Chp.43: The slave

Haku regained consciousness after a few hours. His right cheek had no wounds, and even his teeth were already back in place thanks to the rapid regeneration of the dragons, but he still felt some pain.

However, he didn't mind. That pain was proof that he had succeeded in irritating his opponents. This, for his pride, was a source of enjoyment. Thinking back to Thornag's peevish face, he couldn't help but grin like a moron.

His laughter was interrupted by something cold that landed on his right shoulder. Instantly his instincts kicked in and his eyes widened, he leapt to his feet violently and teeth bared, ready to face whatever threat lay ahead. However, if he had expected a great battle like the one he just had against the lindworm, he was disappointed: in front of him there was only a kneeling girl with a wet panna in her hand, who had stood still as a statue and was clearly terrified by his sudden awakening.

Haku narrowed his eyes menacingly. His murderous intent must have been evident, for the girl began to visibly tremble. "Who are you?" he hissed.

The girl couldn't take her eyes off his monstrous teeth. "My... My name is Misune. I... have the duty to... serve you, sir" she replied in a voice like a whisper.

Haku stared at her intensely. He wasn't an expert on how newcomers aged, but based on the appearance of ogres and faeries, the girl looked no older than sixteen years old. She was very thin, but not to the point of being malnourished, and was about one meter and sixty centimeters tall. She had long hair kept in a refined braid, green eyes full of small golden specks, slightly dark and brownish skin, thin lips and very pronounced cheekbones. Despite wearing very poor clothing (made up of just rags patched together) she was clearly very clean, a sign that she should be given a decent treatment in terms of washing.

However, there were two details that Haku noticed immediately. The first was the pointed ears that stuck out behind the girl's hair. "Are you an elf?" he asked, remembering that elves were supposed to have pointy ears like fairies.

Misune shook her head. "I'm a half-elf, sir. My father is an elf and my mother is a human" she replied trying not to let the fear in her voice (failing miserably).

This was new to Haku. He didn't know that the various breeds of newcomers could or were interested in mating with each other. In fact, he had never even thought about it: based on his experience, he had almost always seen the various races fighting each other, so he had never imagined that they could get along enough to produce offspring.

However, that wasn't the factor that interested him the most, but the second detail that immediately caught his eye: around the girl's neck there was a black collar. Haku couldn't confirm it since he had never looked in the mirror in the last few days, but he was sure that collar was identical to the one he was wearing. "Are you a prisoner too?"

Misune looked confused. "I'm not a prisoner"

"And why do you have that collar then?" Haku asked.

"Uh? Because I'm a slave" the girl replied as if it was an obvious thing.

A slave? Haku reviewed his memoirs. He remembered hearing the word before: ogres tended to keep some faeries as slaves if they could catch them alive. Sarpa had explained to him how this strange process worked. "Is it because you're half elf?" he asked, expecting it to be as ogre-like among humans as well.

But Misune shook her head. "Of course not! I am a slave because my parents became slaves because of their debts. As their daughter, I shared their fate"

"Uh... I see" Haku muttered. It seemed that slavery in the Jurao Kingdom was very different from that of the ogres. It wasn't a racial issue, but more of a kind of punishment. The collar probably served to prevent slaves from trying to escape their punishment. "So, what are you doing here?"

"I have to take care of you, sir" Misune repeated the words from before.

Haku rolled his eyes annoyed. "I understood that, I'm not deaf. Tell me what you mean by those words"

"I mean I have to wash you, dress you up, check that you don't have too serious injuries... I have to make sure that you are back in shape after your fight. Everything you wish" Misune replied.

The dragon looked closely at his body. Indeed he had become very clean, a sign that that girl had washed his scales while he was sleeping. "Mph. Okay. If so, clean my claws"

Misune's skin was dark, but as soon as she heard those words, her face became as pale as a sheet. "A-Are you sure? I'm not done yet..."

"I can feel that I no longer have a single ounce of dirt on the rest of my body. The only parts that are still not clean are my claws and my head" Haku said as he lay down again and stretched his paws. "Which do you prefer to do first?"

Misune was clearly insanely afraid of his claws, but she wouldn't have gone near his teeth even under torture, so she obviously chose to clean his paws. As soon as the girl brushed the dragon's muscular fingers and touched the claws, which were at least twice as long as one of her hands, her body visibly trembled, but nevertheless she didn't stop and began to clean them with the rag.

Haku couldn't suppress a moan of satisfaction as he felt the dust of the arena being swept away. As a dragon, he hated being dirty. Even though female dragons were much more attentive to their appearance than males, that didn't mean they were indifferent to it. Haku hadn't been able to wash for several days and during that time he had killed a hydra minion, fought the hydra itself, jumped from tree to tree, entered the monster's body, he was transported for three days in a cage, he had fought a lindworm and then he had been punched. It was a relief to feel the accumulated grime finally vanish.

Misune was good at her job. Though Haku could clearly feel her body shaking continuously, she wasn't scrubbing his claws in a quick and careless way to finish quickly; on the contrary, she cleaned every single part of them with extreme accuracy. Her trembling hands gripped each one of the dragon's fingers, lifted it slightly, and then cleaned the base of the claw down to its tip. When she finished with the first paw, Haku watched it with satisfaction, looking at how his claws had become nice and shiny. "You're good at this stuff" he said as he brought his paw up to his face and looked closely. "It's not your first time cleaning claws, is it?"

"Well, before, I was in charge of taking care of the beasts" Misune answered starting to clean the second paw.

"Beasts? Wait, you mean beasts like the lindworm?" Haku asked.

"Sure. The beasts that are used for arena shows. Like gladiators, they too need to be dressed, bathed and cared for" Misune said. "If we didn't do this, many of them wouldn't survive more than two fights due to infections"

Haku nodded. So there were other creatures in the arena besides the lindworm. If so, then the purpose of this building was now indisputably clear: it was for people to watch animals fight. Haku didn't know what fun they had in such a show, but after all tastes were tastes. Maybe he wasn't able to appreciate such entertainment because he was used to seeing beasts killing each other and considered it a normal thing.

However, that could be a problem for him. If there were other beasts, then perhaps some of them were even stronger than the lindworm. A stronger enemy meant more difficulty beating him. The king could have decided to have Haku fight all these opponents until he was in such a desperate situation that he used the runes in an obvious way, without being able to worry about hiding them.

If so, then today was most likely just a test. Haku should have expected much worse in the coming days.

"What beasts did you tend to?" he asked Misune.

"Tigers and lions" the girl replied. "They were the ones under my jurisdiction"

"Do you know what other beasts are here?"

"No, I'm sorry. I'm not allowed to know"

"Have you ever watched one of the fights?"

"Slaves and gladiators aren't allowed to watch the fights. Gladiators because in that case they would inquire about the weaknesses of their future opponents and could cheat, slaves because they could inform the gladiators of their opponents' weaknesses"

Haku snorted. It seemed he wasn't going to get much information out of that girl. He should have found another way to find out what awaited him in the future. Despite the uncomfortable situation, however, he still found the desire to make fun of her: "Funny. You spent your days with tigers and lions and are you afraid of me? I know I'm bigger, but unlike them, I have rationality"

Misune had just finished the second leg and was moving towards the third when she stopped. She seemed undecided about what to say, then she whispered: "When I was tending to the beasts, there was a guard who used that to keep them from moving" she said, pointing at the collar. "But he's not here"

Haku narrowed his eyes slightly. Right… Marcus had never withdrawn his permission to fight, at least not while he was conscious. Therefore now if he wanted Haku could have torn the girl apart without any restriction. "I won't eat you if that's your concern. I told you, I have the rationality. If you don't try to do something stupid, then I have no reason to kill you"

Misune raised her head and looked at him with wide eyes. It was evidently an involuntary movement, because she hurried back to clean the paw soon after, as if she hoped she hadn't been noticed. Unfortunately for her, that wasn't the case. "What's up?" Haku asked.

"N-Nothing, sir" Misune replied.

"It doesn't seem like anything to me. Answer now" Haku ordered in a tone that didn't allow for replies.

Misune gulped. "I just didn't expect... well... a dragon to be so... rational..." she whispered, lowering her voice with each word as if she was convinced the sound alone would have made him angry. "... I thought you were... much more... bloodthirsty..."

Haku understood why Misune was so afraid to say those words out loud. "Believe me, we are dangerous. Much more than you can imagine" he said. "But we're not bloodthirsty. We don't kill unless provoked. If you want to avoid dying at the hands of a dragon, then all you have to do is avoid enraging them. Which means don't enter their territory and don't steal resources. As for everything else, a dragon doesn't care. So stop being afraid, I don't have a territory here and I don't have resources, so I have no reason to kill you"

Misune looked much more relaxed. "If you say so, I believe it, sir" she said as she began to clean the fourth and final paw.

"Good" Haku grumbled, then changed the subject: "You talked about gladiators earlier. Who are they?"

"Those who fight in the arena"

"Really? Even newcomers fight in the arena?"

"New... what?"

"Those who aren't dragons or animals. Like you"

"Oh... so yeah, they fight too"

"With each other or with the beasts?"

"Both"

"Till death?"

"Sometimes. It depends on the type of show"

Haku was suspicious. Why should anyone risk their life like that? Just for fun? "Are they slaves too?"

Misune nodded. "Yes... well, not all of them actually. Some became gladiators by choice. But most are slaves, usually prisoners of war"

Now everything was clear. As Haku guessed, gladiators weren't exactly volunteers. This meant that the king could also make him fight newcomers, which was not very flattering. "How strong are gladiators on average?"

"I've never actually met them, since I tended the beasts and only heard a few stories from the slaves who normally tend to them" Misune replied. "We servant slaves all sleep in the same room, but when we have to work we go to different areas of the building according to our duties"

Haku reflected. "I see. So you've never met a gladiator, since you didn't take care for them. By the way, what do the slaves do for them? Do they clean them like you did me?"

"And they heal them, they help them… they do what gladiators want. Even give them pleasure" Misune replied.

"Give them... uuurgh" Haku muttered in disgust when he realized what the slave girl meant. "Seriously? Aaaah, it doesn't matter. Forget it. Now give me that rag"

Misune had just finished cleaning the last paw and was rinsing the rag, and was somewhat surprised by this request. "Sorry?"

"Give me the rag, I said. I want to clean my teeth" Haku answered.

The girl looked quite confused. "But... that should be mine..."

"You were shaking like a leaf while you cleaned my claws. Do you really want to put your hand inside my mouth?" Haku pointed out to her.

Misune bit her lip: she was a person devoted to duty... but the mere thought of approaching those monstrous teeth made her shiver. The knowledge that those jaws could close on her at any moment and rip off her hand (or maybe even her entire arm and half of her body) was enough to terrify her.

Suddenly the door to the room opened, making the slave jump. "Well, Haku, you're still very fallacious about manners, but at least you know how to respect a lady" were the words of the person who entered the room, which made Haku's eyes roll in annoyance.