With the blindfold in place, I picked the little girl up and quickly carried her out of the cavern. Once outside, I gently placed her on the ground with her back against a tree, a distance away from the cavern.

  Ruffling her hair, I tried to calm her down. “Don’t worry about anything, just sit here for a moment. I will be right back!”

  The girl nodded, once again without a single word.

  “Good girl!” I responded, already heading towards the cavern.

  But instead of going inside, I stood right in front of the entrance, just between the fires.

  ‘Pfffft!’ I whistled as loud as I could.

  “Yo! Assholes! Get out here! Your Reaper’s waiting!”

  The only response was the frantic rustling of gear from inside the cave.

  “They are watching us!” Alrune said, her voice echoing in my skull. “I can feel their gazes. They are scared. Good!”

  “What, are you waiting for, a formal invitation? Are you hoping that I just die from boredom?” I called out, my voice flat and seemingly uninterested. “Are you chickening out from a one-against-nine fight?”

  “BASTARD!”

  The shout sounded from the cavern and a stream of bandits came out. They quickly ran out and slowed down, fanning out around me.

  “So you want to be strategic? You want to surround me?” I chuckled mockingly. “Let me tell you a secret, you sorry excuses for human beings.” I lowered my voice, as if whispering them a secret. They all stopped and extended their ears my way, listening intently. “That only works if you have a chance to win!”

  That was when I swung my sword— all I needed was one horizontal slice to let the mana spill do the rest. I intended to push just a pinch of mana towards the blade, but I felt it reacting to my feelings, as if feeling my disgust for the bandits. It started to flock towards the blade like a tidal wave, willing to do anything just to erase those that disgusted me this much. Feeling this, instead of pushing mana to the blade, I started pulling it back as much as I could, not wanting to level the entire forest.

  The swing went through and I sighed internally in relief; the forest was still there, I didn’t create a clearing. Sheathing my cane sword, I relaxed.

  One of the bandits chuckled. “Do you think we will let you leave just because….”

  He didn’t complete the sentence, since at that exact time he noticed that heads started sliding from his comrades' shoulders. One by one, bandits fell to the ground, red fountains surging out from their necks. The last one standing was the talker. The arrogance previously nailed to his face had vanished, replaced by desperate attempts to keep his head attached, pressing and patting it with his hands. Honestly, ignoring the gore, the situation was quite funny.

  As even the last one of the group fell, Alrune chimed in.

  “Nice control! Considering how much you—”

  She cut herself off as the cavern behind the bandits groaned and gave way, collapsing into a heap of rubble. A second later, several massive trees around the clearing toppled over.

  “Never mind,” she muttered. “Good thing you lured them out; digging ourselves out of that rubble would be annoying!”

  I just went and gathered everything, making sure I had proof of the mission’s completion and that nothing valuable stayed behind. With my inventory filled with a bunch of nasty things, mundane weapons, and some money, I headed back to the girl.

  I found her sitting in the exact place and pose I left her in. Not wanting to scare her anymore than she already was, I spoke calmly.

  “It’s me. Bandits are done! We are going back!”

  I slowly removed the blindfold from her eyes, smiled at her, and ruffled her hair. Her face was hard to read. I was normally pretty good at reading basic emotions from people’s faces, but with this girl, I could not tell what was going on. Feeling my frustration, Alrune chimed in.

  “Don’t even try to read into her; girly most likely saw more than an adult should.”

  “I am Vic. What is your name?” Silence.

  “Should I carry you?” I asked, seeing that the girl had no shoes and we were in the forest.

  She just nodded and extended her hands towards me. I hoisted her to sit on my shoulders, holding one of my hands with both of hers, squeezing it like it was her only lifeline. Once I descended from the thick forest and reached the horse, I placed her on the saddle in front of me. Even now on the horse, she was still clutching my hand with her small palms.

  As we rode, I noticed something that unsettled me more than the bruises, silence, or anything else. It was a slave crest, just above her knee. It was my first time actually seeing the thing, but I was sure about what it was. The Slavers' Guild crest—a palm dragging hair.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I knew that the guild and slaves were not exactly banned in this kingdom, but they were very heavily frowned upon. Owning a slave was considered barbaric, the same as being a member of the Slavers' Guild.

  This explained why guards in either of the cities didn’t exactly rush to deal with the mess. These fuckers must have been targeting slavers' carriages, killing the guards and slavers, then selling the slaves they took.

  Everything made sense now. Suddenly, I felt disgusted with myself for helping slavers. And the moment I did, ever-present Alrune spoke again.

  “You did a good thing! Look at that kid. Just for her, it was all worth it!”

  When I arrived in the city, it was already very late at night, so I just paid for a room for the young girl and we went to sleep. I had to sit next to her and hold her hand until she fell asleep; she was refusing to lie down otherwise. She wouldn't let go of my hand, even in sleep. I sat there for hours, listening to her breathe. Early the next morning, I had the Inn staff prepare a bath and breakfast for her while I went to buy her some proper clothing. There was no way I would drag her around the city in bloody rags without shoes.

  I was not away for long, but I still found the Inn in an uproar. The girl had ended up escaping from the bath and was running around the whole establishment looking for me. When she saw me coming, she jumped straight into my arms from the second floor window of the Inn, leaving the horrified staff screaming from the window. Squeezing me tightly like her life depended on it, she still refused to utter a single word.

  I hugged her back with one hand while I stroked her hair with the other, speaking softly to her.

  “I am sorry! I just quickly ran off to get you some proper clothing for you. I should have let you know!”

  I had to sit by as the Inn staff gave her a bath and changed her into her new clothes, so that she would not try to escape and look for me. We had breakfast together, her eyes never leaving me, as if she was afraid that I would disappear in a puff of smoke.

  Seeing this, even Alrune didn’t manage to stay silent.

  “Sweet! I don’t even have a body yet and you’ve already found us a daughter. So thoughtful!”

  I almost choked on my food as she dropped that into silence. Seeing my reaction, she started laughing like there was no tomorrow.

  Once we were done with breakfast, I needed to go complete the request. In order to avoid another jump from the window, I took her with me.

  Firstly, I went to the main guard house in the commoner district together with the missive from the quest. As I got close to the entrance of the roughly four-story tall building—a rather spacious entrance that had a guard stationed on each side—one of them stepped up and spoke.

  “Greetings, stranger. What brings you to the guard house?”

  I pulled out the missive, showed it to him, and spoke. “I need this signed as proof of completion for the Bounty Hunters' Guild!”

  The guard looked over the paper and then back at me, asking, “Do you have the…?” He motioned with his finger across his neck, and then tilted his head towards the little girl hiding behind my leg.

  “Yes, I have everything!”

  “Good! Go inside and then keep right until you reach door ‘023.’ Knock there!”

  I thanked the guard politely and did just that. Soon I was standing in front of door ‘023’ knocking. The door opened several seconds later, revealing a man around fifty with short hair, a well-kept beard, and an officer's uniform. The moment he spotted me, he looked over me, stopping on the little girl hiding behind my leg for a moment, and then spoke.

  “Greetings. How may I help you?”

  I pulled out the missive again and showed it to him. He read the whole thing and looked back at me, asking, “Do you have the requested proof?”

  I nodded. He pulled out a small sack from his back pocket.

  “Put your hand inside and drop it all there!”

  I just followed the instructions to a T. Once I transferred the heads, the officer made sure everything was in order and grabbed the missive.

  “Good job! Was that little one in the camp of those individuals?”

  I nodded.

  “What do you plan to do with her?”

  I shrugged. “Not sure yet!”

  “Does she have a family?”

  “I seriously doubt that!”

  “She needs help and care you can’t give her. Here, take this.” The man handed me a piece of paper with an address on it. “Go there; it’s here in the commoner district. It’s an orphanage that specializes in traumatized children. You would be surprised how many of those you can find around here. It’s not free, but they will help her come to terms with her issues.”

  I took the paper. “Thank you very much. But before I go, I need to visit the Slavers' Guild!”

  The officer’s head snapped towards me, disgust visible in every millimeter of his face.

  “Not to enslave her—to fix what somebody else did!”

  “She is a slave?” asked the officer, surprised. I just nodded, and he continued. “Please check her number! It should be a part of the seal.”

  I didn’t question the officer and checked the number on her seal for him.

  “GGH98467!”

  The man nodded and started tapping on the same tablet as the Dungeon Delver Guild and Bounty Hunter Guild receptionists used. Several seconds later, he found something.

  “I got it. The whole family was turned to slavery because they were not able to pay a loan. They had practically nothing, so the lender decided to take his money like this.” The officer spat on the ground. ”Barbaric!”

  “How much is the loan? And what is her name, please?” I asked, since I vaguely remembered that it needs to be paid in full before they can be released.

  “The full amount including interest was five gold. They managed to work off two silver, so the balance is now four gold and ninety-eight silver. And her name is Selah!”

  “I will pay it all off!”

  The man nodded with a smile, and in no time I had a written confirmation that the debt was paid and that she could now be released from slavery. I was even able to find out the name of the little thing. Next stop was the Slavers' Guild.

  Luckily, I was able to handle things smoothly. With the written confirmation, I just had to pay the ‘release fee,’ ‘manipulation fee,’ and ‘care fee,’ coming together to about five gold. Let me tell you, the whole thing felt like a shakedown, but because I wanted little Selah to be free, I had very little choice in the matter. The creepy bastard handling the release even named three other bullshit fees he waived just for me, since I handled their shipping problem. Not punching that bastard took about all the self-control I had in my body.

  Even with the debt paid and all kinds of discounts, I still had to pay over one year’s worth of food for a family just to have her released. How the actual fuck was she meant to pay that?

  The moment I left the Slavers' Guild, my day became better, and I headed straight for the address I received from the officer. It was more than clear to me that the kid needed help—help that I could not give.