Arc 8.19

As we woke up and got the news of Rasartine's unconditional surrender, we rushed outside, where we saw people leaving. Stopping someone who was running away, I ask, "What happened to the soldiers?"

"They fled the moment they got the news, so all of us can leave. You better hurry, who knows when the Gevurah soldiers will be here."

Turning to my wife, I say, "Let's go."

"Right."

Running back to our carriage, we immediately made to leave. While holding the reins of our carriage, I feel incredibly tense, but beside me, my wife says, "It will be ok."

Riding down the road, I see a young woman lying on the floor and scream, "Help me!"

"Yamal, we need to stop over there!"

Gritting my teeth, I say, "No, we have to keep riding, every second is precious, we can't afford to waste time."

Forcefully taking the reins from me, my wife stops the carriage. Jumping out, she goes to help the woman as I scream, "Tarina, what the hell are you doing!"

"Shut up, you big cry-baby. If we were to leave her, you would just end up sad later, and I don't feel like dealing with that, BLEH!"

"Every second is precio-."

"Then stop complaining and help me, Yamal."

Begrudgingly, I run over to them, and I see that the woman is crying and has a broken leg. As we take her to the back of the carriage, she tearfully says, "Thank you, thank you. I am so sorry."

"No worries, just hurry up."

As I load her onto the back of the carriage, my wife says, "I will go sit and bandage her leg."

"Ok, but just so you know, I won't be able to ride gently."

"I know, go as fast as you can."

Returning to my seat, I make the horse move at full strength while saying, "I know I am being demanding of you, but please, I need your help."

We continue down the road for about 10 minutes, but I hear something far away as we are about to exit the forest, so I draw to a halt.

From the back, I hear, "Yamal, what's the problem?"

"Don't worry, I just want to check something."

Jumping off the carriage, I run over to the exit of the forest and in the distance, I see a group of soldiers tying up people. "That flag isn't from Rasartine, those soldiers are from Gevurah."

Running back to the carriage, I scream, "Tarina!"

Walking out, she says, "Yamal?"

Grabbing her hands, I say, "You told me to rely on you in this marriage."

Confused, she says, "Yes, I did."

"So I need you to do something for me, up ahead of us are soldiers, so I need you to-."

"I REFUSE!"

"Tarina, be reasonable."

"No, I didn't marry you just so I would abandon you at such important moments. One body takes on everything together, so I refuse I need you to follow me."

With the calm yet serious voice I have ever had in my life, I say, "Tarina, please listen. I am going to serve as a distraction while you ride the other way."

"No, let's both go, there is a chance we can both escape."

"Some soldiers were heading this way, so I need to route them all away. It will increase your chances of escape."

"Yamal, I can't let you die."

"Don't worry, Tarina, there is a zero percent chance I will die."

With tears, she says, "But, but."

"Don't cry, darling, please just trust me, I know I can handle myself, and don't you have a dependent in the carriage back there? You need to make sure she escapes as well."

Getting herself under control, she says, "I trust you, Yamal, so you better come back to me, otherwise I will never forgive you." Then I get a big kiss on my lips.

"I swear on my life."

From the carriages, I take one of the horses, and I jump on its back saying, "Good luc,k darling."

"And my god be with you, darling."

Hearing this, I ride off down the road as Tarina goes in another direction. While I ride off at full speed behind me, I see behind me soldiers riding on what looks to be a lionlike wonderbeast, and then above me, I see arrows.

Manoeuvring with my house, I dodge the arrows, and as I do, excitement fills my soul. Running away from bad guys on my trusty steed as arrows rain down on me so I can protect my treasure. This is what being an adventurer is like!

Riding the horse as fast as I can, I continue my fantasy in my head, but soon I am knocked off my horse and caught. While restrained, I am dragged back to the remaining soldiers who say, "Looks like we caught another good one; the boss will be happy."

"We'd better hurry before any of the other armies find us."

"Knock the men out, it makes it easier to take them."

"Then let's start with this annoying pest here."

Feeling a force on the back of my head, I fall unconscious.

-Break-

As a cold sensation washes over me, I open my eyes to see that I am naked and surrounded by a bunch of other naked people, males and females of all ages.

We are all in what looks to be a dark grey blocky area, and in front of us as men dousing us in water. As one of the children beside me screams, "It's too cold!"

One of the men says, "SHUT THE FUCK UP."

As the kid starts crying, the man says, "Looks like I need to teach you a lesson, little."

Walking up to the kid, he grabs her as she screams, "Stop."

Seeing this, I stand up and say, "What the he-."

But I am hit away. "Piss off, you can get a turn later."

As the girl continues to scream, I try to get up, but I spit up blood. That punch was strong; it must have been spirit arts. This is bad, I can't let this happen.

"Now what the hell are you doing?"

Turning around, the man who picked up the girl looks frightened as he stares at a smaller man behind him. Bowing, he says, "2nd seat Tiburcio." As he bows, the man shakes uncontrollably.

With a friendly smile, the man named Tiburcio says, "No need to be scared, all I want is an answer to my question, so what were you doing?"

"I-I-I-I was just going to punish this brat for being excessively noisy."

Walking over to me, Tiburcio asks, "Are you ok?"

His friendly aura catches me off guard, so I respond with, "Not really, my face hurts."

Looking at my face, Tiburcio says energetically, "My god, what the hell your face is hella bruised." Turning to the man, he says, "Hey, don't hit this man so hard next time."

"Yes, boss."

"You hear that, looks like you won't be getting hit so bad next time."

What he says indicates he isn't angry at the fact I was hit, but at the intensity. Despite realising this, his infectious aura causes me to say, "Thank you."

"Don't worry about it, black brothers like us need to stand as one." Getting up, he walks over to the man while saying, "Now back to business."

Standing in front of him, he says, "What's your name?"

"Draken," he says while shivering.

"Calm down, Draken, all that shivering is making me feel very uncomfortable. I just want to have a talk as friends."

With his nerves calming, Draken says, "Yes, sir."

"Draken, do you know how much an 8-year-old virgin goes for?"

"Not reall-."

Before he can finish, Tiburcio backhands him in the face so hard he flies into the wall to my right. Looking at his body on the wall, I see a large blood splatter, it is almost like his body exploded on impact, he's dead.

"Oops, sorry about that, looks like I was still angry at you for harming my brother over there." Turning around, Tiburcio faces all the other guards and says, "The sale of that single girl could buy me 10 times the men currently here and also allow me to pay each one of them a higher salary than all of you. DON'T TOUCH THE FUCKING MERCHANDISE!"

With fright, they all say, "YES SIR!"

Pointing to one of the men, he says, "Now chair."

"I will go get one, sir."

"You misunderstand, you become my chair."

With a nervous seriousness, the man runs towards Tiburcio and goes on his knees to sit on a chair. Sitting on the man. Tiburcio faces us and says with energy, "Hi, guys!!"

Not a single one of us responds, so Tiburcio says, "I am going to try that again, and I want all of you to know anyone who doesn't respond might end up looking like jam. So, for a second time, HI GUYS!"

Frightened, we all say, "Hi Tiburcio."

"See, even when you're in hell, you should make sure to keep your manners. Now, as of the last few hours, Rasartine has been conqueror by Gevurah, and because of that, all citizens and residents of Rasartine are allowed to join our lovely kingdom of Religious indoctrination, Gevurah or leave and be on your way!"

Around the room, I feel all the people light up with hope, but as I feel it reach its maximum, Tiburcio says, "Well, at least that is what would have happened if you were caught by any of the normal armies. But you all lucked out and were found by my boss's army, and you see my boss loves to profit, so he commands us to kidnap refugees to turn into slaves outside of anyone's watch."

Someone in the room screams, "There are way too many of us here; someone will notice that the number of people who left the kingdom was too few."

"Righto, but we have already accounted for that. All your possessions were burned along with fake bodies, so as far as the world is concerned, we just butchered you all. Of course, our boss will get in trouble with the higher-ups for this massacre, but he is too important to face any serious punishments."

Getting up from his chair, he says, "SO, let's all work our hardest to make as much money as possible. Now, boys take them away."

From that day on, I was kept in a cage and maltreated every day. We were beaten, insulted, and our food was messed with; they basically did everything except what would kill us.

Some of us were exempt from this treatment; it was high-end individuals who would sell for much more than old, ugly men like me. Whenever I saw these people, I had envy for them, but that was soon replaced by pity.

On the days when we were all lined up to be bought, it was always those people who were taken, but what was worse than that was that it was always women or young children. You could see the horror in their eyes when they were taken. My mind could barely handle the sound of their crying and screaming, not to be taken.

Every day, I fought against physical and mental battles in this place, but one thing kept me going throughout it all: my promise to Tarina. I swore to God I would see her again, and even if it kills me, I will do it, and besides, I need to have sex again.

Getting punched in the face, one of the guards says, "What the hell are you smiling about?"

"Thinking about my beautiful wife and how soft her skin felt."

Hitting me again, he says, "I guess that is the best a slave like you can do, especially since you will never see her again."

"Sorry about that, I was being rude. You have obviously never experienced the wonder of a woman wanting to have sex with you, so I shouldn't have brought it up." Bowing, I say, "Sorry, my man."

As the men behind him start giggling, he says, "You're dead, you bastard!"

Suddenly, chains come and rip the man's hand off. "I am sorry, but don't you touch another hair on that man's head."

Looking out my broken cage door, I see a beautiful young man with gold hair which has some black in it. As he walks over to me, I say, "Who the hell are you?"

Stuffing an apple in my mouth, he says, "A man who won't ever let you be abused again."