“This bitch is worthless!”

Even though Kishiko couldn’t see them, the yells of her new master clearly resonated through the massive doors of the bedroom chamber.

She lay naked on a massive bed. Chains strapped her down to the frame, giving her just the slightest bit of freedom to move. Her red hair, as usual, was a mess and was spread across the white sheets on top of the mattress.

For nearly an hour now, she was forced to pleasure that man in every way except for sex. Of course, he’d tried multiple times, but due to her powers of Full Defense, she’d been able to stop it. Nevertheless, her body was covered with her new master’s semen. That had been as far as he’d been able to take it. The way that it clung to her skin filled her with disgust, but after going from master to master, she had grown capable of ignoring it.

“We might as well kill her. Then maybe we can get our money’s worth.”

Thump, Thump, Thump—

Kishiko’s heart sped up.

For all this time, she’d been letting herself be used just in the hopes she wouldn’t be killed. While she did have the powers of a Celestia, there were much worse fates that awaited her if she outright refused to do any aspect of her duty. Death was always a possibility. Torture was up there too. Whatever it may be, all her other masters had simply sold her off or returned her, but she knew deep down that at some point, her whole charade would fail. And when it did…

Kishiko gritted her teeth as she heard footsteps get closer to the doors.

“Wait,” A voice suddenly called out from outside. A voice Kishiko didn’t’ recognize. “Lord Ravenscroft, while I understand your disappointment, that slave isn’t the kind that you can kill. We have a much better opportunity at selling her at a higher price.”

Kishiko’s master, Lord Ravenscroft, scoffed. “What exactly is the point of that? It’s not like we’re in need of money.”

“That is true, but it isn’t about money,” the man said. “Think about it. You have an ex-Celestia in your hands. There aren’t many nobles in the world that can say the same. If nothing else, being willing to sell her off can be a good look for you among the nobles. In this scenario, you have nothing to lose.”

Seemingly convinced, the two men had a chat back and forth about the best way to sell her off. However, Kishiko was much too relieved to hear anything they said after.

Once they were done, Lord Ravenscroft bolted back into the room.

“Well, it seems tonight is the last night you’ll be spending here you wench.” He spat. Making his way towards the bed, Kishiko felt her body shiver. “I wish I could’ve played with you longer, but selling you might get me two, maybe three more girls, so all’s well that ends well.” Now looming over Kishiko’s naked body, he leaned forward and touched her lean stomach.

He traced his finger up her skin, making sure to avoid any stains, passing in between her breasts before roughly squeezing hard onto one of them.

“But…I’m sure we can have some more fun until then…right?”

…

…

“—ishiko. Kishiko.”

A hand grabbed onto her shoulder.

“Eeep!” She let out as her body stiffened. She quickly shut the book in her hand just like she’d done earlier and straightened her back. Turning her gaze to her right, she found Starlin—or Kaelor, looking at her with widened eyes.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he pulled his hand away from her.

Taking a few deep breaths, Kishiko said, “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have reacted that way.”

Kaelor seemed to want to say something, but he simply opened his mouth for a few seconds and shut it again. Instead of saying whatever he wanted to say, he switched the topic. “I was just going to ask if you were hungry yet. You’ve been reading here for a few hours now.”

“Huh?” She let out before looking up at the skylight. Unlike before, there was very little sun left peeking through the glass. The bright crystals hanging above glowed much more powerfully than they had before.

“I guess I shouldn’t be talking,” Kaelor continued before she could fully process how much time had passed. “I’ve been here doing the same…I even got through the first two books of the series my mother would always read.” He smiled.

In his hands were two old-looking books. It wasn’t entirely clear from the cover what the genre was, and the title didn’t reveal much either, but the gentle smile on Kaelor’s face was enough to say how much reading that had meant to him.

“I always read this series when I’m stressed or feeling down…it helps me calm down a bit.” He placed the books down next to the book that Kishiko was reading. “Anyway…are you hungry? I was just thinking about getting food ready…and I probably need to check up on the twins and Misaki—but mostly the twins.”

Once again, it hit her that his aura was entirely different from her other masters. What was it about him that made him so different? Was it his intentions? Or was it simply how well he could hide what he really wanted?

“You really don’t need to cook for me,” Kishiko said. “Even just a piece of bread or less is fine.”

Kaelor sighed. “Look, I can’t have you living here and treat you like some kind of animal oka—”

“Why not?” She cut in. She turned her eyes towards Kaelor’s, looking deep into his surprised gaze. “Why can’t you?”

He didn’t have an immediate response. He averted his gaze, looked at the ground, at the books, then back at Kishiko, but still didn’t speak.

Since he didn’t speak, Kishiko, still feeling the pain from that memory that had been brought back to the forefront of her mind, slowly said, “There’s no point in trying to act kind to us. Misaki knows that, I know that, and surely somewhere deep beneath that layer of innocence, those twins know it as well.” She turned her whole body to face Kaelor who was frozen still. “You can stop pretending to care for us. These last twenty-four hours have been…a dream of sorts. Surely the others feel the same. It was like a taste of the life I once had. But if you intend to suddenly take this all way, to give us false hope before ripping it all away…then…”

Kishiko gritted her teeth.

None of this was fit to say to your master. She knew that. Her whole life as a slave had been living to survive. Just one more day, just one more week, and hopefully, go as far as she could. But what she was saying would at best get her sold off again, snapping away this little bit of freedom she’d finally felt, and at worse get her killed. Yet, if it meant that she could prevent any false hope from growing in her chest, then so be it.

“Then just stop all of this!” She yelled. “Stop all of this now that I can still forget about it. While I can still brush it off as a dream I once had…” Tears pooled up in her eyes. She tried her hardest to stop them from falling, but the more that she replayed the last day in her mind, the more those tears threatened to fall. “So please…just stop all of this. Treat us like they all treated us. At least then I can be sure of your intentions. At least then I can live without doubt and false hope.”

Once upon a time, she’d felt that hope.

The hope that she would one day be rescued from the hellish nightmare that was the life of a slave. For the first few years, she prayed that at least one of her teammates would have a change of heart and help her escape. But that time never came.

Year after year passed by, but nothing ever came of that hope.

And that was when she realized it was pointless to hope. Instead, she would resist. Resist with all her willpower. Try to escape when it felt safe to do so and know when to do the right thing to survive.

She thought that she’d gotten past that pointless hoping…but now…

Kishiko lowered her head. “I’ve been tortured…abused…played with…and anything else you can imagine…trust me, there’s nothing you can do to me that I can’t handle.” She turned her gaze back to Kaelor. “So please, just—!”

Her words were cut short.

In a split second, Kaelor had kneeled and wrapped his arms around her body.

Her body was shocked frozen.

He’d finally given in, she thought. He wouldn’t be acting as a nice guy trying to treat them well. He was finally showing his true colors.

I knew it…this is for the best…

Thump…thump…

A beating heart.

She recognized that much, but what she didn’t recognize was the owner of it. The sound wasn’t like her own panicked self. Instead, it was soft. Mellow. Almost gentle.

Is this…?

That’s when she realized the position she was in. Her head was tucked sideways against Kaelor’s chest.

It was his heart.

A touch brushed against her hair, making her flinch. However, instead of the rough action she expected, a gentle stroke is what followed. Slowly, the large hand ran down her head before going back to the top and stroking downwards again.

“I’m sorry that I’ve made you feel that way.” A warm low tone voice filled her ears. “I…didn’t think much about how my actions would be perceived by you girls…and I didn’t intend to come off that way.” He continued to stroke her head and whisper. “But I promise you that I have no shady ulterior motive. I don’t know how I can prove that to you, but whatever you may want, I will do. All I really want is someone to be here…with me. That is all.”

The tears she tried so hard to keep within her piled up too high and they came crumbling down her cheeks. She withheld herself from sobbing, but the tears were freely running down her face.

“I don’t trust you,” she said in between tears.

“I know. But I’ll prove myself.”

“You can just force us to obey…”

“But that’s no way of treating someone.”

“I’m…” she sniffled. “…afraid of having hope.”

“Then I’ll prove that hope is nothing to be scared of.” He continued to stroke her head gently.

Kishiko felt comforted. For the first time in years, she was feeling that way. Even if he was deceiving her, even if he really did have an ulterior motive, the feeling she had at that moment was real. That much she knew. And maybe…just maybe, she thought…she might be able to allow hope to sneak back into her chest once again.

***Quick Author's Note***

 

I have nothing new to say that I haven't said already, so I'll just say that I'm glad I was able to get this chapter out on the day that I wanted to (for my time zone anyway) and that I still haven't missed a Saturday. That's all that I wanted. (And I'll stop with these author's notes if I have nothing to say. Moving forward, if it comes out later than it should, like this one, I apologize. Take that as my apology for future chapters if this happens again)