"Let me down." I said sharply, breaking the silence that was lingering between Ren and me while he was carrying me across the maze that was the castle.
He let me down on my feet.
"Tell me where the exit is, I'll go by myself."
I didn't want to stay with him more. I was embarrassed of my state, I was angry at him for participating in Sukuna's little game, for hitting Aaron and being nice with me when he shouldn't. If he's gonna play along with Sukuna twisted plans to torture me, him being nice to me was just confusing.
He sighed and reached for my arm, but I jerked away.
"No." I said firmly.
He stood in front of me. The corridor we were in was dark and narrow, so silent your voice was muffled when you talked.
"What's up with you ?" he asked.
"What's up with you ? You act nice and then go around doing Sukuna's bidding, hurting the people I care about in the process."
He frowned. "It's not that simple. We all have our circumstances."
"Don't go around and make excuses for your wrong doings." I sneered. "Don't be like that to me, because when you are, it hurts when you do something bad afterward." I whispered, looking down. I wanted to cry but I was too worn out to. My eyes were all dried up.
He lifted my head with his finger under my chin, and brushed my hair out of my face.
"I can't tell you why I'm doing this, yet."
"Tsk." I voiced out, looking away from him. "How did you find Aaron ?" I questioned.
He pondered a moment, as if he wasn't sure he should talk.
"When I carried you the first time and you fell asleep, I took your phone." Now it was his turn to look down. I didn't even think about my phone the whole time.
I stayed silent and started walking away from him. I was too on edge to deal with anything else tonight. I wanted to rest, spend a dreamless night.
"For all that's worth, I'm sorry." he apologized, following behind me.
"Don't be. I'm the one who's sorry. I'm the one who thought we could be friends." I sighed.
We walked without a word to the slave quarters, I started to walk faster toward the dorms we were in with Mana previously.
Ren grabbed my arm and I got caught in his eyes as I turned around to face him.
"I want to be." he let out, resolve in his ocean eyes.
"What?"
"Friends." he said, smiling.
I looked down and got away from his grip and started heading to the dorms. I couldn't let him get to me again.
"I can't explain the situation to you right now, so until I can , I'll tell you this." he said loud enough for me to hear. "Gojo."
I turned around one last time.
"My real name is Gojo."
I glanced at his pale face illuminated by the moonlight creeping through the night time clouds. His eyes were my kryptonite, I just couldn't resist them.
"Nice to meet you, Gojo."
-----
I woke up with a start from the loud timbal being hit in the corridor. People were quickly getting up from their thin mattress on the floor.
So this is a morning in the slave dorms, I thought to myself. I groaned while stretching. I could tell it was early as the sun hadn't risen up yet, and I hated waking up early in the morning. My back was painful from sleeping on the thin mattress on the floor.
"Get up !" the young girl who was standing beside me hasted. "You're gonna have troubles!"
I scanned the room and everyone had already rolled their mattress up and were standing straight at their designated places. I squatted and rolled my mattress up when a man showed up at the door. He was short, with long hair tied in a knot.
He slowly walked toward me with a long stick in his hand.
"Get up quick." the girl beside me uttered under her breath. I slowly raised myself up, the man with the knot was standing in front of me.
"Do you think you can do as you please, trash?" he hissed at me.
"I didn't kn -"
A sharp pain made me fall on one knee. He hit the top of my head with his stick.
"I'll be careful not to let traces." he smirked. That bastard.
The pain in my skull made my head buzz. My ears were still ringing when I managed to get up on my feet, my head spinning from the shock.
The asshole proceeded to assign the tasks of the day to everyone in our dorms which took too long for my taste. We were certainly a hundred in there. I was finally assigned to cooking.
Oh this couldn't get better, I thought. I can barely manage pastas, I'm better at picking up my phone and ordering food than make it. The girl who warned me was also in the cooking squad. I motioned to her when the knot idiot left.
"Thank you for earlier." I thanked.
"This happened to me when I first arrived." she faintly smiled. "I didn't want this dumb fuck to do the same to you."
I laughed so hard it hurt. I would have never imagined this girl having a foul mouth. She was a frail blond beauty, her face was very cute. Looking better, I noticed the beginning of a scare going from her throat and disappearing under her blouse. I wondered how it happened, and I wondered if it had any links with why she was here.
"I'm Y/n." I said.
She presented her hand to me.
"Wait - you're human ?" I half shouted in excitation. She nodded and I shook her hand.
"I'm Sahan."
I was so happy I got to find a human sharing almost the same faith as mine. I felt like I could trust someone there, and destiny made it that we shared the same dorm.
The cooking squad gathered and we all walked together toward the kitchens. Sahan was laughing with a guy her size, who had fish scales on his arms. You could see them glitter under the light. Other than that, he seemed pretty human for a cursed spirit. He caught me staring at his arms.
"And who're you, cutie pie ? " he chirped. Sahan was chuckling behind him.
"I'm... eh...." ...Cutie pie ?
"Gotcha." He said, linking our arms cheerfully. "You don't wanna tell ya name 'cause you want me to keep calling you cutie pie mh ...cutie pie ?"
Sahan burst in laughter when she saw my face turning red as a tomato. Nobody ever called me a cutie pie. People tend to keep their distance from me, or should I say I keep them away ? That could explain why my first relationship with a boy was a mess. I didn't know how to deal with people because I never really wanted to try.
"Come on, let her go Gyatso." she said pleading for my cause. He took a look at her and decided we were staying like this. I sighed while we walked arm in arm. I was surprised that despite our obviously bad situation, we could laugh and have fun. I thought I'd only find despair and sadness around, with us all being slaves. But we could actually laugh and maybe, make friends. I smiled at the thought right when Gyatso looked at me with his eyes that were of different colors. His smile held compassion. Hold on, he seemed to silently tell me. I felt lucky to have found two really nice people after only a few days.
Cooking was hard. I burned myself twice and made nothing close to what you could consider edible. This will take practice and I didn't want to put effort in it. Gyatso on the other hand was amazing. He was swinging frying pans like a pro and took charge of orchestrating our 20 member group. He was like a fish in water.
By the time we finished cooking, it was past three in the afternoon. We'd been at it all morning and early afternoon, and our group wasn't the only one cooking. That's how much people were staying in this domain. We were now charged to bring the best dishes inside the castle, to be distributed by the butlers to the noblesse. Sahan, Gyatso and me walked together, pushing trailers of food to the castle along with a dozen other slaves.
We were walking along a large road leading to the castle when suddenly, everyone got on their knees. I was the only one standing and it took me too much time to realize why they all did what they did. Sukuna was walking toward us, but he wasn't alone. A beautiful woman was walking beside him, she had long red hair and was pretty busty. She didn't have a lot of clothes on her.
I think I heard Sahan mutter something, but wasn't sure.
As the woman drifted away from Sukuna to come to me, still frozen in place like the dumbass I am, I came to think that her prettiness was wasted with the lack of elegance she had. She pulled a knife out, and I started to understand what was happening. She was coming to kill me. I took steps back and she walked faster toward me, with an evil smirk across her face.
Sukuna teleported next to her and seized her arm holding the knife.
"I'll handle this." he said to the woman, who blushed at his contact.
I cringed. Bitch.
The King was now facing me, towering over me. He looked at me dead in the eyes, and his gaze hold no sympathy. I knew I should have bowed. I just didn't realize I had to, I didn't notice.
Before I realized, I was lying on the ground. He slapped me so hard I fell like a dead weight on the hard paved way. I didn't expect him to actually hit me. Yes he said he'll torture me. Yes he said he'll break me. But for some reasons, I never expected him to actually hit me like this. I didn't know why, it was a dumb thought and I knew it. But still. I stayed lying down from shock, wide eyed. I knew they had walked away when Sahan and Gyatso came to check on me.
"Y/n !!" Sahan shouted. "Are you alright?"
"Mmmh.." I muttered.
I wasn't. I was hurt. But not so much physically. I felt like Sukuna hit me for another woman and I didn't like that. And I didn't like myself for thinking this way. I swept off blood coming from my mouth.
Gyatso helped me up, my arm around his shoulders.
"I thought the woman was going to kill me." I whispered.
"Meleia." voiced Gyatso. "She's always following the King like a puppy."
Meleia...I heard this name before.
"A mean bitch in my opinion." fulminated Sahan as she folded her arms, her jaw tightening.
"Yeah ya got that right, she already killed many slaves who didn't bow down before the King and her. One day, someone who had his knee injured couldn't get on the ground, and knowing that, she slit his throat anyway. She a total psycho." Gyatso said, rolling his eyes.
I felt like with every good thing came a hundred bad ones. I remembered where I heard this name. From Gojo and Sukuna. She called for Sukuna the morning after he healed me for the first time. He said something about her being insatiable. What did that mean ? Insatiable of what ?
I ruffled my hair, growling.
"What's wrong?" asked Sahan as we were pushing the food trailers to the castle.
"Are they fucking?" I asked, clearly annoyed.
Sahan snorted and put her hand on her mouth.
"What's with that question ?"
"I'd say someone's too curious for her sake ~" added the scaly boy.
I rolled my eyes while they cheerfully mocked me.
"By the way, where's Mrs.Ho?" I asked. "I thought she was the one issuing tasks and all.."
Both of them paused and looked at each other. "Nobody knows. She left for the castle last night and didn't come back." Sahan answered.
So, she never came back from when she accompanied me to see Sukuna. Weird. That explains why the knot haired dumbass was the one who showed this morning and not her.
We entered the castle and the butlers met us inside. We waited until they accounted for every meal we delivered.
I saw Ren, well Gojo, enter and come to us. Not again, I thought. Is it possible to not see him or Sukuna for a whole fucking day ?
As he got closer, Sahan and Gyatso were taking back steps.
"What did you do again Y/n ?" Gojo complained. "My agenda is full because of you."
"Well at least you do something else than go around and hurt people all day." I insolently let out.
Gyatso and Sahan gasped behind me.
Gojo raised an eyebrow and decided to let this slide. He knew he couldn't cause a scene in front of everyone, and even if he was not all nice, I didn't think he was able to slap me out of the blue like Sukuna did. I cringed at the memory of what happened 20 minutes before.
"Sukuna ordered you to meet him today. Again." he sighed, and I sighed too.
I crossed my arms on my chest.
"Well, tell him no."
"What the fuck ?" let out Gyatso and Sahan in unison.
"You know it's not possible." stated Gojo.
"It is. You tell him I said no, end of the story."
"I advise you not to do this." warned Gojo. But I didn't care. If Sukuna wanted to see someone, he very well could see his red haired bitch.
"Thanks for your advice. I'll see you around." I said, as I turned my back on him. I heard him sigh as he was walking away. I was now facing my two friends.
"What the fuck is going on?" inquired the blondie.
"Why on Earth the King wants to see you ? asked a dumbfounded Gyatso.
Sahan puffed. "That's not the problem here dummy, the problem is she said no. SHE SAID NO." Sahan started to panic, taking her face in her hands.
"I'll be okay." I said confidently. Will I be though ? Didn't I take it a little too far ?
"You were lucky he saved you from the Meleia woman earlier, and that's how you wanna play with him ? You wanna die cutie pie?" Gyatso said in incomprehension. He actually thought he saved me from her. If only he knew.
"If he didn't hit you, Meleia would have thought he favors you and would have come to kill you in your sleep." continued Sahan in Gyatso's place.
"Uh?" I voiced out.
Oh.
Ooooh.