⚠️⚠️THERE IS A LOT OF SADNESS IN THIS CHAPTER!! If you don't do well with traumatic or graphic events, I HIGHLY recommend you don't read this specific chapter!⚠️⚠️
"Daddy!" A small girl yelled. "It's mommy! You need to hurry!" The small child was frantically trying to pull her father out of the bar he was in.
"Baby, there's no need to worry." He picks up his daughter and pays the bartender. "Mommy is gonna be okay. She is probably just having your brother or sister." The father took to their house but when he stepped inside a chair was thrown across the room.
"And just what took you so long?!" The fanalis woman was breathing heavily and she looked like she was in a lot of pain but she continued to grab a small table to throw at her husband. "Was booze more important than your child's birth!?" Her voice had venom dripping off of it.
"Oh crap. Kanna stop throwing things!" The man quickly dodged his wife's attacks and ran out of the house with his daughter in hand. "Get back here, Kakujo! You coward!" She yelled after him.
"Daddy? Why is mommy yelling? I've never seen her do that before." The little girl both feared and admired her mother's fury.
"Well I have seen it before." He sighed but then smiled warmly. "It was about 4 years ago when she had you."
"Oh~" They sat and looked at the sunset until the girl's aunt told them that they could go inside and see the child.
"Kakujo. Kuniome. Come see the new addition to our family!" Her mother smiled brightly, no trace of anger was in her voice now.
"Yay! I have a baby brother! Can I name him?" Kuniome asks and her parents agree. "What about Salmon?! It's my favorite kind of fish!" The little girl says as her mouth began to water.
"Hm. Don't you like the name Janko, Kuni?" Her mother asked and her father flashes his wife a knowing smile.
"Of course- wait! That would be a great name for him, don't ya think?" Her parents agree, knowing they tricked her into giving her little brother the name they wanted for him.
After a couple hours together, the family called it a night and fell asleep together. They were all careful as to not injure Kanna in their sleep so she slept further away.
In the middle of the night the girl's ears twitched and she woke up. "Daddy... I think I heard something." The large fanalis man sat up but immediately laid back down.
"Don't worry about it sweetie. I'm sure it was nothing." But the girl wasn't convinced. She got out of bed and scanned their small house. Suddenly a black bird flew in through the window and landed on the sleeping couple, waking them from their slumber.
"Damn bird! It scratched me!" It wasn't uncommon for birds to get in the house so the girl giggled at her parents struggle with her crying brother. Her laugh died out when her father fell limp. "What the hell! M-My body won't move!" Her mother collapsed soon after. She ran over to them and caught her little brother before he could hit the ground.
"Well, well. Look what we have here." A man with a raspy voice and short, greasy black hair walked into their house. "We picked up a whole family this time!"
More men filed in and grabbed the father and mother. "No! Kuniome! Janko!" Her parents cried but it was no use.
"No! Mommy! Daddy!" She ran outside after them and saw that several other families and people she knew were in cages. "What are you doing to them?!" She yelled at the abductors.
"Looks like our bird missed the little girl. Oh well, she's just a little kid." A man reached out to grab Kuniome. The girl was furious. These men were going to pay for what they did. Just as the man was going to grab her arms, the arms that were carrying her dear brother, she ran past him and kicked him in the stomach which caused blood to come out of his mouth and he fell over.
"Get her!" With that command every fanalis tried their hardest to stand up and help the girl and every abductor ran after her and tried to grab her. One after another the men fell to the ground. She was only 4 years old but her legs held great power in them because she was the child of fanalis.
The men sent birds with poisonous claws after her, but she avoided them all. They tried jumping to get her, but she jumped higher and quicker. They tried shooting her even, but she ran past every bullet.
At one point she got careless and Janko's arm was gazed by a bullet. "I'm sorry Janko! Are you okay?" Before she could resume fighting, her arm was cut by a claw of one of the birds.
Before she hit the ground she was picked up by a pair of arms. "I think I'll keep this one!" He held her up like a trophy. "She took out most of my men, didn't she?" He laughed to a man standing next to him. "She even killed a couple." With all the strength she could muster up, she kept her arms firmly around Janko. She refused to let him fall.
That night was the last time she saw her parents. She was thrown into a small box with her day old brother and the lid was closed, leaving them in complete darkness. She could faintly hear her parents scream after the box as it moved further away. She cried for a moment but stopped soon after. 'I need to be strong. For Mommy, Daddy, and Janko. I will get our family back together!'
Once a day, food was dumped into the box. It seemed like it was leftovers or horse feed but the girl wasn't concerned. She just needed enough food for Janko. She kept him warm and safe every night and fed him whatever he could eat and then she ate the rest.
One day though, Janko got sick. His face was hot and he wouldn't stop crying. "Help! Somebody help!" Kuniome kicked at the box and screamed until it was broken down.
"What do you want brat?!"
"My brother. He's sick." The man looked down at the poor baby.
"I guess it can't be helped." He grabbed the the child and threw him on the ground. The crying stopped instantly.
"Janko!" Kuniome screamed in horror. "Janko please be okay!" She ran to him as best as she could since it has been so long since she could stand. When she reached her brother, she saw that his face was covered in blood and his head had a huge dent in it. "...I-I f-failed. I couldn't p-protect you." She pulled him to her chest and began crying.
"Hey! Get back here! We don't have time for this!" The man who claimed her a few days about pulled out a whip. He cracked it on her back until blood covered her entire surface and was swollen. She never moved though. She was so distraught over her brother's death that she couldn't move or say anything. To be completely honest, she couldn't even feel the pain because she was so out of it. "Dammit kid!" He yanked the lifeless body away from the girl and pulled on her collar so that she was right in front of his face. "Get moving!" She nodded her head obediently before slowly picking herself up and walking after the carriage.
She didn't run from her new master while she followed after him and soon her memory of her brother faded. His death was too much to deal with so she pushed it away until eventually it was forgotten.
Every morning, she would get up early, make breakfast, and clean the house. Every afternoon, she would sell goods and carry around heavy cargo. Every evening, she would make dinner and entertain her master and every night, she would prepare his uniform for the next day.
He was a military general for the Parthevian empire though he wasn't a member of the Dragul family. He was utterly ruthless when he dealt with Kuniome. Soon after her forced arrival to his home he decided that he hated her traditional, dark continent name so he changed it. "From now on you're Kayla. That other name is just ridiculous."
She was always terrified of her master so she grew accustomed to stuttering and cowering in fear. Her master hated this of course. "I wouldn't have wanted you if I knew you were a pushover! Why are you so useless?!" He would yell and then kick her to the ground. She could have easily killed him and ran away but what was the point? She would never escape the life of a slave.
Years had passed since she came to work for master Tacaci. She was now 17 and was selling her usual fruits and vegetables at the stall where the master had several other slaves working. He gave her an outfit to put on while she worked there but she hated it. It was a very tight red top with a white skirt. She always felt as if people were staring at her when she put it on.
When they ran out of pears to sell at the stand she ran to their shack to see if they had anymore there to sell. When she opened the door she found a lone barrel in the middle of the room. 'Maybe there are some in there.' When she opened the barrel, she was met by two terrified eyes.
"Leave me alone in here!" The man grabbed the lid and put it back on top of the barrel, covering himself once more.
"S-sir? Do you mind coming out?" Slowly the man stood up and climbed out of the small container. "Are you hungry? And why were you inside of the barrel?"
"I love dark and comfortable places!" He looked away and daydreamed for a moment. "Anyway I am quite hungry. Do you have any food I could buy?"
'Kayla' didn't even have to think about it. "Yes. Come with me, sir." She spoke quietly.
"Please, call me Yunan." His smile was warm and made her feel comfortable. She lead him inside her house and began cooking some soup for the strange man.
While he was eating he asked, "so you sell goods for a living, how interesting!"
"N-no. I don't. I sell whatever my master tells me to. I'm actually a servant." She hung her head in shame.
"My apologies. I didn't know. Is that why you aren't eating?" 'Kayla' nodded her head.
"I'm only allowed to eat when my master tells me I can. It's terrible here." She mumbled.
He sighed. "Why don't you change your life then?" She jerked her head up and shot him a look of confusion. "The 37th dungeon Jinx is close by so why don't you challenge it?" He seemed serious about the offer.
"Yunan... I'm not sure if you know this but everyone who enters that place dies. I wouldn't stand a chance."
"Will you at least think about it?" He asked and 'Kayla' nods her head. Yunan stands to leave. "Good. I better go then. Thank you for the soup, Kayla." And suddenly he disappeared.
'Kayla' smiled to herself as she cleaned his dishes and washed the rest of the pans and silverware on the counter. She hears her master stomp into the house. "Kayla! Come here, now!" She runs to the next room where she assumes he is and bows her head.
"W-Welcome home, master." She feels an impact on the side of her face and realizes that he's just hit her.
"Who the hell did you have over?!" She looks at him shocked. "Oh yeah, I know! One of the slaves told me about this man you brought into my house!" She steps back until she bumps into a wall. She that tries to move to the side but the master steps on the chains around her feet to stop her and then shoves her against the wall by her collarbone. "Don't run away when I'm talkin to you."
"H-he was hungry so I made him some potato soup and he left. I know I should have asked you first master but I-"
"Yes you should have!" He pulled her away from the wall and then slammed her back into it, knocking the air out of her.
"I'm s-so *gasp* sorry. He *gasp* was talking a-about the dungeon so *gasp* I was interested."
"Oh?" He loosened his grip on her. "What did he say about the dungeon?"
'Kayla' never made eye contact with her master, scared of getting hit again. "He said that I should go in the dungeon-" she cut herself off I flailed her arms in front of her defensively. "But I told him that I could never do that!" She knew that her master was going to try it in about a week with an 1,000 men army.
"Hm... maybe you should go." He said thoughtfully. He knew that with her strength she could take out most of the monsters herself and then he could claim the power.
"R-really?"
"Yes." He grinned to himself.
Time-skip! The dungeon Jinx
Before walking into the dungeon, master Tacaci gave 'Kayla' a full meal and a sword to fight with. He said she needed to eat so she would have plenty of energy and the sword was for the battle itself.
The whole platoon marched inside the dungeon with 'Kayla' and her master in the very front. They entered a beautiful rainforest-like area with bugs and flowers the size of watermelons. Despite the huge, gross bugs the place was beautiful.
"Ah!!" They turned to see that one of the bugs shot acid at some soldiers and their bodies were melting away.
Butterflies showed up soon and the air flow from their wings blow some people to the ground as the dirt seemed to be swallowing them whole.
"Kayla! Do something!" The girl's master yelled as he started cutting the creatures down with his sword.
"R-right." She sprung into action and tried to save to soldiers she could as she killed several bugs monsters with her legs. She only drew her sword when it was absolutely necessary.
Eventually, everyone gathered behind her as they went through the dungeon. The creatures were becoming more and more dense as they went on which made the group lose more and more people until 'Kayla' and her master were the only ones left.
Finally, they reached the treasure room where the djinn dwells. Jinx was beautiful and she had a few piercings that were on various parts of her body and a mole under the corner of her lip.
"Hello, my name is Jinx, a djinn of wind and beauty. So who here is to be king?" Master Tacaci raised his hand and the girl looked to the ground. "Very well miss. I choose you to be my master!"
"What?!" The slave and the master say in unison.
"Sorry mister. She deserved it. She defeated every monster by herself and came to me with pure intentions. I would never pick you over her. Plus she's just the most adorable girl I've ever seen!" The djinn genuinely smiles at 'Kayla' but her master isn't happy.
"Dammit you worthless scum! That power would have been mine if you hadn't gotten in my way!" The man tried to slap his servant but his hand was blocked by the djinn.
"Don't touch my master, boy." Her beautiful blue face was stern and scary. "Anyway do you accept me as your djinn?" The fanalis timidly shakes her head 'yes'. "Yay! I usually would bestow the power on you through your weapon but I don't think that sword fits you; here," she hands the small (in comparison) girl a dagger from one of the chests in the room. "This is your metal vessel."
Moments later the teen woke up in a pit surrounded by treasure. Her master was close by and he was already getting up. "This treasure is mine! You understand?" She looked down and nodded her head. Later she was forced to take all of the treasure to his house. He quickly spent all of it on a bigger house, booze, women, and more slaves.
His drinking habits had gotten worse when he was laid off his job as general. Because of his fail in capturing the power from the dungeon and losing the lives of 1,000 men they no longer "needed" him as a general.
He came home drunk one night as 'Kayla' was getting some of the younger slaves in bed.
"Kayla! Come here." She heard his sloppy voice and knew that he had too much to drink. She went to him anyway. He reached a hand up and placed it on the side of her face. "Have I ever told you how beautiful you are~" She didn't like where this was going. He stumbled over to her and put his hand on her waist. "You are so- so.. mature for your age. I like that." He was hungrily looking at her large chest and he slid a hand to grab her ass. She cringed deeply.
It was true that she ate more than the other servants... correction: it was true that she was always given more food than the others but she never thought about it too much. She would have never thought it was because he was lusting over her growing curves.
"M-master... please don't-"
"Don't tell me what to do!" Before he could do anything more to her, another slave came into the living room.
"Master, your bags are packed and ready for your trip to Sindria." For some reason the master wanted to go on a trip to Sindria before he officially ran out of spending money.
"Yeah, yeah." He turned to the scared/disgusted fanalis girl. "Take my bags to the port. I completely forgot about my trip." She nodded her head and happily ran away from her creepy master.
After a long boat ride to Sindria, they finally got off of the boat and into a hotel that Tacaci would be staying in. "You know, Kayla," he began when she set down the last bag. "You could sleep with me if you want." He started walking to her and she tensed up again. She thought he would stop that because he hadn't said anything like that since before they left Parthevia.
"I-I'm alright master. I'll just s-sleep outside." She started for the door only to be pulled back by him.
"Come now. Why would you want to sleep outside when I could keep you warm all night." He slid a hand down her torso. She couldn't take it anymore. She had to get away. She pushed him into the wall and made a dead run for it.
'In Sindria it's illegal to have slaves. Maybe if I find an officer or someone they could help me.' After about an hour of her running and trying to find anyone in the empty streets, she could hear horse hooves approach.
'Run faster dammit!'