Chapter 8: Breaking Point

“You insolent brat!”

There was no way a slaver would tolerate such behavior from a s*ave.

Slap!

The slaver immediately raised his hand and struck the defiant s*ave across the face.

Slap! Slap!

The sound of slaps echoed through the small reception room.
He didn’t use his fists—perhaps to prolong the humiliation rather than end it swiftly.

“You heretic bastard!”

Lema Valkite endured all the insults and blows in silence.
His expression didn’t change. His lips remained tightly sealed.
And that only made the slaver’s face grow redder with unspent fury.

Unable to vent his anger on Lema any further, the slaver turned sharply to Bel.

“Did you release him, ma’am?”

His tone no longer even pretended to be polite.

“We haven’t even drawn up the contract yet. You’ll have to pay the gold coins right now, won’t you?”

Normally, he might have questioned how the s*ave had gotten the key, or noticed the shattered chains lying on the floor.
But the fact that this s*ave—one from a ruined heretic family—had dared to resist only excited him further.

“Hmm…”
Bel slowly rose to her feet.
“I don’t have it.”

“What did you say?”

“I don’t have any gold coins,” she replied calmly, as if stating an obvious fact.

“Ha.”

“Ha…”

Sighs escaped both the slaver and Lema at once.
One was the scoff of a man whose hopes of finally catching Bel were reignited.
The other—a sigh of I knew it.

The slaver pulled a hook-like rope from his pocket—a restraint tool better suited to wild animals than humans.

“Once you raise the price at an auction, you can’t back out. You knew that, didn’t you, when you crawled into a place like this? Huh?”

His tone had lost all pretense of civility.

“And you—where did you get those clothes?”

“Hmm.”
Bel glanced down at what she was wearing.
She’d been naked when she crawled out from under the ground.
So she’d casually picked up and worn the slaver’s clothes.
It was clear now whose they were.

Seeing her reaction, the man raised his voice.

“For some reason, the guys who were supposed to come today didn’t show up!
I’ll just catch you first and figure out what happened later, won’t I?”

He took a stance, ready to swing the rope in his hand.

“Am I having a good harvest today? First those women from earlier suddenly came in and got caught—”

Thud!

Lema suddenly picked up the teapot—and swung it before the slaver could even finish his sentence.
The man collapsed to the floor like a block of wood.
The teapot, though solid, didn’t break—even after knocking out a man.

“Uh…!”
The guards the slaver had brought were stunned.
Then, a beat later, they snapped back to their senses.

“Wh-what—”

Thump!

But Lema moved faster.

“You, no—!”

Crack! Clang!

The teapot struck one last skull—then died a glorious death.
Only the handle remained in Lema’s hand as the rest shattered and scattered across the floor.

He dropped the handle and rubbed his aching wrist.
His muscles throbbed from even that brief exertion.

“You have good skills for that body.”

“When I was young, I received knight training—no, this isn’t the time to be talking about that!”

Lema roughly swept his bangs back.
His mind was in turmoil.
His already-ruined life had somehow found an even lower point.
And yet, strangely, he didn’t regret it.

After years of misery, being hunted, then humiliated as a s*ave…
He never imagined he’d hear the word knight again.

But being sold as a knight—and having someone call him one—was enough.

Yes.
It didn’t matter what others said.
The fact that he was a knight didn’t change.
So even if he died because of this… it would be as a knight.

Regardless of Lema’s thoughts, Bel spoke in her usual flat tone.

“They said the women were caught.”

“Yeah. Places like this are full of guys like that.
Why on earth did you come here? Now they’re trying to catch you too.”

“How can they catch me?”

“That’s—ha…”

Lema sighed. He judged that there was simply no communicating with this woman.

“…I can buy some time alone. Run away.”

“Buy time?”

To Lema Valkite, it was a heroic statement.
But to Bel, it was nothing but a deeply annoying thing to hear.

No—how long had she waited already?
And now he wanted to buy more time?

More importantly, the man in front of her was suddenly exuding such a delicious smell that her mouth was watering.

But she couldn’t just catch and eat this man herself.

Bel preferred it when such men voluntarily became sacrifices and offered themselves, rather than chasing them down herself.
Actually… come to think of it, she had never once caught such a man on her own.

Sometimes, just watching such humans was enough to satisfy her hunger to some extent.

But now, after such a long period of deprivation, she was far too thirsty.

It seemed the women who had asked her to wait had been caught by the slavers again, dragging things out.

Regardless of Bel’s state of mind, Lema strode toward the only door to the reception room.

A few rattling sounds followed… and then a sigh.

“Damn it… the door’s locked from the outside.”

Lema returned and began rummaging through the belongings of the slavers unconscious on the floor.
He had hit them with everything he had to knock them out, but he couldn’t be sure how long they’d stay down.

He glanced toward Bel, who stood nearby.

“Step back, just in case.”

But Bel had already reached her limit.

“I can’t take it anymore…”

“Wait a little longer. There must be a key—”

“I want to eat a man.”

“…Yes. Even if you’re… hungry for a man, just wait a little—what are you even saying all of a sudden?!”

Lema finally couldn’t hold back and shouted.

Is this… is this the right thing to do?

The person I’m risking my life for—just to die with a knight’s honor—is in this state?

No matter how much he told himself he had no regrets, Lema covered his face with both hands, struck by a powerful wave of self-loathing.

No. Get a grip.

He steeled himself and looked back at Bel… only to see her walking straight toward the door he’d failed to open.

“It’s no use,” he said. “The door’s too thick. Without a key, there’s no other way—”

But whether she hadn’t heard him or was simply ignoring him, the small-framed woman raised one foot—and kicked the thick iron door.

BANG!

An enormous blast rang out.
It sounded like an explosion.

Clang! Tumble!

The door, blown completely off its hinges, struck the cave ceiling… then slammed to the ground with a dull, reverberating thud.

“…”

Lema—normally the most talkative person in the room—was now completely silent.

“Can’t… open… it,” he finished muttering dumbly, as if that had been the end of his sentence.

There was no natural light in the cave—only the faint glow of lamps lining the walls.

And beyond the door, in that manmade illumination, stood his new master.

She was simply standing there, in front of that crude light, beckoning to him.

That was all.

But even so… he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

“What are you doing? Come out. We’re going to find the women.”

She stood like a figure wreathed in sunlight.

“And I need to eat a man.”

What on earth is this woman?

No matter what name Belmias had been called in the past, she was once a being who reigned as the strongest on earth.

Part of it was due to transcendent abilities that humans couldn’t comprehend—but the real reason was her overwhelming physical power.

Those who stood against her shattered like chalk against steel.

She had a body that could leap into the air and fly just by bending and straightening her legs once, a body that could destroy a sturdy fortress with nothing but a few gestures.

In short: Bel’s pace was not something Lema Valkite could hope to follow.

And Lema’s body was nowhere near healthy.

Bel was visibly annoyed watching him limp along behind her.

“You’re slow. Come here.”

“Y-yes…!”

For some reason, Lema—still reeling from earlier—had become much more obedient and shuffled closer.

Without hesitation, Bel slipped her arm under Lema’s knees and lifted him easily, cradling him like a princess.

To exaggerate, she lifted the man—who looked twice her size—with zero effort.

There was no time to be embarrassed about the posture.
Because what she’d just done shattered all common sense.

“Where is it?”

“Y-yes?”

“The place where the women are.”

“Ah, it’s probably to the right. Behind the auction house.”

Nodding lightly, Bel began moving.

But because of the earlier explosion, people were already flocking to the scene.

“There they are! Found them!”

“Hmm…”

Bel turned her gaze toward the pursuers.

But it wasn’t the calculating look of someone trying to plan a route of escape.

Lema saw it clearly.

His master… licked her lips as she looked at the men chasing them.

No way.

Lema’s face twisted in disbelief.

Man, man—she kept saying she wanted to eat a man. Don’t tell me… she’s even into that kind of thing?