I tried the kick open the door one more time. It was more out of frustration than any hope it would open. So, imagine my surprise when the door gave way, and I found myself stumbling through. On the other side, I didn’t end up in the cabin where Elaya was crying over her dead brother. Instead, I ended up stumbling into a street.
It went from night to day, and there were tons of people walking around. This wasn’t a city I was familiar with. Whether it was architecture or clothing, they were in styles I didn’t recognize. They were all human though, so this had to be Aberis, right?
I looked back to where I had come from, but the door had closed and now standing behind me was a bar. A woman walking by glanced at me stumbling out of a bar, and sniffed. I guess she thought I was a drunk. I straightened, up, my lips tightening as I looked around the square. This dungeon was certainly getting on my nerves. The constant changes in perspective were driving me up a wall. However, I was also learning about things. I had my theories, but I needed to see more to know for certain.
The square was lined with various stages that attracted crowds. Each stage seemed to be dedicated to some form of entertainment, making the place seem extremely lively.
“No! Please!” I heard someone cry out.
This brought my eyes to a certain stage, where I immediately locked onto the Haid Hero once again. She was the same age as when she was in the cabin, but I could get a better look at her now. Her chest was filling out, and her body was reaching the age of adulthood.
As for why I described her body, it was because her face was obscured to me. For some reason, no matter how much I looked, I just could not make out what she looked like. I originally thought it was the window causing this, but now I realized that the dungeon, or perhaps Elaya, was hiding her appearance. Even when I thought back to when I had seen her as a kid, I found the details lost on me. This is why I had previously wondered if this was truly Elaya’s story.
I could tell that she was no longer in the maid outfit. She was in a slave outfit and chains. This appeared to be a slave auction. Her mother was a slave, and her brother was similarly marked as a slave, so it made sense she’d eventually end up a slave too. It was a wonder to me that she wasn’t made a slave shortly after she was born. Maybe there were Slave Guild rules that kept a person from being marked until a certain age.
I looked carefully around her neck to see that the magic had already been placed there. I had never known that Elaya was a slave sometime before she met me. After processing all of this, I realized that she was screaming and struggling, her eyes locked on another stage across from her. I followed her eyesight, and immediately let out a hiss. On a stage on the exact opposite side of the courtyard was another event, an execution.
There was a person who was having the rope put around his neck. This was someone I could make out. It was her brother. He not only survived killing his master but now he was being executed for it. I didn’t have any more time to react when they pulled the lever, and the man fell. The rope tightened with a snap.