Unsold Slaves Returned as Heroes

3. Late Night Escape

“Whoa.”

After organizing the luggage inside, there was a space enough to sleep. It was still full of dust, but since it was the first day, I had to endure it.

I brought the three of us to a mill in the woods. It was an abandoned building that had been neglected for a long time, perhaps because the owner had died.

I remembered it because the thieves were using it as a hideout while processing the request.

Of course, the bandits were wiped out. They were robbers who preyed on new adventurers, kidnapped them and killed them.

It has three rooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a stove. But it was all a mess, so I had to clean it up for a while.

“Let’s stay here for the time being. The city is also a two-hour walk away, so you can get daily necessities, and there’s a robbery nearby. There are some monsters, but there are no strong ones in this area.”

I took the sleeping bags out of my bag.

“I will buy blankets and daily necessities tomorrow, so I will sleep here today. I have work to do, so go to bed first.”

I was about to leave the room after saying that, but sure enough, the black guy raised his voice.

“What is your purpose?”

“Don’t die.”

I almost died while being my slave, so I want you to avoid the development of awakening.

“That makes no sense. Why do slave traders do this to innocent slaves?”

I turned and stood in front of the black guy. Black shrank as if he was a little scared of my size.

It is rather me who feels the threat to my life. It seemed that these children were not yet conscious.

I raised my head a little and looked over my head.

This guy’s nameplate shows off his presence even at night.

How long do I have to explain to children, Won.

Suddenly, it became tiresome to explain.

“Black.”

I squatted down and made eye contact with Black. Black seemed a little nervous.

“What, what.”

“I’m getting tired, so don’t spit out and go to sleep.”

“… Nope.”

“Get some sleep. So I won’t go out and work. If you are a slave, listen to the slave trader.”

“… Aren’t you a slave trader?”

“That’s right, because it’s right, go to sleep. You too.”

I tucked into a sleeping bag from black. Hayang felt cold when he tried to touch it, so he unfolded the sleeping bag and put Hayang inside it as if he were filling an envelope with water.

Two large caterpillars appeared on the floor.

I stood up and looked back at Yellowy. At least he is cooperative, so I think I can give him a role.

Since they are slaves, they can’t just disobey orders, right? Does it work? I do not know.

“Since the yellow is a boy, protect the girls. The knight who protects the princesses, you know?”

“Knight.”

The yellow nodded his head broadly, expressionless.

Black and White, with only their faces protruding, were making strange expressions, but I don’t know why.

Come to think of it, I used the word “Knight” Carelessly for the black knight. I don’t even know if I dug my own grave.

If things had changed that much, I wouldn’t have met them before.

I decided to leave the mill and sprinkle magic stone powder to fight monsters around.

Yellow, Black, White.

Don’t run away.

***

The slave trader really left the house.

Black got out of his sleeping bag and followed him through the window. He immersed himself in his work without monitoring them.

Geomgi, who is naturally sensitive to mana, could tell from a distance that what he was dealing with was magic stone powder that monsters hate.

‘… Is that what you’re looking at? To drive out demons?’

“Tia.”

“Wow!”

Black was startled by the touch of his hand on his shoulder and jumped up.

I don’t know where the yellow guy found it, but he was holding a wooden club in his hand.

“Luca, you were surprised….”

The yellow guy raised his thumb up with an expressionless expression.

“Go to bed. I will protect you.”

“Guardian, did you seriously listen to that slave trader?”

“Knights.”

The yellow eyes glistened in the dark. Black sighed.

“Luca, stuck in one thing like that, can’t stop….”

The puppies Suin and Hayangi came out from the inside and cried.

Still, she was terrified.

“Please protect Yurina, not me. You’re still that scared.”

“Okay.”

A yellow tooth attached to White. White was embraced in Yellowi’s arms.

“… You don’t intend to trust the slave trader, do you?”

As White asked in a trembling voice, Black immediately reacted.

“Everything, of course. How many slave traders have we seen? They were all trash…. They gave me bread, though.”

“Maybe they’re pretending to be nice and trying to bully you more.”

“After eating first.”

“That…. But I didn’t even know if Luca was a woman or a man.”

“I am a man. Cool.”

The yellow one exhaled her snort as if excited.

“Humans are different from elves and beastmen, so it is said that it is difficult to distinguish between genders when young.”

“Anyway… I hate slavery now. We don’t even have names on name tags.”

It was as he said.

Already, their real names were erased from their memory and from the world along with the first slave contract.

Only each other was calling each other by the given name.

“I want my name back. I can’t remember the name my parents gave me, but…. Slave traders are scary….”

“That’s right….”

Black looked at White.

Whitei was shaking her body like an aspen tree. Yellowy hugged Whitey more tightly.

The time each was caught was slightly different, but they had already been moving across the continent through the hands of dozens of slave traders without knowing why for over a year.

The process of being caught was also terrifying. All three had a brutal experience that was deeply embedded in their brains.

And not a single slave trader had ever treated them as persons.

The food was rotting fodder that was inferior to that of livestock, and there were times when I did not drink water for two days.

I was confined to a small cage and treated like a bundle. Through the raging storm, they came over the rugged mountains.

The slave traders all traded themselves and said that the perverted aristocrats would like special products.

After being sold, it was clear that worse days would await.

There may come a time when we miss the present, when we could even look outside.

Black elf, who was a dark elf, was very wary from a young age.

He became friends with the same age in appearance and similar situation, but Yellow and White were younger than him.

So, like her eldest sister, she felt a bit of responsibility.

“Let’s run away.”

Finally, Black made her decision and grabbed Yellow and White’s hands.

“Run, now?”

“Now that the slave trader is caught off guard, this is an opportunity. You can go to church and get a new name for her. I don’t know if she has a way to solve the slave contract, but let’s find out.”

Black had no intention of trusting the slave trader either. To her, the yellow and white teeth in front of her were far more important than her hopes, which had never come to her in her life.

Yellow and White also felt her will and nodded.

“Let’s go.”

The three quietly left the mill.

The slave trader was busy distributing her magic stone powder evenly from a distance.

The three run through the forest led by Black.

Strong grass fell over every time the tiny bodies passed by.

“Ha ha, ha ha.”

Unlike Yellow, who took the lead because of her good stamina, Black and White quickly got tired and slowed down. Before I knew it, my arms were full of scratches from tree branches.

Still, Black didn’t stop her legs. Even as her muscles screamed, she forcibly pulled them out.

A little more.

If you go a little further, pure white freedom awaits.

Hope filled her head with adrenaline, and she didn’t notice as the sound of her rough footsteps increased.

―Kreureung!

Grab!

Before I knew what it was, a large wild boar jumped out of the black grass in an instant.

“Kyaaak!!”

A wild boar that attacks Black Teeth in an instant. It was no ordinary beast. It was a monster that roamed the forest.

A bastard similar in size to girls, but still a monster. Its strength and ferocity were incomparable.

“Yaah!”

The Yellowy realized her danger and immediately swung his club at the boar.

Kaang!

Wooddeuk!

However, it only resulted in Yellowy’s wrist going out.

“It hurts, it hurts!”

Blackie struggled with her arm while being crushed by the wild boar, but the monster seemed unwilling to let go.

Blood was pouring from the arm that had been scratched by the large tusk as it was attacked. However, Black did not know that and was terrified by the terrible smell.

Because the wild boar’s gaping mouth was approaching.

… In the end, they are being dragged into slavery like this and die unluckily.

I’ve never told anyone, but I wanted to go to a place called the academy.

A moment when we weren’t even properly given the time to harbor such remorse.

-Kiying!

The wild boar that was crushing the black tooth screamed and flew away.

A frightened man’s voice was heard in Black’s ears as he was barely breathing again.

“Guys, are you okay?!”

As Blackie trembled and raised his eyes, he saw his name tag.

“Huhhhhh! Tia!!”

White ran into Black and hugged him, then filled Black’s arms with tears.

Blackie breathed in a breath that had not yet calmed down and stroked Whiteie’s head with his unharmed left hand.

“I dug deep. Be patient.”

Black felt a stinging sensation in her right arm. A slave trader was pouring antiseptic water on the wound and applying her medicine. It was a familiar gesture that seemed to have been done many times.

“I’m glad I didn’t die, really….”

Blackie glanced at the slave trader’s face.

The only thing she almost died was herself.

The cause was entirely her own fault.

She was the one who said to run away and the one who decided to head for the forest.

Seeing that the wild boar is a baby, there must be parents around, and the yellow and white must have been in danger soon.

But the slave trader saved him right away, and far from blaming him for running away, he stroked his chest in relief as if he had come back from the dead.

‘… What the hell is this person?’

It was the moment when a slight crack formed in Black’s heart.

The slave trader stood up after treatment.

“… Sorry for running away.”

The yellow guy was the first to apologize to the slave trader. The slave trader sighed heavily.

“All right. I was complacent don’t do this again The night forest is dangerous.”

“I couldn’t keep it.”

The slave trader’s large hand went up on the head of the downcast yellow man.

“Still, you swung it nicely. Good job.”

“Yes.”

“Is your wrist hurt? Show me.”

A slave trader put herbs on Yellowy’s wrist and put a splint and bandage on her.

The yellow man looked at his hand and, as if he liked it, he clung to the slave trader’s leg.

“Hey, it’s inconvenient to move.”

The yellow one ignored his embarrassment and rubbed his cheek against his broad leg like a small animal.

“How did you find us… ?”

He scratched his chin at Hayang’s question.

“I went in after processing everything, but you disappeared, so I looked for you. But no… Maybe it was because of the contract, but because I was focused, I knew the direction.”

Let’s go back. Saying that, the slave trader carefully hugged Black.

Even Black didn’t want to resist the warmth spreading from his back.

‘… I can’t believe it yet.’

Still, wasn’t it thoughtful that he just didn’t use the word slave?

‘… It’s warm.’

Geomjeong buried his face in his chest inadvertently and thought that he would sleep peacefully tonight.