NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3
Chapter 3 – A New Slave
Odil spent all day sifting through a mountain of parchments, trying to figure out what was going on outside. Besides preparing lunch and dinner, I had nothing else to do. But as I tidied up here and there, I was surprised to find that cleaning was already done.
Thud.
“Phew, looks like I’ve wrapped up almost everything.”
I flopped down onto the bed where I had woken up, letting out a light yawn.
“Oh, I can’t fall asleep.”
Straightening my posture, I scratched the back of my head.
“Let’s try to remember the original story before it gets too late.”
Thanks to reading it before dozing off, the plot was a piece of cake to recall. Here’s how it goes:
One day, the Demon King opened the portal to the demon realm and popped up in the human world. The God, knowing full well that humans were about to get wiped out, handed divine powers to a righteous dude and dubbed him the hero.
The hero fought the Demon King along with his comrades and won! That part was just like a fairytale.
“Now, following the current trendy cliché, the companions betray the hero – and yep, the hero bites the dust.”
What came next was an unexpected twist.
After strutting back to the castle, the companions lived it up with all the glory and fame that was supposed to go to the hero. But then another snag appeared. Turns out, the Demon King they killed wasn’t even a real Demon King; he was merely the wimpiest of the Four Heavenly Kings!
Then the real Demon King waltzed into the kingdom, and King Eiscenia freaked out, demanding the hero’s party step up and tackle the demon threat.
In true cliché fashion, the hero’s party, who had been treating him like dirt, took a shot at the challenge, but ended up getting nabbed, tortured, and killed instead. The king, realizing too late, rushed to plead at a temple.
[Dare you kill my chosen hero and now ask for help?!]
Knowing the king and his posse were in on the whole hero-killing business, God unceremoniously cut ties with the humans. So, the king humbly knocked his head on the ground before the Demon King and pledged his loyalty. From that moment, Eiscenia became Demon King territory.
“Now, the real story kicks off here.”
The already-dead hero actually had a daughter! She washed up in Eiscenia as a baby and ended up sold off as an experimental subject to some dark sorcerer before she could even say “mommy.”
“That’s where she is.”
The poor hero’s daughter, who endured horrific experiments, lost her mind. Then one day, a knight broke into the dark sorcerer’s lab and rescued her. The hero’s daughter, Iris, didn’t just bolt; she saved other test subjects too. And out of the goodness of her heart, she even saved that trashy manager, Lian.
“That would be a good time for a getaway.”
I decided it’d be best to spoil Iris when she got here and tag along to the empire with her.
“Just stay far away from the duke’s household.”
I shivered slightly, rubbing my arms, memories of Lian’s fate popping into my head.
“Let’s not act like a fool just because I have the same hair color.”
Lian, going around claiming to be Iris’s older brother thanks to his matching white hair. Pure coincidence, but when they arrived at the duke’s household, Iris’s mom had just left, leaving nobody to summer up his little fib.
Having tasted the power of the duke’s household, Lian figured that if Iris vanished, all that power would be his for the taking, thus threatening her life repeatedly. Scared out of her mind, Iris fled from the duke’s manor.
“Lian ultimately met a nasty end, tortured to death upon the head of the house’s long-awaited return…”
Given that Iris had taken forever to find her daughter, it’s no wonder he was furious.
“I’ll just go with her to the empire – afterward, maybe live in the woods? I’ve always wanted to try farming… sounds like a plan!”
Just as I was daydreaming and chuckling to myself, suddenly—
Knock, knock!
What was that loud banging at the door? Before I could even think, the memories of the former owner of this body rushed back!
“Ah, must be the slave trader.”
Even though Lian handled all the chores around here, he wasn’t allowed to meddle with the slave traders.
Being only an average dark sorcerer, Odil didn’t have a big place. That’s why there weren’t even any real jailers in the underground prison.
Because of this, if the underground prison door opened, the kids inside could make a run for it and get to the first floor. Sure, the back alley was far from safe, but hey, it meant they could escape!
In order to stop this, the dark sorcerer threw some magic on the first-floor door. Only folks who could draw the magic circle a certain way could open it. If they tried to force it, an explosive magic trap would blow up in their faces.
“Such obvious malice.”
Because of that, not even Lian, trusted as he was by Odil, could open it. Heck, he couldn’t even get close! Odil had come to rely on Lian more and more rather than the other way around.
Clunk, thud!
I heard a noise as if something was being moved. Was it Odil going down to open that door? I crept up to it and pressed my ear against.
“Is this enough?”
“Ahem, sure.”
Normally, these two would be haggling like crazy, but today, they made a quick deal.
“Could that be Iris?”
If Odil was offering up a slave that would please the trader at a high price, it might be her! My heart started racing as I thought.
“Okay, what do I say for an introduction? Hello, Miss? Wait, Iris doesn’t know her identity, right?! So what then? Hey, Iris? No, that’s too casual since it’s our first meeting. But even still, she’s a lady, so informal speech is a no-go…”
Imagining finally meeting Iris, the character from the story, had my heart racing like crazy.
“Lian!”
“Yes!”
Just like always, Odil called for Lian to bring in the new slaves. I hurried out of the room and dashed down to the first floor.
“Move these guys to the new jail.”
“Yes!”
With a pumped-up nod, I noticed Odil nodding back, pleased, as he went upstairs. I approached the kids all squished up in the narrow cage.
“Whe, where…”
“Shh, it’s okay. I’ll protect you.”
Inside the cell, two kids who looked like siblings hugged each other anxiously, eyeing me suspiciously. Next to them was a dazed red-haired girl just lying there.
“Gosh… these kids! They’re Iris’ friends!”
They were the ones who escaped with Iris from this very place! My eyes landed on the two hugging siblings.
“Were those guys boys?”
I thought they were girls before.
But I quickly brushed that thought aside.
“Maybe I just misremembered.”
Thinking this, I swung the cell door open.
“Come on out! I’ll show you where you’ll stay. Keep it quiet; otherwise, Master Odil might drop by.”
I tried to keep my tone as friendly as possible when I opened the door for the hesitant siblings, who rose and stepped cautiously out of their prison. The boy, Noah, darted his eyes back and forth between the door and me. I stepped into the cell to reassure them.
“The door has a spell on it, so there’s no way you’re getting out.”
“…!”
Noah jumped and grabbed his brother, Nero, tightly. I scooped up the girl sprawled on the floor. She hung in my arms like a limp doll, her dilated pupils and drool spilling down her chin.
“She’s a werewolf beastkin, and almost certainly got way too much sedative… poor kid.”
Even for a beastkin, using that much on a child was way too over the top. I frowned, wishing I could let her rest, but leaving her here would probably make Odil notice, and she’d be hauled off to the lab right away. So, I had no choice but to carry her down the stairs towards the underground.
“It’ll be quicker if we move. If Master Odil catches us, you could end up in that lab really fast!”
“Eek…!”
With that, Noah, who had been looking for an exit, hesitantly crept toward the stairs.
“Come on, I have the slave control brand. So, stop dawdling and let’s get moving downstairs already? I don’t want to drag you, guys!”
At my words, Noah and Nero’s faces turned pale. On the inside of my wrist was the brand that could compel a slave’s actions. Odil had given it to me because he didn’t want to deal with constantly managing each and every slave. It showed how much trust Lian was given by Odil.
If a slave disobeys an order given through the brand, they would writhe in pain and foam at the mouth till they passed out. The two kids, either recalling their own experiences or having seen it happen to others, trembled as they descended the stairs.
“Go inside there.”
The cell prepared for them was right next to the one where the other kids were locked up. The cells were separated by a wall, so they wouldn’t easily see each other’s faces.
Creak.
I swung open the rusty cell door and gently set the girl down. Then I grabbed a blanket that had bugs crawling all over it, gave it a little shake, and tossed it on top of her body. After fluffing up her hair, I stood up and dusted myself off.
“Do you, brother, live here?”
“…! Nero!”
Encouraged by Lian’s gentle demeanor, Nero spoke up. Noah looked stunned by his brother’s sudden outburst and quickly pulled Nero into a protective hug, taking a step back.
“Yes, I live here.”
I responded lightly to Nero while turning toward the cell door. Noah stared at me with wide eyes, clearly not expecting me to answer.
“Ah, how cute. They’re so little.”
I couldn’t help but smile fondly at Nero. His cat-like face and big eyes reminded me of a black cat and were simply too adorable.
“I should bake some cookies for them.”
With that thought, I stepped outside the cell.
Clank! As I locked the door, I wondered—
“But does this lock even work?”
In my original world, locks were just simple devices where you inserted two thin metal rods and jiggled them to open. Suddenly, my curiosity piqued.
Click-clack.
Even while exiting the underground dungeon, my curiosity didn’t wane.
“Could it actually work?”
I wasn’t dying to show off my lock-picking skills. I just wanted to know if the laws of this comedic world still applied.
“Let’s give it a shot!”
Turning off the soup I was cooking for dinner, I opened the kitchen drawer and grabbed two metal rods.