( ? ? ? )

…Sigh…

Is this what dying feels like?

Am I going to die?

Being left on the cold hard ground, all by my lonesome?

How cruel.

This world is cruel.

I am a Lizardkin born in Falmarno.

There is a legend in my home land that says “Your life will flash by you as you die.”

I watched my life play out before my weary eyes.

Being born into a family, as the seventh child.

With three brothers and three sisters that are older than me.

Our family lived happily inside our village in the forests.

But then I was born.

The chances of a successful birth were low, and my parents did not anticipate my survival.

Our kind will lay white eggs in clutches, and my mother had seven eggs, but only six of them were white.

Mine was purple.

And even as I grew, the color of my scales were different from that of my family. I was also born with the necessary talent to become a [Fighter].

With talent, comes potential power. All Lizardkins respect and strive for power. I could have been stronger than all of my siblings, and perhaps be the strongest in the village.

“Could have been” being the keyword.

I was shunned and mistreated due to the color of my scales.

They call me cursed, and they bully me, belittle me, even actively try to expel me from the village.

Even my Father.

Sometimes I get punished for reasons such as “They got hurt when trying to hit you, so it’s your fault”.

But thankfully I had my kind-hearted mother, and there were other villagers that helped me as well, they often smuggle food to me when I am purposely starved.

That was how I lived.

But Lizardkin is a patriarchal society. When the patriarch of the family makes a decision, people outside of the family would not interfere with it.

And thus I was abused by my own father.

I don’t know how to live my future in a home like this. How can I achieve my future potential as a [Fighter]?

And one day, when my mother was trying to give me food without letting my father know, she was killed.

My mother was killed by the hand of my drunken father.

He strangled her and twisted her neck with a loud snap. She became cold and still, forever.

My only hope was gone, forever, as well.

Then, one day, a slave trader came into our village. The trader saw that I had the potential to become a [Fighter].

The trader left a big barrel of alcohol in our house, and my father just let the trader take me away.

I was too far into despair at that point to care that I became a slave.

Usually, slave traders would take their slaves to the slave market, in order to “pretty them up” and try to get a better price for them.

But the slave trader that took me met a merchant on the road, and in a blink of an eye, I was sold to the merchant.

The merchant threw two pieces of black bread, and a pickaxe at me.

Our entourage had other slaves that were in better physical condition than me, and they received the same things.

The merchant was on his way to an abandoned mine.

And turns out there was a rumor that there was some Mithril in the mines.

But because the amount of Mithrill was simply too small, the mining guild didn’t bother to try and mine it on their own.

I didn’t think further on this. After all, I was just a slave.

But when I entered the area surrounding the mines, I immediately thought that something wasn’t right.

The place was supposed to be abandoned, yet there was a simple camp that was clean and organized.

And three days afterwards, we were in big trouble.

We were assailed by wolves that came out of nowhere.

None of them were any regular, animal kind of wolves. They were magical beasts.

If it were just magical wolves, then it might not have been too bothersome, but they were very organized, as if there was a puppet master behind the strings, telling them what to do.

Such as tactically cutting off our escape routes and surrounding us.

The merchant, our master, simply ordered everyone to “sacrifice themselves and save him” and escaped on his own.

The other slaves were slowly killed off, one by one.

I was never in good physical condition due to my abuse, and lost a leg before I could even try to fight back.

At this point, a gigantic wolf with golden, shining fur, emerged from the forests, with the dead merchant dangling between its fangs.

With my master’s death, I was released from the magically binding slave contract.

The other slaves also came to the same realization, and everyone tried to escape.

But as each escape attempt failed, and each of them being killed afterwards, they all lost hope.

I dragged my battered body through the cave, with the last of my survival instinct driving me to try and escape to a smaller cave on the sides.

The other wolves were occupied, and probably wouldn’t have taken notice of me. But the gigantic golden wolf slowly approached.

I was going to die.

I was going to be eaten by the leader, the Alpha of the wolves.

But then, a voice rang out through the night.

“Oh my, you’ve made quite a mess.”

The expression of the Alpha, previously being tranquil and indifferent, quickly turned into a furious snarl. It turned around and opened its maw.

I completely froze in shock when fire came out of it. What is that? Fire magic?

The Alpha shot its fire into the direction where the voice came from.

At that point, I’ve never witnessed monsters and animals using magic before, only ever heard of it.

What shocked me even more was the voice. It was the voice of a child.

As the fire from the Alpha dissipated, a wall of stone came into my vision.

A boy that looked perhaps one year younger than me stepped out from behind the wall.

The Alpha kept the furious snarling expression, but did not continue to attack the boy.

“Alright, Alright! Please calm down and stop destroying my things! Or do I need to beg and prostrate myself before the Mighty Arkon? King of All the Mountains in the World?”

The Alpha answered that with a huff.

The boy looked at me, his eyes completely widening in surprise.

“How about I make you a deal? You can have all of these cured meat, and I get the girl behind you.” the boy somehow took out several urns from somewhere, almost like from thin air.

The Mighty Arkon simply continued to growl.

“If that’s the case, then you can have the Cured Miltow Beef too.” and once again, the boy almost seemed to conjure the urn. This time, the urn is much bigger.

Then, as my consciousness started to fade, I saw the King of the mountains leave, as the smaller wolves took the urns with them.

I heard the words “Your injuries are severe. Hang in there!” right before everything faded into darkness.

As years and years fly by, I couldn’t help but think of this day, this moment where I am in your arms.

I am grateful.

If I wasn’t picked up like a stray on that day, I would have never known what it was like to have a great meal.

I would have never known what it was like to laugh with joy, or how it is like to love someone.

To love someone enough to disregard my own safety.

I would have never known what my greatest joy, my source of happiness and contentment was.

O, my dear, beloved master.