Of course, why would he not want to hear such an interesting talk?
In fact, he had looked forward to it since she said she was going to explain it.
So Northern acted cool and said to her,
“If that is alright by you, please go ahead.”
Raven looked forward with a forlorn gaze.
They were standing beside the wall; Terence was laying on the ground, and the bright entrance was a couple of meters away from them, but the darkness thickly clouded their surroundings.
Then she started:
“Was it three months ago…? I guess it was three or four months ago. When we first got here, we focused all our energies on defeating monsters and taking back the Lotheliwan capital. I personally felt like we needed a safe place to stay… but we were in the middle of a city teeming with monsters, it made no sense to fight our way out of it when there could be the possibility of other monsters being outside too.
“Instead, I proposed that we should take a chunk of the city from the monsters and build a safe home, a stronghold for ourselves. With admirable and painstaking effort, we were able to do that… we also lost a few precious people too.”
Northern’s mouth turned bitter at the sound of her last couple of words; they somehow kept ringing in his head, reminding him that he wasn’t the only one that had it tough.
Meanwhile, Raven continued talking.
“After settling down, we slowly began to move out and clear the monsters from around us. We divided ourselves into three major parties led by Sage Gilbert, Master Annette, and the twins. I don’t know how or why, but somehow, they were here and also originally belonged to the Central Plains…”
Raven looked like she wanted to say more but hesitated. After two or three seconds, her words came.
“We began to push the subjugation further, taking the north, west, south, and east wings. It was then we started finding survivors.”
Northern paid attention to her but was sure these words were not what she had initially wanted to speak of.
No doubt, Raven had exercised self-control at that point. He gets why she could be skeptical about revealing whatever was on her mind in that regard to a stranger.
After all, he also was quite skeptical, but compared to her, he had enough facts to prove that their being here was Rughsbourgh’s ploy, and Gilbert had a strong hand in it.
“…after survivors started coming in, we saw the need for a wide exploration and subjugation so that we can save as many people as are out there. It was during one of these subjugations that we discovered that there was a place called the Sloria stronghold.”
She paused, breathed softly, and continued:
“Of course, the moment we heard about a place that had erected its walls in perfect defense against monsters, a discord happened, and some people wanted to move over to that place. Even I didn’t think it was such a bad idea; it’d be safer there than in Lotheliwan, where we were just trying to establish a stronghold… besides, we were pretty inexperienced compared to these people. Hence, it was only natural that we all wanted to go.”
Northern gulped. With the darkness that shrouded their environs and the way her narration was going, it was hard not to get tense.
She continued:
“And so we went, that was three months ago. We came to Sloria. But we decided to send representatives first since we didn’t know how things were, and it’d be dangerous for all of us to travel together at the same time. These representatives were to negotiate on behalf of everyone, and I was a part of them too.”
She paused, lingered for a second, and carried on. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cm
“We got to Sloria, through the front gate… they have a tall wooden wall built with sharp-edged logs to impede monsters should they try to tear down the walls. They have towers from which mage-class drifters discharge spells and abilities with destructive firepower. They were practically an impenetrable fortress. With what we saw, we were happy. We felt with this, we would be safe, perhaps get stronger with the help of these people and start to find our way home.”
Northern studied her face as her words came out with a delicate serenity.
“…but they were different. A lot of things were different. For starters, they had a very strong leader whose authority was overwhelming. Sloria might have looked like some haven to several students, but to me, it was just another hellish cage.”
She let out a shaky breath.
“Well, at that time, we knew little, so we went straight to their leader and spoke to him. We told him of our need for a safe place where we can get stronger and finally find a way home.”
Raven paused… just at the part Northern was starting to get into it…
“He gave us a condition.”
‘Of course he did.’
Being a leader and being able to hold together such a place, making it as impenetrable as she had described would have required some extreme and unethical measures.
“He wanted me to be a part of his harem. He also demanded that all the females, including Master Annette who was with us at the time, would become his maids, and he’d take turns defiling us every night.”
Northern felt his viscera churn with disgust.
‘What the hell?’
He indeed was expecting something extreme and unethical, but this… this was beyond his expectations.
Northern looked at Raven’s distant gaze, slowly narrowing his eyes as he was prompted to ask a question.
After lingering, he asked:
“So… what happened?”
The answer should have been quite clear since Raven was here, and none of the females from Lotheliwan were working as maids, especially not Annette.
Northern tried to imagine the brute master in a maid attire. It was unfathomable; if at all any bit fathomable, then utterly disgusting.
With her muscles… wearing a maid dress was unsettling.
It did look like it’d suit Raven more, though…
His train of thought was interrupted by her slow and petrifying response.
She looked at Northern, took her time, then said:
“Well, I accepted to be his wife…” Her gaze grew distant again as her voice trailed off. “Well, I was… for a while. Then I tried to kill him.”
She concluded her statement with a pale, wistful smile.