Chapter 27
It’s only a week left till I leave this place. I have managed to do everything I could for now. I’ve also assigned every one of the Pillars a duty to accomplish on the period I’m gone. Sigh, to think I’m sixteen already. Thinking back, a lot has changed. I still can remember sitting next to Gram whilst she was in her coma.
And now, I have more than five hundred soldiers under me. I should probably come up with a name for them too. I can’t keep calling them guards. Maybe creating different units for them will suffice. Sigh, names. I hate them. I’ll let Abaddon deal with it. I wonder what I should do today. I haven’t had a day where I was free. Should I go to Stacy? Nah, I already went last week. She was glued to me asking a lot of questions. I ended up staying with her for the entire day going over alchemy.
What about Ruri? The poor girl always jolts when I greet her as if I jump scare her. She’s been training diligently too. I gave Michael the role of teaching her for the time being. The guards have also improved a lot in their training. I guess having them conquer the dungeons was a good call. I had the other four hundred challenge them too just like the Old and New teams.
The greenies are doing well too. Maybe a little too well. Blue seems to have forgotten what I’m capable of. I should probably let Gaia train them again. He was quite well behaved at the time Gaia was training them.
Sigh, it feels weird to have time like this on my hand. I’ll take a walk around the forest for now.
I go on my walk through the woods.
The air in this world is fantastic. Everywhere you go, fresh air follows. I’ll have to make sure this doesn’t change when this world advances.
“Sire. Do you have time to talk?”
Oh, Megalot. What’s the problem?
“It seems like we have intruders. Four beastmen girls are being chased towards the forest by humans. Should I destroy them?”
No. I’ll handle it. I don’t have anything to do anyways.
Megalot is a golem I created. Of course, he isn’t your typical golem. Usually, golems are unintelligent creatures that don’t even talk. Their role is to follow orders, nothing more. I created his soul the same way I created the Pillars. Of course, he isn’t as strong as the Pillars, but I doubt anyone can defeat him easily. Well, I guess someone could defeat him, but that person would have to be as strong as Cinnamon otherwise they’d lose badly.
I teleport to the position Megalot was telling me about.
I see the four girls. They have cat-like ears and black hair. Their tails aren’t as fluffy as Ruri. In fact, their tails are like actual cats, long and solid. They are wearing tattered clothes. Clothes that would define what slaves would wear.
Are they cat beastmen?
Yeah, they are probably from the Black Cat Tribe. The Black Cat Tribe is one of the strongest tribes in the beastmen world. They are also the tribe that led the beastmen in the human-beastmen-elven war alongside the White Wolves Tribe.
Human-beastmen-elven war? What’s with the long ass name? Anyways, if they are that powerful, then why are they running away? Can’t they just fight back?
After the war a thousand of years ago, the beastmen race’s number was significantly dwindled from millions to a few thousands. Because they had lost the war, they were hunted down and turned into slaves. And the Black Cat Tribe was the first to go down. Now, they are reduced to nothing.
I see. So, they are slaves?
Probably. Looking at the men chasing them, I would think so.
Sigh, I guess I’ll save them.
Wait!
What?
Can we like, wait for a bit.
Why?
I think it would be cool if you make a superhero arrival. Imagine it. They are about to be taken back by the cruel men. And then you show up like bam, boom, pow. And then you beat the crap out of them.
What the heck type of movies have you been watching?
Well, you have some good movies in your mindscape so...
I should’ve told Athena that she shouldn’t have given me anything entertainment related. Now, you spend the whole day doing nothing but watch stupid movies.
Oh, come. Please. We never do anything fun. Actually, how about you give me the body to control.
No way in hell. You might ruin my image if I have you control my body.
You’re no fun.
Sigh, fine. I’ll wait till the last second.
Oh, and can you also say what I tell you.
Nope.
Please. Please. Please. Please. Please.
Fine, stop making noise in my head. But if it’s something weird, I won’t.
I hide at the top of the tree and watch them.
***
“Crazy girls. Get back here.” Shouts one of the pursuers.
There are five of them and they are wielding swords. One of the girls’ trips and falls hard on the ground. It seems she’s the youngest.
“Shelly.” Says one of the beast girls as she stops to pick up the little girl.
The pursuers manage to catch up to them in that split second, catching them.
“Bunch of crazy girls. Did you think you could run from us, huh?” says one of the men as he slaps one of the girls.
The slapped girl stands right back up and glares at the man. The man got frightened by her stare and orders the other four to beat her. The other four man follow the order and start pounding the cat girl.
“Stop! Stop beating Cat.” Shouts the little girl, Shelly, at the men. The other beast girl pulls Shelly to her arms and closes her mouth.
“Tsk, you little runt. I better beat you too.” Says the man as he looks at Shelly’s direction.
“Stop. Leave them out of this.” Speaks Cat, the beast girl who is being beaten. “You can hit me as much as you want. Leave them out of this.”
The man laughs as he slaps Cat on the face sending her crashing down.
The other beast girl who is standing on the side gets angry as she jumps and punches the man in the face.
The man goes crashing down.
Those two girls are quite fierce. One is built like an iron wall. No matter how many times those guys beat her, she isn’t showing any signs of feeling pain. The other girl who just punched the guy in the face is also something. She didn’t hesitate at all as she punched him. I might have found some talents here.
“Damn bitch. Hey you guys, kill her.” orders the man as he points at the girl who just punched him.
“No, don’t.” shouts Cat as she tackles one of the men to the ground.
The other men then charge at the girl and swing their swords, doing as they were commanded.
“Nooo.” Shouts Shelly as tears fill her eyes.
Sigh, I guess that’s my que right, Ray?
Yep.
I appear in front of the two men and block their swords with my hands.
“And you call that a swing.”
They are all shocked but with a blink’s length of time, their heads are flying up in the air. Three people’s heads land as their bodies thud the ground.
Two remaining. Now, which one should I take care of? Cat girl seems to be fine but I guess I should help.
I stretch out my hand toward them and speak.
“Gravity control: gravitational pull.”
The man wrestling with the cat girl on the ground is pulled towards me as I cut him in half with my mana blade.
Now, one remaining.
“Hey, wait. Please don’t kill me. I’ll give you whatever you want.” Says the man in tears.
A line every bad guy says when they are about to die.
Oh, this is perfect. Say “you couldn’t afford me even if you offered me your life”.
What?! What the hell does that even mean.
Come on. You said you’d do it. Say it in a cool way too.
I regret my choices.
“Sigh. You couldn’t even afford me even if you offered me your life.”
“What?! What does that even mean?”
I know right.
“Fireball.”
A fireball appears in thin air as it burns him. He screams out as his flesh is seared leaving nothing but charred bones.
Done.
Oh, kid. This is perfect. Look at them. They are surprised by your power. Now turn and face the little girl and ask her if she is alright.
Which movie did you watch?
Just do it.
Sigh, I swear to God…
I then turn like Ray has instructed and face the little girl. With a subtle smile, I ask-
“Are you alright? You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
Argh, I feel weird.
“Um, yes. Thank you.” Says the little girl mesmerized by my eyes.
“You are safe now. You don’t need to worry.”
“Um, big brother. Could you please save the others like me? They have been captured by the bad men.” pleads Shelly.
“Shelly!” shouts the girl who is holding her as she closes her mouth.
This is what you get when you’re nice to people.
The cat girl, Cat, stands up from the ground, bruised and limping.
“Thank you, sir, for saving us. Please ignore what this girl said.”
She is probably the oldest one out of the three.
“You’re hurt. Heal.”
I cast heal and her wounds are completely healed. She is astonished.
“Don’t worry. I’ll go save the people you’re talking about.”
“It’s better if you don’t sir.” Says Cat.
Why is she stopping me?
“We are going back. The only reason we escaped to begin with was to let Shelly break free from those guys. So, sir please take care of Shelly in our stead.”
What the heck? Aren’t they free? Why would they want to go back?
Look closely, kid. Look at their mana.
Hmm, now that you mention it, it seems corrupted somehow.
Sigh, poor girls.
What do you mean, Ray?
They have been branded with a slave mark. All three of them. Having a slave mark means no matter where you go, as long as the person who imprinted that slave mark or the owner of the contract is still alive then you’ll never be free. The little girl named Shelly doesn’t have one, which means they were probably thinking of sacrificing their lives for her.
I see. That’s why Cat didn’t want me to go save the others. But I think I might be able to lift the mark though.
Really, kid. A slave mark can’t be lifted and is considered permanent. That’s why only the worst of criminals get branded with a slave mark.
I read one book that talked about curses in the Phantom thief’s loot. If I’m not wrong, slave marks are created via curses. Even though it is considered impossible to lift curses, I can. But the mark will remain. Since it’s also engraved in the skin straight to the muscle tissues, even if I cut that part of then healed, it wouldn’t disappear.
Common sense doesn’t work on you now does it?
Is that a compliment?
“Planning to sacrifice yourselves for the little girl. That’s commendable.” I speak.
The cat girls are shocked. Only Shelly is confused.
“You don’t need to worry. You are okay now since you entered my domain. Abaddon.”
Abaddon appears from the shadows.
“Yes, my lord.”
“Take these girls back to the castle and have them cleaned up and fed. I’ll be going to take care of something.”
“Yes, my liege.”
I teleport.
***
Outside the forest.
Now, where are they? They shouldn’t be far. Ray.
On it.
I activate my magic sense which covers the entire area.
The speed of the growth of my powers is scary. My power increases day by day without my control. If I were to compare myself to when I fought the Demon Lord, then I would say I’m about twice as strong. No, three times. Right now, even if the Demon Lord would come at me at full strength, he wouldn’t be able to even touch me.
Found them.
I teleport to the location.
There, three prison carriages holding twenty beastmen each are waiting by the side of the road.
Sigh, time to go to work.