deal if you want, My Lord.”

“…..This bitch is crazy! Who needs your little piece of gold?”

The slave trader pulled out a long sword as if he was going to kill her. From a business perspective, it would have been better if she had her alias attached. But when she saw him acting like that, it seemed like she made a slip of her tongue.

But there was nothing that she could do. Usually, female slaves were sold to terrible places. Whether to the brothel or to a pervert, she would never be able to escape out again.

The man with the dark hair smirked, his red eyes gleaming.

‘Doesn’t he believe me?’

“Girl, I don’t think you can think well since you became a slave. But let me clarify myself, I don’t really need anything from you.”

She pushed herself towards the man, still crouching down.

“I can heal you every day from the illness that you are suffering from, My Lord.”

The man, who was about to turn, stopped. The men around him followed. When the sharp blade of the trader’s sword just touched her neck, she could tell that she could be cut alive at an instant. A tingling sensation crept up her throat.

The man glanced at her with the most hideous evil face she had ever seen. She thought he was a man of high nobility but now that he was like this, it seemed like he was not just a noble.

“….Where did you hear about me?”

“Take me with you if you want to know, My Lord. If you don’t…. How am I going to help you?”

“I will ask again. Where and what did you hear about me?”

“I….”

The blade that still touched her neck made her body tremble. Her throat went dry.

“I didn’t hear anything anywhere. I don’t even know who you are, My Lord. But I know about your illness and I know how to treat it. I just figured it out from the symptoms.”

“It can be cured…. Do you want me to believe that?”

His eyes suspiciously hung on hers. In Golddina, the negative reaction was not so bad. But she didn’t know how much was its effect in other countries. She didn’t know if their pills worked or not.

She was a bit anxious, but she sat up on her knees holding out her right hand towards him.

He stared at her hand.

If the world was full of love and justice, she would have shaken her hands with him until now. But unfortunately, people were always very suspicious.

“I will prove it to you, My Lord.”

“….Fine. There is nothing for me to lose anyway.”

All the attendants, who were standing around him, looked astonished.

When he put his hand over hers, she gently stroked the back of his hand.

She focused all her attention using the mana that was carved across her back, stomach, waist, shoulders and arms, nullifying the side effects of his inner and outer body. Calculating the effects of his body, she counted backwards from 10 to 1. It didn’t heal in a flash, but it was fast enough to notice that the red skin was slowly finding its normal color. She was also pretty sure that the pain he’s feeling has now lessened.