The brothers insisted on eating quickly, and then loaded up the packs with everything they could, mostly with extra rations. Strong even attempted to get a second pack loaded, but I insisted that, as we would be avoiding fights this morning, anything that wasn't on him when we jumped, I'd be able to bring us back for. So we jumped back to the spot we left, and started from there, walking through the fog of the forest for a mile, before the woodlands began to give way to the northern steppes.
As it had been described, this place was sparse on trees, heavy on stone, and to be fair, both of those were true. There were a few small copse here and there, and a scraggly looking thing at odd intervals, but otherwise, even the grass chose to forgo growing amid the loose stones and dead dirt. Better, the temperature, which had been pleasant enough twenty or so Celsius quickly fell as we continued onward, dropping to a bit over fifteen by the time we crested the final rise, and were in sight of our goal.
The home village of Strong, Fast, and Shadow lay before us, and their words of how blasted it had been when they'd last seen it did little justice to what we saw. The village, looking like it would have been a sister to Lute or Thud in its prime, was devastated. The houses were broken, and the roads between them smashed. There were scars in the land all over, and near the place we arrived, one could see a scorch mark on the earth, one with a marker in the middle, denoting someone had died here, Shadow's Master I knew without asking.
And yet…the village was full of life, for all that not one home was looking complete or livable. The people were moving, with a slow, sluggish pace down the street, some holding bowls that looked full of tepid and foul liquids, which they ate with reluctance, for all that you could see ribs on a few of them. The whole thing had the look of a prison camp, despite it lacking bars or guards anywhere.
"This was…this isn't right," said Lucia at last, and I had to agree, staring into the mass. The people below came from out of a hastily constructed large building, looking like a barracks built near a frontline, and they, despite what I'd expected, came from all walks of life. Some male, some female, some beastmen, but also demi-humans, and even some humans mixed into them. All linked by a single thing, as we saw as we moved closer.
Each and every one of them, from the elders barely standing, to those who were only just beyond childhood, had a slave seal prominently on their chests. A glowing slave seal, meaning it was active, causing them pain, until they fulfilled whatever order had been given to them. That was probably why there were no guards or walls, no need when magic chains bound them to here.
It took growing closer to see that, amongst those pouring food and eating, a larger number were hauling something else instead, large buckets that they dumped into a pile, a glittering mound of crystals. From there, some of the fitter looking people, mostly humans this time, though still with slave seals, were sorting them, inspecting them by hand, rolling them around, with their palms looking like they'd reached into a jar of knives.
This was a work camp, and it was manned by broken people. They were barely aware of the world around them, as we walked into the middle of the largest group, and they just kind of, sauntered around us. Barely aware, I honestly think the one reason they avoided running into us was it would be a waste of what little strength they had, as those finished with their bowls left them in a large collection near the pot. Hopefully to be cleaned later…probably not, but still, one could hope.
"Do you see a leader here? Anyone we can talk to?" I asked the others, as they looked around, Strong and Fast muttering some names, before finally both exclaiming something, and pointing towards a decrepit old woman, her body looking like it was made of leather bound sticks, that shook and rattled, even as she sat there with the rest, going through the crystals that were coming from a nearby hole in a small mound just at the villages edge.
"Elder Marie!" shouted Fast, as he hopped up, and then over the crowd of people. Strong waded through them far more slowly, having to walk to the side to avoid knocking anyone over, but his rush was no less obvious. Shadow, meanwhile, just teleported to them, and with a sigh, I placed my hands on Lucia and Souka's shoulders, while Rem placed her hand on mine, and with a wince, I used (Blink) to move us all at once to the side of the old lady.
The three brothers were standing back from her, as we landed beside them, and watched as the older woman…ignored them, focused entirely on the task of sorting the crystals, tapping them with her finger and causing them to glow slightly, sometimes getting a cut on her almost skeletal hands from the sharp edges, before placing them in one of a few bowls near her. I had no idea what they were sorting for, of course, but I didn't really care either.
"Is she?" asked Lucia, and Fast nodded.
"She's the Elder of the village, and the one who used to deal with Queen Mirellia from the south, and the queen up north," he said, the use of a name for the monarch of Melromarc, but not the northern country showing his respect for one of the other, despite what had happened. They weren't talking quietly either, as the woman, and the dozen or so beside her, kept sorting, seemingly not seeing us at all.
I debated, with myself, what best to use, and did an (Insight) check on the old woman, a mink according to her status sheet, though she looked more like a weasel to me. Regardless, it had a lot of small conditions on her, mostly to do with age, but throbbing red in the vision was the Slave Seal condition, set to max, with a standing order apparently, that being why she was so out of it.
"(Chain Breaker Arrow), (Cleansing Arrow)," I said, as I shifted my bow into its (Precision) form, and mixed it with (Stage 3) to give me Duel Wield. That doubled the cost reduction, meaning it cost me only a few SP, and the twin bolts slammed into her body, causing her to briefly shudder, as she held a rough hewn gem in her hand, her glazed over eyes slowly coming back into focus as she stopped.
"Wha…what's happened?" she said, groggily, as her HP value slowly rose, not healed, but the max value was returning after the status effects fell away. She then nearly toppled over, causing Fast to rush forward, catching her in his hands, and then gently letting her lay back, her body stiffening as she did so. My (Cleansing Arrow) had done a good job of getting rid of most of her status effects, but some were too much for it thanks to the low level of the skill.
She fell over, and was fast asleep in moments, causing me to grow concerned, but Strong took her in those huge hands of his, making her look tiny in comparison, and we walked into the village, to a home that was at least somewhat intact, and set her down gently on one of the sleeping rolls we'd brought. The moment she was on it, she curled into a comfortable position, and we waited.
Shadow soon had a small fire lit, and then began to make tea, while Strong, Fast, and Souka walked out of the place we were staying, and began to pass out better food to the people who were standing around, those dead eyed workers accepting it and eating it mechanically. The effect was still there, as they began to move with just a bit more strength to them, but it was only them asking me to hear what Marie had to say that kept me from firing more arrows into them to start breaking them free.
It took until almost noon for the Elder mink to awaken, her body sluggishly rising, and I could see now that, as she recovered, she was…well her sheet said she was, actually younger than me, but the brothers were acting like she was made of glass, as Shadow presented her with a tea mug, and she, looking at it confused, snatched it from his hand. A moment later she was gulping down the stuff in it, and Shadow snapped his fingers, Fast passing him another cup, and then a third, as she finished off the brew.
Finally, with a sigh, she slowly lowered the third cup, still with a bit of the steaming contents inside, from her lips, and looked around herself, confusing still in her grey furred face, but less so than there had been before, as she rose up, took another sip, and then looked at the assembled group before her.
"You…okay, I want to be grateful for your help, but I've learned to be wary, so first off, tell me who you are, and what you want. Once I know how much this will cost, I'll tell you why we can't afford it," she said, before sipping at her tea again.
"Elder Marie…" began Fast, only to be stopped as she held up a finger in his face.
"That's Trader Marie, you young pup, I'm not old enough to be called Elder yet…wait, if you're calling me that, you're from this village…I don't remember three large cats like you though," she said, sipping at her tea, and Fast nodded, before pointing at himself.
"My name is Fast, this is Strong, and this is Shadow. We…were given class-upgrades, and these new forms came with them," he explained, and she nodded numbly at him, before suddenly pausing mid sip, and then lowering the cup from her mouth. Knowing what was coming, I held up my hands, keeping most of the spit take from getting into my face, but Fast, despite smiling at her, took it full force.
"Aria's kids…you…classes…levels…what's been going on?!" she didn't exactly shout, but she certainly raised her voice to us as she stared between us. The brothers, after being given a towel, were soon regaling her with their story. Of how they were taken from the village after the attack, branded with slave seals, and then dragged across the country to the capital, where they were stuck in a cage for what felt like lifetimes.
Then they added on how I apparently broke into the slave traders tent and freed them, something I admonished them for, pointing out I bought them, mostly because I was the Hero of the Bow, and wanted beastman party members. After that they spent over an hour describing some battle highlights, before getting to the point of them using the class-up function of the Dragon Hourglass, and becoming…well the specimens she saw before her.
Marie, Trader not Elder as she insisted, had to sit down again at that, and motioned with one hand, Fast quickly giving her another cup of tea, with two more prepared for her. She didn't need the extra, however, as she slowly sipped on this one, seeming to process everything that had happened to the three brothers, before finally setting the cup aside, and then leaning forward.
She then countered with her story. The details were…unpleasant. She had, in her thirty or so years of life, been the one to deal with the two kingdoms surrounding her village, which was ostensibly independent of both of them. In reality, they paid taxes in the form of tariffs to the pair of monarchs, and were left alone as neither side was willing to bargain with the other one for the crystals they could mine from the nearby hills.
But the Queen to the north had always desired their crystals and gems for herself. Her nation didn't have nearly the copious amounts of mines that Melromarc boasted. However, it had never been worth it. After all, conquering their village alone would be a hassle. Then the Wave had struck them, somewhere south of the village to be sure, but one of the holes had flowed into their sky, and dropped its demonic horde right on their heads.
With them broken by the First Wave, and Queen Mirellia off to gain support for dealing with the coming Waves, the King had been left in charge. He, never a fan of demi-humans or beastmen, had been willing to cede land that was not his, to the northern kingdom, if it helped him to assemble the magical elements(and funds) necessary to summon the Heroes to their world to deal with the crisis immediately.
She'd done so, and the next day, with assistance of one of Melromarc's own lords, their village had been raided. Those injured in the attack, such as Strong and Shadow, or those simply deemed more cost effective to be sold, such as Fast, were done so, and soon after she brought a seal master to the village, one of her people to not only mark the rest of them, binding them to her personally, but also bringing in a load of others.
The one command given, the reason they were broken, was to mine the crystals, enough to fill a container that was inside the barracks they had built so carelessly that it provided no protection from the cold, and had killed more than one simply by having a brick drop on their head. It was a terrible thing, and the fact that she cared not who or what was working for her showed her vile soul for all to see.
The months of this had broken her, had broken them all. Worse because the seal simply gave them pain for every moment they weren't following her command. They barely were able to convince themselves that eating and sleeping was needed, and the moment they had enough of either, they were immediately forced by that seal to start working again, their bodies drained so completely.
"And that is the hell that has been this village's lot. We were three-hundred strong during the First Wave. Now? We are almost a thousand, strangers and fellow slaves, left to work until our bodies rot around us," she said, sounding…still quite broken, as Fast moved to hand her another cup of tea, and she waved it off. Watching her look at us, and then around us at the line of people stumbling towards the mines, I felt…hate inside me.
That was a new emotion, honestly, as even though I disliked people in my life, this was an absolute kind of hatred, and when I realized it was more about her wasteful disregard for these people, more than the idea of them being enslaved, I decided not to say anything, instead, I rose up, looked outside at them, and began to run the numbers, both in my head, and through the calculator my weapon provided.
"I don't have enough SP to free them all at once. I assume they come to pick up the crystals periodically?" I asked, and Marie, looking at me, nodded numbly, a glimmer in her eyes at that first statement.
"She does, personally. We're…I was bound to her, and as she had our command, we could only be ordered to give it to her. Are you saying you'll free my people?" she asked, and I nodded without thinking too hard about it.
"I'm not only going to free them, but given this village's state, and a need I have for workers, paid workers, I'll give everyone here a job, and if they turn it down, they'll at least be somewhere on a major roadway instead of at the doorstep of some two-bit, tin-pot, dictator bitch," I said firmly, balling my hand into a fist, before pointing to her.
"Can you make these people gather somehow? It will be easier if they're all together in one place for the seal breaking part," I ask, and she takes a moment to think, before looking at the pack full of food that Strong had set down in the corner.
"There, yes, if you make food, they'll be able to force the seal to bring them up, given how our supplies are, real food will compel them to you," she said, and I was glad she wasn't arguing with moving the people. Honestly, I'd failed to ask the brothers if there was a reason the village was here, like sacred grounds or something. There might actually be something like that, and Marie was just wanting to leave, given the labor camp it had been turned into.
I ran a few more numbers, mostly just estimating how much food we'd brought, versus what was here. I'd said when I'd offered to bring it the stuff was to make up for any shortfalls the village might have, but that had been when it had been maybe three-hundred people tops. Seeing it turned into this, with far more mouths to feed, we'd have to make it last, but I soon had Fast, Lucia, and Souka surprisingly, on cook duty, as the rest fanned out to bring people together.
For the next hour, I stood in the middle of the village, using my (Stage 3)'s function to wield a single bow with two properties, rather than two different bows. It meant I had a (Purple Bubble Burst Bow) the one I got from the Balloon Legion, as well as (Precision) to reduce the cost of my shots, as people gathered around to eat their fill, shambling into line like obedient zombies.
First a shot of (Cleansing Arrow) the moment a group had started to gain at least a few HP points from the food. The result was, like Marie, the removal of all their status effects…well a lot of them anyway. All of them would require more effort, but it was enough that their max HP began to climb, skyrocketing in some cases, leaving them weak at the knees, more than one passing out without so much as a word.
The moment they were down, I used my (Chain Breaker Arrow), and instantly the seals on their chests sort of…popped or shattered, turning into motes of purple light for an instant, and then fading into nothing, as the people who had held them were rendered into free people once more. No one reacted to this, and the line simply moved around the bodies, as Strong, Shadow, and Ray began to move them to make room for more.
In that hour, about twenty-five at a time, we were able to fix almost two-hundred or so of the people before I became exhausted, my SP running nearly completely dry, and we slowly passed out the last few bowls to those who still were in the thrall of the queen. Unable to stop them, we allowed them to eat their fill, and then return to the nearby mines, to slave away, as we waited for my energy to replenish.
In the meantime, we were able to slowly bring the others around, their bodies, weak and trembling as Marie's had been…and still was. Simple as it seemed, some of the status effects would be on them for a while, but for now, they were able to stand, and a few were even able to speak, giving us their stories, or asking after friends and family, some of which we found in the villages, some of which we didn't,
For the most part, the story was the same. They were from villages that had been ravaged when the Wave struck, same as this one. The difference was those with some skill or family that might ask after them were left. Those who simply had a small plot of land, and no one who would question if they just happened to vanish? Those were taken by the Queen's Own, and brought to her palace.
There, she marked them, every one, with a seal. How she had that much blood, given what I'd had to spill to make the three for the brothers, I wasn't certain. Healing magic, probably. Regardless, she had enslaved her own people, en masse, and made them into her tools for building her kingdom up into a powerful nation. Stationed out in places like this, away from prying eyes, they labored until they dropped.
I had thought she'd probably sold the three brothers, but given the information, it was simply more likely that whatever lord from Melromarc had helped capture them had simply 'skimmed' them off the top instead, earning himself a few bits of extra coin, without her realizing she'd lost some good slaves. That had saved them from this, but he was no better honestly, especially if he knew this was going on.
Regardless, the moment I was able, we started again, gaining another hundred, before the food simply ran out, and we had to go get more. Rather than head to the capital though, I decided to jump to Sanctuary. Leaving Lucia, Souka, and the brothers behind to help with clean up, I gathered Rem, who insisted on coming back with me, and a score of former slaves to me, looking at them, and focusing, as I still wasn't sure this would work, before releasing the spell, and returning to my town.
(A/N: Marie is basically the Mink from BNA of the same name. Just a reference I like, nothing more.)