Chp.7: The village of the ex-slaves

Having finished his work at headquarters, Haku decided to go out for a walk to clear his head. For all his life he had preferred to think while sitting or lying down, but recently he had discovered that walking was a relaxing activity and aided concentration.

He knew he would get the bigger part of the plan, since he had entrusted it himself. After all, he would never let one of his brothers take the risk. He had been working on the plan to defeat Carrion for four months, and he was sure he could win; but his opponent was still a legendary level. Even though he had already factored in every possible contingency, he couldn't stop thinking about it. It was imperative to arrive at the moment of battle ready for anything, since a single mistake could have been fatal.

Up until four months ago, he would never have even dared to think about tackling a legendary level, but now he saw it differently. His sisters had cornered Thornag and if it hadn't been for Ifrit's intervention they might have continued to wear him down to death. This proved that the legendary levels weren't invincible, quite the contrary. With cunning and intelligence they could be cut down like any other enemy. Haku just needed to play his cards right and he would win even against a powerful opponent like Carrion.

Haku had already made an inventory of all the resources available to him and, making the most of their potential, he had managed to come up with the perfect plan. Several plans, in fact, since he wasn't someone who liked to go into battle without at least three or four backup plans. However, planning in one's mind and applying that same plan in reality were two different things; in the real world, something unexpected could always happen that no one, not even a brilliant mind like Haku, could have foreseen.

Haku knew that endlessly worrying would only give him a bad headache, but he couldn't help it. Even if he tried to distract himself, he was always afraid of forgetting an important detail and therefore he would go back to review the plan to check. Maybe Kotaru was right when she said that sometimes he was a little too paranoid... if not downright delirious.

He circled the main camp as he walked, completely ignoring the soldiers. Personally, he didn't much appreciate those empty heads; though their strength and abilities were useful, and some of them even interesting, most of them only irritated him. Many of them reminded him of the ogres he had already dealt with: among them only Sarpa had seemed to him slightly smarter and more intelligent than the others, while all the others were just muscle-headed. The same applied with the soldiers in the camp. Haku was seriously beginning to feel that the newcomers' bodies have too little energy to power both muscles and brains, at least in most of them. It was in times like these that he was proud of being a dragon: at least his body allowed him to develop both intelligence and strength and he didn't have to worry about choosing between characteristics.

After passing the camp, he found himself near the small village built by the now ex-slaves, and he decided to go and have a look. He liked their company slightly more than that of the soldiers: at least they didn't think only with weapons but rather they had repeatedly demonstrated that they possessed various interesting abilities, even if they were completely powerless. So at least with them he had the opportunity to learn something new, even if it would hardly be of use to him in the future: after all, what was the use of a dragon to sew clothes, or cook food? Also, in that place there was also the only newcomer he really cared a little about, meaning Misune. Since she had led the escape and was in close contact with him, the other ex-slaves regarded her as a sort of 'leader', even though all she did was coordinate the work and talk to him when needed.

The village of the ex-slave, just like the main camp, was built of stone and wood; the walls of each house were composed of several crushed and stacked rocks, joined together by a sticky substance made from clay, and the roofs were formed of wooden beams arranged side by side. Obviously it was the dragons who built that place: the ex-slaves would never have had the strength to break stones or cut trees, at least not in such a short time. Instead the dragons had taken only a few days to finish everything. The houses hadn't been arranged with an orderly topography and the final result couldn't be defined as beautiful, but the important thing was that everyone could sleep in the heat and sheltered from any bad weather, certainly not that the village was beautiful. The dragons had also given the slaves many furs from the animals they had killed, since they didn't need them while the ex-slaves could use them to build themselves a bed, as well as several fairy and ogre clothes, obviously keeping silent about their origin. Apparently, in fact, the newcomers didn't like to wear dead people's clothes; Haku didn't understand that taboo, but after all as a dragon he couldn't make an objective judgment since he didn't wear clothes... and since dragons cared so little about respect for the dead that they ate them.

Once settled in the village, the slaves had proven their skills. Haku was right to keep them with him, even if he mainly did it exclusively as a favor for Misune. They could perform various tasks that soldiers didn't even know how to do: cooking, washing clothes and weapons, carving things out of wood, sewing new clothes, and some of them even knew something about making the weapons themselves. Furthermore, thanks to the time spent in the arena, they had learned to learn many notions very quickly: they had soon understood which fruits and plants were edible and had begun both to use them for cooking and to deliver them to him as food supplies. They had learned how to extract salt from rocks and create spices and flavours. They had learned to recognize certain materials that could be useful in sewing or washing clothes. In short, they knew how to get by. Haku was happy about it: thanks to this he didn't have to worry about the army being dissatisfied, since he could simply entrust the ex-slaves with all the tasks that the soldiers weren't able to fulfill. And even the ex-slaves were satisfied, since Haku was very generous with payments and the life they led at the moment was much better than the previous one. All in all, everyone was satisfied.

The only ones who were a little sorry were those who had an insane passion for mating (seriously, how often do newcomers go into heat!?) and who wouldn't mind using slaves for fun, but Haku had no intention to grant this since by doing so he would have betrayed Misune's trust, who among all the people present was the only one who did not want to betray (besides obviously his family). Also, he'd noticed that the happier the ex-slaves were, the faster and more efficiently they produced, so it was a good thing to keep his protection of them unchanged.

When he entered the village, the inhabitants moved to let him pass, but none of them were frightened. During the first weeks the ex-slaves, while adoring their new life and enjoying its protection, had always preferred to avoid it; they were never less than ten meters away from him, and often when he entered the village they ran to take refuge in the houses (as if he couldn't break down the doors with a punch...). However, Haku had found that newcomers adapted quickly; not only did they learn to be afraid (as he had repeatedly experienced), but they got used to his presence almost as quickly if they had a feeling of gratitude towards him. Now, though they still moved out of his way when he walked, they just moved out of his way, but didn't run into houses or hide somewhere else; and when he spoke to them, though there was a little fear in their eyes, the ancestral fear that all living creatures had of dragons seemed to have vanished. And this wasn't just for him: many of his siblings periodically approached the village, some for work reasons, others just for curiosity, and the ex-slaves seemed to have gotten used to them too, indeed once Jatara had told him that he had a pleasant conversation with some of them. Haku really struggled to understand the newcomers' mental patterns, but after all, he already struggled to understand his own emotions, so he couldn't afford to judge.

Finally he found the person he was looking for. In the center of the village there was a small clearing where several ex-slaves sat in a circle. Misune was in the center and was moving her hands in certain directions. "Therefore, the weapon fires with this trajectory, so always aim at a weak point like the neck. Don't hit areas like the rib cage instead, since in that case..."

The girl stopped as soon as she saw him. She cleared her throat and said: "Excuse me, guys, I need to confer with our worthy leader for a moment. In the meantime, practice and review the moves you learned yesterday" and having said that, she walked towards him.

Haku let out a snort. "Worthy leader?" he grumbled.

Misune shrugged. "It was supposed to be a compliment" he said. "So what brings you here, sir?"

"I just wanted to take a look" Haku replied as he watched the other ex-slaves practice throwing punches or moving some pieces of wood as if they were weapons. "You're training them well"

"Well, I try" Misune said as she scratched her hair sheepishly.

After Haku agreed to let her stay with him in the long term, Misune continued to practice self-defense. Haku occasionally, using the resources at his disposal, built her some new weapon and taught her how to use it. Also, since he knew he couldn't make her strong with his limited knowledge, he asked his sisters to teach her to use mana, since it was the only way to move to a higher level of strength, and his sisters having used bodies of newcomers for almost a year were now experts in this regard. Eventually Kotaru agreed to tutor Misune, and before long she was able to use her mana to fortify her body. Thanks to this, even with her weak physique, she had managed to reach the peak of level copper and was now on the verge of breaking through. That was good… but after a while Misune made up her mind to train the other ex-slaves to defend themselves as well. Haku didn't really appreciate the fact that she would rather waste her time like that instead of training more, but after a while he realized that Misune saw her fellow ex-slaves in a similar way to how he saw his siblings and wanted to protect them. Even though Haku didn't understand how it was possible to feel the same way for people who didn't share blood and with whom she hadn't shared many experiences of her life, he decided that he had no reason to stop her.

"Darbi is back" he told her. "I wanted to let you know because he will probably come to see you soon. You know how he is, before leaving he will at least want to say goodbye"

Misune was a little surprised by this news. "Is he back?" she repeated. "That's great news! How long will he stay?"

Of all the dragons, Darbi was the one the ex-slaves appreciated the most, as he was the one who tried most to bond with them and had made a good impression from the first moment. It was obvious that Misune was happy for his return. "He'll leave in three days" Haku answered. "And with him many others. The time for action has arrived"

Misune closed her mouth not knowing what to say, then she murmured: "Well, that's good. Finally you can keep your promise to Zamor..."

"I've already kept my promise to Zamor. I'm only helping him because our interests coincide" Haku said in an angry tone.

"Right, right" Misune said quickly. Saying that a dragon hadn't kept his promise was an extremely offensive act, and unfortunately she didn't always remember it. "Well, at least we'll get out of here soon. I'm tired of these rocks"

"Something tells me you'll miss them in the desert"

"I doubt it. It's so barren around here..."

"Really? What's better, a land filled with rocks or an expanse of perpetually sun-scorched, storm-whipped sand with dust so thick it'll practically blind you?"

"Well... fair point. Anyway, do you think Darbi will come here today?"

"I don't think so. Knowing him, he'll be busy preparing something. Tomorrow is our birthday"

Misune's eyes and mouth widened in shock at the revelation. "Tomorrow is your birthday?"

"Mine, Darbi's, Rhaegal's, Sisna's, Kotaru's and all the others. Yes" Haku replied.

Misune seemed to be almost hyperventilating. "Wow... I didn't know you had a birthday in the summer! How are you going to celebrate?"

"I think we'll just have a lunch together"

"Isn't that something you do every day?"

"Not since we started dividing tasks and staying apart for days or in Darbi's case months"

"Okay, but... don't you think you should do something more?"

"I'm not really a fan of celebrating the day I hatch my egg, Misune"

Haku didn't like remembering that moment. Though he only had brief flashes, he remembered that inside his egg he had always felt safe, protected, nurtured…at peace. Immersed in the warm yolk he had no worries. Coming into the world, where there was only fear and hardship, didn't seem to him something to celebrate.

"Well... at least let me cook something for you!" Misune exclaimed. "I mean, I can prepare you a lot of meat and..."

"You know that we dragons prefer raw meat. Thank you for your concern, but no" Haku stopped her immediately, but then, noticing her puppy eyes, he decided to give her a little satisfaction: "But if you want, you can try preparing us something drink that isn't simple water"

Misune's face seemed to glow. "Okay! I'll let you taste an excellent infusion of tea!"

"What's the tea?" Haku asked, but the girl had already run away heading towards the kitchen. "Hey! Did you forget you were teaching to your comrades?"