The Snake's Freedom
I pulled Iruse into a tight embrace.
She really was just a kid after all.
The children worried me more than I worried about myself.
“We caught some fresh ones. VIP’s coming down. With luck, we might sell both at once.”
We were powerless. The men quickly pried Iruse and me apart by force.
“Let go!”
Ash charged forward as if trying to rescue us, but it was useless.
He, too, was subdued with a single hand. All of us thrashed with everything we had, but the difference in strength was laughably vast.
Was that what terrified her? Iruse let out a piercing scream.
“Kyaaaaa! No! Daddy!”
And at the same time, one of the men did too.
“Uwaaaagh!”
When I looked, Ash was biting down on the forearm of the man holding him with all his might.
That tiny kid had real guts!
He bit so hard that blood began dripping from the man’s forearm.
Blood covered Ash’s mouth as well.
The sight of blood seemed to enrage the man. His face flushed red as he mercilessly slammed his fist into Ash’s head.
“You little shit! You little shit!”
The sound of a person being beaten was so horrifying that it made my face twist involuntarily. I didn’t want to watch, but I couldn’t look away.
Ash kept his teeth sunk into the slave trader’s forearm.
“Ugh…”
Even while groaning in pain, he refused to let go.
I couldn’t understand it.
If he just stayed still, he wouldn’t get hit.
“Stop it! Ash!”
Don’t fight back. I shouted, but my voice seemed to reach neither the man beating Ash nor Ash himself in his fury.
All I could hear was the man holding me laughing mockingly.
Damn it! Who do you think is staying quiet out of fear? If I called Adore, I might be able to take down three of them.
For a moment, I parted my lips to summon Adore, but then clenched them shut without making a sound.
I couldn’t waste mana.
I had to save enough so Undine could make it back here.
That was the absolute top priority right now. If Undine disappeared while guiding the knights and they lost their way, we would never be rescued.
Even though I knew that…
I was so furious at this entire situation that I could barely stand it.
Why did I have to endure this? Why was that the right answer?
“Let go of me!”
While I felt like I was choking on my own frustration, Ash still refused to release the man’s forearm.
He clung on like a rabid dog, and the man rained down even more brutal punches in an attempt to shake him off.
It was painful just to watch.
Should I call Adore?
But what if I ran out of mana afterward?
Enduring was the safest choice.
This was too much of a gamble.
My racing thoughts were deafening.
That was when it happened—while I was lost in endless calculations.
“Stop hitting Ash! You stupid poop pig!”
Iruse began resisting with her ridiculous little tantrum.
Oh, for the love of—kids, please.
“Don’t hit my friend! You stupid mutt! Why are you hitting him? Why!”
When did you two even become friends?!
Provoking the slave traders was not a good idea.
By nature, these people had already abandoned their humanity. That was what slave traders were.
People who had given up on being human.
They weren’t rational in the slightest. When I saw Iruse get grabbed by the hair simply for resisting a little, I couldn’t watch anymore and closed my eyes.
The sight of a filthy hand violently twisting through her pink hair felt utterly grotesque.
“Kyaa! It hurts! It hurts! Let go!”
“You little rat turds! You’ve all gone crazy and want to die together, huh?”
“Hey, don’t damage the face. We still have to sell them.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
Iruse’s shrill voice echoed through the narrow room.
My heart pounded. My ears rang.
Inside my head, two sides were clashing violently: the cowardly, rational voice saying I had to endure because stepping in would only make things worse, and the reckless, emotional urge screaming to kill them all.
“Kyaaaagh!”
I opened my eyes the moment Iruse was struck.
In my narrowed gaze, I saw Ash spit something onto the floor.
It was small and bright red… most likely a piece of the man’s flesh.
That kid Ash was seriously vicious. With that kind of spirit, he could do anything!
The slave trader whose forearm had been torn open let out a monstrous roar and began punching even more savagely.
Ash was coughing and gasping as if he might pass out. Iruse was hurled against the wall.
I saw her slump limply to the ground.
My mind went completely blank. I couldn’t hold back anymore.
“Adore!”
[Tada! I have arrived, Master!]
[You called, Master!]
Adore appeared alongside Rai.
“Return, Adore.”
Since Rai was here, I didn’t need Adore. I quickly unsummoned him.
Rai, who didn’t consume any mana, was far more useful right now.
[What! How can you—]
Adore tried to protest being discarded so abruptly, but I didn’t catch the rest.
He was probably cursing me back in the spirit realm.
“What the hell is that snake?”
“It’s an albino. Would be perfect for making liquor.”
The two men turned their attention to Rai, who had suddenly slithered across the ceiling.
They had no idea the situation had just been completely reversed.
“Rai, bite them!”
[Kshaa!]
Rai was always told to hold back, so whenever I gave him freedom, he went absolutely wild with joy.
“Freedom, Rai!”
[Freedom!]
“Break them all!”
Crack. Crunch.
What Rai did in his ecstatic frenzy was this: he shot toward the nearest human, snapped his ankle, then twisted his thigh. Before the man could even lose balance and fall, Rai leaped like a flying squirrel onto the next person and wrenched his arm with terrifying speed.
It all happened in a matter of seconds.
“Ugh.”
I felt like I might throw up and covered my mouth.
“Uwaaaaagh!”
“Gaaaah! Aaaagh!”
Rai paid no attention to the hands trying to stop him. He crushed the slave trader’s arm in an instant, rendering it completely useless.
Crack.
Crunch.
Thanks to Rai, I had grown quite used to the sound of bones breaking.
“Graaaagh! Hnnng… My… my arm…”
The slave trader whose shoulder and forearm had been pulverized screamed before foaming at the mouth and collapsing backward.
Rai, now covered head to tail in blood, looked genuinely terrifying.
His normally snow-white body made the bloodstains stand out even more grotesquely.
I usually didn’t give Rai free rein unless he was fighting monsters, but these kinds of humans didn’t deserve to be treated like people.
Still, watching perfectly healthy limbs twist and snap, sending bone and blood flying everywhere, was far from pleasant, so I turned my head away.
“What the—? Catch it! Get that snake off me!”
The man holding me shouted.
He seemed to be the leader.
But by then, the other two men had already been reduced to bloody heaps.
“This is…!”
At first, the suddenness of it all left them unable to process what was happening.
But it didn’t take long for him to realize I was the one giving the orders. He suddenly tried to choke me while still holding me.
[Master!]
If Rai hadn’t slithered over at incredible speed and climbed up to the man’s neck, things might have gone very badly.
It must have been horrifying from the victim’s perspective, but it happened almost in the blink of an eye.
“What the hell is this?!”
The man threw me aside and frantically tried to rip the blood-soaked Rai off his neck, but Rai’s monstrous strength was far beyond anything a human could handle.
Fear flickered in the man’s eyes.
It felt incredibly satisfying.
He had been so delighted while tormenting us. Now he looked like nothing more than pathetic prey.
“Good job, Rai.”
Even I occasionally praised him.