23. A young and tender child. What more could I ask for?~

「Somewhere else in the dessert server with a difficulty rating: Survival」

"H-hot," gasped a thirsty 16-year-old juvenile as he felt the scorching sun burning into his skin. In desperation, he stared into the distance in hopes of finding an escape as his iron shackles rattled. Unfortunately, however, the only thing he saw was sand, no matter where he looked.

Surrounding the man stood people around his age, and all of them wore tattered clothes while being shackled to each other. But it got even worse. Some of these slaves shackled to them were already dead and rotting. The rest who had not yet departed the living, were starved to the bone, and some of them even resorted to cannibalizing in order to survive.

If Luz had been there, he would have recognized his two siblings with a mere glance as they stared at their slavers with burning hatred in their eyes.

None of them cared about the corpses that the group of enslaved had been dragging for days. Some of the slavers watched the group with amusement to see how long these people could keep struggling against them before their character broke.

Furious, Gab whispered to his younger brother while gnashing his teeth, "One day, I will hunt them all down... Remember, Raph. We must not lose hope until our reunion with our brothers."

Raph nodded with red eyes due to the rage and humiliation the two had suffered in the last few days.

Every single cell of Gab's body was filled with hatred. His only reason to continue moving on, except for his brothers, was his hatred towards his enslavers. Every day Gab was busy daydreaming about their march and how he would strangle each of these slave traders to death.

'My biggest regret is not being a mage yet. Luz used a spell above his weight class to give us a chance to live another day. It's kind of pathetic that we ended up in such a state. I'm not even sure if he survived using such a spell since the chances are high that he succumbed to his injuries. It only makes our current state more pathetic…' went through Gab's head as he continued marching onward on the sand that had been burning his foot soles.

His throat was burning, and everything hurt. But Gab persisted while gasping for air as his anger slowly turned into a mix of sadness and despair.

Swallowed by his emotions, Gab whispered quietly with his hand balled into a fist. "Dying with all the other villagers, fighting desperately against a dragon, would have been a more honorable death than our current situation."

"Don't say that, brother. We'll escape this hell one day. I only got you… please don't lose any hope yet.… I can't lose another brother," Raph pleaded as he slowly held Gab's arm.

But before he could continue convincing his older brother, one of the slave traders shouted, "What the hell are you two morons doing?" while swinging his whip.

A thunderous whip plash echoed loudly, followed by a quiet groan.

Raph, who fell to the ground, stuttered in shock, "Br-Brother," as he saw how his older brother took the blow head-on to protect his younger brother.

After forcing a smile onto his face, Gab whispered, "It's nothing," as blood dripped down his back.

While marching, the number of corpses they had to drag due to the chains bounding them together increased.

If they were lucky, some of the thralls collapsed from fatigue and would carry the burden with them later on.

Only after the sun was dawning on the horizon did the caravan halt for a pause. After all, their mounts needed a break so that they could recuperate.

Unfortunally for the bondslaves, the night was horrifying as their masters regularly grabbed some of them to relieve their stress. It was a grotesque sight to see what was happening, and the two brothers wanted nothing more than to continue their march through their desert.

Raph was afraid of ending up as the next victim, especially considering he was still young and had a petite body, unlike his muscular brother. But at least they got their rations and a cup of water during their break. Their ration was a loaf of bread that didn't even look edible and tasted bitter.

After forcing their rations down their throat, the two immediately rested further until one of the slave traders approached them. A smile slowly surfaced on Gab's face as he pretended to sleep. He had been waiting for the opportunity to kill one of these sickos.

"A young and tender child, what can I ask more,~" commented a man as he slowly grabbed Raph's arm.

Out of fear, Raph slapped his hands away, trying to escape.

"Ohoh, he fights back," commented the man in amusement while grabbing Raph's tattered clothes, ripping them apart.

As the man's focus was on the child, the furious Gab slowly stood up and used the moment of surprise to wrap the chains around the throat.

'That will be your end, you sick psycho,' thought Gab, as he threw himself to the ground while tightening the chains around the man's throat as much as he could.

It was the first time for the slave trader that he felt the fear of dying due to underestimating his own subjects.

Frantically, he tried to scream for help while clinging to the chains that made it difficult for him to breathe. But he was too weak to free himself from the wrath-filled Gab, and none of the other slave drivers bothered helping him and chose to ignore the situation.

But his eyes immediately widened in fear as the boy, whom he planned on raping, slowly stood up as his hand got enveloped by a flickering fire.

Upon noticing what was happening, the rest of the enslavers watched the spectacle with amusement. However, the situation got weirder as one of them even began cheering them on while others were laughing at the fate of their former associate.

The fear in the man's eye became visible as his breath grew more ratted. He tried to get away while Raph slowly moved to him. Unfortunately for him, Gab made sure that he couldn't even move an inch.

With a grin going from ear to ear, Raph pressed his burning fingers against the fearful eyes of the fat merchant, whose bone thrilling scream echoed through the camp.

The finger of Raph slowly buried deeper and deeper into his eyes before he took them out to beat the man. The merchant's screams continued as the smell of burned flesh filled the air, making the bondslave duo hungry as they craved nutrition-rich food.

Raph's laughed in madness and glee as he began punching the fat merchant who was slowly dying due to strangulation. Even after the merchant's death, Raph continued beating him, and a small crowd surrounded them slowly.

"He's already dead," one of them commented in boredom, kicking Raph away.

The two brothers got beaten, but it didn't take long till they focussed only on Gab. Raph tried to protect Gab's head by laying on him.

"Enough, these two are valuable slaves," shouted an old slave trader as he scared them off with his cane before looking at Raph in glee.

The two brothers breathed and groaned loudly, and Raph stuttered with a smile, "Thank you."

As Gab moved his broken body next to Raph to hug the latter, he groaned in pain, "Hopefully, our beloved siblings ended up in a better situation."

Shortly after, the two fell asleep while Gab hugged Raph's body from behind.

Unfortunally for them, the old man never moved and commented in amusement, "Why are you thanking me? I'm here to take you away from here?"