In The Darkness

A Slave Accepted

As I looked at the sobbing adventurer, something about her, mentally attracted me. As she approached closer, her long pink hair flew in the wind. Even though she was crying and her face looked slightly pale, she was still far too beautiful. If I were to compare her beauty to anything, it would be to the beautiful pale moon.

While looking at her, I noticed that a tear had made its way down to my mask. Why was I crying? A second later as I wiped my tear, a set of memories flooded my brain in the form of pictures. In some, I could see a blonde elven girl die, and in others, I could see blood trickling down my face as I faced a strong gold-armoured demon. I moved to the side for a moment and pressed my head to relieve myself of these weird set of images that popped in my mind. During this time, the girl's father stood up on his frail legs and yelled while sobbing, "Alisa!!"

The girl jumped off her horse and tightly hugged her father. To this, the slave said, "Thank God you're alive!!" and put his arms around his daughter. A while later, the girl supposedly named Alisa, let go of her old father and bowed down towards me. In a thankful, sobbing tone, she spoke, "Thank you for saving my father. You... *sob* don't know what this means to me. Thank you."

Instinctively, I spoke the words "Arise." instead of 'It's alright.' The adventurer stood up straight and jumped on me to supposedly thank me. But before she could hug me and cover my suit in her snot, I stopped her by holding her head away. During this time, she rampantly spoke while sobbing, "Thank you so much...*sob*... you made..*sob* my day..I can't thank you en-"

I could understand that she was emotional after meeting her father, but it was no reason to behave like a child just to thank me. Was she drunk? Before she finished talking, I interrupted her to say, "Silence. I do not wish to hear more."

Seemingly the sobbing girl now stopped, completely. She fell on the grass and started murmuring further inaudible praise as she laid down with her eyes closed and her red cheeks moving slightly as she murmured, "Father....back....thank you...."

In that moment, I realised two things. One, that she was in fact drunk, presumably to hold in her sadness. Second, no matter how beautiful a portrait, it can easily be ruined by a single line. A minute ago, she seemed to look as beauteous as the moon even though she was sobbing, however now as she laid on the ground murmuring, a zombie would be the most apt description of her in her state. However, her beauty wasn't what attracted me to her. It was something else. It felt as if I knew her before, like I had spent time with her. Yet at the same time, since the day I've breathed, I don't remember seeing a lady even similar to her. I shrugged my head and looked towards her father.

"Previously, you disobeyed my order for your own selfish cause, and thus, from that incident, I determined that you were no use as a slave. Right at that moment I was about to kill you. If your daughter hadn't intervened, you would have been dead by now. The only reason I spared you was because I realised you have a family. And now that I have spared you, I shall not go against my decision a second time. Is that understood, SLAVE?"

The old man with a frail body who previously served the Regas family as a slave, understood what I meant. He knelt down understanding that I had accepted him as my slave and spoke, "Yes master."

I had appointed the old man as a slave for a reason. Being a Rank F adventurer, I could not explain the series of events that had taken place in this forest. If I would tell Sasha or Dave about the sabre-toothed tigers I killed, they would indefinitely be suspicious of my true identity. Thus to keep the guise of being an adventurer who slowly rose to power, I would tell them that my current slave was responsible for the string of events and for the deaths of the sabre-toothed tigers. That way, I would reap the benefits through my slave without gaining the unnecessary credit. Then again, I could just leave these tigers to rot, however, I believe that would arouse more suspicion about who I truly am. If anyone would witness the sight of dead sabre-toothed tigers and investigate the incidents, they would find their way to me.

After the slave spoke, I replied, "Arise. From this day forth, you shall be my possession. Any order that I shall give you, should be obeyed. Any advice that I tell you, should be taken. If not, then you shall perish into ashes and even the Gods won't be able enough to identify your soul."

After standing back on his feet, the old man bent down slightly and placed his right hand on his chest. "After obtaining the freedom from my previous master, I am now in you debt. I shall do everything in my power to obey young master. That is my pledge to the young master."

"Good. Then as your master, my first order for you, is to kill your own daughter. She stands as a hindrance. She has discovered my true powers and could be a possible threat to me in the future."

The old man hesitated. His hands shook as he heard the words a father never should. With his trembling hands and his frightened expression, the tears that rained from his eyes were both of anger and sadness. From his expression, I could determine that he was thinking of all the possible ways to disobey my order. Secondly, I presume he must be wondering about how such a situation was brought up in a moment's notice. He had pledged to serve me with all his heart and at the same time, the order I had told him to fulfil was going against his very existence.

After sighing roughly, he spoke, "I...I shall do as the young master says. I...I... shall... kill.... my own...daughter." Subsequent to this, more tears flooded his eyes as he walked towards his daughter with his shaky legs.

Just as he was about to choke his own daughter, I interrupted him, "Stop. I had no intention of killing you or your daughter. This was simply a test. Be proud slave, even though you failed the previous test you've passed this one. Congratulations, you are now truly my slave."

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1. It'll take a while to understand what the pictures in his head truly were. At around chapter 20, I think it'll be a bit more clearer.

2. Other species exist in this world but on smaller islands. Whenever Andres talked about conquering the world he meant so by conquering more than half the land on the planet which comprised of demon folk and humans. Uniting the two great warring races on this planet was his perception of maintaining peace.

3. The order Andres was talking about when talking to the slave, was the incident when the slave refused to obey what he stated. He previously told the slave to leave to test the slave's obedience. Though he was controlled by anger, he was still rightful in his decision. Such is the prowess of a King.