Chapter 11: The Suffering of a Girl
As the morning progressed and people left behind the world of dreams, preparing their shops, street stalls, restaurants.
Small stands offering delicious juices made from various fruits, others offering a very appetizing, nutritious and juicy breakfast combo. Behind them were the larger establishments such as canteens and restaurants.
You can also see weapon shops, gadget shops, and even some shops selling all kinds of clothing. On the other hand, and due to the large influx of adventurers passing through and living in the city, it was no longer unusual to see shops specializing in the sale and preparation of adventurer equipment, whether general or specifically made to order.
For example, armor, magical equipment, all kinds of weapons, certain precious stones, gadgets, and even some spell books.
You can see many craft shops and shops dedicated to decorations, anyone interested can take a look around looking for the best places to buy a painting with beautiful paintings.
In case an adventurer or someone needs to acquire a more customized weapon, they go to the blacksmith shop run by the dwarves. It would not be wrong to say that they are the masters of blacksmithing, the true masters of forging and creating weapons and armor.
Dwarves typically create powerful weapons and armor using parts of beasts subjugated by adventurers as the basis for their creations. These weapons are more powerful, durable, and resistant than normal weapons or those created by beings outside the dwarven race.
The weapons and armor created tend to be even stronger if the dwarves use dwarven magic in crafting them.
Christopher was currently running at high speed passing through the commercial area of the city where Humans, Demi-Humans, Beastmen and Elves were laughing and working together side by side. He had to dodge everyone in his path because at this time the place was completely packed with people.
Roger, among all this, could notice something that caught his attention, so much so that for a few moments he had even forgotten the martyrdom that was plaguing his integrity.
-They're laughing- he muttered through his teeth in an almost inaudible tone that even Christopher couldn't hear. Roger, in the front row, was able to observe the happy faces of all the people who crossed his sight and he was even more surprised to see how humans were hugging beings of other races without fighting.
-Ugg uuuugggg- a moan was emitted from the girl in Christopher's arms as he carried the one responsible for the moan in a bridal manner. Macky, who has a terrible wound which unfortunately would leave her blind -aaayyyy- complained again, tightly squeezing Christopher's suit with her small hands.
-Macky- called Roger frustrated of not being able to do anything to mitigate the pain of his beloved sister, who was whipped once again by the horrible idea of losing his sister, from his place on Christopher's back he could observe how slowly the infection advanced in the already lost eye of the semi-human girl. She felt as if her head was about to explode.
-Please little one, hold on a little longer! Just a little- Christopher once again and in total desperation looked back at Macky who had been writhing in pain for some time. He couldn't think of anything to soothe the pain, words of encouragement or anything like that. He didn't know what the hell to say.
-Damn it! If only Selestia were here- she mentally reprimanded herself, as it was too late to regret not taking her sister on the mission, although how was she supposed to know that an event like this would happen? -She would know what to say to Macky at this moment, she always knows what to say-.
With great difficulty and with his mind almost blank, Macky was able to open his remaining good eye, which serves as his only window to the world. With blurred vision, he was able to see very vaguely the person carrying him, although he could only get that far because his vision was clouded and it was extremely difficult for him to even focus and see that person.
She could barely make out the outline of Christopher's head and shoulders as he spoke to her, "Little ones, don't give up." Even though the pain was pounding her and preventing her from concentrating, she was able to hear what her savior was saying. With her small hands, Macky squeezed Christopher's tops tightly again.
It was as if his body, without the consent of his mind and by pure instinct, was screaming -HELP ME-.
-Uuuuggg- he complained again, trying to move, but with each attempt a sharp pain ran through the infected area. It was totally impossible.
Roger could hear his beloved sister's moan, her voice denoting anguish and suffering at very high levels. A small twitch ran through Roger's left eye which for a brief moment seemed to have closed. The infected wound seemed to get worse as the seconds passed, his heart was beating a thousand times an hour just imagining losing Macky.
Just thinking about that horrible idea made her heart shatter. She wanted the pain that was tormenting the girl to diminish until it became non-existent. But the problem was the infection.
Just a few minutes ago Christopher was having a nice conversation with Roger about who he really was and other things, but everything went to hell when Christopher heard a slight moan coming from Macky, he noticed her noticing that the bandages began to turn a yellowish color.
He quickly made sure that it wasn't what he was just thinking, desperate was the reaction drawn on his face when he realized that, unfortunately, he hadn't been wrong. The infection made itself present, showing itself in the company of the pus, which went through the bandage and impregnated it with its characteristic color. He didn't hesitate a single second more and making use of the Reinforcement Magic, he ran away like never before in his life.
Roger even had to hold on very tightly to Christopher's neck because the constant movement caused him to almost fall to the ground on more than one occasion. If this happened, he would be left behind because in Christopher's mind, saving the girl was his main priority.
From Christopher's clothes the characteristic voice of little Pixie could be heard, it seemed quite affected by the mood of the one who was acting as her guardian. Christopher lowered his gaze until he met hers -PIXIE!- he exclaimed quite loudly.
For a brief moment, she had forgotten about the existence of such a cute magical creature, but now that she saw her again, she remembered a few things. Even though she was very small, the Pixie was still a magical creature, despite that, she doesn't know what kind of magic she possesses.
I just wished that by some twist of fate and circumstance the little girl could perform some kind of healing magic.
The Pixie, with her face slightly furrowed in concern, came out of her hiding place, now flying next to Christopher. The bells rang as she seemed to be addressing some words to him.
-Pixie- called Christopher -she was hurt very badly- the Pixie looked away towards the girl in Christopher's arms -can you use healing magic? Or at least something that will ease her pain- the Pixie could see in the foreground the face of extreme concern drawn on the one who was taking care of her.
The Pixie looked back at Christopher with a certain sadness adorning her expression. Despite being quite small, he could see a trace of melancholy permeating her pink face. She shook her head in denial and extended her arm forward. From her pretty sleeves made of tiny petals emerged what seemed to be long, pretty flowers. Perhaps they were used as a defense.
Christopher understood, Pixie was trying to tell him that he was not capable of healing the girl. He couldn't blame her since it was more than obvious that a creature of her race would only be able to use Tree Magic. Maybe Pixie could help by gathering herbs and fruits to make a powerful ointment or analgesic cream, but right now they were fighting against the invincible passage of time.
I noticed that little Pixie seemed to be getting sad, holding her little hands and covering her face -don't be sad, I'll need you to help me with something later- although she only said it to cheer her up.
Pixie then smiled very sweetly deciding to stay on top of Macky.
-Lord Christopher- called Roger, upon learning that he was the future Ruler of the city he couldn't call him so casually. He saw it as an insult -if you save my sister my life will belong to you, I swear... I only ask that you save her... please-.
Her teary eyes almost burst into more torrents of tears, she knew of her sister's plight and was betting everything on Christopher to save her.
-You don't have to tell me- Christopher complained -you don't have to worry, nothing will happen to them, after this you can be happy forever!-. For nothing in the world would he let the girl die, both had lived in such a miserable way for too long, suffering day after day. And just now that they are finally rescued the girl dies and with that Roger would choose suicide.
If this scenario were to occur, Christopher would never forgive himself.
-Now just keep quiet, we're almost there-.
...
After a couple more minutes they had reached the primary objective that Christopher had set for himself. They arrived at the medical clinic, looking from a distance it seemed to be like a house, but with about three floors and the roof like a large triangle. Covered with what seemed to be grass and flowers both on the walls and on the roof.
The circular windows, with small circles on the sides of each one. The door is made of wood. More specifically, it is made of a certain tree which is widely used for construction in Gignit. It is the Ansteigen tree.
It is a tree which, once cut, will grow back to the size it had before it was cut. Because of this very useful ability, it is used for building doors, furniture and many other things.
Christopher quickly entered the clinic. Upon entering he noticed that there were a small number of people waiting for their respective turns to be seen. They were sitting on the stool or chairs rubbing the parts where the pain bothered them. On the walls there were several decorative pictures with a lot of things painted on them, highlighting that of a Dragon fighting against a knight.
On one side is the counter where the receptionist greeted everyone who wanted to ask questions, taking their details and then putting them on hold to wait to be called. Located in the corners are a total of four cold spheres so that the temperature inside is quite pleasant and the heat does not reign in the place. Finally, a few shelves where a lot of history books and stories await to be read.
Each of them turned their attention away when they saw Christopher enter, who seemed to be carrying a little girl in his arms and a young man on his back. They all immediately stood up and saluted with due respect.
-Good morning Lord Christopher-.
Having heard the greeting from his people, Christopher returned it in the best way possible. He must show the education of a young adult of his age. Having finished with that he spoke - Please, if it is not too much trouble can you let these two through first? - everyone knew he was referring to the girl and the young man she was carrying - these two were tortured by their evil master, after losing the fight he abandoned them and left.
The expressions of those present did not reflect anything other than pure anger and hatred, some here were slaves of the same ilk as the master of these boys -poor boys-. With only what the young Lord mentioned, they knew that those two must have gone through a real hell. Some of those present, such as a Demi-Human from the feline clan and another human, touched their arms where several scars were visible to the naked eye, which deformed their skin. Both thought the same thing -the horrible life of a slave-.
What they didn't know was that luckily they didn't reach the point of having any trauma because it was the older sister, Letia, who was in charge of enduring the most terrible tortures.
-It's not a problem for me- said the first one, who, by the way he was dressed and the chain around his neck, gave the impression that he was an adventurer. He had his left arm bandaged and one eye slightly swollen.
-Not for me either- a woman who was possibly almost twenty years old, also wearing clothes worthy of an adventurer, although the aforementioned clothing was tattered and almost completely destroyed. It could be said that she seemed to have had a strong battle with some beast or perhaps faced some mercenary.
Her neck was adorned with a chain, the same one was of a different color than Christopher's. The woman is a BRONZE rank adventurer. A rank higher than the PORCELAIN rank, surely stronger and more experienced than him.
The woman could instantly notice several things about the three who entered. First of all about the boys, both seemed to have been recently tortured as Christopher had said, but the girl was the real problem. Although she was very quick to notice that the material used as bandages to cover the girl's eye seemed to be turning a yellowish color, she came to the conclusion that the girl had a very serious eye infection.
And with Christopher - from what I can see, young Christopher must have recently returned from a mission, since I see that he has fought against a carnivorous plant - I scrutinize every spot of dust on his clothes and especially the inside of what was obviously a carnivorous plant.
-I see you're carrying that magic sword- he narrowed his eyes carefully -I've heard that a Goblin carrying a magic sword has been causing too much trouble on the outskirts of the city, surely that belonged to that disgusting creature- he let out a smile while narrowing his eyes he focused once again on Christopher -I'd like to meet him-.
The other people there had no problem with Christopher going first with the badly injured children.
-Thank you all very much, I really appreciate it- Christopher approached the reception desk -Wayne, is Dr. Wayne home?-.
The somewhat nervous receptionist couldn't respond immediately, not because she was shy about being in front of the young Lord but because of the situation that both Roger and Macky were going through. She swallowed her first impression.
-Lord Christopher, Dr. Wayne is in his usual room preparing to attend to everyone, please follow me- the kind lady guided him to the door which was the most chosen of all -I hope you recover soon- she said giving those words of encouragement to the two.
She opened the door and upon entering she could see the much sought after Dr. Wayne, who seemed to be preparing some medicines. He is the same age as Christopher's father, forty-five years old.
Dr. Wayne wears a white shirt and black pants with shoes of the same color, quite elegant. The belt is also dark in color attached to the pants. Over the shirt is a white coat which reaches to the knee area. A chain attached to the belt begins and ends in one of his pockets, most likely it was something valuable to him.
Reddish, semi-long hair, white skin and a rather serious look, he heard the door behind him open rather abruptly, he turned around thinking it was the receptionist. He was greatly surprised when he noticed that the person in front of him was the young Lord of the city, Christopher.
-Doctor Wayne please help them- he said in an almost pleading voice.
I look at the girl in Christopher's arms from head to toe, with the first glance he already noticed several wounds that adorned the body of the semi-human girl.
-I will take care of all the expenses, just tell me how many gold coins it will cost me and I will have them to give it to you... but please heal your wounds-.
-BUT LORD CHRISTOPHER!- he exclaimed in a rather loud tone of voice, Roger felt a bit of despair thinking about the pay -it will surely be very expensive, besides I will never pay you back all the gold you spend on us-.
-Don't worry, just make sure you do everything the doctor says-.
Meanwhile, Doctor Wayne observed both Roger and Macky, as he is a very experienced doctor, with just a brief glance he could deduce a lot of things such as: the scars were made by blunt and sharp objects - they were surely tortured - with this and added to the rags they used as clothing he could deduce that both were slaves.
The second most notable thing besides the wounds and scars was their nutrition - given the thinness of both of them, it is more than obvious that their owner has never worried in the least about feeding them...-.
-Those wounds on your legs have started to get infected- out of pure instinct Roger looked at his legs noticing that every word spoken by the doctor was nothing but the truth. Pus began to emanate from the wounds.
Christopher remained completely out of the loop because when it comes to medical matters and such, Dr. Wayne is the expert and he could not contribute anything to the situation.
-Before we begin, I'd like you to take a shower and wash your wounds with this- passing him a cylindrical bottle with a strong smell of alcohol. Roger sighed with some regret because he knew that would be extremely painful. Wayne continued -This is a more effective liquid than just using alcohol, it also has painkillers, so after washing you won't feel any pain and I'll be able to sew up your wounds.
Roger swallowed, thinking about what he had been feeling, even a little scared, although the most important thing was not him but his sister-please doctor, heal her wounds-.
Dr. Wayne smiled at him as if to say everything would be okay.
-Let me help you- said Christopher helping Roger walk to a door inside the same room, the room had a shower which was used for cases where he had to wash the wounds of the patients. Although this had a reason for being, at the moment in which Wayne asked Roger to clean his wounds he looked surreptitiously at Christopher to help him walk to the shower.
Once Roger entered the room, Christopher went back to the doctor and could see how the doctor's expression changed to one that denoted astonishment, but in a bad way -how could they do this to him...-.
There was no use for that eye anymore, it would not be able to fulfill its function because it had been destroyed. Grotesquely, pus was oozing out through the hole in the center of that eye. It was now quite swollen due to the large accumulation of pus, the eye was protruding from the eye socket.
The sight was heartbreaking and even more so when I saw the moment when some pus fell to one side simulating a tear.
-How is it possible that his eye got so infected in such a short time...- Christopher's eyes widened as he noticed the part of his clothes that he had torn off to use as a bandage -Don't tell me it was because of his wrist...-.
-No- answered Wayne clearly and concisely -most likely the object used to cause this wound was not sanitized, surely that person would have used the same weapon to kill or cause harm to other people- it made a lot of sense, even more so considering that its previous owner did not skimp when it came to killing those he considered useless.
-The guy who did it didn't clean the weapon used, we could say that the weapon was covered in dried blood, sweat and other body fluids- Wayne. -All the bacteria that inhabited the weapon used have accelerated and contributed to the infection, the fact that it is still alive only means that the wound caused by the weapon is superficial, so to speak, destroying and damaging only the eye. Which means...-.
-That you took out that eye...- Christopher finished, although he was not at all surprised by that since it was something that he had already seen coming.
-I must do it as soon as possible because the infection could spread further and there I would be in danger of death-.
-I understand- Christopher.
-So, now I will proceed with the girl- the doctor searched in one of the drawers of his private table for the necessary items for the task. He sighed and looked up at the ceiling, closing his eyes, seeming to be giving a kind of prayer. Then he turned to Christopher.
-I'll ask you to leave the room, I need to concentrate-.
Christopher nodded his thanks. He headed for the door. "Doctor, when you're done, could you send a message to my house so I can pick them up? They don't have anywhere to sleep right now and I'd like them to stay with me for a few days."
Smiling, although still with his back turned, the doctor nodded. Christopher was the copy of his father when it came to thoughts and ideals, the good of others above oneself. "It will be done," the doctor finished the moment Christopher left the room.
...
Christopher had finally completed the very important self-imposed goal of saving those boys, now that they were both in Wayne's expert and professional hands, he no longer had to worry about this matter, he moved on to the next.
Now his worried mind was being plagued by a very serious problem whose dimensions were such that it could affect the safety of the entire city and with it every resident in it.
He was so absorbed in his concentration that he completely ignored Pixie, who was literally making a real fuss to get his attention. To the point of even pulling his hair, but unfortunately it didn't have the desired effect.
-My sister's current mission was to kidnap the inhabitants of Gignit- it was the umpteenth time that what Roger had said was repeated in Christopher's mind, Roger's revelation only implied that the situation was extremely serious and must be dealt with as soon as possible.
He couldn't waste time, going to the guild to report the success of the mission and collect the reward had long since become secondary. His mind was only on the idea of meeting his parents and reporting what he had discovered.
-There must be more slavers like that guy roaming around the outskirts of the city, that only means that...- he frowned deeply as he looked at the population. More precisely at the slaves who were currently roaming around inside the city, those who belonged to people from outside.
-Slaves are welcome in the city... so they used that to their advantage- he grabbed Pixie and put her back in his clothes because he didn't want to leave her behind. He then started running, ignoring even all the people who greeted him with a huge smile -even if Letia failed her mission, there's a chance that the other slaves with the same mission as her and as long as they weren't punished could have succeeded, damn it- he complained through his teeth -this is even worse than it seemed-.
And the chances that many people living in Gignit had already been kidnapped were very high. It could start with these slaves infiltrating the city, going around and asking the people of Gignit for help.
-Since my people are very good, they would not refuse to provide help to those in need, even less if they are slaves, and with that in mind the kidnappers could act. Taking the victims to places not so crowded or outside the great wall. There are too many cases that we would have to study-.
As he made his way to his parents' office, located in their house that was now larger due to the necessary expansions. He could see many of these slaves from outside walking around the place. Now in his eyes all the slaves from outside looked suspicious.
The way to identify a slave from outside is simply to look at their clothing. Those who have a master capable of carrying out kidnapping plans have all their slaves dressed in horrible clothes or simply in rags. They are poorly fed and look skinny and weak.
Now these miserable people are used to commit kidnapping crimes, even against their will. If they do not obey their masters, a fate similar to Letia's would await them, extremely horrible.
Because of that, many of those slaves would have the courage to carry out their missions.
Or at least that was Christopher's thinking, whose way of analyzing the situation was not at all wrong.
-CHRISTOPHER!- he heard a familiar voice shout his name loudly, he looked at the voice who was quick to call him again -I finally found you- Selestia, his beautiful Elf sister seemed to be a little upset. But when she was about to reproach him and demand to have a breakfast between siblings, her mood changed drastically.
Her brother's serious and even somewhat worried face was screaming at her that something bad was happening. "Christopher, what's wrong? Don't tell me something bad has happened." Selestia's intuition was on another level, because just by seeing her brother's serious face she immediately knew that something very bad had happened.
-Selestia, follow me- he turned around and before running off towards his house he gave her a few last words -you're right, something very bad is happening and I must inform mom and dad of the situation as soon as possible. It's vitally important that you're also aware-.