Chapter 29
Lucas was feeling a little unsettled. The person who had confronted the count earlier was currently sitting across him…
Several minutes ago, the mysterious woman, the person who slayed the goblin king, Platina, along with another woman who introduced herself as the secretary of the adventurer’s guild’s guild master, Karen, approaches him and the other miners.
The woman named Karen had explained that they came here especially to look for him. It was also because of this reason that they willingly antagonize the count in order to protect him. It was an explanation that made sense but it just confuses Lucas more. And that was expected.
Lucas was after all, just a slave. What’s more, he’s a criminal slave, the slave with the lowest status even amongst slave. Which mean that there’s absolutely no reason for Karen and the mysterious woman to go that far just to help him, right? Would a normal person really go against a powerful noble just for the aforementioned reason?
...Could these women perhaps have fallen for his charm?
No, obviously not… That's impossible.
Lucas was not delusional enough to even think that these women, whose statuses, far surpasses his, fancied a criminal slave like himself. The only logical explanation why these two women are willing to come to his aid was because they needed something from him. As for what it was, the young man had no idea.
Could you please stop staring at me? Lucas was feeling more ill at ease due to the silent treatment from the other person. All this time, the mysterious Platina simply stared at him without uttering a single word. Worse still, she was wearing a hood so Lucas could not see her expression. If he were wearing a hood too, he won’t feel so awkward.
“…Miss? Can you please tell me why you’ve seeked me out?” Unable to endure the silence any longer, Lucas finally spoke and ask the mysterious woman what she needed from him.
Rennel fidget a little after hearing the young man’s words. After gathering her thoughts, Rennel too, broke the silence and spoke.
“Understood… but before that, I would like to ask you not to be too formal with me. You might not recognize me but we actually knew each other since a long time ago.”
Pardon? Did I hear her right? This person and I… are acquaintance?
Lucas tries to recall where he might have met this person. But no matter how hard he tried, nothing comes to mind except that maybe this person came from the same village as him.
“Is, is it possible that we came from the same village?” Lucas asked timidly, finding his own question absurd. And who can blame him? As far as he was concern, there were no children in that accursed village with the name Platina.
Oh right, I think I heard her friends called her Rennel earlier…Wait! Rennel!
Lucas stared at the person in front of him with widened eyes after remembering that there was indeed a girl with that name in the village. But how could that be? From what he could recall, that girl, Rennel was a timid and skinny girl that couldn’t even kill a chicken; forget slaying the terrifyingly powerful goblin king!
But, but… she said she might have hailed from the same village as I, and her name was Rennel. So it couldn’t be just some coincidence, right?
Although doubt was still eating his mind, Lucas plucked all of his courage, and asked timidly. “Are you Rennel; the girl that was always with the girl Pina?”
Rennel excitedly stood up and loudly slammed her hands on the table. “That’s right it’s me! I’m glad you still remembered me.”
Hearing the girl’s reply left Luca in daze. Although the person in front of him already confirmed her identity, Lucas could still not come to term with the fact that slayer of the goblin king, and the savior of the city was the same person as the timid village girl that he knew.
Noticing the disbelief in the young man’s eyes, Rennel remembered that she was still wearing her hood. So she quickly removed it thus revealing her true appearance and her eye-catching silver hair.
Thud! Lucas heart missed a beat after seeing the beautiful girl in front of him. She was so beautiful that Lucas was left in a daze. Fortunately, Lucas’ life experience made his will much stronger than most people, and as such, was able to quickly calm his fast-beating heart.
Remembering that it’s rude to stare at a lady for too long, Lucas quickly averted his gaze much to Rennel’s confusion.
“Are you alright?” Rennel asked, a little worried of the young man’s strange behavior.
“Y, yes. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine…” The young man answered, lightly stuttering.
Lucas forced himself to look at the girl again but this time, he’s only trying to find similarities to the Rennel that he knew.
He wasn’t disappointed.
Looking at her, Lucas found that she indeed resemble the Rennel that he knew. Besides the obvious similarities like the girl’s silver hair and black eyes, her other facial feature also looked similar. It’s just that the image he had of the girl was her skinny and sallow face which was a sign that she’s greatly lacking sustenance.
Right! If Rennel was well fed and was proper taken care of, she might indeed look very similar to the person in front of him.
To think that she would become this beautiful after not seeing her in three years, it was as if she’s a completely different person… That said… What is she doing here, and how did she become so powerful all of the sudden?
Many questions races in the young man’s mind. The appearance of an acquaintance trouble’s him a lot since he doesn’t know anything about her aside from what he could recall during his time in that village.
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“I know that you have a lot of questions so allow me to answer some of them for you.”
Without waiting for the other person’s reply, Rennel started to narrate what had happened to the village after the young man was sold to the slave trader. She also told him how she had meet with her teacher (conveniently leaving out the fact that Chaos was not human or even a person), how she ran away from the village, her escape, how she became an adventurer and so on…
Hearing all of this, Lucas felt like he was listening to an epic, or a stage play. Rennel’s life in these few months was full of ups and downs that it could be written into a best-selling novel.
Sigh. “I didn’t expect that you’d experienced so much in such a short timeframe. Not to mention, everything you had achieved…” Lucas heaves a sigh and look at the young woman with admiration.
“Yes, a lot did happen to me after leaving the village. But all of my achievement was all thanks to my teacher,” Rennel replied casually.
Lucas could not help but nod his head at this, “Indeed. You were lucky to find a good teacher but I don’t think that you should discount your own achievements. After all, everything you achieve was through your efforts and hard work. All your teacher did was point you to the right direction.”
Chaos who was quietly listening to the side nodded its head in approval. Although its teachings and her ‘seed’ had a lot to do with the girl’s achievements, it could not be denied that the girl's effort, hard work, patience and perseverance played a huge part in it.
“Thank you,” Realizing that the young man was trying to comfort her, Rennel thanked Lucas sincerely.
“Still compared to you and Pina, my luck and that of the children weren’t so good,” Lucas commented with a sigh. And as if remembering something saddening, Lucas’ eyes dimmed a lot.
The girl didn't notice the expression on Lucas face. When she heard her closest friend’s name, her eyes widened and her heartbeat quickened in excitement. “Pina! You, mean, you know where Pina is?!”
Rennel quickly confronted Lucas; pretty much forcing him to spill whatever he knows. The girl’s forceful approach forced the young man out of his reverie which somewhat terrified the young man, especially after remembering what she did to Count Nougat earlier.
“Calm, calm down, Miss Rennel. I’ll tell you everything I know so no need to be forceful.” Lucas was literary begging Rennel to calm herself down – knowing full well that if he didn’t give the girl a satisfactory answer, she might just turn on him.
Noticing her forceful action, Rennel let out an awkward smile. She forcefully calm her fast beating heart and politely ask Lucas to tell her everything he knew of her friend’s whereabouts.
“I think you already knew of this but Pina was sold a year earlier than me. Before I even met my first master, Pina was already working under the employ of a sorceress...”
A sorceress! Rennel could not hide her surprise after hearing the word “sorceress.” But despite her surprise, she didn’t interrupt Lucas and listened attentively to his narration.
According to Lucas’ narration, he only saw Pina by accident. He said that while he was being transported to his soon-to-be master’s abode, he coincidentally saw Pina getting into a private carriage being pulled by two magical beasts.
Since, there’s only one year difference when they were sold, Lucas was still clear of Pina’s appearance. Although Pina’s facial appearance changed a bit, it wasn’t as drastic as that Rennel and was still easily recognizable by those who knew her.
“After I started working under my new master, I tried to investigate a bit and found out that the person who bought Pina was a woman named Cassandra, a powerful and well-known sorceress. In all honesty, it’s thanks to me investigating her, and the other children that were sold before us that I often made mistakes, resulting to constant beating and whipping from my master.” Lucas admitted with a dark smile.
“But don’t be mistaken though, I’m not blaming Pina or the other children. After all, my former master was a scum of a human being to begin with, and takes great pleasure in beating and whipping people especially slaves. So whether I made mistakes at work or not, I would still experience beatings.” Lucas quickly corrected.
Rennel listened in silence to Lucas story, and could not help but feel gratitude and respect towards the young man for what he did. Despite being in a position much worse compared to most people, he still took it to himself to investigate the other children. Maybe, it’s because he’s the oldest and like the big brother among the children from her old village that he felt responsible. As such, he took it upon himself to investigate what happened to the children that were sold before him.
Lucas didn’t see Rennel’s look of respect and gratitude and continued hid narration: “I'm not really sure where Pina is right now but I do know where sorceress Cassandra lives. Actually, getting that information wasn’t difficult at all since Miss Cassandra was a very famous person. If Pina was still under Miss Cassandra's tutelage, you should be able to find her at the city of Toruk. I heard Miss Cassandra own a mage tower there.”
“Wait, Lucas… what do you mean when you said that Pina was under this sorceress Cassandra’s tutelage?” Rennel asked.
“Oh. I did forget to tell you, didn’t I? I’m not really sure if it was true since I only heard rumors but it seem that the reason Miss Cassandra bought Pina was because she saw her potential in magic. That was also the reason why I said that both you and Pina were very lucky – you both found teachers (if the rumor was to be believed).” Lucas explained.
Comparing luck really made Lucas’ heart ache. He, Rennel, Pina, and the other village children were all humans but their luck weren’t as good as these two. Moreover, not only are the two girls very lucky, they were even very close to each other.
“So you’re saying that if I go look for this Cassandra person; there’s a good chance that I could find PIna?”
Lucas nodded at the girl’s question. The young man couldn’t really explain it himself but he got a hunch that the two girls might indeed cross path if Rennel went to Toruk.
There’s finally some hope. Rennel let heaves a long sigh after. After months of investigating and searching, she finally found a clue on her best friend’s whereabouts. Although there’s a possibility that Pina might no longer be in Toruk, it still was her one and only clue, and therefore, she’s willing to go there to verify if the information was true or not.
After making her mind, Rennel stared at Lucas for several second before speaking, “Lucas. Do you want to work for me?” she asked.
“Work for you?” Lucas asked with a dazed look.
“Yes. I want you to continue investigating the whereabouts of the other missing children. Currently, only you, Pina and two other children had been found after months of investigation. Since you’re able to find clues on Pina’s whereabouts despite your situation, I’m confident that you could also do so with the others as long as you’re given enough resources,” Rennel solemnly explained. “So what do you think? Well you work for me?”
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To be continued
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