Undead Beast Master: Living Solely for My Desires-Chapter 282: A Rumor
The former slave woman gazed at Zaroth's figure. She had no idea why this man, dressed like a demon, had saved her. But if what he said was true—if he didn't intend to enslave her—did that mean she was truly free?
After so long? Her body was broken—bruised, swollen, cut, and worse. Her mental state felt like it could crumble at any moment. And... she had been freed just like that? After all the failed attempts to escape, all it took was a single man to set her free?
Opening her mouth, she tried to speak, to say that she was thankful, but her words caught in her throat, as her eyes began to tear up and she went down on her knees sobbing.
Looking at the state the woman was in, Zaroth scratched the back of his head, 'I guess I shouldn't be surprised that she is not able to speak at the moment.'
Deciding to get answers once she regained her mental strength, he assumed the best course of action was to take her into the city. He raised his arm to signal the guards—it was safe. The bridge began to lower with a heavy clank.
"Hey," he spoke as he looked at her. "Come, we are entering the city."
At the sound of his voice, the woman stood on shaky legs. She nodded once and followed behind him.
"What is your name?" he asked her.
After a few seconds of silence, she answered quietly, "...Zoe."
Now how could a person that has gone through what she had experienced for God knows how long relax enough to be able to think for themselves?
'We can start by making her share her troubles,' Luna's answer echoed in his head.
Zaroth scratched his chin, ' "What Luna says makes sense. But I'm not exactly a good listener… and with how I look right now, I doubt she'll feel comfortable. She probably wouldn't open up to any man…'
At the end, he decided to leave her in the Bear Tavern. There were two reasons for that—first, she was so malnourished she looked like she was about to die, and second, Betty was there. Zaroth did not know much about her, but even if it was faked, her kindness and ability to listen to others would surely be handy.
Leaving Zoe in the Bear Tavern, he told them that he would be back tomorrow.
The rest of Zaroth's day was unremarkable. He roamed the city, attempted to tap into the skills of Silverfang and Hellweaver—but made no progress. In the end, he simply went to sleep.
*****
As usual, a nightmare jolted Zaroth awake. Just like yesterday, his heart pounded as if it were about to burst, and he was drenched in sweat. 'How long am I going to suffer from the same nightmare?' he asked himself
Not wanting to think, he dressed quickly and headed for the Bear Tavern.
The tavern got a bit quieter than usual, which was no surprise as Zaroth had this kind of effect.
He didn't need to scan the tavern as he immediately saw Zoe sitting on a stool and was engrossed in a chat with Betty.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.
Their chat halted as he approached them. "How is it going?" the question was directed both to Betty and Zoe.
"She is much better. There is a long road ahead to a full recovery, but with time she should heal…" Betty replied softly for some reason, her cheeks were on the reddish side and she didn't dare look at the eye sockets of the demonic mask as she instead looked to the side.
Zaroth took note of it but didn't comment on it. 'I thought that she was afraid of me initially but I guess that has changed,'
He sat beside Zoe. Betty quickly stood and walked to the counter, emotions flickering across her face. Truth be told, she found it difficult to meet his eyes.
She spent almost the whole day speaking with Zoe—about the life she had, how she had been treated, what they did to her when she tried to go against their orders. And at the end, she began to recall the events of the fight with the bandits and Zaroth.
What caught her attention was their boss. From what Zoe had told her, he had been looking for a woman that had similar characteristics to Betty…
If Zaroth had not defeated them, it was pretty much certain that she would have suffered the same fate as Zoe... if not worse.
Catching herself that she was looking at the mysterious figure, she quickly averted her gaze. 'What is wrong with me?!' she asked herself. 'There is no way I fell for him, right?! I don't even know how he looks like!' she tried to reassure herself.
While Betty was internally freaking out, Zaroth began to ask Zoe some questions. Just to make sure she was mentally stable enough to answer them, he began with easy-to-understand simple questions, then gradually the difficulty increased.
"So… tell me about the bandit group. How did you end up in their hands?" he asked.
Her shoulder trembled for a second before beginning, "There is a city that is close to the border. It is quite a big one, some people say it is the second capital of the Crimson Sun Empire. The reason it is so popular is because it is said this is the biggest slave market in the whole continent. No matter if you want a seasoned warrior, a strong man for physical labor, or a pretty woman to…" Zoe wasn't able to finish her sentence—not that she needed to.
"One day Hugo, who is part of the Outlaws bandit group, found me and bought me. After some time he… got bored of me, let's say. But before making his way to the slave market again, he heard that this city should have been taken by now and assumed it was a good idea to go here and try to find a slave or two for free."
Rubbing his chin, Zaroth continued with the questions. "What can you tell me about the Outlaws?"
"There are a lot of them. I don't know how many. Hugo's one of the higher-ups, but there are stronger ones. You should expect them to send a search party soon. Hugo was important to them."
'This sounds troublesome,' Zaroth thought. While he was happy to fight strong opponents, this just sounded like a wave after wave of weaklings, and this wasn't something that sounded that much enjoyable.
'Should I go to that city and destroy it alongside their group? The place is full of slaves and from what Zoe has told me, most of them are of Draconian origin, so one could even say that I have the moral high ground—I will be saving our people after all.'
"I see. Is there anything that you would like to add that you may think may interest me?" Even though Zaroth asked that, he was expecting for it to be nothing else, as he had gotten the information he needed.
However, what came out of Zoe's mouth a moment later caught him off guard.
"There is a rumor, I can't say that it is certain, but apparently in the slave market they have managed to kidnap a member of another race—an elf."
