"Huh? Me???"
Doug was stunned.
David didn't say it a second time. He just signaled with his eyes for the guards behind to act.
The two guards exchanged glances, shrugged, and walked up to efficiently grab Doug. They peeled this constantly wailing, begging lackey off David's pant leg and dragged him away...
The young master said to chop him up, which meant literally chop him into pieces, right?
Perfect... The guards had actually been sick of this scumbag for ages. One less piece of trash in the world was a blessing.
"Nooo~~~ Young master, spare my life~~~ What did this lowly one do wrong! This lowly one has been so loyal!!!"
Just as the crying Doug was about to be dragged out of the dungeon, David suddenly spoke again.
"Wait."
The two guards stopped, looking somewhat disappointed.
"Go to the steward and get this month's wages, then scram. Never show your face in front of me again."
Under David's cold command, the dazed Doug was kicked out of the dungeon and literally rolled out the manor's front gate.
After driving away that lackey, David came to the front of the cage and ordered someone to open it.
After looking carefully, he discovered these two slave women were actually a pair of very similar twin sisters.
By David's standards, they were indeed quite beautiful—blonde hair, bright blue eyes... They looked like they should be slightly older than seventeen-year-old David Frank, but definitely not over twenty.
Damn it! Damn Watcher! He couldn't look away!
The twin slave women huddled together fearfully. David closed his eyes and waited quite a while before speaking.
"I'm giving you one chance. Come to my room tonight."
This wasn't a discussion—it was an order.
David didn't "mercifully" grant these poor sisters their freedom. They remained slaves.
Slaves had brands burned into the backs of their hands. For ordinary people, this identity could never be changed. A slave without a master would never gain freedom—they'd only fall from one abyss into another.
So keeping these two by his side was the greatest salvation he could offer them.
Besides, he wanted to find clues about that arm—the Hand of Divine Corpse—from these twins.
Even David Frank didn't know its origins. That night was his first time touching that box containing the arm, and these two slave women had been delivered by those cultists along with it.
They were very likely the offspring of some fallen northern noble. Nobles declared heretics or defeated in some struggle usually became slaves.
That arm was also likely a mysterious object that had flowed out from those fallen families' treasuries.
...
At night, David sat at his room's desk, resisting the torment of three evil spirits while quietly thinking.
A knock sounded. The twin slave women, dressed in maid uniforms, entered the room carrying tea. They poured tea for David with slightly awkward movements.
They'd already accepted their new identity. Though their eyes still held fear when looking at David, they no longer avoided his gaze. Under the dim oil lamp, another kind of light flickered in their eyes.
That light was called courage.
The courage to try hard to survive no matter what they faced.
David appreciated their courage. Even he, this guy who'd inexplicably transmigrated, needed that same courage.
"What are your names?" David suddenly asked them.
This sudden question seemed to leave the twins at a loss. They exchanged glances, hesitated for a while, then timidly said: "We... don't remember..."
"Don't remember?" David paused. "You don't remember your identities? Your past memories?"
"No... don't remember anymore... They washed away most of our memories..." one of the slave women said in confusion.
Damn it...
David rubbed his forehead. He'd forgotten those people had this kind of method.
Most nobles who became slaves had their memories washed away by some ritual. Unless he could find a way to break that ritual's influence, he could forget about asking them anything about the arm...
"Fine, I'll give you new names." David sighed and casually pointed at the slave woman on the left: "From now on, you're Zoe..."
Then he pointed at the one on the right: "And you'll be Yui..."
Uh, Zoe was actually a pretty normal name, but what the heck was Yui...
The two servants looked at each other, not daring to express any opinion about their new names.
Ahem, David would absolutely never admit that he'd named them based on first impressions—Zoe for the bolder one on the left, Yui for the more timid one on the right…
"That's it, I need to rest now." He stood up and walked toward the bed.
At this point, the two maids who should've left exchanged another glance. That light called "courage" in their eyes flared up again.
Especially Zoe—at her eye signal, the originally timid and hesitant Yui had no choice but to follow her to stand before David's large bed...
"What are you doing?"
The twin servants didn't answer David's question. They just lowered their heads with red faces, looking delicate and tempting in the dim lamplight.
David got it. The two sisters were showing loyalty to their new master.
"That's not what I need..."
What I need is those memories you've lost...
He secretly shook his head.
These two maids still needed observation. In this dangerous world, any gift could carry deadly poison. He had to be careful.
The maid sisters felt ashamed and timid. They realized this young master didn't fancy them at all and immediately panicked, wanting to flee.
"Wait..."
David sat back down behind the desk, hands folded under his chin, silently watching them.
Well... though he didn't need these twins to offer themselves, just looking was harmless enough...
The evil spirit hiding in his eyeballs finally let out a satisfied cheer, and his psychic energy value began steadily recovering.
This was another reason he kept these two "vases"—he needed to satisfy that evil spirit.
The psychic energy from evil spirits didn't recover on its own. This was another method besides gorging on food for him to restore his psychic energy.
The twins were confused—leaving wasn't right, staying wasn't right, and their faces were red enough to drip water.
Suddenly, the bold Zoe seemed to realize something. "Has the young master changed his mind?"
David watched with a completely calm face, totally unmoved. Seeing those two maids were truly too embarrassed, he simply blew out the oil lamp on the desk.
With the Watcher evil spirit's help, his vision wasn't affected in the darkness, and the twins found some solace in the pitch black.
...
In the latter half of the night, David sat alone on the balcony. From the manor terrace on high ground, he could clearly see that huge "crescent" emerging above the distant mountains.
He stared blankly at that planet. Under the gentle night breeze, he unknowingly fell asleep.
He had a very strange dream—not just strange, but terrifying too...
In the dream, he seemed to see his familiar planet Earth.
He saw it breaking apart.
What caused it to break were countless red arms reaching out from the void. Those terrifying monster claws bearing dark red patterns grabbed the planet itself and crushed it into fragments bit by bit...
"Hah—!"
Breaking out in a cold sweat, David sat up from the lounge chair. Looking toward the horizon, the east already showed a hint of light.
"Was that a dream? The thing in the dream was... the Hand of Divine Corpse!?"
He stared blankly at his own palm. A strange thought suddenly rose from the bottom of his heart.
Perhaps the Hand of Divine Corpse was connected to his former world?
That familiar world without curses, without evil gods...
David shook his head, stood up and walked into the room, setting several goals for himself while dressing.
Find out why Videns tried to kill him.
Increase his strength and remove the curse.
Find the origins of the Hand of Divine Corpse...
He wanted to survive, to live better, until he figured out why he'd come to this world.