Chapter 20
"Hmm... This must be the baron's manor."
I gazed at the mansion rising starkly amid the snowy landscape. It wasn't on the level of a duke's estate, but for a mere baron, it looked plenty wealthy. And in truth, the owner of this place was loaded. His family had been in the slave trade for generations, so of course the money piled up.
Unlike that prosperity, though, the mansion exuded a dark aura even from the outside.
"Screwing slaves while ignoring your wife is cheating in its own way."
The master of this house, Nopuk Anderson. His family were nobles from a kingdom to the east, but he hadn't come here to defend the North like the imperial duke. No, the North was rife with beastkin and humans captured as slaves, so he'd shown up to snatch them from other traders and turn a profit.
"Name's Nopuk, but he's living that 'yes-fuck' life..."
Maybe it was the slave trade that did it to him. Unlike his name suggested, even before marriage, he'd forced himself on his slaves. But after tying the knot, his wife—disgusted and jealous of his debauchery—started claiming every female slave he brought in for herself. Her family outranked his barony, making it possible. Now those two were in a cold war.
All Nopuk had to do was screw his wife instead, but nooo, he had to keep unpacking "brand new" slaves like a fiend, and this was the result.
"Now, among those slaves, I gotta find Lily..."
Being nobles and all, the mansion's guards were tight. But soon, they'd all bunch up in one spot.
A monster raid.
Wolf-like beasts would assault the place, word would reach the hero's party, and they'd rush over. Then Arthur would save Lily from the brink of death.
"Kyu-ing, how much longer do we wait?"
-Kyu-woong...
Part 2 had started, so the raid should've hit by now, but the baron's place was dead quiet. It'd been two days since I'd lit a campfire some distance away, digging a burrow to hunker down. My carrier pigeons were running low too.
"Something's changed... Huh? That's Lily."
A slave had emerged from the manor grounds. Pure white all over. The white rabbit beastkin, dressed in rags, dragged trash outside. Her red eyes were lifeless, her proud beastkin ears drooping limp.
Then a man approached her. Nopuk Anderson. Looked just like a sleazy boss straight out of a bad drama.
He laid a hand on her shoulder and said something, but it was too far to hear.
But then—a woman in an opulent dress, decked out in valuables, strode up. Anyone could tell she was Nopuk Anderson's wife. She shrieked at Anderson, who was with Lily. Loud enough that I could tell from way out here.
Anderson yanked his hand off Lily the second his wife appeared and hightailed it back to the mansion, leaving her behind.
I figured the couple's spat was over, but...
"Wha—hey? That fucking pig bastard...!"
Anderson's wife shoved Lily and kicked her. Even if the baron's wife had a normal build, that one-sided violence would've hurt bad. But she was far from normal. Easily over 150kg.
"...Ah, for real...!"
I figured Lily would fight back or shield herself, but she didn't. She just lay there taking it.
'Was it always this bad...?'
In the original from Arthur's view, Lily's first appearance was right before the monster attack, so this backstory never showed. She only mentioned living like a slave in tough conditions. Seeing a heroine get beaten so mercilessly like this messed with my head.
Should I just step in now? But what about the hero's party? If I stop the baron's wife, then what? Slavery's legal under imperial and royal law.
Still, could I really just stand by?
As I wrestled with that in my mind—probably only a few seconds passed—the baron's wife's assault stopped. She rushed back inside the mansion.
-Awooooo...!
"This is it... The monsters."
"......"
It hurt. Her limbs and gut screamed from the one-sided beating.
But Lily—no, the nameless slave girl—didn't cry or groan. She just lay sprawled in the snow.
-Awooooo...!
Monster howls echoed, and the girl who'd been beating her—the baron's wife—had vanished before she knew it.
'A raid... I guess.'
The girl pieced together the situation and staggered to her feet. She didn't dream of using this chance to flee the mansion. The iron collar around her neck was a magic tool, after all—one that subjugated slaves and tracked their location.
But even without it, she had no will to escape. Captured young, so much time had passed that her past memories had faded. And because the baron eyed her, the baron's wife beat her nearly every day.
The girl didn't resist. Didn't cry. She was a slave, after all.
Stumbling back to the mansion, everyone was in frantic motion.
"How many monsters?!"
"O-over five hundred, looks like...!"
"How the hell did that many show up out of nowhere...!"
The baron, Nopuk, sweated bullets as he prepared for the assault. Raids weren't new, but today's monster numbers overwhelmed his household's defenses.
"Hey! You, soldier!"
"Y-yes, sir!"
"Get your ass out the back gate now and head to the ducal lands—hero, anyone, just request backup!"
"On it!"
The soldier bolted at Nopuk's command.
'What should I do...?'
Even amid the chaos, the girl just stood there. All she knew, all she'd been taught, was cleaning. What was a slave like her supposed to do in this mansion?
She didn't know. So she stayed put.
And deep down, she hoped a little. Maybe the monsters will kill me.
That was why she took the abuse without a peep.
But then.
-Grrrrr!!
"B-block them! Protect me, I said!"
"Baron! We need to move you!"
Monsters broke through the soldiers and into the mansion. The girl witnessed one tearing into the baron's arm, drooling spit and blood.
And the monster switched targets—from the baron to her.
'...Ah.'
Was this her end? As the beasts slowly encircled her, she sensed it. And she collapsed.
Not accepting death, but because she didn't want to die. Now that they were right there, she desperately wanted to live, tried to flee—but terror locked her legs.
'I don't wanna die... I'm scared...'
Was it the monsters? Or a rabbit facing wolves?
She had the will to survive now, but her body wouldn't obey.
'There was... something I wanted to do... I think...'
Memories of her younger self surfaced. Even as the wolves bit her arms and legs, the pain oddly wasn't that bad. Maybe her body had numbed itself, bracing for death.
As fangs closed on her throat—
-Cr-crack!!
One monster's neck snapped.
'Wh-who...'
Blood loss blurred her vision. But her hearing held.
"Lily! Grab my hand!"
Lily. Who's that? I don't have a name...
But it felt like he was calling me. Somehow, she believed this man would save her. She reached out her least-injured arm.
He barely grasped it, then yanked her into a tight hug. And they broke the encirclement.
He took a bite to the shoulder in the process but ignored it, shaking off the beast and depositing her in a room. Then he charged back out.
'Where... are you going...'
She wanted to say it, but lacked the strength to speak. Her eyes drifted shut.
......
When she opened them again, the first thing she saw was a woman with sky-blue hair.
"Are you awake?"
"U-ugh..."
Her first groan. The pain was that intense.
"Don't move yet. I haven't used my divine power."
"...Who are you...?"
The woman answered the girl's question.
"I'm the saintess. We got your backup request and cleared the monsters inside. The hero saved you."
"He-hero...?"
Saintess and hero—even a slave girl knew those names. She'd once fantasized they'd rescue her from this place. But she'd quickly dismissed it as delusion.
'So... that man who saved me is the hero?'
The one who'd called her Lily. If she met him again, she'd ask why that name, why he saved her.
"Ah, looks like the hero's here."
"Oh..."
The girl tensed a bit. Blood loss had blurred her sight back then—she hadn't seen his face. What kind of person was he?
-Creak.
The door opened, and the hero entered. Her tension melted.
'That's... not him.'
This so-called hero wasn't the one who'd saved her. The girl knew it on instinct.
For beastkin, instinct was as good as certainty.