Dean got frozen once he heard that word coming out of Rick's mouth. Although he was quite ignorant about some things in the outside world, that wasn't one of them.
In the Three Greatest, there wasn't something like slavery. However, everyone knew what it meant because it was one of the most disseminated rules of the refuge. Apparently, Will, Sarah, and Owen knew that this could be something that would erupt in our society if they didn't start early on to educate people.
After all, when a new society is starting to raise, people can get arrogant and lose empathy. It can make them feel stronger than others, and take advantage of the weakest. Those three saviors knew that other smaller refuges would appear, so they didn't want that their society became some sort of conqueror. It wouldn't be good in the long run.
Because of this, Dean raised being told a lot of times about humbleness and empathy, and to have disgust about things like slavery. This kind of philosophy grew intrinsic in his mind. It was the Three Greatests' culture. He couldn't get rid of it even if he wanted to.
Now, he was facing the exact thing that he learned to repudiate since he was a kid. Something that was just as bad as a Dread. Just really evil person would be capable to do any bad thing to people who were of the same race as them. Just evil people would act like Dreads and kill or mistreat other humans.
Dreads were a curse to humanity, but also a blessing because they were able to maintain communities like the Refuge Sarah, Will, and Owen to be united and have a good living with each other. It diminished the selfishness and the cruelty of those humans and converted them into good actions towards the ones near them. After all, they needed each other to survive, inevitably.
"You... What you just said?" Dean asked. He could feel his heartbeat reverberate through all his body, that pain he was feeling in his throat and jaw was getting numb. Adrenaline was arising in his blood.
"I said, thank you for getting our horses and our slave, deaf boy." Rick narrowed his eyes. He had a grim expression as if he was not exactly proud to be saying that, but he wouldn't back away to show his true self, anyway.
Dean couldn't hold himself and propelled his body forward, hitting his head strongly against Rick's nose. Even though that action was against all the values that were implanted in his heart, he couldn't bear that anger anymore.
'I am not able to kill you by now, but it's another thing just to hurt you just as much as you hurt this boy!' He thought, not paying attention to his surroundings and just focusing his eyes on that man.
Once Rick fell on his buttocks, surprised by Dean's reaction, the boy boosted his body forward, raising his right arm. He was prepared to punch him, but before he could finish his motion, the flat side of a sword smacked him on the face, making Dean fall to the ground.
Kevin did it, swinging his sword casually. Although Dean was fast, his movements were still way too predictable. Rick didn't dodge that headbutt because he was very close, but that was all.
Their leader got up from the ground, clicking his tongue. Nevertheless, he didn't hit Dean or anything like this, he just kept standing beside the boy and looking down on him.
"Why are you so surprised, Dean? You saw how things are in the outside world. You should doubt if humans wouldn't be just as cruel as these other monsters. I mean, you were born in a Dreamland, but you must know that humans are evil and selfish as well."
Dean raised his body again, but Rick didn't allow him to get on his feet. While the boy was sitting, Rick used his ability again and attached his chain around his body, keeping him from moving.
"Ok, ok. I will be a good buddy and teach you something, Dean." He crouched in front of the defenseless boy. "There are three types of Ascendants in this world. You know just one, which is the righteous type. Also, there are the weak ones, and that's you; they are mostly people who just Ascended. However, there are the clever ones. These are me and my group. We don't have a good refuge to take care of, nor any basis to get a good office to make some money or settle down. So, what we do is to go to refuges who have alternative ways to deal with things. Refuges where the black market is alive.
"One of the most rentable ways to get money and power is to have Ascendants as slaves. You and Paul are like human batteries, or then the perfect warriors who will risk your lives for us, or maybe our infinite resource of power. After all, it's possible to transfer "Willpower". Anyway, cutting off the details, that's what we, the clever ones, do. We just deceive an idiot and naive person, who is an Ascendant and enough dumb to say it to us, and then make them our slaves. Now, if we will sell you or use you, will depend on whether you are worth it or not. Do you understand now?"
Dean kept quiet for a moment, just staring at his eyes. He couldn't accept what he was hearing.
"That's irreparable. You guys... You are all scumbags."
Rick raised one finger, giving a faint smile.
"First rule to survive an apocalypse: you need to be able to do anything to survive, even become a scumbag."
Dean paused for a moment, reasoning. He gave a brief look to Paul, who was trembling from fear.
"How will you make me transfer "Willpower" to you? I bet one can't force it. Even if you can, why are you so sure that I won't run away, or call for help, or kill you while you sleep?" Dean had challenging eyes.
"Hmm? Do you want to know? Excellent! I was going to show it to you now." Rick kept that faint smile on his face as he looked at Dean's heart with greed.