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Furie

"Alright, follow me then.", Beta said while putting his mask on again.

The girl stood up slowly, barely holding herself up. Beta, who looked at this scene, frowned. If she wasn't even able to walk properly, it would be hard to get her to his hideout without taking the attention of people around him. He pulled her up and gave her a small stick that was standing around next to a cage. Due to the blood on one end, and the girl's reaction when he got near her with the stick, he could well imagine what it was originally used for.

At first, the girl didn't want to even get near the stick, but as soon as she took hold of it, she felt better. It gave her a feeling of control over her own life again and her eyes directly turned a bit livelier. Beta was satisfied with this result and left the shady room to get to the shop again. They both stood in front of the counter, but Beta didn't yet finish things up, he still needed the chains and handcuffs after all.

He looked through the shelves and picked up some things that he deemed useful. The girl he just picked up looked a bit scared when she saw this. She thought of many possibilities which made her face look pale but then she remembered what Beta said earlier. She became a bit confused and lowered her head to stare at the floor. The slave trader, of course, took note of her reaction and sneered. In the end, he believed it completely that Beta was no different from his other evil customers.

The girl, on the other hand, was still mulling what to believe. She took a glance at Beta and recalled his smiling kind face. Not long after that, she eventually decided to go through with her idea of following him. Beta took note of her reaction as well as the slave trader's. His lips slightly arched from the convincing reaction of the girl that further solidify his facade.

Not long after picking the supplies he needed, he soon came to the counter with a huge amount of chains and handcuffs. The slave trader was visibly confused as to why anyone would buy so many at once when they only had one slave. But it didn't bother him enough to refuse the just as huge amount of money that he would gain through this purchase. Plus, he was not the only one to sell slaves after all. So, the slave trader thought that he was just lucky enough for Beta to conduct his shopping.

"All in all, this will cost thirty-five silver coins.", the slave trader said, happily smiling.

"Oh? Looks like this place is rather cheap. I may come here a few more times in the future.", Beta said, after which his pupils twisted.

Beta took out a shiny gold coin and put it on the counter.

"Keep the rest for future payments that may occur.", Beta said, leaving the place slowly with the little girl in tow, carrying the chains and cuffs.

The slave trader almost couldn't believe his luck and quickly bit into the coin to test its authenticity and achieved the result he wanted. He happily hid the coin from possible curious eyes and went into the room at the back again.

Outside of the store, the little girl looked at Beta curiously.

"Why did he accept that bronze coin so happily?"

"Heh! Because he saw it as a gold coin.", Beta answered with a smirk.

"Eh? You are able to use soulpower?", the girl asked with slightly shining eyes.

She had already wondered how exactly Beta was going to make her stronger. Now, she had an inkling as to how it would be done. If she was able to learn these mysterious arts, she would definitely be able to defend herself in the future and take revenge for her brother and all the other slaves that died and were still stuck at the slave trader's warehouse.

"Yes. However, I'm still learning at the academy.", Beta answered coolly.

The girl thought that it was amazing that Beta can deceive people so easily such as earlier. But then not long after that, Beta entered an alley and let all of the stuff he was carrying vanish into thin air. Once again, the little girl was surprised, but now she just noted it as "Someone who can control soulpower is, of course, able to let that vanish!". So, she closed her mouth which was gaping wide and calmed her heart which was beating like a drum from excitement.

"Now that I think about it, what's your name?", Beta asked. He didn't intend to just call her 'little girl' whenever he needs something.

"…Master, my name is Furie.", the little girl answered while looking at Beta with a question mark written all over her face.

"I see. Well, I'm Beta and I prefer to be called that way."

"Oh… then where are we going, Mas-… Beta?", Furie asked.

"We'll go to a safe place. Well, at least for you it'll be. I guess we could call it our base.", Beta said, putting his thumb and index finger on his chin.

"You have your own base?", Furie asked with shining eyes. Wouldn't he have to be really rich to be able to have his own base?

"Don't expect anything fancy. It's clean, but... I guess you should just see for yourself.", Beta said. It was a bit awkward to him since it wasn't really a nice comfy base. But he would make sure to change that in the future.

Furie didn't know what to answer, so she just kept quiet the whole way there. Beta was also glad that she was behaving to avoid attracting the eyes of other onlookers. The last thing he wanted was to get caught roaming around with a slave on tow. But to his surprise, he didn't attract as much attention as he thought he would, because she looked just like many other starving kids on the streets. In fact, the completely covered person next to her was more suspicious than the girl to be exact. So, he was able to relax a bit and head to his base peacefully.

They moved through many alleys and finally arrived at their destination. Furie was confused at first after seeing that they arrived on a dead-end alley but then Beta opened the cover leading to his underground base. The girl gasped in fear and looked at Beta with teary eyes. She was afraid to go down the stairs into a strange basement, but Beta kept on urging her to go on so she decided to do it anyway in a very slow and shaky manner. A few steps before reaching the chamber, Beta suddenly halted and looked at Furie.

"Just a minor warning. You don't have to be afraid of the guys down here. I'll take them to a separate place as soon as it's ready. They are here for a different kind of experiment and won't live long. In the future, you may see more of those entering this place.", Beta said quietly while showing a warm smile.

Once the girl realized what Beta said, all the hair on her body raised and then cold sweat started dripping on her back. "Was it really wise to follow this guy? Does he really intent to make me strong? I'm scared… but if he really intends to fulfill his promise, then I'll be able to do what I want… No, I don't have any other choice. I'm already here so there's no point hesitating. I need to trust him... I must trust him. My life is his now and not mine. I'll do everything and anything just to get my revenge and he's the only one I can depend from now on.", thought Furie while steeling herself to move forward.

Beta noticed the changes in Furie's eyes. He could tell that she has been conflicted from the start until now. Seeing the strong resolve in her eyes, he was glad that he picked a good merchandise. He then led the way further while Furie followed after him, wary of what was to come.

"Who are you?! Where's that little bitch that led us here?!", one of the guys asked, pointing with his index finger at Beta.

The person who has been called out for, Beta, just ignored the guy and got closer to him instead. Before he could voice out his remorse, Beta quickly moved and knocked them all out within a second. They weren't even able to defend themselves before they passed out, nor were they able to let out any noise. Furie was shocked at how fast Beta took them all out. She didn't even have to blink to see the whole thing happen. She wasn't really bothered that he did what he did since they all looked like bad guys to her anyway. She was more excited with the thought that Beta will teach her how to fight just like him.

Beta saw her staring at him with a weird look on her face so he tried to explain himself properly.

"They are rapists and thugs. There's no need to feel sorry for them nor think that I'm a bad guy. Just sit down for a while. I'll have to make some more rooms.", Beta said. Without much delay, he used his Void Elemental soulpower to dig through the earth and therefore created two small rooms. One of them didn't have a door and Beta pointed towards it saying, "This will be your room from now on.".

It didn't have much in it, just what seemed like a bed, a cupboard, a desk, and a chair. He then grabbed the thugs and threw them in the other room. He had already put runes on both of the rooms and prepared some simple furniture in Furie's room. The thugs were thrown in theirs and Beta closed the doorframe up with some of the earth he let disappear earlier to cave out the rooms.

"See? There is no need to worry about them. They won't be able to dig through the earth and will only get out if I want them to.", said Beta while showing a carefree smile.

Beta was about to say more, but he saw Furie looking at her own room, crying.

"Eh? It's not that bad, is it? I don't have anything else prepared at the moment, but we'll get to that at a later time.", Beta said looking at her, a little frantic since he knew that girls were often picky.

"No, it's not that… It's okay. I like it like this!", Furie said, going to her own bed. After a while, she added, "I have a place I can call my own now... Thank you, Beta."