KEVIN KOERSOMBRE POV:
"Tie him up!"
"Argh! The little bastard bites!"
"Hold him down properly! Dammit!"
As soon as I was teleported, life is pushing me around again. N'donkeu teleported me near a town as he promised. Only problem: nobody knew me there!!! When I arrived, I decided to sit down first, but a group of guys passed by and saw me sitting right next to Tatiana's body and the dead gragora. I don't know what they thought, but they just jumped on me without any kind of dialogue. I tried to resist and managed to stab one of them with the dagger. But after that, it became a festival of beating.
They broke my arm which I was holding the knife with and pinned me down while kicking me. Then they tied me up like a pig to sell and brought me to the town. Together with Tatiana's body. Did they know her? My eyes got blindfolded, so I don't really know where they brought me. In the end, I am put in a dark and cold place for about an hour.
Where am I? Where are those guys? I can't hear anything. I can only smell moisture all around. Am I in some kind of dump? One man comes again and takes me now to a bright place. The blindfold is removed, and instead, they tie my mouth with a cloth and a piece of wood.
"Here is the offer of the day! A six to seven years old slave from Titanium. He killed his previous master in the outskirts of the city while they were fighting a gragora. We will start the auction at 15000 wellis."
One of the guys who captured me is striking a wood hammer on a table. We are on a podium of some sort. A lot of people are in front of us. Wait, who said I am a slave? Are you guys crazy? I am no one slave; if anything, she was my servant!!! You are making a mistake here!
"HMM!!" I try to scream, but there is a guy behind me. He immediately strikes my head, a sign to tell me to shut up. Thankfully, I can't feel pain.
"Okay, as you can see, he is quite rebellious despite his age. And also skinny, so we will start at 10000 wellis. Any bidder?"
No one from the crowd seems interested. That's good. Wait, am I so disgusting no one is interested? This is both troubling and good for me. But if nobody buys me, will they kill me?
"Okay, okay, okay. We will start at 5000 wellis and in bonus, I give this dagger he was found with."
"5500 wellis!"
"5700 wellis!"
As soon as he says that and shows the dagger, a first offer comes up, then a second, a third, people start to bid on me like a piece of meat.
***
"ALL OF YOU DISPERSE NOW!!!"
After fifteen minutes, the bid reaches 9000 wellis. A feminine voice then abruptly resounds loudly from the back. There are seven people in armor now at the end of the crowd.
"This kid is property of the order of knights of Flolerl. We will take him with us." Wait, Flolerl. Was that not Tatiana's family name?
People disperse in a hurry after hearing what the knight in the middle, a woman, said. She comes in front of the guy who launched the bid while two others come to untie me.
"Give me the dagger as well as the body you found with him. I hope you didn't do anything weird to it." The auction man looks at her with a smug expression.
"You know, it cost me a bit to bring them both here, we even encounter-" the knight draws her sword and places it in front of the man's eye.
"Did it cost more than your eye? More than your life, maybe?" The man can't move a muscle. Not even bat his eyes. He starts trembling like a new born baby.
"Okay, okay, the corpse is in the damaged house nearby. Here is the dagger." He lets the dagger fall, but the knight catches it before it touches the ground.
"Now, scram." The knight now comes in front of me, the two others who untied me are behind, silent. She removes her helmet. A scary woman. Long and silky black hair. A triangular face. There is a big scar going from her left eyebrow to her mouth, passing by her nose. Her left eye is completely white; she is blind on that side for sure.
"What is your name?" she asks me with a cold stare.
"K-Kevin Koersombre." I answer as fast I could and stumbled.
"Ah, I see. The one she was in charge of during her infiltration. Are you the one who killed her?"
As I thought, she knows Tatiana. No, more than that, she even knows what she was doing all this time. Should I lie or tell the truth? Looking at this situation, she will probably kill me if I say I killed her.
"I did not."
"Is that so…" she ponders for a while and looks at the dagger. Then she looks at me again. "One last time then. Are you the one who killed HER?" This time, her voice was icy cold, and terrifying. I can feel her murderous aura already.
"I-I did. She murdered the people of my village and-"
"I did not ask you what she did. So you killed her then. Did she ask? Or did you do it of your own volition?" Why is she asking me that? Well, I should answer her as truthfully as I can, or I might die for real this time.
"She asked for it. After being poisoned by a mangradora."
"I see..." She looks at the knife again, then turns and starts walking. One of the knights behind me carries me on his back and follows her. I don't try to resist at all. The other knight is carrying a sort of bag. Must be Tatiana's corpse.
They walk for a good while until we reach a castle. It is only a two-level castle. I thought a castle would be higher than that. Well, not like I have seen one before. After we enter, the knight who is carrying Tatiana's body goes his way. I am brought to the first floor, inside a small room with a bed, a chair, and a table, nothing else. The knight put me on the bed while the woman sits on the chair. He goes out and closes the door.
"My name is VERONICA FLOLERL. I am the actual matriarch of the Flolerl household, here in floras, and the captain of the order of knights of Flolerl. Also..."
So she is a captain and a matriarch at the same time. She must be an important person then. "...Tatiana was my third daughter." After taking a breath to calm herself down, she speaks slowly.
"I am sor-"
"Don't you dare end your sentence." I try to apologize, but she cuts me off clean. Sorry does not bring back the dead after all. Nor do I even feel that way.
"Because she was my third daughter, the chances she could inherit anything from me were quite slim. Even though she was stronger than my other children, family rules cannot be bypass by force, or everything will start falling apart. So to prove herself, she decided to accept the hardest mission possible from the royal family and was sent to gather information through any means necessary. She did very well but lost her life in the process."
Veronica stands up fast, grabs me by the collar, and raises me to her eyes' level. I can see the coldness inside her heart clearly.
"Can you understand? Can you understand the rage I feel? Thinking that a mere brat killed my precious daughter with the very dagger I gifted her when she went away? Do you have any ideas about what you have done?"
She is speaking slowly, calmly but also coldly. There is a murderous intent in the room that makes the air difficult to breathe. She just looks at me, silently, waiting for my answer.
"No, I don't. Because of her, my life was thrown upside down! Everything I had became nothing! I almost died more times than I can count! So no, I don't understand! Nor should I have any reason to!" I answer her clearly. I have no regrets, and I will certainly die now. Goodbye, cruel world.
"She kept saying in her letters that you were a pathetic cry baby. But I suppose she didn't know the real you. Or maybe you just awoke that personnality." She is smiling. The room atmosphere completely changes. She puts me down and goes back to her seat.
"When I became the matriarch, I created a law in the household: 'anything you kill will be yours.' We have been a house of assassins for as long as this family existed but, I noticed that people were too relaxed and indulged in aristocracy. Like they had forgotten the purpose of this house. After that rule was in place, no one was spared." She caresses her scar upwards first then downwards.
"I, myself, was quite damaged, as you can see. But at the very least, only the strong remained. Tatiana was a perfect example of that strength. She tried to kill at least five times." Y
our own daughter tried to kill you five times, and you are smiling like a baby?! Another crazy woman.
"My point is, you have killed her, and therefore you will inherit all that she had."
"This room?" I ask out of pure curiosity as I find it weird we are here in the first place.
"You are smart; I like that. Yes, among other things. This is where she was staying while following the knight and assassin's training. Since she never finished it, you will as you have inherited it."
"But I am seven years old."
"You can die for all I care. The knight training lasts for seven years. So for the next seven years, I won't know you or even hear from you. Survive or not, I don't care. But I will come back to check on you in seven years. Then I will tell you the rest. If you are alive, that is."
She then touches the dagger, caresses it, check its sharpness then launches it at me. It lands right between my legs.
"This dagger... I will leave it with you. You will surely need it." While placing the dagger on the table, she smiles like a demon. I have seen that crazy smile before. This means bad news, very bad news. Veronica stands up and goes in front of the door.
"You better survive or else…" After opening the door, she looks at me one last time. "I will bring you back to kill you a hundred times over." She then closes the door.
"So I am a knight now… Give me a break already." My arm is still broken. I am hungry, tired, I did not have a good night of sleep for the last three days or so, and now I am a knight. What in hell is going on here?!!!!