Part 1 [Aerich's POV]

3 days ago, before Aerich's Slave Shackles...  

My body felt numb, and I was unusually exhausted. 

I opened my eyes and saw the sunlight peeking out from some wood above me

...Where am I? What am I doing? 

From my last memory, I was fighting the Tyrat's servant and got defeated. 

"...?!" 

Young master! 

I suddenly jolted upward, the leather blanket falling from my upper body as I looked around. 

This seemed to be the insides of a poor wooden Carriage, and the horses doesn't seem to be there anymore. The carriage itself was broken, missing bits of the wooden walls, with the roof and opposite wall full of splinters and cracking. 

It must have been attacked or broken down somehow. 

I looked around to my immediate surroundings and found my blade.

It was still in good condition... But why was my blade here? Wasn't I captured by the Tyrat Servant? Where am I, actually? 

Thinking about this, I crawled my way out of the broken down carriage. 

A huge breeze of fresh forest air soaked into me, thick trees were everywhere besides the dirt stone road. Looking up into the sky, it was bright light ocean blue with no clouds to be seen with the sun raying down. 

This is certainly interesting, where am I? How did I end up here? We were just captured by the Tyrats, right? How did that lead me to a random road in the wilderness?

"Hey! Boss! There's another one here! He's from the sudden wreck that appeared, along with this old dead guy. And he's alive!" 

 I heard a shout and turned to face the source of the sound. 

It was a human man... No, he had goat horns. A demi-human brandishing a sword. 

With him, was a group of other men, along with this ridiculously tall man in a purple-yellow striped suit. 

Along the dirt road, was parked with a luxurious carriage, golden with lining and polished wood as the base and walls. It looked like the carriages Lord Lukyus would ride in. And three other poor-looking carriages.

The men who had their attention caught by the goatman were surrounding something I couldn't see, but turned around and approached me. 

As they did, I caught sight of what they were surrounding. 

The dead body of the Tyrat Servant, the one who seemed to be riding this carriage with me. 

This situation is so confusing, but I think he was transporting my body somewhere to be thrown away and might have been attacked by this group of people. 

The ridiculously tall man, with rectangle glasses, huge black moustache and top hat was the first to make eye contact with me. 

I stepped back, putting my hand on my blade tightly, preparing to unsheathe. 

...They might be bandits. But it doesn't make sense, that Tyrat servant was extremely powerful, was he really defeated by them? 

"Hello hello~~ Kid, it seems like you got the wrong idea~~ Hehhueheuhe! We just found him there, we didn't do anything~"  

The tall and lanky man spoke out, clasping his hands as he giggled creepily. 

"Wrong idea? You were just standing around his dead body. I don't care what you did with him though, just tell me where I am." 

I unsheathed my blade, and held it at a combat stance, in Sword Style. 

Seeing my professional sword stance form, the lanky man seemed impressed as he smirked, with devious eyes. 

"You! You seem to be quite the fighter, and that is I presume, your father, right?! Since you were travelling alone and he suddenly died, according to the Empire's laws, you're now officially Public property. Huehuehuehue~Eee~" 

"Huh?" Public property, what do you mean?" 

"Meh, capture him, proficient combat slaves are rare, he'll earn at least a few gold coins. Huehue~"

 The lanky tall man gigglingly said as he turned his back to me, leaving his lackeys in front of me. 

His lackeys were a mix of both humans and demi-humans of various breeds. 

How would he have known I was a good fighter? Well, my combat stance I guess. 

I raised my blade and prepared for the fight. 

The first demi-human to approach me held a spear, so he's proficient in spear-style. 

"You should turn yourself in to Lord Jock, or you'll just die out here, or right here." 

"..." 

I stayed silent as I observed the other lackeys in front of me. 

48 of them... Will I be able to deal with all of them? Should I just run? Where though? I don't even know where I am, or how I ended up here. 

Seeing my lack of response, the impatient demi-human lunged in with a piercing stab. 

"Too slow." 

I quickly stepped to the side and grabbed the shaft of his spear, and pulled it in. 

Since my opponent was a heavy bull variant of the demi-human race, I wasn't intending to pull him toward me. By pulling onto the spear, I would get some momentum for myself to be pulled onto him for a much stronger stab into his gut. 

And it worked, I was instantly propelled toward his body. 

"God dam-Aaargh!" 

I had stabbed the Demi-human in the gut, and to finish it off, slit its throat. 

Learning from my past experiences in battle, and my failure to protect Reign. I was ruthless, and knew moderately what to do. Also, I was a highly adept swordsman of High-Class. 

Normally, it would take 30-50 years for an average person to reach that level. 

I reached it in only ten years. 

This was the ranking: 

Academy - Beginner - Intermediate - Exquisite - High - Saint - King - God

I would assume most bandits would be at Intermediate or most people who trained in swordsmanship for that matter. There was also one thing to note. 

A Swordsman of High-Class could cut down around 100 men of Intermediate-Class or even double that proportion. 

It's time to test out this hypothesis.  

"Now, who's next?" 

I stepped over the body of the Bull Demi-human and looked at the men in front of me, also prepared to fight. 

For the next 20 minutes, I cut every single throat within this vicinity. 

Part 2 

The dirt road was now soaked in the blood and flesh of the bandits, my hands, blade, face and entire body were too. The once 48 men become over 100 pieces of flesh scattered across the road. 

I was breathing out blood-red mist, the air around was vaporized blood. 

How was I able to easily murder this many people? 

It was because I don't care about anyone, but Reign. He's my life's purpose... Anyone in the way should be dealt with. 

I looked over toward their carriages, and spotted the lone lanky tall man, sitting while eating some popcorn. Almost as if he was enjoying the show. 

"Tch." 

I clicked my tongue in slight annoyance as I saw his carefree expression and body language. 

Seeing as though I had murdered most of his men, he stood up, and walked toward one of the bodies, gently kicking it. 

"Hello? Mr Lump of flesh, what do I pay you for? Not for fertilizing the dirt path. You know what happens if you do? Trees will grow and it'll be inconvenient for the Empire's goods to be flown within the city! How selfish of you, Mr Lump of Flesh~" 

He joked around, ignoring my bloody presence. 

Which annoyed me a bit more. What kind of annoying attitude is that?

Oh well, he's no longer a threat and doesn't seem to be one. He looked just to be a merchant leader or something. I'm just gonna check their carriages for some sort of map to figure out where I am and then leave. 

I walked past him silently, as he continued to reprimand his comrade's corpses. 

"You're such skilful swordsman, no- swordsboy. What do you think of working for me? Even for a little bit?" 

"I refuse." 

I swiftly replied as I began to search the carriages. 

For some reason, the lanky man just let me search his carriages, just like that. 

I was expecting some protest, or a sneak attack and was prepared for it, but this guy isn't doing anything. 

Looking back, I saw the Tall man sitting on a seat, glaring at me with interest. 

Creepy... Aha! I found a map. 

"Let's see..." 

I looked at the map, and...

"Eh?"

I couldn't recognise this region at all. 

The names of cities were completely different, the roads weren't familiar. 

I had memorised the map of the Aorath Kingdom in case something like this would happen... But I don't see any landmarks or cities that can be used as reference for where I am. When I say the cities look completely different in name, I didn't mean that I didn't recognize the name. 

I couldn't even read it. 

It was in some sort of unknown dialectic, but still with human letters. 

Maybe a mix of humans and another race? Magiliant race? Demi-human? Beastman? 

"...Hey you, where are we?" 

I turned back to the lanky man, who seemed to be relaxing on one of the carriage edges. 

"Hm? What kind of question is that? Ooh, you must mean our region. We're in the Azzzt Region." 

Azzzt Region? I can't even say that out loud... It doesn't sound human...

"What nation are we in?" 

I need to be prepared for the chance that the stupid Tyrat Servant brought me and Reign to a completely different nation to dump. 

"Ahm, Ah! An even more ridiculous question~ I see I see~! We are under the banners of the Aricouth Empire." 

Aricouth Empire?! Isn't that, all the way down south of the Human Continent? No, that's impossible. From the Captial of the Aorath Empire, it should take 2 years at least for a carriage to ride down here. 

Is he lying? 

No, doesn't seem like it. 

It would also explain the weird names and unfamiliarity of this map. 

I don't believe him... As much. 

I'll also need to ask something else. 

"And why did you attack this carriage with me in it? And why did you kill him?"

"Hm? That's where you're wrong, little boy, we did not attack you both." 

The lanky man stood up and raised both his hands while smirking like a kid delinquent.  

"Bullshit, you killed the Tyrat Servant and then attacked me, your men destroyed the carriage we were in." 

...But it doesn't explain how we got down here in the first place. But he must be lying, right? 

"I swear on it on the 13 Gods~ Hue hue hue. We were just strolling by and then happened to find a broken-down carriage, and another man lying with grievous wounds on the ground. We came to check on him, but then you came out of that broken carriage, and all of this happened. Hue hue hue~" 

"I don't believe you." 

"Oh well, you don't have to, after all, you're gonna be mine." 

"What?" 

Suddenly, I felt a nauseating feeling in my stomach, followed by tremendous pain. Almost like being hit in the stomach by two hammers at once. 

"Argh!" 

My knees weak, I fell onto the ground, grasping onto my stomach. 

"Despite being strong, you are so, SoOOOooOO~~~ Naive. That works in favour for me, huEHUEhuehuehue~~." 

T-The hell was happening?! 

My vision began to distort and the lanky's man began to sound alien, worse and worse as every second passed.

"I can't beliEve you~ YOUUuuu were stupid! Enough to not seeEEEeee me as a threEEEat, and then to go search my carriages? PUHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA! Your strength is very enviablEEEee, young mAaaan, but it's mine now."

"W-W-What did you do..." 

"It's just non-lethal poisonous gas. Nothing to worry about. Oh well, good night, young man. Huehuehue~."

Bastard...

I dropped to the floor. 

Part 2

[Aerich's POV]

...Ugh, where am I? 

I could feel the metallic coldness in my cheeks as I opened my eyes.

It's dark in here.

I lifted my entire naked body from the floor. Looking at my immediate surroundings, from the thick cold and dark-grey metallic bars, I seemed to be in some sort of cage. I was able to sit up without trouble. 

"It's so cold..." 

Looking at myself, it looks like I was stripped, and given black leather shorts to wear. 

More noticeable, I felt a chain on my neck. 

I was wearing a slave collar... 

In this world, Slave Collars were used to not only symbolise who is a slave and who's not but also to be put on for the slave to be controlled to a certain extent. To a certain extent because the most it can do is send a magical shock to the slave when the owner wanted to inflict punishment or not or to shock the slave into doing something. 

That tall lanky man seemed to put this collar on to me...

Of course, there are ways to remove this, such as high levelled magic, anti-seal instruments, or controlled and extremely strong magical spells. But none of those was options at this moment. 

It was so dark in this cage, despite constant light on the outside. It also felt warmer on the outside. 

I picked up a bowl of water, and some weird-looking food. I then grabbed the bars and tested its strength. 

Nothing. Of course. 

Right now, if I took what that man said to be as true. 

This was the situation: 

• I seemed to be taken somewhere, unknown methods to the southern continent. 
• The person taking me was killed somehow and the carriage with me inside was broken down, perhaps by the bandits or if we took the lanky man's word to be true. Then just found dead there... No... They're not bandits, they're slave traders. A slave merchant. 
• Now I'm captured, and forced into this cage as a slave. 

I'm still confused about how I ended up down here. 

Where's Reign? Is he here with me? 

I need to find him as soon as possible, and after I get out of this slave collar somehow. 

"...!" 

I hear footsteps! 

I laid back down and closed my eyes. 

Letting them know that I'm conscious would be bad, I need more time to think about my current situation before anything happens. 

As the footsteps drew closer, I felt a presence standing right beside the cage. I felt its eyes scanning my entire body, and then, my face. 

"-Aerich..." 

"-Ah, so that's the boy you're looking for." 

...I recognise that voice. 

Master

"-I don't care if it's your family, he's my combat slave now." 

"Reign! Are you okay? Are you hurt? How did you end up here?!" 

I immediately stood up and grabbed the thick bars of the cage, shaking it viciously as I shouted toward Reign. 

I saw Reign, my master, he looked as nice as usual but a little bit more feral. 

His expression after seeing me was pure relief. 

He smiled gently, and I did too.

"Aerich! What happene-" 

The young master was worriedly talking to me until the lanky man tried to kick him. 

Of course, Young Master saw this coming and quickly dodged. 

"Lord Reign! Cast an Air shield spell over your entire body! This man can cast a non-lethal sleeping gas spell and immobilize you! And run away!" 

I banged on the cage, and shouted that piece of advice to my master. 

Now that he knew that, he wouldn't fall without a fight, like me. 

--- (Reign's POV) 

"Lord Reign! Cast an Air shield spell over your entire body! This man can cast a non-lethal sleeping gas spell and immobilize you! And run away!" 

Aerich banged the bars of his cage, his chains shackling against the metals as he shouted. 

"Understood!" 

So this guy can cast magic, huh? 

"[Wind: Air Barrier]!" 

Blocking anything out but oxygen is the use of this spell, perfect for any sort of poisonous gas. It was an Intermediate-Spell, most Magicians would have this in the back of their head and lower part of their spell arsenal. It wasn't essential, but worth it to learn. 

I've memorized almost every spell in every book I've read though. 

"So you can use magic~ EeeEeEeeh~ I really can't underestimate kids these days. They grow up so fast! HUEHUEHUEhue~... Guards!" 

The Merchant Tall lanky nobleman called out into a magical transmitter. And almost immediately, squadrons of squads in metal full plated metal armour and long spears and swords approached from all sides, blocking any escape route. 

"Get away from the lock, Aerich! [Fire: Bullet]" 

Despite Fire Bullet being a Beginner-Class spell, adding excess mana into the spell would strengthen it greatly depending on how much mana is input. 

I put a considerable amount in that spell, and fired at the cage. 

"Huh?" 

"No no no~ Bad boy, Aaah, you're such a bad boy~ There's a special anti-magic seal, no magic will work no matter how much you throw onto it~ ...And that spell! It was... A common one... But you strengthened it to an unimaginable degree!" 

Anti-magic, huh? 

Dammit...

There's no way I can save Aerich, except by finding the keys to his lock. Or is there another way? This is gonna be tough. 

"What do you plan to do with Aerich?!" 

Think… Think. Think. I need to think of a way that doesn’t use magic to free Aerich.

I'm gonna try to waste some time by asking questions. He seems to be the type that talks a lot.

“Shouldn’t it be clear by now? That boy costs more than what you think, an excellent combat slave. Huehuehue~ Many nobles, or even Royalty would buy him for such a heavy coin as a magical-sealed slave. So I can't let you have him.”

Right now, Aerich had a normal functional slave shackle on him, but a magical-sealed shackle was completely different. It represented pure domination of the subject.

And the only way to undo it, was to learn King-Class Anti-Seal Magic.

Shit! Think! What can I do in this situation? I can't let Aerich fall into his hands. 

Clenching my fists, I worked my brain until it began to smoke into mental exhaustion.

Attack the cage again? No, the anti-magical seal will nullify all sorts of magic attacks.

I don’t have much physical explosive power myself to attack it normally.

…How about if I kill that merchant himself?

“Oh~ Please don’t think about killing me, the key to that cage is a magical one. If the owner dies, the key dissipates into thin air and returns to the Earth as pure Mana. It’s quite literally a personal cage.”

The expression on my face and me glaring at him seemed to give him that impression. 

I thought so. I had already read about this type of cage in books.

Also, this merchant is either adept at magic or has a lot of magical items at his disposal. Most likely, he has a wide variety of magical items rather than being skilled. Non-consumable magic items would just consume mana, so he would probably have a few. Although, his pockets should be filled with consumable magic items. 

I don't see how he would have captured Aerich otherwise... Unless he found him unconscious. Well, even then, Aerich could have woken up and fought back... Well, I lack information for useless assumptions. 

I could immobilize all the guards around me, and be wary of the Merchant Noble here. 

I turned my head to analyse the guards. 

And for the first time, I cast: 

"[Wind: Material Analysis]" 

Suddenly, a mental feeling of water being dropped overhead washed all over me. 

I had learnt analysis magic in two steps. First, seeing Radyn use it years ago. And reading about it in our Osoric Library. 

Although I could still see clearly, my sight was muddled with information. I could see it, but I couldn't either. It felt like two separate visions being processed at once. My normal vision, and a vision loaded with mental information.

And that mental information wasn't even in words... I just saw it, and just... Understood it, immediately.

The armoured men were holding fairly weak magical melee weapons and anti-magic and anti-penetrable armour. As expected of the higher-class of nobles, they have good guards. But the anti-magic effect on the armour was weak, a Beginner-tier anti-magic spell cast by a... Hm, no information about that. 

The work of Censor Magic. The ability to counter-act any information gathering types of spells. 

I turned toward Aerich, analysing how he got taken down. 

"Ah..." 

As expected, he wasn't taken down by brute force. That was impossible. Except, someone had used a consumable magical item, which was basically a sleeping gas that affects everyone but the initiator of the item.  

From the looks of it, it's possible to capture the noble. 

But even then, magical-created cages and keys are personally controlled, through magic. It materializes when the owner wishes for it to materialize. 

Just capturing him won't do the trick. I have to force the key out of him... Or deactivate the anti-magic seal. 

Anti-magic protection seals were powered by magical crystals and wired by pure mana, which is considerably ironic. 

But because of the nature of their creation, it should be hidden somewhere... All I needed to do was break that crystal, and the anti-magic seal would be broken. And then break the cage, freeing Aerich. 

Aaah... I'm so glad I read so many books about this, if I didn't have this information I wouldn't know what I would do. 

The plan now is, to retreat. I got the information required.

No, I'm not fighting. 

According to what Alex said, Aerich would be held in auction for many powerful nobles in two days. Tomorrow, when night falls, I'll come back, find the magical crystal and break it, and then free Aerich. 

From this encounter, the noble would have his guard a little bit more up, but, I'm just a kid. But even though I'm just a kid, he seems to be taking me seriously. What a smart guy. 

I'll just have to sneak back into here and fight again, later, and it's my win. 

Why am I not fighting now? 

It's because of the noble himself. I don't know much about him, he might be strong, or he might be versatile in his combat prowess. One thing is for sure though, he can't be underestimated. 

I need to learn more about him, and then come back. 

There's no harm in that, time isn't money now. 

I'm sorry Aerich... But I'm gonna leave you for 2 days. I'll come back though. 

I turned over behind Aerich, and nodded.

He nodded back. 

...He understood what I was thinking? 

He must have analysed carefully the situation too, and came to the same conclusion as me. 

Good boy. 

"It seems to be that, you are his brother, hm~? Well, if that's the case, it's not a problem if I force you into my collection too~ Huehuehue~" 

"That's not happening. [Earth: Wall]." 

I cast an Intermediate spell, and the ground began to shake. I could feel the tremble in my heart, vibrating my chest as three large Earth Walls erupted from the ground, the cement breaking into pieces to accommodate for this new abrupt change. 

It had blocked out 2 of the largest group of armoured men, who were standing as a group within narrow passageways of the alleyway-stacked cages along with the mysterious nobleman. 

"Ohoho? Magician kid, blocking me? That's cheating! pUEhuehuehue~"

This left the last group of armoured men, the only ones open to me and nearest to the entrance, who looked surprised by my spell: 

"-How can a kid-" 

"-That should be impossible right...? That's [Earth: Wall]. But he cast 3 of them at once..." 

But the shock was short-lived as slight adjustments to their stance were made, their shields up and slowly approaching. The slaves in the surrounding cages watched attentively. 

They were walking defensively. 

Their shields were anti-magic, so they must have assumed that if they just protected themselves while slowly closing the distance, they can take me down in short range. 

...Problem is. 

"[Wind: Mini Tornado]." 

Bits of pieces of rubble began to get picked up by the air, hitting the slave cages and the anti-magic shields. The floor trembled as a 10 meter tall and wide tornado suddenly appeared. 

"-Drop your shields! Grab ahold of something!" 

"-Aaaaghh!" 

"-Don't get sucked in!" 

Not only was it ineffective against this High-Class spell, but the soldiers themselves began to get swooped up into the Tornado. 

"[Earth: Manipualate]."

With manipulation magic, I held the racks of cages into place, making sure they wouldn't fall. Also twisting hard stone onto my feet so I didn't get caught in it either. 

The Earth Walls were slowly cracking as the huge tent fluttered. 

Not long after, my eyes were hit by the raying sun as the cloth roof was sucked into the Tornado. I could feel the warmth across my entire body. 

I then dispersed the spell.

Seeing the scar trail of the Mini Tornado, the still-alive bodies of the armoured men flung all across the place who struggled to pick themselves up, I decide to make a break for it.

As I ran, I looked back at Aerich…

“I’m sorry… I’ll come back for you.”

For now… I need to do some research on that noble.

Once I gather information, I'll save him. 

I have two days. 

The timer starts, now.