The First Morning and a Warm Light
What kind of person is he?
Now that I was living in the same house as them, I thought about the things I’d need to be careful about from now on. Since I wasn’t living alone anymore, I had to act with even more caution. Most of all, I’d have to knock before using the bathroom. Having only lived with someone else once before, there were a lot of things to consider.
“There’s more than just one or two things I need to think about.”
Sitting in a chair in the living room, I fell deep into thought. Questions like whether I could truly make them happy flooded my mind, but I quickly pulled myself together, shook my head, and muttered.
“What am I even worrying about? It’s not a question of whether I can do it. I have to do it.”
After all, I’d brought them here with the determination to make them happy. Having straightened out my thoughts, I headed into my room. To honor the first morning I would share with them tomorrow.
Scarlet lay on the soft bed, staring blankly into the air.
“......”
So many things had happened today, far more than she could have imagined. It was the first day we became slaves. We were sold to a man whose identity we didn’t know. A man with black hair and golden eyes. Rita and I were sold to someone with a very unusual appearance.
Not being separated from Rita was the greatest blessing, but we had lost our freedom. The metallic clink of the chains around our necks reminded us once again that we were slaves. They rattled with every movement and were heavy. There was no freedom for us now.
The man gave a tip to the staff and took us out of that place. To be precise, he didn’t take us out—he took us away. We began walking down the street with him. Since we were still barefoot, every thick pebble we stepped on hurt. But we couldn’t say anything. Having an opinion was a luxury for us.
As we walked with our heads down, staring at the ground, a middle-aged man’s voice came from behind us. When we turned around, an incredibly bulky man was speaking to the one who had bought us. He wanted to buy us back. As he kept talking, his gaze swept over us, and he swallowed hard.
The moment we saw that man, we froze on the spot. Everything about him filled us with terror. We didn’t want to be sold to him. If we had to live as slaves, we’d rather stay with the man who had bought us.
The reason was…
He’s someone I’ve never seen before… but he doesn’t seem like a bad person.
An unknown aura radiated from the man who had purchased us. It felt warm. It didn’t make us feel bad. There was something about him that put people at ease.
“No.”
Fortunately, the man who bought us rejected the bulky man’s offer and continued walking. The fat man made several other proposals, but he turned them all down. In the end, the fat man said he would buy us for twenty gold. It was five times our market value—an incredibly high price. He even offered another slave to sweeten the deal, but the man refused to the end.
Eventually, the fat man’s patience ran out. He resorted to force, trying to overpower him and take us. As the bulky man roared in fury, two very large men stepped forward and surrounded us.
That was when I despaired. The man who bought us had quite a bit of muscle, but there was no way he could win against three men. The fat man looked at us with a triumphant expression. Just as I was about to give up on everything, the man who bought us spoke.
“If you had just let us go, none of this would have happened…”
He clutched his head as if it was throbbing. The fat man shouted even louder.
“It’s too late to regret it now! You’re going to die here!”
Looking ahead, I saw the two massive men walking toward us. Scarlet glanced at the face of the man who had bought us. He looked troubled, as if he was regretting not selling us. But then, in a voice so quiet the fat man couldn’t hear, he muttered.
“Whether in the original story or in reality, you really are a pathetic bastard. You’re going to die today.”
As he spoke, small lights began to flicker around him.
Th-this is…?!
Seeing the lights swirling around Luizen’s body, Scarlet couldn’t continue. After all, this man was using magic without any incantation. I didn’t know much about magic, but I knew it normally required chanting. Yet the man before my eyes was different.
This man… he’s definitely dangerous…
It seemed we had gotten entangled with someone far beyond our imagination.
“...........”
With a single spell, he subdued the two large men. Then he kicked the remaining one down.
Is that really subduing? It looks more like one-sided violence.
Of course the force was excessive, but I had no intention of criticizing him.
Hit him more… more…!
I actually cheered him on. It felt incredibly refreshing to see that disgusting man get beaten in our place. After pummeling the fat man for a while, he turned around and walked toward us.
Don’t tell me… he’s going to hit us too?
When he approached, I instinctively raised my hands to block an attack. But the man who came close simply asked,
“Are you okay?”
He looked at us as he spoke. Rita and I stared at him in a daze. What a strange man. Why would he ask something like that to slaves like us?
We stared at each other for a long time. After a while, the man who had been looking into our eyes suddenly turned his head and scanned the surroundings. Startled, I looked around too. A crowd of onlookers had gathered, alternating their gazes between us and the fallen men.
The sudden attention. My body stiffened under all those eyes. That was when the man grabbed our hands and quickly led us away from the scene.
It’s warm.
The moment he took our hands, that thought crossed my mind without me realizing. His hands were larger than mine. They were rough and calloused, yet they carried a warmth I had never experienced before.
He ran while holding both my hand and Rita’s. Even though we had only met him today,
He doesn’t seem like a bad person…
I was certain of that. I—I mean, we—probably wouldn’t be able to forget the warmth we felt from him today.
After many twists and turns, we finally arrived at the man’s house. It was spotlessly clean. There wasn’t even a speck of dust.
“It’s incredibly clean…”
Rita said it out loud. Compared to our old home, this place was immaculate. Our previous house had liquor bottles rolling around everywhere and cockroaches crawling all over. The worst memory was waking up to a cockroach falling onto my face. I still couldn’t forget the feeling of its legs on my skin.
But that house was gone now. The man’s house was spacious, warm, and clean. Rita’s eyes sparkled as she looked around, but I couldn’t smile. This was where the man lived. Surely our living space would be somewhere else.
It’s probably dirty and cold…
The thought of living in a cold, smelly place like the slave market made me worry terribly for Rita. Her body was frail. An unsanitary environment would be fatal for her. I didn’t care if I had to live on the streets, but Rita at least deserved a better place.
I looked at Rita without saying a word.
“Wow…”
She was still staring at the house with sparkling eyes. Then the man called us over.
It’s starting now…
I moved my trembling legs toward where he was, but what I saw there was completely different from what I had imagined.
Food…
There was a wide variety of dishes, far more than anything we had ever seen in our lives. Rita looked at the food with shining eyes, but mine grew cold. Freshly made, steaming hot dishes. The fragrant aroma. All of it drove me crazy, but I quickly accepted reality.
There was no way he would give that food to us. He was probably just going to eat it in front of us to show the difference in our status.
We stared blankly at the food. The man watched us quietly for a moment, then said,
“Sit over here.”
He seated us at the table and continued.
“You must have been really hungry all this time. Go ahead and eat.”
He pushed the dishes toward us.
“Wow…!”
Rita swallowed hard as she looked at the food.
Gulp…!
When I looked at the food he offered, saliva filled my mouth on its own. I wanted to grab it and eat right away, but my hands wouldn’t move. Because the man who had given us the food wasn’t touching any of it himself.
Surely… he must have tampered with it.