“What are you lying there for!? Stand up!”
The man shouted as he pulled the chain, forcing Kael to stand.
Kael glanced at the man, his eyes were still blinded by the brightness since they were used to the cage’s darkness. The man, however, didn’t take kindly to his gaze and,
“Haah!? Who do you think you are staring at!? You wanna die!?”
The man shouted.
Kael wanted to retort or fight back. His body, however, jerked in fear as he quickly glanced away, not daring to look at the man in front of him anymore.
This was when Kael realized…
This was not real…
He was seeing another vision today.
‘So I am captured now?’
He raised his eyebrows.
‘What sort of insane fetishes did the Future me go through?’
He was pitying his Future Self.
Then, he just sighed in relief.
‘Whatever, at least it is different than before.’
Just the thought of ‘that’ vision still haunted him to his core. Kael knew that watching it again would give him another panic attack.
“Yes, that is it. Learn to keep your gaze down from now on. You are no Hero anymore. You are a lowly Slave, and this will be your new home till you are sold.”
The man grinned.
‘A slave…?’
Kael frowned. His eyes then fell on a building. Strangely enough, the language used in this world was extremely similar to English, so Kael never had difficulty understanding it.
Even now, he didn’t have a difficult time reading the name of the building.
{Gasta Slave Market: Explore, Engage, Enslave~}
‘It even has a tagline…
How progressive.’
Kael couldn’t help but comment in his head.
Suddenly, the giant man pulled him towards the building. Once again, Kael lost his balance and was about to fall, but as if fearing the man’s wrath, his body quickly regained its balance and obediently followed behind him.
The moment he entered the building, Kael could feel the heavy air, thick with despair and hopelessness.
Cages lined the walls, packed with men, women, and even children. Some were scrawny and malnourished, while others looked stronger. The women were barely covered with rags, their bodies were exposed for all to see.
Kael thought he would be thrown into one of these overcrowded cages, but the giant man bypassed them all, dragging him toward the back of the building.
Soon, they reached the end of the corridor, where barely anyone could see them.
Without saying a word, the man picked the fire lamp hanging on the wall, and the instant he did,
Clank Clank Clank
As if some mechanism were activated, the wall slid aside, revealing a staircase leading underground.
The man descended. Kael followed.
The air down here was more oppressive. It wasn’t just a slave market, it was a prison. It was as if the entire place was built to mentally break even the strongest of warriors.
Unlike the cages above, the cells here were empty.
Yes, no one was here.
The silence was deafening. Only the sound of their footsteps echoing all over the place could be heard. Just imagining staying in this dark place for a few hours felt no different than torture.
Kael was taken to the very end of the underground prison and his eyes fell on three cages that were positioned in a different location than others, isolating them even further in this haunted place.
Two of them were empty, however, as he stared at the one in the middle…
His eyes fell on her.
A slave whose face was covered by her long purple hair. She was wearing a dark robe, there was an iron collar on her neck which was bound by 5 chains, making it impossible for her to move even a little.
Her body trembled when she heard the sound of people walking in, it seemed like she was too used to the loneliness of this place.
Slowly, she raised her head to see who had come here, and only then, was Kael able to have a clear look at her face.
Her purple, hollow eyes seemed to have given up on everything. Her face, covered with dirt, was hauntingly beautiful. Even in this state, she was nothing short of perfection. A perfection from which Kael couldn’t look away.
He had seen his fair share of beautiful women in his life. He had seen models and actresses who had captivated the hearts of millions, but never in his life had he seen a woman more beautiful than her.
*Picture*
Kael wanted nothing more than to continue to stare at this woman. Even when the giant man pulled him towards his cell, his eyes stayed locked on her, but just as the man threw him in his cage,
The Vision ended, and Kael woke up.
‘W-What…?’
Kael couldn’t help but question, his mind still in a state of confusion.
He looked around and realized that he was back in his room. Little Igni, who had grown a little, was still sleeping beside him. Kael, however, felt strange.
Even now, he was having a hard time understanding what happened at the end of the vision.
The image of that woman didn’t leave his mind no matter how hard he tried.
This was the first time he was truly captivated by someone.
However, thinking about her condition and then his own, Kael’s mind was filled with countless questions.
If his theory was correct and these ‘visions’ were indeed trying to tell him something…
Then what did this vision mean…?
What was this vision trying to tell him?
How did he, a Hero who is surrounded by so many strong people, end up as a Slave?
Was the Drakthar Kingdom attacked by some other force? Did the Kingdom somehow fall, and he was captured?
That was one possibility.
However, what made Kael uneasy was something else. He had seen the reflection of his own face in the Iron Bars of the Cage he was in.
Unlike in the first vision, where his face had mutated and looked much older than right now, his face in this vision seemed… a lot like his face now.
Even his body—unlike the body that felt foreign, filled with much more strength even when it was pushed to that state—in this vision, his body felt very similar to his own.
Yes, it still felt stronger, but Kael believed it was a level he could reach within a few months.
All of this suggested that the timeline of this vision was very close.
Did it mean that the Drakthar Kingdom would fall soon? But… Drakthar was the Strongest Kingdom in Nerathis.
How could the strongest Force fall so soon…?
Or…
Was he getting it all wrong and something entirely different happened…?
Was he… betrayed…?
Kael’s face turned grim when he thought of that possibility.
Of course, it could be possible that he was overthinking it, or the Slave Market might be metaphorical, having some other hidden message.
But the question still remained,
What did this Vision mean?
And… who was that woman he saw before…?