The warmth slowly drained from the demon sorcerer's body as it lay sprawled on the ground.

Looking to the side, I noticed that the hands that had been restraining Ray had disappeared as well. The only proof that they had existed were the marks left on her wrists and neck.

I felt drained.
It was, after all, my first real battle as a sorcerer.

I was lucky to have won, but if things had gone differently, I might have been the one dead.

As the realization that it was finally over set in, the tension left my body all at once, and a delayed trembling took over.
I slumped down against the wall, too exhausted to stand.

Ray walked over to me, taking slow steps, and crouched down next to me.

“...Why did you help me?”

“Huh?”

Is that how she's going to phrase it?

“Didn’t you think you might get caught up in something?”

I could hear the deep regret and self-reproach in Ray’s voice, despite her sharp tone.
Even though she sounded irritated, I could tell there was concern mixed in.

“It’s not like I didn’t think about it.”

Of course I’d thought about it while I was running over.
I come from a country where people say, ‘Stay out of it, and at least you’ll come out even.’

But I’m not in a position to stay in the middle.

“I didn’t think I could pass the exam without you. I need to win that bet.”

“...Heh. I guess that’s true.”

“And as for the slave thing? I just need to get a license, and then everything’s sorted. Once I get my license, I’ll get my citizenship card. I’m a citizen of Rimen; what can a slaver do to me? You know, slaver, attention! Mercenary, attention! Couldn’t they?”

“Pfft! What nonsense is that?”

Ray let out a few chuckles, but her laughter soon faded away, leaving behind a somewhat somber atmosphere.

“...I’m sorry.”

“Forget about that. You should be thanking me. I stopped you from being dragged away.”

What did she have to apologize for?
Was she feeling guilty about something?
Well, she had ignored me a few times, but this was all my decision in the end.
I chose to fight, so Ray didn’t need to apologize.

“If you’re going to apologize, save it for Leif. She was really worried.”

“...Yeah.”

Ray looked uncomfortable, her eyes drifting to the demon sorcerer’s corpse. She gave it a few kicks with the tip of her foot, her expression distant.

She’s short, but man, her legs are long.
Her body proportions are insane.

“Do you know who this guy was?”

“No idea.”

I hadn’t seen any famous sorcerers in Res Rimen, let alone ones from outside.

“His name was Malevris.”

“Was he famous?”

“He was known, but I doubt whoever hired him only sent one guy.”

“You mean the slaver.”

“Yeah.”

Ray tried to sound calm, but there was a tremor in her voice she couldn’t hide.

“I’m a slave. A pretty expensive one, too.”

Ray spoke with a bitter, self-deprecating tone, as if she had resigned herself to her fate.

“My uncle sold me.”

“Your uncle? Your own family?”

“Yeah. He overthrew my father and took over as head of the family. The men were killed, and I was sold off as a slave. My uncle worked with a demon sorcerer. I had to watch my father be beheaded, and I saw my brother burn…”

I stayed quiet, just listening.

Words of comfort or hollow reassurances would only be empty.

Sometimes, silence offers more comfort than any words.
That’s something I learned from Seir. Just listening can help someone release their pain.

So that’s why she had been so harsh with me—because I was a demon sorcerer.
She was judging me based on my class. That’s rough.

‘She probably didn’t want me to get hurt because of her either.’

Even while in danger, she had told me to escape first.

I tried to sound as casual as possible, keeping my tone light.

“So, you’re from a noble family then?”

“No.”

Ray fidgeted with the hem of her hood, her fingers betraying her hesitation.
Then, as if she had made up her mind, she grabbed the hood and pulled it back.

Her platinum blonde hair, slightly dull in color, was revealed, along with a pair of rounded ears that perked up atop her head.

“Huh?”

“I’m a beastkin. It’s common in the plains. Just because someone’s weak, their freedom gets unfairly taken away.”

It was the first time I had ever seen a beastkin.

I had seen elves and dwarves during my time as a slave, but despite their numbers, beastkin were surprisingly rare.
That’s probably because their habitats are quite different from those of other races.

The plains.
A land of survival of the fittest, where only a few nomadic tribes coexist with the beastkin.

While I stared in fascination, Ray kept her gaze on the ground, avoiding my eyes as she continued speaking.

“You probably don’t believe me. I know it sounds like an excuse. But….”

“I believe you.”

“Really…? Wait, what?”

“I believe you.”

There are definitely people who become slaves despite having done nothing wrong.
If anyone understands that, it’s me.

“I went through the same thing.”

I rolled up my sleeve.
Underneath, a short wristband was wrapped around my wrist.

How long has it been since I took it off outside of showering?
I always wore it, even in my daily life.

I removed the wristband, revealing a tattoo beneath it.
A slave brand.
With a line drawn through it, marking that I was no longer a slave.

“You…”

“Just so there’s no misunderstanding, I’m a freed slave. I bought my freedom.”

“How…?”

“My ransom was cheap, and I was lucky. An honest person bought me and paid me fairly for my work.”

“Wasn’t it hard?”

“...Yeah, it was.”

I think highly of that person.
There’s no doubt about that.
Not docking my pay and calculating everything fairly? That put them in the top 1%, or maybe 0.001%, of decent people.

On top of that, they provided me with the basics—food, shelter. They even let me study letters under the pretext of increasing my usefulness.
They were more of a benefactor than a master.

But even then, I was still a slave.
I ate scraps, slept in a leaky shed, and wore torn clothes.
Only on the rare occasion that I accompanied them to public events did I receive any decent treatment.

But the hardest part was the loss of dignity, the despair of being treated as less than a tool.

I didn’t dwell on my rough past.
Seir already knew all about that.

“It probably seems funny to you. I’m a runaway.”

“Not really? I don’t care.”

If you can run away, you should.
Honestly, I was jealous of Ray.

If I had become a demon sorcerer earlier, I wouldn’t have stayed two years; I would’ve bolted the moment I learned to read.

“It’s only natural to run if you were unfairly made a slave. Of course, you should escape.”

“Right?”

Ray whipped her head around to look at me so fast that I could hear the swish.
Her ash-colored eyes sparkled like stars, and her face flushed with a slight blush, showing her satisfaction.

“I knew it! Talking to another former slave makes all the difference!”

“Yeah, sure, let’s go with that.”

Her mood had shifted dramatically.
She was now full of energy, speaking cheerfully, completely different from the person who had been wearing that hood earlier.

“But really, we should get moving. We’ve probably recovered our strength by now, so let’s head back. They won’t dare attack the training grounds.”

“Yeah, we should.”

Ray stretched and then extended her hand to help me up.

This girl who didn’t even want to touch someone through clothing before...

Feeling a bit moved, I reached out to take her hand, but—

Whoosh—

Ray suddenly withdrew her hand, leaving me grabbing at thin air.

“...Uh, well…”

In the awkward silence, Ray stammered, offering an excuse.

“There’s still some demon magic left, so, you know…”

“Yeah, I get it.”

It could be a trauma response.
I dusted off my clothes and stood up on my own.

“Let’s go. I’ll take the lead... wait, what are you doing?”

“What does it look like?”

I was rummaging through the fallen demon sorcerer’s pockets as I replied.

“Looting, of course.”

Oh, a coin purse.
It’s heavy too.
That’ll cover dinner.

Maybe he’s got some magic tools too...?

My disappointment quickly turned into satisfaction.

§

That evening.

The three of us gathered for a conversation for the first time in a while.
Ray apologized to Leif for being distant and revealed she was a beastkin by taking off her hood.

Leif, ever excitable, clapped her hands and exclaimed with exaggerated enthusiasm,
“I knew it! You were always so perceptive! It must be those beastly instincts!”

Leif’s body practically bounced in excitement, her straw-colored hair swaying under her hood as if she had never seen a beastkin before.

“Beastly instincts… There are better words to describe it, you know.”

I gave Leif a light scolding, and she immediately deflated like a balloon.

“Was that a bit rude? I’m sorry…”

“It’s fine. It’s not like you were wrong.”

Huh.
Now I feel like I’m the bad guy.

“But there’s something more important I need to say.”

The lively mood shifted as Ray’s tone grew serious.
Even Leif straightened up, sensing that Ray’s next words would be heavy.

And then Ray explained.
About her uncle’s betrayal, the coup for the family’s headship, her tragic fall into slavery, and the slavers who were chasing her down…

“This isn’t going to be the last time.”

Demon sorcerer Malevris.
He was strong, no doubt about it.

Even though we’d ambushed him, the fact that he had managed to nearly overpower both me and Ray proved his strength.

“Defeating him was lucky. I’m not downplaying your abilities. I’m grateful. But… you must have paid a huge price to use that kind of power.”

Ray clenched her fists tightly, her body trembling with guilt and helplessness so much that I could feel it even from where I was sitting next to her.

‘It’s not like that.’

Seir had a higher rank than Malevris’s contracted demon, which allowed me to overwhelm him with sheer force.
But still, I did use far more magic than Malevris did.

Maybe it was a question of efficiency, or maybe it just takes a lot more magic to overpower a weaker demon contract like that. Probably both.

Malevris’s magic had structure, while mine was just raw magic thrown around like a torrent.

Even so, it wasn’t as though I had burned through my lifespan, like Ray seemed to think.

But she wasn’t entirely wrong.

“I did get lucky. Honestly, if that guy had been any other kind of sorcerer, I probably would’ve been toast.”

“You know you still have a chance to leave, right? Ray and I… we’re already too deep into this, but you could still walk away.”

Ray’s words, warning Leif about getting caught up in all of this, left Leif unable to respond immediately.
She hesitated for a few seconds, the brief silence conveying her inner conflict.

And then...

“I’m also…”

Leif’s lips moved.

“I’m responsible for Roman getting involved too…”