Nero slowly made his way to the slave girl, not even breaking the curious stare that he had on her.
*Crunch Crunch*
The sound of the pebbles under his boots as he walked closer to her.
"Hey you"
Nero stood in front of the slave girl and she didn't even react.
"I said Hey you"
Still no response from the girl. He saw some faint movements from her upper body so he concluded that she was still breathing and most likely alive.
Nero crouched down and trained his eyes on her even more to examine her.
"Dark Blue hair and blue eyes and a dark mark on your left arm along with a slave branding on your other hand. Aside from that you must be from the Iron Warrior Tribe"
The girl's perked up and her eyes shifted towards him when she heard those words but she still kept quiet
Now standing, Nero continued "When I was younger, my sister told me about a tribe of humans that lived on Mount Fallen. This tribe possessed the peak human strength and the ability to harden their bodies so they were considered the perfect close combat warriors. Hmm what was the skill called again? Oh yes Iron strength"
The slave girl then looked downwards
"Which brings me to my second point. Mount Fallen is very far away from here so you're a long away from home little lady"
The slave girl then raised her head at Nero who looked down at her
They made eye contact. Her dead and defeated eyes stared into his cold, emotionless ones.
"I won't show you any pity because you're in this position because as you seen the world is a cruel place. Judging from your appearance, you are malnourished and rundown. I am sure other people noticed that as well when they walked along this path but they didn't help you did they? Not a drop of water nor a crumb of bread. They walked right past you as if you didn't exist. You know why? It's because you're a slave, you're somebody else's property and none of their concern. Maybe if you were a free person they would have considered but hey that's wishful thinking"
They still maintained eye contact while Nero continued the one sided conversation
"You're weak is what they think but it's not the duty of the strong to help the weak. In this cold and uncaring world, the strong trample the weak, what you are right now is less than a human being but I can see a flame of freedom still flickering in your eyes. It's a flicker but a flicker can turn into a blaze but you're supposed to be strong, a part of the Iron Warrior Tribe but here you can pitiful"
Nero chuckled to himself and leaned in closer to her face.
"You have the strength to free yourself but you're still submitting to someone else. What is it? Are you mentally enslaved more than physically?"
The expressionless face on the slave girl confirmed his statement.
Nero sighed then stood up straight from his bending position.
"Oh that's too bad"
A single tear rolled down the face of the girl and she finally broke her silence
In a faint voice she pleaded for help
Nero slightly tilted his head to the right
"I am afraid I can't help somebody who isn't mentally free"
The slave girl continued to look at him with her dead eyes.
Nero twirled the dagger in-between his finger while staring back at her.
He then threw the dagger at leg and it lodged itself into the dry soil so suddenly but she didn't flinch as if she was used to that treatment
Nero then in a cold tone
"You'll have three options, use that dagger to kill yourself and die a slave, use that dagger to free yourself or use that dagger as a means to defend yourself until your master comes back for you, well that's if he comes back"
Nero then took one last look at her face before slowly walking away.
He gave her three choices and now it was up to her to pick one.
*Thud*
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The noise caused Nero to slowly turn around. The slave girl was laying face first on the ground with her rope cut.
"So she did choose after all"
In an unconcern manner, he walked over to her
"Hey you what's your name?"
".... Alura"
Nero stood over her and looked down
"Welcome to the real world and congratulations making a choice"
Alura slowly got off of the ground and leaned against the same tree she was tied to
"What's your name?"
"It's Nero"
He then reached into his bag and pulled out two potions. A red one and a yellow one.
"Here drink this, I am positive that your wounds hurt and your mana is low due to lack of food"
He handed her the two potions and she drank them.
She started to visibly look better after that aside from being underweight
She turned to Nero then bowed
"Thank y-ou"
"I don't think you should me because I planned on leaving you to die if you chose incorrectly "
She rose up from her bowing position with a curious look on her face.
"So did I chose correctly?"
Nero turned to her and replied "In my eyes yes but that will be for you to decide yourself later on"
He then gave her a box shaped container and a bottle of water from out his side bag
"Don't worry it's not poisoned"
Alura opened the small container and saw it was two sandwiches
She quickly dug in, wolfing down on one of the sandwiches then paused. She picked up the other sandwich and offered it to Nero who refused
"You need it way more than me and make sure to drink that water"
Alura nodded her head and gulped down the entire bottle.
She burped a little but quickly apologized.
"Well that's a good sign"
"Thank you for the meal"
Nero packed the container back into his bag.
"Yeah sure no problem so do you know your way out of here on your own? The reason being that I am about to head to the deeper floors"