<Yamikage's PoV> <The Past>

"YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!" I heard them yelling at me while swinging their whips at me. A few of the swings hit me making more bruises to my already bruised body.

"At least I got you for cheap." He huffed and went away while I continue to work carrying multiple heavy boxes with my small body.

I then started to slowly walk towards the storage area while carrying the boxes. But then I accidentally tripped over.

*Thud* *Crash*

"Ouch.." I looked at the boxes and their insides scattered everywhere. I widens my eyes then began to panic.

"Hey! Hey!" I heard someone calling me. I looked at him and saw a boy my age. He has a  distinct feature of a pair of bull horns on his head. He also has a muscular build for someone our age. He wore the same kind of shirt and collar like mine with the difference of the collar being bigger.

"..?" I looked at him while tilting my head. He smiled and said.

"I'll help you!" He suddenly said while pointing at the scattered items. I only nodded at him and we started working together with him carrying most of the scattered item and me organising it inside the box. The items that I scattered are arrow supplies for the camp this week.

And so because of our team work we finished picking up and organising the arrows back into the boxes neatly and tidily just like before. He then lifted one of the boxes and asked me to lift the other one. And so we finished the work early that day and got more resting time.

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<Next Day>

"Oi wake up!" I heard someone tugging me. I immediately woke up and got ready for the day. I ate my share of food and drunk my share of water for the day and immediately got to work. Today I'm on the cleaning duty for the camps.

The basic layout of the camp is easy to remember with the main buildings on the middle. Like the main storage, main camp, and other important things. Things like our sleeping places are on the side to protect the main area. 

The camp is a square shaped giant field covering around 1 km vertically and horizontally. Surroundings the camp is a natural barriers made with thick vegetation and trees with only a few man made fence. The surroundings of the camp are filled with multiple traps to prevent intruders or the slaves to escape.

In total there is a total of 250 people including 50 slaves, 2 commanders, 1 leader and the rest 197 people are experienced bandits that works and are trained under the leader here. The 50 slaves are divided to different hard task everyday. The most dangerous tasks will be fixing broken traps, hunting for animals inside the forest, and scouting for intruders.

I head towards our assigned are to clean and started cleaning slowly. Every nook and cranny is dusted and cleaned until it shined. Every single objects are placed tidily to reduce the messiness around the camp. The process of cleaning took a very long time and needs huge stamina as if someone is called resting and slacking they won't get any food share for the next 3 days and they will also get different punishments depending on who caught you.

To understand our horrible work condition. We were forced to work under the blazing hot sun with no skin protection other than the rags we wore. We also were not given anymore water or food other than in the morning which were no more than half a piece of stale and hard bread with water that comes from the dirty river. We were also forced to help the bandits carry the loot around when they're having a raid or just becoming a weapon testing dummy.

In this camp I'm the only person who has lasted for over 3 years as all the others died in under 1 year here. The slaves here are mostly from former maids and butlers of the nobles they raided. Based on the information I got they're pretty infamous but I don't know for sure.

The day quickly went by as the sun began to glow a red hue. All the bandits came back to the camp bringing whatever they find. Things ranging from meats, loots from other bandits, or just nothing. As they began to crowd the main area we the slaves moved to our area where most of us immediately fell asleep out of exhaustion. I also followed them and just immediately fell asleep but soon I will realise tonight will not be fun night..

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"HELP!" I heard someone shouted as we all immediately woke up from the noise. But the shouting is not the only thing we heard. But also..

*CRUNCH* 

A loud crunch just like the sound of bones being crushed into pieces. We all immediately group up and moved carefully to avoid whatever causing the sound. But unluckily the creature that caused the sound was lurking behind us..

*Hiss~* 

We suddenly stopped hearing the sound behind us. I glanced behind me and widened my eyes in pure disbelief and fear. I saw a large alligator like creature crawling slowly. It has thick scales, wide eyes, snake like tongue and a thick tail. The size of it is enough to chomp down an adult human with ease.

*Hiss~* 

I stopped moving completely to not be considered a threat as I have no chance of survival if that thing decided to chase me. But nothing ever goes according to plan. One of the slaves suddenly screamed in fear alerting the creature. The creature immediately noticed us and chased us almost instantly.

Our mind short circuited but our instinct response was to run so we all did. We ran as fast as possible with me being in the middle of them. One by one behind us fell down dragged by the creature.

"Ahhh Helpp!!" 

"Please I don't wanna die!"

"No! No! No!" 

I heard them scream but I couldn't do nothing. I prioritised my life above theirs just like everyone else. More and more fall as we were approaching the main area of the camp. From us 50 slaves now are only around 20. But when we are close to the main area we realised something.

"They aren't there!" The bandits were no where to be seen around there as most of them probably fled fearing for their own life. At this point I began to lose hope.

'Why..? Why did it turn like this..?' I thought about my miserable life. From birth up to this point I have suffered from different things. When I was just a child I was oppressed as I didn't have much natural talent in magic. My talent was so bad I couldn't even chant the most basic spells. 

My parents were also very poor and hateful towards me. And when one day they were finding a way to pay their debts they decided to sell me to a slave trader. Back then I was little so I don't understand. But when I arrived here I quickly realised.. I was sold.. 

But then I saw something that made me change my heart a little. The same boy that helped me last time stepped forward with bravery wanting to take down the creature. He was trembling with fear but he still stepped forward. He looked back at us and smiled.

"This is our last time we will meet.. I hope you guys one day could finally be free.." He said before rushing towards the creature bare-handed trying to stall him so we could run away. I widened my eyes at him but kept on running as I don't want to waste his sacrifice.

Unfortunately the creature was only stalled for a bit as it's already almost catching up to us. The boy could not be seen anywhere and I assumed he was..

'Rest in peace..' I thought while giving him a silent pray for his sacrifice. But not long after we hit another roadblock as we need to climb the walls to go through. But again we need to stall the creature. Nobody was brave enough to stall the creature for everybody to run away. We simply lack the courage and power. So we all started climbing the walls while the creature is also climbing up while chasing us.

I was at the very bottom of the group and one of them realised this. He looked down at me with a crazed smile on his face. Then suddenly I felt extreme pain on my hand as he kick my hand off the wall. He quickly kicked both of my hand causing me to fell down. He only looked down on me and smiled before continuing.

I panicked as we are quite high up already and I was falling down without anything to block my fall. I could also see the creature going down the wall chasing after me. 

But somehow when I hit the ground I survived. I survived the impact of the fall with only a broken back. I wanted to celebrate but the creature chasing after me is not to be ignored. The creature suddenly jumped down straight towards me in high speed. I immediately rolled to the side and evaded it last moment.

It quickly recovered while I'm still on the ground. I also quickly stood up to try and evade the creature again. But instead of a physical attack it suddenly spitted at me. The spit touched me and the moment it touched me my skin immediately burned.

"AGH!!!!" I felt my hand burning while my veins starting to deflate. My heart was slowly beating faster and faster to an abnormal rate. I looked up to the creature seeing it approaching me with it's mouth wide open.

'Is this how I will die?' I thought while looking at the giant opened mouth in front of me. Then suddenly I started to felt burning all over my body like something wanted to burst. It was painful way painful than anything I've experienced. But it felt like something was building up inside me.

"AGHHHHHH!" I screamed but then the pain just suddenly went away and when I opened my eyes the creature had died. It has a giant hole in it's mouth. I widened my eyes at this scene and it made me wanna puke after also remembering every single one of them that died to this thing. But before I could do anything suddenly a sudden drowsiness hit me and I immediately fell asleep from exhaustion.

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<Nozomi's PoV>

I slowly opened my eyes and moved my body a little. But surprisingly on little to no pain could be felt on my body.

I looked next to me and saw the person I was fighting before still unconscious and still a little frozen but his wound was mostly fixed. I inspected my surroundings and realised we're back on the cave. I then just got up and started walking out of the cave.

When I exited the cave the light of the sun temporarily blinded my eyes causing me narrow my eyes a little. When I could finally opens my eyes I could finally see them..

"Nozomi-chan?!" I heard Aster shouted and just suddenly hugged me tightly. I just let her do whatever she wants until suddenly tears starting to stream down her face.

"I-I'm glad that you're awake" She said while still crying. I just awkwardly stood there as I don't know what to do. But I just in reflex started patting her head.

"You know.. Of course I will wake up! After all I'm still not done with this world! So don't cry!" I tried to cheer her up but she still kept on crying after a while she finally released me. When she released me I felt a hand on my shoulders. I looked back at the owner of the hand and saw Klein wrapped in bandages all around his body.

"Pfft.." I laughed a little at his look that kinda represents a mummy. 

"Oi! Why are you laughing at me!" He noticed it and is a little offended. But ended up laughing himself.

"I thank you for your help and assist back there. I hope we could work together more from now on!" He offered a handshake and I accepted it with a smile. Even though I looked like a child between this two it didn't stop them from actually treating me like a normal person.

"'We all also thank you for your help!"' I then heard the voices of all the demi-humans behind me. I looked back at them and smiled at them. Then suddenly another person showed up next to me. I couldn't sense him or even recognise him. But when I looked at the person he was Edelweiss. 

"Thank you for your help.." He silently said and wanted to pat my shoulder but I have a weird feeling about it and my body also knew this as my instinct flared up danger from him. The danger was even worse than the shadow guy.

I immediately retreated back while giving a hostile glare at him. The others was shocked at my sudden action. But I didn't care about it as the more important part is 'Edelweiss'.

"Who're you!" I asked him while giving him a hostile glare. He acted confused but I could see the evil intent behind him.

"Oi! Oi! Nozomi, he's clearly Edelweiss!" I heard Klein exclaimed. But I didn't buy it as his presence is very different.

"He's not!" I refused to believe he's Edelweiss.

"[Freezing Chains]!" I sent out dozens of chains towards him. He surprisingly didn't dodge but suddenly has already disappeared and appeared behind me.

"[Absolute Zer-" I wanted to cast another spell but suddenly I felt an undescribable amount of pain on my heart.

"Seems like the poison is finally reaching her heart." I looked up towards Edelwei- no towards someone in front of me.

"Who.. are.. you.." I weakly said while gritting my teeth in pain. He then laughed loudly.

"My name? You don't need to know.." His appearance suddenly shifted to a man in his 20's. He has short but silky green hair, he wore a pair of black glasses. On his neck was a jade colored scarf.

"Y-You!" I heard Aster exclaimed. She seemed panicked and scared. I looked over to them and saw most of them was either scared or sweating profusely.

"H-Hemlock?!" I heard someone exclaimed. The man in front of me looked surprised.

"Oh my! Someone that knows my name!" He held his hand on his mouth while making a shocked expression.

'Hemlock.. a poisonous flower on earth.. I wonder why..?' I thought about the meaning behind his name. But not long after another sharp pain occured.

"AGH!" I puked blood out of my mouth while blood is pouring out of my nose and eyes. Not long after my visions turned black and my senses turned off.

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<3rd PoV>

"Well then! She's dead!" Hemlock exclaimed with joy in his tone. But they looked at him with a scared expression. Klein and Aster was shocked, they never realised all this time they were fooled by him.

"Now then you all will also go back with me!" He snapped his finger and suddenly they all felt drowsy. All of them then began to fall asleep one by one.

"*sigh* Finally done" Hemlock sighed lazily. He then started to make some weird gestures. Then suddenly dozens of people appeared out of nowhere and started to picked all of them up except Nozomi.

"Thank you for being my test subject" He thanked Nozomi then walked away into the forest with everybody else.

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<Yamikage's PoV>

"..." I slowly opened my heavy eyes and saw a dark and rough ceiling of stone. I sighed and assessed my situation. I look at my hand and saw a block of ice from the part of mt hand that froze started melting. I got up and straight away walked to the entrance of this place.

Outside the sun is shining brightly.. yet it's silent. Too silent to be true in this forest so then I began rising my guard as anything could happen.

"Weird.." But then my eyes widened at an unbelievable sight. The little fox girl on the ground unconscious while blood pours down her eyes. He immediately went in to check on her but suddenly stopped.

'Why..?' He asked that simple question when he wanted to check on her. But I put all those aside for now and focus on her.

I lay her down side up and saw her veins slowly turning green. Her mana was in a mess as slowly but surely her lifeforce was sapped out of her. But when I touched her I could feel a familiar signature.

"Hemlock.." He recognised the mana signature that he left inside of the poison inside her veins. He was contemplating on what to do as she is still an enemy.

"Oh.. poor children.." I heard someone's voice behind me suddenly. I instantly got into a defensive stance while inspecting the newcomer. The newcomer is a beautiful woman with green silky and long hair. The most notable thing about her was the 'horns' on her head.

"Who are.. you..?" I asked her while still raising my vigilance. Because I have a feeling that she's the most dangerous person I've encountered. Even if she concealed all her mana.

"Uuuu, no need to be that defensive. I'm here to help her" She pointed at the girl behind me. I raised my eyebrow at her on why she would help her. But he just stepped aside and let her do her thing.

She approached the girl and crouched down. She then put her palm against her chest. Suddenly her palm began to glow bright light green. I could feel his mana signature left the fox girl's body into the green hair lady. But weirdly it didn't poisoned her instead the signature suddenly disappeared. When all the poison is gone she finally stood up and dusted her clothes.

"Done! Please take care of her!" She said while walking away slowly. But her request seemed weird..

"Why should I do it..?" I asked her. She then stopped and looked back at me while smiling.

"Because.. With shadow there will always be light."