And here I was... again, at the Waser Slave Market.

Normally, you wouldn't find children like me walking around this place and checking out the slaves unless they were accompanied by an adult. In my case, I had Timothy to act as one. Zor Nya Nyan, although she was 28, she was far too much of the group's mascot to be considered a responsible adult. Cormina and Lindus could have been my guardians as well, however, nothing could beat Timothy, the silver fox in a butler suit.

The Waser Magic Academy was a place that paled in comparison with the famous Gallyater Magic Academy, where my adorable little sister was invited to study. Both the type of students who joined here as well as the amount of knowledge they could gain from here were completely different. There were a lot of children at Waser who came from poor families or had parents as lower nobles. Most of them just had only one Blessing, and those with two were considered a rarity.

“Sigh~”

I was at a loss of words as I looked at the yet unopened letter placed before me. The wax seal of the Principal of Waser Magic Academy, Triandar Elmora, remained unbroken.

It was not a matter of hesitation for I already knew the contents of the letter. This piece of paper was a mere formality or in some cases a souvenir of sorts, nothing more and nothing less.

The slave market, if I could describe it in one word that would be 'energetic'.

The moment we stepped through the alley and entered this part of the town, we were met with a lot of adults, both from the noble and the rich commoner side. They were looking around with great interest at the 'merchandise' put on display. What surprised me though, was the fact that these people, who barely wore anything else other than a simple loincloth and linen strip to cover their chest and shame, were trying to do their best to attract a potential customer. The men were flexing their muscles and the women made sweet eyes at everyone while adopting a sexier pose.

Three days after aunty Eliza left, the teacher from Gallyater Magic Academy, Robert Dejun, returned to Briston together with five Royal Knights. After the last unfortunate event with Alexandre Damascus, the academy didn't want to take any more chances, so they added the extra security for my little sister.

It was thoughtful of them, true, but I would have appreciated this sort of help a lot sooner. Now it felt more like a useless parade.

After that sweet family moment, I asked them not to tell anyone what I just told them. They agreed immediately, and Cassandra asked me to tell her more about my Blessing and mutations. She was really curious about how useful they could be in both training and battle, especially our psychic ones.

There were quite a few mysteries surrounding my Blessing. Many of which even I didn't manage to uncover, but I decided to give my family the general explanation regarding how it worked. I started off with the name [Binecuvântarea a 118 Zei] which I translated into their language: The Blessing of 118 Gods. Just the name itself should have brought some sort of shock to them, but neither of them reacted in any way.

They were just looking at me and smiling.

There was no way I could avoid telling my family the truth behind my Blessing. Well, actually, I could bend the truth and squeeze out more lies if I wanted to, but I didn't want to do that. I wanted to know that within this life of mine, I had the support of my family, that I could rely on my parents and my sister not worry about whether or not they will stab me in the back.

As I began to wake up, the first thing I saw was the ceiling of my room. My vision was a bit blurry, my ears were ringing, and I had trouble focusing as well. I tried to move, but every nerve in my body screamed out as if pinched by clothespins.

When I shifted my eyes to the right, I saw the blurry shadow of a person standing next to me.

Who? I asked myself, but I couldn't tell.

When I opened my eyes, I could see nothing but endless pure white wherever I looked. Yet, I had the strange feeling that I was in some sort of room and not outside. The space simply felt limited yet at the same time stretched towards infinity. It was an odd sensation to say the least.

“I'm floating?” I said when I realized I couldn't touch the floor.

Not long after we saw the beam of white light cutting through the sky, we arrived at a small clearing in the middle of the Chedelle Forest. Here, my [Mark] spell signaled that we were very close to the location of my target: Leonidas.

“Over there!” I pointed when I saw the disheveled golden hair of my niece, Cassandra.

We all rushed over to her, but the moment we stepped into the clearing, a strong scent of blood hit us. All around us, as far as the eye could see, there were signs of a terrible battle that took place here, and by the looks of it, someone had lost a lot of blood.

My cheek was still stinging from my sister's slap. It hurt, and I knew I deserved it.

Instead of going together with my injured nephew and having Luthecia put [Mark] on me or something similar, I let him go on his own. I let a ten-years-old boy, injured and hurt, to search without an adult's supervision through a forest I knew harbored dangerous monsters.

What was I thinking? I scolded myself as I followed the trace left by my spell.

Alexandre Damascus looked at me as though he saw a ghost. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't understand why or how I was still alive, after all, we all knew that he plucked my still beating heart right out of my body. A normal human being would have been dead with no chance of salvation even with this world's magic.

What's this? What's this? What's this?! I thought as I looked at the heart I held in my hand.

It belonged to the ten-years-old little boy I just killed, yet something was strange about it.

This wasn't the first time I ate human flesh, so I immediately noticed that something was definitely off about the taste. It was different, but surely this couldn't have been the reason why my [Blessing of the Thief] failed to steal his Blessing, right?

Dead...

Brother was dead... And I couldn't do anything to stop this from happening...

I was too afraid... too scared to move...

Behind him, the monster was laughing while holding my dead brother's heart in his hand.

“I really thought I wasn't going to get this boy's Blessing, but the gods must really love me!” he laughed and spread his arms wide while pulling his head back and looking up at the night sky.

Meanwhile, I merely stood there frozen... too scared to move. I just looked in a daze at brother's lifeless body.

It all happened so fast.... I thought I saved Cassandra, that there was no way that man could have survived a blow like that unscratched. I foolishly believed that this fight was over before it even began, and for a fraction of a second, I let my guard down.

That small advantage was all Alexandre Damascus needed in order to put an end to my life.

He appeared behind me in the blink of an eye and then I saw his shadow-covered hand moving towards my chest. I could see it, but my body was too slow to react. It couldn't keep up with my brain's commands.

When Luthecia arrived at the Vlamyr Estate, she was frightened and still in shock. Her hands were shaking, and her breath was ragged. With one glance at her clothes, we could tell that something was wrong, but what startled me was the blood... Her dress and her hands were stained with red blood.

If not for the fact that one of the guards recognized her, Luthecia would have definitely been treated as someone suspicious. If she was still a slave, our last command towards her would have made her unable to leave the mansion and tell us what happened. No matter the state of emergency, a slave could not stray away from their master's orders.

I was afraid... I cried and screamed in my mind.

I didn't want to die. I didn't want to feel pain and see my own blood flowing, so when I felt my end near, I called out to my big brother. He was the only one who could help me, the only one who could save me from this monster.

“Now... die.” said the man covered in that spooky shadow aura.

Save me, brother! I screamed in my mind as I saw his hand pointed at me.

Using the telepathic link between us, I asked Cassandra to tell me everything she saw and was happening around her. I also kept encouraging her to be strong and not lose hope. We had to keep focus and stay alive until aunty Eliza arrived with reinforcements. Sister was the one pulling me towards her, and with [Mark] cast on my body, I pulled the others towards us.

I just prayed they would get here in time and hoped that my divine protection from all of those gods didn't expire already. They promised me a happy and good life, right? So there was no way they would mess up and get me or my sister killed!