Author: thank you for reading and the VERY few suggestions but I’m new and I’ll take what I can get. I’m happy with your tanks =). (I’m also making a map for another chapter)

well let’s get started

-----------------------------------------------------

Slave girl POV

*Sob* It’s cold in here, and these clothes itch, mommy *sob* daddy...you said if I’m good bad things won't happen to me *sob* but *sob* you lied, those books lied *sob* heroes aren’t real *sob*. *Bang bang bang* “Shut up ya damn slave!” (random guard). *Wimper* No one is here to help me like you said.

…

“We are under attack by a hoard of {Gorcs}!” (random guard ringing a bell)

“Get into formation now!” (random guard leader)

“The just keep coming!” (panicked random guard)

I started hearing large amounts of fighting outside the cage, but there is a cloth tied over so I can’t see. It sounds pretty bad, *sniffle* what's gonna happen.

Ah, blood is on the cloth! Mommy *sob* *sob*. “AH!” W-What is that, some big scary thing is looking at me. Is that a monster dad told me to be careful about, *shiver* I-it won't stop looking at me I-it’s scary. H-help *sob* mommy *sob* daddy *sob* Mr. hero *sob*. N-no it’s breaking the cage *shiver**sob*.

“Graawwara!” (Gorc)

The monster turned away and is heading somewhere. I want to leave too, but it hurts when I try. *Wimper* T-they are fighting something. I think it’s more people. Before I realized it the monsters were gone and I don’t see the guards.

There are two people walking around and one is heading for me and the other to that wagon with the bad oily man. I don’t like that man he smells bad and hit me. Ah, I can kinda see the one getting close to me, oh it’s a girl, maybe she can help me.

Before I can ask that oily man came out the wagon. He is screaming at the girl...no, now he is demanding the girl from the other person for money. Aue that man is disgusting I think he is drooling.

*Gasp* T-the other one is hitting the oily man and making him bleed. I-I can’t really hear his words from the man’s screams...but I think the other one said he is dirty? World without you? What is...ah.

The oily man stopped moving...and he isn’t screaming anymore…

*Gah* T-the person is looking at me...I-I have to say something!

“B-be awed at your fortune f-for meeting the great me!” (Slave girl)

WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST SAY! That was that stupid line from one of the books me and the other kids at home would pretend to act out. N-No I have to fix this...to say something like that...SO EMBARRASSING!

“Ah...Aue...Um” (Slave girl) *slowly tearing up*

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kuro’s POV

The slave girl seemed to stumble and chide herself for saying something akin to someone really pompous and of high standing. I think she was ready to cry over such a stupid first impression. It was getting so bad her sentences stopped making sense. Shiro looked ready to let her out but her [Slave Collar] proved that it wouldn’t help, and I was hesitant to do so as well.

A [Slave Collar] can be bound to a location or person and right now she is bound to the cage for transportation. If anything, that cage would probably become her permanent home if nobody helps her. She can’t even do anything to anyone who enters without being driven with intense pain. If that slavemancer was another worlder than the pain from the [Slave Collar] may be targeting the nerves and the receptors of the brain are enhanced for optimal effect.

As I observed her she appeared to be an elf. Most likely pretty young since she doesn’t seem to be able to calm down. Her hair is a wood brown falling close to her shoulders that is based on their heritage, and was most likely to help blend with the trees during the time when they didn’t venture out of the forests. All the wars and pillaging drove them out of the woods and now they are spread everywhere, maybe to keep them from being slaughtered at once, who knows. There race has good eyes and are pretty good with magic especially when trained.

The rest of her appearance consisted of emerald colored eyes that looked ready to start spilling tears any moment. Pointed ears that didn’t extend too far from her head but was enough to identify her as an elf at a glance. A type of creamy white skin without any sign of a tan, and shows she usually spent her time inside. Shorter than my height, at around maybe 152 cm, but given time who knows how tall she will be.

I just told her to calm down and be silent while we disposed of the bodies to avoid drawing any predators with the smell of blood. There was a considerable amount of bodies, and would be very annoying to get rid of. Using some shovels we found in the cargo we made a simple pit where we lit the corpses on fire. I had Shiro cover as much blood around the site with dirt, but given how much time passed I can only hope nothing comes.

There was only one horse left of the four that were pulling everything, slightly injured but my [Magic Hands] can help it. For now Shiro was tending to it now that most of the blood was cleared out.

Originally I would have just ignored this wagon if it was simply passing by, but given the situation I decided that if the owner and company were of the less savory type, and the situation presented itself. Me and Shiro can get some good things from their misfortune.

The slave girl is just extra. She can’t even calm down enough to give her name and I don’t know anything about her. For all I know she could be acting and is trying to fool me into helping her. The chance that she is actually a criminal isn’t zero. This world can make even children into cold blooded killers, me and Shiro are proof of that.

For now I gathered everything useful and gathered it onto the cart the slave girls cage was on. The cage itself was pretty small and only took up ¼ of the whole cart. Since the horse only had to pull one cart instead of a big wagon and items, it wouldn’t have much trouble as long as it rested during the journey. Thankfully the slave girl stopped stammering and is just watching us. Shiro has been looking through everything with me since we can’t free the girl yet and she got a little annoyed by the rambling too.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

The results were pretty good. A lot of the weapons were shattered by the {Gorcs}, but there were still a few that were in good condition. ‘Crude iron dagger’ X2 these went to Shiro after I buffed and mended them from crude to simple, one ‘Sturdy iron short sword’ a few hatchets amounting to 3, and a bunch of arrows with no bow. Those damn {Gorcs} would have broke everything if we didn’t stop them.

The rest was various food stuff, higher quality clothes than what we had but didn’t fit, and a decent quantity of small gold coins amounting to 17 pieces. The guards equipment was in pretty bad condition except for some leather gear here and there, but I will need to work on them to make them use-able.

I can probably reuse the cloth from the clothes as well, and make less gaudy attire for me and Shiro while improving my [Handicraft]. Using various stitching techniques from my past life from mending my own clothes, and the things Abra taught me, should provide good results.

When everything still useful was packed onto the cart, we strapped the horse on and continued to our destination. With all of this me and Shiro agreed to wait along the road a distance away from the wagon so I can work on the items. It would be bad if it was recognized and having better clothes would relieve some suspicion toward us having a cart.

When we reached a good distance with a clearing on the side of the road we set up camp after checking the perimeter and setting traps around us. The traps were nothing special just some noise makers to alert us of anything approaching.

As Shiro started her mana control training, I set up our meal consisting of a meaty soup with vegetables and some spices. While it cooked I started working on the clothes and leather, it was then the slave girl finally spoke.

“H-hello...um...I’m sorry about before, I-I was just nervous…” (Slave girl) She was visibly shaking, probably worried about what we are planning to do with her, or most likely because she is cold. “U-um c-can you…” (Slave girl).

I stopped her from continuing with a raise of my hand and threw a blanket at her while saying. “Stop talking, based on your voice I’m guessing you haven’t had anything to eat or drink for a while. After our meal we will continue the conversation.” (Kuro) Her voice was very coarse at this point, and I would prefer having a full stomach before continuing with this.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Shiro’s POV

When brother helps me train he is like another person and is very strict. I know it’s to help me get stronger, but I make him massage me extra long before bed as an apology every time. We would usually take turns giving each other lap pillows through the night to have a lookout for bad things.

It’s been getting a little easier to get my mana to start moving but the circulating part is still hard. When I decided to end my training for now brother called me to eat. He tried to hide it but I can tell he added more meat in my portion. *Smile* Ah brother is always so nice to me.

When he gave some to that girl we found she started crying again. She keeps looking at brother when he is not looking, My chest hurts whenever I see it, but I don’t know why. *Sigh* whatever I’ll just enjoy brothers food. *Slurp* hmm, as expected brother’s cooking is good too *smile*.

...

I can’t explain it, but lately brother has started to smell more and more nice lately and I can’t help sniffing him, but he gets mad when I get too clingy when we walk because I’m bigger than him.

Ah I wasn’t paying attention to what the girl was saying.

----------------------------------------------------------

Kuro’s POV

“...and that’s what happened *sniff*.” (Slave girl)

Hmm, based on what she said, she is pretty much a sheltered girl from a well off family of elves who are part of a village still remaining in the woods that I haven’t heard of. If the name of the woods isn’t local than she is most likely very far from home.

Her name is Puerial, which I thought had a nice ring to it, and she is 15 years old. In elven standards she would be seen more as an 7 year old and not even close to maturing, which would be closer to the age of 40. So it’s more to say they mature a lot slower compared to other races. But that doesn’t mean they are stupid at that age either, so let’s just keep listening.

Her capture was caused by her heading outside of the village barrier, normally her family didn’t let her go out and said to just play indoors with the other elven children that visited. How sheltered do you have to be to not even leave the house?

The barrier was made to keeping anything from entering and leaving the surroundings of the village. Her parents manage the barrier and she was being taught to do it in the future with her brother.

She broke the rules and left the barrier, using what she learned in her studies even if it amounted to just passing through. The reason she did this was because her father got sick all of a sudden and in order to find the herbs for medicine to help him she left. These herbs were located in the nearby mountains from what she said. The ailment that her father had was said to kill someone within a month so based on the initial analysis and this made her anxious and unwilling to wait around. Normally the elves would have naturally went to get the herbs but from what she knows they got reports of slavers in the area which made them decide to wait. When I heard up to this point I finished her story for her with an obvious, “So you left the village in order to find the herbs yourself but got caught instead.”

Laughably she made a how did you know type of face.

Based on this information, “*Sigh* I get it, so your an idiot.” (Kuro)

!? “W-What’s with that!” (Puerial)

“You said the sickness would take a month to kill your father, so you had time to wait for the slaver’s to leave and look for the herbs then. But you were impatient and ended up in this situation.” (Kuro)

When I said this she had a shocked expression and didn’t know how to respond. Moments later she looked about to start crying. The noise would draw predators to us so in order to get her to settle down, I just said “In the meantime just be patient, If we catch wind of that forest you spoke of we’ll let you off there.”

“Eh?” (Puerial)

“Don’t be mistaken, I have my own objectives, but if we find the location of your home we’ll drop you off or provide transport for you. For now just be patient.” (Kuro)

“Y-You're going to help me, I will go home soon.” (Puerial)

“I don’t know about soon, but eventually. Now go to sleep we have a long day tomorrow.” (Kuro)

Puerial bundled into a ball with her blanket and started smiling to herself. I just ignored this and started thinking. I have a lot to do tomorrow with all this equipment to alter and fix, plus Shiro and my usual training, and now I have the perfect opportunity to analyze a slave collar. They won’t work on me with my title but if Shiro was ever in a situation where she has one on, than being able to remove them would be good to know.

*Sigh* that girl, I can’t say trust her, but...

Hmm…”By the way...what was with that introduction?” (Kuro)

“*Blush* I-It was nothing! Just forget it was ever said!” (Puerial) After saying that she covered herself and didn’t seem to respond to anything anymore.

Like I thought, she is an idiot.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Hello everyone what did you think of the girl...so cliche I know...but isn’t everything cliche at this point. What do you think. Character development I find is very important so certain experiences will subject my characters to grow. Whenever this happens I will make a poll to have the readers decided the direction. For now I hope you enjoyed the read.