Ch 102. Live Bait

"Hello Marcella."

Marcella just looked at me wearily, ever since she had come to believe I was a 'demon' it seems that I couldn't even greet her without being viewed with suspicion. 

"Have you eaten?" I asked, putting a plate of food down in front of her. Some real food after a week in the dungeons surely must be tempting for her, looking at the hunger in her eyes.

"Not since yesterday..." She shook her head to indicate she hadn't, still eyeing the food. 

I frowned a little after hearing that, someone should have at least given her something. Being my slave she was technically my responsibility, but I didn't expect that nobody else would help her. Were the men afraid that by doing so they might somehow offend me?

"You can have it, but there's something I need your help with." I said while squatting down to her level, untying the ropes on her hands. 

Seeing her still hesitant to eat, as if by doing so she would have willingly sold her soul to a demon, I decided to explain further. 

"I'm not going to do anything bad... I just need your help with exploring my powers a little bit. What I'm proposing is of mutual benefit to the both of us. I have powers that you might find are rather unnatural. You fought with me, you should be able to tell by now that. I didn't always have these powers, and I still don't entirely understand how they work, but this is information that I need to know. I need to know how these powers work, and I need to know that as quickly as possible... You help me with this and I will make your life bearable, understand? You can either live the life of a slave, or you can agree to help from time to time, and I will make sure your living standards are suitably improved."

Scanning across her dirty dress and messy hair which clearly hadn't been washed in the past week as the dungeon took its toll both on her body and mental state. 

For Marcella, she had little left of her old life to cling to as a dark road laid stretched out in front of her.  No matter what she did, that fate would not change, or at least that was the impression she had after being consigned to a lifetime as a criminal slave. She had essentially lost hope at that point, her powers were completely sealed and she expected to be treated as nothing but a trophy, but somehow my words indicated to her that the fate she expected was not entirely set in stone. I was at least willing to bargain. Offering her a deal that was in some ways a kind of wages, or the closest thing to wages that a slave could expect. In effect allowing her to work of her 'debt', and by doing so allow some normalcy back into her life. 

"It's not dangerous is it?"

"I'm not going to lie and say it isn't... but hurting you or punishing you isn't the goal. Otherwise, why would I even be asking you? You're a slave you know."

"That's... can I at least eat first?" Her eyes showing that the terms were indeed acceptable as she scarfed down the food and drink I had offered up. Licking the plate after she was done like the food I had given her was the most delicious thing she had ever eaten, surely a 'home-cooked' meal by her standards, being one of the many fanciful meals prepared for us by her father's chefs and stored in my inventory in great quantities so as to hold us over on this trip. 

The two of us finally leaving the encampment, Marcella armed only with a torch as she followed behind me closely. 

"Why are we going outside... I can't use my magic you know?" A hint of fear in her voice as she sped up, nearly clinging to my back as she looked around.

"Monsters are more active at night, and I need monsters for the tests we're going to be conducting."

The two of us walking for minutes straight out into the grasslands as the light conditions continued to deteriorate, the sun shining its last bits for the day. 

If there were any monsters in the vicinity they should be well aware of us by now, the two of us having been conversing loudly, and walking openly through their territory. Two lone humans is a pretty appetizing treat for most monster varieties, having learned from experience that they could kill humans with ease and eat them. The mana in our flesh, supposedly due to the function of our mana organ, acted as an attractive nutritional supplement to their normal diet.

A few more minutes of walking finally rewarding our patience, activity stirring in the surroundings. A pair of monsters emerging from their hiding, two beady-eyed lizards whose bellies dragged along the ground like an overweight snake, teeth clack in anticipation of a meal as they dragged themselves from the grass, each at least as big as a dog, their green skins and previously unmoving state doing well to camouflage them amongst the vegetation, only visible now that they had revealed themselves to us. 

I watched them calmly with a smile on my face as I took out only my shield, putting my other arm around Marcella's waist as I brought her forward with me to meet our guests. The strange actions frightening Marcella as she was dragged forward along with me.

"Keaton... what kind of experiment is this? Why do you need me here?" Panic setting into her voice as she finally started to catch on about what her role was supposed to be. 

"You're the bait." I said while grinning even wider. 

Keaton's stat window