Episode 8
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"Hey… I, uh… well, I wanted to ask you something."
Park Chan-woo opened his eyes and looked at Gloriana. Two hours had passed, and yet the guards remained in the underground area, showing no signs of leaving anytime soon. The cell had been silent for quite a while since then.
Park Chan-woo blinked several times as he looked at Gloriana before finally speaking.
"Yes, what do you want?"
Even though she was royalty, Park Chan-woo spoke indifferently. He had never lowered himself before anyone, not even the monarch of the Triad of the Night.
Gloriana was part of the imperial family, but Park Chan-woo didn't care who she was; it meant nothing to him.
"What family are you from?"
Park Chan-woo thought for a moment. When he searched the memories of the body he now inhabited, he realized he had no family. He was an abandoned child, left in an orphanage this much he knew from the memories he had seen.
After a few seconds, Park Chan-woo replied.
"I'm an orphan an abandoned child. In other words, a commoner. Are you trying to humiliate me or something?"
"….."
Gloriana quickly waved both hands, her eyes wide with surprise at Park Chan-woo's words. She understood why he said that, though. In the Kyndel Empire, discrimination against commoners was rampant. Yet, Gloriana could only blame herself for this, being a member of the imperial family.
After all, it was true.
Her own family was despicable, and not just her family. The nobles of the Kyndel Empire all of them were loathsome. Gloriana even saw it in the people at this slave base, where two traitors from the Kyndel Empire were present. It would be foolish to claim Park Chan-woo's words were false.
"No… no, that's not it. I'm sorry if the nobles have mistreated you in the past."
Park Chan-woo sighed.
He hadn't even been in this world for a week, but from the memories he had seen, he knew exactly how this body had been abused by various noble children. Even Encrid had warned him about the nobles. No matter how much time passed be it ten thousand years those with high-ranking statuses would always humiliate the commoners from the slums.
"It doesn't matter. So, what do you want to ask?"
Right, Gloriana had forgotten. It wasn't unusual for her to be so distracted, but this was too much for a princess of the imperial family.
"Oh, right... You're a mage, aren't you? How can you be a mage when you're a… uh…" She hesitated before continuing, "I'm sorry I was about to say commoner."
Park Chan-woo simply smiled and replied,
"You could say it's just luck, nothing more."
Park Chan-woo could sense Gloriana's humility, but revealing that he became a mage just a day ago and started training three days ago would be like exposing himself to the nobles. It would let them know there was someone with immense talent. Encrid had warned him before nobles would kill anyone with too much talent if they didn't belong to their respective families.
"That's not true. You're… unusual. I mean, it's hard to become a mage at 15 years old, but even so, you're still strange."
"There's nothing strange about it. As I said before, it's just luck. So, stop asking."
Park Chan-woo stared at Gloriana in the darkness. Perhaps she couldn't see him because of the lack of light, but Park Chan-woo realized that using mana in his eyes worked like night vision, allowing him to see the underground area more clearly. That was how he even knew what Gloriana looked like.
He sighed as he returned to his meditation to gather more mana. However, Gloriana's voice reached his ears once again.
"The royal guard will arrive soon," she murmured.
Park Chan-woo opened his eyes and looked at her.
The royal guard, according to the memories of his body, was a group of the finest knights of the Kyndel Empire. In other words, if this group found the base of these slave traffickers, everything would become much easier for Park Chan-woo, as they would save him the trouble of rescuing all these people.
However, how could they be certain that the royal guard would actually find them? If Gloriana, a member of the empire, had been kidnapped by the leaders of this slave-trafficking base, it meant they planned to move soon before the royal guard found them.
Because if this slave base was aware of the royal guard, they would know better than anyone that this group of knights would come after them in no time. According to Gloriana's words, she had been here for three days, which meant the royal guard was already on the move.
It was only a matter of time before they found them.
But.
Park Chan-woo focused on a single thought.
"There's little time to get all these people out of here."
He had to move to the second plan.
"I wanted to avoid this, but... I'll have to kill all the guards here."
They were simple words, yet Park Chan-woo had an idea of how strong the people in this world were just by using a bit of mana. Even the small amount of mana he had used the first time had shown an enormous amount of strength.
"I need to act quickly..."
The sudden sound of a door opening echoed throughout the underground area. It came from the stairs leading to the surface the same ones the guard had used earlier to bring Park Chan-woo down here.
"Someone other than the guards is coming."
He quickly enveloped his body in mana. If necessary, he would act in the worst-case scenario.
"Someone's coming," Gloriana said, her voice tinged with concern. She had an idea of who it might be.
"I think... they're here for me. And I think it's... Rosell, a second-circle mage."
Park Chan-woo's eyes widened. If a second-circle mage confronted him, he wasn't sure he could even put up a fight in the worst-case scenario. Swallowing hard, he braced himself for the possibility that this could turn serious.
Footsteps echoed from the staircase. The faint torchlight from the surface cast the shadow of a figure slowly descending the steps.
At the same time, the mana emanating from the figure was incredibly strong even though it was just one person.
'It's true... it really is a second-circle mage.'
Encrid spoke as Park Chan-woo began to see the figure of a man descending the stairs and slowly approaching them.
"We're in trouble if they discover you're a first-circle mage."
Encrid's words were no joke, and Park Chan-woo knew it. Soon, a man with chestnut hair and hazel eyes appeared from the stairs. His mana was incredibly strong despite being a second-circle mage. It was no surprise that Park Chan-woo had no idea how much mana mages had as they advanced in circles. However, this encounter proved one thing:
Even a second-circle mage possessed mana as vast as an enormous lake.
***
"I'm bored... If you don't mind, I'll go see the prisoner or rather, my former princess."
After descending to the underground, Rosell headed toward a specific cell. Capturing the princess had been a challenging task; the security at the imperial family's castle was no joke. They had waited for the perfect day to make their move.
It was the day when the strongest mages or in other words, the castle's most powerful individuals would be absent. At that moment, Rosell and Steve successfully abducted Princess Gloriana. However, several knights discovered them, and they were pursued. Fortunately, with the help of two other leaders, they managed to escape.
They fled to a mountain near the frozen lands and hid in their current location. Some days, the area was overrun with level 8 monsters, but level 7 monsters while less frequent still posed a danger to their base.
Even so, this was the safest hideout they could find while being hunted by the royal guard.
Rosell arrived at the cell. Though it was dark, he could make out the figure of a 17 year-old woman with elegant silver hair and ruby-red eyes that complemented her with her hair. Members of the imperial family were renowned for their elegance and beauty throughout the empire.
Rosell stepped closer and spoke.
"How are you, Princess Gloriana? It's been days since we last spoke."
"....."
Gloriana remained silent, but her broken voice, on the verge of tears, eventually reached Rosell's ears.
"W-why... did you do this?"
Rosell smiled as though he had been expecting her question.
"Ha, you're asking something obvious, princess... Of course, it's about the money. This empire is so unpleasant, and they don't even pay us enough to live comfortably. Does the imperial family even know how we live?"
A strong voice Rosell's. The voice of someone who had lived poorly their entire life, despite being a mage, a profession that typically earns a good income. However, in the Kyndel Empire, the prices of everything were so high that the salary of a second-circle mage barely matched that of a commoner with an average income.
Rosell, of course, couldn't stand such an unjust empire. It was a corrupt realm where only the nobles had everything money, land, luxurious mansions. It was an empire where only those with status had it all. Being a second-circle mage meant nothing.
Only third-circle mages lived better lives, with fewer expenses and significantly higher salaries. Rosell couldn't endure this injustice.
"I... I know... My family isn't—"
"Don't speak, princess. I know you feel the same way. You even hate it. But if we hand you over to the Verdance Empire, they'll give us so much money that I'll be able to live comfortably for the rest of my life. It doesn't matter if anything changes. My decision is already made."