III. Bad Start

BOOM!

"S- shit!.."

Everyone in the building who saw the gory scene reacted with disgust and fear, they all reflexively shouted various curse words, some even gagged at the sight of Barfal's body, Calea herself frozed in place, she realized that Axe could definitely kill every one of them if he wanted to, it seems like escaping is not worth the risk right now.

"So that's what this collars do, Scary.." Nedu said while carefully tracing his finger against the collar.

Calea looked at her collar, it's the same as everybody else, black and a little bit tight. Strangely, all of the collar has a small chime attached to it, as if the collar told them that they're nothing more than just a pet for these so called Instructor.

'...How long– Will i be trapped here?' Calea thought as she frowned, reminiscing the time when she was still at the castle.

Just then, Axe clapped his hands again, shutting everybody down and turning their attention towards him.

"Now you see, that's what happen when you try to do something funny, i hope this will be a lesson for you, Hear that?" He said, purposefully putting more threatening tone on that last word.

Left with no choice, all of the boys in there nodded vaguely, although some still showed some reluctance on their face, they can't risk getting killed now after what happened to Barfal.

"Good, now that you've all been tamed, it's time to do some filtering, follow me shitheads." Axe said as he turned around and walked outside the wooden shack.

After a brief delay, a single boy took a step forward, his conspicuous red hair and confidence made everyone speechless, as he took another step, another boy follows him, before long, everyone in the building alongside Calea also took a step forward.

When she was about to exit through the door, Calea tried to conjure a magic spell beneath her palm, a magic circle soon appeared, yet no one noticed it, they're all too busy minding their own business, the fact that everyone were walking closely with eachother made a perfect place for secret action.

Fsshh..

'!!!!' Calea gasped in horror, thankfully it wasn't heard by anyone.

"Hm? Calea what's wrong?" Nedu asked, he saw Calea dropping a few sweats on her face.

"Ah- It's nothing, I think someone just pushed me, since its all cramped and tight in here.." Calea replied, trying to hide the fear on her face, although she said that, the truth is, she's scared because when she was about to channel her mana towards the magic circle on her hand, the collar strapped on her neck suddenly glowed faintly, although it wasn't that noticeable, Calea managed to hear its quiet fizzling noise before anything bad could happen.

'I- i was lucky— If i didn't follow my instinct to stop my magic at that moment, my head would've been gone by now..' Calea thought, 'This collar can detect mana! And once the mana it detects reaches a certain point, the explosion trigger would be activated..'

It will be stupid if she tries to cast another magic, after discovering that she can't use her talent in here, Calea's plan was completely shattered, now there's nothing else she could think of that can help her escape.

All of the boys kept walking outside, in there, they were surrounded with nothing but trees and vegetations, there was barely any sunlight as it was being covered by the dark clouds in the sky, if this goes on, rain will surely began to pour in a few hours, there is a circular open area ahead where it wasn't occupied with trees or bushes, and that place will likely be their destination, it seems like they are brought to the middle of a forest or somewhere close with a tall cliffs in the distance that could serve as an observation spot.

"We won't be killed right?"

"Sshh, if we just do what that man told us, i think we're gonna be saved."

"I miss my family..."

"All of this is ridiculous, i can't stand still, that man called Axe said we, so there must be other instructors, i'll kill all of them when i get the chance!"

"No, that plan wont work.. This plan, no– They're surely way faster than us.. Our number is approximately 60, and we don't have a weapon, so our choice is very limited, and we can't let them touch us or else our collar will explode.."

"Hey, don't you think there's someone following us from behind?"

"...Everyone have their own way of thinking." Calea said, she heard all of those voices, each of them expressing their own way of dealing with this situation.

Calea and the others then stopped after they arrived at the area, in the middle of that open field, Axe and the other instructors have waited them, there are in total 6 different instructors, each of them standing ontop of a platform slightly higher than the height of most people, they stood adjacently in a circular pattern and is wearing the same dark cloak, and at the back of that fabric is a symbol of different weapons, with Axe's cloak having the symbol of an Axe.

'...What is this, and who are they..' Calea thought, she still hadn't understand the point of all this, why do these 6 people want to make her and the others their slaves, what are their goals, and where did someone as skilled as them who was capable of kidnapping a princess appeared from, she won't be able to answer that right now.

Calea looked around, still holding on to the small hope of escaping, but it was no use, the open field was surrounded with more mysterious people in black cloak, they made sure that Calea and the others couldn't run away from this area with each of the cloaked men carrying some form of a weapon.

'—If they're a slave trader, they should've just put us in a cage, but they didn't, i don't understand..' She thought.

"Waahh, they're really scary, don't you think so? Calea." Said Nedu, as usual with his nonchalant reaction.

"Nedu— How can you be so calm.." Calea asked, confused with how Nedu's mind works.

"Hm? Ahh, probably because they don't have any intention to kill us? Unless we attack or retaliates, i don't think those instructors will harm us in any way." Nedu replied.

His words reaches Calea in an uncomfortable sense, because to her it seems like Nedu really trust those instructor to be kind to them as long as they're obedient, when in reality she knew that if all of those instructors have the same personality as Axe, they wouldn't survive even for a year.

'I have a bad feeling about this..' She thought.

Out of nowhere, when the surrounding fell silence, one of the instructor spoke towards everyone beneath him, "Congratulation, to all of you chosen one." He said, his voice sounded more high-pitched than Axe's, but it's still in the range of a middle-aged man.

"I'm sure you've all heard your situation from Axe right? Don't worry, he is not joking or playing with you, in fact, i think he underestimate some of his claims." The man said, his tone sounded sinister, like it had a hidden motives that excites him, "Ahh, before i continue, let me introduce all of you to your instructors, i assume you've seen the cloak that we're wearing, so i'll get to the point– You can address me as– Sword."

Everyone felt a little shock in their body upon hearing the instructor's identity, it seems like what they were thinking was true afterall, Sword then smirked, he knew that everyone had already catches on, so he continues..

"That's the reaction, you're all right, Sword, Axe, Spear, Dagger, Hammer, and— Scythe" He said with a big smile, "Nice to meet you, O' Chosen one."