Chapter: 323
At the foot of a massive mountain range made of broken rocks.
Suddenly, a thunderous cry erupted as one of the mountains crumbled with a colossal landslide.
The cause of the landslide was a lazy demonic beast known to people as Behemoth.
Just moments before, Behemoth, which had a size comparable to a mountain, had taken down that mountain with a fit of irritation from a single stomp, and it continued to snort as if still furious.
At that moment, Beatrice, a girl with dark violet hair who had been lying casually on Behemoth’s enormous head, mumbled at Behemoth.
“Hey, stop whining.”
“It’s not whining!”
“Considering your size, it’s not such a big deal.”
In response to Beatrice’s words, Behemoth protested, insisting it wasn’t whining, but Beatrice chuckled as she glanced at the wound on Behemoth’s leg.
The injury on Behemoth’s leg was certainly not small, but considering its massive size, it was laughable to call it a serious injury.
From Beatrice’s perspective, it looked like Behemoth was making a fuss over a little scrap on its leg.
However, from Behemoth’s point of view, it wasn’t entirely unreasonable to react this way, so Beatrice patted Behemoth’s back in a soothing manner.
“Well, this must be the first time you’ve ever been hurt, huh? I can see why you’re upset.”
Behemoth, who could wield powers similar to Beatrice’s, was experiencing pain for the first time.
That’s why it was reacting so vehemently.
Looking at Behemoth’s discomfort, Beatrice smirked and muttered.
“Are you mad at the one who hurt you? Just wait a bit. Eva and that guy will be here soon, and then I’ll let you handle him.”
To that, Behemoth, still wrestling with the unfamiliar pain, let out a battle cry as if recalling the one who made it feel this agony.
Then, Beatrice momentarily lost herself in thought while watching Behemoth.
Pain.
It had been hundreds of years since she last felt pain.
This meant that Beatrice was not a strong being like Behemoth, who was born feeling no pain from the beginning.
In fact, it was entirely the opposite.
Beatrice was weak.
Not the strong being who could do as she pleased, but a fragile existence that had to move according to others’ wishes.
But why was it?
Despite having such a not-so-glorious past, why was that memory still vividly etched in her mind even after hundreds of years?
While she spent most of her long life forgetting those experiences, why did this memory remain so clear?
Beatrice did not know the reason.
All she knew was that today, the memories from that time resurfaced, causing her to close her eyes and murmur.
“…Eva.”
The name of the one etched most clearly in her memory.
*
There was an underground mine.
“They say the ores mined here are quite expensive. For example, that blue one. They say even a single piece of that could keep you well-fed for a year.”
The mine was known for its astronomical value due to the precious minerals buried there, so anyone hearing about it couldn’t help but be tempted.
The first person who discovered this mine thought.
If I want to enjoy this for myself, the most important thing is to never let the information leak out.
But how should I do that?
If I hire workers, there’s a risk that the location of the mine will be leaked through them.
On the other hand, I can’t just lock up the workers and force them to work here either.
…Wait, thinking about it, that would work.
“Yup, that’s why slaves like us are stuck living underground without even being able to breathe fresh air.”
From that day on, the discoverer bought slaves, and those laborers, who didn’t have to worry about human rights, were sent into the mine.
As workers, living in the mine with no chance of leaking information.
Thus, the slaves found themselves living in a place where not a single ray of sunlight could reach them.
However, surprisingly, the slaves living here had relatively few complaints.
“Well, at least the good news is that this place isn’t so bad. As long as you meet your quota, the food is decent, and they don’t work us to the bone.”
“It’s not like being trapped here is good or anything, but it’s still a hundred times better than being dragged off like other slaves to die in a war.”
“Haha, exactly. I can’t tell you how lucky I am to be sold to this master wizard. For us, he’s actually a pretty nice owner!”
That was partly due to the special circumstances of being a slave, but also because life here wasn’t that bad.
Unlike many other slaves, those in this mine weren’t starving or worked to exhaustion.
Sure, there were occasional accidents where someone would die while working in the mine, but this was just the usual fate of slaves, so they felt they couldn’t ask for more.
While a few slaves were chatting about how lucky they were to have been sold to their current master, an old slave chuckled and muttered.
“Indeed. It’s more accurate to say he’s smart than a good person.”
“Huh? What do you mean by that, old man?”
“That Davis fellow just turned the last guy who challenged him into fried meat not long ago, and yet you all are saying this. Davis knows how to handle people. That’s what makes him all the more frightening.”
The old slave, referred to as the sage and treated somewhat as an intellectual among slaves, spoke.
Their master, commonly referred to as the wizard, Davis, was certainly not a good person.
Not long ago, there was a newly arrived slave in the mine.
That slave claimed he was a prince from some kingdom and demanded Davis to let him go.
And Davis said to that slave.
“Once you enter, there’s no way out. I’ll let you off this time, but you better live quietly here.”
However, the slave persisted, insisting that the future of the entire kingdom depended on him, bravely demanding again despite Davis’s words.
In an instant, Davis turned him into fried meat with magic lightning.
That was a type of example Davis showed to the slaves.
That it didn’t matter who you were, if you didn’t follow his words, that would be your fate.
Yet, despite the incident, the slaves did not speak ill of Davis.
Because he fed them well.
Because he didn’t overwork them.
The reason there wasn’t much work to do in this mine was that Davis’s market supply was limited, which meant he had to keep the mine’s existence a secret.
The fact that Davis seemed to look after the slaves by feeding them well was simply because he didn’t want to arouse suspicion by replacing them too frequently.
As a result, no complaints arose among the slaves, and the mine’s system continued to run smoothly.
The old slave, who had been wrongfully enslaved under the accusation of plotting a rebellion, understood these ulterior motives.
Davis, as a person, was meticulous and rational but extremely scary because he wanted everything to go exactly as he thought.
Understanding the horror of falling out of Davis’s favor, the old slave cautioned the other slaves.
“…Just remember, Davis is definitely not the kind-hearted person you think. So it’s better not to do anything that might offend him. If any other slaves come in, make sure to warn them to not let something like last time happen again.”
“Sure, got it. Oh shoot, time’s up. Lunch break’s over, we need to get back to work.”
As the slaves finished their lunch and were about to leave, someone quietly questioned from a corner, having eavesdropped on their conversation.
“Um… I’m just curious, what’s ‘outside’ like?”
The old slave who was about to stand up chuckled bitterly.
He took the questioning girl’s hand, stood her up, and patted her head gently.
The one who asked was a small girl with violet hair.
Her world had only ever been this place.
*
“Phew… I’ve moved everything.”
“Good job. Your quota for the day is done, so you can rest now.”
“Sure…”
The girl with violet hair, laboring under the weight of a cart filled with sparkling stones, leaned against the wall and plopped down on the ground at the words she could now rest.
She was also a slave working in this mine, but she was a distinctly unusual presence among the other slaves.
Unlike the other slaves, who had come from ‘outside,’ this girl was not one of them.
According to the other slaves, the girl had just always been here.
Even though access was strictly controlled, how she ended up inside this mine was a mystery.
But for whatever reason, she had entered this place, and since the owner, Davis, had no intention of letting her go, she had to become a slave in the mine.
So the girl began helping with the work in the mine like the other slaves.
Since she couldn’t do hard labor like digging with a pickaxe or a shovel, she was assigned the task of moving the ores that the slaves had just mined or clearing rocks and dirt to maintain the tunnels.
Though these tasks required less physical strength, they were still exhausting for a small girl.
She would probably spend tomorrow the same way as today.
But she felt no significant dissatisfaction with that life.
Everyone lived like this, and the girl, who knew nothing but this underground existence, thought it was natural to live this way.
While contemplating this, as she headed towards the tent to get some early sleep just like every other day,
“Hey!”
Someone grabbed her arm.
Who in the world would stop someone heading to rest like this?
The exhausted girl furrowed her brows and glared at the person.
There, she saw a young girl with black hair, seemingly younger than her.
“Me?”
The black-haired girl answered with a mischievous grin in response to the girl’s questioning.
“Hi! I’m Evangeline!”
And that was the first meeting between the girl and Evangeline.
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