Nephthys’s POV

I did not want to relive that moment, but when that bastard of a woman entered the room, memories that I did not recognize at first burst forth. Everything during the time I was sold by my parents had been blurry, but I did not think much of it - after all, who would want to remember a horrific period of their life. Unfortunately, this would not last forever and it seemed today was the fateful day that these memories were freed from the shackles I had kept them in. Hatred was flowing throughout my body as if it was the only emotion I had. I remembered now, she had ecstatically killed everyone I had gotten to know during the time I was an unsold slave as if they were worthless. To her, taking human life was comparable to a hobby - she felt pure joy and satisfaction. I had seen first-hand the amount of people she had killed for no reason.

Several people had tried to help me after I was sold into slavery at first, but they slowly dwindled as I saw them killed before my eyes for making the most minute of mistakes. Somehow, I had managed to survive, but during that period of my life, there were moments where I wanted to die and I was not able to - that bastard controlled everything. Every movement and word that was exhibited from our bodies were manipulated but that woman to the point that she wouldn’t even let me take my own life. Fortunately for me, I had met Sol by chance and as long as he was alive, I had no intention of dying, but for a moment after she entered this slave-filled room, I internally quaked and I went narrow-visioned.

My head went haywire and I couldn’t think straight until Sol embraced me - my mind went blank. I was on the verge of crying and screaming in anger, but for the moment, I slumped towards the ground and relaxed against Sol. I remembered everything now… she killed everyone that had been kind to me from kids younger than me to the elders of the group. Even after hearing their dying screams, all I could do was just stare blankly without budging from where I watched. They screamed my name, but I ignored them. As a result, I had forced myself to forget everything and promised myself one thing - in the future, I would protect those closest to me using whatever method was available. Thinking about it now, it was a selfish promise that I only made to make myself feel better at the moment, but it had been engraved in my mind at this point - I would not allow anyone to kill my companions no matter who they were.

She had left the room and I finished looking at the girl we had previously met in the wagon. At first, she held no value to me, but I felt some kind of obligation to continue to look after her regardless of what might happen to her in the future - perhaps I just felt guilty because she had gotten beat for our blunders. After doing the best I could and making sure there had been sufficient time before when that bastard woman left, Sol and I also left the room, led by Theo.

* * *

After we arrived in our temporary room, Theo left and it was just Sol and me once again. I wanted to explain what exactly happened in that room, but it was hard for me to simply come out and expose my past, but, once I started, I couldn’t stop talking. It was like a stream of water that left my mouth and continued to pour out endlessly into an abyss. Sol just sat next to me and listened to what I had to say without interrupting me. I told him all the memories that had come rushing back only a moment earlier. It was terrifying having someone know your entire life story, but I had started and there was no stopping now - regardless of how I felt, I knew I could trust Sol even considering the short amount of time I knew him.

“I will kill her… I will”

“I’ll help you as much as I can”

At that moment, Sol’s words alone helped me calm down and relax immediately. After I had a few moments to calm my mind, I told Sol about the plan I had been baking up before I had met that bastardly woman. The plan could still work, but it was going to be much harder now that I knew that monster woman was here - I would make it work, Sol would be there by my side if anything were to go off the rails. I had my suspicions since meeting Nor and Rosa, but it turned out that werewolves and descendants of their kind are subservient to vampires in most cases.

To test how far it went, I took the chance to test it out on that werewolf, Theo, and it turned out that I was able to communicate with him quite decently - enough to formulate a plan to backstab the foolish people who had trapped us here again; I hoped to free the remainder of the slaves if we had the chance just to smite them. As for Rosa and Nor, apparently, they could hear me clearly from wherever they were located, so I figured, as long as we made a large enough destruction, they would be able to find their way out in no time.

As I told this to Sol, he showed bits of jealousy, hope, and genuine amazement - I thought it was very cute… so cute in fact that I would frame that face if I could… Regardless, after explaining the entire plot of the plan so far, we elaborated on it further throughout the day. Occasionally, Theo or one of the slaves would come in to drop off food, but I never saw that woman for the remainder of the day - I hoped that the next time I saw her, I would be on the cusp of killing her once and for all, drinking that blood that would taste so disgusting but satisfying at the same time. Sol and I talked late into that night trying our best not to get caught by whoever came into the room, and by the time we could see the moon high in the sky from our cellar, we were mentally exhausted. Even though the bed was as hard as rocks, we fell asleep immediately after our heads touched it.

* * *

I woke up early the next day, or perhaps the same day considering when we slept last night and shook Sol awake. Naturally, I had to help Sol get up which was something I looked forward to every opportunity I got. Although I did not know the exact reason, now that I had more time to myself, I had been thinking more about Sol recently. Regardless, today was hopefully the day we would follow through with the rough plan. There wouldn’t be many opportunities in the future after everyone was half-starved to death than they already were to escape from here. There was also the uncertainty of what the future held, so Sol and I felt our best chances lie the faster we executed the plan.

Like yesterday, Theo came to our room and retrieved us to take us to the other room, where the same slaves lay like they did yesterday… the dead bodies still bent at weird angles. There were even some bodies with flesh missing in obvious places - I couldn’t blame them… I probably would have done the same under the circumstances. Sol looked slightly disgusted and worried which was to be expected because he likely had never directly killed another person out of necessity and I didn’t blame him for that. After giving a look towards Theo, we stayed close to the door that he eventually shut. Our plan would be executed any moment, and it looked like the people from yesterday had turned into literal beasts ready for their next meal - this couldn’t have turned out any better in our favor… as long as they didn’t turn on us immediately.

We waited eagerly for the door to open and our plan would immediately set into action. Silence and tension were spreading throughout the air as we impatiently waited for, hopefully, that woman to walk through those doors. After some time, my wish was realized and I smiled inwardly in an attempt to shake off my anxiousness and to prepare myself for some fun. She walked through those doors as Sol and I pretended to be dejected on the floor, but, as soon as she turned her back against us, Sol threw a dagger I had given him earlier. Even though it was with his bad arm, it was only meant as a distraction - if it hit her, that was just an added bonus. I rushed at that woman and almost as if it was a queue to the remaining slaves in the room, they burst forth towards that woman at the same time.

“COME AT ME! AHAHHAHA! COME, PUNY CHILDREN! LET US FIGHT TO THE DEATH!”

She started laughing hysterically and I no longer knew if she was even living in the same world as the one I was seeing. But that didn’t matter, my priority was to kill her at this moment. I lunged at her and she deflected my dagger as she pulled out her own weapon. The outcome would have been unpredictable with me alone, but now there were dozens of slaves ganging up on her at the same time - she stood no chance on her own. After slitting my skin a little more and letting the blood flow, I conjured as many daggers as I could fit in my hands, immediately flinging it at her whenever there was an opening in the midst of the slaves. A few flew past her vision and managed to graze and wound her… even so, she continued to laugh like a maniac as she tore apart slave after slave. However, it was clear she was wearing down and it seemed that she didn’t have any magical tools - from what I had seen, it would’ve activated by now.

In the meantime, Sol had snuck out with Theo in order to secure a way out - I was sure that Theo knew the layout of this building quite well and he wouldn’t be able to betray me. But at last, even an insane maniac wouldn’t be able to hold on forever against dozens of opponents. That woman collapsed on the ground, but just before she was ripped apart, I let out a blood-curdling scream to stop them… I wanted the final say with her.