The first whistle sound hinting that their work time was nearing its end echoed through the caves. Nagisa took a quick look at his cart, it was completely filled with crystals, actually so full that it was too heavy for Nagisa to carry. It had become even easier for Nagisa to track down water crystals ever since he started his magic training. Since then he could sense the energy inside them a lot better.
After quickly checking that no one was nearby, Nagisa opened a tiny hole in the wall that was just big enough for him to slip through. He quickly packed about 60% of the crystals he had gathered into the bag he was equipped with and went through the hole.
If anyone was with Nagisa right now, they would be stunned in disbelieve. There was a tiny passage behind the hole and there was also a storage right at the beginning. A storage filled with a mountain of water crystals. "That's should be enough for the next 3 weeks." Nagisa emptied his bag onto the pile and nodded.
He then looked down the passage, "if I continue digging every day, I should be able to finish in a... no... 2 months." Nagisa was quickly calculating something in his head. "I still need to mine some crystals everyday just to make sure."
The second whistle sound threw Nagisa out of his thinking progress as he quickly crawled out of his secret passage again and patched the hole with caution. Nagisa nodded after seeing his work, he wouldn't be able to find it again himself if he couldn't sense the massive stack of water crystals behind the wall. "Let's just hope that they don't find any buyers before that."
"Time to go." Nagisa whispered to himself as he shoved the cart out of the deepest corner of the cave. Only people of his or below his size would be able to reach this spot. And there weren't any people like that working on this mine. Except for Kaede but she was physically too weak to come this deep into the mine.
"Hey! Number 207!" The same high pitched voice as ever called Nagisa over.
"Yes sir?" Nagisa asked as he dropped his cart and walked over, "do you need something, sir?" It has become way easier to pretend to be respectful after being here for some time.
It's already been two months since Nagisa got here. Usually, the "goods" these bandits have captured would be sold in the same month, but dragons were different. They were such a rare catch that they always try to get the best price out of them. Especially when they could sell them in a pair!
Yes, Nagisa and Kaede have officially been confirmed as one item on their list. You know, having two dragons from different gender could also mean more dragons in the future, not that Nagisa or Kaede understood that yet. But he did realize that something made the competition way higher so Nagisa was quite positive that they would still stay here for a while. Especially after he showed his potential in mining.
"Uhh, quite a good day ey?" The man with the high pitched voice commented when he saw Nagisa's cart.
"Yes sir, I found quite a nice spot today." Nagisa forced a smile on his face, "but it was nothing I couldn't handle on my own." Nagisa added.
"That's fine, just remember, if you find something too huge for you to mine on your own you can always ask for help." The man reminded Nagisa.
-yeah as if... -
"Yes sir, thank you sir!" despite what he was thinking Nagisa nodded and bowed slightly as he responded.
"Good boy, I'll send over some supplies later on. You've earned it." The man nodded with satisfaction, it's pretty rare to find such a good worker who, at the same time, was also obedient so the man treasured Nagisa quite a lot. "You can leave now."
"Thank you, sir!" Nagisa bowed again as he walked away finally showing his disgust when the man couldn't see him anymore. "Urgh, almost got a cramp in my face." Nagisa rolled his eyes as he emptied his cart.
When he was brought back to his cell, Kaede was already there on the ground with her eyes closed. Her condition was getting worse every day, of course not to the point where it was life threatening, but her eyes weren't these beautifuly shining golden stars anymore the colors had gotten dull, she looked really weak.
As usual, she fell asleep before she could even put her blanket on herself. Nagisa naturally placed his and her blanket on top of her and laid down next to her and sighed. He could see why she was getting this weak now. He didn't realize at first, but only eating three pieces of dry and hard bread everyday definitely wasn't enough! Especially on a long term!
Nagisa was physically fitter since he had been doing all the fieldwork back at his aunt's place but even he was starting to feel the weakness after two months, and Kaede came here three weeks before him!
Nagisa gently looked at Kaede while she was sleeping, something about this girl made him want to take care of her. Maybe it was because of the feeling of a home she gave him. It might sound ridiculous, but this cell was the closest thing to a home Nagisa has ever had.
Nagisa then went back to his daily routine. He sat straight, closed his eyes and started to count in his mind while starting to meditate at the same time.
-1... 2... gather elements... 4... 5... absorb energy... 6 ...-
Nagisa just sat there while meditating and continued to count, that's when a guard passed their cell on his patrol.
-192...! -
Nagisa quickly opened his eyes, checked the face of the guard that passed by and scratched something into the wall with a tiny stone. He then instantly went back to meditating and counting.
-gather elements... 197... absorb... 199... –
When Kaede told Nagisa that mages focus on training their minds, Nagisa didn't really understand what she meant and she couldn't explain it either, but right now he thought he might have grasped a slight idea of what it was.
When he first started his daily routine it was hard to even just count and make a mark when a guard passed by without messing something up. But as time progressed, he was able to do it perfectly and now even added meditation into his routine. Doing three things at the same time with ease definitely wasn't something he was able to do before.
"Hmmm, Nagisa?" the second Kaede's voice appeared in Nagisa's ear, he stopped his meditation and opened his eyes again. He was still able to continue counting though.
"Hey, how are you doing?" Nagisa asked as he helped her to sit back up, she was getting really skinny. Almost unhealthily skinny.
"Just fine, I'm just a little bit tired that's it." Kaede shook her head and answered with a smile. But Nagisa could see her exhaustion no matter how hard she tried to cover it.
"... Kaede, just follow me tomorrow so I can help you!" Nagisa looked at her with worried eyes and begged her. He had offered her to share some of his crystals with her but she kept refusing.
"I said I'm fine, you don't have to make things harder for yourself..." Kaede was tempted to accept for a second before giving her best to turn down his offer.
"..." Nagisa was struggling, if he told her that he had a stock of crystals for the next 3 weeks she most likely will agree to his idea, but he still wasn't sure if he could tell her that.
"Hey, I just need some food and some sleep and I'll feel like a new person again!" Kaede forced a smile on her face but it was obvious that she didn't even believe her own words. "Let's talk about something else?"
"Fine." Nagisa smiled at her, "have you heard about the news that we're being sold as a package now?" Nagisa asked her in a half joking way.
"Wait what?" Kaede looked at him dumbfounded, well she obviously hadn't heard of that.
"Yeah, we're on the list as one item now, apparently they can earn more money that way." Nagisa explained.
"Hmm, wait! Does that mean we might spend the rest of our lives together!?" Kaede stared at Nagisa in disbelieve.
"Huh... maybe, why do you look so shocked!?" Nagisa never thought about it that way, but he somehow felt a little hurt by her reaction.
"That's great!" But Kaede simply jumped Nagisa and hugged him, "Thank goodness! At least I'll have someone I know by my side all the time." She cheered.
"Oh..." not that Nagisa planned to be sold, but if that was how things ended up, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing either... Nagisa quickly shook the idea out of his head. Of course he was going to escape!
"But then..." Kaede suddenly let go of Nagisa and looked at him, "do you think we'll see our parents again if we get sold?" Kaede asked Nagisa as if his would know.
"If that happens I'll make sure that you will." Nagisa promised with a smile, "My parents died right after I was born... so probably not..." Nagisa was surprised by himself that he actually told her. He never talked about that. But he guessed that living with this girl in the same cell for two entire months has opened him up to her a lot more than he had expected.
"Oh... I-I'm sorry, I didn't know..." Kaede clearly didn't expect this, she was so flustered that she looked like she might start to cry. "So that's why..." she suddenly remembered that she questioned his parents for not teaching him, "I'm so sorry..."
"Hey, it's fine, it's not your fault." Nagisa quickly comforted her, he definitely didn't tell her to make her feel bad. "I'm used to it by now." He claimed with an awkward smile on his face.
"..." Kaede still seemed rather shocked from what Nagisa told her but suddenly it looked like she had decided on something. "I've decided! From now on I'll be your big sister, so if we do see my parents again, they'll be your parents as well!"
Nagisa didn't know why, while what Kaede said to him was really heartwarming, for some reason it also felt slightly disturbing. But he just couldn't figure out what it was. Unfortunately his weird disturbance was also showing on his face.
"Hey! Why do you look so annoyed?" Kaede pouted to protest, "I'm trying my best to be nice here!" she crossed her arms and huffed.
"Haha, sorry!" Nagisa apologized with a quick laugh to hide his awkwardness. She really was cute though and with her looks it was guaranteed that she'd become a beautiful young lady she'd get older... and that was when it suddenly hit him, "Ehmm, how old are you again?"
"Uhm… about to turn 10 in a month I think, why?" Kaede answered with her head slightly tilted while calculating the time she'd spend in this cell.
Nagisa finally confirmed the source of his disturbance from before, she said she was going to be his BIG sister from now on. "Ehm, I just turned 10 two months ago." Nagisa hinted while raising his eyebrow.
"Hmm? So?" Kaede still had her head slightly tilted.
"I'm older..." Nagisa said again.
"I know! What about it?"
"Ehh... you need to be older than me to be my big sister...?" Nagisa had black bars hanging from his head as he explained. There suddenly was a long awkward silence in their conversation.
"... ... ... EHHHH? No way!" Kaede seemed genuinely shocked about the news, her eyes widened instantly.
"So... at the very most you can be my little sister... that's how it works..." The edge of Nagisa's left eye was twitching as he explained. Her parents definitely got their focus in teaching wrong... she did have really pretty eyes though. Too bad they always looked so exhausted nowadays...
"But I wanted to be a big sister..." Kaede pouted again and looked at the ground really discouragedly.
"Well, there's nothing I can change about that." Nagisa shrugged with his shoulders and laughed. "But... if you don't mind, I'd really like to have a little sister."
"Hmm... I don't know..." Kaede still seemed rather upset about the fact that she couldn't be a big sister and placed her head on her hands.
"Haha..." Nagisa laughed at her reaction. He only said it as a joke, but somehow, deep down he was actually quite disappointed.
Growl... Nagisa's stomach growled and broke his thought, but it wasn't just his stomach that was growling.
"God I'm famished... they don't nearly give us enough food do they?" Nagisa complained and tried to laugh the awkwardness off.
"Yeah... we only get a small piece of bread every meal... and it's hard as a rock..." Kaede joined Nagisa while she painfully held her stomach as it continued to growl.
"I can't believe everyone gets this little..." Nagisa said in disbelieve. They can't really expect everyone to keep their results when they're working on an empty stomach.
"Actually..." Kaede was just about to answer his question but at the exact same time a guard came with their dinner.
Like always, Kaede got a small dried piece of bread, but when Nagisa saw his portion, he was utterly confused.
The guard handed him a large loaf of rather freshly baked bread and a bowl of meat and vegetable stew. The stew looked awfully bad, but at least the nutritions were there. "Huh? How come..." but the guard left before he could ask his question.
I'll send over some supplies later on.
Nagisa suddenly remembered what he was told right before he left. He hadn't payed much attention to those words before but for the first time in the 2 months he had been here, he was grateful to the man. "Did you know about this…" Nagisa was about to ask when he turned himself towards Kaede.
But when he looked at her he realized how Kaede's eyes were fixated on his meal. But he could understand since she's been eating dried bread for the last three months already. He couldn't really blame her for reacting like this.
Nagisa quickly looked at his meal and then back at Kaede. After hesitating for a second, he placed the bowl in front of Kaede and broke off half of his bread and placed it on top of the bowl before taking Kaede's bread. He would take half of it but it was impossible to break apart.
Kaede instantly recovered from her spacing out and looked at Nagisa with confused eyes, but Nagisa was also able to see the tiny bit of hope and disbelieve behind the confusion. "You're only getting half of the stew, eat up before it gets cold." Nagisa smiled while biting into her hard piece of bread. "I actually like my bread harder." Nagisa told an obvious lie.
Kaede struggled and stared at the stew for a few seconds before giving in to her desires and threw herself at the bowl and started to hurl her food down.
When Nagisa finally managed to swallow the hard bread that he took from Kaede, she already placed the bowl back at his side. Nagisa was slightly surprised but also happy when he saw that she left more than half of it for him.
"Thank ..." Kaede was about to say something with a light blush on her face. She really wanted to decline, but the temptation to eat something that actually had flavor and texture was too huge for her to resist. Nagisa was surprised enough that she still managed to stop, he was prepared that she would have gobbled up the entire bowl to be honest. Of course he would've been disappointed if that were the case.
"Are you sure you had enough?" Nagisa interrupted her and asked her again, "you can have more if you want to." Nagisa offered.
"Why are you doing this?" not that she wasn't grateful, but she really wanted to know his reason.
"Hmm, do you want to hear the real reason or the fake one?" Nagisa thought about it for a second and asked her while eating a bit of the stew, "Oh god it's bad." Nagisa's body shivered a bit when he swallowed the stew.
"I know right? I didn't look promising to begin with, but that was beyond bad! I didn't know it was possible to kill the flavor of the ingredients like that!" Kaede laughed at Nagisa's reaction and agreed, "let's hear both I guess."
"Hmm, let's call it trading, like a repayment for you healing my hand every second day and teaching me the basics of magic and how to meditate." Nagisa said, "I'm still surprised how much you know to be honest."
"Oh... well... I haven't been doing anything else ever since I turned six..." Kaede's expression instantly saddened when she said that and on top of that, she seemed really disappointed in Nagisa's response.
"Why?" Nagisa didn't know why but he didn't like it when Kaede looked sad. Maybe it was because she was the first person who treated him as an equal an actual person.
"My compatibility with the wind element was off the charts... they called me a prodigy of centuries..." It was something to be proud of, but Kaede only looked depressed when she told him. "It was pretty cool at first, Daddy and Mommy were really proud of me so I also tried my best to improve as much as possible... but I didn't realize that everyone started to change." Kaede looked to the ground.
"What do you mean?" Nagisa had his eyebrows slightly narrowed, she was the exact opposite of him, his compatibility was off the charts as well..., off the charts low that was.
"I reached level 9 within three month of training, while the others only reached level 2 or at most 3..." Kaede said while hugging her own legs to her tiny body.
"Isn't that great?" Nagisa still didn't follow, she was amazing wasn't she? Why did she look so sad?
"It was supposed to... but ever since my friends have seen my potential, they started treating me differently. It felt pretty good at first, but with the time passing, my friends didn't dare to come close to me anymore...Daddy and Mommy... after grandpapa talked with them, they left me with him... but grandpapa only saw me as the hope of the tribe and all he did was forcing me to train." Kaede started to sulk as she talked.
"... I'm sorry." Nagisa wanted to comfort her but he couldn't find anything to say... what could he possibly know? He, who never had any parents or friends to begin with?
"... after I realized that... I started to slow down my training on purpose, I even let myself sit on my current level for three entire months without improving the slightest bit. I thought maybe then, my friends and my parents will turn back to normal." Kaede continued while her entire body started to shake, "but my friends started to make fun of me when they realized that I was slowing down... and grandpapa got mad and disappointed at me... he even hit me when I didn't improve for 3 months..." Kaede was now crying. "I ran away that day... and then ended up being here." Kaede tried to show Nagisa a smile but it looked even more heartbreaking than her crying.
"Hey... I didn't compliment you so that you would be sad." Nagisa gently petted her on her head while she was still sulking, "Hey! Didn't you want to hear both reasons?"
"Hmm?" Kaede slightly lifted her head to look at Nagisa, "What reasons?..."
"The reason why I shared my food with you? The one from before was a lie." Nagisa said with a slightly embarrassed smile on his face, "The truth is... I just wanted to. This little cell here, is the first place I could maybe consider as my home. Because at least here... someone is waiting for me to come back every day, at least here, someone is happy of my existence and not simply disgusted whenever they see me." Nagisa said as he wiped the tears from Kaede's face. "I don't really know how it's like to have a family... but you're the only person who I would ever consider calling that."
"..." Kaede just stared at Nagisa after hearing his response while her tears were slowing stopping to drop. But after she realized what Nagisa really said she simply jumped into Nagisa's arms and started to cry again.
"There, there." Nagisa simply held her while he gently stroked her hair, "So... let me help you tomorrow, okay?" Nagisa asked.
"Mhmm..." Kaede simply nodded while she was still swallowing her tears, "You know what? I think I don't want to be a big sister anymore." She started to smile while tears were still running down her cheeks. "I like being a little sister." She said as she nuzzled herself into Nagisa.
Nagisa spaced out for a split second to understand what Kaede just told him, "Thank you, Kaede." Nagisa smiled as he gently placed his arms around her. This little cold cell they were in, suddenly didn't feel so cold anymore.
So here the thing, I'm having a huge writer's block on my other story because I have started this idea before finishing my last one. And for some reason all my brain can think about when I try to write is this story. So after talking with one of my reviewers from my other story, she suggested that I should just update this one while I'm having trouble with my other story. And so I did, and I'm really thankful for that little talk :D.
So yeah, getting a little more into Kaede's background story in this chapter :D and starting to bring the main couple of this story closer to each other. Be aware, this will be a long time project, probably several times longer than my other story that is slowly coming to an end so I'm not bringing all the background information out yet, I'll let it out over time.
Nagisa is planning an escape! And only when he gets out of this slave prision this story will really start! In a world I completely made from scratch ever since my Highschool days (I'm in my masters degree now btw). So please look forward to it :D. But first, tell me what you think about this chapter? Pretty please? :P
As always, thank you for your support! And I'll see you in the next chapter ;)!
PS: Assassination Classroom reached 4k fics! Whooo!