"Damn you, brat! You are ruining my business!" the slave trader, covered in a black cloak with the hood over his head, threw a short brown-haired girl, who seemed to be at the age of a child, back into a cage filled with many children.
"I cannot believe that you bit one of my client's hands. How am I supposed to make money with these low-quality slaves?" the slave trader angrily gave the girl a stare as he said it.
As the girl cried non-stop, one of the girls—her short hair colored in black, eyes in black, dressed in a very baggy brown, dirty shirt that would cover till her knee length, presuming she had nothing worn but just that due to her slum status—came approaching. "You did a good job out there, thank you, Vivian," she said, while giving a dark smile.
The black-haired girl's name was Aerin. She had no last name, and she was apparently sold to the slave traders as her parents wanted money, and Aerin's Magic Affinity was a rarity that had no genetic connection to both her parents. She was sold with good quality in exchange.
Apparently, Aerin had been deciding to escape, and her friends, who she had made in the slave house, had decided to help her out. One of them, the short brown-haired girl, Vivian, who was thrown back to her cell after biting one of the clients, had secretly pickpocketed a dagger out of the slave trader's back. She would hand the dagger to Aerin, who had secretly kept it in her chest, making sure she didn't get caught.
It was past dawn. In the cell that Aerin was living in, apparently a small hole that wasn't noticeable but could fit the size of Aerin due to her being a child had been made. She already had made a set plan to escape out of the House.
As everyone slept through the night, she would have faked being asleep, took off her dirty blankets, and got up from the concrete floor. She noticed that the slave trader, the one covered in a black cloak, had fallen asleep outside of the cell in a chair, lying his head down onto a desk. She double-checked to make sure no one besides him was in the house.
She crawled slowly through the cell hole that was made a while ago and got out of the cell. She then walked slowly and sneakily behind the slave trader, took out her dagger from her chest, and sliced his throat. The slave trader didn't make a noise. It was a perfect kill for her, with no hesitation. She stripped him of his baggy black cloak and wore it over herself, and hid herself under the hood.
She then climbed up to the house's windows to make sure there was no one. It was her first time seeing the outside as well. It seemed to be an area of a district, a town, and she was in the middle of an alley. It was a smart idea to put a slave house in an area as cozy and unnoticeable. Without a doubt, she took the keys from the slave trader whom she had killed and unlocked the cell's door from which she had escaped.
She woke everyone up. Everyone, who was surprised and left confused, wanted to talk, but she immediately silenced them.
"Shh... be quiet..." Aerin said softly.
"... What's going on...?" a girl asked.
"Why did you wake us up..." another girl also asked in confusion.
Then a girl turned her head around and saw the slave trader lying on the chair, dead, with blood spilling onto the floor like it was a pool
"I killed the guy. It's time for you guys to escape."
"Escape...? To where..." one of the girls, Vivian especially, asked.
"Not sure. I don't know, but I am going away alone, and you guys should do the same."
"What! We don't know where to go. We have no idea what to do."
"You guys have to figure out. That was the agreement, right? You help me, I help you."
Aerin, saying that, walked away from them and escaped from the slave's house.
——
The sun had risen. "It's already day..." Aerin, the girl who had escaped from being bought as a slave, woke up in a broken carriage that was left in the alley. She had used the bale of hay in the carriage as her blanket, and also to hide herself.
She got up from the carriage and made sure to cover herself in her black cloak. Aerin only had one weapon, and that was the dagger which was pickpocketed from the slave trader. The young girl was only 7 years old, and she had no clue after being sold away years ago, now in the middle of a town. As she walked, she would see booth stores where lots of people were selling fruits or burning meats through their magic. She seemed to be surprised and clearly wanted to be happy, but she had to be cautious in case she got caught.
As she walked down the area, there tended to be gossip about an incident that happened yesterday. "I can't believe it, those poor girls..." a citizen of the town spoke out. Another one, too, said, "Yeah... I hope Justice and the Kingdom of Lorcan would make them suffer!" They were talking about the case where the girls from yesterday, including Aerin, had escaped from the slave trader. It seemed like one of the girls might've likely tried to seek help, and it got to the public that there was a slave house in the town.
Aerin looked throughout the buildings and noticed that there had been a newspaper lying on one of the buildings that talked about a slave trader being killed and a bunch of girls escaping, and there seemed to be girls who had been rescued and were sent to an orphanage. It seemed like it had shown every missing girl in the list. She looked closely at the top, and she saw herself listed there. "Missing Child: Aerin. Please report to the Magic Knights if you have found her! You will be compensated 100 Gold Coins!"
She then walked away, making sure no one saw her. This is bad, I don't want anyone to find out where I am, tsk. These girls didn't have to do this much, she thought to herself. It seemed like she wanted to be left alone.
My goal of being the richest starts from here now. Back then when I was in the slave house, I would hear there would be some shady jobs which anyone can take to make quick cash. I need to know where they are... but first... As she was in her thoughts, her stomach growled. She was starving. She gave a low moody expression as if this was the most annoying thing to feel.
"Well, I guess it's time to find something to eat." She said that softly. She stumbled upon a bar building in the town. She looked up at the building which said "Beer and Steak!" Reading that, she already drooled. It didn't seem like there was an age requirement for her to enter despite them selling beers. The town must be some sort of outskirt to the actual main city of the kingdom.