The bandits had moved slightly in their sleep because of the ruckus happening two meters away. They made sure to lower their voices slightly, "Lets kill them whilst their still asleep", "Let's ask a few questions", "Why would we give away our surprise for free like that?".
Regardless of the outcome, a bandit had woken up. He picked up his spear and screamed loudly, the others woke up shortly after and pointed their spears at them. There was 12 wooden spears pointed at them in total, "I told you so", an arrogant smile plastered on Ode's face.
Now that they were standing up, Noah could get a closer look at them, and he was horrified. A few of them had their eyes gouged out, some of them had missing arm, one in particular held the spear with his mouth. Their skin was a mess, scars everywhere, parts missing, other parts sewn together for no reason. He looked at their necks and arms, there was no red circles,
"Thats strange, they haven't been chained" Noah thought.
"Listen, I'm not here to hurt you", he lied through his teeth. "Oh yeah, sheen why athe you hethe", a pessimistic outlook considering their lives were in his hand. "What?", " Why athe you hethe", Noah noticed that their tongues were partially cut.
"Who did this to you?" he bellowed.
"U'the juth thoith to thill us", Noah roughly made out what he was trying to say, "U'll just going to kill us"
"If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead", Noah had always wanted to say that line.
Silence.
"Let's just kill them and take the 6 silvers coins" Ode whispered to Noah.
"We can't"
"Why not"
"Because I don't think their bandits"
"And?"
"The quest told us to kill bandits not slaves"
"Who cares?"
"We're adventurers, not murderers"
Ode looked at him sidelong, he thought Noah was crazy. "Same here", Noah silently thought. Noah's attention was brought back to the slaves in front of him.
"I'll ask again, if you don't answer, I'll let me friend kill you", the slaves mind was in peril. Multiple dark voices filled him with rage, What could he do?
"Hith a Merthant, thiveth in the foreth", his hands shot up and pointed towards a direction. "Mind taking me to him?" Noah carefully asked.
"no no no no, I with not go bath there", his eyes were filled with fear. Noah put his daggers into the view before asking again, even then the slave declined. It was only when Noah held up his daggers to his neck before he agreed to come with. Noah had only wanted one of them to come, but the entire pack seemed to tag along.
They marched to the merchants home, the slaves in the front, with Noah and Ode closely trailing behind. "No good deed goes unpunished", Ode hinted at Noah. They eventually saw the building, a huge mansion with multiple windows and beautiful flowers. It was surrounded by a large flat lawn. The slave stopped at the tree line, he would not go further than that, even with Noah's daggers in his back.
Either way, he had served his purpose. Noah and Ode walked up to the merchants door, and hit it loudly three times. A middle aged senile man opened the door, he fidgeted with his hands and eyed them nervously.
"Don't get many visitors here, do you?" Noah joked, but he got no response. The man stood there waiting for something, Noah didn't know what so he stood silent waiting. "Is that all" he said, Noah didn't have much else. He couldn't accuse the man of anything yet, even though he was 90% sure he'd been torturing the kids.
Noah dragged Ode along to snoop around the edges. The windows had been barricaded, and blacked out, there was not a single open door. The mansion looked more like a castle on further inspection.
The sun was setting, in a few hours it would be night and the moon would be back. He looked at the treeline, the slaves stood there waiting. He walked back to them, "I need someone to come with me, and please, someone who can speak properly."
Nobody, not a single person volunteered they all had fright directed at the house. He tried to physically drag one of them along but he found himself unable too. They shouted and pushed away, not allowing him to drag them. He could've out strengthened one of them, but they acted like collective, shouting at him and helping the person he was trying to drag.
He was getting sick of it, it was almost night and he didn't want to spend it here. Suddenly, he saw something he shouldn't have. If he wasn't paying attention it would of gone unseen, one of the slaves had blinked, for a split second his eyes went black.
Noah thought about what the ghost said, something struck him. "Come with me Ode", he said it grave seriousness. They walked back to the mansion, slightly quicker than usual, looking back every now and then, the slaves collectively stared at him.
He banged on the door, no response, he banged even harder, still no response. In the middle of his next banging session, the door opened. The senile man stood there, slightly more nervous than before. Noah whipped the quest papers out, "You see this quest? This is a lie, isn't it? Those aren't slaves, their monsters.
The second he uttered those words, the man's eyes changed, it was the truth. "Come in. Hurry it's soon midnight." he solemnly said. He ushered them into the building, then closed the door. Noah hadn't noticed this, but there was multiple locks on the door.
"Come, follow me", they followed after.
'The adventure god grows weary"
"Me too, me too" Noah thought, he'd begun warming up to Theó, that is to say the Adventure god.
The man lead them through multiple corridors and stairways, until they were on the balcony. It had become night and the moon was rising. The old man looked over the plainfield, "Your right. Those are no slaves, they are my children. The ghost killed them and turned them into his minions."
Soon they would be attacked by his children.