As they lounged near one of the pillars of the banquet hall, nibbling at delicate pastries and sipping from their glasses, the conversation slowly drifted into easier, more casual topics.

That was when Sophia, twirling her wine glass, leaned a little closer to Natalya.

“So,” she began, her eyes glinting with curiosity, “what’s the deal with Lucas Velorin and you?”

At her words, everyone’s attention shifted instantly to Natalya.

The silver-haired girl stiffened slightly, looking caught off guard. She hesitated, fiddling with the rim of her glass for a moment under the sudden weight of their gazes.

Finally, Natalya gave a soft sigh and lifted her gaze.

“He’s… my half-brother,” she said quietly.

Arthur watched her quietly, he had a vague suspicion that it was something similar to what Natalya just revealed.

There was a brief pause, while everyone absorbed her words.

Leon blinked. “Wait, you mean…”

Natalya nodded. “Yeah. My father is the head of the Velorin family.”

Although they know Natalya was also a Velorin, they had no idea that she was the daughter of the head of the family.

Even Finn, who had been halfway to stealing another pastry, froze mid-step.

Natalya tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

“My mother… was a commoner, nor did she have any rich background. She and my father… well, let’s just say, it wasn’t a marriage of equals.” A bitter smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “Lucas and I used to play together when we were little. But his mother didn’t like it and…” she hesitated, choosing her words carefully, “…she hated me to the point of telling me to my face that I was a stain on the Velorin name when I was just a kid.”

Leon’s hand tightened slightly around his glass, but he said nothing. But what everyone missed was the brief flash of pain in his eyes, which he covered immediately.

“We didn’t live in the main Velorin compound,” Natalya continued. “We stayed in a small house near the outskirts of their territory. Father sent money for our needs, but… after my mother passed away, he stopped even that.”

The way she said it, without anger or sadness, made it worse somehow.

“And after that?” Sophia asked softly, her earlier playfulness gone.

Natalya gave a small, almost helpless shrug. “After I got into Velcrest Academy, someone started sending me money every month. I don’t know who… but I think it might be my father.”

Silence hung for a few seconds, after Natalya completed her words.

Then, without warning, Sophia threw her arms around Natalya in a tight hug.

“You don’t need them,” Sophia said in a soft voice. “You’ve got us now.”

Eva clapped a hand on Natalya’s shoulder. Leon and Finn also offered a quiet nod of support.

Arthur simply gave her a reassuring look, one that promised, without words, that he stood with her.

Natalya smiled faintly, touched by their support.

“I’m fine, really,” she said. “I’ve moved on. I’m here now, with you guys.”

The heavy mood lifted gradually after that, as they shifted to lighter topics, teasing Finn about his failed attempts at elegant etiquette, and arguing about which dessert was the best.

The night wore on like that, warm, light, and filled with laughter.

…

Eventually, the banquet wound down. The music stopped, and guests began to trickle out of the estate.

Arthur and his friends, still chatting and joking quietly among themselves, made their way back toward the front gates.

The moon hung high overhead, casting a silvery glow over the red carpet laid down for the night.

They were just passing under the grand archway of the Rosewood estate when a man, dressed in the simple black attire of a server, bumped lightly into Arthur’s side.

Arthur felt the quick, deliberate slide of fingers brushing into his jacket pocket.

But he didn’t react outwardly or stop him, he let the man disappear into the dispersing crowd without making a scene.

Leon glanced back once, frowning slightly seeing Arthur look back at the manor. “You good?”

Arthur nodded casually. “Yeah. Let’s head back.”

…

After saying goodnight to the others at their dorm entrance, Arthur returned to his room.

He closed the door behind him, locking it out of habit, and reached into his pocket.

There, tucked neatly inside the pocket of his jacket, was a small, folded piece of paper.

Unfolding it carefully, he read the single line with an address written on the paper.

After seeing what was written there Arthur’s eyes narrowed slightly, a glint of interest sparking in their depths.

He crushed the paper between his fingers, and a soft golden light from his palm incinerated it into ash.

Changing swiftly into dark clothes, he slipped out of the academy.

Whatever this was, he would find out soon enough.

…

The cool night air was blowing as Arthur moved through the empty streets of Brightwater, his dark clothing helping him to blend seamlessly into the shadows.

He arrived at the location written on the paper, it was an area with a few old and abandoned warehouses lined with cracked, vine-choked streets.

Landing silently atop one of the old building’s rooftop near the warehouse, Arthur crouched low, and lowered his presence using Chi Concealment.

The area was eerily quiet, save for the occasional creak of wooden beams in the night breeze. Whoever gave him the paper wrote that he would get to see something interesting on Elaric so he decided to look into it.

Arthur waited for half an hour, maybe more. When he finally saw movement in the distance.

A caravan of carriages, dark and unmarked of any crest, rolled into the square. Their wheels crunched over gravel as they drew up outside a large, old warehouse.

Arthur’s sharp eyes picked out several figures already moving around the building acting as sentries.

From their attire, Arthur figured they weren’t just random thugs. They were mostly mages and martial artists, by the look of them.

Arthur narrowed his eyes. He watched as several of the guards moved to the carriages. They lifted the large boxes covered with cloth and carried them into the warehouse.

Activating [Silent Step], his body blurred and vanished from the rooftop, his figure slipping unseen into the darkness below.

With cat-like grace, Arthur darted forward and slipped inside the warehouse through a broken side door.

The air inside was musty and thick, tinged with the coppery scent of blood and something fouler.

Arthur crouched behind a stack of crates, his eyes scanning the area carefully.

That’s when he heard a faint sound of shallow and strained breathing inside the box he was crouching behind.

Arthur stiffened, he came to a grim conclusion that he didn’t like, not a bit.

To confirm he opened his ‘Map’ and saw dozens of small, weak life signs, packed tightly inside the boxes. There also seems to be an underground facility just below the warehouse with many more weaker life signatures.

Arthur gritted his teeth as he went deeper inside the warehouse, he felt he should have worn his armor before coming here as it would have been much easier to infiltrate.

Deeper inside the warehouse, from behind a box he spotted two of the guards moving toward a blank wall.

Arthur watched silently as one of them pressed a hidden switch, and with a soft click, a concealed door slid open in the wall.

The two men stepped through it. Arthur looked for a chance and slipped in behind them just before the door closed.

The passage led into a hidden annex, deeper underground.

And what Arthur saw made his blood boil.

Metal cages lined the walls, stacked one atop another.

Chained inside those metal cages were dozens of people, bruised and battered belonging from various races, ranging from humans, demi humans to elves with hollow, and defeated eyes, most of them were females and were dressed in rags, but one thing was common among them, they were all beautiful looking, even the males. There were even childrens of around ten years old present here all chained inside the cages.

But they looked malnourished and their cages were covered in their own excrement.

Arthur forced himself to calm down as he moved deeper, carefully following the two guards at a distance.

They stopped before a heavy oak door and knocked in a pattern. And from within, a calm voice answered.

“Come in.”

The two men opened the door and stepped inside.

Arthur stayed hidden just around the corner, his body pressed against the wall.

“My lord,” one of the men said respectfully, “the new batches of slaves have arrived.”

A bored voice answered.

“Oh… good. We need to deliver them by tomorrow,” the man said, more to himself than to them.

“See to it that they are stored properly,” The man continued lazily.

“Yes, my lord,” the two men responded.

Arthur hid behind a corner as they exited. He waited a minute, letting the footsteps fade.

Then, silently, he approached the door while mimicking the tapping pattern

From inside, The man’s irritated voice snapped.

“Who is it now?”

Arthur seeing it didn’t work, he simply placed a hand on the door and pushed it open forcefully.

The oak groaned under his strength, swinging open with a force that rattled the hinges.

The man looked up from the desk where he was sipping wine and scanning some papers.

The moment his eyes met Arthur’s, his expression twisted in shock.

Arthur was also surprised to see that it was Elaric Bahram himself.

“YOU…!!” He tried to scream, but never got the chance.

With a flick of his fingers, Arthur wrapped a telekinetic grip around Elaric’s mouth, sealing it shut and lifted him off the floor like a ragdoll. He also poked some part of his body with chi to stop him from using any spells.

Elaric flailed helplessly, not even able to cast any spell to get out of the situation. In the quiet room, his muffled protests sounded pathetic.

Arthur tilted his head slightly, his gaze cold and utterly devoid of sympathy.

Elaric’s face turned red as he struggled, eyes bulging with panic.

Arthur’s grip tightened around him, just enough to make him truly afraid.

“You know…” Arthur mused aloud, “I thought you were scum before. But this…?”

He shook his head slowly, disgusted.

“This crosses a line you can’t come back from.”

Arthur’s fingers curled as he tightened his telekinetic grip, making Elaric shudder in terror.

Arthur had no problem with this world’s system of slavery, each world had their own customs, some criminals were branded with the slave mark as punishment and there were also many people who readily become slaves of the Church and noble families on their own. But the way the slaves were treated here made Arthur’s blood boil.

Tonight will be bloody. 

***

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