Chapter 94: Striving
A sudden tug pulled at the end of his fishing rod.
Kaito turned around.
A frail, gaunt succubus was kneeling in the dirt, gasping for air while her small hands gripped his fishing rod with a deathly intensity. A short distance behind her, the two towering guards had skidded to a halt. Their wages were nowhere near high enough to justify provoking an undead who clearly held a high station in this territory.
Kaito's gaze swept down, scanning the succubus named Scarlett.
"You've caught it," Kaito remarked, his voice devoid of emotion. "Now what?"
Scarlett lifted her head, her lips trembling so violently she couldn't force a single word out. She simply stared at Kaito, tears streaming down her face and carving tracks through the grime on her cheeks.
The slave trader finally caught up, his face purple with rage. He lunged forward, pointing a finger at Scarlett's nose as he began to shriek.
"You d*mned harlot! Let go of that rod this instant! You're offending an esteemed Lord! Do you want to die?!"
His insults echoed through the street. Having finished his outburst at Scarlett, the merchant's face shifted into a fawning, oily mask as he turned to Kaito, bowing and scraping incessantly.
"My Lord, My Lord! Please, pay no mind to this filth! She is merely defective merchandise—damaged in the head, prone to fits of temper. I shall dispose of her immediately. I promise she won't soil your sight for another second!"
As he spoke, he gestured frantically for his guards to haul Scarlett away.
Kaito ignored the merchant. He kept his hollow gaze fixed on the girl kneeling in the dirt, still refusing to let go of his rod.
"If you do not strive for yourself," Kaito said quietly, "you will never truly possess anything."
Hearing those words, Scarlett squeezed the last of her strength from her lungs and forced a few syllables through her parched throat.
"S-save... us..."
The voice was tiny, a mere whisper against the wind, yet it rang with absolute clarity in Kaito's ears.
Nuisance. What an absolute nuisance.
Kaito was already in a foul mood. He had spent the entire morning staring at a bobber that never moved, failing to find even a single fish scale. At this moment, he really just wanted to head to the fishmonger, buy the fattest trout they had, and lie to his Generals that he'd caught it himself.
But...
He glanced at the other succubi lying on the ground, beaten and bruised by the guards. Then he looked back at Scarlett, who was shaking with terror yet still holding onto his rod as if it were a holy relic.
Hmm. Those eyes aren't bad.
Much more interesting than that dead, hollow look from before.
Perhaps... taking them in would be an entertaining distraction?
Kaito's gaze finally drifted from Scarlett toward the slave merchant, who was starting to break into a cold sweat.
"Two choices," Kaito stated, his voice a flat, unreadable calm.
"One: Go to the Bureau of Logistics and claim ten gold crowns. These five belong to me."
Ten gold! That was exactly the price he had been shouting earlier. The merchant was about to nod his head off in agreement, but Kaito's next words made him swallow his reply.
"Two..." Kaito paused.
The merchant stared at Kaito, his heart beginning to drum against his ribs. He felt there was a catch. Perhaps... he could push for more? This undead appeared to be of extremely high rank; surely he wouldn't miss a few extra coins?
The merchant's mind raced, the rot of greed beginning to fester.
During those few seconds of hesitation, Kaito's patience evaporated.
The sky suddenly went dark.
Every person in the vicinity froze, tilting their heads toward the heavens.
An eye.
A gargantuan, cosmic eye opened within the firmament above Iron Fortress. It didn't blink. It simply looked down. It gazed directly at the merchant who had just been calculating his profit margins.
At that moment, the only thought in the crowd's mind was a singular, terrifying concept: Evernight.
The two guards had already dropped their weapons, their bodies going limp as they collapsed to their knees. The slave merchant, possessing a slightly stronger constitution, merely stood with his legs rattling like dry sticks, his soul screaming in regret for his hesitation.
"Become a permanent member of my Legion," Kaito's voice boomed across the deathly silent street. "And then, the five of them will still belong to me."
The sky snapped back to a brilliant morning blue. The eye vanished as if it had been a collective hallucination. Only when the light returned did the onlookers dare to draw a ragged breath. The way they looked at Kaito had changed fundamentally.
Kaito didn't spare the merchant another glance. He released his grip on the fishing rod and reached into his robes. He pulled out a small vial containing a glowing emerald liquid.
He popped the cork and poured the contents over Scarlett and her wounded sisters.
Their injuries knit together with impossible speed. The sound of fine, crystalline clicks echoed as broken bones snapped back into alignment. Scarlett felt a surge of warmth flood her body, chasing away the cold ache of the shackles.
She looked up, her lips parting to speak, but Kaito had already turned his back.
The fishing rod remained clutched in Scarlett's hands. Kaito took a few steps, then paused, looking over his shoulder.
"The rod is yours. Keep it."
With that, he resumed his walk. Scarlett remained kneeling, watching the skeleton's retreating back, tears erupting from her eyes once more. This was the first time she realized that one didn't only cry from sorrow or pain.
The foot traffic on the street began to resume, but everyone gave the area a wide berth. The lingering pressure of that "Eye" still hung in the air, making it difficult to breathe.
The slave trader sat slumped on the pavement, his clothes soaked through with sweat. He tried to use his hands to push himself up, but his legs were still too weak to function. The guards were no better, their faces ashen, lips trembling.
Just then, a measured, rhythmic sound of footsteps approached from the other end of the street.
It was Greed.
He had arrived the moment the gargantuan eye had manifested. However, he hadn't intervened, choosing instead to watch the "performance" from a respectful distance so as not to disturb the Master's whim. He wore his finest noble's coat, his handsome face pale and elegant as he came to a stop before Scarlett.
"So, you are the 'New Citizens' the Master spoke of."
Scarlett blinked. New Citizens?
Greed offered no further explanation, simply pointing toward the end of the thoroughfare. "Go to the Bureau of Logistics and register. I have already sent word."
With that, Greed withdrew a heavy coin purse and tossed it toward the merchant still paralyzed on the ground. A few gold coins spilled out, ringing sharply against the stone.
Greed knew that this merchant, despite his many flaws, hadn't killed the girls despite their resistance. In the world of the slave trade, that passed for a twisted kind of "mercy."
"Ten gold coins. As the Master promised."
Greed paused, his smile widening into something that made the merchant's blood turn to ice.
"A word of advice: while the Evernight Empire does not strictly forbid the trade of labor, the public mistreatment of sapient life forms is... frowned upon. The Punishment Legion has a very specific way of handling those who disrupt the Master's peace. They don't particularly care if the victims are 'property' or not."
The merchant scrambled to gather the coins, stammering out frantic thanks. He and his two terrified guards vanished around the corner in a blur.
Soon, only Scarlett and the four succubi remained. They looked at each other, then one of the girls gave Scarlett a playful nudge with her shoulder. They burst into a sudden, hysterical fit of laughter.
When the laughter died down, they looked at the strange, clean streets and the curious gazes of the residents.
They were free. But... now what?
"Where... where do we go now?" one of the girls whispered.
"To the Logistics Bureau," Scarlett replied, her hand tightening around the wooden fishing rod. "I trust that Personage."
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