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The young man looked down at the slave that held the hem of his cloak and provoked him to kill her, ignoring the advice of his companion to ignore her and leave.
And when the slave trader spotted a man that seemed to have a high stature standing near the troublesome slave’s cage, the slave trader thought that something must have had happened, and rushed over in response.
“We– welcome! What has happened here…?”
At that, the black-haired man escorting the hooded young man gave the slave trader a look of displeasure and started to blame him.
“Is this slave managed by you? I heard that slaves in Rubelfast have all been taught obedience. What is this? How dare she hold onto a nobleman and curse at him?”
“What? Did that b*tch say that? Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry! As she has yet to carve the engraving of slavery, we had brought her out to tame her temper. I really didn’t expect her to do something like that… I’m terribly sorry. If my Lords are willing to buy a slave from us, we will compensate you instead by reducing the slave’s price. It is a deal that you wouldn’t regret.”
While the slave trader spoke meekly in front of the two, he did not forget his words of appeal to sell slaves.
But the young man, who seemed to be stunned in place and continued to look down at the slave lying on the floor of the cage, spoke something unexpected.
“Let’s buy this slave.”
“…Yes?”
“What? Are you serious?”
It was not just the escort knight that opened his eyes wide and questioning him, but the slave trader as well. The young man did not change his opinion.
“I will pay for it.”
“Bu– but…!”
The slave trader looked at the man who was about to purchase a slave and the man who was at a loss, before carefully opening his mouth.
“Well, as I’ve said eariler, this slave has yet to be carved with the slave’s engraving. You have no idea how ferocious her temper is. It’s the first time I’ve seen such a poisonous person in the 15 years I’ve been a slave trader. Frankly, as a slave trader, I don’t really recommend it.”
The escort knight praised this slave trader as one that had a conscience, unlike the vulgar indecency and splendour that were notorious of slave traders. Afterwards, he tried to persuade the young man once again.
“Your– Ah, no, My Lord. If that’s what the slave trader have said, then this slave might not be suitable to use as a slave.”
“If it’s that spiteful, then I can just teach it accordingly.”
“And if she runs away?”
“Run? From me?”
Without a single smile on his face, the young man’s voice was clearly filled with ridicule.
The knight sighed as he finally enquired about the price of the slave, before throwing a money bag. In the slave trader’s perspective, it wasn’t a bad deal.
In any case, this girl seemed like she would die after enduring like this, so it would definitely be better to hand her over at a cheap price before she died.
It was only after the slave trader had washed and brought her back, that the young man realized that the slave’s hair was black in colour.
It was not at the fact that the slave was not a boy, but a girl, neither was it the fact that her corpse-like body that was covered with wounds and bruises, that made him change his expression.
It was the fact that the necklace that his mother had given him reacted violently in response to the slave, as well as the way the slave had rebuked him as a coward.
Including those eyes that seemed to burn!
Her strong pride, even while lying at the very bottom of human society…
“I fed her a bottle of nutritional supplements because she couldn’t come to her senses even after being washed in cold water, which made me think she was on the verge of death. However, it would be difficult for a refund or an exchange to occur, even if she dies on the way back. Do you still want to buy her?”
The slave trader asked for one last time, afraid that a nobleman would return and kick up a fuss.
But the young man only instructed for the slave to be loaded into his carriage, before rising from his seat.
Just like that, Ellier, a slave girl with the soul of an Emperor, left Rubelfast.
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Ellier was hot with a fever for several days, and there wasn’t a place that didn’t feel pain.
‘I’d rather die, damn it!’
Although she tried to bear the pain due to her pride, physiological tears welled up in her eyes, and noises of pain leaked from her mouth.
Everytime she cried in pain, something would be shoved into her mouth. At first, she thought that she was undergoing waterboarding, so she struggled, but after a few repeated experiences, Ellier realised that she was being fed effective medicine.
Otherwise, the pain that seemed to pound all over her body, could not have been relieved so quickly.
Then, some days later, Ellier opened her eyes suddenly.
“Oh my God!”
White light poured through her eyelids, piercing her eyes
She seemed to have dreamed of something just now, but she couldn’t remember what it was about.
As the afterimage of the sharp dream quickly dissipated, a ceiling made of dark wood, with a serene impression could be seen.
‘Where is this?’
As she slowly moved her eyes to look around, she spotted a window with bright sunlight pouring in, a chair, table, and a statue all covered with a white cloth. A lone crystal ashtray was on the table, the only item that’s uncovered.
‘A warehouse…?’
At first glance, it looked like the warehouse of an aristocrat, which was used to keep unused items. For ventilation, the window was slightly opened, and as a result, the white cloth covering the items in the room swayed occasionally.
It was a long awaited silence.
However, Ellier immediately felt a sense of incongruity.
Covering unused items with a white cloth was something that someone with some level of education would do. It wasn’t something that wasteful slave traders, who used and threw items as and when they pleased, would do.
Furthermore, although the bed she was laying on was slightly old, it was clean and of good quality. In Rubelfast, slaves would never be laid on a bed.
When she reached this conclusion, Ellier understood less as to why she was lying there.
‘How strange… I certainly remembered provoking a nobleman. If the provocation had succeeded, I would have died on the spot; if it had failed, I would have been imprisoned within that filthy slave prison. But right now, it’s neither of the two.’
Ellier decided to try to stand up, moving her limbs slowly.
“Ouch!”
She thought that the pain had diminished considerably, but she realised that as she moved, the joints and muscles all over her body started to hurt again. Her condition was much better than before she had lost consciousness, but it wasn’t at the point where she could say that she had fully recovered.
At that moment, there was a sound of the door opening, and a generous-looking middle-aged woman came in.
“Oh my!”
When she saw Ellier trying to sit up, she screamed softly and ran towards the bed.
“Oh my gosh! You’ve awakened!”
Rather than relief, surprise was evident in her exclamation, which told Ellier that she was pessimistic about her recovery.
“Baby. Can you see me now?”
Using ‘baby’ to address her was quite offensive, but Ellier nodded her head a little expressionlessly.
“Can you speak?”
“Yes.”
She smiled happily again.
“My name is Aisha Adler. Everyone refers to me as Mrs. Adler. What’s your name?”
“…Ellier.”
“Ellier? It’s a pretty name.”
Ellier was a name she had made for herself. When she opened her eyes, she had just been handed over to Rubelfast as a slave. The certificate of slavery indicated her age and place of origin, but all other information were blank.
When she was asked for her name, she had almost said the name she had used in her previous life, Lilliette, but she managed to pause.
She died 17 years ago.
In the Imperial Palace, there might be another Imperial Princess using that name.
On one hand, it was absurd for a slave to bear the same name as an Imperial Princess, and on the one hand, she saw it as an opportunity to change the name she had always hated in her previous life.
She, who loved horseback riding, archery, swordsmanship and running, hated her name for the delicate image it gave off.
As such, she created the name ‘Ellier’ by taking the middle portion ‘illie’ from the name Lilliette. She was quite satisfied at the name that she had made in a rush.
“How did you end up in Rubelfast?”
“That’s… I can’t remember.”
“What? You don’t remember?”
“Perhaps I had inhaled too much poisonous fumes and lost my memory. Or was it because they just hit me on the head and so I forgot…”
Although her habit of speaking informally kept making her tongue-tied, Ellier gave reasons for her memory loss that would evoke her feelings of sympathy, acting the part as a slave girl that has lost her memory.
Unsurprisingly, it left a great impression on Mrs. Adler, who covered her mouth and an expression of pity appeared on her face.
“You have suffered a lot. Oh my gosh, how could those fellows do such a thing to a human?”
Ellier had almost replied, ‘That’s right,’ unwittingly.
Just as she was about to ask where she was after nodding her head meekly.
“You’ve woken up.”
The door swung open suddenly, and a tall and handsome young man of a stalwart build entered. The woman seated next to Ellier, jumped up and bowed her head.
“You’ve arrived, master.”
He sat on a cloth-covered chair without responding to the woman’s greetings.
It was a very natural attitude for someone who entered without knowing that Ellier had woken up.
‘Oh my God, how the hell did this happen?’
To her surprise, it was a familiar face.
Platinum blond hair that evoked sighs of wonder, amber eyes that were beautiful enough to be an ornament, smooth and firm skin that was tanned by the sun, as well as a big and sturdy frame that left no doubts that he was a knight…
That’s it. Even if she died and came back to life, she would never forget that appearance.
‘Isn’t that Slarhan Ventiark!’
He was the strongest political adversary of Ellier’s previous life.
The only son of an Imperial Family member, Duke Irdel Ventiark, and an icon of misfortune, he was a popular figure in high society that stole the hearts of many young ladies, and a man that did not associate with any woman, as if he was a monk.
“It’s earlier to watch you here than in Rubelfast. It seems that your arrogant personality still remains.”
While she wasn’t sure if that was meant sarcastically or not, Ellier roughly grasped the situation.
‘Is this nobleman the owner of the cloak that I had grabbed on to…? And instead of killing me, this guy bought me?’
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