Chapter 26: Slave Life

When I opened my eyes, I was buried under the feeling of softness. My hands and legs are entangled around Laura’s and so is she to mine. With this, there’s no denying I enjoyed our night together.

A long time ago, back when I was in the peak of my teenager years, I paid for sex. It wasn’t a desperate attempt to get my little guy wet either. I just wanted to try casual sex with the girl sitting beside me in class. I wasn’t even sure if you could call that paying, but I did hand her my lunch money for three days. Our companionship didn’t turn out so great in the end. Well, not as much as I would describe it compared to my experience in college, since those were exceptional. After that horrible escapade, I told myself that I wouldn’t be paying for things like this the second time. That sex without love was nothing but an illusion. And it comes with consequences.

However my time with Laura last night made me view things in a new light. I was blown away. So much that this sensation makes me want to stay in bed all day. Her breasts are as flexible as I remember them and hugging her in front like this makes me feel like a child somehow. But I continue rubbing my face on her mounds while kissing her sides.

Laura moans and shifts down to kiss me good morning. She’s quite good at kissing the experience she’s built up in this brothel shows. When our lips part, we roll around so that I’m laying flat and she’s sitting on top.

I arch a little, just enough to nuzzle at her neck. “How sore are you baby?”

“Very sore, thanks to you,” she replies in a playful tone, squeezing my shoulders.

“Both holes?”

As my lips leave their mark, she links her arms around my neck. “Yes, both holes.”

I kiss her throat before murmuring, “You gonna get healing magic to get that fixed or what?”

I get a light slap in return for saying that. “Healing magic won’t be enough to mend what you’ve done to me, you beast. I’ll need to rest for a few days.”

“That’s a shame, thought we could do it one last time before I leave. Oh well.”

My tongue finds her ear, and Laura coaxes in delight. “Oh, Stop it~”

Laura gets off me and searches the floor, perhaps for the band that I tossed last night. I get up too, running my hands through my hair. As I pick up my clothes pooling on the floor, Laura whacks me hard from behind. So I turn around, and she’s back on bed, folding her legs on top of one another.

What an interesting sight to see; it causes that pleasant heat to fully rise once more.

“Come here, I’ll cool it down,” she says, gesturing me with her finger to come closer.

So like an obedient boy, I have her cool it down before we wrap things up and leave the room.

* * *

The glaring sun up high indicates it’s past noon. With a face-splitting grin, I return to the inn that I’m residing at. Room number twelve on the second floor, I knock on the rich mahogany. The door opens, and Fia jumps out to hug me. “Welcome back.”

“I’m back indeed.” I rub her back as we go inside. There’s food — lots of food — on the table yet there’s no evident sign of seafood present. Fia must’ve carefully ordered these.

“Master, would you like me to use refreshment magic?”

“Ah, yes please.”

I’m no doubt fully refreshed but I stink of sweat and Fia must’ve smelled how I stunk of sex. So on a separate table near her bed, she grabs the magic book titled [Life Magic]. If I remember correctly, that book costed me three precious gold coins; an eye popping price for a book. But now I understand its worth. Though I still can’t grasp the mechanics behind magic, most of the formulas are simplified to the point that it feels like you’re tracing an art book.

Fia tears a page from the book and shouts, “Refresh!”

The page disappears into thin air after a single use. The magic results into me feeling like I had the best bath of my life. There’s even an added natural scent to it, which is great. Fia does the same thing to my clothes but with [Clean] this time. Just like how we rely in technology in my world, you could really see how the residents of this world relies in the convenience of magic.

“Master, I ordered some food, but I didn’t know what you’d like so…”

“It’s fine, Fia. Let’s eat together. My stomach’s grumbling I could take anything right now.”

“Okay~”

As we drag the food cart made from solid wood closer to my bed, I notice Fia’s wearing the Kukre hairpin I bought her instead of the frilled headband that goes with her lavender dress.

“From what I heard, that Kukre hairpin brings in good luck. Is it true?” I ask.

“Hmm? I haven’t heard of such sayings.”

I should’ve known better. That little devil’s a scammer.

“But there must be a reason why that tree’s so valued, right?”

“Maybe it’s because Kukre trees won’t mature until they’re watered with healing water?”

Thanks for confusing me.

Fia cuts a piece of steak as I ask, “And where do you get this healing water?”

“I don’t know the exact history behind it, but healing water is harvested in a well near my village. Since Kukre trees are good material for a bow, I’m well acquainted with them. Our houses are built with it too.” I eat the steak she pierces with her fork while she’s explaining, and Fia lightly blows a puff in response. “Awww, Master!”

But as expected of a high class hotel, the meat just melts in my mouth.

Still, she’s awfully talkative today I might as well ask what I want to know.

“Fia… I hope you won’t mind me asking but, how did you become a slave?”

That question seems like a landmine, as silence suddenly occupies the room. Fia stops on the act of cutting her steak. She isn’t moving, not even breathing. She’s just there. Like time stopped. This is one of my worst fears. I knew asking her about such a horrible past wasn’t courteous at all.

“Does Master really want to know?” she asks before I could retract myself.

I nod, and she begins after grumpily taking a bite of her steak.

Almost a year has passed since then and exactly forty-five days ever since she became my slave. All of her hopes about returning to Paltina had vanished. She regretted not listening to her parents when they warned her not to visit the forest. Their village was positioned near the borders so she could understand where her mother’s fears were coming from. But Fia needed to hunt for food if they wanted to have dinner, so she continued despite her mother’s desperate attempts to stop her.

Fia had always hunted with her father but he was suffering from a major injury he received from a claw bear they encountered two days ago when it happened. The poison was enough to paralyze a matured hunter. But she was a fool. She was too proud. She thought that after passing her coming of age ceremony, she could handle anything.

So with her Kukre bow in hand, Fia entered the forest by herself. She didn’t know what exactly happened; she was having a conversation with a fellow hunter she met in the forest when her vision blacked out.

“Wait, does this mean someone you know sold you out?” I can feel my hands clenching into fists. The urge to hurt whoever did this to her swirled in my mind.

But Fia simply shakes her head and brushes a gentle a thumb on my knuckles. “I do not know.”

The next moment she was able to make a sense of what was happening around her, Fia found herself chained and collared inside a steel cage along with several other Demi-Humans in the same condition. She didn’t know how long she was asleep nor where the carriage they were on was headed to. Everyone’s face were filled with fear and uncertainty, and she wasn’t an exception. She could only hug her knees and seclude herself in a corner.

“Added the continuous sobbing in the carriage, I was at the edge of losing my sanity. But each time I thought of escaping, a pain, as if my skull was cut in twain, would torment me until there was no more. That night, I blamed my powerlessness and cried myself to sleep.”

My hands move on their own. I hug Fia and cradle her head against my heart. I stop and think, looking for the most comfortable words I could muster, yet I remain tongue tied and unable to speak.

Their first stop lasted for five days. That was when she started counting how many days had passed. Their clothes were ripped and their bodies flaunted in front of hungry looking men — Human men. The Elves and Faeries were popular but it wasn’t a popularity that she envied. Those that weren’t sold were instructed to study various things like etiquette, handwriting, and some other skills. It was supposed to increase their value. So Fia diligently studied, not because she wanted to, but a slight disobedience would gain her a whip on the face. She didn’t have a choice.

Then the night of full moon came and her feral form was unleashed. Discovering her real potential, the slave trader found various uses for her and she was brought to Freyrun, the labyrinth city. But the plan to sell her as a warrior backfired instead. Nobody wanted to buy her with such an expensive price tag. Naturally, the slave trader was forced to lower her price, and that was when I came in.

After recalling all of this horrible incidents, Fia has cried some agonizing sobs. Not a single one escaped me. I heard and absorb them all. And now I’m so lost. A lot of things are conflicting inside of me. I want to let her go but there’s no use if I release her here. I have my own goals to fulfill as well.

I’m sorry, Fia, but it looks like you’re staying with me until I’m out of this mess.