NOVEL NEXT Extra: Memoir of an Ex-Slave Bunnygirl
Extra: Memoir of an Ex-Slave Bunnygirl
A short while ago, the contract that once bound me to slavery and controlled my mind, suddenly vanished. For the first time in a dozen years, my thoughts are clear and I can once again remember what freedom is, how it feels to make decisions for myself and what it means to truly hate a person to death. I found this blank book in the study and decided to write my thoughts down rather than keep it all bottled up. It feels nice to think and writing is helping to clear my head. What I’d learn later, is that contracts now require a certain level of upkeep and will fail when it’s not met.
My former master is one of the recently summoned heroes and out of the three slaves he had, I was the only one whose contract was annulled. The other two are human girls, a pair of pretty twin sisters with golden hair and shockingly blue eyes who have served as his maids along-side me. They weren’t as fortunate as me to be freed. Though, it seems that they also have their minds back, even if they are still forced to act in accordance with their ordered personalities. You can see it in the eyes, a rage that burns deep in the soul.
I can remember now that my name is Petra. The village I grew up in was peaceful and united. My parents were loving and there were many siblings to play with me. It’s been so long and I was so young at the time that it would be impossible for me to recall the exact location of the village. But the forest is unforgettable, I miss the forest.
The slavers took me when I was young, only six or seven years old. My village was ransacked and the old or stubborn were killed. They rounded up the rest of us and forced us to sign slave contracts by means of starving and beating us until we complied. We were ordered to forget our previous lives and given personalities eager to serve. The men were sold as laborers and adult women were sent to brothels. Young or especially pretty girls were brought to their headquarters where we would be trained in methods to please a master, etiquette, housekeeping, numbers, reading and writing.
When my training was complete, I was sold. I was a little more fortunate than my sisters at first. My first master was a prince who bought me exclusively for the purpose of gifting me to his supporters and I was much too young to be of any immediate use. Household chores were assigned to me in the meantime, so that I wouldn’t be a burden until a master would select me. I lived out a near invisible and repetitive daily existence for a little more than a decade before that swine of a man chose me.
The prince returned to the manor one day with a strange looking man who had black hair and eyes. Servants who were still virgins were gathered up and he was told by the prince that he could take any three that he wanted. He first picked the twins and debated his last choice for a while before ultimately deciding on me. All it took was a simple order from the prince and we were given to our new master.
It makes me nauseous to think about how eager I was to please him. My warped personality made me do things with him that no one should ever be subjected to. The twins weren’t any better off. In his manor, which was another gift from the prince, he had an entire room dedicated to performing unspeakable acts and made use of it often with one or more of us.
For reasons I still find impossible to understand, he insisted that I use the sound, ‘pyon’, often when speaking. I was also subjected to a torturous exercise of hopping around the room on both legs as fast as I could while he slowly chased after me. It seemed to give him some sort of weird satisfaction to catch me just before he’d violate me.
After about three weeks of abuse, the hero party left the capital to train in a nearby dungeon. I was dolled-up in order to attend the sendoff party with him. We are left with simple orders to take good care of his property while he is away. Not just the manor, but our own selves are implied by that statement. For quite some time, it is just the three of us here performing the daily chores and keeping our bodies in top shape for when he returns. He had even left behind some qi crystals so that we could enhance our stamina.
Then one day, at the sound of two concurrent ‘dings’, I was free. I had received the following messages from the world:
[Contract Annulled: Slavery]
You are now freed from your slave contract. Your personality has been restored and maturity enhanced in case of mind-body mismatch due to length of servitude.
[Gained Blessing: Slave Revolt]
The details of the blessing are as follows:
[Slave Revolt]
While fighting against those who would enslave you, you will exhibit three times your usual strength, agility and magic power, while qi and mana will deplete at twice the normal rate.
Wow! Even I know that this blessing is quite good. If even half of the freed slaves in the city right now possess this, things are about to get really ugly in the capital. My prediction comes true. Freed slaves are killing their masters and pillaging what they can before trying to flee the city, even some of the people who used to be guards have joined in. It’s much too dangerous to even try to leave the manor for the time being, even though I’m free and also wish to flee.
The slaughter continues for days before some groups start to establish themselves with a small semblance of order. A number of ex-slaves or other opportunists have come to the manor to take what they can. We’ve hidden what we can of the food and have tried to hide ourselves the best we can when they come. When we are discovered, I’ve taken it upon myself to fend them off. I started out with just a kitchen knife and killed a would-be thief when he tried to have his way with us.
By the time the hero returned, I had a decent sword, some shoddy bits of armor and there was a disturbing number of corpses piled up right outside the front door. The fact that the twins were still being forced to keep the manor clean, even in this sort of situation only stoked my fury further whenever I’d have to deal with these lowlifes.
The prince had rushed back to the capitol with a hero in tow after only a few days. With the hero’s assistance and what was left of palace guard, he had managed to reestablish some semblance of royal authority. As a modicum of normal order was starting to emerge, the king jumped out to snatch control. He had apparently been hiding in the very sturdy palace treasury with a few key and powerful people he had managed to maintain his control over. This included the head of the palace guards and the head mage.
When the hero saw that all three of us had managed to survive and that I was still here despite being freed, he was ecstatic. I immediately wanted to gut him at first sight, but also realized that I wouldn’t stand a chance against him, even with my blessing. Seeing how strong he was while assisting the prince, I knew that I couldn’t win against him in a direct confrontation. It took all my self-control to keep myself from gagging as I told him that I was happy here and pretended to still have my subservient persona.
He had said some nonsense about how it was the morally correct decision to treat his slaves well. Such nonsense! No matter how you fancy it up, a slave is still a slave. And this lady has no desire to serve you or anyone else ever again. Perhaps my last chance to make a run for it will be tonight. The city has mostly quieted down and the forces they managed to muster today are currently only enough to guard the palace, leaving the city gates wide open and unattended. According to the hero, they plan to increase their forces on the following day which will undoubtedly cause me to be trapped here.
Mustering my courage and throwing away that last shred of dignity that I’m not sure if I’ve ever really had, I proceed to lead the hero into some night activities. His already worn out body due to the fighting of the day is further exhausted and he quickly falls into a deep, dreamless sleep. To make sure that even his sense danger skill won’t be able to wake him, I’ve burned a special incense that has a sedative effect.
Pulling the dagger out of the place I’d hidden it earlier, I slit his throat. For good measure, I then plunged it into his heart. He wakes up while grasping his bloody neck just in time to see the dagger hit the mark. As he struggled during his last moments, blood splashed all over my body. I sat entranced at the sight of him dying, not looking away till the light faded from his eyes. I’ve done such a wicked deed all while wearing a blissful smile on my blood splashed face. It’s perhaps my first real smile since before I became a slave, even if it’s oozing with traces of insanity.
The twins soon came barging into the room, their contracts disappearing with his death. As though they’ve planned it out beforehand, one grabbed his junk while the other sliced it off with the dagger. After shoving it down his throat, they proceeded to further mutilate his corpse until they’re both panting. While covered in his blood and some bits of flesh, they proceeded to cry in each other’s arms after having used up their stamina venting their hatred.
The sound of their sobs are heart-wrenchingly sad. I proceeded to embrace them as well while rubbing their backs and wound up crying with them a bit myself. We went to the bathroom to get cleaned up once our tears had dried up. The blood had already started to dry and was difficult to remove. Considerable effort was needed to get it out of our hair.
His inventory had spilled out into the room when he died, so we took what was needed for traveling along with all the crystals and some money. The three of us changed into some stableboy clothes that were left by the previous manor’s occupants and finally left. Mina and Yumi, as I’ve learned their real names are, have decided to follow me to the Magic Forest. They think it would be safer to move as a group and don’t really have anywhere to return to since their parents had actually sold them. I can’t help agreeing with them and it would be useful for me as well to have human companions who can go into towns or villages along the way to buy things.
Under the cover of night, we’ve successfully fled the city and headed west. I’ve now re-equipped my shoddy armor and weapons. I had stored them before because I didn’t want them making noise or causing me to stand out as we were leaving the city. We travel as far as we can during the night and well into the next morning. Around mid-morning, we are forced to stop and rest. To avoid pursuers, we leave the road and make camp in the woods. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t pursue us long, if at all due to the current state that the capital is in. But it is better safe than sorry.
Over the next few weeks, we spend the majority of our time cultivating as we travel slowly through the woods running parallel to the road. I’m using qi crystals to increase my physical attributes while the twins are using a few to increase their agility and vitality, but mainly focusing on raising their intelligence attribute with mana crystals. The hero had some magic books in his inventory that we brought with us to study.
Yumi ended up surprising both of us with her priestess blessing and ability to cultivate divine power. She had apparently learned how to offer prayers from the priest in the village and had been praying every night since. Apparently, even with her personality altered, that aspect of her remained a constant throughout the years. She had gained the priestess blessing shortly after slaves began to be freed. Most of her mana crystals were given to her sister as she decided to focus on divine cultivation in order to get us a healing skill as soon as possible.
We bump into other ex-slaves and some bandits occasionally. The ex-slaves will usually go their own way without any confrontation, unless they’re desperate. If they left the city while in a panic and are currently starving out here, all bets are off. I’ve sadly had to kill a number of such people. Is it okay that I don’t really feel remorse when killing anymore?
Bandits are actually much smarter than people give them credit. They don’t even bother with us for the most part, some even invited us to join them under pretty good terms. Our little group is obviously made up of ex-slaves and they don’t stand to gain much, if anything, by attacking us. Given our past experience as slaves, it’s very easy for them to understand that we would rather die than submit if they try to force the issue of us joining them. Plenty of our former colleagues have joined up with the various groups in the area already and have spread the word.
There were a few insistent bastards along the way. These types would only back off after realizing that they could only end up gaining a few bloody corpses and might even lose their lives in the process. Yumi has had to fix me up quite a few times and my armor has been scrapped long ago. My current clothes are a patchwork mess of fabrics we’ve scavenged from the dead.
Many weeks of travel later, we finally arrived at the dungeon city of Rork, in the kingdom of Norvac. We managed to purchase some decent clothes from a few villages back. News brought back from the border cities of the Magic Forest says that the elves have closed the borders until further notice. We’ve decided to stay here for the time being and make a living by diving into the dungeon for materials while enhancing our own strength.
A few days into our stay, I met the ‘Crazy Lady’ again. She’s the heroine named Alice who has this strange hobby of clinging to anything with fur. I was targeted by her during the hero send off party and was subjected to her questionable ‘inspection’ of what she likes to call my ‘fluffy features’. Her level of absurdity even seemed to have increased by a notch. Even at my current stage of cultivation, I was completely unable to avoid her. She just sort of appeared next to me. In an instant! Then she proceeded to pet me.
When the couple of heroines showed up, I had thought that we were doomed. But it turned out that they were also released from their contracts at the same time that I had been and decided to abandon that screwed up kingdom. They didn’t stay long and headed to the border before us. Sometime later we heard the news of the border reopening and signed up as guards for a merchant convoy heading that way.
On the morning of departure, we reported to the convoy leader, some man named Arkin. When he saw us, we were told to hop into one of the lead wagons while he was mumbling something about strong, cute girls being some sort of lucky charm for his convoy. Like, what’s that about? Anyways, I’m looking forward to finally returning to the Magic Forest!
