Death from Aastra

"Aaagghhh…"

The pain was growing by the minute. My throat was getting sore and prickly. I felt like I was about to faint but just then I heard multiple distant voices. All my senses have dulled due to the pain but still I managed to figure out a couple of them.

"What happened? Princess, are you alright?"

"It's that son of a whore screaming, isn't it?"

The voices were familiar; they were probably the knights from earlier. But they were still quiet far away as their footsteps were slowly getting louder.

Suddenly, the figure of the Princess bent forward and palaced an irregular rock in front of me. It was the size of a palm. I recognized it despite my blurry vision because it was the same rock the Princess was holding in her left hand earlier.

As soon as she placed the rock on the ground in front of me, she pulled me such that my body fell with its stomach covering the rock. I was now covering the rock with my body while also thrashing with pain on the ground.

She then slightly whispered into my ear, "Keep it safe, it will be very useful." As soon as she finished saying what she wanted to say, she stood up, standing erect.

I saw five silhouettes quickly approaching the area as soon as the Princess got away from me. The guards saw me wriggling in pain on the ground but without minding my misery, one of them said, "What happened, Princess? Are you alright?"

Princess Josephine then turned her body towards me and said, "Stop!" Her tone has changed into a brutal one from the soft tone when we were talking.

Just as I felt that my consciousness was fading away, all the pain suddenly stopped. I thought that I would feel relief and all the situation would get clear to me. However, my heartbeat was still extremely fast and all the sensations in my skin were gone. My senses were clearer than ever! But, the strangest part was that I was feeling extreme euphoria. It was like I was on some strange kind of sedative drug mixed with a stimulant. My body entered a state of half unconsciousness.

Despite of me being in a extremely groggy state, I was still clearly able to discern what was going on around me.

The Princess said to the knights while looking disgustingly at me, "When I gave this bastard some mental trauma earlier, he was able to handle it. But as soon as I give him a little physical pain, he couldn't handle it and starts screaming like a Mokaka!

"I'm not satisfied with this punishment. I declare that Alex will be killed by 'Aastra'. The date is close anyway."

As soon as she declared my punishment, all the knights looked in my direction. All of their faces had a creepy smile on them. Meanwhile, the Princess has already gone back into her unpleasant state. She also had a creepy smile but this time her pain and true self was clearly visible to me in her eyes.

The knights started to talk among themselves, trying to extract whatever entertainment they could from this situation.

"You get what you deserve bastard. Ha-ha."

"He shouldn't have talked so openly about freedom and shit! Now look what you get!"

I couldn't focus on their words. My situation was slowly getting better. I was gradually getting back the control on my body. Although my senses were becoming normal from the excited state, the good thing was that I was feeling more conscious about my surroundings.

I did not know what 'death from Aastra' was but I didn't think too much of it. At this point, I've already stopped caring what Fate was throwing in my direction. All I desire now is to get back to my previous life. Although it was monotonous and boring, it was billions of times better than what I was going through.

I can still recall how happy I felt whenever I received my paycheck…How tasty the food was…How comfortable the bed was…How joyful my life was.

'Why is it that we understand the true value of something only after losing it? Also, why am I having such poetic thought like I was on my deathbed? No way, I can't die!'

After realizing my pessimistic thoughts, I looked towards a knight when he said, "You awake? You have seventeen days to live you bastard. You can now go back to do your work. If you don't want to rot in a cell and waste these days, don't do anything stupid. We will be watching you and come back to get you when it is time. Live while you can you impudent little shit!"

Thump!

"Ugh!"

After finishing what he wanted to say, he kicked me at my back and a painful grunt escaped my lips. Some of the other slaves spat at me and then they all went away. I looked at the 6 fading figures while still hiding the rock that the Princess gave me with my body.

'Apparently, they didn't figure out that the Princess has given me a gift. They also didn't untie my arms and legs. Sigh! I need to quickly get out of this situation before they change their mind and come back!'

I curled up on the ground and moved my hands downward, which were tied up on my back. After seeing this trick in a movie, I've tried it multiple times as a kid. Plus, due to my physique being slim and short, it was easier to do. I moved my hands further downward till I can pass my legs through the loop in my arms.

After a bit of discomfort, I managed to move my tied up hands from my back to my front. Now it was easier to move. After seeing my rope around my hands, an idea hit me.

'I hope this works!'

I called out to my inventory while sitting back up on the ground. Moving the black vortex over the rope in my hands, I commanded, "Store!"

Whoosh!

The vortex twisted clockwise and the rope in my hands disintegrated into glowing blue particles.

Fling!

The particles then got sucked by the vortex and it stopped rotating clockwise. When I wasn't using the inventory, the vortex would, by default rotate in both directions. Some parts would rotate clockwise while some would rotate anticlockwise. No matter how many times I looked at it, it always looked so fascinating!

I then stored the rope tying my feet and the rock inside the inventory in the same fashion. As I got back my freedom to move, I picked up my shirts and moved back to my stable as I wore one of them.

***

Click! Click! Click!

I walked out of the clothing area and moved southwards towards the stable. I looked around and noticed the vermilion hue has grown dimmer. Since it was already bedtime, there were very few people in the village. Most of them were guards in their night duty.

From the corner of my eyes I noticed many guards looking towards me as they monitored my actions.

'So they have already received the order to watch over me huh… Although, the slaves are still ignoring me like the wind. I guess they don't have a clue about what is going on. Not for now, at least!

'Today was a very big and painful day, I finished my work early, got outside the village, received the seeds of the starlight fruit, appointed my stat points and experienced loads of pain and even fainted! Then I moved back into the village just to experience more pain and some mental trauma!

'Now that I think about it, I should've just run away when I was outside. It was so stupid of me to even think that I would find a better way! Now the escape has become much more difficult for me!'

Sigh!

I ended my monologue with a sigh. An hour after I left the river bank, I reached back at my stable.

When I opened the door and entered inside, I noticed that everyone was already asleep. Even the Lakéquses were sleeping soundly!

I tiptoed my way around the sleeping bodies and after finding an empty corner, I laid down on the dirty floor.

'I will be woken up early tomorrow to work again in the mine. I couldn't even ask for a half day! I will just grit my teeth and deal with it. After all, I'm already a dead man!'

I looked at the sleeping James and whispered into the silent vermilion night, "It's funny how the one I trusted with my secrets betrayed me so easily meanwhile the one I thought I could never trust is now helping me…"

After silently mocking my fate, I closed my eyes and I didn't even realize when I entered the dreamland.

***