Chapter 2: Flum’s Blessing in Disguise

Chapter 2:
Flum’s Blessing in Disguise

 

THE SLAVE TRADER lifted Flum by her reddish-brown hair and threw one kick after another at her stomach. “You worthless wretch! Do you know how much money you lost me?! Why…you…little…!!”

Flum heaved and gasped as the toe of the man’s shoe landed. A trail of drool ran out the side of her mouth and down her chin. A droplet fell onto the man’s shoe, which only spurred a new outburst of violence.

“What’re you doin’ actin’ like the victim in all this?? It’s all your fault that you’re so worthless that no one’ll buy ya!”

The dull thud of boot meeting flesh continued to echo throughout the room.

When the famed hero Jean Inteige had first approached him to say he had a girl to sell, the merchant had almost gotten down on his knees to thank the heavens right then and there. Forcing an innocent girl into slavery was obviously against the law, and to make matters worse, she was one of the heroes chosen to defeat the Demon King! But this also implied the unfortunate soul had some pretty impressive stats—stats that would sell for a very nice markup on the open market. Even Jean himself had said “the reward is well worth the risk, I assure you.”

And so, the merchant did his due diligence and kept to his part of the deal. He avoided asking questions; not because he was being polite, per se, but because Jean gave him the impression that he wasn’t supposed to. In retrospect, that had been a clear sign that something was off. Jean had been tight-lipped with information and hadn’t even tried to haggle for more money.

How could he have been so stupid?

The first time the merchant started to worry was when he saw how Jean dragged Flum over and how he disparaged her. “Useless,” he had said. Right in front of the man who was hoping to buy this girl at an exorbitant price. But he was dealing with a legendary hero—a sage, even!—and so the merchant had accepted his terms sight unseen.

It was only after completing the transaction and making his exit that the man finally decided to check Flum’s stats. Fortunately, this was easily accomplished with the Scan spell, simple magic anyone could use, regardless of their affinity.

 

Flum Apricot

Affinity: Reversal

Strength: 0

Magic: 0

Endurance: 0

Agility: 0

Perception: 0

 

When it became apparent that Flum’s stats were all zeroes, the blood drained from the merchant’s face. And by that point, of course, Jean was already long gone.

Under normal circumstances, he would always use Scan prior to making a purchase. Now, he realized Jean would probably have called off the deal right there if he’d tried to use Scan at any point during the transaction.

It came down to this: he’d been played. Jean had seen right through him.

About a week had passed since the merchant had so readily parted with a large sum of money to have this girl foisted upon him. No matter how sour he was about the whole affair, he couldn’t exactly return her, and considering he’d bought her on the black market, a girl with stats that were all zeroes was pretty much unsellable.

But that was all about to change.

The merchant grabbed Flum by the collar of her threadbare shirt and dragged her down the stone corridor, the rough flooring scraping against her skin as they went.

“Ow…owww…”

She no longer put up much objection to this degree of pain. Nor did she have the mental energy to try and imagine where she was being taken now. It wasn’t going to be nice, that much she knew. She might be sold to someone else, or maybe even killed—either way, her future was grim. The moment she was branded a slave, Flum knew she would never be going home again.

She’d cried in the beginning, but at this point, Flum had given up. She didn’t even struggle as the merchant dragged her down a flight of stairs, only letting out small yelps of pain when her legs or thighs slammed into the step below. Once in the basement, the merchant unlocked a cage and threw her inside before quickly locking the door behind her.

Flum hit the ground with a loud thud and collapsed to the cold floor. “Nnnng…”

She propped herself up and looked around the cage. She spotted four other slaves in here with her, their dull eyes confirming that they had all accepted their impending demise. It seemed no one was bothering to feed these people, since they all looked sickly and frail.

The cage was also filthy, though that was to be expected. It smelled absolutely foul, causing Flum’s nose to instinctively scrunch up. In one corner was a woman surrounded by her own feces and urine. An eerie smile graced her face. Her heart was still beating, but inside, she was already dead.

Suddenly, she heard the merchant speak up from where he sat in a chair just outside the cell.

“Well, it’s getting pretty full in here. I guess it’s about time.”

It was clear something was about to start, but none of the walking dead in the cell seemed to show any interest in what that something was. The man stood from his chair and walked away to start his preparations. For the moment, the only sound in the basement was the slaves’ breathing.

Flum crawled to the back of the room and rested her back against the wall. As she slowly began to control her breathing and took in her surroundings, her gaze came to rest on an odd-looking figure, their face covered in bandages.

She figured she’d make some small talk to pass the time. “How…how long have you been in here?”

The figure slowly turned to face Flum. When they finally spoke, it was to say, “I was brought here three days ago.”

Flum hadn’t realized she was a girl until she heard her speak. She was so thin that the outlines of her bones were visible just underneath her skin, and the bandage wrapped around her face obscured her features. Her light grey hair brushed against her shoulders; Flum figured it might even be silver if given a good wash. The length of her hair alone might have given away her gender, but it was ragged, as if it had been cut forcefully with a rusty blade.

The girl’s clothing was dingy, her skin smeared with grime, and she carried with her a slightly pungent odor. And yet, there was something about the way she looked into Flum’s eyes that left her breathless. Her eyes were absolutely beautiful. Flum couldn’t make herself look away.

In those eyes, she saw a beautiful femininity and a look of pure innocence. Had fate treated her differently, Flum was certain that this girl would be leading a truly happy life. She could tell just by looking into her beautiful eyes, a stark contrast to the disgusting dungeon they found themselves in.

“Umm… So…uhh… I suppose everyone here’s going to be killed?”

“I don’t know, but the master said that he’d be disposing of us all.”

“The master?”

“The man from earlier. No one will buy me, so that makes him my master.”

“Oh… I see…”

Flum could tell that she and this other woman had lived completely different lives. It sounded like she had been a slave from a very young age and was accustomed to this.

Upon closer inspection, Flum noticed that some of the skin under the girl’s bandages was red and inflamed. She shuddered to think about just what punishment the other woman had received at the hands of their so-called master.

Flum didn’t feel like continuing her conversation with the bandaged figure, though she was surprised at just how young the other girl seemed to be. As she let the silence envelop them, she noticed the girl stare at her for a while longer before finally turning her gaze back to the ground.

The two sat there, hugging their legs to their chests for warmth, staring vacantly at the grey floor. Flum watched some bugs she’d never seen before squirm around the cell on their countless legs. Under other circumstances, she’d have been disgusted by the sight and tried to get as far away as she could, but now she stared, fixated.

After an indeterminate amount of time, she heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Looking up, she spied the merchant standing on the other side of the bars. He set a small chair down in front of the cell and sat, crossing one leg over another.

“Well, well, well. You probably already know this, but you’re all sittin’ on the junk heap right now. You have no value on the market, and I can’t just be pourin’ money into the care of worthless pieces of meat, so I’m going t’have to do away with you. However…”

The merchant smirked.

“I blew money on acquiring you in the first place and then blew even more just to keep you alive. At the very least, I deserve t’get some fun out of your deaths, no?”

No one responded. Though he didn’t seem to have expected them to, the merchant still clicked his tongue in annoyance at the silence. He then stood up and walked away, disappearing into the darkness.

Though Flum couldn’t see it from where she sat, there was apparently a handle of some sort attached to the wall across from them. She could hear the metal scraping as the man cranked it with both hands. Stone scraped against stone as the ceiling groaned above them, pebbles and dust showering the cell’s occupants.

Flum slowly turned her eyes toward the source of the sound when three human-shaped objects dropped through the newly opened hole in the ceiling and hit the ground with a thud.

They weren’t human-shaped, actually. They had been humans, once. When they were alive.

Blood and other fluids oozed from the contorted corpses, filling the room with an awful rotting stench. The insects were initially startled by the loud noise but now hungrily swarmed toward the new arrivals.

The merchant appeared once again in front of the cell, a proud smile on his face. “Didja figure it out yet? These are ghouls. When you leave a corpse exposed to magic long enough, they start movin’ around on their own and turn into F-Rank monsters.”

As he spoke, the ghouls made gurgling and slurping noises. They shuddered to life, their heads twisting around in search of prey. The moans that escaped from their half-rotten throats were otherworldly.

Flum had encountered ghouls before on her journey. As the man said, these were low-level F-Rank monsters. They were slow, and fragile because of their rotting flesh.

“Tell you what—if you can put the hurt on these ghouls, then I’ll put you back up for sale and let you live a little while longer. But be careful. These guys ain’t pushovers.”

Many newbie adventurers made the mistake of letting their guard down in the face of the F-Rank ghouls, only to find themselves killed by a powerful bite to their neck. A regular person with no fighting experience stood no chance against these monsters, especially equipped with nothing but their bare hands.

“Welp, looks like they’re already off to a good start!”

The ghouls rushed toward the feces-covered woman sitting in the corner, driven by pure hunger and a desire to replace their rotten flesh with that of the living. They opened their mouths wide, baring their yellowed teeth and spattering the ground with drool. The woman didn’t even scream. She simply sat there and stared back blankly at the monsters looming in to tear her flesh apart.

One caught her thigh, another her shoulder, and the third took a bite out of her cheek. The ghouls chewed sloppily as they tore into the woman’s flesh. After a short time, her body began to convulse and pink liquid bubbled up at the corners of her mouth. With one final heave, her head dropped to the side, and her body ceased all movement.

And yet, there was something peaceful about her face. Like she’d finally been released from all the pain and suffering she endured living in this world.

The ghouls were far from satisfied, though.

Upon actually witnessing the woman being murdered in front of them, Flum and the others in the cell realized that they weren’t willing to just up and die. At least not yet. The bandaged girl Flum had spoken to earlier fidgeted weakly, as if struggling with the idea of her imminent death.

A broad smile graced the merchant’s face. He seemed to be enjoying the fear spreading through the surviving occupants of the cell.

“You better do something soon, or you’re next! But you can’t possibly defeat a ghoul with just your bare hands, right? Oh, hey! Look over at that wall! Isn’t that a broadsword over there? It’s too heavy for any of you, but I mean, who knows. Maybe it’s an Epic class weapon and has some kinda magic on it!”

Of course, everyone knew this was a trap. But what choice did they have if they wanted to live? The only man in the cell ran immediately to the sword and grabbed the hilt. Alas, the massive steel weapon was just too heavy for his frail arms to heft. Its tip hit the stone floor with a shower of sparks and a loud clang.

The sound drew the attention of the ghouls, who began to move toward him. The man couldn’t even lift the sword up off the ground, much less fight them off.

“Hah…hah…nnngraaaaw!! I’m not gonna die here! I’m going to get out of here and make everything r-right…” His voice trailed off as he continued to struggle, eliciting a laugh from the merchant.

“Glad to see you’ve got that kinda gumption! Good on ya. Just for that, I’m going to make sure you don’t suffer quite so much.”

The man gripping the sword suddenly began to scream.

“You…you bastard! My body, it’s… Gaaaaugh!!”

Looking closer, Flum could see that the skin on the back of his hands was peeling off, exposing the flesh and bone underneath. And it wasn’t just his hands. The flesh across his body was beginning to peel away under his clothes. Next came the muscle underneath, which began to melt into a thick, goopy liquid as the man’s body surrendered its shape.

“Gyahahaha!! Oh, what a shame. You sure went at it, but unfortunately that sword there is cursed. Anyone who touches it will die a gruesome death. That black blade kinda gives it away, dunnit? I got it just like I got little ol’ Flum here. Someone told me it was an Epic class weapon and tricked me into buying it. When will I learn? Well, to be fair, it actually is an Epic weapon. Bwahahaha!”

The merchant clapped his hands together and cackled in sadistic delight.

“On the other hand, it was pretty fun to watch that junk sword clean up the other junk I’d accumulated. I guess it wasn’t a total waste!”

As he spoke, the ghouls turned to their next target: the third girl in the cage apart from Flum and the bandaged girl. The girl waved her arms frantically, as if trying to direct them away.

“Why me?? Please, go that way. Please, please, stay away from me!”

This only made the merchant laugh all the harder. The girl lunged to the bars and clung desperately to them as she pushed her face into the gap.

“Please save me, I beg of you! I’ll do whatever I have to do to make sure someone will buy me, I promise!”

The merchant responded to the desperate girl with a warm smile. He stood from his seat and knelt down in front of her, bringing his head down to eye level. A glimmer of hope began to well up in the girl’s chest as she saw the look on his face. Maybe, just maybe, there was still a shred of humanity left in this man who made his living buying and selling other humans.

“A-are you going to save me?”

“You’re filthy.”

The look of warmth never left the merchant’s face as he pulled a knife and stabbed it right through the soft part at the base of her throat.

“Gnng…nnnhhggg…”

The blade went straight through the base of her tongue, through her nose, and into her brain.

“Whew, that stinks! Hard to believe another human could be that rank. Though, to be fair, it’s an insult to me to put us in the same category. Gahaha!”

The girl’s body slowly slumped down to the floor, her face still pressed tightly against the bars, balanced on the knife’s hilt. The merchant returned to his seat and looked down at the dead girl before belting out another laugh.

The world was vast.

A vast domain, filled with revolting creatures, that surrounded Flum’s little village. If only she’d stayed where she was. She’d never even wanted to leave. Chosen by the Divine Creator—no, it was more like she’d been cursed.

She’d led a nice, simple life back in her village. She’d help her parents in the fields all morning, and then they’d head back in to enjoy a warm lunch together. In the afternoon, her friends would invite her out to play. They’d while away the hours visiting shops around the village, picking flowers, and going on adventures in the nearby woods, all the while talking about nothing in particular as the sun slowly set. The weak Flum had to take regular breaks just to keep up with the rest of the kids, but no one mocked her for it.

If she were home now, it’d be just about time for dinner. Her family would be laughing and chatting around the table before getting ready for bed, knowing another day much like this one awaited them at sunrise.

How she missed those days.

She’d never wanted for anything, and she’d never complained. Everyone had praised her for being such a good kid, even if she wasn’t exactly the best daughter her parents could have hoped for. All of her stats were stuck at zero, after all. But was that really so bad? Every child had their own way of making their parents’ lives difficult. Her parents had always laughed off any suggestions that she might be a bother.

This wasn’t right.

She couldn’t just let her life end like this, screaming in misery while a ghoul ate her alive.

“No! No, no! I don’t want to die like this!! I didn’t do anything to deserve this!!”

A flurry of emotions ran through Flum’s mind—anger, fear, hatred, terror—as she faced down the stumbling bodies of rotting flesh. They groaned out as they finally took notice of her and dragged themselves ever closer.

“Didn’t do anything? Ha! I got cheated out of a big, fat sum of money ’cause of you, kid! Now, just die for your sins!”

“None of that’s my fault! I didn’t do any of that to you!”

She had been sold, enslaved, and now she was about to be killed. And she was supposed to be held accountable for it, too? This wasn’t how the world was supposed to work. So why was it that the merchant was the one getting his way? How did his word become law? Did might really make right, after all?

If that was true, Flum was doomed to die. She was going to be torn apart in the most grotesque of ways, reduced to a pile of meat and bones in a cold, dark corner of this miserable place.

No one would mourn her; no tears would be shed. Her parents would never know what had happened to her. Her body would be dumped somewhere and burnt with the other trash, and no one would remember that a girl named Flum had once existed.

And she hated that.

“Well, if you hate the idea of dying so much, why don’t you grab a weapon and fight? Gyahaha!”

A weapon…

Flum’s eyes scanned the room and settled on the broadsword lying on the ground. Next to it lay the white bones and goopy mess that had once been her cellmate. Give up and get eaten, or fight back and melt away. Either way, she was going to die.

But at least she’d die with some honor if she went down fighting. Even if the end result was the same, she’d rather die that way than let this man get his jollies from her surrender.

Flum forced herself up to her feet with a cry. Her body was weakened, she was hungry, and the fact that she’d spent the last weak being the merchant’s punching bag didn’t help matters either. Even walking bow-legged, she still trembled with each and every step. She could hear the man cackling from beyond the bars, but she clenched her jaw and forced herself forward one step at a time.

At this rate, the ghouls would probably make it to her before she even had a chance to lay a hand on the sword.

“Nng…aaaah…oooww…!”

However, she continued to tell herself that she wasn’t going to let it end like this.

“…And yet, I persisted. I persisted…and persisted…and still, I persisted!”

Somehow, these words helped her find the strength she needed to overcome her fears and put the next foot forward, her strides growing longer and longer with every step. Alas, no matter how strong her determination, the awful reality of her situation could not be escaped. Before she knew it, one of the ghouls grabbed her shoulder with its rotting hand.

“Ah!”

Flum’s body twisted about helplessly as the powerful ghoul yanked her closer and brought its head near her left shoulder, its mouth gaping open and dripping with tendrils of saliva. A moment later, diseased brown teeth bit through her thin clothes and dug deep into her flesh.

“Nnngaaah!”

Blood mixed with the thick saliva and began to gush from her skin where the ghoul had taken a bite. The ghoul twisted its head back and forth, tearing away at the flesh.

“Gaaaaaaugh!!”

Flum’s face contorted in pain as a piece of her shoulder was ripped free. She dropped to the stone floor.

Up ahead, she spied the sword. Her left arm was a lost cause, but she continued on, crawling as fast as her legs and right arm could propel her.

The merchant cheered her on from the sidelines. “You got this, just a little more!”

The bandaged girl followed Flum’s movements, her eyes cold and emotionless.

Flum continued to grunt, her breath ragged, as she fought her way through the pain and inched closer and closer to the sword. She was still moving much slower than before, though, and the ghoul was on her again. This time, it was the soft flesh of her calf that readily gave way to its gnashing teeth.

Another ghoul descended upon her and took a bite from her left thigh. The third and final ghoul made its presence known when it started gnawing on her heel.

Flum’s legs were now useless. All she had was her right arm.

A chill flooded her body, clammy with cold sweat from the massive loss of blood. Her lungs struggled valiantly with each breath to supply her with oxygen. Just remaining conscious was a battle in its own right. Flum worried she might black out at any moment from the pain.

Her persistence would be her savior. Her finger—the very tip of her middle finger—brushed against the sword’s hilt. She stretched out her hand further and managed to get a firm grip on it.

“I…I did it.”

And now she could melt away and die.

She’d lost all feelings in her legs as the ghouls continued to feast on her flesh. Everything below her waist was now just a mixture of flesh, bones, and blood. But what did it matter? She was going to die anyway. At least she was doing it on her own terms. Whether that was important or not, she couldn’t say, but it left her with a strange sense of satisfaction.

Flum closed her eyes and felt the pain slowly dissipate. A sense of warmth enveloped her and her body felt light.

So this was what it felt like to die.

The merchant’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Wha…?!”

Flum didn’t care what he had to say. She was dying, after all.

“What’s goin’ on??”

Or at least, she thought she was.

“What’s this?? Wh-why are your wounds healing??”

Hearing the confusion in the man’s voice, Flum finally decided to open her eyes one last time.

And then she saw it…

“Huh?”

The ghouls were backing away from Flum, keeping an uneasy distance. What was more, the flesh that had been torn off from her legs just moments ago was back where it should be, without even a scratch to be seen. Even her shoulder was restored.

Flum brought her hand up to her face and opened and closed it a few times. She pinched her cheek. It hurt.

So it wasn’t just her imagination or some cruel dream. That meant that her body…

Flum stood and hefted the sword with one hand. It wasn’t light, by any means, but it wasn’t particularly heavy, either.

This frail little girl was somehow lifting a massive blade nearly as tall as her with one hand.

It didn’t make sense to her, but Flum understood this much. She hadn’t given up. Even in her darkest hour, she’d crawled toward her objective and achieved what she set her heart on.

“So…I don’t have to die?”

Flum looked over her now-healed body and felt newfound determination well up within her.

“Yeah…yeah! I didn’t do anything wrong! There’s no reason I should have to die in a miserable place like this.”

The ghouls began slowly and uneasily to approach her once again. Despite their ghastly appearance, they no longer inspired the same fear that they had just moments ago. Flum closed her eyes and let out a breath to clear her mind. She tightened her grip on the hilt, held the blade at the ready, and launched toward the monsters.

She had nothing to fear, after all. The blade was much longer than the ghouls’ reach.

Copying what she’d seen her party members do in the past, she closed in until she was just within striking distance, brought down her blade, and…

“Hyaaaaa!!”

Fwok!

The three ghouls were all severed at the waist, the top halves of their bodies lopped clean off. Flum, with her strength stat of zero, was befuddled to see them so easily cleaved in two with just a single strike. Sure, their flesh was rotten, but this was impressive. There must be something special about this blade.

Not that she really cared about the specifics right now. She was just glad it worked. What she did care about was escaping with her life.

Flum approached the door to the cage and gave the sword another powerful swing.

Clang!

The heavy blade easily parted the lock and sent the door flying open with a screech. Stepping out of the cell, she found herself face to face with the cowering merchant.

“W-wait a minute here! Listen, I, uh, you can go free, okay? So please, please spare me!”

This was the same man who’d been cackling just moments ago as he watched the slaves die in front of him. How quickly people changed. Still, Flum debated whether she should kill him. She had never raised a hand in violence before and didn’t want to turn into a murderer now. And if the merchant was some sort of influential figure in the capital, then that could make her a hunted criminal.

However…

“Haa… Augh?!”

She ran the sword straight through his right shoulder, cleanly severing his right arm from his body and sending it dropping limply to the floor. The merchant took a moment to react due to the suddenness of it all.

“Aaaaaaguh!!! My…my arm!!”

“Shut up, old man.”

Next, she removed his left arm with the blood-drenched blade. His screams reverberated throughout the basement.

“Gryaaaaaaaugh!!”

Flum was surprised by how calm she felt as she inflicted such pain upon another human being for the first time. It was like carving meat. In her mind, the man was no longer human.

The merchant continued to scream as Flum speared his left leg, remembering all the times he had kicked her with it. It had hurt. A lot. Her torso was covered in bruises, and her body ached all over. The only thing she’d been given to eat in days was scraps of moldy bread that she was barely able to choke down.

“Aaauugh! P-please, just s-s-stop!”

His right leg was next. Another slice of the blade revealed white fat amidst the blood-soaked muscle. She could even see his thighbone peeking through. She felt nothing but hatred for this appendage that he’d so swiftly turned into a weapon, but once separated from his body, it was nothing more than a piece of meat.

“Please, please, forgive…” His voice was barely more than a whisper, probably from the loss of blood. Flum didn’t want him to bleed out before she was done. “I…I beg of you…”

Swish!

Fwop!

She swung the sword parallel to the ground and right through the side of his head, lopping the top half of the man’s head clean off. Blood erupted from his severed skull like a fountain, spattering Flum’s face, as he slowly slumped to the floor. A mixture of blood and brains spread across the ground, and an awful stench now wafted off of the man who once had the gall to call her dirty.

Flum remained unperturbed by the grotesque scene in front of her. She felt no guilt. She felt, in fact, much the same as when she slayed the ghouls. Come to think of it, all she’d done was kill another monster that happened to look like a human. A monster even more rotten on the inside than the ghouls had been.

She felt a growing sense of assurance. She was right. She wasn’t crazy. Her outlook on the world had just changed a bit, thanks to the ordeal she’d endured this past week.

Slowly, she realized that she didn’t have a sheath for her sword. She might be able to wield it one-handed, but she couldn’t just walk around town with it out like this.

“What to do…?”

As she pondered, the sword suddenly exploded in a shower of light and vanished into the palm of her hand, leaving behind a red rune in its place.

“That’s right—he said it was an Epic class weapon, just like the ones Cyrill used. She could make them appear and disappear at will…”

There were five classes of equipment: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Legendary, and Epic. Much like a person’s stats, the class of a piece of equipment could be ascertained by using Scan. The wielder of an Epic piece of equipment could summon it from—and send it away to—a parallel dimension of sorts.

Due to their high stats and how easy they were to carry around, Epic equipment was ridiculously expensive—not something your run-of-the-mill slave trader would have access to. Like he said, he’d probably gotten tricked into buying it for what he thought was a steal thanks to it being cursed.

Regardless, Flum was just glad to not have to carry it around town with her. With that out of the way, she turned her attention back to the cage and locked eyes with the lone living occupant, the bandaged girl.

She stepped into the cage and offered a hand to the young girl.

“Huh?” The other girl only tilted her head in confusion. The suddenness of her movement caused her bandages to rustle.

“Huh, nothin’. We’re getting out of here.”

“But why?”

“The merchant’s dead now. There’s no reason for us to be here anymore.”

The young girl stared blankly back at Flum. Her eyes were absolutely beautiful and yet so completely devoid of any emotion. It was impossible to even guess what was going through her mind.

“Listen, it’s gonna be really bad for me if someone finds out that I killed the merchant, okay? Now c’mon and hurry up!”

Flum was now getting impatient. She grabbed the girl’s hand, pulled her to her feet, and then started to lead her outside.

“Umm…”

“What?”

“Are you my master now?”

This stopped Flum in her tracks.

“That wasn’t exactly what I was thinking…”

“But you took me out of that place, didn’t you? Aren’t you going to use me?”

“Use…?”

“If that’s not what you intend, then why would you take me with you? I don’t know what I’m supposed to do if I’m with someone who isn’t my master.”

This girl knew nothing but life as a slave. To the only relationship she could conceive of between two people was that of a slave and her master. To be completely honest, Flum hadn’t put a lot of thought into bringing her along. If anything, she just felt bad leaving her all on her own. But if the girl insisted on having a master…

“Fine. From here on out, I’m your master. Now will you come with me?”

The girl nodded firmly. Was that all it took?

“First things first, introductions. I’m Flum Apricot, 16 years old. You?”

“My name is Milkit, and I’m 14 years old. I’m pleased to meet you, Master.” The girl bowed her head low. This caught Flum a bit off guard.

“Right, uh… Nice to meet you, Milkit.” She grabbed the younger girl’s hand and gave a gentle tug.

They made their way up the stairs and out of the damp basement, searching for an exit. Simply not being around the oppressive smell of death did wonders for Flum’s mood. They soon found the front entrance to the building, but were both still dressed in rags, so Flum took two cloaks hanging next to the door. After wrapping themselves up, they finally stepped outside.

A short walk later, Flum found herself in the alley where Jean had sold her. Unpleasant memories came flooding back, and she stopped for a moment. However, Milkit’s cool gaze spurred her to continue on.

She marched toward the main thoroughfare, trying to push the memory of coming here with Jean out of her mind.

There was a massive increase in foot traffic once they made it to the main road, and suddenly, Flum began to feel better. The fresh air made her feel at peace—made her feel like she was a human again.