Half-day journey by horse, if one went north from Tawarr, surrounded by the hills, there was a small fishing village. The location of the village was a little secluded by land, but it never gave them much of trouble since nearly all the men there were fishermen. When they have a surplus of fish, they would sell it to Tawarr and returned to the village on a ship full of goods.
Their only problem that time was during the last decade many of the youths moved out to Tawarr, a flourishing city who promised a better living. The village population quickly decreasing, however, these villagers still continued to live their unchanging daily life.
Their peaceful days changed one day when a certain group backed by a powerful noble came. Being in a secluded location yet offer easy access by the sea route, it was a perfect place for illegal trading activities. They used the village as their hideout. To make sure the villagers didn't report them to the kingdom, they used their family members as hostages. It really was a cruel act. Since it was a small village, almost all the villagers were relatives.
There were two orphan girls at that time, Farra and Mirra. Their mother died when Mirra was born and then their father died in the sea. Farra, the older sister was just one month away before her fifteenth birthday. An age where one was considered to be an adult in this world. Unfortunately, her beauty attracted the noble and he brought her to his mansion. After that day, Mirra had never seen her older sister again.
*creaaak* *bam*
She closed the door and sighed.
"Huff..."
When the girl turned around, she saw some faces she loathed standing behind her, they have shoddy look and crude manner. There was also a familiar old man who had a worried look on his face waiting there.
"Good job, Mirra. We caught her so fast." Said the bearded man with a shoddy look.
"Lord Sennan will be pleased with this, I've sent the message that we caught the girl."
Mirra just walked past him, putting an expressionless face. She walked to the direction of the old man.
"Let's go, Village Chief. My job is done here."
The old man nodded. He wrapped his hand around Mirra's shoulder, as if trying to protect her from these guys, and together they left the place.
"How is she?" The old man asked her.
"A little shaken in the head, but she's fine." Mirra said.
"I'm sorry that you must go through this, Mirra. They made you do a lot of dirty works, this time is kidnapping someone. What else next time...." There was regret in his voice.
"Don't be sorry, Village Chief, I want to do this. Lord Sennan also promised me that he will let me meet Farra if I worked for him." She was only a 12 years old girl but her voice carried strength. Mirra had been going through a lot these past few years, enough to make her mature before her time.
"More importantly, Village Chief, did you get the medicine?"
"...Yes, I did." He showed Rena a pouch on his hand.
The Village Chief looked at the pouch with a sorrowful expression, he worried so much these past few years that all his hair had turned white.
"Then let's go back to Annah and the others." Mirra said.
The two figures walked outside the storehouse where Rena had been kept. Their silhouettes were long since the moons just appeared. From the distance, the familiar sound of waves crashing on the shore could be heard. Passing through many houses located on the village square, they walked toward the biggest house there.
The wooden door made a creaking sound when The Village Chief pushed it.
"Chief, Mirra, you came back!" A boy no older than ten years old greeted them.
"Is everything okay, Blippe?" Mirra asked the boy.
"Yeah, as usual." The boy called Blippe replied with a dejected tone.
"Earlier Annah's condition was bad, she started screaming and hurting herself. She exhausted herself so she is sleeping now."
The three people stood there with a gloomy expression on their face.
"I-it's okay! We got the medicine here, let's give it to her after she is awake. We also have everyone's portion. Right, Chief?" Mirra said.
"Yeah, Mirra had been working hard to help everyone. Bippe, can you call the other children? We need their help to give the medicine to other villagers." The village chief asked Blippe.
"Sure, Chief." Blippe nodded.
"Thank you for your help, Blippe." He patted the boy's head.
"This is nothing, Chief. I'll be glad to help in any way I can."
Blippe ran toward the entrance, pushed the door, and left Mirra and Village Chief alone.
Mirra looked at The Village Chief, "Chief, I want to go to Annah's room to check her condition."
"Go ahead, Mirra. I must distribute the medicine first, the children are going to gather here soon."
He put the pouch he was holding on the table and sat at the nearest chair.
"Thank you, Village Chief." Said Mirra.
Mirra went to the room at the back of the house, she opened the door slowly, careful not to make any sound that would wake the person sleeping inside.
There was a woman laying on the bed, Mirra looked at her sleeping figure. She was Annah, the person who took care Farra and Mirra after their parents were gone. She was a bright and kind person whom everybody loves, but there wasn't any trace of that left nowadays. She had dark bagged eyes and sunken cheeks, her body was very thin, and even more saddening, her hands were strapped down at the bed. Annah's condition was getting worse day by day, but Mirra couldn't do anything for her except treating her with the substance that, to begin with, made her like this.
"Uuh... uhh..."
Annah sounded like she was having a nightmare. Mirra touched the woman's forehead gently. It pained her to see Annah's condition, but it wasn't only Annah who became like this. To make sure the villagers couldn't run away, the gang drugged the villagers so they became addicted. They worked for them in exchange for getting their daily dose. But eventually, the amount they needed keep increasing, they started acting weird, some were getting worse than the others.
The children and the elderly were left alone since they couldn't offer much resistance.
Mirra watched Annah's suffering expression in silent. She quickly wiped the tears flowing down from her eyes.
---
After the door closed, the room became dark. Rena needed some time to adjust her vision. The light sources were coming from a small ventilation hole near the ceiling and through the gap between frame and door.
Rena looked at the food the mysterious girl gave to her, but she wasn't in the mood to eat one right now.
"Stupid, stupid, Rena, you're really stupid!" Rena got angry at herself.
"How could you get caught twice!"
"Ouch... It hurts..."
She felt the bump where she hurt herself earlier.
"If you have time to do this, you'd better think of how to escape from this place, Rena."
"My current situation is better than when I was caught by those pirates,
my hands and legs are free and I'm on land, I should be able to pull some tricks."
A moment later, Rena was busy checking her surrounding. The barrels there contained salt and nothing else, also she found a rusty chisel under the stacked wooden boards. She found a ventilation hole in the wall but it was too small for her to enter.
"The only way to get out from this place is through the door, eh..."
Rena climbed the stairs carefully when she was closed enough to the door, she heard a voice talking from the other side of the door.
(There are guards outside...)
She approached the door and pushed the side of her face against the door. She could hear them talking.
"Tch, that brat is so annoying, did you see how she just ignored us like that?
Lucky, Lord Sennan took a liking of her sister, or else I would have taught her a lesson already."
"Just what kind of lesson do you mean?" Said Voice B person.
"Of course it's obedience training. What else do you think I'd do? Even though she wasn't much of a looker, a young bud has a charm on its own." Voice A said.
"Man, you are a real pervert, a flat chest girl wouldn't do for me. I prefer the girl we just caught, but I can't touch her since she will be Lord Sennan's new toy."
(What a bunch of scum!) She thought.
"Do you think the guy will come here?" Voice B continued speaking.
"I think so. Isn't that the use of magical contract? You'd always know where the slave is so they can't run away. Also, without their master's permission, they would have difficulty to move the farther they are from their master."
Listening from behind the door, Rena learned a valuable piece of information.
"Boss had prepared a welcoming party for him. The moment he stepped into this village, he'll be our toy hehehe." Voice A said.
"We can torture him, but can't kill him, that's Lord Sennan's order. He wanted to finish him by himself. Only when the master had died, the contract can be renewed."
Rena's face turned pale.
(Oh my god, they are planning to kill Frei!)
She only met Frei yesterday, but she knew that she'd end up in a bad situation if she let him die here. That Lord Sennan was definitely a bad news.
Rena quickly returned to the room, this time, she sat quietly in a lotus position. She closed her eyes, inhaling a deep breath and then exhaling it, she kept doing this for a few minutes. This was part of yoga routine that she learned to calm down the mind. It helped her multiple times to relieve her stress and also nervousness.
(That guy said that the farther a slave from their master, they would have difficulty to move. The fact that I don't feel anything like that right now, does that mean Frei around here?)
(But I don't know how this magical contract work. What is the limit to be considered too far from the master? 100 meters? 1 km?)
(Anyway, I must escape before they caught Frei!)
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