And so silence reigned between the two as Luz quietly followed the man. During their journey, marching through the forest, Luz finally got the chance to see a Master mage deployed magic, making it quite interesting.
One thing his master loved to do was to set things ablaze, and whenever an animal dared to come a bit too near to the duo, Master Brian would snap his fingers, setting the creature ablaze till only bones remained.
But even then, his emotions were pure chaos, a mixture of fear, awe, worry, and self-doubt. Luz didn't know what to make out of his new fate. His naive side still urged him to try escaping from the man and continue searching for his siblings, as they certainly are out there in the woods still.
On the one hand, his pessimistic side still was of the opinion that resistance is futile and that his fate as a slave, who will be working till his death in the mines, was sealed. Also, your brothers are dead, and if they aren't, well, then don't worry. They will die soon.
In the end, Luz was simply depressed by his impending fate while also feeling a tinge of excitement. Legends of what his mother told him filled his head, and he was thrilled about what would await him.
Later that night, the two sat in silence around a campfire while a rabbit got grilled.
His master offered Luz a rabbit leg before asking him a question. "Luz… From which province are you?"
It took Luz quite a lot of self-control to prevent himself from drooling at the sight of the food and focus on answering the question. "I'm from the Camter Coniferous Forest, which is in the Northern part of the kingdom if I remember correctly."
After replying, he greedily bit into the grilled rabbit leg since it was the first meal of his day.
His answer baffled Brian, who immediately asked himself. 'HOW DID THAT BRAT END UP ON THE SOUTHERN END OF THE COUNTRY!? The distance between these two places should be a few thousand kilometers big.'
Seeing how greedily he devoured the leg of the rabbit, Master Brian decided to keep quiet. After all, one should not disturb someone who is busy eating.
Minutes passed, and Luz cleaned the bones from any meat before licking his fingers.
With a forced smile, Master Brian asked the question bothering his mind. "May I have a quick look at your mana core? I need to see how much you have strained it."
His answer shocked Luz as he didn't remember telling the man that he felt a searing pain coming from his mana core. 'Maybe he can sense it or so? After all, he is a Master mage…' shot through Luz's head as he removed his armor and linen shirt.
The latter gently touched Luz's chest with one of his hands for a mere second before taking it away. The former casual smile on his face immediately disappeared, and his eyes narrowed while the man slowly turned stern.
Luz definitely knew that he fucked up earlier. But even then, he didn't expect what happened next.
Brian slapped Luz so hard that he fell to the ground before cursing loudly. "These youth are getting more and more impatient by the day. It is beyond my comprehension how a damned mage apprentice can strain his mana core to such an extent."
Luz slowly stood up with a red palm imprint on his face before trying to justify his situation.
But the latter immediately cut Luz off and continued to scold him. "The hell, you're sorry. But you better tell me about your talent and how you managed such an injury to your mana core before I slap you again."
"My talent is in space magic, and I used a teleportation spell to escape with my siblings," Luz replied.
Luz saw a flash of greed filling the latter's eyes before it got replaced with a smile. It seems like Master Brian got lucky and caught a rare pokemon.
But the master was not swayed by his greed and shook his head before remarking: "Let me guess the spell failed."
To which Luz replied: "How did you realize that?"
"BECAUSE YOU WOULD OTHERWISE BE DEAD, you damned idiot. Be glad that you only have a few cracks INSTEAD OF OUTRIGHT BROKEN DUE TO USING SUCH A SPELL." Master Brian shouted in anger while grabbing Luz by the collar of his armor.
A smile formed on Luz's face as he was glad that his master seemed to care about his well-being.
But upon seeing the smile, the latter immediately continue cursing. "Goddamn it. I wish I had a receipt for you. Brat, believe me, if I had one, I would have long given you back to these bandits."
Demotivated by his words, Luz asked the latter a question. "But didn't you get me for free? Well, you could set me free and forget about my existence.~"
After laughing at his words, his master simply shook his head before answering with a frank "No," before justifying why he should keep a cripple. "You see. I took my time to come here and buy you. If I were to set you free, that would have meant that I would have wasted my goddamn free time, which is why you better work hard and buy your freedom. Also, even if I were to set you free, it would only be a matter of time before you were captured and sold again."
At that point, Luz realized that he couldn't refute the man's word and nodded dejectedly.
"Anyway, time to move on. We still have a full day's march ahead of us. Oh yeah, before I forget. Starting from today, you're no longer allowed to use any magic under any circumstances until we get your damn mana core fixed," Brian stated before turning his back on Luz.
Luz nodded before following his master Brian. But something bothered him. 'What did he mean with buying your freedom?'
"Boss, why can I actually buy my freedom? I always thought that slaves couldn't escape their fate?" Luz asked as he followed Brian.
In laughter, Brian replied: "I'm not looking for slaves either. I am looking for workers that I can pay less than minimum wage."
"I don't see any difference in that boss," Luz sighed, and his laughing master patted Luz back so hard that he almost toppled over.
Under the guidance of the moonlight, the two continued marching, and after a few hours, they finally reached a small city surrounded by walls and guards.
But instead of going through the heavy entrance and paying a fee, as a sane person would do, Master Brian chose a different approach. He slowly hugged Luz while muttering a spell.
'Is he gay, or why is he trying to get intimate with me!?' shot through Luz's head. But before he could voice out his discontent with the sudden embrace, the two were catapulted high into the sky, where Luz screamed for his life while clawing tightly into Master Brian's clothes.
His master, on the other hand, merely laughed loudly as the two slowly floated back to the ground, landing in an unknown alley somewhere in the shantytown.
"How was the view up there," Brian asked in amusement as he let go of the trembling lad, who immediately leaned on the nearest lantern post.
"Awful. I thought I would die," replied Luz before shifting his gaze towards his surrounding. It felt strange for him to hear all these noises at night.
'Shouldn't they all be sleeping? And why are these lamps?' Luz thought to himself as his surroundings confused him more and more.
But before Luz could fall deeper into confusion, Brian snapped him back to reality with a simple clap. After getting Luz's attention back, Brian replied, while scratching the back of his head: "You seem to be kind of overwhelmed with the current situation."
Luz nodded before admitting: "It's my first time seeing a city, and well, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the situation."
"I see…" Brian muttered before stating: "Change of plan. We will be visiting someone that might answer a few questions bothering you before going home."
Even though Luz was looking forward to that, he still felt the need to ask what the initial plan was. "Wasn't that our plan all along?"
"Ehm… Yes, of course," laughed Brian before telling Luz his original plan. "Well, at first, I wanted to torture someone in front of you as a reminder that I don't shy away from killing my subjects. But you already saw how I killed the one who captured you without even blinking, so there is no need for that," chuckled Brian, before adding: "Or do you wanna see that too?"
Shaking his head, Luz replied hastily: "No need for that master. I'm already thankful that you won't follow through with that plan, or else I would probably throw up at the sight of it."
Master Brian laughed at his comment while slapping Luz's back. "Then we've got that settled, too. Time to visit that goddamn witch."
Motivated, Luz followed Master Brian before they reached the door of an old, run-down building, which was about four stories high.
Luz read the display aloud, which only confused him more. "Seer. Hmm, I've never heard of it. Master Brian, what the hell is a Seer?"
Chuckling, Master Brian explained to him. "Well, Seers are mages who play and influence fate itself. Lad, you better try to stay on their good side. You never know what these weirdos are up to. One of those bastards might bring you ten years of bad luck for calling them out for what they are."
Luz nodded before commenting: "That sounds oddly specific. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if you were speaking from your own experience."
Master Brian laughed before balling his fist. "Of course, brat. One of these weirdos cursed me when I was around your age with five years of bad luck for calling them vermins and expensive fortune-tellers with an attitude of a royal."
Author note: Also, this book can finally receive PS and if we can get more than 75 PS I might release a bonus chapter. I know that this is quite a low-goal post but we gotta start somewhere, right?