Chapter 251: Slave 139

Years ago.

In a small room smelling of thick humidity and mold. Like a prison cell, the windows were steel bars, with the faint light of a flame torch nearby slipping through into the room.

Seven children were lying on the ground, apparently sleeping, yet breathing heavily. Very heavily. They were covered in rags, gathered closer to one another.

Desperately trying to fight the cold radiating from the stone ground underneath them without a shield.

The cold that was gradually invading their bones and marrow by the minute.

Two more children were seated, resting their backs against the wall.

It was unclear if they were watching over the sleeping ones, or just happened to not be able to sleep that night.

One of them looked a little older; his hair was brown and rising chaotically like a mane supported by mud and dirt.

The left side of his face was completely disfigured.

His eye had barely a small sliver visible; a long scar ran from the left side of his chin, ripping his lips, cheek, left eye and eyebrow, leaving the rest of his skin on the left side crumpled and a few of his teeth impossible to hide behind his broken lips.

The scar ran a little past his hairline even, giving him a worse and more gruesome look.

Though the right side of his face had a green eye and features that could be called handsome. Smooth lines and a perfect jawline for a young teenager his age.

It was hard to believe the two sides of his face belonged to one person.

On his neck was a tattoo... A round black chain engraved on it.

Next to him sat another child, smaller and dirtier; his hair was longer, and his skin was darker. His bright brown eyes stared intently at the door of the prison they were locked in.

His hands would occasionally scratch his neck, where his tattoo was... The same exact one on the disfigured one’s neck.

"Fifth, it won’t go away if you scratch it harder," the older one said. "It’s already been long; you need to stop."

Fifth clenched his fist and brought it down.

He didn’t say anything, but the anger pooling in his eyes spoke volumes of what he was feeling. What he had no choice but to live with.

What he had been suppressing for a long time, in proportion to his life’s worth of memories and experience.

Suddenly, the door opened.

Fifth’s body clenched, and the readiness for fighting intensified. His heartbeat rapidly got faster and faster.

An Ashspawn soldier threw someone into the cell. The lights from outside made the newcomer’s features indecipherable.

"139!" the soldier said before—

THUD~

The door closed, leaving the newcomer behind.

He stood up slowly, dusting himself. "Ah, what a wonderful place to be," he exclaimed before looking around the place.

The place was so small that as soon as he took a step, he nearly tripped on one of the sleeping children’s legs.

"Stupid pigs!" He cursed, though the children were completely asleep. No one reacted to him through the small clash of feet nor to the cursing.

A few steps ahead, the light from the window fell on his face.

Pale white skin, straight hair like thorns falling over his forehead. His eyes were black.

As for his body, he looked lanky, also taller than everyone else.

Fifth’s irritation was reaching its limit; his restlessness got his entire body shaking.

A newcomer came, kicked his sleeping brothers and cursed them in their sleep. If anything, he needed to learn some manners.

"Zeroth bro, can I kill him?" Fifth asked.

Zeroth glanced at him, pausing for a beat. "Do whatever you want; I’m sleeping," he said before sliding to the side, sleeping right where he sat.

The newcomer, 139, looked at the speaker. "You?" He pointed, looking amused. "You kill me?" He then pointed at himself.

"Quiet down, bitch," Fifth said threateningly, pushing his body up while his joints creaked to fight off the settling cold within.

139 stared at him for a moment; he shook his head with a cryptic smile. "How much could life turn on a man to be threatened by a child slave?"

The newcomer seemed to be lamenting his fate, but for Fifth, he was just a noisy invader of his place.

"You should stay shut when others are asleep!" Fifth spat, taking a step closer to 139, fists clenched for so long that he had already lost feeling in them.

139 looked down with scorn.

He tapped the rags around his waist, and a small shard of metal hidden within the fabric, a little longer than a fist, came off.

"In the end—"

Kick~

He kicked one of the children’s legs in the way.

"I have to kill a bunch of child slaves to get them to know their place."

"Unn!" The child bore it, barely expressing his pain at all.

"Who’s dying, you bitch?"

Fifth jumped at him; the last shred of reasoning he had in his being was long gone.

A newcomer invading his space, interrupting his brothers’ sleep, cursing them, and even threatening to kill them.

To Fifth, it was someone blatantly expressing his desire for death.

139 watched the jumping Fifth and took a step back, his blade shard shot in a circular motion at his neck that was rather low.

139 was far taller than Fifth.

Fifth crouched, before straightening up, jumping even, slamming his head into the newcomer’s chin.

"Ugh!" As soon as his head whipped backwards, it hit a wall inside the limited space.

That was everything Fifth needed. It was the moment he didn’t need to think any longer.

His long clenched hands landed in a hammering motion on 139’s face, before the other followed in.

His head recoiled between the hit and the wall once, before his balance collapsed.

On the ground, Fifth landed his knee on the arm holding the shard and took it, throwing it aside near Zeroth.

Tap~

Tap~

Tap~

Fifth released all his pent-up anger and irritation for an unknown long time on 139’s face. Teeth gritted to the point of creaking, his eyes burned with hatred at everything.

And now, a nameless slave, no different from him, with the same mark, the same fate, had come to threaten him and disturb his rest.

As well as his sleeping, defenceless brothers.

He couldn’t let go of this perfect opportunity. A chance to vent without holding back.

Fifth didn’t stop until his anger had subsided, until his energy was drained, until his body stopped shaking.

Until his jaw could finally unclench and his fingers could relax.

Only then did he finally get off 139’s chest.

Haaaa~

Haaaaa~

He forced himself to his feet before turning to the window where the lights came from, for the lights had been dimmed for a while.

He looked there, looking at familiar grey eyes and beneath them, a round, depression-like scar on his cheek.

Their gazes locked for a little too long, gazes of equals, not of a master and slave.

If anything, Fifth’s gaze was even more threatening than the other’s.

"I heard... Cough... There were demons here... cough cough," 139 squeezed out word by word, breaking the silence.

"I guess... hufff... it was tru—"

Phut~

Before he was done talking, he spat something sharp at Fifth, who leaned back and raised his foot.

Stomp~

Stomp~

Proceeding with the unfinished business of his.