*Snap!*

*Rumble!*

A vivid streak of light tore through the sky, shaping ominous figures in the darkness, like a masterful sculptor molding playdough with a sinister touch.

"...Woah..."

While thunder and lightning might typically evoke fear in a child, for me, the sight was exhilarating, quickly becoming the most thrilling spectacle I have ever seen in my confined world, not that there was much competition in that department but I digress.

"Keep moving, 'Milady' we don't have all night"

The enchantment of the moment was shattered with a crude shove to my shoulder, causing me to stumble on the unforgiving stone ground.

Summoning every ounce of strength in my legs, I managed to avoid collapsing to my knees. For anyone else, the effort might seem trivial, but for a girl my age, the older man's forceful push felt like being struck by rolling boulders.

"...Okay, I will"

Yet, there was no sign of objection from me—no yelp, gasp, or even a defiant glare. Silently, I picked up my pace as ordered, even managing a smile.

"...Freak."

The man cursed me under his breath, his tone not bothering to conceal the disdain he harbored for me.

"I can't deny that, so I won't"

However, his words found no purchase in my thoughts. If negative feelings lingered, they were inconsequential enough for me to ignore.

I continued calmly making my way down the street as directed by the brutish man holding a weapon to my back without making a single sound while he grumbled inanely behind me.

"My luck was abhorrent running into you and your shltstain father right when my life was at a low point. Fortunately for me that's going to change tonight, so behave until then you lil shlt! Unless you wanna make this harder for the both of us"

(Heh...)

Inwardly I sneered, how typical of him to blame the influence of things outside of his control like "luck" rather than reflect on the hand he himself had in creating this situation. But then again I suppose it's just easier for people to blame external factors for their misery rather than take accountability...it's why I find them so disgusting, their [color] is always muddied and dour.

Though technically speaking under normal circumstances I would've held a position of authority over him even if the current dynamic suggested otherwise. Our current predicament has long overwritten such protocols.

"Had you exercised even just a little forethought in your life choices you wouldn't have even had the misfortune of meeting me. But I suppose 'thinking' isn't what you're good at"

Recollections of the gossiping maids echoed in my mind as I spoke, although the specific details eluded my awareness, this man Oleg Ionios had gambled his life away and gotten a barmaid pregnant in a relatively short time frame necessitating him to sign over all of his life to my father to work up enough earnings to pay off his debts and raise his unintentional family.

"What did you say ya little brat?!"

The man yanked my shoulder, turning me around to face him. Despite feeling like my entire world was spinning due to my equilibrium being disrupted...

"Careful, Oleg. Pushing me around is fine, but any permanent injuries and your chances of making it out of this country alive with that man's money plummets, you can't ransom faulty goods after all"

I calmly and with as much grace as I could muster, reminded him of the stakes he was playing with, unfazed by the physical threat he, the larger man, posed to me.

"Grrr!"

Oleg, although not as educated as people from my socioeconomical class, at least knew enough to discern the truth in my words, especially considering how long he has worked under my father.

(Although...I am curious what he'll do to me if I goad him on enough, maybe he'll kill me in a fit of rage...heh wouldn't that be a nice little happy ending to this charade? To be released from that house in death...to be honest I'm a little tempted)

A part of me was morbidly curious if I could drive him to physically harm me, I mean it's not like there's anything he can do to me that I don't already have to deal with at home.

(Even if it doesn't escalate to the point of my death a permanent injury could be useful in dissuading some of the maids from bullying me anymore. As much as I despise them I do not believe many of them are heartless enough to hit a cripple...and even if they are what satisfaction is there in bullying an invalid that can't fight back?)

The "disciplining" from my instructors, the "accidents" the maids seem to get into while I'm around, physical, mental and emotional harm were nothing new to me. Especially emotional harm considering my unique condition.

I do not know exactly why this is the case or how it came to be but I happen to possess the unique ability to visualize and feel someone's mental and emotional state, this ability manifests itself as a sort of colorful spectrum that permeates all living beings around me that only I can see, hence why I gave it that name, the people's [color].

Originally, I did not comprehend what these [colors] were and asking others didn't help one bit as they couldn't see what I was seeing and thought it was just the product of a child's imagination going wild. I began to think so too for a while but even as I grew older the [colors] I was seeing didn't go away. That's when I began to notice that there was a certain correlation between the [colors] and people's behavior.

For example, red symbolizes when someone was deathly focused on something and the shades of red correlates with the form of said person's focus, blood red means alertness, dark red means anger or frustration, crimson means passion or an intense desire for something, scarlet is excitement or urgency and finally brick red means determination or tenacity/resilience.

There were other colors as well such as blue and it's accompanying shades symbolizing different forms of sadness and tranquility, yellow for happiness and optimism, so on and so forth.

No I cannot explain how or why I came to possess this gift...or perhaps "curse" would be a better term for it, I was just born and this is what I am. Much like how babies can't explain where they learned how to breathe I can't properly explain how I'm doing this either, it's just a part of my instinct, woven into my very being at conception.

Anyway back to my current debacle...

"There are few things that man dislikes more than 'damaged assets' you've known him long enough to realize that"

I added in that final tidbit to make sure he backs off, as fun as it is to piss him off my self preservation instincts overpowered my intrusive thoughts.

"Tsk!"

Clicking his tongue he let go of my arms and shoulders giving me the space I need to recuperate.

"You're just like him ya know that?! Arrogant, haughty and always looking down on us!"

Of course he would try to pull that "you nobles deserve it" card, I don't need to be a genius to see how bullshlt that logic of his is, if the established hierarchy was so bad then why haven't they organized a strike yet? Or a protest? Or heck just rebel entirely? This nation has issues but that's a given for any sufficiently large organized group and the treatment of the lower class was certainly not one of those issues, heck 8 commoner knights from the lower class got promoted and given their own fief just last week, regardless of your stance on the nobility you can't deny that government funded mandatory education, consistent healthcare, a stable economy and a meritocratic based reward system buys a lot of loyalty.

"Not 'us', I'm just looking down on 'you' specifically, and to be fair it's not like you give me much to look up to"

I replied with my usual uninterested demeanor, I've never really taken Oleg seriously for the entire duration of his time working at my house, his [color] was always the ugliest even among that heap of trash I call my home.

*Smack*

A searing pain on my cheek accompanied by a loud snapping sound exploded in my ear.

"Ugh!"

I stumbled forward a bit but barely managed to keep myself from falling over. 

"You wanna be cheeky again and repeat that brat?!"

The man once again snapped at me, it's amusing how easy he is to tick off, his [colors] are all over the place, no sense of direction or artistic intention at all, what a dull and predictable man...

"*Cough* *Cough*...I...I don't believe you're senile enough to warrant a repeat of my words, or are you? That would explain the disappointing lack of thoughts in that hollow head of yours now that you mention it"

Even tho the pain on my reddened cheeks was palpable I still didn't miss my chance to sass him.

"GRR! You! You... GOD FORSAKEN-@#$%*&()"

He turned around and started to scream unintelligible profanities into the air to vent his rage.

I paid him no mind it's not like it's anything new I had to deal with and most of all I'm too young to understand half of the words he is cursing out anyway so it doesn't really matter.

"Disgusting..."

Although I did say that I paid no mind, a part of me can't help but to mutter this under my breath, even now the main [colors] surrounding his soul is dark green and slate, he seems incapable of taking any form of valid criticism whatsoever, such a jealous and insecure mess from start to finish.

I turned my eyes from him and continued walking, seeing me getting farther away he at least still had enough sense to follow behind and not risk me running away.

I suppose I should be more scared right now after all I'm an 8 year old kid in the process of being kidnapped by what was supposed to be a trusted servant of my family but to be honest I can't muster up the energy to be scared if anything I just feel sleepy as heck, it was my bed time when Oleg dragged me out of bed with a knife to my throat, actually it still IS my bed time.

"I miss my bed"

I muttered under my breath, honestly the bed is the only thing in that worthlessly large mansion I TRULY miss.

My desire to bury my face into the sheets aside, worst case scenario my safety is still not guaranteed provided that my house DOES give Oleg and his accomplices the capital they desire (and that's a very BIG "if" to begin with).

How do I know Oleg has accomplices? How else would someone explain how a guy with less intelligence than a depressed latrine brush being able to kidnap the daughter of a Marquee? The dolt doesn't even have enough sense to gag me so that I won't scream (well not like screaming would change much since we're in a particularly empty part of the capital so even if I screamed it probably wouldn't reach any ears or even worse force him into hurting me to shut me up). My guess is he's being strung along by the ACTUAL mastermind behind this quaint little scheme and I'll be meeting that mastermind soon enough.

(I could take off here but with my little legs and lack of stamina it's highly unlikely I'll make it far against a bigger, older and stronger man)

With a knife to my back I was shoved into walking forward down this dark road at night until we both finally arrived at what I assumed is our intended destination.

(Maybe I'll be cut into pieces and returned to my house that way...or they'll go back on their word once the money is delivered and keep me around to use as their toy until they inevitably get bored and sell me into slavery...slavery is illegal in the empire so I'll probably be shipped off to who knows where)

I thought up various scenarios in my head although I was acting nonplussed about it a part of me WAS scared it just wasn't powerful enough to silence the part of me that's just too tired to care.

The shade of ashen gray mixed with navy and indigo blue permeating me began to turn a bit dark gray in some spots representing the nuggets of anxiety and fear of the unknown that just cracked my fortress of indifference and introspective melancholy.

Ah yes naturally I can see my own [colors] as well which adds to the problem as emotions are surprisingly infectious and I have been surrounded by nothing but disgusting [colors] such as Oleg's for as long as I can remember and being able to not only see but physically feel their emotions on me makes every interaction with them sickening.

They're always following the same boring trend, try to butter me up when they first arrive but casually talk about me behind my back and after they find out just how little my father cares about me they either lose interest entirely or began using me as a stress toy to take out all their frustrations on

(Oh well it is what it is...let's just see what happens and go from there)

Not really seeing the point in thinking about it too deeply I adopted a "wait and see" approach to things, the dark gray dissipated from my [colors] somewhat.

We arrive at what seems at first like a pretty unassuming building of some sort. The exterior is plain, with a faded sign barely readable above a large loading dock. A few carriages are parked nearby, judging by the stacks of crates surrounding the building, the smell of wood lingering in the air and a set of double doors standing slightly ajar, hinting at the constant flow of goods in and out, this building was a storage facility or warehouse.

*CREEEEEEEK*

An awful sound of rusted metal scraping against concrete could be heard as a wooden door with metal hinges slowly opened up to reveal what's inside.

"Is this the kid?"

A man as big as a bear in comparison to me emerged from the dimly lit inside of the building wearing clothes that covered him head to toe, such as a heavy utility jumpsuit with reinforced padding, industrial work boots, sturdy cargo pants with numerous pockets, and thick gloves that seemed more suited for labor than fashion, his face partially obscured by a scarf wrapped tightly around his neck and chin although I could make out a scar that ran from his right cheek up into his left eye.

"Y-yes! The d-daughter of Marquee Altenblum, delivered right to your doorsteps as promised"

He spoke in a low but steady voice in complete contrast to Oleg's gravelly, nervous tone. It's not just the voice either even his [colors] look better, a confident and calculative malicious charcoal and deep purple showcasing both ambition, authority and absolute control.

(Well at the very least he'll be greater company than Oleg)

Despite the clearly larger threat that this man posed to my survival and being, the only thing I felt was relief since this just means I won't have to be alone with Oleg anymore.

"Alright, leave the girl here and join the others in the front"

The man stepped aside and gestured for me to make my way inside the building.

"Eh?"

Oleg seemed confused for a bit before the man repeated.

"I said LEAVE. THE. GIRL. HERE"

He warned, his glare deathly serious.

"Y-yes!"

Like the cowardly snake he is, Oleg slithered away...

"Heh..."

I chuckled a bit under my breath.

(I wonder where those instense [colors] from before went? All I see now is fear)

Inwardly, I sneered, the current situation aside being able to see someone who oh so LOVES to lord his physical superiority over me whenever he gets the chance be reduced to such a spineless worm was IMMENSELY cathartic.

"Ok get in kid, we don't have all night"

After making sure that Oleg was gone the man turned to me and ordered with a low yet very firm tone.

The world slowed down for me for just a few precious seconds as I evaluated my options.

(If I want to run this could be my last chance, it's highly unlikely I'll be able to outrun adults but knocking over those loose crates over there should buy me at least a few critical moments to run and find a place to hide. However I don't know these streets as well as this man probably does and there's a possibility that they'll have more men as part of this scheme hiding just around the corner)

"Don't even think about it kid, the more you resist the harder it'll be for you"

The bear like man's voice once again reached my ear breaking me out of my contemplation.

I looked up to see his large eyes burrowing into me like a hungry beast, he was following my line of sight and guessed what I was thinking.

(Yeah zero chance...I'm not escaping this, might as well make it easier on myself and everyone and just do as he says)

"..."

Without saying a word I broke off eye contact with the man and walked calmly into the building.

(Goodbye normal life.... well in the end I guess there's not really much to miss)

I thought cynically imagining the hardships ahead that might be even worse than the abuse I suffered back at the mansion.

*Creeeeek!*

The doors close behind me as I am plunged into the darkness of the building as if to signify how whatever last shred of hope I had for this world is now dead.

Meanwhile...

*Slam!*

The door slammed shut as the burly man dragged the ivory-haired girl inside. Watching from afar, I sighed.

""Is this what they sent me to handle? A kidnapping? Odd, but alright""

I muttered into the wind. It wasn't really a complaint—I physically couldn't complain about orders, I simply lack that function as it wasn't built into me—but it was unusual. The girl must be important for them to send me.

((Is this another part of my training? Is the Maestro testing me? This mission isn't even official; he just asked me to do it))

I wondered if my master was testing me with this task instead of the usual "2% chance of survival" operations I was used to. Being relatively new to my tasks, it wouldn't be surprising, especially given his love for surprise tests.

((Oh well, questioning the Maestro is pointless. I need to complete this mission without issues. My job is to follow orders, not to question them. Questioning can come later...))

""Sola In Morte Vita Perfici Potest. Victoria Aut Oblivione""

I chanted the mantra drilled into me by my instructors and finally began the operation.