"..."

His head was almost exploding, as if it was a giant balloon that was going to burst if someone added one more breath of air. After opening his eyes, the world around him slowly took shape. The first thing Taro saw, was the metal roster in front of him. He turned around, and that same shape was visible on all the sides, even above him. He did not need long to realize what it was: he had been locked up inside a cage. A dim light shone from a table, a few meters apart from his position. On a chair next to it, a person with a guard-like outfit seemed to be asleep. In the corner next to him, he saw his sword, Clash. Sadly enough it was physically out of range for him, but he was glad they hadn't thrown it away. He desperately needed it for his journey... When Taro moved, a metal sound filled the room. Both his hands and feet were chained, locking away his last freedom of movement.

How did he get here? Taro tried to poke his memories, which slowly revealed his actions from the day before. That's right, he went to look for a doctor to fix Liss' condition. He had parted ways with Flori, who had gone with Ana to bring her home safely, and Sam's group, who had departed for the center of the city to search for help to find the missing people. He had wandered around for a little while, after which they had finally arrived at some small hospital. There had been very few patients inside and only two nurses in total, so first he had been eager to leave the place in search for a bigger one, not expecting the current one to have the tools nor knowledge to help them. However, one of the nurses had come up to him and asked for the girl's situation. After he had explained her general condition, the nurse had told him she would be able to help her. 

"Ugh..."

The deeper he crawled into his memories, the louder the alarms in his head sounded. Taro decided to give himself rest for a moment, and scouted the rest of the place. His eyes had finally adjusted to the dark, making him able to see the area further away from the light.

He saw another cage, at least ten times as big as his. Inside there were at least a dozen of people. All of them seemed to be asleep, but he was pretty sure they weren't. Sleeping in this place was probably harder than beating the Head Master of Equilibrium in a one on one fight. And with beating, Taro meant not losing. Actually beating him was just impossible. Not that the former was much more doable, of course...

The remaining images of his memory filled in, albeit shattered and incomplete. Taro closed his eyes and opened the door to those fragments.

"The girl will be fine, I promise. Why don't you sit down and let me make you some tea. Since we are a trade city, we got some amazing exotic tastes to our disposal, I'm sure you will like them!" The nurse went inside a small room, and came out a few minutes later with a cup of tea. It filled his nose with a strong but sweet odor. Taro accepted the gift and sat down into one of the chairs near the hospital bed. The nurse, who was wearing a long white gown over her clothes, went to take a look at the other nurse who was busy inspecting Liss. While the one that had been talking with him had a very mature body and was probably in her early fourties, the working girl seemed to be of a much younger age. She looked like she was barely eighteen, wearing short black hair and earrings on both ears, embedded with a small crystal. The girl seemed more like the type to go out and drink with boys on parties, enjoying the flow of life. She totally didn't fit the image of a nurse. However, she had been inspecting Liss' condition on her own while he and the other nurse had been talking, so he supposed she was, despite her appearance, great at her job. 

...The fragment stopped, and another one took its place.

"I see... We actually have a couple more of these cases like hers. Completely devoid of energy, yet still clinging to life. Some of them have been lying here for over a week. But thanks to your story, I finally have a better understanding of what happened. We might be able to cure these people soon..."

The nurse smiled at him. Taro was delighted to hear that, but unconsciously, in the back of his head, a little seed of doubt was growing. How did the nurse how to cure them if he only told her they had been drugged, but didn't know the specifics? Maybe it was a drug circulating within this city, but in that case, wasn't it strange that she hadn't fixed the other patients yet...?

...

"It's okay, Chiiya, you can go home. You have worked more than enough today. Let's give the patients some rest, and continue tomorrow, alright?" 

"But can't I just sleep here? I want to be there if something goes wrong with the patients."

"A girl your age needs a proper sleep. I need you full power tomorrow as well, and I'm sure if you stay here, you will barely close an eye."

"B-but..."

"It was not a question, Chiiya." The older nurse was unyielding. 

"What about him? Should I take him with me? He suddenly fainted earlier, so I'm fearing for his health..."

"No, it's fine. He just seemed to be extremely tired, so he will probably sleeping all around the clock even in this place. I will keep an eye on him."

Chiiya seemed to be out of options. While she did not agree in the slightest, she could not ignore a command from a higher-up. Not if she wanted to keep working there, at least. After the girl took her belongings, she left the hospital, leaving Taro and the older nurse alone.

...

He couldn't move his body. Taro had seen the entire conversation play out through his nearly-closed eyelids, yet had been unable to act. After Chiiya had left, the older nurse came towards him and stroked his hair. 

"Now that the pest is gone, let's see what we will do about you. I must say, your story interests me a lot, especially the part where you are completely unscathed. I'd really like to inspect you thoroughly, but I fear I must leave this place sooner rather than later. As for your friends, I will make sure they'll get a warm welcome in this city."

The chuckle that followed, hinted a sign of insanity. That feeling only got strengthened by the fact that she kept one big, unnatural smile on her face all the time she was talking to Taro. It was as if her face did not remember any other expressions, so it was stuck on that one. As if she read his mind, she playfully pulled up the corners of his mouth.

"You really don't know how to laugh, do you? Ever since the moment you entered, you didn't smile one time. What a sad and boring person..."

Well, your over excessive smiling is completely making up for it, though. 

"Ah, whatever, I'm done with you. I don't want to see your depressed face ever again. At least the girl will thank me with a generous smile when she wakes up. Well, it won't last for long, but it will give me enough satisfaction to forget about your face at least."

Was she talking about Liss? What was she going to do with her? Taro wanted to jump up and keep her away from Liss, but he couldn't move his body an inch. 

...

He felt a needle inside his skin, injecting him with some kind of drug. The world started spinning soon after, after which it all came crashing down.

...

While there were still gaps in his memory, Taro now had a pretty clear image of what had happened. He still didn't know who that nurse was or why she went to such lengths to dispose of him, but at least she left him alive. He had to get out of this place and find Liss as soon as possible. The nurse had said something ominous about when she would wake up, so Taro was pretty sure Liss was still with her. If he didn't get to her before that time, she might be in danger...

"Damn, why is all of this happening... Why can't I save anyone, ever? " Taro clenched his teeth. His past, his present, his future... Would he never be able to escape the chains of agony, which had been already entangling him for his whole life?

"Psssst..."

Why was this world so unfair? What did he or any other normal person, ever do to deserve this? Was this the world telling him that helping people is weakness, that caring for others is an act of foolishness? 

"Psssst..."

He just wanted to help an innocent girl, but he landed up caged, chained and stripped. Why was it so hard to do something good for once?

"Psssssssssst..."

Taro's mind sunk deeper and deeper into a depression. After all he had endured, he thought that saving this one girl would give him the hope he'd long lost. But even that was slipping away from him. Maybe it was better to let it all rest, and let his suppressed feelings of anger and revenge completely take over...

"Are you deaf or something? Well, I can understand you are entranced by my beautiful voice, but please snap out of it for a second! Or are you planning to stay here forever? Hey? Heeeeey?"

An energetic whispering, coming from inside the bigger cage, snapped him out of his malicious thoughts. In the faint light he saw a girl staring at him. She was sitting on her knees, causing her long, golden hair to touch the dirty ground. She did not seem to notice that, since her deep blue eyes were glued onto Taro's. 

"Ohoh, seems you can hear after all. Good, good! Okay so, now that you've gained back your mind, ripping open these cages must be a walk in the park for a person like you. Just use your brain or prana to break out of here, so we can escape from this nasty place. That guard won't even know what hit him when he wakes up! Two empty cages and his body chained to that chair he's sleeping on. Oh, I know that look, you want to do more to him, right? Well, you can do whatever you want, I'll promise not to look. Okay, maybe a peek because I'm curious. But make sure to do it fast, because I don't want to stay in this place for much longer!"

...

What was this girl going on about? Ever since her first sentence Taro had been trying to keep up, but her mouth spitted out words faster than he could process them. Even his silence was a trigger for her to continue her never-ending monologue.

"Uhm, hello? Did your brain turn off already? Or are you deaf after all? If so, then that might prove a problem. Well, I could escape on my own if not for these prana blocking wristbands. If my daddy ever catches whoever made those, I will make sure he'll regret that decision for the rest of his life. Should I make him a pet? But it's most likely to be a dirty old man, that's usually the ones who make this stuff. I don't want that as a pet... Maybe I'll just lock him up with the dogs as a companion for them. Yeah, that's a good idea. Way to go, Yukina!"

...

Did she just compliment herself for her own messed up, irrational idea? Somewhere along the way to this place, she must've lost a few screws. Well more like, nearly all of her screws. Taro couldn't imagine the fear and terror a girl had to go through to make her this delusional... 

She had said one interesting thing, however. Taro looked at his wrist, and saw four different wristbands, each embedded with one of the four elemental symbols. According to the girl, they were blocking the prana of the wearer. It would make sense, because otherwise these cages might not be enough protection to keep stronger prana users to break out. With these on, they would be completely harmless. The wristbands were completely stuck to his arm. It felt as if all the air between the bands and his skin had been sucked away.

Taro took a deep breath, and decided to ask the girl some questions. Nobody else seemed to be open to talk, and Taro desperately needed information.

"Hey, I'm Taro. Who are you and where are we? How did we end up here?"

The girls eyes seemed to brighten as soon as he talked to her. She probably hadn't expected him to answer her, considering she had already labeled him completely deaf.

"You can talk and hear? Wow, amazing! So the humans here are able to do those after all! Most of the other people I was talking to didn't answer, or didn't even look my way. I thought everyone here was like that, or something..."

Taro could imagine why nobody had answered. This girl was like a succubus, devouring all the life energy of everyone around her just by talking. And since half of what she was saying was pure nonsense, Taro could not help but feel pity for all those that had come before him.

"Also, I knew people here weren't really mentally able, but I didn't know nobody would be aware of my royal existence! But don't worry, I will forgive you, Taro. After all, I am of high standard, so I should be gracious to those below me. That's what my daddy always told me."

Taro wondered why it took this girl so long to answer those simple questions. He already regretted asking in the first place. Also, hadn't she been saying some really foul things in the last couple of sentences...?

"My name is Yukina Arlando, princess of the great kingdom of Tyronia. In other circumstances I and a commoner like you would've never met, so be happy you're even able to lay your eyes on me. But looking at you, I am sure you will serve me well!"

Taro was sure about it now. This girl was a foul-mouthed, delusional girl thinking she was some kind of princess. While her surname checked out, anyone knew the king's name so it was not hard to fake. Taro knew a lot about Tyronia, and he was almost sure there was no princess by the name of Yukina in the family. She had probably just invented a false name for herself, to strengthen her fantasies. It was a pain, but he had to play along for it for now...

"It's a pleasure to meet you, my princess." He graciously answered. A light hint of surprise filled her eyes, as if she hadn't expected anyone to act like she was the real deal. 

"Ahum! Out of all the commoners I've met, you are the only one with manners. As a reward, I will answer your questions."

Taro's plan worked. The girl was completely under the impression that he had submitted under her.

"We are in a small storage room not far away from the docks. After my boat had docked, they brought me here together with a few other people from other boats. The men who brought us here were horrible. Not only did they occasionally push a princess like me in the back, they were also talking about selling us as slaves or something. They even gagged me when I asked them for further explanation, can you believe it? For a stage, this is all extremely well done."

A stage? Wait, don't tell me this girl thinks that this is all fake? This Yukina, she might be even more problematic than I initially thought... 

At least Taro now had a general idea of his whereabouts. The hospital hadn't been too far away from the ocean, so he was probably still in the vicinity. However, the slave trading part made him feel uncomfortable. If they didn't manage to escape, he might get sold off to some noble in the first district or worse, overseas. If he got shipped off, he would never be able in time to save Liss. He had to get out of here, no matter what.

And to his dismay, the only way to do that might be with the help of this crazy, self-proclaimed princess...