The young knight with the heavy sword at his back then forcefully took me outside the palace. Due to the Princess' order, I was now acting depressed and lifeless. There was only sadness on my face as the knight dragged me by holding onto the rope.
We went back through the garden, through the gate and then through the bridge. As soon as we crossed the bridge, the knight holding me stopped and so did I. Then I looked up to see seven more slaves with each of their heads covered by a black sack.
I looked at them and noticed that they were little girls in the same age group as Alex. Their hands were also tied just like mine. The two guards that brought me here in the morning were now monitoring the girls.
As soon as they noticed me one of the guards asked, "Do we need to cover his head too sir?"
The knight looked at me and smiled. He then said, "Don't worry; his face is not as revolting as them. We can just leave him be. I'll enjoy seeing the fear in his eyes as we move closer to his death."
They all then looked at my non-revolting, scared-as-shit face.
After they were done with bullying the dead, one knight, two guards and eight unlucky slaves made their way towards the western corner of the village.
***
I saw the only gate of the village when we reached the western corner. The gate was surrounded by the Managers living quarters such that one would have to pass through the houses to enter or exit the village.
There were many knights and guards around the gate. This was probably the most guarded area in the whole village!
As we got closer to the gate, I noticed a big cart positioned on the exit. The cart was open and could hold, I guessed, a dozen of men. The open cart was tied to two Lakéquses. Another young knight in leather armor was sitting on a corner of the cart. There was also a blonde guy sitting on the driver's seat who was supposed to handle the reins on the Lakéquses.
As we moved closer to the cart, I noticed both of them more clearly. The knight sitting on the corner actually had a pretty normal build. He had a long sword at his waist.
The other guy also had a similar build. Over his leather armor, he wore a thick black jacket. His jacket was loaded with many pockets. Even his trousers had multiple pockets. As if that wasn't enough, he also wore a belt which had many pouches!
The pocket lover had a strange weapon on his shoulder. It was made up of something like a red bamboo and looked like a dart-shooter! It was probably something like a ranged crossbow but this world's version of it.
"It took you some time, Ares." The long sword knight said to the heavy sword knight who brought us here.
"The Princess had to remove the curse from her Helot. Therefore it took some time. Have you prepared properly Nasir? I thought you would still be asleep after all the fun we did last night!" Ares replied to the long sword guy.
Ares and the pocket-guy then started to laugh at Nasir for some reason.
The pocket-loving guy then looked at me and the other slaves. Disgust was visible on his face. He then said, "What are we waiting for Ares? Ride on, we should now go."
Ares replied to him, "Hold on Carlo, there is still the final check left. A member of the Royal Knights will check the girls and only then can we leave."
The three of them then started to talk casually which I was not at all interested in. After a few minutes, a knight in metal armor arrived at the gate. As soon as he arrived, everybody quieted down and started to show him respect. He then came and looked at me closely and said, "Check."
Right after he said that word, Ares forced me to sit on the corner of the cart. It was towards the driver's side.
Then the Royal Knight said, "Line up the remaining slaves and remove their masks."
Three guards then made the girls stand in a row and removed the black sack on their head.
Ugh!
Bleugh!
Uff!
Mhhmm!
As soon as the guards revealed their faces, various exclaim and sounds of disgust filled the area. Every one made a disgusted expression. Some even turned their faces away from the girls. They acted like they have seen a piece of shit floating in the toilet as soon as they entered it!
This got me curious so I also turned around to look at the seven sacrifices. What I saw just shocked me. None of them was ugly!
One of them was very tall and had a mature face but she was skinny. Three of them were chubby with varying degrees. One had a slightly unsymmetrical face. And, a couple of them had huge number of pimples on their faces.
'I don't know why these guys are acting like this! How could any of them be ugly? I had sisters like them back in my orphanage and all of them turned out to be very beautiful! I can't help but feel that discrimination is much unfounded!
'Look at the tall girl. It's pretty evident that she has received some strong genes. If she were to grow up, she could both be a beauty and an athlete! Furthermore, the chubbiness and the pimples are temporary. How could they not see the beauty hidden beneath them!
'Also, the girl with the slightly unsymmetrical face can't be called ugly. As she grows and her facial features become sharper, her beauty will over shadow the asymmetry which is already very small.'
I could not understand what factors they used to decide who was pretty or who was ugly in this village. I thought maybe it was something else that decided for the sacrifices but seeing the reactions of others confirmed that they considered those looks as ugly.
'I hate this village so much! If the human city also turns out to be similar, I'll just leave the world behind and start to live in forests!'
Nasir stopped my thoughts when he said, "Ugly aren't they? Thank God we are getting rid of this junk!"
His words entered one of my ears and left from the other. I couldn't focus on what others were taking about. My whole focus was on the girls who were taking all the taunt openly while standing like a statue. Their heads were low and their faces were expressionless.
The worst thing was their eyes. Where there should have been childish sparkles, their eyes were blank. It looked like they have already accepted their fate, the fate of death. However, their eyes were not completely emotionless. They had a tinge of…Joy?
I was confused by this sudden discovery when suddenly John's voice echoed in my head, "Death is better than a life like this. So accept your destiny with joy instead of useless sadness."
I realized that they were happy that they won't be tortured all their life by being a breeder. They would die today and will hope to get a better destiny in their next life.
After I analyzed them and felt my share of pity, I heard as the Royal Knight said, "If it weren't a necessary precaution, I would have never even come close to them! Okay, I have checked that they are not imposters, now cover back their faces and get out of here." He then quickly left the place.
"Ugh! I can't believe that we have to take these ugly slaves to the den!" Nasir said with disgust.
"Let's just get this over with quickly, Nasir. Don't forget the reward we will get tonight, he-he." Carlo replied to him.
"It's only the reward that's making me do this!" Nasir exclaimed.
Ares got busy in loading the 'ugly sacrifices' onto the cart along with Nasir. Meanwhile Carlo was calming the Lakéquses who were stomping due to the shaking of the cart.
As this all was happening, I realized that my emotions were pretty unstable. My heart was filled with regret. I would have gone along my plan without any problems if I hadn't witnessed what I just witnessed. I realized how weak I was. I had a system which would strengthen me and yet I was so weak that I couldn't even save a bunch of poor girls!
'Sigh!' I sighed in my head.
I put my thoughts aside and looked at them. I looked at the girls who were able to escape a worse destiny by choosing a bad one. Was this Fate? Was this Psais' doing? But wasn't she imprisoned? I had many questions but no one to answer them.
Then I noticed that all the eight slaves were now sitting at one side of the cart. Not in a straight line but in a curved one. The two knights were sitting on the opposite side. Nasir sat at the center of the opposite side while Ares sat on the corner close to the exit.
Nobody sat infront of me but it was understandable as I was sitting at the corner towards the driver's seat where Carlo was sitting.
After everyone was seated, Carlo gave the signal to the Lakéquses and the cart started to move. Just like that, two swordsmen, one shooter, a male slave and seven female sacrifices moved on under the starlit darkness towards an unknown destiny.
***