“Goodbye, make sure to come back next time, and I might give you a discount.”, the slave trader bid farewell to his customers and turned around.
His subordinates felt his gaze pierce their backs, sending shivers up their spines.
“We’re done for, we’re going to die!”, one whispered to the other, they were on their knees practically begging for forgiveness already.
“We should run while we can!”, one screamed in a low voice, however his other coworker showed a grim expression. “It’s useless, you know him. If we stay still he might end it quick…”
They all looked down in fear and anguish, knowing that their lives would soon come to an end.
They chose to do this job knowing the consequences, they knew the dirty job that they did and what they earned for it.
They could report themselves in to the authorities, but that would either lead them to be imprisoned or executed, thus dooming themselves either way.
That is why, once they are in, they can never get out.
The slave trader stepped forward, the cages rattled, the slaves in fear of the being before them.
“As for the four of you, you are to continue your tasks.”
The four looked at each other dumbfounded by his words, the slave trader smiled amused by their reactions.
“Haha, were you expecting me to ‘punish’ you?”, the four of them nodded hesitantly, not knowing what might happen depending on their answer. “Although, what the four of you did was a fatal mistake, I shall let this one slide. After all…”
“This was the work of ‘Fate’.”, the four became even further confused by his remark, regardless they stood up and returned to their duties.
Before they returned to their jobs, one of them walked back and asked. “Uhm, sir we would like to go back to our previous location… you know the one you teleported us from—“
“Oya, oya, oya, do my ears deceive me or are you ordering me?”, feeling the slight bloodlust from his voice, he refrained from asking any further and silently returned to the others.
The slave trader, now left alone to himself smiled mischievously.
“Sloth, I have a job for you.”
A rift opened, bend-shaping space itself. And from within walked forth a small child.
Blonde-white hair that extended all the way to the floor, bangs under her eyes showing clear fatigue, yet it added a charming aura about her.
The little girl yawned. “What is it you want me to do…?”, her voice so soft, yet so low that it was barely audible muttered.
“I would like you to search for ‘Lust’ or ‘Gluttony’, those two are up to your discretion.”, he said.
The little girl sighed. “Can’t Envy do that? I’m too tired and it sounds troublesome…”
“Envy has been appointed to a different task, that is why at the moment you are the only one available.”, the little girl seemed reluctant to take the job, when suddenly…
The slave trader held her head between his two hands, roughly yet gently at the same time.
“Sloth, you are the only one I can entrust this job with, that is why I am asking of you to do it.”
Their eyes locked onto each other, the blood red eyes reflected upon hers.
The little girl gave up resisting any further and said. “Understood, I’ll be taking my leave then.”
Space warped itself around her, and she disappeared without a trace.
“I am truly grateful for your services, Sloth.”
“”Big Brother it was so scary!!!””, Lara and Luna clung onto my two arms, thus occupying them.
“There were horrendous monsters, and the big mister was really scary!”, Lara’s voice trembled remembering the days spent behind bars of steel. “Yeah, there was a man and then he…!”
We had just left the slave traders market, and were making our way back home.
Due to the sudden weight on their shoulders, Lara and Luna began began crying, and talking about how frightening their days had been spent.
“It’s alright, I’m here now.”, I held them close to me as we walked down the street, Athena, Alice and Azure had been eying me the whole way.
“He’s acting like a father.”, Alice muttered, finally walking on her own two feet instead of having Azure carry her. “Right, Ali?”, Azure called her by the nickname she had given.
“If you’re going to gossip about me, then do it so that I don’t have to hear it.”, I said a little annoyed by their remark.
Athena reached out to the twins. “Hello there, my name is Athena, you may call me big sister if you want.”
“”Big sister?””, the twins muttered at the same time, Athena blushed by their cuteness (that even I fell to).
Athena made the first move, introducing herself. However, there was one thing that put me off.
‘Big sister?’
“Hey Athena! No fair, for you to get the first move! I am Azure, I am your big sister too!”, Azure made her move as well.
““…two big sisters?””, Lara and Luna began getting confused.
“Hey! I want to be a big sister too, I’m Alice.”, unexpectedly, Alice joined the party.
“”These are too many big sisters!””, the two said finally overloaded with the sudden introductions.
“Let me introduce you to them, this is Athena, she helped me avenge Iris.”, Athena nodded in approval to my introduction of her, although the given information may have to be clarified.
“And this is Azure, and she is a slime… yeah that’s it.”, Azure weirdly accepted my vague, yet unmistakably accurate introduction.
“And last but not least, this is Alice and she… is a shut-in, aka. Hikikomori.”
“Who’re you calling a shut-in!?”, Alice complained with flushed cheeks from having been insulted.
The twins hid behind me, scared by the sudden outburst from Alice.
“W-wait, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I-I.”
“How mean of you, to scare them like that. You should be ashamed of yourself.”, I said revolted by her actions.
“I-I’m sorry…”, Alice looked down on the floor sadly, resenting herself by her actions.
Lara who was on my right side reached out to Alice. “It’s alright, we were just surprised.”, Lara reassured Alice.
Alice’s face suddenly brightened up, To the point where she began to cry tears of joy. “Thank you, I’m glad that I didn’t scare you, I didn’t want to be rude, I really apologize.”
‘She too was affected by their smiles, it is too contagious… it might become a problem. They’ll be able to control the world!’, I thought as I watched the scene before me unfold.
I looked up at the blue sky as we walked down the street.
The weight I had on my shoulders suddenly seemed to disappear like the wind blowing leaves away, thus bringing the season of winter.
Pure white walls that seemed to be made from chalk- surrounded the ever perfect buildings within.
The very buildings looked like they were made from quartz or a very high quality material, something that only a noble could possibly own. However, what was to be seen were common folk utilizing them.
Even further inside, was another wall surrounding a castle.
Pure white as the eye could perceive, the castle pillars holding the bridges connecting from the main building that looked like a holy cathedral at first glance, to the towers were breathtaking to observe, like a piece of art.
“Sigh, man I really should’ve crashed at that Inn back in ‘Knightfall’.”, a voice echoed within the open vast space within the castle.
Pillars supporting the building were to be seen as far as the eye could observe, yet it gave odd the feeling as if it were a hallway for instances.
“Well, it’s not like that would stop me from remaining tired.”, the voice echoed once more, while weaving a weighty sigh.
The source of the voice was a person, a metal armor covering his body, gaps between his limbs for movement and a chainmail below his armor for further protection.
Hanging from his waist, was a long sword with a weird shape to it, custom made of one had to guess.
The knight approached the gate before him, and opened it.
“How interesting, for you to be here so soon.”, sitting upon the throne a voice spoke out to the knight before him.
“I was expecting for your research to last for at least a week or two, nevertheless if you’re here sooner then that means you’ve found out everything that was needed to be uncovered?”
“You could say that.”, the knight responded with a vague answer, his voice filled with fatigue, yet the person sitting upon the throne seemed used to it.
“Wonderful, let’s start with the Church.”
The knight nodded. “The church has began moving behind the shadows.”, the person sitting on the throne listened closely.
“From what I’ve found out, they aren’t going to do anything scandalous as of right now. They’re preparing for now it seems.”
“Hm…”, he nodded. “Understood, and did you find anything interesting in the tournament?”
“…”
The knight put his hand on his chin and began to thought hard about the question at hand.
“… it is hard to say, I found some ‘special’ adventurers, but not many worth mentioning… although there is one who may have caught my attention.”
The person on the throne heard something that had piqued his interest. “Oh? If there is someone who got your interest, then that person must be of extraordinary caliber.”
The knight swung his head left and right in denial. “Not really, it is just something about him seemed strange to me, or rather… ominous.”
“Do you think he could be one of ‘those’?”, he asked.
“It’s a possibility, unless we check his status we won’t know.”, the knight answered in a monotone manner. “I see, if that is all you have to report, then you are dismissed.”
The knight suddenly went eye shocked. “Wait? You’re letting me off that easily, are you sick?”
“Hahahahahahaha!”, he laughed upon his remark, the high pitch voice unbecoming of the person sitting on the throne rang throughout the room.
“Haha-ha—, that was funny. The reason I am giving you off, is because the other knights are taking care of other issues, and I think you deserve yourself a brake don’t you think?”
The knight still confused, left the room without asking any questions.
Now by himself, the person sitting on the throne wondered.
“Could it be that ‘you’ are the one we were warned about?”
Inside the silent room, the question remained unanswered to him, or to anyone.
Thx for the chap.
You should have make the sister ask something like "If they are big sister, Does that mean that they are married to big brother "?
yep that would have been funny ?
That's going to happen in the next volume, I was running out of creative juice, so I couldn't think of that.
@YeetusFeetus take you time replenishing your creative juice and i think a summary instead of a chapter of Athena's training and if you are stuck for ideas then maybe for volume 3 you could have the queen return back to the country and she finds out what her husband did or she comes back after finding out what he was doing as she was monitering what was happening inside the kingdom
That's a good idea, but that'll happen only on Vol. 4 or 5 maybe.
@YeetusFeetus Will it be like shield hero, where the queen comes back and out’s the king?
@AzP I'm still thinking about it, but I might. I am thinking about making a twist, but I am still debating about it.
@YeetusFeetus well maybe he should be executed as in the anime he is only striped of being king and mc would want him dead anyway for what he did to the village