NOVEL NEXT (Side S. 2) Meeting death.
Everything was dark, I could not see anything, I was scared. What happened? I heard a metallic click at that moment, I felt like I was being asphyxiated. I heard some words I did not understand then... A sharp pain ran through my heart, at that moment, I heard a cold voice that sent a chill down my spine.
“It’s complete now.”
I did not hear anything else, I fainted shortly after. The next thing I remember is waking up in a carriage. I could see again. What I saw was not what I was expecting… It was a merchant carriage, a slave merchant carriage. I could see beastkin, elves. I was there. I looked down, I was wearing tattered clothes and I was incredibly dirty. I had a slave collar on, I started recalling past events.
I was in the capital walking, and everything turned dark… ‘Huh, how?’ I muttered, however, it was useless to even think about it because of the situation I was in. I did not panic, rather I could not panic. I was feeling incredibly tired. The slave merchant looked like a gentleman, however, there was something shady about him. He did not ever treat me like a slave for some reason. At least not as bad as the other slaves, for some reason, I felt like he had something special for me.
As I traveled as a slave, I heard useful information. However, while it was useful, the information I had was already vast enough to not worry about it. One day as I was sitting down looking at the carriage’s ground with an empty expression like I always did. I then heard a noise, I knew the merchant had some adventurers. I started hearing swords clashing, a bandit went into the carriage and tried to drag a slave. The slave resisted and got killed. One after another they were being killed, at that moment I felt a chill run down my spine. As if I was going to die at any moment. I started trembling, to my surprise the bandit was also trembling.
The outside noise slowly stopped, and all of the sudden it turned into screams of agony. I lifted up my head to look outside the carriage. ‘it’s night?’ I muttered. I started looking closely, it wasn’t night-time. It was death… I could not believe my eyes. I heard something called an ‘aura’ exists that only powerful people emit enough to be visible to the naked eye. This was an aura… However, it seemed to contain all the darkness in the world. It was an abyss, the moment I came to touch with it, I started shaking uncontrollably.
The shrieks subsided. They were dead, at that moment the slave merchant glanced into the carriage. Then I saw it, a figure completely black wearing a cloak clad in that wicked aura. It was death… I started shaking again. When the figure was about to stop looking. It saw me and froze. I felt my heart stop. The figure started talking with the merchant.
The merchant took me out of the carriage. The figure was interested in me. I felt my fear grow. I was standing right in front of death. The merchant left in a hurry after saying something, I did not hear. The figure seemed to be thinking of something. She started looking at me, I could not take it anymore. I was about to cry, I decided to ask her my fate.
“W-What are you going to do with me?”
“...”
The figure did not respond. I saw a wolf, it was white, however, the wolf was covered in blood… ‘I do not want to die yet! Please have mercy’ I started begging inside my head. Death seemed to have come to a conclusion and took off its hood. I could not see the face of the black figure but I saw a pair of beastkin ears?
“...”
“...”
Death kept a solemn atmosphere, however, I felt relaxed for some reason. I heard death’s voice, it was a female voice, she sounded sweet, yet all my senses were telling me I was going to die.
“What’s your name?”
“A-Ari…”
I managed to say with a voice full of anxiety. Death started speaking.
“My name is…”
She froze.
“My name is Yami.”
She stiffened after saying that, I could not see her face but I think she was smiling? I started to fidget thinking about how to make her spare my life. I decided that I would need a proper way to address her.
“M-Master Yami.”
Yami froze, she turned around and looked at me. At that moment I realized I had made a mistake. She started walking towards me. I felt my death coming closer, I started apologizing.
“I-I did not mean to! I am sorry! I am sorry!”
I grew more and more panicked the closer death was to me. She stopped in front of me, and knelt down? She grabbed my collar and inserted the master key into it. I felt the energy drain from the collar. The collar broke when she twisted the key. I was frozen. Is she trying to give me hope so I scream more when I die?! I tried to speak.
“U-Umm...?!”
“I am not your master and you are no longer a slave.”
She said. I could see her face now. She was really pretty and for a slight moment, all of her wicked aura vanished. She smiled with a really welcoming face to me. I was flustered. I asked in a voice of the same nature. I think I was going to cry.
“B-But then what will happen to me?”
“Do you want to come with me?”
She asked with a curious voice. I slowly nodded and started wiping my tears, for some reason I felt happy. I walked towards death while trying to withstand her aura and muttered.
“Thank you…”
She called her wolf over and started heading towards the leafy forest behind her. I understood fairly quickly that the wolf would not try to kill me. We left the road with all the corpses behind as if nothing happened. We arrived at a lake? It was mostly surrounded with trees with a somewhat big shore. Yami suddenly said.
“Ari, go take a bath. Fenri will assist you.”
“Y-Yami. What are you going to do?”
I asked almost instantly with an anxious voice.
“I am going to check things.”
“W-...”
‘Who are you, What things did you want to check?’ I had so many questions but I could not ask her. The wolf called ‘Fenri.’ received clothes from Yami, and gently pushed me towards the lake. The clothes… she took them out of nowhere. Like she turned around and then there was clothes?! Just who is she? Also, Fenri is a pretty cute name for death’s doom beast. I took a bath and dried with the help of Fenri, by that I mean the wolf literally rubbed against me to clean me. What is he… a cat?
I decided to put on the clothes that she gave me. It was a white top that covered my upper body starting from the hips. Some type of pants. They were black and had scales on them… She also left some boots that looked really comfy but incredibly hot. To my surprise, they felt just right. ‘Just what are these clothes?’ I muttered I had seen [Uncommon] tier items before but they look like trash in comparison to these. Could it be? The rumored [Rare] tier?! Why would she give me something so expensive! I was flustered.
Fenri suddenly sensed something and rushed in a hurry while excited. I hid, I thought it was a monster. I heard something and screamed while panicking.
“Kyaaa! Get away!”
There was silence then I heard a sweet voice, my senses were no longer alerting me of my death.
“Ari it’s me Ku... Y-Yami.”
She stuttered as if she was going to say a different name, I was confused.
“Wait, Yami?!”
I asked in a surprised but confused voice.
“Nn…”
She nodded. I was embarrassed about it, Yami asked me about what was all of that about. I explained to her that I was anxious about the nice clothing she gave me. I also muttered ‘Also you are no longer scary so I did not recognize you’ in a really quiet voice.
“Grrrr…”
My stomach screamed. I tried to deny it but I ended up accepting her food. We talked about a lot of things. Yami had a ring that could hide her tail and ears? That was amazing. She let me borrow it. I put on the ring hoping it would do the opposite. She seemed to be amused by this and patted me. I was happy.
“Ari, could you tell me everything you know about items?”
“W-well if you say so.”
Yami asked in a friendly tone. I blushed and was happy that she would rely on me, but I was confused to why she would ask that. I was explaining item tiers, and she asked about the 7th tier I mentioned. I was perplexed by this but I answered truthfully. She started holding her head as if regretting something. I managed to bring her back to reality by repeating her name in a panic.
She did not even flinch when I mentioned all the tiers including [Legend] and [Divine] even though she seemed awfully interested in items. She asked a weird question about the 7th tier. [Relic] I explained that Kuro’s disciple appeared and affirmed its existence. She started holding her head as soon as she heard that as if something bad had happened. I brought her back to reality again by tugging on her cloak. She asked about the master craftsman. Which was unbelievable but Yami did not actually know who he was? Just who is she? However, she seemed to understand that well enough.
Yami kept asking me questions to which I answered happily. I saw an extremely pretty ring on her hand. It looked like a coiled silver tree branch with a green gem on it. She talked in an indifferent tone.
“Ah well, this is a [Friendship Ring] it basically means you have a really deep bond with someone.”
“Oh, it’s so pretty! Do you think I could meet 'that' someone someday?”
She answered me in a depressed tone.
“Well, that… I don’t know, hopefully, we can meet her someday.”
I decided at that moment I had to cheer her up. I looked her right in the eyes and declared.
“No Yami, we will meet her.”
Yami’s eyes brightened and her expression turned more serene, she embraced me.
“Thank you Ari.”
In an extremely soft but warm voice. I was happy, I wanted to be with her. Yami was incredibly pretty, strong, and her eyes… Her eyes… They were brimming with knowledge as if she had seen it all, her odd eye colors were really pretty too.
She released me from her embrace. I was kind of sad about it, I saw her right hand. It had a ring that contained all the darkness of the world. Just like her aura from before… I asked about it, She said it was cursed. I did not press any further questions. ‘What kind of item is that? Could it be? [Legendary]? No there’s no way’ I muttered inside my thoughts. I deceived Yami into promising me she would take me with her. I was happy and declared.
“Yay! Now I will discover all of your secrets.”
She seemed to be happy and embraced me again, I was happy. She muttered something I could not quite hear, but I think I understood what she said. Some time went by. I asked her about the cursed ring. To which she simply put on a glove on. She declared with resolute confidence that the glove would do the job. Also mentioning it blocked appraisal… ‘Is that also a [Legendary] item?’ I started thinking about it again ‘Who is Yami, is she a noble? a princess? No. She is a beastkin… Who is she?. I thought about it but I could not reach an answer. It was getting late. Yami left after making a camp and I went to sleep.
The next morning I saw a silver-haired girl sleeping like a cat? I woke Yami in a hurry, she asked me what was wrong. My face became filled with annoyance. I pointed towards the girl. Yami glanced at her, went ‘huh’ and then her expression turned annoyed. Yami sighed. and talked to me, at that moment the figure was already behind Yami and grabbed her shoulder. I could not even see her coming. Just who is she? She spoke in a gentle tone, that made me feel at ease.
“Hi, Ari was it? My name is Aizen. Yami told me a lot about you, pleased to meet you.~”
Wait, Yami? Also, Yami had an incredibly perplexed expression as if asking who are you. I must let her know her place. I spoke towards the silver-haired girl.
“I don’t know who you are, but Yami is mine!”
I stuck my tongue out. At that moment, Yami turned visibly nervous. The silver-haired girl whispered something to Yami, Yami spoke as if presenting her and said she would be traveling with us.
“Eh.”
I let out a stupid voice, I glanced towards the girl. I was upset, I pointed my finger towards her and spoke with a tone full of jealousy?
“What’s your relationship with Yami?”
She flinched for a second, she came through a mutual agreement with Yami just by looking at her. Just who is she? She spoke with a voice full of joy.
“We are family.”
“eh…”
I let out another stupid sound. I looked towards Yami as if to confirm to which she just nodded. I froze. Where are her ears? They do not even have the same eye color? I went over to the girl. And started checking her hands. All I saw was an extremely pretty ring however it made me feel uneasy when I looked at it. Aizen was it? I started speaking in a confused voice.
“A-Aizen, you are not a beastkin?
She was confused and turned her gaze towards Yami, who was looking at her entire body. Her face became even more confused afterwards. I ran over to Yami and took her ring off. Aizen’s eyes went wide open and seemed to realize something.
She started laughing as if it was obvious. What? She showed her ears hidden behind her hair. They were slightly pointy. I spoke instantly in shock.
“Half-elf?!”
I froze again. I started muttering things like. ‘Beastkin and elf?’ ‘How’ among others. I reached my conclusions. They must be sisters! I turned towards them and spoke in a happy tone.
“So you and Yami are sisters?”
“”Eh.””
They both let out astonished voices as if praising me for figuring it out. I asked in excitement something I knew the answer for.
“So, so, who is the older one?!”
Aizen pointed towards Yami. Wait. What? How? I looked at her with disapproval. I asked her.
“Yami, why did you not tell me you had a little sister?!”
“...”
She stayed silent as if having an internal conflict. I was happy for some reason. ‘Little sister, I like the idea.’ I said inside my thoughts. I turned towards Yami’s cute little half-elf sister and started asking her a lot of things. She did not answer most of them. She told me her class with a dignified voice, she sounded like a part of some royal family when she spoke. She was extremely high level too. I started praising her. She had a proud look. I noticed something, Aizen’s eyes. They were amber however they were brimming with knowledge. They were similar to Yami’s but Aizen’s gave me the feeling that she knew about everything in this world as if she were a dragon. I continued praising her.