NOVEL NEXT Chapter 124: Unknown Substance
Looking at the unwillingness displayed vividly in the bloodless women's corpses, Shirley's emotions nearly snapped.
Her body trembled, and her hands began to shake uncontrollably.
She didn't want to think about it and tried to suppress the negative thoughts. But she still couldn't help herself thinking that one of these many bloodless women corpses could have been her or her other two bonded sisters.
Amidst her internal turmoil, she suddenly felt a warm hand grasping her shoulder.
Stunned, she snapped out of her daze and glanced at Leonard.
"M-Master?"
"I won't force you to stop thinking about it, but I should let you know this. You wouldn't become a part of these corpses now that fate had decided to let you encounter me."
Shirley's eyes widened in surprise after hearing his remarks. Her face didn't blush or change anything, though. After all, she had been experienced and was no longer naive in her heart.
This never-ending cycle of this endless world was filled with dystopian elements.
Despite her mindset being shaped into believing there was nothing colorful in the world, she found herself being attracted to this protective shield from Leonard.
Even if what he spouted was a lie—it was a lie that she wanted to believe and trust in.
"Master, these women should be level 3." She suddenly said, her eyes staring deeply at the corpses' attire.
"Level 3?" Leonard raised an eyebrow.
What did she mean by level 3?
Although he was confused about the specification in the leveling, he actually held one conclusion, which was the level assigned to the women in accordance with their value.
Needless to say, the so-called value was their selling price as merchandise.
And his thought process had been proven right.
"In this Slave Coop, women are ranked from lowest to highest, with level 1 being the lowest and level 5 being the highest," Shirley explained and approached the corpse.
She lifted the woman's sleeve and took off the bracelet that they were wearing.
The bracelet was very simple and basic, with only 3 regular beads strung across.
"These beads are the identification of our level. One bead was close to disposable and subjected to intense humiliation. Five beads meant high potential and would be treated well, considering the selling price would be immaculate. They wouldn't harm their merchandise." She said and extended the bracelet for him to inspect closely.
She didn't intend to hand it over to him because it was stained with dried blood.
However, she failed to realize that Leonard had no qualms about holding such an item. He ignored the dried blood on the bracelet and held it in his hand.
"They really are reining women as if they're mere cattle." He grasped the bracelet tightly with a cold expression. His eyes glinted in a fierce light, clearly angered by the grading system.
Cattle were graded and ranked by their tenderness in the meat, whereas the women here were ranked by their usefulness.
Although Shirley had not once emphasized what sort of training they underwent, Leonard knew it was definitely about the methods of servicing another.
The servicing was close to what a brothel does, but at another level.
After all, a Slave Coop that could produce talents like the Rosalia troupe and many more indicated there were some special methods involved.
And these methods were by no means humane or anything moral.
For Velastra to legally allow a Slave Coop to exist, he truly wondered which bastards enabled such laws.
When Leonard expressed such disdain, his behavior was taken notice of by Mirelle and Claudia.
Mirelle didn't anticipate a Crown Prince would actually hold so much concern about these types of fallen women.
The same goes for Claudia, who couldn't understand why he expressed such disgust and disdain toward this kind of scene.
'Is he just putting up an act or being genuine?' Claudia wondered silently. She could discern that his action and remarks just now had completely entrapped Shirley to remain loyal by his side.
Even if it was only a little bit of loyalty, the seed was already planted.
As long as Leonard didn't mess things up, Shirley would definitely become his great asset.
"There are bite marks on their necks," Mirelle suddenly brought the matter to their attention.
"The male corpses didn't have any bite marks around, which meant their blood was drained magically. But these women were drained physically."
To summarize her statement, it meant the woman's death was many times more painful than the male's, as they had their blood drained in close contact.
It was a gruesome fate where they had to wait for death to slowly come to them while suffering an excruciating amount of pain in the draining process.
"I've also noticed these berserk slaves tend to seek women's blood more." Leonard furrowed his brows.
Back at the capital, most of the victims who suffered a lot from the berserk slaves were women. And just a while ago, the rescue that Mirelle conducted was also for the helpless women.
"Could there be a reason why women's blood is more prioritized?" Mirelle questioned.
"If not more prioritized, then why else did you think they were drained physically?" Claudia rolled her eyes and sneered. "These women weren't defiled in the process, which meant they weren't targeted in such a manner for their beauty."
Just when Claudia was taking a jab at Mirelle, her statement caused Leonard to become suspicious.
"You're speaking as if you have some clues to the situation." He calmly said and continued, "Care to share what you know about?"
"I-I was just humiliating her for fun." Claudia hurriedly tried to deny knowing anything.
"Back to square one again, I guessed." Unamused by her behavior, Leonard flashed two fingers. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. But let me remind you of something. Either way would lead to the same path."
Facing the two options, Claudia laughed coldly.
"You think I'm afraid of the slave collar pain?" She sneered.
"Hoh?" Leonard raised an eyebrow in amusement.
In the next instance, though, Claudia readily answered the question with a lively and bright smile.
"I've noticed there was some unknown substance left behind by the woman's corpse. If my conjecture is correct, then I believe this is the work of Wrathbane Extract."