10 Life as a Slave
Castle Burgen was the strongest elven castle that protected the border between the human and elven countries.
A war was going on at the time among these nations, and the humans were becoming more and more arrogant with each day.
A beauty, worthy to be called a goddess of beauty, sat by a table and was writing something.
Her name was Amelia Maryanna Mirwood and she was the 5th princess of the Drosian Alliance.
She was sitting, alone, in her extremely luxurious room, which was rare to see in defensive castles. She had an annoyed look on her face as she peeked through her window.
It looked down upon the main yard of the castle which was usually used as a training field or a ceremonial ground. But right now, instead of the usual elves who trained there, two silhouettes can be seen.
Amelia's face got even more annoyed as she looked at those two and finished writing her diary with an angry scribble.
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The training field, usually occupied by groups of elves who train for combat, had only two people - a certain man and a woman.
From afar it would look like two comrades training…but from closer up it was quite the opposite.
A man fought with a desperate expression on his face, while the woman grinned and attacked without holding back.
This place used to have more people, but nowadays most of them avoided that location. The reason is simple – weird sounds were coming from there.
Manly groans and woman's encouragement could be heard for hours upon hours every day, many would think that something inappropriate was taking place…but that was not the case.
A man laid on the ground, which was painted in red, and moaned in pain. His body already bore hundreds of scars, but now it was dyed in red and blue.
"What is it? That's all you can take? Try harder!"
The woman, with obvious excitement, did not hold back even when the man struggled to stand and continued to ruthlessly beat him with a wooden sword.
After another hour or so, the man did not move at all, but could still be seen breathing.
"Pfuuu…I know I asked for a training dummy and all…but you're no fun. Resist more, okay?" The woman stretched and called the servants.
Two elves came, with a stretcher in tow, and brought the man on top of it.
"Nurse him back to health, I don't want him to die this soon."
The elves looked at the blue man with pity, even if he was their enemy before.
After applying a few splints to his arms and legs, they lifted him onto the stretcher and quickly carried him towards the barracks.
The ruthless beauty just wiped her sweat and continued to train without a dummy, for now at least.
Her name was Alison Goldglow. She was born in an unknown village, but soon after was taken in by the royal guard and brought up together with the 5th princess.
Alison continued to swing her wooden sword, which was made from Entwood and weighted more than steel, while deep in thought.
She saved the man called Henry, and made him into a meat dummy. He surprisingly survived the high-tiered spell Windstorm, so she thought he was sturdier than this…but she never expected to actually make him her slave. She was offered to do so as a joke from her fellow soldiers, but she actually took it seriously and ended up doing it for real.
As she swung her heavy wooden sword she felt a presence behind her. She quickly turned around and brought her sword down on the person, but stopped inches away from it's face.
"Don't surprise me like that, Amelia."
"You're the one who surprised me though! I even used magic to conceal my footsteps but ended up with a sword next to my face!" the speaker, Amelia, pouted as she said that. "And even then, it's your fault! You spend too much time training, especially after 'that'… You're supposed to guard me, are you not? I barely get to see you anymore!"
"That? "
"Your little pet, the one you just beaten blue a second ago."
"Oh, 'that'!" Alison mused for a second before talking again "Sorry. I grew tired of fighting wooden dummies, but after getting a dummy that can actually move…I went out of my way. Sorry."
"It's fine. Just pay me a visit more often…no, even more than that."
"It'd all be fine if you actually showed up to train. Though, I won't give you 'him', your power is too much for a normal person to endure."
"I would come if…ahhh it doesn't matter! Let's stop talking about 'that' and spend this time more enjoyably!"
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Henry laid on his bed covered in bandages and moaned in pain. Becoming a slave…was worse than death.
The master can order anything to you, they could even say "choke to death" and your body would move on its own to kill you.
Of course, the master can order you normally, without the intent to force you, this way you have control over your body and don't actually have to listen…but they can forcibly order you after that. It's supposed to be contract magic or something, but even the concept of it breaks the rules of the world.
What if you ordered the person to fly? Would they jump off a cliff or would they build a flying machine? What if you told them to speak in an unknown language, would they do it, or would they make incomprehensible sounds? What if you ordered them to learn magic…?
It's weird, but at the same time interesting…
Well…Henry was not as interested as one would be. He is forced out of the bed every morning, and then he has to accompany his 'master' until the training begins. After that he's brought back to his room, covered in bandages and blood.
It's hard. But this training is his only salvation. Normally the first order from the master is 'don't kill me' and that's that, but during the training his 'master' allows him to fight with the intent to kill…
So basically, the only time to he can free himself, is during the training. Once the master dies the slave becomes free, but what can a normal person do against 'that'…
She's so unbelievably strong that a normal person would give up…but he won't. He actually can't wait to kill her, even his dreams lately are becoming one's where he kills her…sometimes they get even freakier and he cuts her up into small pieces and feeds it to the trolls…
"Fufufufu…*cough* *cough*"
He giggled while spitting blood and thought about her pathetic face as the life abandoned her eyes…what a great moment that would be…
Henry did not notice when the sun set and raised again, but he heard the familiar steps on the pavement.
The sound approached his door before stopping right next to it. After a few moments with a twist of a key the door swung open and his master came inside.
"Let's go. I got some free time today, we'll train all day."
When he heard her say that, the last fragments of hope disappeared from Henry's eyes …he's doomed.
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"Stand here and wait"
Henry did as he was told, his body did that is. He's back in the training field. His blood stains from yesterday…from a week ago still retained their dark red color.
A new spot of brown will probably be dyed in blood today…is what Henry thought. Still, he could feel himself getting stronger, if not physically, then mentally.
"Come and take this"
His master's order resounded through his head as if she was using telepathy. His body moved and walked to its master's location as if it knew where she was.
She held an oversized wooden shield and his arms instantly grabbed it. As Henry got back the control of his body the shield fell to the ground pulling him along with it.
"Don't die today. Lift up the shield."
The body once again moved on its own. It lifted the shield effortlessly, though Henry could feel the pain of his muscles tearing and ripping apart.
"Don't let it go. Follow me."
His body moved while he endured the pain.
"Now, defend. If you're hit do 100 pushups."
The defend bit wasn't an order, but that was what he's going to do anyway. His hand gripped the handle on its own. All he had to do is lift the actual shield…
The blond woman took a wooden sword and lunged at him.
He struggled and tried raising the shield. Even his face dyed red from all the effort he was putting in…the shield lifted off the ground slightly.
The sword hit him in the chest with a straight stab. He felt his bones break, but his body dropped the shield and started doing pushups as if nothing happened.
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"97…98…99…100."
"Oh, good job. Now, do the same again, but if you hit me you're free for the rest of the day."
His body gripped onto the shield so he could not let it go for an attack. He needs…he must lift it.
This time the shield did not even rise a millimeter and the sword stroke his left arm. Bone broke once again, but the body fell to the ground and started doing pushups. All of this kept going on until the sun's decent.
On the next day, the day after…after a week, the process repeated. When his master was busy he was ordered to run laps around the castle for hours…but today something was different.
Henry could feel the shield…it was heavy, but not as heavy as it used to be. He even noticed this morning that his arm no longer fit the old shirt...he's getting stronger.
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Under an orange sky two people were fighting, a man and a woman. The woman yawned boringly as she looked at the man's struggle.
He was covered in injuries and most of his body was full of scars. The woman, the slave's master, lunged at him once again.
The slave struggled. As he barely lifted the shield into position, the woman aimed for the man's leg.
He, most likely out of luck, raised his left leg right before contact.
"Ohh!" The slave master exclaimed in surprise, but as she looked up at the slave a fist came right for her face. As it connected the slave fell unconsciously onto her.
It was weak, the punch that is, and the master didn't get injured. But a hit's a hit. He'll get the rest of the day off…though the sun's almost gone.
The man laid on top of her so she got a good look at his face. It was a young face which had no scars, unlike the owner's body. The woman felt something…weird. She lived for 130 years, but that was the first time she had that feeling.
It was a feeling of deep affection. Not love of course, that'd be stupid. But she felt that without him, she couldn't live as she's used to.
"Time for bed" she said as she pushed the slave off of her.
That night she could not sleep as well as always, but eventually her consciousness faded and she dreamt dreams…she didn't expect.
