The Escape

Atlas covered his mouth. He then slowly peaks back outside. Luckily, it seems he wasn't heard by anyone. He then turns around again to get a better look at the girl.

'Looking at her closely, she really does resemble Liza. That isn't possible though, she's dead already. I spent 10 years alone on Earth after she died and another 10 years alone in this one. She would have been dead for at least 20 years now. Yeah, there's no way this is her.'

Atlas was going to wake her up but she woke up first. She saw Atlas and was going to scream but then Atlas quickly covered her mouth.

"Shhh, they might hear you. I was also sold off to the slave trader as well. Can you not scream when I let you go?"

The girl nods and Atlas lets her go. The girl then gets up, brushes off the dirt from her ragged gown. She walks over to the chains and tugs at it, breaking it in one go. 'Such strength!' Atlas thought.

Suddenly feeling like an apex predator was standing before him. He begins to back up into his side of the carriage.

The girl approaches Atlas, grabs onto his chains and destroys them in one tug as well. Atlas whispers to the girl,

"Holy, you're really strong, aren't you the same age as me."

The girl looks at him with a proud smile but then quickly pouts at him. She puts her hands on her hips and points at him,

"Hmph! I'm not strong, I'm the precious princess that needs to be protected, that's what my dad always said."

Atlas couldn't help but giggle a bit. This girl may be in a bad situation but she still knows how to keep the mood up.

"What are you laughing for huh? A prince like you should be introducing yourself to me right now."

"Hm? Me? A prince? What do you- No, you know what, we need to decide how to escape first. Princess, are you okay with killing people?"

The princess' playful smile disappears. She looks down and shakes her head. Atlas understood and didn't question her further.

"It's okay, stay in here and I'll take care of everyone. I'll come get you after."

The girl reluctantly nods while Atlas quietly and carefully leaves the carriage.

Atlas stays hidden under the carriage. Scanning the area, trying to locate where the three men were. He finds the slave trader preparing to light the fire. One of the guards was setting up a tent while the last guard told the slave trader that he was going to use the bathroom. Atlas begins thinking of the most efficient plan he could use.

'Alright, the quickest thing I could do is to take out the guard that will be by himself. He will be vulnerable when he's using the bathroom. After that I could take out the other guard. I should be careful though; I've seen magic in action before but I've never fought anyone that used magic. Assuming everything goes as plan, taking on the slave trader by myself should be easy.'

Atlas then crawled out from under the carriage, grabs a small pointy branch and closely follows behind the guard that went off on his own.

The guard finally comes to a stop after walking for about a minute. He leans up against and tree and does his business. Atlas quickly attacks the man.

"AH- mhmmmm!!!!!"

Atlas quickly jumps on the back of the man and covers his mouth as he uses a branch to stab the man in the throat. The man gets one yell off before Atlas savagely stabbed into the unsuspecting guard.

Atlas gets up, covered in blood, he reaches down and takes the guard's dagger. Even though he was covered in blood that wasn't his, Atlas doesn't show any sign of disgust. Years of surviving in the slums changed his mind set. Even with the return of his memory from his past life, it doesn't affect how he viewed this world. You must kill whoever stands in your way so that you may see another day.

Atlas wipes the blood off the dagger and his face.

'Time to take out the other two.'

Heading back to the campsite. Atlas decides on how he will deal with the last guard.

'I'll have to be careful and look for the perfect opportunity to take the guard by surprise, then I can try to get some information out of the slave trader.'

When he reached the campsite, he hears the slave trader telling the guard to check on their prisoners. Atlas, moves as fast and as quiet as he could to the carriage before the guard does.

He ends up reaching the carriage before the guard does. He jumps back in, scaring the little girl that was patiently waiting for Atlas to return.

"Eeek! My prince! You're back! Are you hurt? Is that your dried blood?"

"Shhhh! Yes, I'm okay, this isn't my blood. Quickly, get back to your corner. The guard is coming into check on us. Just keep your eyes closed and shut your ears alright?"

The girl realized what was going to happen, she nods, runs back into her corner and covers her ears. Atlas goes into his corner and pretends to still be asleep. Seconds after, the guard climbs onto the carriage.

"Ah, I can't wait to complete this job. Easy money, everyone in the Western Continent is so weak. Damn, this kid is still out. Hey! It's been four days kid, wake your ass up."

He then kicks Atlas' side; Atlas tried his best not to make any noise.

"Well whatever, let's see if the girl is up."

The guard turns around to check on the girl. The moment he does, Atlas stands up and swiftly jumps on his back, stabbing and digging the dagger into the man's throat. Of course, though, not everything goes as planned.

The man's body had a natural reaction, the moment he felt the knife stab into him, he automatically fired off a spell. It was a strong wind spell that sliced at whatever it came into contact with. Atlas also had a quick reaction and turned the guard's body towards the sky the moment he felt the mana in the air begin to change.

The spell missed the girl but sliced apart the top of the carriage. The girl screams after seeing what unfolded in front of her. Atlas ignores her, he couldn't afford to comfort her. He could hear the slave trader rushing towards them.

"What happened? Hey! I didn't pay you so that you could beat those kids!"

The trader then stops, something didn't seem right to him. The guard didn't answer back and the other guard hasn't returned. He slowly backs away and prepares himself for an attack. He then hears a sound come from his right; he looks in that direction but then felt a killing intent from his left. Instincts told him to jump to his right as far as he could. Just as he moved, he saw a dagger slash at the spot he was just at.

'Tsk, the damn trader might be the most skilled out of the three.'

Atlas, holding daggers in both hands in a reverse grip, stays in his fighter stance, ready for any sudden movement. The trader looks at Atlas, a near psychotic smiles appears on his face.

"YES! So those two fools were right, you are talented! You killed my guard when he was already D ranked. I assumed you killed the one that went for a piss as well! AHAHA! All those years in the West weren't wasted. His Majesty will surely reward me handsomely once he sees someone like you. You're doing all this at ten! I can't wait to see how you strong you will be once the Empire's best train you."

The trader seemed to nearly climax at the thought of the money he would receive. Atlas could see this, even though disgusted, he moved to attack the trader. Deciding that maybe it wasn't worth trying to capture him alive, Atlas aims for an instant kill.

Dashing to the man's left, Atlas tries to aim for his femoral artery. The trader sees this and releases a deathly aura. Atlas, who had assumed that the trader was the weakest of the three, freezes. Unable to move at all.

The slave trader sees Atlas' confused face and starts giggling.

"Wondering why you can't move right? Hahaha! That my friend is called Death's Aura. For weaker people like you, feeling this aura will freeze them in place, their body won't even react. That's because the aura released will trick the enemies body into thinking that Death himself is standing before them. What would you do in this situation? Play dead of course! Death can't kill what is already killed! That is what your body is trying to do right now."

For the first time in this life, Atlas was terrified. He has seen people fight with magic from a distance but he has never felt such overwhelming danger like this. He hasn't even seen a spell that could freeze it's opponent like this either. Unsure on what to do next, he stays still, just like the trader said, all Atlas could do was pray that he could live through this.

"Don't worry boy, I won't kill you. Someone as valuable as you will be perfect for His Majesty. I just wanted to scare you a bit, put you into your place now so you won't cause more trouble. Now let's go-."

The man then suddenly stops, he could feel someone else with Death's Aura close by, the issue was that it was a stronger aura than his. Which meant he was now frozen in place.

"What- What kind of monster are you?? To have an aura even stronger than mine? You're at least 40%, right? That's the only way. Why don't we talk huh? You can join me on the way to the Eastern Continent. You can live a life with riches just based off of your Aura alone. Just please, don't kill me."

Atlas was taken aback. The trader was talking about a stronger Aura and something about a percentage. He couldn't feel anything though. Are you able to direct this Death's Aura at certain people only? But that wasn't the only thing, he was talking as if there was someone else. The only other person here was the little girl.

From the wreckage of the carriage, the little girl walked out. Her red eyes burned with furry.

"Well, isn't it funny old man? You were boasting about your Aura, but the moment you felt mine you caved in instantly and begged me to let you live. You even tried to bribe me? You're kidding right? You know who I am! Anything the East can offer; my family already has."

"But wait, princess… we can sign a peace treaty! I promise we won't attack you guys! We'll even become allies, together-."

"Die."

The princess points at the man and then mutters one word. In the next moment, the slave trader explodes into a pile of meat and bone.

Atlas fell down, looking at the princess.

"Liza, why are you so strong? Aren't you the same age as me?"

The princess looked at him. A look of worry appears on her face.

"How did you know my name? Are you also one of their people? No one in the public should know my name!"

Atlas felt like he messed up. He accidently called her Liza. Even worse, it just so happened that her name was Liza too! The happy girl from earlier now radiated a killer's aura and it all pointed at him like a sharpened blade. He quickly got on his knees.

"No, you got it wrong princess. You look just like someone I knew and her name just so happened to be Liza as well. Please believe me."

All Atlas could do was beg for forgiveness. What was he thinking? Of course, this girl isn't Liza. This is a girl in a whole other world. It's just a coincidence they had the same name and face.

Still on his knees, he waits for the little girl's verdict.

"Fine, I'll believe you since you killed that last guard. You wouldn't do that if you were with them. Come on, get up. You have to escort me back home my prince!"

The girl's mood changed again, now she was being playful with him again.

"Oh, uhm, sure. But which way is home?"

"The Draco Kingdom of course! They must be missing their favorite princess right now! It will take a few days so let's hurry!"

Atlas didn't know anything about the geography of the land since he spent his entire life in the slums of the Nova Kingdom.

"Wow, so you're actually a princess huh. Okay, lead the way." Atlas takes a step forward but then his vision goes dark. He fell asleep.

"Ah, my prince. You probably overexerted yourself. The Death's Aura must have done a lot to you. We can rest for the night then head back in the morning."

The princess then carries Atlas towards the camp fire and lays him down. She decides to watch over them both for the night.

"Silly prince. You're suppose to protect this precious princess but now you're having her protect you again. You owe me for this."

The princess smiles as she stares at Atlas' sleeping face.