Just because I felt like it

"Ughh"

Waking up, Ashur felt that every part of his body felt like was on fire, with a burning pain all over, with his legs hurting the most.

Forcing his body to move despite the pain, Ashur used his hands to push himself over towards the cage wall, before then pushing himself up so that he can sit up.

He noticed that The metal floor of the cage was quite cold, but to Ashur, it felt the pain subside a bit as he stretched his legs out onto the metal floor.

Looking around, he noticed that he was in a large metal cage covered by a large cloth tarp.

and he could barely move with his shackles on and was really uncomfortable wearing them.

As he looked around, he spotted the elven child that he failed to save in a corner of the cage.

She was currently curled up into a ball and had her face down while she had her arms stuck out, as they were currently also in shackles, just like Ashur. But she had the benefit of only wearing them on her wrists, and Ashur noticed that they had a pretty lengthy chain also.

Ashur looked around for a moment before softly saying "Hey"

The elven child suddenly looked up confusedly, before then spotting the now awake Ashur, propped up against the cage and currently looking at her.

Looking at him, tears started welling up in her eyes as she softly said "I'm sorry".

After raising her head, Ashur finally got a good look at her.

She had long jade-green hair and also jade-colored eyes, she had a white blouse with a dark green thigh-length skirt, and also a headband that had a golden four-leaf clover on the side of it.

Although a bit disheveled, she looked relatively fine with only her white blouse was now a bit brown from dirt, and a small tear in her dark green skirt which probably tore as she from getting it snagged on something.

"Sorry? Why are you sorry?" asked Ashur.

"Because of me, you also got captured," she said as she looked to be on the verge of crying.

Ashur found her reply funny and laughed, before looking up at the top of the cage and replying "No, it wasn't because of you I got captured, it was because I was weak."

"Weak?" she asked with confusion.

"Yeah, it was because I was weak that I ended up this way, It was not because of you, if I was stronger, I could just easily kill them and rescue you from them." said Ashur before he turning to her and asking "By the way, what's your name?"

Wiping away her tears, she slowly said "Riveria".

"Ashur, nice to meet you, Riveria."

Riveria was a bit confused since even after knowing her name, he did not even speak respectfully to her as all the others did and still acted casual.

"Likewise."

After that, it was just silence, and all they could hear was the sound of the carriage getting pulled along the bumpy ground before Riveria suddenly broke the silence "If I may ask, why did you try to save me?"

"No reason, just because I wanted to."

This was not a lie, as even without the force guiding him to save her, he would do it without a second thought, even if he had to risk losing an arm and a leg, it was just because he felt like it.

"Just because you wanted to?"

Riveria was confused, she had never expected this answer, she thought it was because he knew her identity, based on how fiercely he fought, but it seems not, since he also asked for her name.

At first, she thought that he was the son of a great knight under her father, but why hasn't she heard of him before? and if he was the son of a knight, why is he not acting respectfully?

As Riveria wondered about his identity, she suddenly watched in amazement as a rectangular object suddenly appeared in his hand.

What just appeared in his hand was naturally Ashur's phone with Ene inside.

During the battle with the slave traders, Ashur had his phone in his breast pocket over his heart and a little hole was cut out so Ene could see with the camera, and he covered it with a layer of illusion magic so it looked normal.

Ene witnessed the whole fight and was still visibly horrified, but it seems she has calmed down a bit, as he looked at her on the screen.

After he gave up resistance, he secretly put her in his ring and hid it on his body just in case they noticed her and took his phone.

"Master?" asked Ene as she looked around the scene, which was iron bars and Ashur's shackled and beaten body.

"Yeah, I know," said Ashur as he knew his predicament.

Meanwhile, Riveria watched this in confusion, as Ashur talked to a girl in all blue inside that small rectangular box he held.

'Master?'

Riveria thought his identity was probably the son of a knight, but the way the girl addressed him, it might not seem that way.

Meanwhile, Ashur decided to check his stats as he recovered.

Ashur

Race: High elf, God

LV 1

STR I11 > I98

END I4 > H121

DEX I7 > I86

AGL I12 > H110

MAG I2 > I46

MAGIC: [Illusion magic]

SKILL: [The force], [Force user:I] [Swordsman:C]

Looking at his status, Ashur knew he must have pushed himself way too far looking at the stat growth.

He also noticed that he now had the [Swordsman] development skill.

Ashur was a little bit surprised, as it was a little lower than he expected with it only being at C, he figured that he would be around B or A, but it might be because he couldn't display all of his swordsmanship while fighting the slave traders.

Meanwhile, Riveria could not hold her questions and finally decided to ask Ashur.

"Hey Ashur, could you tell me who this is? Is this some kind of magical item that allows long-range communication?"

Ashur turned his head to her and before he could speak, Ene beat him to it.

"Oh, nice to meet you, my name is Ene!" said Ene softly as she did not know if those slave traders could hear her.

She was a little shocked by Ene suddenly speaking to her, but quickly regained her composure and replied "Ah, nice to meet you Ene".

"She is a spirit that had made a contract with me," said Ashur as he showed his phone to her.

He wanted to clear up her confusion in a way she could understand, so he just told her that she was a spirit that had made a contract with him, in a way, he was not wrong.

"A spirit?" asked Riveria with confusion. she had seen a few spirits, but she had never seen a spirit who was inside a small rectangular box before.

"Yeah, I'll explain it to you a better time, first we need to get out of these things," said Ashur as he gestured to his cuffs.

"It's no use, I've already tied everything and they still won't come off," said Riveria as she despaired at how hopeless the situation was.

"Hold on a second," said Ashur before he stared at the locks of the shackles, and suddenly, they all heard a small click.

Both of them watched in amazement as Ashur suddenly freed his arms and legs.

"Master, how did you do that?" Ene asked in amazement.

Ashur smugly answered "Didn't I tell you? The force is with me."

"The force? What is that?" asked Riveria.

"The force? In short, it's a skill I have," replied Ashur.

"Master, can you actually use the force!?" asked Ene. Although small, you can tell there was a little excitement in her voice when she asked.

Instead of answering her immediately, Ashur went over to Riveria and waved his hand over the shackles on her hands, and suddenly, they unlocked and fell to the ground.

Ene looked at this in shock, "Oh my god.. Master how do you know how to use the force! It's totally a different genre!"

"Nothing is impossible," Ashur said smugly, but joy suddenly came to a quick stop as he felt the carriage come to a stop.