~ Chapter 102: Mad Illsy ~

[Ayuseya's point of view]

Illsy told me where I would find Zoreya and Tamara, then I left together with Wolf. On the way, I explained to the young child something Illsy forgot to tell him, and that was the fact that Shanteya was the el'doraw with silver hair and a pale complexion, while Zoreya was the blond human woman he saw inside the carriage. As for her sad expression, she was just sleepy, not at all jealous or anything like that.

No matter with whom we spoke, it was hard to believe us when we said that all of us loved Illsy equally and that our feelings were returned just as much if not more. There was not even a single spec of jealousy, envy, or hate among us, his wives. Maybe this was the main reason why we could understand each other so well when we behaved so differently. Holding such feelings was a bit useless from our points of view.

Why was there even a need to hold such feelings in our hearts for each other anyway? What did we have to gain? Nothing, we would actually have a lot more to lose this way. We were aware of this fact, thus, we had long since gave up on these emotions.

Honestly speaking though, it was not easy to reach this point, but in all those six years we spent together we go used to the feeling of holding respect, compassion, and love for each other rather than hate, envy, or jealousy. At first, we were a bit jealous of each other, especially those of us who instinctively were a monogamous species. Nanya had it the worst of us all, but in time, we began to differentiate between her honest feelings and the instincts of her species, on which, she sometimes acted without knowing it. The same was for me as well... Draconian possessiveness was rather known among many, but after I gained my ability to change to full-sized dragon, it became a bit worse.

It took us some time to reach this point, but because we were all willing to change for the better and learn to coexist this way, we were able to succeed.

Explaining this whole process to the child was nearly impossible, so I just let him know that we were living proof of this possibility.

When we met those two, they were just about to head back to Nanya, so we caught them at a good time. Wolf was a bit worried about leaving the city, but more because he thought the Marquise was going to interfere and try to stop us. I told Zoreya about this, and she promised to keep an eye out for any suspicious fellows they may encounter.

Afterwards, I returned to Illsy's side.

On the way, I felt like there was someone following me, but when I turned around to look, there was no one there... or so I would have liked it to be. The fellows were hiding good, but my senses were far better than those of a normal draconian. I debated a bit on whether or not I should be the one to interrogate them.

Practically speaking, there was nothing stopping me, but if I left them live, they would end up spilling some unneeded information. As a princess and political representative of my small group, it was highly unlikely that this would not end up biting me on the tail later on. I wished to avoid such situations if I could. It was not a problem if the others acted this way, but I had to maintain a certain... appearance.

Illsy did not understood well when I explained this to him, but he trusted me enough to let me do as I pleased.

Lure them it is. I thought as I came to a decision.

Indeed, besides creating a certain appearance and fake image of myself in the eyes of political fellows, this 'disguise' was useless. But until this got too dangerous or simply too annoying for me, I planned on keeping it up. That one possible opportunity it could grant me could mean an alliance or the act of deceiving a smart foe into revealing his hand.

Once that happened, the 'disguise' of a calm, collected, intellectual princess wasn't needed anymore.

“Welcome back!” Illsy called to me.

They made no move, and one of them appears to have left the group. Hm... I thought.

That one individual probably went to give his report. My guess was that they were going to keep an eye on us until we reached our campsite and only then make a move.

“I'm back, my love.” I told him with a gentle smile.

We made our way back to the slave merchant's store, which was the only one in the city, despite the place being called a 'market'. After a quick introduction with the easily to forget fellow, Illsy stated his demands.

“I want to see all the slaves under the age of 20, with a maximum age of 22. If they are of another species, they should match the equivalent. Then I want you to tell me how each of them ended up as a slave.”

Basically, children, teenagers, and young adults were the aim. They were the easiest to train, and if Illsy bought them, it would also ensure that they still had a chance at a happy childhood. Our aim was to save these people not further keep them in chains.

But this was something the slave merchant was not required to know about.

Then, as per Illsy's request, a total of 38 slaves were brought before us. Starting with the oldest of age 22 in the case of humans and 48 in the case of a draconian. Now, of all of them, 12 were children, 10 were teenagers, and the rest were young adults. Four of them were el'doraw, two elves, six draconians, and two were half-breeds, siblings from an el'doraw-human couple.

“They are some of my finest products! Healthy as the can be and good for any chores! The women are guaranteed to be untouched by men too!” the slave merchant bragged.

I found the way he advertised these poor people as disgusting, but I had to admit that slavery in this world had a positive side as well. If the country was unable to offer a purpose to its citizens when they were unable to pay their taxes or committed certain crimes like thievery or rape, then those individuals would normally end up as being killed through hanging or decapitation. This was the natural conclusion many kings would come to if faced with this situation.

In the case of children, it was even worse. Since punishing children like this was seen as evil by the majority of the populace, the government would be forced to simply... ignore them unless they committed murder. Of course, this would result in them spending their last days starving on the streets or being taken advantage of by unscrupulous adults.

If I were to say which was better, then I would approve of slavery as well. It was better than killing them. Fortunately, Illsy was actively thinking of a third option... Children would be sent to orphanages. The petty criminals would be jailed and reeducated. As for those who committed serious and heinous crimes, they would be enslaved and used as brute workforce by the government. This way, at the very least, they served a better purpose than fertilizer for the ground.

Starting with the children, Illsy then carefully listened to how they ended up wearing those slave collars. All those who raped, killed, or committed something immoral or terrible were rejected without a second thought no matter who they were.

I agreed on this course of judgment, and I found it surprising that one of the children, who looked quite shy and innocent at first sight was enslaved because he skinned alive his own siblings and then ate their inner organs... because he found them tasty.

My surprise came from the fact that he wasn't killed, but apparently his parents were nobles and couldn't endure seeing him die as well...

Still, why would he even think of doing something as atrocious as that? How was it possible that he came to this terrifying conclusion that his siblings deserved to be skinned alive and their innards eaten raw?

I shuddered at the very thought of it.

Yet, I understood now why Illsy asked for the reason of them becoming slaves. If one did not know of it and released a young monster like that into the world, they would end up killing someone sooner or later.

In the end, only debt slaves or those whose circumstances Illsy found as a result of noble abuse were accepted. For example, the case of the half-breed siblings was a result of a noble using his authority to do as he pleased with those below him. To our surprise, the name of that said noble was D'andaros. As for why the merchant agreed to reveal this little piece of information, well, business was business, and Illsy had just promised to buy several of his slaves.

In the end, out of the 38 slaves, only 12 were permitted to stay. The others were sent back. But before we left, Illsy asked to see those who were considered ill, too gravely injured, or were considered to be used only as bait for monsters.

The slave merchant made a complicated expression when he heard this, but he agreed to show them, nonetheless. They were not as many as the others, but Illsy picked 6 of them, three of which had merely days left to live, and the other three were sick but not contagious according to the merchant.

Once this was over, Illsy completed all the forms and signed the contracts, while I took another look at each individual slave we bought for any unwanted 'surprises' like a cursed seal or tracking spell cast upon them. The merchant found it odd for me to do so, but even he couldn't know everything about his slaves.

While Illsy was paying the man, he had the nerve to ask something rather rude about me.

“Speaking of which, the one you have is quite impressive, how much for her?”

Illsy showed him a simple smile and then replied “Even if you were the Emperor himself offering me the Paramanium Empire, I still wouldn't have traded her off.”

His words made me blush, but they were the truth.

“Isn't that a bit excessive? She's just a draconian slave, right?” he asked.

“Pardon?” I voiced out my displease for the way he called me.

Illsy grabbed the man by the neck and squeezed to the point where he couldn't breathe any more. It was so fast; he didn't had time even to make single sound.

“If you dare call my wife a slave again or make any rude remarks on her person, I will kill you. Got it?” Illsy warned him and then let go.

“Buha!” the slave merchant coughed and rubbed his neck.

“Got it?” he glared at him.

“Y-Yes! Y-Yes! I beg your forgiveness!” he pleaded.

“Tch! Your words put me in sour mood now. I'm going to take my leave and never return!” he declared.

“Please... y-you can't mean...” the merchant saw his words as a sign of having lost a particularly important and rich customer.

This was a huge blow for him, although, from our point of view, Illsy just stated the obvious.

The merchant apologized for his words and begged for us to return, even promising to cut down on some prices, but we would have none of it. We left with our slaves and never looked back. For this man, this would become one of the biggest blunders of his career.

Well, not like it mattered for us, anyway.

On our way back to where Illsy had parked his weird vehicle, we were met with lots of stares and curious gazes. This was solely because of the sheer number of slaves who were walking behind us. Those few who were too injured and sickly were being carried by the men in the group. The humans walked in front of the other species because they believed this was the normal here. It really did not matter to us.

As for our pursuers, they kept their distance. Once we reached the camp site, they rushed back to the city, leaving only one of them behind to make sure they didn't lose our trail.

At the camp, we saw Wolf talking with the other children there. He seemed to be having fun. Everyone welcomed us back with a smile on their faces, and the slaves who were bought the other day didn't look as frightened of Illsy as before. However, there was another batch that was going to end up fainting as a result of finding out who and what we were.

Luckily, this time we planned on having Illsy go and watch leaves fall while we explained the situation to them. It was better if we, the more normal ones did so, especially Zoreya, who was an Apostle of a god some of them actually worshiped.

But before we reached that point, Illsy and I had to first heal and treat these poor slaves. Zoreya joined in as well, while Tamara prepared them a hot meal, and Shanteya prepared some decent clothes. Speaking of which, the demoness and the former el'doraw assassin also noticed our lone spectator, and I was told the other two also had a pursuer when they returned. Tamara didn't bother with them because they were as weak as flies to her. For now, we all decided to let them be and see what their next move was, mostly because this looked interesting and might help alleviate our boredom a little bit.

Because there wasn't anyone among them with a serious illness that required Illsy to apply his otherworldly healing, we finished this whole process by the time it got dark. They all received a hot bath and a new pair of clothes. Afterwards, we let them eat a decent meal. With this, we hoped they would gain a bit of trust in us and accept our words better than they would have on empty stomach.

Unfortunately, right before we began to explain, we all sensed a group of armed men coming towards us. We told the slaves to sit still and be quiet while we handled this. Zoreya placed herself in front of the slaves and drew her shield. A very thin, invisible barrier formed around her and them, which was strong enough to repel any attack of a Godlike Rank level.

Meanwhile I took a more elegant posture. Shanteya walked up to Zoreya and stood next to her, while Tamara and Nanya moved to the sides, readying their claws to attack.

I honestly doubted it was needed for all of us to act against this group, but we had to present ourselves as being ready for their arrival, not like a bunch of amateur young adventurers taken by surprise.

A few moments later, a group of armed soldiers approached us from the direction of the city. They were escorting a man of average height, wearing a long dark-brown and red robe, with trimmed mustache and a thick beard. He had average or bellow average looks for a human, making some of the soldiers in his group who hadn't washed in a few days look quite pleasant to the eyes. Maybe it was just the human's natural disposition, but to me, he looked unappealing at all.

Of course, this escort indicated the fact that he was someone of distinguished importance, like a noble or even the Lord of Krestan. I highly doubted it was the latter though.

Behind the group of soldiers, a group of well-equipped adventurers appeared as well. They were all human, but they tried to appear as intimidating before us. The glare and disgust in their eyes, especially when they looked at non-humans was quite clear. If it was intended or natural, it remained to be seen. On the other hand, the number of escorts this human noble brought with him was clearly not one meant for a simple visit.

They are planning on either intimidating us or attacking us. I thought.

“Marquise D'andaros...” Wolf spoke in a whisper when he saw him.

We all heard him, but their group probably didn't.

“Greetings!” the noble said with a smile.

“Good evening. That's an impressive number of people just for a greeting.” Illsy commented.

“A minor requirement for traveling late at night. After all, you don't know what sort of scoundrels you might encounter along these roads.” he replied with a smug look on his face.

His eyes were then cast over the rest of us, most specifically Shanteya and Zoreya.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Marquise Oppreizvich D'andaros. And you are...” he said awaiting an introduction.

“Illsyore Deus.” he replied.

“Hm, I never heard of you. Where do you heed from, traveler?” he asked.

“The Noneofyourbusiness town.” he smirked.

“Hm, what a peculiar name.” the noble squinted his eyes at him.

“What do you want?” he inquired.

“Watch your tone, adventurer. In these parts, offending a noble is a grave matter!” he warned.

“I'll take note on that.” Illsy nodded, pretending as if he cared.

“May we inquire for what reason you have went through the trouble of contacting our party at such late hours? If it was nothing of importance, I do not believe someone of a distinguished presence such as yours would have went through the trouble of showing themselves in person.” I spoke in a manner more often used among nobles, and with which a Marquise would find himself more comfortable.

“One of you seems to know how to speak properly, interesting.” he scoffed, but he ignored me. “My business here is with the boy in the back, Kent Wolf. As well as with you, Illsyore Deus.” he continued.

Illsy squinted his eyes at him but said no word.

“Hand over the child, and I will not see it as an insult towards my authority.” he declared.

At the rise of tone in his voice, his escort moved forward, unsheathed their swords and took a more battle-ready posture.

“Illsy?” Nanya asked.

He didn't reply to her, he just looked at the man.

“Did you not hear?” Marquise asked as he knitted his brow in annoyance.

“I did. But I think I have an idea why you want the boy, but what of me? What did you wish to speak with me?” he asked.

“A simple offer, really. You will hand over the two women over there, and I shall spare your lives. A simple trade, isn't that right?” he asked.

When we heard this, we all let out a small sigh and shook our heads. It was a rather strange thing for all of us to do this at the same time. But considering the fact that he was pointing at Shanteya and Zoreya, it made it clear that this man's end was going to come soon. If he only came for Kent Wolf, maybe Illsy would have spared him, but now... I highly doubted it.

“You what? BWAHAHAHA!!!” Illsy asked and then burst into a loud laughter.

“Are you insulting me?” the Marquise pressed on as if he still held the upper hand.

Out of concern for my own safety, I stepped back.

“Nya~ I pity you.” Tamara said and took a more relaxed posture as she stepped back as well.

“Indeed.” Zoreya nodded.

“Foolish human.” Nanya sighed, retracted her claws and walked towards us.

Only Illsy stood in front of us, laughing like a madman.

It was a rather peculiar scene, but then... the air around us changed. The pressure and dark miasma usually found deep within dungeons appeared all around the soldiers in front of us.

“W-What's going?” one of them asked.

“I-Impossible!” one of the more knowledgeable adventurers recognized what it was and took a defensive stance.

Illsy did not really need to release this miasma, this dark fog of his, it consumed Magic Energy and made a Dungeon's intent clear as day, but this time... he was using it with the single purpose of inducing fear into them.

“Marquise D'andaros, we should retreat... It isn't safe here.” one of the adventurers declared as he took a step back.

“What are you fools talking about?” the noble asked in his own foolishness.

Then, before they could retreat, giant walls of enchanted rock were raised from the ground behind them and to our sides, effectively cutting off their chance of escaping. Upon seeing this, naturally, the slaves shivered in fear.

To calm them down, Shanteya approached them and spoke in a gentle tone of voice.

“Do not worry everyone, you're safe with us. See, the fog isn't anywhere near us, just around those fools over there.” she then pointed at Marquise' group.

After his laughter calmed down, Illsy asked “So, let me get this straight, you are trying to make ME hand over a child to YOU, whose parents by the way you killed, as well as 'hand over' my pregnant wife and High Apostle wife, whom I promised to love, respect, and protect in front of the God of War? Hm... AND you are trying to do this by threatening ME with... erm... a handful of human soldiers?” he raised an eyebrow.

“What?” the Marquise was confused.

“What are you?!” one of the adventurers asked.

“Take out your Dungeon Detection Stone and let me know what you read on it.” Illsy said with a smirk as he crossed his arms at his chest.

With a gulp, one of them took out the stone and charged it with Magic Energy.

“I-Impossible... A-A-A level 3348... D-D-Dungeon?” aaand he fainted.

Looking back, I saw the slaves were looking at Illsy with big eyes, the new ones were especially frightened, while the others, since they didn't get used to the idea were in a similar situation. Having him show off like this wasn't helping either. If it wasn't for us calmly standing between him and them, they might have even soiled themselves out of fear or fainted as well.

Really though, since when have I stopped being affected by this world's common sense? I wondered and let out a sigh.

My past training and education as a royal princess of the Teslov Kingdom was one that shouldn't be taken lightly, for I too was told about the dangers of powerful Dungeons. It was said that within the depths of the some of the oldest ones on the three continents, you could only hope to advance with a party of experienced Supremes.

Right now, however, I alone was more than enough to stride through those floors without worrying too much about my own safety. Reaching the Dungeon Core would have been cinch for any of us, but even so... I guess I would have never been able to achieve this type of mental strength if I had not been subjected to Illsy's influence for so many years.

Looking at the slaves, I realized, that I too would have acted in a similar manner if I were to have met the current Illsy back at the Fellyore Academy. Rather, the way we currently acted by staying calm around him was perceived by them as being... unnatural, strange even.

“Your stone must be broken!” the Marquise shouted.

For a moment there I lost track of the action that was taking place in front of me.

How silly of me to worry of such things. I told myself and let out a sigh.

“Illsy, just to let you know, if you kill him, we might become wanted fugitives in the Paramanium Empire. Politically speaking, it would be imperative to appeal to the nobles rather than antagonize them.” I told him.

“So, are you suggesting I should hand over Shanteya and Zoreya?” he asked raising an eyebrow.

“Of course not! Don't be ridiculous. What I am suggesting is that as long as you leave no witnesses here, then we will have more time to spare before things get a bit 'hot' around us. Once we are labeled as criminals by the Empire, things like trade, using the Guild Hall, or even entering settlements will be... troublesome.” I told him.

“Hm... I see... No witnesses, is it?” he said and then smirked as he looked back at the group.

One thing he may or may have not noticed himself was that ever since he merged with The Darkness and acquired all of its positive benefits, his personality also changed a little. This part of him was more evident whenever he engaged in Dungeon-specific actions or combat.

The old Illsy, the one before the merger, would have thought once, twice, even thrice before considering the possibility of killing them all as a solution. If this was for the better or not remained to be seen, but there was an important rule out there that many individuals, especially young adventurers, didn't take into consideration all the time: when one drew their sword, they openly declared that they had accepted the possibility of being killed in the ensuing battle. If they ended up dead or not depended solely on their opponent.

In this case, Illsy had no intention of sparing those who targeted us, his wives, or showed a cruel behavior to children.

“Y-You! D-Do you really want to antagonize the Paramanium Empire?!” Marquise shouted as he pointed his finger at Illsy.

“You know, now that you mentioned it, it doesn't sound like such a bad idea in the first place.” he smirked.

They are dead. I thought.

“What I can't figure out though, is how to kill you... I could skewer you...” he said and immediately cast an [Ice Spear] at one of soldiers.

The speed and sharpness of the spike was at level that far exceeded what one could usually cast with this simple Intermediate spell. It went right through the chest of the poor man, leaving a gaping hole in that place and cutting off his ability to even shout in pain. What he could do was only to bleed out and fall on the ground dead.

“I could squash you...” he said and then used the spell [Earth Tomb], which caused two large slabs of ground to spring up and slam into each other like a bear trap.

Three soldiers fell prey to this attack. Their lives were ended in a flash, but this too was a simple, Intermediate spell. Nothing too complex and most mages used it in order to either slow down or temporarily trap powerful monsters. To kill them with it was out of question, but not when it came to Illsy.

“I could turn you into charcoal.” he said and then cast a compact blueish [Fireball].

Unlike the usual Intermediate spell, this one was a modified version which compressed the usually gigantic red fireball into a small one of a different color. We could all do it, and according to Illsy, what we did was basically just offered the fireball more fuel with Magic Energy and allowed its temperatures to go up. The extremely high temperature resulted in a change of color.

The man struck by this attack went up flames and screamed as his flesh was burnt in mere seconds. His remains fell on the ground in front of his still living comrades. Now they were all genuinely afraid. Not only was Illsy an extremely high-level Dungeon, but the attacks he just showed were not the type they could easily recognize, especially since they had been cast chantless.

“I guess, I'll try an experimental spell? [Lightning Pulse] is the name of the spell... It's basically a charged-up ball of electrons that upon contact sends five pulses of electricity throughout your body, each of them is the equivalent of a lightning strike. Basically, it can fry your nerves with the first pulse. By the fifth your bodies will already turn into charcoal. Although, I'll be honest, I have no idea if you'll still be conscious by then or not.” Illsy said with a smile and then pointed his palm at them.

Once more, without chanting, he released three spheres of lightning one after another. The moment it struck one of the victims, it pulsed out and caused an electric shock that spread throughout his body and anyone else unlucky enough to have touched him at that time. The spell was one that appeared to be overly complicated and easy to dodge by those of our rank, but not by our current foes.

Without giving them a moment to breath, Illsy continued to cast [Lightning Pulse] and taken them down one after another until only the Marquise was left standing. It wasn't like they didn't try to dodge them or raise their Magic Armor to defend themselves against it, but this spell was simply too powerful for their current levels. If I were to guess, I would say it was somewhere between Emperor Rank and Godlike Rank, although, with the amount of Magic Energy Illsy was infusing it, it was probably around Supreme Rank?

Either way, they didn't stand a chance. It was a complete massacre.

“Y-You m-m-monster!” the Marquise said.

“Nah, I'm just a Dungeon. You are the monster for what you did by abusing your authority. Now be a good pest and die!” Illsy told him and pointing his palm at him, he released one last [Lightning Pulse].

The result was Marquise D'andaros screaming out in pain as his body gave in and his flesh was fried. His death wasn't a swift one, it came only at the last pulse, meaning that Illsy adjusted this last spell in order to cause him to suffer more.

It was over...