Chapter Twenty: Mark, Binding And Return To The Inn

Kenjiro and Tedbaldus were now waiting in the room that he first went into when he was brought here. Tedbaldus had gotten some servants to prepare Refia to come back with him.

And although Tedbaldus had tried to start some conversation between them, Kenjiro didn't respond to it, instead just glaring at the man whenever he spoke to him.

Kenjiro didn't like Tedbaldus one bit, and he never would. Although he had freed Refia, she was still tied to him.

All slaves had a collar around their neck, and a mark on their chest, the mark connecting them with their owner. But even if the mark wasn't connected to someone, it would still be there, and so even if he let her go, if anyone spotted the mark they would capture her and just sell her as a slave again, definitely ending up with someone worse then Kenjiro.

Kenjiro also wanted to free the other slaves if he got the chance, although he didn't know if he would get that chance. But if he could, and make Tedbaldus get rid of the slave mark, then he would.

They only had to wait around a minute with a tense silence, as the door opened to show Refia. She was wearing 'better' 'clothes' than last time, if you could even call it that. It was still just a rag, almost like a potato sack with holes in it.

She then got pushed into the room by one of the guards. Kenjiro flet angry at the way they were treating her, but couldn't do anything about it, he knew the guards were stronger than him.

"Time to connect you two." Tedbaldus said excitedly.

He got a pin out of his pocket and walked over to Refia who was sitting on the floor, her body weak from not being fed properly. The proof of that being her ribs starting to show, which Kenjiro saw when she was wearing her other 'outfit'. And her arms which were bone with some meat on it.

She couldn't resist Tedbaldus, even though she weakly tried to push him off herself. But he managed to get her blood by pricking her finger.

Tedbaldus then put a that pin in a small tray that collected any blood that fell off of it, even though there wasn't much blood on it anyways.

He then opened a drawer. While he was doing that Kenjiro watched him carefully, wondering what he was getting from the drawer, but also looking at Refia from the corner of his eye with concern, Kenjiro could make an educated guess and say it wasn't healthy for her to be that skinny. When they got out of here, he would have to get food for her, he didn't need any even though he didn't count monsters as food, it did fill him up that he didn't need proper food.

Tedbaldus then found what he was looking for, and brought over a piece of paper. "Show me the back of your hand; it doesn't matter which one." Tedbaldus told him.

And Kenjiro put forward his right hand.

Tedbaldus put the paper on his hand and forced it down, it stuck to his hand like tape.

Tedbaldus then got the blood and pin, and dropped some blood onto the paper.

A mark appeared on the paper, and when he saw that Tedbaldus removed the paper, showing that the mark was now on Kenjiro's skin.

Kenjiro didn't have any words to describe the design, it wasn't complicated but it wasn't something that could be described without seeing it in person. The colour of the mark, or maybe a tattoo, was a red colour, like the blood used on the paper before it appeared.

Tedbaldus then looked over at Refia expectantly, making Kenjiro look over as well.

On Refia's chest the mark that was there already, that looked similar, but still different, then Kenjiro's, was now glowing a faint red.

Her face was in a pained grimace as she held her chest, and writhed on the floor.

Kenjiro was about to get angry with Tedbaldus, thinking he was the cause of it, which wouldn't be a surprise to Kenjiro from what he had gathered from the mana personality.

But of course the man saw this, and so did his guards, as they were immediately behind him, holding him down by his shoulders onto the chair.

Tedbaldus scoffed as he looked down on Refia, who was still on the ground squirming and letting out whimpers of pain. "Come on, stop resisting. The more you resist the mark the more pain it will cause you."

Refia seemed to listen or lost the will to resist, as the glowing on her chest where the mark was stopped, and she could finally breathe normally and she stopped squirming in pain.

"Good." Tedbaldus said simply. He then looked at Kenjiro to explain further. "That won't happen again, unless you give her an explicit order and she doesn't listen to it or goes against it."

Kenjiro just nodded his head, making a note of that and making sure to not give out anything that could sound like an order so that Refia wouldn't have to go through that pain again.

Tedbaldus then sat across from him, as Refia started to move into a position of sitting on her knees, not looking at anything in the room except for the floor. Kenjiro himself wanted to move, just to get himself and Refia out of Tedbaldus's 'shop', but the guards were still holding him to the chair by his shoulders.

"Now, my payment. It'll be fifteen copper." Tedbaldus said, the tone of his voice showing his greed and unending need for more money.

Kenjiro was a little staggered at the price Tedbaldus said, that was most of his remaining money. He would only have five copper leftover then. But he wasn't going to leave Refia in this place, so he took out his pouch that had money in it and gave Tedbaldus his money.

The man did a quick count of the copper, before smirking. "Pleasure doing business."

Kenjiro would say it was anything but a pleasure doing 'business' with Tedbaldus.

The guards that were holding him, let him go but stayed close enough in case he decided to attack.

Kenjiro rolled his shoulders, getting rid of the feeling of the guards holding him down. He then walked over near Refia and lowered himself a little to be on her level. "Come on, let's get out of here." Kenjiro said quietly, knowing his voice wouldn't be able to handle any more sentences and that was possibly the last thing he would be able to say today unless he pushed himself and if he did that he would run the risk of dither damaging his throat.

Refia slowly looked up at the man, his voice having a gentle tone despite how grotesque it sounded. She looked at him directly with some hesitance, she had heard slave owners get angered easily and didn't want to be hit, but when she looked up at him she could see the kindness in his eyes, they were a little squinted like someone would do when they were smiling.

Her owner, who she didn't know the name of, then moved his hand forward, and Refia closed her eyes and flinched thinking he was going to hit her for daring to look at him, but instead she didn't feel any pain, and when she dared to open her eyes she saw that his hand was held out in front of him, like he offering her help to stand up.

Refia hesitantly took the hand and her owner helped her stand up.

Tedbaldus, or as most of the other slaves called him the 'Ringmaster', then spoke up seeing as they were leaving. "Kenjiro, I have a no return policy, so she's your problem now." He said cruelly, no kindness in his voice. Once Tedbaldus got his money from the trade he would drop his act of being a semi-nice guy, even though in reality he was just manipulative.

Refia could see her master, as she was told to call her owner when she was bought, get a little angry at that, but he held himself back.

They started walking out of the room with Kenjiro still holding onto Refia's hand to guide her, and in his mind to catch her in case her body couldn't hold her up.

As they walked out the door both Refia and Kenjiro could hear Tedbaldus speak one last time. "See you around, kids."

Kenjiro seriously doubted he would ever be seeing Tedbaldus again of his own violation.

When they walked out of the fancy building that Tedbaldus owned, Kenjiro has realised that it wasn't the best location in the town, now that it was darker out some people with less than good intentions were out, of course that didn't mean they were everywere, only about one or two per back alley.

As even though Tedbaldus's building was fancy looking, it was actually in one of the rough locations in the town, although Kenjiro hadn't had enough time to explore the town to know if there was any 'rough-er' parts of town.

Kenjiro had kept a hold of Refia's hand while they were walking, not in fear of her escaping, something Kenjiro guessed she thought was happening, but because even though there were only a few less than savoury people around, they seemed to be in every alleyway that Kenjiro and Refia passed. All of them were looking at Refia as well, obviously not for good reasons.

And another reason was that because she was skinny and clearly hadn't been eating enough, he didn't want her to collapse and hurt herself.

Of course once they got to the Main Street of town, people didn't stop looking. It seemed that, while having a slave was legal, it didn't seem that it was normal for people or at least not in this town.

Although Kenjiro wanted to walk faster, to get all of the eyes off of him, as his body started to heat up with the stress of being the centre of attention, or at least that's what his mind told him. He walked at Refia's pace, just in case.

She didn't trip or hurt herself, which was good. But her feet would definitely be hurting by now, let's just say her shoes weren't the best of quality, if they could even be called shoes.

Refia herself was confused about it all. This wasn't like what she had expected or what others had told her. They had told her once she was bought that she would be 'used' until she broke if she lucky and be in a much worse state if she was unlucky… but this seemed to be neither, at least not yet.

Her master, Kenjiro was what the Ringmaster had called him, was… weird. He was uncomfortable with the people looking at them, although so was she, but walked at her pace. He held her hand, but not forcibly or rough, but enough to let her know he was there, only ever tightening his grip whenever he saw one of those people staring at them in the alley.

Her masters appearance was also unusual. Unlike the other humans, who had regular coloured hair, except for a unique few that she remembered from her memories before she was a slave, his hair was white that was almost like snow but a little dirty. He had what looked to be grey eyes, but Refia couldn't be sure.

He was also wearing a mask which Refia thought was unusual because no one else had one. Unless he was running away from someone and didn't want to be found.

They eventually reached the inn where Kenjiro was staying. Kenjiro walked in, with Refia going behind him because the door couldn't handle two people at the same time, at this point he had let go of her hand.

The bulky man was once again at the counter of the inn, when he looked up he saw Kenjiro. "You're finally back, kiddo. Was getting worried for a second." He said honestly, but his tone was still boisterous with a smile on his face. "The menu for dinner is still open, so feel free."

The man then saw someone behind Kenjiro, and he wondered if it was another customer, but getting a better look at her and her clothes, there's one logical conclusion. And looking at Kenjiro's hand had confirmed it.

The man wasn't judging, the kid could do what he wanted, he was just a simple inn owner, nothing more nothing less. But he did admit, his respect for Kenjiro, after seeing him in town and in the adventurers guild in the morning, had diminished a little.

Kenjiro then took out a notebook and wrote something on it, before showing the man. The man hummed curiously and read it, wondering why Kenjiro didn't just speak.

He then nodded his head after reading it. "Sure, we can get some food to your room, it'll just be a few minutes. We prioritise the people in the dining hall first." The man informed him, his time not changing with it still being boisterous with a smile on his face.

Kenjiro just nodded his head in acceptance, and walked up the stairs. With Refia following after him after she snapped out a little trance as she stared at the man, still taking peeks at him as she walked up the stairs, it just didn't seem possible for him to have that much muscle, look friendly and move properly without destroying everything.

They eventually both reached Kenjiro's room, a place that Refia was reluctant to step into. Because once that door closed behind her, she didn't know what horrors awaited her.

Kenjiro stepped in without any hesitation, and Refia didn't hesitate, but once her master looked at her when she didn't enter, she entered right away. Not knowing if delaying the inevitable would increase the severity of it, or would just give her a few more seconds of whatever peace was left for her.