Chapter 71
Chapter 71
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: In Someone's Memory
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Was it a trap intended from the beginning, or an unexpected accident caused by overload?
Whatever the reason, escaping this world was the top priority.
'First, let's find the other four.'
They were probably recognized as different people, just like him, and were somewhere nearby.
"No, miss, what on earth are you talking about?"
"I'm telling you, I'm not the Saruna miss you're talking about. I'm Agnes Schubert!"
He found Agnes first.
She was the only young lady in the Nuransika mansion where Damian had been sold into slavery.
"F-First, bring me some other clothes. I-I can't keep wearing these shameless rags."
"Shameless? A noble lady should dress like this as a matter of course."
Her outfit was just as unique as the skirt Damian was wearing.
"Wh-What nonsense is... "
She was draped in a translucent fabric over clothing that boldly exposed her side chest and waist. There was more skin showing than actual cloth.
To Damian, it looked less like a noble lady's attire and more like a dancer's costume.
"Da-Damian!"
Agnes lit up when she spotted Damian and rushed over. She must have been worried about the others just as much as he was.
"No, miss. Look at the tattoo on his collarbone! That one's a slave!"
But the mansion staff couldn't just stand by. Their precious young lady was using honorifics with a mere slave.
"The miss must be ill. We need to fetch a doctor right away."
"That's no ordinary illness. We need to send for a priest from the temple, quick."
"You think it's that easy? Even the master can't just summon priests whenever he wants!"
They had to play along for now. Starting a fight with the mansion staff here wouldn't help.
"(Agnes, follow their lead for now. Act so they don't get suspicious.)"
As the mansion servants argued among themselves, Damian whispered low into Agnes's ear.
"(Y-Yes!?)"
"(You're Saruna, the young lady of this mansion. I'm slave number 44, sold here. Act like it. Let's find somewhere private, like your room, to talk.)"
"(Y-Yes!? How could I speak informally to you, Damian... )"
"(Now's not the time to worry about that. I'll explain later. You were great at acting before.)"
"(Wh-Why bring that up all of a sudden... )"
Her past embarrassment exposed, Agnes flushed red.
"Huuu."
But she quickly composed herself and followed Damian's lead. Acting was something she could do well, after all.
"Ah~. My head's spinning. It hurts, my head hurts so much. You there, slave. Support me and escort me to my room at once."
"Yes, my lady."
Damian scooped up the staggering Agnes into his arms. Having never expected support like this, her cheeks turned rosy.
"No, miss!"
"Even if the master wouldn't mind, the madam would be furious if she found out."
Of course, the overseer and other slaves wouldn't let it slide.
They couldn't allow a male slave into the young lady's room carelessly.
"Enough. Are you lowborn lot questioning my choices? Everything in this mansion belongs to my father—does it matter if I claim one slave or not?"
Agnes pushed back hard, and no one could challenge her.
She held the highest status here, and defying her could mean shedding their own blood.
"You're really good at this."
Her haughty, venomous demeanor rivaled Rubia or Erwin.
She hadn't shown it lately, but Agnes was skilled at hiding her true self. Before his regression, Damian had been the only one to notice.
"I-I had a feeling you'd like that side of me, miss."
She knew the room's location. It was where she'd woken up.
Confirming they were alone, Damian explained what he'd realized.
"Th-This is inside someone's memory? ...Wh-What's this?"
A translucent message appeared for Agnes too. It urged them to find the memory's owner.
"But, Damian... not sure if it's just me, but I can't feel any mana."
"No, same here."
Their soul contract was still in effect. But without mana, he couldn't use black magic.
"Th-This doesn't make sense. Even without training in aura or magic, don't all humans have mana?"
"That's our common sense."
This was an era so ancient it was beyond reckoning in Damian and Agnes's time. Humans here might be fundamentally different.
"For now, let's find the other three."
The mansion's owner, General Nuransika, was away on official business. His family had gone with him.
Agnes, as Saruna Nuransika, had stayed behind alone for some reason.
So no one could stop them if they said they were stepping out briefly.
"Um, but..."
Agnes wrapped her arms around herself and averted her gaze. Because of the clothes she was wearing.
Damian felt odd in his skirt, but Agnes, nearly naked, must have been even more embarrassed.
Still, her exposed form was beautiful. Not soft, but taut and firm.
There were faint scars here and there, proof of how seriously she took the sword.
"No choice."
This civilization seemed to favor bolder attire for higher classes. The other female slaves wore similar outfits to Damian's.
But they couldn't afford to drop Agnes's current status.
This was a slave-holding society.
Even stricter in class hierarchy than the Empire, so they had to make full use of it.
"You want to go out... Understood."
When Agnes conveyed her request to the overseer, he handed Damian a large parasol.
"Good thing your senses seem back to normal. She seems to like you, so do your best not to bother her. If even a faint burn mark appears on the miss's skin, flogging won't be the end of it."
The overseer issued a stern warning. Agnes's skin wasn't that pale, but the Saruna they served was different.
"Uuugh... To think you'd have to do this, Damian..."
Agnes felt more uncomfortable being waited on by Damian.
"Th-The Saruna miss!"
"Everyone, prostrate yourselves, now!"
And once they stepped into the streets, everyone they met flattened themselves before Agnes.
'This family must have considerable influence in the area.'
Even imperial royals wouldn't get this treatment. Were nobles in this era more authoritative?
"You damned trash! Think this ends here?"
"Trash? This lowly slave bitch doesn't know her place!"
He found Rubia quickly too. Like Damian, she was a slave.
"I'll make you and your whole family pay!"
But she still hadn't grasped the situation and kept brawling with her owner.
Without magic, her confusion must have worsened.
"A half-ugly wench like you being rebellious too... Guess I'll have to return her to the slave trader."
"Wh-What!? Do you know who you're talking to, me, Rubia de Clarent?"
Rubia's face twisted in rage.
She'd never once been judged lowly on her looks in her life.
More than being called a slave, the insult to her beauty fueled her anger.
"You, you bitch!"
Things escalated further. Unable to contain her emotions, Rubia shoved her owner.
Onlookers turned their way, and the owner, no longer holding back, drew his sword.
A slave's life wasn't always guaranteed, but
in this situation, decapitating her wouldn't cause issues. The slave had broken the law first.
"Y-You...! And who the hell are you?"
Damian grabbed the merchant's wrist firmly. The man's gaze went to his collarbone.
The clear mark of a slave. Even seeing it, the merchant had no choice but to prostrate.
The slave's grip was unusually strong, but the real issue was who he served.
"Sa-Saruna miss, coming to a dump like this... I-I'm mortally sorry. I didn't know you'd come here because of that wretch."
The merchant and other passersby all bowed flat to Agnes. The Nuransika family's power in this district was beyond imagination.
"Da-Damian?"
Joy and embarrassment mixed on Rubia's face.
Relieved to find her companions, but ashamed of her unseemly display.
'She makes hasty judgments in situations she can't control.'
One of the few weaknesses of Rubia, favored by magic.
Accustomed to dominating every scenario, she faltered when she couldn't.
'Such situations were rare, though.'
Her magic was overwhelmingly superior. But she didn't have Michael's superhuman mental fortitude.
Still, she wasn't oblivious. She lowered her gaze quietly, minimizing her presence.
In this moment, Damian or Agnes needed to take charge, not her.
"You there."
Even as a slave, no one called out Damian for speaking down to the merchant.
A slave or servant's status depended on their master.
Right now, Damian was slave number 44 to Saruna Nuransika. Commoners couldn't dictate to him.
"This female slave. The Saruna miss wants her."
"Y-Yes!?"
"She'll pay for her too."
Agnes removed a bracelet from her wrist and offered it to the merchant.
The gold band was encrusted with gems. More than enough for one slave.
"Oh, no, that's fine. After all the favors the Nuransika family has bestowed on us, take any slave you like. Hey, you wench. Be grateful. Serving the Nuransika family is the greatest honor."
The merchant added a request to put in a good word with General Nuransika later.
As the situation wrapped up, the crowd dispersed. Rubia rose silently and fell in behind Damian.
A glance showed her gripping her skirt hem tightly. This ordeal was a grave humiliation for her.
"Damian!"
"Everyone's here."
Thanks to Rubia's commotion, he saved effort finding the red bear, Anton and Lien.
In the memory, the two were still a couple. Young merchants, fortunately without children.
"Let's move first."
The reunited group in this memory world headed back to Agnes—as Saruna's—room.
The young lady had gone out briefly and returned not just with an ugly female slave, but two commoners too, leaving the mansion retainers flustered.
"No, miss, even so, sharing a room with them is..."
"Are you questioning my choices? When Father returns, I'll report every word you said."
Faced with that, not even the overseer could stop Agnes.
"Surely not... What's this?"
Damian explained his findings to the other three.
They were skeptical at first, but the translucent window forced them to accept it.
"Th-The ancient civilization can't be like this. An era that birthed a brilliant magical society, so crude..."
Rubia was the most shocked of all.
She'd always been obsessed with ancient civilizations. Her eyes trembled uncharacteristically.
It wasn't what she'd imagined.
She'd pictured a magic society more advanced than the Magic Tower, but not a trace of magic anywhere.
From the start, humans in this era had no mana. But that was also a clue to escaping this memory world.
"A few might wield mana. And one of them is probably this memory's owner."
The crystal ball's owner was a mage who handled primal mana. They had to be exceptionally skilled.
"Maybe those priests the mansion folk mentioned?"
"High chance."
They needed more info. Thankfully, Agnes's status was a huge help.
"Where can we meet a priest?"
"Pardon? Saruna miss, what do you mean? Are you alright?"
"Just answer my question."
The question was so basic that the overseer was thrown.
But with the miss glaring, he decided not to make a fuss.
"The Ziggurat..."
Where the priests resided. It was the blue-gray building visible out the window.
"But non-priests can't enter the Ziggurat. Unless you win the festival held every six months."
"When's this festival?"
"...Tomorrow, isn't it?"
Perfect timing. Otherwise, they'd have risked sneaking in or spending half a year in this memory world.
"But miss, it's too late. All the decent slaves went with Master."
The festival was a tournament.
Participants got a single wooden club. A contest of pure physical strength.
The Nuransika family owned many elite slaves for it, but only household drones remained at the mansion.
"Just enter me. Then you won't have to worry anymore."
Agnes declared confidently, as if victory was assured.
The overseer couldn't comprehend.
Was she pinning hopes on slave number 44, who arrived today?
If so, the miss was gravely ill.