Chapter 1

"How much?" 

Said the man in a blue robe.

"That would be five coppers for the product. There's no bargaining on the table that's the cheapest I could go"

"Here." He handed the exact amount to the slave merchant. 

"Thank you! But can I ask something? why would you buy 'this'? I have better products at hand clearly I could tell that you have the money to buy a product with a better quality. This one has already been used by many customers, I have items that are still clean, I'll show--"

"No thanks, I'll pass the offer and I got what I need" He walked away leaving with a cheap product on sale.

The man with a blue robe, blonde hair, and blue eyes goes by the name Wilhelm, a magician. He is heading back to his house after his stroll in town, he goes out of the town's gates and uses magic to ignore distance for a short amount of time. Teleportation. This magic is dangerous as it interferes with the concept of space and time. A single error in the circle would cost you your life. If a mistake was made you might be trapped inside the time dimension or get stuck in a space dimension. A tiny misplacement of a symbol inside the circle would create an irregular course such as getting teleported to the wrong place or worse getting stuck into something solid. There was a magician who studied teleportation magic who got teleported into a forest, his foot was stuck inside a tree. Luckily he had countermeasures in case that were to happen therefore his foot was saved, he enforced and covered himself with magic to maintain its form during the process so that the body wouldn't get mixed up with anything that could potentially harm the body. That magician had many trials and errors before his mastery of the magic. 

Wilhelm arrived at his house. The house looked like a small manor with a tower near the ocean bay. He unlocked the door and entered the house, the place was a total mess, scattered papers on the ground, and books and documents were all over the place. The room is dusty and messy. It was more like a dump site than a house but despite the mess, there was a room that was neat and clean, it was his room upstairs. 

"Stay in this room for the time being, I'll go and prepare your room in the meantime" 

He was talking to the slave he bought. She was in bad shape, her body was covered with bruises and had ugly scars all over her skin, most of them are traces of being whipped. Her hair is messy, it looks like a bird nest and she stinks. Her eyes were lifeless, it almost felt like he bought himself a piece of a human corpse. The clothes she was wearing resembled that of a dirty rag. 

Wilhelm used magic to arrange the things inside the room next to his, he used magic to remove the dust around the room; making it clean and sparkling. It was pretty much easy for him to clean things using magic. It is also one reason why many people who know him keep wondering why his place is always messy even though he could clean it instantly but in Wilhelm's case, it was a habit for him to easily remember things. Inside his research room, the books and some papers may look like a total mess but inside his mind, everything is in place and organized. Only inside his study or research area which is located near the entrance of the house where he keeps things untidy and the rest of the house is fairly organized although some places have gone dusty since he would only do is read books most of the time. 

"What's your name?" He asked her but she didn't answer. Slavery is legal for some kingdoms in Delios, Reolona is one of them. Being a slave means a person is punished for crimes committed, inherited from their parents, and war captives. 

He created a magic circle, [Purification]. It's a magic that cleanses impurities. The magic circle appeared beneath her, she was surrounded with shining bubbles slowly circling her. The sight of it brightened her eyes but only for a little, it was pretty, and the bubbles movement was like fluffy cottons gracefully dancing around her. A second magic circle appeared and was placed on top of her, a light green glow with a beautiful scripted line structure, [Healing Magic]. She could feel the pain within her body slowly fade away, her wounds closen up and her bruises vanish. She let out a deep sigh indicating a sign of relief. Then another circle appeared, [Reconstruction], it was bigger than the last two circles, she was experiencing a tingling sensation and some of her body parts felt like it was being twisted. She didn't scream out of pain simply because she was used to it, she had felt more painful experiences considering the number of her scars. 

After the circle vanished she noticed her body reverted to its healthy form a body brimming with health. She searched her body and the sight of her skin having no traces of wounds nor scars made her eyes cloudy as if tears would fall at any moment. 

"You can change into this" 

Wilhelm placed a pair of clothes near the table inside the room. "I'll wait outside" 

The door closed. In a while, she wiped the tear that was building up in the corner of her eyes. She took off her old clothes and wore the ones prepared for her.

It was Wilhelm's sleeping attire, he didn't have any spare clothes at the moment. He tampered with the size of the clothes using magic so that they could fit her perfectly. 

She went outside and looked for him, it wasn't that difficult to find him since the place wasn't big, she found him reading a book inside his study downstairs; he was sitting on his desk as he read a thick leather book. She stood there and watched him read, a handsome man with sapphire blue eyes focusing on the book he read.

Time passed and Wilhelm finished the book, he noticed that the girl remained standing near the door this whole time. She didn't disturb him and was just looking at him. 

"What's your name?" His voice echoed the room and the sound of the book being closed followed.

"R-Runa" she finally replied. Her voice was soft and shaky, as soon as he heard her voice his eyes shifted on her. Now that he properly took a good look at her, she wasn't half bad, she had a small face and brown hair reaching her waist and a good slender figure with a slim waist and green eyes. She is fairly pretty. 

"Runa? I see, how old are you?"

"N-nineteen"

"Where did you originally come from?"

"P-Polyan"

"Do you know magic?---" 

, etc. Wilhelm has always been a curious guy asking a lot of questions to feed his curiosity. He was asking her questions about likes and dislikes and other general things delightfully, like talking to a friend. Runa on the other hand was the hesitant type, she couldn't keep up with the questions as they kept on flooding. 

Runa's birthplace is in the Polyan territory in Reolona, she was the child of a merchant and has little knowledge of beginner-level magic, she likes flowers and cute animals, and her hobby was stitching as it was their family's way of living, she's not picky with her food and loves to sing. Those were some replies she gave. 

Wilhelm remembered his mother's words 

'A person who likes flowers and cute animals are good person!' and he believed the concept of his mother was the very evidence of her statement, she likes flowers and fluffy animals, the same characteristics as his mother therefore he concluded that she was not a bad person. As simple as that. He also used [Lie Detection] magic just to make sure that her statements were true, as he recalled his father's advice 'Giving out false information is easy when you're trying to fool someone.' Therefore he used that kind of magic to avoid getting tricked by anyone. 

"Are you hungry?" He asked because he realized that it had been a couple of hours since Wilhelm was already feeling hungry. The sun was about to set.

Runa replied, "N-no, sir...?" She was unsure of how she'd address him. The lie detection magic reacted indicating that she lied about not being hungry.

"Well I'm getting hungry, let's get something to eat" Wilhelm walked towards Runa and grabbed her hand. Runa saw the change in her surroundings. They were not inside the study anymore but were outside the town's gates, the sudden change of location left her astounded. Wilhelm walked past through the gates, there were two guards on the post, they saw him and straightened up as he passed through them. 

They would usually block people to have a check on their faces but they let Wilhem walk in just fine. Runa followed him but one of the guards blocked her having a stern face. Runa got scared, the other guard next to him hit his helmet and offered a small bow as he apologized to his fellow guard. Runa doesn't know what to do and is panicking mentally, she sees Wilhelm watching them from a meter away, and she rushes to his side passing through them. They left the gate post and walked inside the town. 

The guards then returned to their post,

"Are you an idiot?! Do you want us to get scolded?!" Said the one who hit his fellow guard.

"I was just making sure--" his fellow guard strangled him, they looked like they were playing around.

"Just making sure my ass, that guy is someone the captain knows. That girl he was with is probably the one he walked with earlier." They were recalling the scene from earlier where Wilhelm left with a slave next to him.

"That slave?! That's some transformation she got, she looked like a dirty burglar but who would've thought that she'd be that pretty, to be honest, she is just the type I wanted to ask her name so you can't blame me for blocking her" 

"In your dreams, with that attitude, you'd just scare the ladies away. Anyways that man is a magician don't randomly mess with him, I'll inform the other guards about his slave. We were told to not bother that guy and after all, it's best to follow orders"

"But don't you find it weird?"

"About what? The order?"

"No, not that. The clothes she wears. She's wearing a sleeping attire."

"It doesn't concern you what that guy wants her to wear. She's a slave, sometimes they don't even wear clothes"

"Good point" 

They have already encountered him almost every day, he would come to visit a specific store. He had been a regular visitor inside their town.