No matter how much the merchant kicked them, they did not respond to him and only looked at me as if waiting on my voice, a saving grace to get themselves out of my fury and, if possible, into my good books. After all, who doesn't want to follow a powerful master?
I wanted to kill them so badly for all the hardship that they have caused other families as my killing intent seeped out and engulfed the entire area until it started to affect everyone in the tent as they all started choking and gasping for air.
Suddenly, something grabbed my hand and rasped, "Please. Stop". Turning to see who it was, I realised that Old Eddie struggled to get words out of his mouth as my killing intent, though not directed at him, affected him greatly. Realising the gravity of the situation, I immediately stopped and looked around, only to see everyone on the ground gasping for air.
I swept my senses around the room to see if there was anyone hurt or dead. Thankfully, no one was dead due to the timely response by Old Eddie, who barely managed to hold on a little longer than most.
Taking deep breaths, I calmed myself before taking the gunny sack and gold coin on the floor and tossing it to the merchant. "Here are the four gold coins, take them and give us back the girls," I calmly said to the merchant, still gasping for air on the ground. But when he heard me speak, it was as if an alarm clock rang right beside his ears as he immediately came back to his senses and back crawled away from me with an expression of fear and apprehension for me.
"S- Sta- Stay back!" The merchant yelled in fright as he backed himself against the wall, and yellow liquid started flowing out of his pants.
Seeing that he was not responding to my goodwill, I decided to use force again and threatened him, "Take the money and bring me to the girls".
Not sure if it is because of the killing intent I released previously, but now the merchant passed out after I finished my sentence. Since he was out cold, I turned to Samantha, Old Eddie and the younger children to see how they were doing. The children had also passed out, but Samantha and Old Eddie were panting heavily from the bloodlust I emitted.
"M- Mate, just how many people did you kill for your killing intent to reach such depth!" Old Eddie asked.
But the only answer I gave him was a smile, clearly not wanting or willing to share my past with him before changing the subject, "Let's look for the girls since that guy over there has fainted, and we don't know when he's going to wake up".
"Alright, but let me catch my breath first; you go ahead and look around first; I will catch up," Old Eddie said while trying his best to calm his rapidly thumping heart.
"Same here," said Samantha, clearly in the same situation as Old Eddie.
"Alright, join me whenever you are ready," I said before walking off in a random direction and exploring. Thankfully, the cages were labelled with the person's name allowing me to search for them even without knowing their appearance, which I forgot to ask Old Eddie about. As I glanced around the rows of stacked cages with humans of all ages, sizes and gender, the gloomier I became at the terrible situation they were in. If I remember correctly, though there were such traders in the past, they did not have that large stock compared to now, where they are stacked up high to the ceiling. It made me wonder if what I had done in the past the situation to deteriorate to this extent. After all, these people thrive on human suffering.
But I guess the good thing about the current situation is that these people's living conditions are much better than in the past where at least now, they look fed, though not to the point of being full, at least they will not die from hunger or thirst. Also, not sure if it is just this merchant, but in the past, I remember that they needed to walk the journey as the merchant jumped from town to town trying to sell them. But looking at their abrasion-free feet and knees, it seems like they do not need to walk on the journey anymore.
But, thinking about it, maybe death would have been better for them than being sold away and people's playthings.
"Sav- save me", a mutter came from nowhere as these words were repeated over and over again by different voices and different directions all around me. Nonetheless, I ignored their pleas for help. Why? This is because there was no point in doing so; even if I set them free, they would have no place to go or worse still, if they were to be captured back, they would definitely be tortured for escaping. So it would be better for them to stay in their cages.
The more I ignored them, the louder they said those two words. Save me. Some who had better mental fortitude than others were already banging their cages in hopes of attracting my attention to free them from their cells. Annoyed by their words, I cast a fear spell on them to see me not as a saviour, but as the monster I truly am. Of course, I made sure to avoid friendlies. Speaking of which, it seems that they have caught their breath, and while Samantha looks after the sleeping children, Old Eddie walks in another direction, exploring the maze of cages in the tent.
As I continue to walk around aimlessly till I found them. Right at the end of my path is the cage with the names of Emma, Olivia and Charlotte on it. Seeing them huddled in a corner with my fear spell in effect, I dispelled it on them and broke open the cage using the stick of my bindle, saying, "Little ones, you can come on out now. You are saved".