It's been two hours, and she ain't here. It took me another hour to find her. Bosco with her. I broke that fucks arm ages ago, I should of done the other. They're talking and I can't hear what they are saying. It's infuriating. I walk towards them, no matter how much closer I get I still can't hear what they are talking about. I push Bosco, he recovers faster than I expected. He flattens me with a right hook. Sister fucker standing over me now.
“Not putting up with your bullying anymore.”
He turns his back to me, Jessie going with him. I'm behind him, I punch him in the side, he gasps and pulls away. My hand feels wet. Jessie is looking at my hand in horror. I look down and see my favorite knife in my hand covered in Bosco blood. Bosco belts me in the face again, it lacks the impact of the first one, even as he catches me more unaware. We scuffle for a bit as Jessie watches not moving. He throws punches, I'm stabbing him. When he collapses, breathing heavily and then not at all. My father whispers to me.
I can level again. I look up, Jessie on her perfect ass just staring at me blankly. I hurt too much to do anything more than slit her throat. I ran away from the village after.
-----
I made it to the next town, I only stayed long enough to steal some food and some money. Got to get some distance, village might be full of dumb sister fuckers, but even they know who to suspect when there two dead and one missing. I repeat the process for two more towns. When I get to the city it's rather awe inspiring.
First place I've seen with walls. I get through the gate with no problems. Gotta forgo stealing food, wouldn't want to ruin my new beginnings.
-----
“Name hun?”
“Sam”
“Age”
“Fourteen”
“Place of origin”
“Pardon?”
“Where were you born, hun?"
“The queendom”
She rolls her eyes at me and just writes down whatever.
“Touch the stone, don't say shit after, I gots to listen to figure out if you belong on the bottom of the shit pile or one hand sticking out of it.”
I touch the stone, and hear my father drone on about me. Its ‘bout the only way he says so many words when it comes to me. It slightly hurts to hear.
“Tier one till you figure out how to read, hun.”
Sounds like a waste of time.
“I see your stupid face thinking you know better, let me be the first to tell ya, being able to read contracts is important, if you don't know what you signed you going to get scammed, hun.”
She sees that I ain't listening.
“Two silver.”
I narrow my eyes, then throw what wasn't mine on the counter. She counts it and pushes some back to me.
“Best learn how to count too, hun.”
-----
I'm being a porter for a dungeon group today. It's the second time they hired me. They pay me well enough, even gave me a one percent exp ring. Better than the other groups I carried the shit for. Frankly getting paid in coins instead of a boot is a plus.
Everytime big man Jon cuts down one critter or another is just another moment my father whispers my share.
When we set up camp, Jon wanders over to me.
“Hey Sam, fellas be thinking you might be a good fit for the group. You fancy being our dedicated porter till you learn how to use a sword good enough not to hurt yourself.”
I just nod my head eagerly, tongue tied to say anymore. He laughs at that.
“Good good, let's get you started on using a sword. This is the handle, that's the part you hold, yes yes I see the eye roll I was young once too. Now you swing it like so.
-----
“How being the front liner been treating ya, Sam.”
Jon drinking his ale with his shield arm. He can't with his sword arm, it's a mangle piece of nothin. Couldn't get him to a healer quick enough. Told us he accepted it already and ain't shit we could do. Now he is a bloody cripple doing porter work for the group he used to lead. I'm wearing his thirty percent exp ring, he has my old one percent. He don't even bother wearin’ it, said no point in improving.
“Shit tough up front Jon, but I can handle it.”
I take a drink, seems the innkeeper is making his ale stretch further than usual.
Dan motions in on us, “Hey Sam, you finally going to talk to one of those serving girls. The rest of the guys be thinking you may not be experience yet.”
I balk, getting thoughts of the fairer sex makes me think of home. I been abstainin’ so to say.
“I got enough experience to know to stay away.”
“That just proof you got no experience at all.”
Everyone at the table laughs at that, I just drink my ale.
-----
She wasn't Jessie, the boys gettin’ tired of my excuses bought me a whore on my nineteenth soul day. I went and ruined the present by choking the bleeding life out of her. She had that same look of disinterest. She paid attention to me when my hands wrapped around her throat. Now it's time to leave the city, was a good run. Heard there some merc work to the south.
Think I'll miss Jon the most, course he already dead when the group had to run from some dire wolves. Dipshit decided to be brave and give them something to eat while we got away. Didn't have much a choice in the matter when I pushed him down.
-----
First week with the new company. They marched me through some wilderness to get here but I arrived at a dilapidated keep.
“Ah good we could use a hand, product should be arriving soon.”
What sort of merc band has product, ain't we suppose to get jobs guarding rich fucks and such. Then I see their so-called product.
-----
“I didn't join this company to become a bloody slaver.”
“That's a real shame Sam, well as per your contract you need to return the stipend we gave ya.”
“My what.”
“Your stipend, you know that bag of coin you got when you signed.”
“They told me I needed to buy supplies for three days. It weren't enough to even get one, I had to make the difference and that wasn't even enough. Practically starved getting here.”
“That is a really big shame, Sam.”
“What you going do, I don't got it, I'm still leaving.”
“Well Sam as you pointed out, we're slavers, if you're not worth keeping around alive, then we'll take whatever worth you are being dead. Before you think about makin’ a run for it, try to remember how far two days of supplies got ya.”
He lets me stew on this a bit, then he starts again with his big toothy grin.
“So Sam, are you worth more alive or dead?”
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“Alive … boss.”
He keeps his smile but it's not in his eye, not sure it ever was.
“Don't worry Sam, after you sell your first round you ain't giving a damn anymore.”
-----
The first few weeks I was always with a pair of slavers, showed real trust on their part. I cleaned the cages after they got the product out. It's shitty work, in that there shit everywhere. Losing my lunch just caused my minders to laugh at me. They never let me near the product till the end.
They called me over one day.
“Here Sam, time for you to shoot.” I didn't understand, but they handed me a bow and arrow. They have been training me nightly how to shoot it. Father been whispering to me just how much I've improved.
I'm brought to a different place than before. I see my target and pale.
“Now Sam, when you hear the bell, all you got to do is hit the target. How awful this will be will depend on how bad of a shot you are.” Frank grips my shoulder as he tells me this. I just have to get by the first one.
Boss was right, after the first round I don't give a damn anymore.
-----
Forty more rounds and I still don't give a damn.
-----
Albert's kid comes running up to our camp. Can't believe the old fuck called his son Albert Junior. Kid dim enough I'm sure he'll even call his first born the third, regardless if it's a boy or girl. Probably will do the world a favour when we sell him. But that tragedy for the shitstain of a father going to have to wait till we're done getting the rest of the kids. When he got to the fire the boy was out of breath. We wait till he recovers.
“The voiceless girl back, pa says you should take her when you can. He not sure she staying.”
“Frank cast the cover spell and let's go, lead the way, Albert.”
Albert Jr leads the way. He takes us to a two room hut. A carriage is in front of it. Through the window I see two adults and a lanky teen. I dare not [Identify] them, people from carriages have toys that notify them when the skill is used. Albert Jr may have identified them earlier though.
“Hey Albert, what your [Identify] say about the carriage riders.”
“O, didn't check before but I'll go do that now.”
The boy starts moving forward, guessing his range is bout as shit as his intelligence. I backhand him before he can pass me. The cover spell hides his yawling, lucky him or I would have had to silence him.
“Now don't go giving us away by tripping some rich fucks identify trinkets.”
Albert Jr gets rather ashen from that. Good he understands, maybe there is hope yet for the next generation. We watch the going on. Another adult in the room now. Cripple missing his right arm. Not a factor then. The lanky boy runs out the door, he is heading for the fountain, away from us. Not yet time for taking the teenagers. A blue rectangle popped up between the adults.
“Girl got a status screen, that's good for quite a few levels, got to have combined language skill for that.”
I'll take Franks word for it, he got a better angle to see into the hut. Guess Albert Senior wasn't lying about the girl being worth something. There is more shuffling in the room. Then a piece of paper floats in the air and flashes.
“Contract magic, one for each party signing and one for the lord's bureaucracy to lose. Girl worth enough to get adopted by someone willing to spend a whole lot of money on that. Sure we want to go for this, Sam?”
“Only if there is a good opportunity, the carriage is a rental so we ain't talking nobility. If we kill the occupants I doubt anyone will notice soon enough for it to matter.”
A woman in a breastplate exits the hut, she is followed closely by an older prim woman. They are moving rapidly to Albert's. Opportunity. I look at the cripple. I use [Identify], my father's voice whispers to me.
Pretty decent, going through the door would break the cover, small hut, kid could be killed in the scuffle. The noise alone would bring back the women. No, best to wait.
Didn't have to wait long. The man is carrying the girl out, my father's voice whispers to me again.
Definitely the one we were looking for. Only level five though, voiceless is a strange title. Albert said she was ten, looks at most to be eight. The girl is spent, good, won't have to chase her. I look at Frank, he turns and meets my eyes. We both nod, understanding our roles.
I walk slowly to the carriage, it feels like the cripple is in a daze, signing away your kid can do that. Seen it plenty of times from the desperate. I use my [Soul Aura Sense], he is worth the risk killing.
-----
BASTARD
The memory warps for a moment, a soul screams in agony, the memory continues not caring about the pain.
-----
sword. Some of the blood lands on the girl, she starting to realize what's going on but Frank already got a hand on her, he whispers into her ear and she falls asleep. My father whispers to me again.
Ah, I leveled, a good day indeed. We make for where Albert Jr is standing. Shit is as pale as possible. We'll have to take him with us.
“Come on Albert, you either come with us or you can join the cripple.”
“You killed Emil, why would you do that? We were supposed to save the village through our sacrifice, what am I suppose to tell Tom?”
“Sacrifice? Your father is selling other families' kids, not his own. I think we should let him understand what sacrifice is.”
The kid doesn't understand what I'm implyin’, the sword already running him through. His stupid face remains as he dies. My father whispered how much he was worth, it wasn't much.
-----
I'm pulled out of my nap by screaming, the girl must have woken up and remembered. Frank gets to her before I do. She instantly stops trashing and goes silent.
“I don't know if it's wise to keep doing that, if you break the kid we won't be able to improve the product before we can sell her off. She was supposed to be a big payday but even I can tell she is no different from the other children. Weird title though.”
It really is strange. A status screen implies some dedicated efforts but she is still only level five.
“We've almost reached the camp, when she is inside a cage I'll only need to use silence, that will ease the burden of the spell.” Frank seems confident.
He's the mage. I kick the fire out.
“Let's get going, brat woke me up anyways.”
It's another day before we get to the cages. I see Albert with the boss, he doing all sorts of shouting. Probably pissed I killed Junior. Frank walks the product to the cages. I reached the boss and Albert.
“You!”
I gave the fool the chance to do something, but the man is a coward, he just walks off.
“Surprised the old shit managed to beat us back here.”
“Apparently he ran straight here after they found his son dying in the field, I'm assuming you left him in.”
“He wasn't followed, was he?”
“No, it seems the women he was with ran to the boy in a bid to save him.”
“Fat chance at that, I already reaped what I could.”
“So why did you leave two corpses behind, Sam.”
“Well the cripple was going to get the kid in the carriage, and him being a guard and all I knew he be waiting by the damn thing till the rich fucks got back. I saw an opportunity and took it.”
“And it had nothing to do with him being a defenseless high level.”
I smile at the boss, he knows me well.
“And Albert's kid, we were going to sell him.”
“Considering Albert here now, I think we just came out ahead on the trade.”
That should have given him a smile, “We need to break camp, Albert said the woman was the guard captain of Hilgurd, if I recall she's a bleedin Maxwell. We need to break camp and head back. There will no doubt be bounties out soon.”
Well shit, best hold my peace about the kid being adopted, man might blow his stack. I nod and head back to Frank. We needed to have a conversation.
-----
“Vance is dead, boss.”
“How the hell did that happen?”
“Dunno, when he didn't come back up from dropping the kid off I went down and found the cell open, Vance laid out with dozen knife wounds in his chest and the girl comatose against the cell wall.”
“You sure she wasn't faking it.”
“Why stay in the cell? I shook her a bit and slapped her but she wasn't there.”
“So who the hell killed Vance?”
“The knife was still in Vance's hand, I think he offed himself.”
“Fuck, you sure you don't know anything more about this brat.”
“Well you still ain't believed me when I told you she was level five.”
“We literally had her touch a stone that said she was one.”
“Same stone that shows no skills.”
“That just brings me back to the question before, who the fuck is she?”
“The breastplate woman adopted her.” Frank entered the room, thought I impressed upon him to keep that quiet.
“You're telling me that you brought a Maxwell adopted brat here, that family full of mind fuckers, if they're adopting a kid that must mean she a possible mind fucker too.”
“You can't force someone to kill themselves, certainly not at a child's level.” Maybe I won't need to beat Frank to death later.
“Well your going to be one feeding her now Sam, its your fuck up, now you get to keep our hostage alive.”
-----
Time for payday. The little lordling looks so overly pampered. He sitting on our little throne looking so proud. Vencea right, getting the fancy red upholstery for the chair gets the rich fucks to sit right on it. His parents standing over there trying their best to haggle.
“I thought I told you to have a dozen ready. I can't possibly see how you can expect me to pay the same.”
“We’re throwing in the old man too, he was worth at least six products by himself.”
“You talking of the Hotna representative, that man is a coward and wouldn't step into a dungeon to murder a horned rabbit if he was starving.”
Man ain't wrong.
“Which is why I said he is worth six not a dozen, in the end you still get your dozen you paid for.”
“Fine.”
The lord throws the money at the boss, the boss catches.
“Pleasure doing business with ya.” He nods to me.
I shout down the stairs, “Start loading them.”
“First one ready, Sam.”
I throw a thumbs up at the boss, the boss motions to the Lord, then the Lord shouts to the kid.
“Pull the cord, James.”
The kid does so, below an archer hears a bell and then shoots the product standing dazed underneath the throne. The kid on the throne grows excited and starts yanking the chain. He becomes confused when nothing happens. The Lord shouts again.
“The exp machine got to recharge, son. I'll tell you when it's ready to go again.”
This is why it's an archer and not a machine, kids never wait for it to be ready. Soon enough the kid gotten his head start in life and I can go drinking. The kid runs over to his parents.
“I got twelve points to spend daddy.”
The Lord responds “That's great son, only two a week like we discussed, don't want to hurt yourself right?”
I stopped listening. I got to go feed the one we didn't sell.
-----
It's been four days since we moved the product. People been getting jittery. Then there was screaming coming from the cell. I don't bother checking on the brat, if she dying all the better.
-----
It's been two months since our last payday. The boss left with some scouts to find a new source of product.
We got some deserters today, I got to kill one. Seemed pointless. Every few days, more try to leave. The last fuck just asked me what was the point of it all. I busted him in the nose. I didn't have a better answer than that. Frank thinks we may have caused a miasma from the last payday. Superstition nonsense, those bodies were burned to ash, any residual soul went with ‘em. I grab the brat's food, been thinking maybe every three days is what she deserves.
I take her meal and head down the stairs. She standing for once, usually she just laying on the ground staring at the ceiling. Something off, I use my [Identify]. My father whispers to me.
She level eight now. I get closer and use my [Soul Aura Sense] and she feels like she over fifty years old. The fuck. Her left hand middle finger has a ring that looks the same as the ones they like to parade around at adventurers to incentivize ranking up. She turns her head to me.
I drop the plate. I am nothing, my life is nothing, who am I to sell others when I am nothing. Jessie knew I was worthless. I can't feel anything, why would someone worthless need to feel. The fork is on the ground. I punch my face. Blessed pain yes, I'm there, I'm here, my hand jerks forward, something snaps and I hear a plop. I look at my hand and see a bloody fork. The nothingness returns, worthlessness is overwhelming. I chase my previous oasis, my hand slams my salvation back in the same spot. Nothing.