Chapter 18

The two of us spent the whole day in Elmbrook enjoying the sights. Merilyn found a new obsession in human food and was adding as many recipes as she could to her ‘Book’. The commotion with Nazir earlier had already managed to spread her name throughout the town, causing various chefs and vendors to proposition her the same way Nazir did. One particularly avid baker even asked to see our parents so he could offer an arranged marriage between Merry and his son, much to my ire.

Eventually, the sun fell low and our little excursion to the human village came to an end. The two of us could not stay in Elmbrook, nor could we return after leaving.

“We were able to convince those guards to let us in once, but I doubt they are gullible enough to be fooled a second time…” Merry said, eyes downcast.

She had truly enjoyed our time among the humans and lamented the fact that we could not stay. I could not blame her, it was easy to get lost in their world after experiencing it for yourself. Even I felt a twinge of regret as I saw the smiling faces of the humans we passed by on the path out of the village.

But it was simply not to be.

By the time we reached the village exit the sun had finally dipped below the horizon. The two guards from earlier were nowhere to be found and instead the pathway was lit up by a pair of standing torches. There was a conspicuous smell of alcohol in the air which led me to believe that the guards were…taking a break.

Looking around a final time to make sure nobody was watching, the two of us sprinted out of the village together. Though I was certain nobody was around I still couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched. Merry agreed which was why, when we got back to the forest, she made this suggestion.

“Illumi…don’t be mad, but I think we should stay in these forms for a little while. At least until we can figure out who is spying on us.” She looked worried that I would blow up, which I felt bad about.

“I’m not mad, I was actually thinking the same. I doubt anyone would raise an army to grab a couple of escaped slaves, but if it was found out what we actually are? An attack would become inevitable.” I said, before switching to telepathy “I don’t think we should use the word ‘dragon’ out loud. Let’s stay closer to the treeline of the forest tonight, our eavesdropper might decide to make themselves known while we are sleeping.”

Merry agreed to both proposals and the two of us quickly set up a fake campsite, complete with a fire pit and a small makeshift shelter to sleep under. Of course, neither of us actually needed the amenities. But it would seem oddly conspicuous if we didn’t have them. It definitely didn’t have anything to do with Merilyn’s desire to recreate Nazir’s Kebabs.

An hour later and the two of us were snacking on some delectable meat that Merry had bought with her half of our money. They weren’t quite as good as the ones we had gotten from the strange chef, but they were certainly tastier than the uncooked, unseasoned meat that we usually ate.

“Hey illumi…” Merry asked “Do you really think it’s impossible for us to live together with them? We don’t seem so different, if we could just sit down and talk I’m sure we could come to an understanding.”

“…I’ve wondered the same thing more times than I can count. I think the answer comes down to this- a long time ago while I was roaming around I came upon a group of human knights. I killed l but one of them, of course…”

“…And you played your game?”

“I did. But this particular time the human was far more intelligent than the others, and he tried to extend his life by giving me a riddle to solve. It was a difficult one too, but after a full day I was finally able to come up with the answer.”

“Well, what was the riddle? It must have been hard If you needed so long.”

“The riddle goes like this: Imagine there is a city without pain or hunger, where everything you could ever want to happen happens and no one ever suffers.”

“That sounds lovely.”

“Indeed. But there is a catch, somewhere in this city, deep underground, there lives a child who has never seen the light. They have never known love, or kindness, or the warmth of another. All they know is hunger, and hate and the pain of the daily beatings they receive. Everyone living in this city knows of the child's plight, but they do nothing because their paradise is built on this one lone child's suffering. Would you choose to live in this place knowing that, or would you leave?”

“That is the riddle!? That’s…horrible!” Merry shouted, extremely perturbed.

“It is, but still I wasn’t sure how to answer. I knew that staying was wrong, but for some reason leaving also seemed like the wrong answer…before I go any further, do you know what you would do?”

Merry stopped for a moment and thought. And she thought. And she thought some more. And with every passing moment her eyes became more dull and more lifeless until finally she had her answer.

“I would destroy that city. Down to the last piece of rubble.”

“Exactly!” I shouted, snapping my fingers “ But a human would leave it be, and either benefit from it or try to forget about it.”

“But that doesn’t account for…me. They let me suffer and that place still stands.” she said, sadly.

“So they did. But they thought that they were protecting you. I won’t defend the way they treated you, but from their point of view it was kindness. And one day, I imagine you plan on going back and fulfilling the riddle, yes?”

Merry fell silent then, and after a while she nodded her head.

“And when you do I shall stand alongside you. I do not judge you for your desire, my dear Merry.” I said, scooting next to her. She brightened up a little and after that the two of us crawled under our makeshift shelter and promptly fell asleep. Or at least, we appeared to be sleeping.

In reality, the two of us were wide awake, listening for the sound of approaching footsteps. We were rewarded for our vigilance when, an hour later, we heard the distinctive ‘crunch’ of several pairs of feet approaching our campsite.

Eventually, we could hear a whispered voice say “-o you really think they’re out here? It’s crazy.”

Another voice hurriedly replied back “Of course they’re out here, I saw ‘em run into the forest.”

“Yeah well, last week you said that you saw Brenard throw out a whole loaf of fresh bread and look how that turned out.”

“I was hungry! I though-”

“Quiet, both of you. I can see their campsite ahead.” said a more serious sounding, third voice. We heard the three walk into the small area our camp was in.

“Woah, these two punks managed to set up all this, huh? Not bad for a couple of shrimps on the run.” said the second voice.

“It’s all the more impressive that they were able to make it out here at all. Tie them up so they don’t run around shouting, we’ll take them back to base and-” the third voice said, but it was cut off by a fourth voice.

Mine.

“Actually,” I said, rising from my spot next to Merry “I’d say you’re the ones who need to be bound.”

The intruders reacted quickly, and tried to pounce on us, but were frozen in place by my .

“Wha-what is this!?” shouted the first intruder.

“Damn it, the hell is going on!” said the second.

“This is…a skill?” said the third, looking right into my eyes.

“Indeed. I was wondering who has been tailing us but I never would have thought that it was just a bunch of kids…” I said, smirking at their cheek.

The first and second intruder were a boy and a girl that looked only slightly older than Merry and I. And the third was well into his teenage years, though one could be fooled thinking he was older given his muscular physique.

“Hey, c’mon let us go!” shouted the girl angrily.

“Hoo, and why should I do that? You guys were about to tie us up and take us to be sold, weren’t you?” I asked, flicking the loud brat on the forehead.

“Hey!” she shouted, about to yell at us some more.

“Quiet!” the older boy said again, before turning to me “Listen, I think you have the wrong idea here Illumi. We weren’t going to-”

“Tch, and you even went to the trouble of learning my name? So tell me, how long have you been eavesdropping on us?” I said, letting some bloodlust into my voice.

“Illumi…” Merry said, tugging on my arm.

“Sorry, but I have to interrogate them. And hu…they respond so much faster when their lives are on the line.”

“H-Hey, c’mon man we weren’t gonna do anything to you guys! We just wanted to-”

“Shut it.” I said, silencing all three of them with my skill. “You will speak when spoken to, and not before. Now then, you-the oldest, give me your excuse before I decide it’s not worth listening to you any longer.”

I partially undid my skill on him. “Thank you.” he said calmly “My name is Ben Odgenson, but everyone calls me Benson. Please believe me- the three of us had no intention of selling you off to slavers. And even if we did try that it wouldn’t have done much for us…since we’re runaways ourselves.”

“I see…I can detect no lies from you. But if that’s the case, why sneak up on us?”

“We wanted to invite you to join our group. Scratch, that’s the boy who came with me, said he saw you come into the village from the forest earlier. I had him follow you two around all day to make sure you were like us and after he saw you leave Elmbrook the three of us followed you out…here. The reason we were going to tie you up was because, well, this isn’t our first time inviting new faces, and sometimes the runaway thinks they’re going to get caught and sold so they freak out and attract attention.”

I nodded, following his logic. But there was still one vital piece of information that would make the difference between these kids living and dying. I shut Benson up and then turned to Scratch.

“And tell me…Scratch, was it? Just how much did you learn about Merry and I while you were tailing us?”

“N-Not a lot, I swear! Just that you live in the forest and that your sister got a skill today. A-also that Master Chef Nazir invited you to be his apprentice, and that you were definitely lying about being the children of potato farmers…but that was all, i swear!” he said, dry swallowing.

I nodded, satisfied. The kids didn’t know anything about us being dragons, so I undid my skill and let the three children go. Ordinarily I would have just killed any group of humans dumb enough to attack me, but these were just kids and the thought of killing someone so close to Rickurds age made me unhappy.

The three of them collapsed to the ground and the younger two stayed there for a moment, trying to get their bearings back. Benson on the other hand immediately shot back up and said “So, what do you say about my offer? I don’t know what kind of skill you used to immobilize us, but the two of you are definitely talented for runaways. We could really use you in our group.”

“Ah, No.” was all I felt inclined to say. Merilyn and I didn’t belong with these kids, we had a nest to return to.

“Wha- hey! You can’t just turn the boss down like that, especially after he came all the way out here to recruit you! Where do you think you have to go that’s better than our base?” said the loud girl, now back on her feet.

“I’m pretty sure up a tree is better than any place you live in.” I said, sneering at her. I grabbed Merry’s hand and turned to leave, but before I could Benson spoke again.

“Wait! Just…just hear me out before you say no.”

I stopped, but only because Merry said “Illumen, stop being so mean…at the very least we can listen to what he has to say.”

“…Gah, fine! But we’re only going to listen.” I said grumpily

Merry kissed my cheek and smiled at me, which made the idea of listening to this human for a few moments a bit more bearable.

The two of us nodded at Benson, prompting him to launch into his story. Apparently, he had been the slave of a Petty Lord who was buying up as many young boys as he could get his hands on. After being sold to the Lord, Benson was forced to train as a soldier day and night from the time he was nine to the day he escaped one year ago. The Lord was looking to create his own personal squadron of slave knights to send out on monster subjugation quests. Each successful quest raised his standing among the other nobility and his popularity among the peasantry.

There was a huge problem though. The monsters that the slave knights were being sent to kill were all well above what warriors without Skills could be expected to deal with safely. That, coupled with the fact that the Lord refused to give his slaves adequate equipment meant that the mortality rate of the slave knights was quite high.

Of course, the Lord didn’t care. He could just buy more slaves to replace those lost. This lack of empathy is the reason why, on his first mission, Benson was forced to fight against a Basilisk. The fight went as well as one could expect, and in the end the entire squadron was wiped out, save the boy himself. The only reason he was able to escape was because the basilisk, satisfied with the myriad of food laying around it after the battle, saw no reason to expend energy chasing one frightened boy.

“Wait a second…”I said, confused “If you could just run away, why don’t all slaves sent out to do errands do the same?”

“Because of this.” he said, and with a meaningful look he pulled his shirt off to reveal a bizarre brand etched into his chest. It looked like a coat of arms for some noble house-like the ones I had seen knights wear when I was rampaging through Estora- except this one had three gashes etched through the crest. “The Basilisk scratched my curse seal and broke the spell that was forcing me to obey that Lord’s orders. If it hadn’t, I would have been forced to return to the very man who sent us off to our deaths, and I likely would have been punished for failing to finish the quest. After that I kept running until I came to this little town, far away from anywhere I would be recognized. And ever since then I’ve been biding my time, gathering strength and taking in every runaway that I could find. Illumen, I can tell you’re not the type to be moved by a story like mine, but all the same I want your help setting every slave free.”

He was becoming more impassioned now as he started pitching his goals to us.

“We were made slaves, not because of anything we did wrong, but because others forced it onto us! Some of us had parents who sold us to cover their debts, others were caught begging in the cities and were tossed onto the slave market because we were an eyesore. And then there are people like me, who are only slaves because we were born into it. We don’t deserve the awful lives we were forced to live, but freedom won’t be handed to us so we need the power to take it for ourselves! So please, I ask you Illumi and you Merry, will you not join us in our cause?”

I thought about it for a moment. He certainly made a good point, nobody deserved to be a slave, but the main problem I had with helping him was too basic a problem to ignore.

“I’m sorry, but I just don’t think that we can help you.”

My solutions are not the type he would be willing to accept. As far as I was concerned, the best way to solve his problem would be to tear the entire nation down and restart from scratch, and I knew that no human would agree to a solution that was so finite.

With that I grabbed Merry’s hand and tried to leave again. But she wouldn’t budge. I looked at her questioningly, and she looked right back at me.

“I want to help them, Illumi.” she said, looking empathetically at the children.

…I remembered something Master Carmen said about Merilyn being too sweet.