Ch. 63
I hugged Iruze tightly in return.
She really was just a kid after all.
Honestly, I was more worried about the others than myself.
“We caught some fresh goods, so the VIP is on their way. If we’re lucky, we might sell both of them at once.”
We were powerless. The men easily pried Iruze away from me.
“Let go of her!”
Ash tried to rush in like he was going to save us, but it was useless.
He was also pinned down with one hand. We all struggled as hard as we could, but the difference in strength was hopeless.
Maybe that’s why Iruze screamed in fear.
“Kyahhh! No! Daddy!”
And at the same time, one of the men shouted too.
“ARGH!”
It turned out Ash had sunk his teeth into the man’s forearm with everything he had.
The kid had guts!
He bit down so hard that blood began dripping from the man’s arm.
Ash’s mouth was covered in blood, too.
Seeing blood must’ve enraged the man, because his face turned red, and he began mercilessly pounding Ash’s head.
“You little bastard! You little—!”
The sound of someone being beaten was so horrible, it made me flinch. I didn’t want to look, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
Ash refused to let go of the slaver’s arm.
“Nghh.”
Even as he groaned, he held on.
I didn’t understand it.
If he just stayed still, he wouldn’t be hit.
“Stop it! Ash!”
Don’t resist. I screamed, but my voice didn’t reach the man pummeling Ash, or Ash himself.
All I could hear was the slaver holding me laughing mockingly.
Damn it! Do they think I’m staying still because I’m scared?! If I called Ador, maybe I could take down three of them.
I opened my mouth to summon Ador, but quickly clamped it shut.
I couldn’t afford to waste mana.
I had to conserve it so Undine could return.
That was the top priority right now. If Undine disappeared while guiding the knights and they got lost, we’d never be rescued.
But even knowing that—
I couldn’t stand how unfair this all was.
Why did we have to hold back? Why was that the answer?
“Let go!”
Even as I felt like I couldn’t breathe from the frustration, Ash wouldn’t release his bite.
He clung to the man’s arm like a mad dog, and the man responded by beating him even more savagely.
It was painful to even watch.
‘Should I call Ador?’
But what if I ran out of mana?
Enduring it was the safest option.
This was too risky.
My head was spinning with thoughts.
While I was caught in that whirlwind of decisions—
“Stop hitting Ash, you stupid poop pig!”
Iruze started throwing out ridiculous insults as she resisted.
Oh, come on, not now, you two…
“Don’t hit my friend, you dumb mutt! Why are you hitting him! Why!”
Since when were they friends?!
Provoking slavers was never a good idea.
People like that had already given up being human—that’s what a slaver was.
People who no longer had any decency.
Just because Iruze talked back a little, one of them grabbed her by the hair, and I had to shut my eyes—I couldn’t bear to watch.
That black hand clutching her pink hair felt like the most horrifying sight imaginable.
“Ow! It hurts! Let go of me!”
“Little rats! What, you all wanna die together? That it?!”
“Hey, don’t damage the face—we still gotta sell them.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Iruze’s shrill cries echoed in the small room.
My heart pounded, my ears rang.
In my head, cowardly, rational logic—if I step in, I’ll just end up like them—was clashing with my reckless emotional instinct to kill them all.
“KYAAAH!”
I opened my eyes just as Iruze was struck.
Through my tear-blurred vision, I saw Ash spit something out onto the floor.
Something small and red… Probably a chunk of the man’s flesh.
That kid… he’s seriously vicious. With that grit, he could take on anything!
The slaver, whose arm had been torn open, screamed in pain and began striking even harder.
Ash gasped like he couldn’t breathe, and Iruze was thrown against the wall.
I saw her go limp.
It was too much. I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Ador!”
[Ta-da! I’m here, Master!]
[You called, Master!]
Ador appeared alongside Rai.
“Go back, Ador.”
Since Rai was here, I didn’t need Ador, so I quickly dismissed him.
Rai didn’t require mana, making him far more useful right now.
[What! That’s not fair—]
Ador tried to protest, but I didn’t listen to the rest.
He’s probably swearing at me from the Spirit Realm.
“A snake?!”
“A white snake. Perfect for making liquor.”
The two slavers turned toward Rai, who had suddenly slithered down from the ceiling.
They had no idea that the situation was about to flip.
“Rai, bite!”
[Ksshh!]
Rai, who was always told to hold back, burst with joy when I finally gave him freedom.
“Go wild, Rai!”
[Freedom!]
“Break them all to pieces!”
Snap, crack—
Rai launched into action with gleeful movements: first leaping to the nearest man, snapping his ankle, then his thigh, and before that one even hit the ground, he pounced like a flying squirrel on the next guy and broke his arm with a twist.
All of it happened in mere seconds.
“Urgh.”
I felt like I might throw up and covered my mouth.
“AAAAAGH!”
“GYAAAGHH! AHHH!”
Rai didn’t even hesitate at the hands reaching out to stop him. He crushed the slaver’s arm into something completely useless.
Crunch. Crackkk.
Thanks to Rai, I was all too familiar with the sound of breaking bones.
“KYAAAAH! HNNGH… M-My arm…!”
The slaver, whose shoulder and forearm were shattered, screamed and collapsed frothing at the mouth.
Rai, covered head to tail in blood, looked kind of terrifying.
His once snow-white body now smeared with vivid bloodstains looked disturbingly monstrous.
Normally, I wouldn’t unleash Rai unless we were up against monsters—but with scum like this, I didn’t feel the need to treat them like people.
Still, watching healthy limbs twist and break, with bones and blood flying everywhere, wasn’t exactly pleasant. I had to turn my head away.
“What the hell?! Grab it! Get that snake off him!”
The man holding me yelled out.
He seemed to be the one in charge.
But by then, the other two men had already turned into nothing more than lumps of flesh.
“Y-You—!”
At first, he seemed too stunned by how quickly everything had happened to even grasp what was going on.
But it didn’t take long for him to realize I was the one giving the orders—then he suddenly tried to strangle me.
[Master!]
If Rai hadn’t slithered over and climbed up to the man’s neck that fast, I might’ve been in serious danger.
From the victim’s perspective, it was probably horrifying—but to us, Rai moved in the blink of an eye.
“W-What the hell is this?!”
The man flung me aside and desperately tried to pull the blood-soaked Rai from his throat, but Rai’s monstrous strength was far beyond what any human could handle.
I saw fear creep into the man’s eyes.
That sight brought me a deep sense of satisfaction.
He’d looked so thrilled when he was tormenting us, and now? He had the eyes of a pathetic prey animal.
“Good job, Rai.”
Every now and then, even I knew how to praise Rai.
(T/N: Unhinge Rai is the best! Poor Ador though. lol)
