Abduction

Several women of varying ages are imprisoned inside a massive dark room, devoid of even a small window where a faint ray of light can pass through. Although even without a pale glow, the prisoners can assume that the room is littered with dirt, rubbles, and probably dead insects or animals because of the rotting stench emanating inside. The place is also damp and chilly, and the women tremble in fear as they sit huddled together while they await their fate. They are not aware of how many days it has been since they were missing. They didn't know why they were abducted. They weren't even orphans and homeless. Usually, those we're the ones the slave traders kidnap to gain some profit.

The other girls said that they were abducted while they were sleeping inside the safety of their homes, some we're just walking around the bustling market to buy food when a man in a dark robe drags them toward the back alley, and they were rendered unconscious. And there's that new girl, crying non-stop since she was pulled inside this prison. From what the others can understand in what she's saying in between sobs, she is a nobleman's daughter. She's been spewing threats until her voice becomes hoarse from crying. However, no one listened to her. Their abductors were not the least bit threatened. They didn't care even if they abducted someone from the nobility. It only means that someone in the higher-ups must be probably involved.

Without warning, the door slams open, and two guards, each holding their torches, shoves a young girl inside the room. Feeling dizzy because of the sleeping drug, she loses her balance, and she slumps on the floor as she looks around the room in a daze. Suddenly, the young lady from the noble house runs screaming bloody murder as she attempts to attack their monstrous guards.

"I demand that you release us at once! If not, I will have all of you hanged!"

She kicks, screams, and tries to scratch one of the guards, but it was a futile effort. Before she can even land her next attack, the young lady was mercilessly punched in her stomach. She crumples on the ground while coughing up blood.

"Don't damage the merchandise," the other guard warned as he glares at him. His companion didn't listen. He kicks her again on her stomach while he threatens her.

"Just stay quiet and await your fate. But if you keep testing my patience, then I will kill you before your buyer even arrives," he growls out in anger.

He looks at the others with the same violence that could make anyone shiver in fear.

"And the same fate will befall the others."

The door slams shut, and once again, darkness reigns over them. Selene eases back on the wall as she tries to regain her strength. She still feels a bit dizzy and weak-kneed. From what Selene has heard and witnessed, she is not the only one captured by those men. There must be many of them inside this room, but she can't see anything because of the dark.

And Selene thought that she needed to make a flame. She racks her brain, trying to remember the magic spells that she was reading in her room a few days ago. However, Selene hasn't attempted making a small fire even once using her magic. She doesn't know if it will work, but she will have to try. Selene held out her palm as she tries gathering her mana from the center of her body, imagining it like a small ball of lights gathering together, creating a ball of fire, and traveling outside and to her palm. The first few steps were easy; maintaining it is hard. It feels like it wasn't enough, and the fire didn't even manifest. She can almost hear Vladimir making disapproving sounds.

How does one even make a fire? Selene squeezes her eyes and tries to connect with her surroundings. A flame is a combination of water vapor, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen that can even be found in indoor air. Like what she did when she was healing someone, she just needed to imagine it like a process. By borrowing the elements in her environment and fuse it with her mana, it might ramp up her spell. And once she did, Selene felt the mana inside her body and from her surroundings respond dramatically.

"Igniem Rascitus," Selene whispers in a barely inaudible breath. In just an instant, a massive fireball appears on her palm, lightning up the whole room. Selene gasps in surprise, along with the others. She still couldn't help but be dumbfounded by what she can do. She lets out a nervous laugh.

Contrary to what Selene imagined, the fireball is so large that it could attract attention from outside. Selene tried to decrease its size, but she could barely control it. She really sucks at this. When she turns her gaze towards others, Selene bore witness to the shock expression on the women's faces illuminated against the light. She feels the same way, even if it's her own doing. Upon closer inspection, there were around fifteen of them inside. All are young women, probably from ages thirteen to early twenties.

"You can use magic? Are you a magician?" one of the girls asks in fascination.

"Can you get us out of here?" the other one asks with desperation in her voice.

"A total beginner," Selene mutters weakly. She could barely keep up the minimum size of her fireball. She's afraid that she might roast the others alive if she couldn't control her magic.

"Is there a torch or a wood inside this room that we can use? I'm afraid I won't be able to keep this up," she added as sweat trickles down the side of her face.

One of the women with pale-colored hair grabs something from her back before she stands up and walks towards her. She's holding a battered torch. When she finally managed to light the torch, Selene immediately extinguishes the volatile magic on her hands. Afterward, Selene's gaze went back to examine the other girls. True enough, from what she heard before she ultimately passed out, their abductors are explicitly looking for someone because all the girls inside, including her, share some kind of resemblance.

They almost share the same shade of pale hair though most of the girls inside have flaxen-colored hair and ginger-colored eyes that are unlike her silver-bluish hair and red-orange ones. What exactly is happening here? Why are they looking for young women like them? Based on what she had gathered, she can only speculate that they are either looking for a specific person, or the buyer must be some kind of pervert who has a thing for fair-haired young women.

"Have you heard of anything before being abducted? Like some suspicious person hanging around the place and abducting young women?" Selene asks around. However, her question is answered with silence, and almost everyone shakes their head in unison.

Selene sighs in frustration. There are too many of them, and although she is confident that she can get herself out, Selene is not sure whether she can also help others. If not, does Selene have the heart to leave everyone behind? Carol and Cessair must be probably worried right now, and the Marchioness must have already known that she's missing. And Kaden, he must be furious. He had repeatedly warned her not to go out without an escort, and yet she did precisely that.

Selene only regained consciousness when she's already being carried inside a dark building. She has no idea where she is or how long she has been missing. A few minutes pass when a lone girl from the corner of the room speaks up. She's small and young that she must probably a few years younger than her.

"I've heard something on the streets. They said that some men are looking for a young girl. The description indicates that her hair is the same color as the moon, and eyes burn like the sun. When Mama learned about it, she told me to stay in the house, but I didn't listen. I should have listened to her," she whispers in a trembling voice. The young girl hugs her body in a tight ball that makes her even smaller. She can't even think twice about leaving them behind like this!

Besides, Selene felt a sense of déjà vu. Why does her description feel familiar? It's the same things Zeno said to her before he abducted her. "Do you know who those men are?"

The young girl shakes her head. "I didn't see their faces, but I just know that they're not from this place. Those men smell different. They must be foreigners."

The girl holding the torch from earlier looks at her intensely as she examines her from head to toe. For some reason, Selene is almost afraid to hear what she's thinking.

"If what the girl said has some truth in it, then they must have mistaken us for someone else. No matter how I look at it, I have straw-colored hair, and my eyes are light brown that it sometimes looks gold when the lights hit it. Almost everybody here shares the same physical traits except…for you.," she announces matter-of-factly without taking her eyes off her. Selene shivers in response, and she can feel her heart beating erratically.

From then on, the other girls start whispering with one another while surreptitiously looking in her direction. At the same time, the others look at her like they're blaming her. Selene's shoulder slumps because of the sudden turn of events. That just backfired.

"Ughh! I should have kept my mouth shut," Selene murmurs to herself. She's actually thinking the same thing, so she can't find the urge to have a freaking retort! She somehow understands why they're acting that way; it is their life that is on the line here!

"Your hair glows like bluish-grey and liquid silver while your eyes are a combination of crimson and gold. You also seem like not a normal person. Aren't you the one who they're looking for?"

If she really is the one they are looking for, then that makes her partly responsible. However, who would start kidnapping girls in their freaking right mind if they are only looking for specific someone? That person must be psycho for doing something so outright selfish and crazy. Before Selene can even muster the courage to answer her question, she heard footsteps getting nearer to the room's direction. Suddenly, the bolts from outside have been lifted, and the door opens. And, this time, four monstrous men are hanging around the doorway.

"It looks like you don't have to wait for long. Your buyer is here," the man from earlier informed them with a sinister grin on his lips. He motions for the others to go inside, and they start filing inside one by one. They forcefully drag them outside, and they are being escorted into god knows where. They pass along a dark hallway before turning right and taking the stairs that will take them outside their underground prison.

Selene squeezes her eyes shut when a blinding light greeted them upon opening the door at the top of the stairs. And when she opened her eyes again, they are inside a large and luxurious well-lit room with three appropriately dressed gentlemen waiting for them inside, and Selene instantly recognizes one of them. It's the blonde knight from the Coliseum.

Even without his master's presence inside the room, Selene's mind is suddenly filled with the image of the Emperor and the sound of his voice rattling her fake calm demeanor that she's trying hard to project. And it's as if the Gods are not satisfied tormenting her, flashes of images that haunt her every night resurfaces. The only difference right now is that the snippet of dreams that unfolds before her are much clearer that she can now see the young boy bears a striking resemblance to the man she met in the Coliseum.

The gears inside Selene's mind shift until all the pieces fit together, and the realizations slam into her like a freight train. Selene felt her insides twist with shock and unbearable pain. The blood rushes up to her head, and she feels light-headed.

"I promise you that I will come back to get you. Please, don't forget me. Because you're mine," the same familiar voice whispers in her ear. However, this time, it sounded deeper and much older.

Selene painfully wheezes while she fights back her tears. What are the coincidences that she will find the person she's looking for in this world? The very person who's telling her to remember their promise?

In her dreams, the young Emperor was locked up inside a dark prison where a beast resides. And it's also the same young boy running inside a dark forest barefoot while being chased by a pack of hound dogs, and when he was pushed off the cliff, he almost drowned.

And there is that scene with the two of them in the balcony, and when they were huddled inside a dark room talking about how they wouldn't want the night to end.

And despite remembering those, Selene still thinks that she didn't remember everything yet. She doesn't even know the name of the boy!

"This is goddamn crazy!" Selene mutters loudly, suddenly feeling overwhelmed by her emotions and not caring one bit about her spectators.