3. Ancient Legacy (2)
Ingrid was caught aboard a ship bound for a foreign country.
While hiding among cargo and holding her breath, the storage door opened. People with hardened faces poured in. One of them found Ingrid.
Ingrid was dragged like a dog and thrown onto the deck. She resisted slightly during this process and got severely beaten as a result.
She couldn’t even scream under the merciless violence. Her entire body ached as if she had been turned into minced meat. As she crawled on the floor, barely able to breathe, an extremely cold voice descended from above.
“You’re causing people unnecessary trouble.”
“Ah, uh……”
With tears welling up in her eyes, Ingrid looked toward the source of the voice. Among the men with solid builds, a handsome blond man in neat attire revealed himself.
The man was looking down at Ingrid with eyes as cold as his voice. Seeing that gaze mixed with contempt and disgust, she squeezed her eyes shut and asked.
“Did you come to capture me?”
The man answered.
“Yes.”
At the man’s response, Ingrid let out a small laugh, “Phew.”
She had known for some time that she was wanted. And for what crime, too. What was bound to happen had simply happened.
After laughing silently for a while, Ingrid barely managed to raise herself with her thin arms. Still sitting on the floor, she looked up at the man and asked.
“……Are you going to, charge me with my crime?”
At her question, the man narrowed his eyes and looked down at her.
An unexpected answer came back.
“That’s not it, though.”
A runaway slave charged with murdering her master and escaping. Yet he had no intention of charging her with the crime after capturing her? Did that make any sense?
Ingrid wore a blank expression at the man’s answer. He looked at her with an indifferent face, then averted his gaze. He then ordered the others around him.
“Well, this should be enough. Get ready. We’re returning to the capital like this.”
She couldn’t quite understand what was happening.
˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗
Ingrid was dragged off the ship by people’s hands.
Perhaps worried she might try to escape, they firmly held Ingrid and soon shoved her into an undecorated carriage. It was closer to stuffing than boarding.
Inside the spacious carriage sat the blond man who had spoken with her on the deck. With an extremely composed face.
Before he could turn toward her, Ingrid quickly knelt down and bowed her head. Despite the pain from her bound wrists and beaten body, this was no time to consider such things.
The man before her had said he wouldn’t charge her with a crime despite her being wanted. And he had also said they were returning to the capital.
The capital had the largest slave market in the Empire.
The meaning was excessively obvious.
Ingrid opened her mouth.
“……Please don’t sell me.”
Only then did the man’s eyes turn toward Ingrid. Under his piercing gaze, she hastily added.
“I don’t want that. I’d rather, pay for my crime.”
“Huh.”
The man scoffed at Ingrid’s words as if he found them absurd.
“This isn’t the time to be making demands……”
“But if not now, I won’t be able to say anything at all.”
Ingrid responded in a calm voice, refusing to back down.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t afraid of the man before her.
Free citizens of the Empire never treated slaves as humans. The man would be the same. The violence that had been inflicted on the deck for being impudent could happen again.
Violence is the most frightening thing. And painful.
Her body, beaten by the man’s subordinates, still throbbed, and there was a metallic smell and stinging pain in her mouth, as if her lips and the inside of her mouth had been torn. Her palms grew damp as she recalled the day Eugenie died.
Ingrid had fled according to her master’s dying wish.
The escape that the deceased Eugenie spoke of was an escape from the oppressive environment. So being dragged to the market was something she had to avoid at all costs.
Becoming merchandise again wasn’t what Ingrid wanted. It wouldn’t have been what the deceased Eugenie wanted either.
Ingrid emphasized.
“I don’t want the capital. Hand me over to the local security force. Let me stand trial.”
“A slave who kills their master is executed without trial. Are you still fine with that?”
“That’s fine. It’s just paying the price I rightfully should.”
Ingrid replied without hesitation and quietly bowed her head. The man looked at her with interest and asked.
“Your name?”
At the sudden question, Ingrid hesitated briefly before answering.
“Ingrid.”
“A grand name for a slave.”
“My parents… wanted to give me the best name……”
Ingrid explained in response to the man’s comment. The man stared at her for a long time with an unreadable expression, then shook his head.
“I won’t listen to your request. It’s laughable that a slave would even make demands.”
At the man’s words, Ingrid’s already pale skin turned even whiter. She hadn’t expected him to grant her request, but hearing such a response was unbearably painful.
She unconsciously clenched her fist. The man narrowed his eyes, looking down at Ingrid’s fist, then spoke again.
“I’ll ask a few questions.”
“……Yes.”
Ingrid nodded slowly.
The man leaned toward her and lowered his voice. As if this conversation shouldn’t leak out, even though the people outside surely knew her crime.
“Why did you kill your master?”
Ingrid’s body flinched. But she replied in the calmest voice possible.
“……Do you need a reason to kill?”
“Sometimes.”
“I wanted to return to my homeland. Above all, I was sick of living as a slave.”
“Your homeland would be… Gronoa, correct?”
“……Yes.”
Ingrid kept nodding, not even knowing where the man was referring to. Her attitude was extremely diligent, as if she had prepared the answers in advance.
Seeing her like this, the man raised one eyebrow.
He straightened up, crossed his legs, and leaned deeply against the carriage backrest. Then, as if this was his final question, he asked her again.
“The Fides you boarded is a merchant ship with extremely tight security. How did you sneak aboard?”
“I bribed a low-ranking sailor. With money I stole……”
Ingrid raised her head to look at the man again. Her eyes seemed to ask if he had more questions.
“Ha….”
The man let out a laugh as if he found it absurd. He ran his large gloved hand over his face. Then he smiled, narrowing his eyes.
“You don’t even flinch while lying. That’s quite a talent.”
“……What?”
Ingrid’s voice trembled faintly. The man kicked her knee lightly with his toe and added.
“If you’re going to pretend to be from Gronoa, perhaps you should work on that stiff tongue of yours.”
“……”
“Well, even if you were to put on a convincing act now, I wouldn’t be fooled.”
This time Ingrid couldn’t respond at all.
The man examined Ingrid with interested eyes, and Ingrid silently endured his gaze. A strange silence ensued.
The man, who had been waiting for her response, eventually tapped on the carriage wall. In the silence, the carriage began to roll with a rattling sound.
Only after the scenery outside the window changed did Ingrid speak.
“So you’re not a slave trader, or anything like that.”
“Correct.”
“And you didn’t come to arrest me because I’m a criminal……”
“That’s also right.”
At the man’s straightforward admission, Ingrid opened her eyes wide in surprise. And for the first time, she stammered.
“W-who are you? Then why am I, why do I have to? Why on earth do I have to go to the capital?”
The man thought for a moment, then answered with a corner of his mouth raised.
“Brien Richnar.”
It was an unfamiliar name. From his confident attitude in revealing his full name, Ingrid guessed that the man before her, Brien, was a nobleman.
But that wasn’t the answer Ingrid wanted. She now knew his status, but so what?
She still couldn’t understand why the man before her was taking her away. Being thrown into a situation with unknown intentions and purposes felt like being cast into pitch darkness.
Ingrid swallowed dryly and shook her head.
“……I didn’t ask for your name.”
“I know.”
Brien replied nonchalantly. The corners of his mouth were still curled up.
“You asked why I came to capture you.”
“……Yes.”
“To be more precise, I didn’t specifically come to capture you.”
What was he saying now…….
At these puzzling words, Ingrid furrowed her brow. Could the man before her be playing word games with her? Such thoughts even crossed her mind.
She looked at Brien with a confused face. Brien then replied with a rare kind expression.
“What I needed was a descendant of Lot.”
“A descendant of Lot……?”
“This way of putting it might be easier to understand.”
When Ingrid’s voice rose at the unfamiliar term, Brien added an explanation.
“It means Outsider.”
Ingrid’s eyes widened at the familiar word.
Despite her status preventing her from receiving proper education, even Ingrid knew very well about “Outsiders.” They were the monsters from old tales that everyone in the Empire grew up hearing about.
