Chapter 2 The taste of freedom (Patreon)

Night time. Ferris began acting after sunset and her masters return down the hill.

Her masters said that she still has her value. With this, she does not think it is possible for her to confront them and plead to quit her job as a miner.

In the first place, the area around the mine is surrounded by high fencing. The miner would lock the gate to exit the fence after work is done for the day.

This is clearly a measure to prevent Ferris from escaping. In other words, Ferris has to move discretely to escape from this place.

Her luggage consists of her straw mattress and half-eaten bread. The bread is something that she left over from dinner.

She does not know when is the next time she is able to eat as she might not even be able to get her hands on food. Also, she has to find a place to sleep after to get out of the mine. Hence, Ferris thinks that she has to take all these precautions.

Although she said she is ready, she does not have much luggage to begin with.

After learning to her surrounding carefully to make sure there is no one around her, she stealthily climbs out of the mine.

With a stealthy and light footstep, she heads towards the fencing.

There are bard wires on the top of the fencing, so it will be painful trying to climb over.

Ferris also tried to open the gate, but it does not budge at all.

She also has no clue how to even pick lock the gate.

Since there is no choice, Ferris started digging the ground under the fence.

The strength she gained from digging in the quarry daily is not only for show. She successfully dug a hole big enough for a small girl like her and managed to pass through the fence by crawling underneath.

Ferris ran.

It will be frightening if she is caught by her master so she wanted to leave this place as soon as possible. She ran like her life depends on it.

「 Hya!?」

She felt an impact hitting her from her front and leaked out a groan.

Ferris thought she was attacked by someone, but there is no one in her surroundings.

She attempted to run again, but the front of her body got hit by an impact again.

It seems, there is an invisible wall in front of her.

This is a magic formation made to prevent slave from escaping, but Ferris did not have this knowledge. She only knows that this invisible wall in front of her is blocking her from escaping.

「 Ei–!」

Ferris hit the invisible wall with her fist.

Then, the area that was hit shone brightly for a moment and started crumbling down into pieces.

「 What happened...?」

Ferris tilted her head and started running again.

Yes, she did not notice it.

This is an extremely strong magic formation that no powerful magician could even break it, but Ferris managed to destroy it with just her fist.

—————————————————————–

The sun rose three time and also fall three times but Ferris continued walking on.

She avoided the main route and only travel while hiding along the border of the forest. She does not know when she will be caught, and so she was scared the whole time. Not only that, but she slept hidden on top of the trees or in a cave at night.

The finished eating the bread she chews bit by bit and now resorted to eating the leaves on the ground to satisfy her hunger. Although her body is stronger during the time she work in the mine, she is still approaching her limits soon.

Ferris finally see a proper city but feel dizzy and fell forward when she relieves her tension.

Ferris passed toward the gate while wobbling left and right and step onto the main street.

The guard look at Ferris with eyes full of suspicion but did not bother trying to stop her.

「 Uwaa... human, a lot...」

Ferris look all around her surrounding with curiosity while walking on the stone pavement.

She has never seen so many big buildings.

She has never seen so many people walking about.

The smell of iron, the smell of sweets, the smell of spiciness, the smell of freshness, the smell of sharpness and the smell of foul odor. All these smell mixed together to stimulate Ferris sense of smell.

There are various food items on the street of the city. All the food look so delicious as it looks clean and free from contamination by the dust of the magic stone.

Human, from a small child, to young lady, old man and baby, there are human of all age and size.

Ferris only works in the dirty mine and never seen any of these so her mind is overloaded from all the new information.

Ferris felt dizzy and approaches a stall that that lines up in front of a building.

Then, an obaa-san that is standing in front of her stall frowned.

「 What, this is brat. Do not get close! Shoo! Shoo!」

「 S, sorry!」

Ferris hurriedly move away from that stall.

Her heart is beating so fast. It has been a long time since she get so close to someone and been a long time since she was scolded.

She knew that she did something bad. However, she did not know what she is supposed to do so her mind is in a mess.

When Ferris got chased away by the obaa-san, other adults in the area also speaks in a loud voice.

「 What a dirty brat. There are so many of them, I wonder what their parents are doing 」

「 That's right. Recently, there are more of such dirty brat walking around, so I do not feel safe doing business here 」

A dirty brat.

They are obviously referring to Ferris.

Ferris looks into the well and saw her own reflection.

Messy hair.

Dark and dirty face.

Her skin is full of disgusting dirt.

「 This... are all these dirt...?」

Don’t understand.

Always, always, never bath.

For Ferris, this has always been the case.

At that moment, a cool refreshing smell floats over.

「 Nice smell...」

Ferris got absorbed into the smell and started looking for the origin of the smell.

Then, she saw a girl slightly older than her walking on the street.

Pure white dress.

Snow-like skin.

Glossy blonde hair.

Clear blue eyes.

It is so beautiful that she seems to be from another world.

And then, she looks into the well to see her own reflection.

... Gross.

Compared to the beautiful being that she saw, she realized how disgusting she looked.

And then, Ferris stood there thinking. She could not help but feel ashamed for being alive.

She knew. How dirty she was.

It does not matter if she is not self-conscious, but she felt shame once she knew it.

Ferris understood the reason why she was looked down by the pass-by and tried to shrink her body.

I could not stay here any longer, and ran into a small alley

It was at that moment (when she ran into the alley).

Two men from within the small alley assaulted the blonde hair young girl.

The young girl was dragged into the alley in the blink of the eye.

Hitting her head with a wooden rod and gagging her mouth with their hands, she did not even have time to leak out a scream. Due to the swiftness of the crime, no even a single passerby realized the abnormality.

However, Ferris saw what just happened.

She could not ignore what just happened.

Without any hint of hesitation, she rushed into the back alley to find the young girl.

The men covered their face and body with a robe and tried to pin the girl onto the ground.

The young girl tried to struggle but could not overcome the strength of the man. Her mouth was pressed and both her hands were pinned to the group.

The man wanted to tie up her leg but was received a kick from her. In the next instant, one of the man used his leg and stomped the girl's stomach. A painful groan was heard from the girl throat.

「 Be more obedient, ojou-sama... Otherwise, your pretty face will be gone...」

A glint shone from the man eye and he rub a small knife the young girl face. Tears started following from the girl eyes.

The other man started laughing.

「 Such a waste. Rather than that, let's have a taste of this girl before handing her over to our customer. You don’t get to see such a good quality product often 」

「 That’s a good idea. I also started becoming excited just a moment ago 」

「 Let's take away her wand. A magician cannot do anything without their wand 」

The men snatch the wand away from the young girl's grip.

They spread her leg apart and rip off her clothing.

The young girl kept pleading, but the men have no intention of stopping.

(No! I have to stop them!)

Ferris started screaming like a wild beast and knock into one of the man.

「 What a f*cking brat! Do not disturb us!」

「 Kya!」

She got send flying away and hit the group.

Nevertheless, she immediately jumps up and started charging at the man again.

She got beaten. Her body hurts.

She got beaten again. Her body hurts.

Ferris still did not give up even after being kicked and stepped on.

「 Stop it again, brat! You want to be killed!」

「L et's just finish off such a dirty brat!」

One of the man caught Ferris by her throat and slam her onto the ground.

Ferris rolled on the moldy stone and stop right beside the young girl.

The young girl with her blond hair in a mess and with tears flowing from her blue eye started whispering to Ferris.

「 I, please ignore me. Just run... at least for you, you would not suffer any more cruelty 」

「 No... desu... You... Very pretty... Becoming stained... No...」

Ferris managed to squeeze out such words despite being out of breath.

She was unable to stand and collapse on the ground.

Her whole body is screaming in pain.

The young girl hugged Ferris tightly seeing Ferris is still desperately trying to stand up. She glared at the men in tears.

「 You guys are demon! The lowest of the garbage! You attacked such a small girl together! You do not deserve to even live!」

「 Aaa!? You heard that right... Shall we cut off one of her hand to make her obedient!?」

「 Kuhahaha! Let's do it! It is fine as long as we did not damage her face too much 」

The man raises his sword and slashed towards the young girl.

The sound of a blade cutting through the air

The impact on the young girl face.

The sword cuts into the flesh of the young girl’s face.

「 So, someone, helpppppppppppppp! 」

Ferris screamed.

Time froze in the next instant.

In front of Ferris, a huge fireball appears and send the man flying.

The flame continues to expand, and a gate was constructed. The door of the break open... and inferno spew out.

From the hellish flame, the flame changed into the shape of a human with wings.

It is still too big (compared to normal human) and is obviously abnormal.

With deep dark black eyes and mouth.

Even the lining of its teeth is burning with flames.

A fiery fiend, while smiling, kneeled in front of Ferris and bow to her in respect.

「 You finally called me, my queen. My name is Leviathan and a faithful follower of my queen 」

「 E...Eh...? Queen? I, no queen... only a slave 」

Ferris felt troubled and frightened

「 No, you are my queen. I am finally able to manifest after my queen call for me 」

The fiend called Leviathan started smiling silently.

The young girl with blond her leaked out a surprise voice.

「 Summoning magic...? But... that magic... should be lost ever since the ancient time 」

「 Ahhh, is that the case, to someone like you, it is considered a lost technique? It seems time is different now. 」

Leviathan shoulder trembled as it find this amusing.

The robed man scream in anger.

「 W, what is this fellow! A summoning magic does not exist. You must be using an illusion spell or something! Doing such a meaningless thing!」

「 Whether I am an illusion or not, won’t you understand if you attack me?」

Leviathan shrugged its shoulder.

「 I will do it even without you saying! I will also kill that shitty brat over there!」

The two men started running towards Ferris.

Leviathan speaks to Ferris with flame in its eye

「 Well then... My queen. Your order please 」

「 O, order desu ka...?」

「 That's right, a summoned beast, could not move without its master order. Should I defeat those guys or just run away and leave behind my queen and that girl over there... please give me the order...?」

A mysterious whisper.

A voice filled with danger.

However, Ferris did not have any choice.

A beautiful thing getting stained, she does not want to see.

「 De, defeat them!」

「... I receive your order 」

Leviathan responds with a joyous expression and breathe fire from its mouth.

The world is dyed in hellish red and the two men started to burn

A high pitch scream, flame so hot melting even bones and the heat wave blew towards Ferris and the young girl.

In the next instant, the two men melted into ashes and the wind blew the ash away.

「... Well then, my queen. Please call me again next time you require my assistance... Aaa... whahahahaha!」

Leviathan laughed resounded and returned into its gate.

The gate started shrinking before it disappear and all that remains is the hot and melted stone surface.

Ferris felt her whole body losing strength.

Is that because of relief? Or is it the accumulated fatigue?

Ferris could not stand anymore and fell face down, losing her consciousness.

「 Th, this child... what in the world...?」

The blonde young girl - is a magician apprentice named Alice, whispered in fear.

Although she did not know what it was, she know for sure she saw something horrible.

That is surely, ... an existence outside human knowledge and something we could not win against.