It was fortunate that the two had not moved too far away, so the young man was able to catch up fairly easily. After trailing from behind for what seemed to be an eternity, they finally stopped somewhere. Scouting around, White found out that the grassy surroundings were now a little inclined downwards like a slope. When he looked to the front, White realized why they had stopped.
There was some sort of tunnel up ahead, as if the slope was leading straight into it. The entrance wasn't very wide, but it was likely enough for someone to crawl through it like a vent. As White was contemplating about what this place was, the man suddenly moved. Because there were now a few trees around, White hid behind one and listened to their conversation:
"Get in." The male adventurer said in a cold voice. Since White had established the demihuman girl to be his slave, he had maintained that sickening feeling in his stomach. Thus when she was ordered around so casually, the young man silently clenched his fists with a frown.
The girl resembled a walking pile of bones, wearing nothing but rags that barely covered anything! Any semblance of attractiveness that she had or probably used to have were non-existent, and White was barely able to hold back his cringe when he looked at her. Her malnourished body look shriveled up in peeled and battered skin. He could even see signs of physical abuse from the numerous dark bruises that were printed around her exposed belly and legs. She didn't seem to have taken a bath for days either, as the pair of pointy white ears on top of her head was oily and covered in dirt. Her face which had splattered onto the ground earlier had dried-up mud which she had yet to wash off of.
Why did the man feel nothing from her appearance? White could tell from the man's order, that he wanted the girl to lead the way. What he was was there for, White had no clue. However, it must definitely be something laborious if it was business with adventurers, and the girl was clearly in no state to assist him.
His face stiffened at the lack of apathy the man had shown, and the submissive behaviour of the girl. He shook his head with a tired expression. He had fully expected cultural differences in this world to show up sooner or later, but he also didn't want to admit that this was normal to him. Rather than helplessness, White felt more disturbed than anything. Novels had mostly painted slaves as unfortunate people, but this... this was a cruel reality. The truth about slaves was that they were beings who did not have ownership over their own lives. Their livelihood had been humiliated, plundered and destroyed. That was pure cruelty, and a culture he didn't want a part in.
Those hollow, lifeless eyes----White had seen those before. Eyes as dead as a fish, devoid of emotions.
Before he knew it, White was already biting down on his lips until it was starting to bleed a little. Yet he found no courage to stop the man.
When the two had entered the tunnel, White slipped out from where he was hiding and followed inside.
The tunnel was an extension deeper down, and just as how it was on the outside the interior was just as cramped as it looked. White was already struggling with crossing through it as he had to make sure he didn't get the pouches on his waist stuck on a sharp dent along any sharp corners. This, coupled with the extra precautions he had to take when tailing someone turned out to be enough for him to fall behind considerably. After a few more minutes, the two were no longer in sight.
He tried to perk up his ears to listen for any clues, but it didn't seem to work. He had lost them completely.
White sighed, the distress apparent on his face.
(Should I head back?) He found himself thinking. It wasn't as if he was lost himself.
Although not to the difficulty of an underground dungeon, White had once learnt how to return to the surface in this kind of situation. No matter how complex the paths were, as long as he had faithfully made distinct marks along the walls with a sharp rock it would be easy for his to map out the direction he had taken internally.
He didn't want to give up, but White carefully pondered about why he had followed them here in the first place. What did he want from them? Was he planning on telling the man to stop? To treat the slave better? No, those were excuses at best.
Once he had laid out his priorities in his head, White became clearer of the vague feelings that had been bothering him from the beginning.
White was simply struck with the urge to understand the man's motives.
Yes, he wasn't planning on acting upon a selfless act of justice, nor did he have any plans on freeing the slave no matter how dehumanizing it was to see her in that state. White just had a feeling that the man being the adventurer that he was, had looked fairly confident of himself when he pulled his slave along with him here.
A way to make good money he had found? It could also be the possibility that the slave had been purchased illegally and it wasn't okay for slaves to be mistreated, so the man had brought the girl to some place deserted to have his fun?
Either way, White had found substance in this potential that he could discover. That was why he had came here.
However, he had lost his initial guide and was now literally grasping in the dark. The young man decided to venture around for a little more before he threw in the towel. Since he was already quite deep into this tunnel, he didn't want to simply return empty-handed.
As White descended down another slope, he soon came to another crossroad. It was one out of the few he had passed through from the beginning, and this was probably the fourth one. The complexities of the passageways were making him a little nervous about his initial method of pathfinding, should it get even more complicated that this, was he really able to make his way back again?
In the end, White decided to throw caution to the wind and enter the leftmost one. As he passed through the cramped path, White suddenly thought that this subterranean network of tunnels was just like a burrow.
(Burrow...?) The young man felt like he could almost connect the truth of this place together, when he suddenly heard footsteps! Was someone else here as well? He had to hide!
Fortunately, the sharp turns of this place made it easy to be out of sight.
Quickly hiding behind a corner, White peeked out towards the direction of the footsteps with a palpating heart.
It turned out that the source of the footsteps had came from the two whom he thought he had lost earlier. Why did he meet them here, didn't they go in a separate direction? He didn't think he was that lucky that he had followed the same exact path as them the entire time.
(...It's likely the paths are intersected.) White contemplated in his head.
But this was a good opportunity.
He could see what the male adventurer was planning to do now.
A few moments later, White picked up his voice again.
"Have you prepared it?" He said to the slave. The girl nodded feebly, and from her back she held out a stick. No, that was the stem. This item was...
(A clover leaf?)
〚 ♦ Clover of Invitation ♦ Rare Grade ✠ Miscellaneous 〛
⤷ A special clover leaf. Attracts Horned Rabbits strongly.
(...What...? Attracts... Horned Rabbits!?)
White felt as if he had almost clicked everything together when he read its item description. But what were they trying to do in this tunnel underground?
"Go. Give me five minutes that you know you're only worth for, you dirty shit." The man spoke his words threateningly to the girl. She showed signs of hesitation at first, but when the strange glow lit up the small stone on her collar---
"G--uhhh!! U-uuu!" The girl instantly revealed a constricted expression as if she was choking, pulling the collar on her neck tightly. Had the collar tightened because of it had picked up her intent to refuse her master's words? Crystals were forming at the corner of her eyes, making White feel like he had a suffocating feeling in his chest from it as well. But because it wasn't coming off no matter how hard she tried, she soon fell down to her knees again from the struggle and was already on the verge of an asphyxiation.
"Well? Give me an answer properly?" The man suddenly grinned sardonically, watching the girl 'grovelling' at his feet. Immediately, many things became clear to White from that action. This scumbag was deliberately abusing his slave! He was genuinely enjoying it, watching the girl succumb to his sadism!
"...Y-Yes..." It was the most the girl could muster from her constrained voice. As soon as he heard what he wanted, the man immediately did something with the collar and the girl no longer looked as pained as before.
"Kaa...kuu... huu..."
Once she was released from the constriction around her neck, the girl's tears spilled out and she started to cough heavily. White simply watched the entire scene play out without having the courage to come forward to stop it.
He hated himself, because he also knew he didn't want to risk offending an adventurer who seemed like trouble. If it was put harshly, he was simply a pussy.
"Go now." The man's words pulled his attention back to the situation again. The girl didn't nod, but she quickly turned and left somewhere with her head lowered.
Fortunately, she didn't go towards his direction so he didn't have to leave immediately again. But he still had a bad feeling about all this. From how the man had seemingly forced his slave to do it, it was probably something that he himself didn't wish to be involved in.
"Any time now."
The man looked towards the direction where his slave had left in, stretched and cracked his knuckles with a challenging smirk.
A few minutes later...
Rumble---- The tunnels began to tremble violently, making White hold on to a wall in a panic. The male adventurer did not seem perturbed by it however, almost as if he had expected it in advance thus he was simply kneeling with his hands clutching on to a nearby rock while waiting for the tremors to subside.
It was soon over, and the man's grin grew even wider.
"Now then..." He quickly disappeared into the tunnel that looked the biggest out of the ones White had seen thus far.
A beat later, White resolved himself and entered after him, leaving enough room for him to escape immediately whenever he wanted.
The new tunnel was now wide enough for him to pass through comfortably without bending forward, and the space expanded even more as he walked further. Where was this place? White didn't know, but he felt like the answer was close.
The end of the tunnel could finally be seen, and White picked up his pace.
Finally he could see it more clearly, but he was inclined to look downwards judging from the structure of the interior. Below him, he could see a deeper concave where the man ahead of him was already sliding down to.
"Hell yeah, I'm rich!" He exclaimed excitedly as he descended even deeper.
White was confused for only a moment, as he took a look below...
It didn't take even a second for him to register what he had just seen for his eyes to widen further in disbelief.
Because before his eyes, were countless of eggs. And apparently from what the item information was telling him, it was not just any ordinary egg---- They were rabbit eggs.