Sora Kurusu, The First Artificier

And so I followed him, regardless of whether or not they actually actually have good intentions with me "So dear hero, are you perhaps interested slaves?" He asked, then my mind decided to ponder about the word slaves 'Do I really need one?' I thought, then we arrived at an encampment. There were poorly bandaged people sitting within large cages, they are dirty. 'Looks like Hans wasn't lying about the slavery bit...' "I've heard many things about you Sir hero, and many of them had been speculations. but let me reassure you that our business is legitimate and perfectly legal with both the law and the church..." We entered a large tent, and inside is a large desk with a bunch of boxes close to it "Now, let me explain to you a few things..."

I asked him first about why he seemed so interested in me, he told me that I'm nothing like the people that lived in the kingdom of Castille "Castille prides itself as one of the most militaristic countries, having the great dungeon, named after the kingdom "Castille' Labyrinth", residing quite close to their kingdom. They were able to not only procure resources that would rival Dwarven swords and elixirs, but as well as getting the best place to train their adventurers and, Of course, the recently established order of the Heroes..." "So what's this got to do with me?" I said "Well, a lot of things dear Hero..." "Because of the newly established Heroic Order, a lot of legitimate slave dealers have been arrested for 'Taking away the rights of another living being', Even though I, Former Lord Magnus, have clearly not broken any of the previous laws written and passed down..." "What makes you different from the other slave traders?" I asked "Well, we only bring with us the highest quality of slaves, most of them are being kept in a secure location until our first batch has been sold..." I doubted him, but somehow he sensed it "But worry not, I treat my children as if they were my absolute own!" He said "Come..." He gestured me to a cage, and in it were 3 children, two boys and the other whose gender remained unknown, slept peacefully on the cage floor.

"Pedophile..." I said "Now now, don't judge by first impressions..." The children immediately woke up "Magos!" the boys said cheerfully "Now guys, my name is Magnus, not Magos..." He said, They eyed me suddenly "I-is he going to buy us?" He chuckled "We'll see if he gets interested..."

"Well, what else is there you need to tell me before It's my turn to ask questions?" I said "Well..." He pulled back the chair behind his desk and sat "Shortly after you left the kingdom, the kingdom received reports of a shriveled body found in the back alley of a pub in the outer city. Because of that body, many of the townsfolk became scared and obviously it led to the discovery of the Heroic Order, which compromises of adventurers loyal to the Heroes of Castille, but after close digging, we also found out they did their own little research, the Western Church..." He said as he brought out some doc.u.ments from a pile on his desk "They've confirmed that the shriveled body was the work of a Dark heart, and they've deduced it being Greed's..." "What are you getting at?" He chuckled once more "You're the Dark heart of Greed, aren't you Sora Kurosu?".

My body seemed to be immobilized by that sentence, it took me quite some time to process everything up until this very moment, From escaping the castle with the help of an Old General to me standing before this crazy slave-trader "But why? that weird lady said it was purely Inherited-" "Well that's the thing!" he placed another piece of paper on the table, it is a newspaper, surprisingly for this world to have it. On the old parchment, the words plastered on it's front cover...

'Defeat of the Dark Lord sheds new hope!'

"Read it..." I took the old parchment and begun reading the front page, apparently the Dark Lord of that age was defeated by a certain hero party inside the castle, I placed it down and said "What's her theory?" "Well, she thinks that perhaps, because of the complicated magical system of Newly summoned creatures, some leftover residual essence of the Dark Lord might've seeped into your soul. Thus, recreating the magic of Greed. But what worries that woman mostly about this theory, is because there is a chance..." He hesitated, with both of his hands clasping each other, and then said "...that the old Dark Lord, might be revived through you..." My eyes widened, and I looked at my left palm "Why?" "Excuse me?" "Why are you people helping me? First it was that General, then that perverted old lady, and then you, a slave-trader!" I grabbed my hair "It doesn't make sense! All of it, it's like you guys are skipping through a lot of information and just bringing down on me problems that I don't want to get involved with, I've already decided that I'll never associate myself with anything related to the war! Why are you guys even doing this to me?!" The slave-trader before me sighed "Well, we know that you've no interest in fighting. That is why we are keeping an close eye on you..." "Then why?" I said "Because there are others out there that aren't like us three, and just want to use you solely for their purposes..." He said coldly "Yes, you are powerful. But imagine what the people would do right now just to end this war, for all I know, they'd probably enslave Ancient angels and demons just to satisfy their l.u.s.t for murder..." I laughed "So this war really is just an atrocious pass time!" "Not exactly, but not far from it either..." He said as he place out two items before me. A choker with a gem, and paint brush with an Ink bottle beside it "Which is why it's quite fortunate for us to have you..." He said "There are a lot of thins I'd love to discuss with you, and there are a lot of things we'd love to do, but right now you're being tailed..." He said coldly "...And it's best if you keep doing that..." "t-Tailed? but who-" "Who else? it's not that hard to figure out who'd send out posters of their missing friend..." I looked away in shame "And since you have quite some trust issues, I've been told by a certain Miss to give you a slave of your choice..." 'So that's why I'm here...' I thought "Sorry, but I'm no-" He handed over to me the choker "Please, even if you don't want to. It'll help to have some reliable help that'll never leave your side..." He then raised his hands "I'll only let you take one though, anything after that isn't gonna be free..."

I took my time thinking about which one to take, the boys in the cage began beaming at me with excitement, but then the other child behind them woke up from the continuous rattling and shaking, and scratched it's little dirty face...

"What're you guys doing?"