Swan Hunter(3)

It was a teen. It was a young girl, around my age, with white hair and an oval face. Her facial features were scrunched up, enough to arise the pity of anyone the saw them.

Now, this... was a grand problem. Because I couldn't just pack her in a bag and carry her across vast Kingdoms, one of which had even prohibited the slave trade.

And so I needed to ensure that she wasn't harmed, she wasn't rescued, or she wasn't so miserable as thirsty passerbys kept appearing to save her.

In addition, to stop her from screaming and appearing miserable in dangerous public places, I needed to threaten her just enough.

I thought of refusing this job countless times during the time it took for her to flutter her eyes open and look at me with confusion.

Now, after all that training to be a warrior, I was already 180cm tall, enough to tower over her with a dominating presence.

It must have been quite scary for her because I saw her flinch and subconsciously back away.

Then, when the realization that she was kidnapped set in, her gaze also contained some anger and disgust.

I wasn't swayed by her looks or pity-arousing expressions. She wasn't one of those that had me kicked out of the academy without even taking any blame, but I projected my insecurities onto her, which only made my presence scarier to her.

"W-Who are you?" She asked timidly, still taking a defensive stance as if she was afraid that I'll pounce on her and devour her.

Sigh, too bad bro, I only know of a single way to threaten people.

PA~

The sound of a crisp slap rang in the quiet background. Her right cheek had 5 distinct fingers printed on it, a little bit of blood was also dripping from the sides of her mouth.

She was also wearing some mana restricting apparatus and therefore even if she was an Archmage, I had the power to rule over her and order her around with force.

She held her tears in shut up after that, but I wasn't a threatening presence in a den of bandits for nothing.

PA~

Her left cheek also had 5 fingerprints plastered on it. The blood dripping from her mouth also increased in volume. This time even if she wanted to, her body wouldn't allow her to stop shedding those tears.

Along with the pain was also the panic, uncertainty, and fear of being in an unknown and dreadful situation like this that she wanted to shed out along with her tears.

After those two slaps, it was finally my turn to threaten her good,

"Life is unfair, right? Why were YOU, of all people, chosen to be kidnapped? Why were YOU, most probably the jewel of everyone's eyes, now in such a miserable state?

Let me tell you, this... is only the start. Your journey as a slave needs you to go through hell and the remaining hope and pride seeped deep within your bones and heart will be forced out by nasty and disgusting people in ways you can't even imagine.

In the future, you would have a lot of chances to embrace the sweet release of despair, but all that despairing future is a thing of the future. As I stand before you today, I need to ensure that you would keep your mouth shut in the long journey I'm about to take you to.

If you can promise me that, I can also give you a chance to take your fate into your hands when meeting the slave trainer, and if you dare to cause any trouble. If you screamed or looked pitifully at the wanderers and called identity into question..."

I yanked her hair and forced her to look straight into my eyes as I whispered, "I'll make you wish for death... and sanity."

The body of that girl shivered in response to my words.

I pulled her hair again and asked, "Do you understand?"

Tears trickled down from the corner of her eyes and mixed in with the blood dripping from the corner of her lips.

I saw this pitiful sight and slapped her again.

And so began our adventurous journey, a supposedly low-key one.

I thought long and hard about everything since I wanted everything to be perfect but I made a fatal mistake. I underestimated the allure which her looks would cause.

Since I had kindly told her to avoid looking pitiful and tearful, she permanently had a stiff smile plastered on her face.

Even then, I was still able to hear the whispers of 'toad eating the swan's meat' from some of the passers while the other ones also gave us peculiar looks.

How was this long journey supposed to be uneventful like that?

I looked over my shoulders and saw the flawlessly smiling 'swan' and thought of ways I could make her look unnoticeable.

I could paint her face with mud and sh*t, or I could cover her face with a long and thick veil, but a muddy face would be rescued by some thirsty righteous heroes and veiled face would enhance her sense of mystery, which would attract even more 'toads'.

Hmm, I could also mutilate her face, cut her nose, or something, but that would degrade me even further mentally.

As I was considering all this, the girl sitting behind me shrank back again when she felt my gaze.

She was quite perceptive, eh.