Elwen the Conquered

The morning after the festival, Varian and Elwen left Ravensburg, now on the final stretch of their journey. They were heading to Marsburg, the largest and most important city in the north of the Lionheart Kingdom. The only city that was more important was the royal capital itself. Marsburg was a huge commercial city, the headquarters of numerous trading companies, operating at the regional, national, and continental levels. There were even branches of global trading companies within the city. One such branch was their destination: The Red Dragon Trading Company.

The Red Dragon Trading Company was a renowned merchant company that operated on five continents, one of the few that operated at such a massive scale. They traded in just about everything that could be sold: jewelry, furniture, spices, raw materials, magic tools, and even slaves. And that was precisely why they were seeking them out.

Varian’s plan was to ‘sell’ Elwen to them, have them do the processing that was required for her to be recognized as a slave by the system, ensuring everything was legal, and then buy her back. He imagined it would be expensive, but that is why they had been saving up. And, if they didn’t have enough to pay it all upfront, they could sign some exclusivity contract that would only allow the company to sell her back to him, and they could give her some training while he earned the money. He wasn’t worried that they would break the contract as they were a reputable business and they could use a magical contract that would prevent them from breaking the agreement. In fact, it might almost be better to do it that way, so that he could go and power level without putting Elwen at any risk. Still, he was a little hesitant to leave her behind.

For her part, Elwen was starting to get nervous. Sure, she had already agreed to become his slave, but talking about it and actually doing it were two completely different things. And every step they took brought her closer to that reality. It was gnawing at her in the back of her mind, something she couldn’t stop thinking about, no matter how hard she tried.

She was kind of glad they didn’t take a carriage, walking there delayed the inevitable, and gave her time to think things over. Did she really want to do this? Did she really want to become Varian’s slave? It was scary, thinking that she would lose her freedom, lose her ability to do what she wanted. She read many stories where people were forced to do things they didn’t want to do by people who had power over them, and she was literally walking into that situation. Should she just break it off right now? She felt like every fiber of her being was screaming at her to do just that, why else would she feel so nervous? He would probably let it go if she asked him to, but was that want she wanted? She would feel bad about breaking her promise, but if it was the only way…

But would being his slave really be that bad? He hadn’t been anything but nice to her, even after she agreed to be his slave, and they’d known each other forever. And if she were alone, would she even be able to survive? Varian was the one who knew what to do, knew how to survive here. Without him, she would probably fall victim to one of those awful bandits they had encountered. But with him, she would be safe. She could go places with him, she would be much too scared to leave town if she was alone. She would be free, or at least able to, study magic. She loved magic, even if she wasn’t any good at it, yet. And most of all, she thought she could be… happy, with him.

Yes, she wanted to be with him. Her nervousness wasn’t fear, it was anticipation. Varian had shown her over and over that he loved her, she just didn’t know how to accept it. And once they reached Marsburg, she would no longer be able to delay her answer. Their relationship would be cemented, and quite permanently, too.

While Elwen was busy having an existential crisis, Varian was casually walking down the road, occasionally checking on her. He was quite happy that they were finally on their way to Marsburg. Of course, he greatly enjoyed their journey so far, but the fun would really begin once she became his slave. Then, he would be able to –

His thoughts were interrupted by a giant squirrel jumping out of a nearby bush. Those annoying rats kept bothering his… uhm… sophisticated thoughts. Yes, definitely sophisticated. Certainly not perverted in any way.

Anyways, those giant squirrels had been popping up occasionally for the last couple of hours. Luckily, it seemed that Elwen was too distracted to notice them, as they were quite monstrous. Not at all cute like normal squirrels. They weren’t strong either, they were just annoying. Although, he supposed that they did give him a nice little sum of experience for each one he killed, but it was barely enough to be worth it. Even at his low level, it wasn’t that significant. Maybe if he spent a few days hunting them, he could gain a level, but there were plenty of other more valuable targets that would do it faster and with more rewards.

After he disposed of the little monster, he went back to his thoughts. Although now, he was thinking more about what they would have for dinner. He was thinking boar meat, as the merchants had shown him how to cook it, but so far he hadn’t seen any recently. Only those squirrel monsters, which he imagined wouldn’t taste very good.

Elwen was also getting hungry, and while she had been snacking on various travel rations, she wanted something that would be an actual meal. Her stomach grumbled, and she was, in her embarrassment, forced to bring it up with Varian. “What were we doing for dinner?”

Varian winced a little, feeling called out for not having anything ready. “Well, I was thinking of hunting something that we can portion out for the week, but I haven’t seen anything. Do you think you can wait until we make camp and I’ll see what I can find?”

Elwen's stomach grumbled in response. “How much longer?”

“I think about an hour or so? We just need to get out of this forest and we will have gone the distance we are supposed to for today,” Varian responded.
“Ok, I think I can do that… Just make sure you find something yummy!” Elwen half-joked. She was hungry, and she would like something yummy, but she knew that it wasn’t realistic to demand a five-star meal in the middle of the wilderness.

They continued walking until they finally reached the edge of the forest, where they made camp. While he was out looking for food, Varian spotted a lone boar, the perfect prey for their dinner, not too far away from their camp. Unfortunately, he couldn’t kill it in one shot, but after a short chase, he brought this week’s dinner back.

After portioning it out, he seasoned some using a few spices gifted to him by the merchants and started cooking it over the fire. This was only his fourth time doing this, as the merchants let him try a couple of times when they were escorted them, but he was confident that it would be at least palatable.

Elwen, in the meantime, found a few apple trees with perfectly ripe fruit hanging from its branches. She quickly plucked a couple and brought them back to camp, excited that she managed to find something.

They cut up the apples and, when it was ready, took the boar meat off of the fire. Their dinner was simple, but it was rather delicious, at least compared to the rations that they had brought. Elwen joked that Varian would eventually get a [Chef] class if he kept it up. Still, it didn’t compare to the meals they had at the inn. They would need an actual [Chef] or at least a [Cook] for that.

The next few days passed in much the same manner. They would walk most of the day, snacking on jerky and hard bread when they needed it, before settling down and having a larger dinner. Varian actually leveled up once from all the little monsters that he occasionally fought, as well as a small amount that he was given for his cooking. He was actually offered a [Camp Cook] class, but he made sure to hide that from Elwen.

Elwen spent a lot of time trying to create a Tanchen Dentose, the magical artifact that she had spent much of her time in the library learning about. On the third day, she had tried injecting her mana into a random rock and, well…

It worked! Kind of. The mana rapidly dissipated in the stone, and she wasn’t able to much back. But still! It was progress!

She spent the next two days after that trying out different rocks, to see if there was any difference. Some of them were better, but they still weren’t good enough to actually use long-term. Some of the smaller ones even cracked and broke apart when she put too much mana in them.

From her experimentation, she learned that, in general, the larger the stone was the more mana it could store. However, there was also another factor, which she guessed was the stone’s composition, that would contribute as well. And she had no idea what determined the return ratio, as she took two nearly identical rocks for the side of a stream and tested them, and they produced wildly different results. She was baffled but thought that there still must be some sort of logic behind it, it was just that she hadn’t figured it out yet.

On the sixth day, they encountered a merchant caravan under attack by bandits.  A group of adventurers were guarding the caravan, fighting them off. They looked like they would win, but Varian decided to join them anyway, if only to earn a little XP. A reward would be nice, but he didn’t really expect one, especially since the adventurers seemed to have everything in hand.

Once he joined, it only took a few minutes before the bandits were completely defeated. They weren’t anticipating being attacked from behind, so it seemed like their line collapsed into chaos the minute he started attacking them. As soon as the adventurers saw this, they attacked as well, which quickly led to the bandit's defeat.

The adventurers were grateful, happy that they managed to get out of the situation without losing anyone, and the merchants were equally grateful for this, although their happiness derived more from not needing to pay the Adventurer’s Guild for an adventurer dying escorting them. It was part of their contract with the guild that they would pay out life insurance to any fallen adventurers, in exchange for lower guild fees.

The merchants offered some of their goods as payment, and Varian eventually accepted a blue crystal-like stone, which they claimed was a depleted magic stone. They had an entire crate of full ones, but this one got damaged and lost its charge. It was practically worthless to them, as there was no way for them to recharge it, so they were willing to part with it. The merchants said that he could probably sell it to an alchemist or a mage for a small sum, but that wasn’t what he planned to do with it.

Varian had seen Elwen’s experiments over the past few days, and he hoped that this would be useful to her. And maybe, if she could use these magic stones, they might even be able to make some money out of it. If it was a relatively rare ability to recharge them, as the merchants’ attitude implied, then they could buy the ‘worthless’ depleted ones, then recharge and sell them for a nice profit.

The merchants also offered them a ride, as their caravan was also heading to Marsburg. Varian gladly accepted, and the next day, they arrived at the city gates.

Despite the city wall being less grand than the wall to Ravensburg, Elwen found herself finding them more imposing. Over the past few days, she forgot why they were coming here. Now that the city was in sight, it was all she could think about.