The ignored and excluded 9.3

(Sigh.) 'Do you remember now?' (Oh? I'm dreaming again. No, I don't remember.) 'The world will make you remember, and when you do... The cycle will end.' (Cool.) '...Do you remember now?' (Why do I feel that you're messing with me?) 'Me?! Messing with... Ahem, I'll come back when you remember. Goodbye, for now.' (Right... See you later.) 'We will!'

...

(Ugh... That punch really hurt.) My head is throbbing, and the pain is excruciating. "Hey, you're dead?" I hear a low voice from somewhere in front of me. I slowly open my eyes. "He is alive... Less food for us." Another voice, this time from my right.

I'm in a dark cell made out of stone. Shackles in my wrists. In front of me, an elder elf with white hair and green eyes. On my right is a female elf with blond hair and blue eyes. On my left, there were two small persons, but they were in a shadow, so I could only see their dark figures.

Besides the headache, nothing else hurt. "Where am I?" I ask the old elf. He sneers "Where else? The House. We'll be sold as slaves to the underworld. Nothing new." He spoke as if he was tired of the same thing happening over and over again.

The female elf sighs. "How old are you kid?" I look her in the eyes. "Seven. You?" Her eyes widen a little. "Mixed blood grows faster, I almost forgot. Your parents?" I shrug my shoulders. "Never met them. I've been living with someone of the Temple since birth." (Well, it's not a lie... entirely.)

The old man whistles and the woman sneers. "Your whole life in the Temple... I can't even imagine." The old man speaks first. "I'm impressed that you're alive. Why did they free you?" (Because the saintess was scared shitless, and ran away from a god in the mortal realm, that is also me.)

"I ran away, but then a big man knocked me out, and here I am." The old man gets up and goes to the other side of the cell. The sound of the shackles on the stone floor fills the room. He sits close to the two figures. "You're not the first, and for sure not the last to be hunted." The woman speaks and then, leans against the wall.

(They're quick to lose interest... But for now, let's see how can I escape this place.) I get up. Strangely, none of my muscles were stiff. I wasn't naked this time, someone had dressed me with a white towel around my waist, that go down to my knees. I just had shackles on my wrists, differently from the woman and old man, that had them on their ankles too.

I walk to the cell door. I knock on the metal door with the back of my hand. There wasn't any sound. (A spell... A good one.) I didn't see the mana, but I could feel the mana on the bars on touch. (Even if I break the spell, I can't bend the bars... Well, at least it's a start.)

With both hands, I touch the bars. I close my eyes and focus on the mana flowing in the bars. (I know how to manipulate mana to a godly degree, but I don't have the power to really do it. I'll have to train... a lot.) The spell was quite simple on its own. Three layers of mana, one for more resistance, the other for sound suppression, and another to inform the caster if the spell is forcefully broken.

I stood there analyzing the mana for hours. "What are you doing?" I feel someone pulling me from behind. I open my eyes and turn my head. A beautiful girl with green skin and ruby red hair, long enough to pass her knees. She was a little shorter than me, and she was wearing a long black shirt. But her eyes were unique. Even with her big round glasses, her emerald green eyes shone in the dim light.

(Snake kin. Pretty rare.) I stare at her in a daze. After a while, she blushed and turned around. "Training." She stops walking. "Why?" She didn't turn around. "Why? Strength comes with train or talent. I already have outstanding talent, I just need to nurture it."

She sneers. "You want to become strong to escape the hunt? Fool." She sit on the side of the old man. (I don't blame your ignorance. Let's go back to the mana flow.)