We spent two months traveling with these men. Perhaps it was longer, but I can't remember exactly now. At first, when they said they would take us with them, we thought it would be somewhere nearby. But after several days had passed, we were surprised when they told us we weren't even at the beginning of the journey.
As the days passed, we wondered among ourselves where we were going. We always took roads full of people, so we ruled out the possibility that they were other slave traders. Only after we had spent a month with them did they tell us where we were going, and we were surprised by their answer.
"We're going to the Fallen Sun Sect," said one of the men in armor.
None of us had any idea what that was, except for Yumjeong, who told us that we were going to a place where several people trained to fight, just like when we were enslaved.
When Jumyeong told us that, we all became wary, not wanting to be enslaved again, and prepared to fight.
"Relax, even though you'll probably have a hard time sometimes, it's better than when you were completely enslaved," said one of the men, who told us his name was Victor.
"...and that was supposed to reassure us?" I asked, incredulous at his words.
"You see, even though it's partly true, it's not the same. You'll know when we get there."
We all looked at each other as we listened to Victor. None of us were sure whether to believe him or not, so we agreed that if anything was different from how he described it, we would all attack them until they were dead.
However, there was no need, because when we were near that "sect," we saw a small city with large walls surrounding it and a huge building in the center.
"That's the Fallen Sun Sect," Victor said with a smile on his face, as if he wanted to show off and brag about something of his.
None of us thought that something like that was his, so we just looked at him as we walked. As we approached the entrance, we encountered people in armor, who spoke to Victor and Alaric, the other guy who came with us. After several minutes, we entered together.
"So many people..." said Anna, looking around.
"It's normal. In my village, they said there are always people around sects," replied Jumyeong, who was walking in front of everyone.
Personally, I had never seen so many people. In my village, there were few of us, and there were almost never any travelers, so I was really surprised. Something we noticed right away was that everyone was wearing white, purple, or thin black clothes. In addition, everyone looked clean and had no dirt on them.
We, who had last bathed a week ago and had walked all over the ground with some thick leaves we found, looked like vagabonds or something even worse.
"Everyone is looking at us," said Della, who was especially stared at because of her green hair.
"It's like they've never seen anyone with green hair before," I thought, looking at the boys my age, who were staring at the ground. "It looks like they want to hide, and those whispers are annoying."
"I can't stand their stares," said Ghislaine, putting her hand on the sword at her waist.
I felt the same way. I mean, who could stand being stared at so intently while they whispered behind your back? As if they knew what we were thinking, Victor and Alaric looked at us and said,
"Don't cause any trouble here, brats, or we won't be able to take you inside," Alaric told us, fixing his gaze on Ghislaine.
Feeling his gaze, Ghislaine dropped his sword in annoyance and walked with his head down. Even I wanted to pull out my dagger and scare them so they wouldn't look at me. It seemed that, besides Della, I was the one who attracted the most attention. Everyone was looking at my blind eye, which began to irritate me considerably, but I resisted the urge to scare them and just followed Victor and Alaric's instructions.
After a few minutes of walking, we reached our destination, where we were all amazed to see the huge doors and smaller walls surrounding them.
Alaric and Victor entered and motioned for us to follow them, so, nervously, we entered the place. Inside, we saw kids our age and older ones punching the air, carrying weights, or fighting each other.
To Alaric and Victor's surprise, our attention was drawn to their clothes, which were the same colors as the clothes of the people outside, but these had a sun on the chest.
"Wow, Alaric, Victor. You arrived earlier than we thought," said a soft female voice from beside us. "And it looks like you brought children. What happened? Did you kidnap them?"
Looking in the direction of the voice, we saw a white-haired woman wearing a white and purple tunic. The other two bowed when they saw her, so I guess she's someone important, right?
"Yes, our mission ended earlier than planned," Alaric replied.
"And about the children, we need to talk about them," Victor added.
"All right, leave them at the entrance and come tell me what happened while you were out." Without waiting for us, she started walking toward one of the huge buildings, away from us.
"Well, you heard her, stay at the entrance and don't cause any trouble," she told us before walking behind the woman.
We all did as we were told and stood at the entrance, just waiting for them to come back. In hushed tones, we began to talk as we watched the kids fight with wooden swords similar to the ones we used before. We were surprised because their attacks seemed very elegant, just like those of the woman who put the collar on us.
As we talked, we noticed a group of boys who seemed to be around Ghislaine's age coming toward us.
"Hey, you guys! Who are you?" asked a chubby boy with black hair.
His size reminded me of the pigs we raised in my village, so I laughed unconsciously. Something that the boy didn't seem to like.
He came closer and stood next to me to say, "What are you laughing at? Do I look funny to you, slave?" He shouted, coming closer and pointing at my neck.
Hearing someone I didn't even know call me a "slave" enraged me, even though it was true. And apparently, it enraged the others too, because we all began to unleash our bloodlust on the chubby boy.
The boys behind him were alarmed by our bloodlust and shouted at us,
"What the hell! Mere slaves dare to try to scare us!?" As soon as he finished his words, he approached me, throwing a punch.
Ghislaine, who was closer, stopped the blow without any problem, and then returned a blow straight to his face. This caused the boy to fall backwards while blood dripped from his nose.
"Someone like you can't insult us," she said, stomping her foot on the ground. But the boy had already moved away from her.
The other boys behind the fat boy and many more who were nearby began to approach us, looking at us with angry expressions. It seemed like they wanted to start a fight.
As if reading my thoughts, Anna said, "It looks like we won't be doing what Alaric and Victor told us about not causing trouble. Still, none of us used weapons, so we could get into more trouble than we already are."
At the rhythm of Anna's words, we all got into position, ready to fight.