7
According to the legend of Hoshin of the Wasteland, there was a tale of a fortress liberated without a single drop of blood shed.
According to legend, Hoshin infiltrated the enemy stronghold alone and, using nothing but his eloquent words, convinced the leader of the garrison to pledge allegiance to him. Then, he flung the gates open, rescued his comrades, and secured victory.
There were many theories about how he sneaked inside in the first place.
Some said he boldly pounded at the front gate, others claimed he hid in a wagon of cargo, and some even believed he pretended to be a corpse and scared the soldiers witless.
But no matter how he got inside, every version of the tale agreed on one thing—Hoshin freed everyone without bloodshed and saved the tiny nation of Kararagi. From that moment on, his legend began.
Using that victory as a foothold, he plunged into the raging conflict between the warring city-states and would eventually found the modern nation of Kararagi.
With that anecdote lingering in her mind, Anastasia once again found herself awed by the extraordinary figure of Hoshin.
To infiltrate an enemy fortress alone…how much courage and calculation that must have taken. Hoshin was no warrior. He was famous for having no combat ability whatsoever. His tongue was his only weapon.
In that regard, he was just like Anastasia.
The only difference was probably that Hoshin never messed up so bad that he got a slave ring clamped around his neck…
“……”
With a mournful sigh, Anastasia felt the cold, hard collar pressing against her skin, a stark reminder of her own shortcomings compared to her idol.
She didn’t even have it in her to joke about how she was matching with Ricardo now. But, ironically, the collar gave her a strange sense of calmness.
And that was because it told her something important.
Her captors were honest slave traders.
Now, some might ask: What’s the difference between an honest and a dishonest slave trader?
There was a big difference.
The presence of a slave collar made all the difference.
These collars were a type of metia, embedded with gemstones that connected to their owner’s Gate. With a single thought, the owner could inflict excruciating pain on the slave at any time. This system allowed slave traders to control their captives without resorting to brute force.
Without these collars, slaves had to be controlled physically, which meant they were often beaten, starved, or even killed if they resisted.
Because of this, “honest” slave traders generally took better care of their merchandise.
In other words, Anastasia wasn’t in immediate danger of being beaten to death. That sliver of reassurance was why she could remain calm and continue plotting her escape.
“Hmmf! Hmmmmf!”
And she wasn’t alone.
There were two other reasons Anastasia remained calm—or rather, two other captives.
Mimi and Hetaro were in the hut with her, each wearing their own slave collars.
“Mmmmmmm! Mm! Mmmm!”
Mimi had spent hours trying to break free of her restraints with her bottomless well of energy.
Beside her, Hetaro lay quietly on his side, but he was not wallowing in despair. His silence wasn’t submission. It was strategic. Just like Anastasia, his keen eyes observed every detail, searching for a way out. There was no fear in them, no sign of giving up.
One sibling was watching. The other was fighting.
Which meant Anastasia still had hope. And it was a big, furry hope, at that.
“Homehow or anoher, dhe olh man hill home here…”
She had to let Ricardo know where she was.
If she could get a message to him, if she could just hold out long enough—
That was the key to freeing everyone.
“Oooh.”
As Anastasia furiously schemed, the hut door swung open, and a new figure entered.
“Didorii told me the news, but my goodness, an idiot for two catmen sure is a great trade.”
With a snort, a large, well-dressed man stepped inside.
Anastasia recognized him immediately. She had seen him the night before.
This was the leader of the slave traders.
Though she hadn’t gotten a good look at him in the dark, now, in the light, she could see everything clearly.
His flashy clothes jingled with gold baubles, and his fingers were adorned with gaudy rings.
And he wasn’t alone.
Behind him stood several armed bodyguards, including the four-armed bug-eyed man.
The moment Anastasia’s eyes landed on him, the bug-eyed giant grinned grotesquely and waved mockingly at her.
With a leader, three bodyguards, and a berserker, it seemed like an awfully big party to bring just to inspect their goods. “Well, I heard somebody was a bad girl last night. I’m a worrier, you see. Because of that, this here li’l operation is doin’ quite well.” The leader politely answered Anastasia’s unspoken suspicions. With a nudge of his chin and a grunted “You,” one of his bodyguards undid the chains locking Anastasia and the others to the wall. But it obviously wasn’t to set them free.
“We’re on the move. It’s about time we change the location of our operation in Banan.” The leader roughly yanked on Anastasia’s chain, making it clear in a roundabout way that she was about to be shipped off. He marched her straight out of the hut and toward the liger wagon.
But on the way—
“Mogagaa!!”
“Wah?! Hey, stop!”
Mimi, who was dragged out of the hut at the same time, threw a fit and swatted the arms of her bodyguard away. The kitten pounced, flying right at the leader. She was targeting him not out of strategy but out of instinct. And yet, she had made the right choice. In a flash, the leader’s smug face tensed.
“I told you, don’t be a bad girl.”
But Mimi’s counterattack was stopped cold. The four-armed giant had stepped in between them and punched Mimi with two of his arms. With nothing to break her fall, she bounced off the ground hard.
“Gaah!”
“Argh! Hey, Didorii! That’s too much! Don’t damage the goods!”
As he watched Mimi plop flat onto the ground, the leader slapped the giant’s back. The giant—the man called Didorii—shrugged his bigger-than-average shoulders and pulled back.
The leader crouched down and crooned to Mimi in a sickeningly sweet voice. “Sorry about that, little one. But you shouldn’t’ve done that. We don’t want to damage our goods, you know? Just be a good girl, and nothing bad’ll happen.”
“Oooh, Mimi won’t fall for that, you big bad guyyy!” Mimi objected, undaunted. The attack had loosened her gag, and she made full, tenacious use of her now-free mouth. “Bad guys always get what’s coming to ’em! You can capture Mimi, but Hetaro and TB’ll make sure you pay!”
“Girl sure has spirit, after such a big punch… She’ll be fun to break in.”
“What’re you—? MEE-GYAAAA!”
Mimi cut off mid-taunt in stupefied horror, all the fur on her body standing on end. Her eyes shot open as she screamed. It was the slave collar. The leader was using it to torture Mimi.
As Hetaro watched his sister writhe in agony, his face twisted with the same pain. Eventually, Mimi’s muscles gave out. The leader reattached her gag and stood up.
“And what are you doing, letting them just run around, you idiot? If you feel like you can’t focus, how ’bout you and I play with a nice collar? I’m sure it’ll keep you sharp.”
“S-sorry, sir! It won’t happen again—!”
The guard who had blundered received a swift slap upside the head. He then carefully restrained Mimi in his arms again. Anastasia, who was silently watching the whole scene unfold, realized then that they had been captured by a deeply troublesome group of villains.
They had a competent, attentive leader, and they were highly skilled as well. Things weren’t looking good.
“Well, if you try to escape again, you’ll just get hurt like that. Guess you learned your lesson… Well, shall we all head out? Better say good-bye to your home.”
At the condescending words from the leader, Anastasia took a cursory look at her surroundings. Everywhere she looked, there was rubble and scrap. It really was a dump mountain. No part of her was going to miss this scenery. She just stared at the ground.
“Looks like you’re ready to say good-bye.” The leader gave Anastasia’s back a little push. “Then let’s— Hey, whoa there.”
The momentum from the push made Anastasia crumple to the ground. “Hey, I didn’t push you that hard. That won’t do, dear. Gotta be strong.”
A guard pulled Anastasia back up. Now on her feet, she shook her head and quietly balled her hidden hand into a fist. Then, as she nonchalantly trudged toward the wagon—
“……”
Her face shot up when she felt a chill. Standing right in front of her was the bug-eyed Didorii. As his big eyes seemed to swallow her whole, ice surged up and down Anastasia’s spine.
He saw that…
The horrific realization made the skin on her neck beneath the collar prickle in fear.
They’re going to torture me through the collar, just like Mimi—
“Tee-hee-hee.”
But all that came was a soft, low chuckle from Didorii.
Without a word about Anastasia’s behavior, Didorii and the other guards returned their focus to watching the surrounding area. It bewildered Anastasia, but with another push to her back, she was herded into the wagon.
They were shut inside the wagon in a way that made sure nobody from the outside could see them. This was likely to distinguish between the slaves obtained legally and the slaves that were not. Naturally, the children were to be sold on the black market. If they were discovered, the slave traders would be in big trouble.
“……”
Unlike the hut, the wagon had windows, but the interior was cramped. The children were packed in like fish in a can.
“Be good, you hear? It breaks my heart to have to bully kids.”
Pointing at his own neck threateningly, the leader lowered the flaps. And just as the slave traders slipped out of view, the last thing Anastasia saw was the grin on Didorii’s face. It was unnerving, the way he seemed to see right through her. The man was impossible to read.
“Hey, Sis, Sis…”
“Mrrrrrg.”
Inside the locked carriage, Hetaro called out to his knocked out sister in worry. Mimi’s consciousness had not returned, but her life was not in danger. The collar was working as intended.
More importantly…
“How’d your hollar het off?”
Hetaro’s collar was off. When Anastasia gave his neck an inquisitive look, Hetaro bared his sharp fangs and chomped the air.
“Our fangs are much sturdier than human teeth. When my sister wakes up, I’ll tell her… Oh, wait…”
Hetaro’s hesitation likely came from the fear that Mimi would throw a fit the moment her mouth was free. He and Anastasia could both imagine her screaming and cursing, earning her another collar–induced time-out.
Their limbs were bound, and there were the collars to consider, too. Hetaro was most suited to deal with them, but Anastasia already had a few schemes of her own in mind.
“Ohay, hep hun—pffha! Okay, step one, you and I trade intel.”
“How did you—?” Hetaro gasped in surprise as Anastasia used both hands to untie the gag around her head. Anastasia opened her shackled fist before his eyes to show him the scrap of iron she had picked up off the ground when she’d fallen before entering the cart.
“I faked a fall so I could pick this up. Got a real scare when I thought somebody saw me…”
She did not understand why Didorii had let her off so easily. But his strange whim had saved them all.
The situation was bleak, but everything Anastasia needed was in place. She had Mimi, Hetaro, herself, and whatever they could see from inside the cart. The slave trade leader’s flashy appearance, the map of a city still vivid in her mind—and Ricardo.
If she could connect all the dots, they could escape the fortress.
“Say, I got a question for you…that wound on your cheek, does it really hurt?”
Hetaro’s expression tensed at Anastasia’s question. Feeling a tangible confidence from his reaction, Anastasia smiled sweetly—and cunningly.
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