Wait… a slave… she’s a slave! That’s right, I’m a Slave Master! I had always used the skill with the intent of helping my slaves with status buffs, but the main job of a Slave Master was to rule slaves. I equipped Slave Master instantly. Wait, would any Slave skills work on a Slave that wasn’t mine? There was only one I could even think of. That was the Slave Taker skill. I hadn’t used it on Lydia yet, and she technically wasn’t my slave.
Could I even steal a ghost as a slave? Could I steal from a dungeon boss? Could a dungeon boss even have a slave? She was a ghost, so she was probably a slave when she died. Did a slave seal follow you even in death?
All of these thoughts went through my mind in the span of half a second. She was raising her hands, ready to send more blades of death flying at me. I could see myself being torn apart just like that Ghost Knight. I refused to be defeated in such a manner. Lydia and Miki were still depending on me. Death wouldn’t cause Miki to die, but without my buffs and healing, she might still struggle. Even with her spiritualist skill, she was still a bit weak. They needed me. I couldn’t die!
“Slave Taker!” I shouted out.
A crest suddenly formed on the elf girl’s chest. The attack was such a surprise that she could only let out a scream, her casting being completely disrupted. I pumped more mana into the Slave Taker ability. However, I was quickly realizing that there was a resistance. More than that, she was still screaming. She was collapsing to the floor, her transparent body flickering strangely.
In the past, Slave Taker had always been a willing process. The Slaver Figuro even said it was easier on them than flat our removing a mark and reapplying it. However, that assumed that they wanted to have their slave mark taken. Resisting was completely different.
“What are you doing to me?” She screamed, writhing on the floor.
I wanted to weaken my attack, but I knew I wouldn’t get a second chance. Remembering how dangerous this ghost slave was, I pushed forward with my magic. Pulling out a mana potion, I downed it while keeping more mana pumping into her, wrestling her mark away from the owner.
I had a feeling the owner was exceptionally strong. It was just a feeling, really, but I felt that if he had truly wanted to resist the slave being taken, at my level, it wouldn’t have happened. Instead, I felt a strange bit of encouragement, like her Master wanted her to be set free. It could have just as easily been me trying to justify my own actions, but the only resistance seemed to come from the Slave herself, who, while a higher level, was still already subjugated.
With another mana potion down, the mark began to change, turning into the familiar symbol that I grew to familiarize as my own. Once the mark clicked into place, the ghost girls body began to shrink. Suddenly, two giant wings almost 3/4th the length of her body exploded out from her back. Her eyes snapped open and she shot me a hateful glare.
Jumping up, she exploded into the air. Her wing spread out. They were beautiful glittery things with a constantly changing rainbow-like reflection depending on where you looked at them. They flapped excitedly in the air as she pointed at me, her face full of fury.
“You… how dare you! What have you done to me? Where is Master? Why can’t I feel Master? Have you hurt Master?”
“Celeste… I am your Master.”
“No… that’s impossible!”
“Search your feelings, you know it to be… wait, I thought you were a ghost?”
“Eh?” She looked down, and then at the wings flapping behind her. “You… you knocked out my illusion! Die!”
“But you’re so tiny…”
The big breasted girl looked identical to how she looked before, but, in reality, she was only about 18 inches tall. Her wingspan included; she was only about the size of a cat. Her breast, in reality, was the size of two mosquito bites, even if they looked humungous proportionally.
“Tiny… how dare you…”
“So, you’re really not a ghost?”
“Hmph!” The girl flapped her arms angrily in a way that looked way less threatening on a little creature. “Fine, perhaps I should reintroduce myself. I am Celeste, Lord Karr’s House Fairy and keeper of this mansion!”
“You’re really alive then?” I asked. “I mean, that was 20 years ago…”
“Fairies live a long time okay? Thousands of years to you meager humans!” When she noticed me nodding with interest her face turned red. “Stop looking down on me just because I’m a fairy! Humans always look down on fairies. I’m really scary, okay! If you don’t leave, you’ll make me real mad!”
Ah… I made her cry. Perhaps I did look down on her a little too much.