Highlander—once a small kingdom that Arthus claimed to be a descendant of. Based on his claims, he naturally acquired the title to rule this land.

In the beginning, there were some doubts about his claim of being a Highlander descendant. The reason for that was the scarcity of historical records about this region called Highlander and the fact that Arthus had only one living family member, namely Mordred.

But despite all the skepticism, no one had tried to disprove Arthus’ claims. That was because Henry focused on people’s abilities rather than their background. And considering his abilities, it didn’t matter to him back then if Arthus was actually from Highlander or not.

Nevertheless, Henry’s reason for not questioning Arthus was completely different from everyone else’s. Besides being tall, Arthus had a beautiful face, somewhat feminine, accompanied by flowing silver hair. Moreover, his demeanor was very dignified, his every move exuding elegance.

His overall appearance had convinced everyone around him that he had to have come from some grand background. Besides, Mordred looked rather similar to him, making his claim more convincing.

‘

But I have to doubt everything now

.’

Henry had trusted Arthus back then, believing his every word, but now, he knew what kind of person Arthus truly was. And so, regardless of how he looked, he would treat everything he said and claim with the utmost skepticism.

“Human,” Henry uttered while placing his hands on the ground. It was a magic word, so the magic that contained his will instantly activated the tracking spells etched in his memory.

The spells summoned faintly glowing trails of light on the ground. Initially, the trails appeared and disappeared repeatedly, but soon after, dozens of new light trails emerged chaotically before Henry’s eyes.

‘The best way to gather more information when details are scarce is to ask those who might know something.’

In the future that Henry knew, Arthus was supposed to come to Lindbergh to see him in person after hearing the news that Henry had opened the doors to appointing talented individuals to his Cabinet. Therefore, even if Arthus was truly from the Highlander family, Henry wouldn’t be able to believe his origin unless he saw proof with his own eyes.

Henry shifted his gaze toward the beams of light. Since he had no information about Arthus and Highlander, he was planning to meet whoever he could to know more. He decided to first look into the people nearby.

‘Is this the right place?’

There were no villages nearby. Although this place used to be a kingdom at one point, it was now nothing but ruins. Henry followed the closest trail of light, which led him to a large tree and a pile of rocks.

He snapped his finger to lift up the tree and the rocks, and as they noisily rose in the air, they revealed a corpse that was rotting away.

“

Tsk

.”

It seemed that Henry’s spell had gone for dead people instead of living ones. In other words, his magic had failed.

At this, Henry put the tree and rocks back in place. He then modified his spell and cast it again. And now, there were only a few trails of light.

Henry looked at the glowing trails for a moment before following the closest one.

‘Hmm?’

However, Henry noticed something strange. He initially thought the closest light was just a single strand, but taking a closer look, he realized that there were actually dozens of strands all tangled together, appearing as one.

‘Huh…’

Finding this interesting, Henry squinted his eyes and proceeded to trace the end of the stem, but once he reached it, he came across another pile of rocks.

‘

Again

?’

The pile of rocks reminded Henry of the corpse he had seen earlier, but he was sure that he had used his magic properly this time. He counted the visible light strands that fused into a thicker trail.

‘

There’s at least twelve of them

.’

Henry was puzzled by this but decided to look into it first. He winked at the pile of rocks, and just like earlier, they rose in the air, dropping dirt to the ground. But this time, he didn’t see any dead bodies. Instead, he saw the entrance to an underground area.

‘

What in the world is this?

’

There was a set of stairs leading to a basement, and the light stem clearly led to the entrance. Feeling confused, Henry looked at the other stems extending in different directions and realized that they weren’t leading underground. But even so, the stem leading to the basement was composed of twelve light trails, far more than the ones extending in other directions.

Henry quickly decided that there was no point in even considering other trails, so he went down the stairs without the slightest hesitation. He found himself in pitch-black darkness, unable to see a thing.

At this, he cleared his throat and cast a spell.

“Light.”

The Light revealed a fairly neat path. Once Henry went down the surprisingly short set of stairs, he found himself in a spacious underground area. He expanded his Light so that he could properly see inside.

“Hmm?”

Henry couldn’t help bursting into laughter after seeing what the light revealed. There were living people in there, locked up one by one in narrow cells just like the prisoners Henry had seen in Killive. They were also muzzled like animals and cuffed away.

That was when something flashed through his mind.

‘I’ve heard one or two things about slave hunters being prevalent in the early days of the founding of the empire... Could this be…?’

When Golden was conquering the continent, the order of the continent was in shambles. And during that time, people were regarded as fairly good commodities, both alive or dead.

Of course, that practice had been almost completely eradicated after the founding of the empire.

‘Well, we’ve yet to establish the empire.’

Henry sighed as he approached the iron bars.

‘They sure did one hell of a job keeping them locked up.’

The prisoners didn’t just have muzzles and handcuffs. They were also wearing blindfolds, ear plugs, and ring handcuffs that tied their thumbs together. They had no chance of escaping with the way they were tied up.

‘Are they not ordinary slaves?’

Seeing them, Henry couldn’t help but think they could be something more than just peasants who had been hunted down and made slaves. He felt that ordinary slaves wouldn’t be tied up in such a fashion.

As he looked at the prisoners, Henry stopped in front of a particular cell, and his eyes widened as he realized who the prisoner was.

“... Huh?”

Henry was so surprised that he gasped out loud, but no one heard him because they all had ear plugs. After being stunned for a few seconds, Henry brought his face closer to the bars.

‘I think it’s him… No, I know it’s him.’

The person he was looking at was none other than Arthus.

‘Arthus was a slave?’

This came off as a shock, as Henry distinctly remembered Arthus introducing himself as a descendant of the so-called Highlander Kingdom.

At this, he went up to all the other cells to check something, just in case.

‘He’s here too.’

Although the color of his hair was somewhat different, Henry was able to identify Mordred Highlander, who was known to come from the same bloodline as Arthus. He was tied up just as tightly as his relative.

‘What in the world…?’

Henry fell silent for a moment at the unexpected situation. After pondering for a while, he came up with a plan.

‘Alright, let’s do this for now.’

Henry snapped his fingers, plunging the underground prison in darkness.

***

“

Tsk

… I guess it’s another day wasted.”

“Let’s try looking one more time tomorrow and move elsewhere if we don’t find anything.”

“Who on earth said there were demihumans here?”

Three people were talking to each other. They opened the door to the underground facility, moving with a familiarity that suggested they knew the area well, and lit up their torches, revealing their faces.

They were Kin, Ren, and Dune.

“Bring the supplements,” said Kin.

At this, Ren took out from his bag a container of the supplements he had made personally. Kin took the pills and proceeded to feed one to each prisoner, removing their blindfolds one by one.

“Damn… It seems that no matter how many supplements we give them, there’s just nothing we can do about the smell of their urine and feces.”

“Yeah, but you know, let’s just hold on a little longer. It’s only a week until we can sell them. Let’s just make it through until then.”

“I know. After a week, we’re finally going to be done with this life.”

They spoke in such a way that it would be difficult for an outsider to understand what exactly they were talking about.

Kin approached Arthus and removed his mask before feeding him a supplement. Initially, it looked like Arthus was chewing it, but he quickly spat it out.

At that, Kin’s eye twitched out of fury.

“You…! Causing shit again?”

“Kin! Stop! You can’t hit him! Remember how expensive this one is! He’s the most expensive one out here!”

“I know, I know…! I freaking know it, but

damn

this guy pissess me off…!”

Kin glared at Arthus as if he was going to kill him, but he quickly calmed himself as he was reminded of the fact that Arthus was the most expensive product they had captured.

“Okay, if you’re going to be so stubborn like this, I have no other choice. I guess I’ll have to do

that

again,” Kin said softly. He decided to change his approach. He knew that if he couldn’t physically hurt him, he could inflict pain onto him in another way.

Kin put back the blindfold on Arthus’ face. He then pulled down his pants, and Arthus struggled as he sensed that something bad was going to happen. However, being shackled up head to toe, there was nothing he could do.

“You did this to yourself.”

Then, Kin proceeded to rape Arthus as though it wasn’t his first time. Arthus couldn’t even scream because of the gag, nor could he move because of all the cuffs.

The ordeal went on for a fairly long time, and at the end of it, Arthus no longer had the strength to stand up.

Once Arthus was down, Kin shoved the pill into his mouth and poured some water, making him drink it with no resistance.

“Should’ve been like this from the start. I bet this guy was actually enjoying it, deep down.”

“Hehe, maybe.”

“But hey, don’t get him dirty. If the buyers find out there’s a defect with him, then we’re totally fucked.”

“Why are you worrying about the most useless things? It’s not like he’s going to admit that a man did this to him, right?”

“You have a point. I could never admit to something like that.”

“Alright then. Since we’re done feeding everyone, let’s get going. I don’t want to eat here with the products.”

With that, the three men left, still chatting lively. With their torches gone, the underground prison was once again in complete darkness. But after a few minutes, Henry brought back the Light. He had been there the whole time, his presence concealed by his magic.

After realizing that the trails of light that extended in different directions belonged to those three men, Henry had swiftly erased his presence and listened carefully to their conversation, even during Arthus’ ordeal.

Henry walked over to Arthus to see him squirming on the ground.

‘A demihuman, huh…’

Demihuman—a person that was born through crossbreeding with another species, therefore not completely human. Although they were rare, they most definitely existed, but most of the ones that were alive were actually more than half human. In fact, those demihumans only had around a quarter of their blood from another species.

‘Hmm, what should I do?’

Henry obviously had no desire to help Arthus; he was just curious about his past, nothing more. That was why he hadn’t intervened while that man raped him.

Henry pondered again on Arthus’ background. It was good that he had learned part of his origins, but Henry couldn’t explain how Arthus had managed to escape this foul place and find him.

Eventually, Henry came to a conclusion.

‘Let’s keep an eye on him a little longer.’

Henry was sure that the events would unfold as before, and Arthus would definitely escape. Besides, Henry was very curious to see how exactly Arthus would eventually make it to him. Thus, he decided to watch from the shadows what Arthus would do next. Or rather, he would monitor him because he was also curious about the trio that had just left.