Merchant district, western gate. 17:08
In front of the large gate that connected the working district and the merchant district, a long row of people could be seen waiting in line to pass through.
Amongst this row of people, two teenager could be seen waiting in line. They both had servant clothes, and each of them had surprisingly good looks.
These two people were, of course, Daniel and the slave girl.
Only a couple of hours had passed since the end of the auction, and Daniel had been so focused on leaving the merchant district, that he didn't have a chance to properly speak to the girl he had just set free. He only stopped once to make sure that the girl didn't have a family to come back to, and to offer her a place to stay.
After that interaction had ended, and the girl had shyly accepted Daniel's offer, the system's message finally appeared.
____________________________
*Freedom for All!"
First objective complete.
Reward: 75 Karma Points
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The girl wasn't really expecting Daniel to honor his promise, and when he saw him in the crowd, bidding for her, she still had doubts about his motives. All these doubts had been eradicated from her mind, the moment he destroyed the slave deed and set her free on the spot.
She spent the next couple of hours in silence, following this strange young man as he took her to a bath house, as he bought her clothes, and offered to her a place to stay.
"My name is Daniel by the way.." Said Daniel randomly, while waiting in line. "..yours?" he then continued.
"Mea.." She answered in a low voice.
Daniel was thinking about how to ask his next question.. he never had meaningful conversations with anyone but his sister, nor did he know how to deal with difficult subjects, so he decided to ask directly.
"You don't look used to being a slave, what happened to you?" He asked her.
Mea looked at him and said "I am not.. I was the young mistress of the Rulin house.. my full name is Mea'hor Rulin.." Said the girl with hints of pride and sadness in her voice.
Daniel was surprised by the Mea's words. He didn't know who the master of the Rulin house was, nor how important the Rulin were in Karalis's spectrum of families, sects and schools, but he knew that a house, in order to have a master and a young mistress, had to have some sort of power.
He looked at Mea and asked her "What happened to your house? How could they allow their young mistress to be taken as a slave??"
Mea's look turned even sadder before responding "My father was a powerful martial cultivator of the 7th rank.. he was one of the main forces of Karalis's army during the war, eight years ago, but he disappeared without leaving a trace when the war was coming to an end."
A clear trace of anger grew in her voice as she continued "One of my father's old enemies, the master of the School of Everlasting Fury, didn't waste time to accuse him of deserting for the enemy kingdom." she said while biting her bottom lip.
"After the war ended, and my father never returned to clear his name, many voices through the kingdom started to circulate.. Spreading the news that the master of the Rulin house had betrayed the Karalis kingdom. So many people had been lost in that war.. and when the rumor of a traitor had been spread, the people demanded the king to issue an eradication order for my entire family."
At this point, tears were forming on the corners of her eyes "The king must have thought that we had no more worth without my father.. so he gave in under the pressure, and ordered an eradication campaign against my house.." She said while brushing the welling up tears from her eyes "We had been alerted by one of my father's loyal friends, that the king had ordered for our extermination, so in the middle of the night, we escaped.. and have been on the run ever since."
Daniel didn't know what to say. He knew nothing about politics, nor did he know what happened within the high echelons of a kingdom. After thinking for a few moments, he asked "So what happened to the rest of your family?.." But he immediately regretted asking it.
"The eradication campaign didn't stop only because we had escaped.. we had become traitors within the kingdom, so no matter where we went.. when we were found out.. we would be hunted down and killed. From what I know, I-I might as well be the only survivors" After Mea finished explaining, she couldn't help remembering all the painful moments she had been through in the last half of her life.. and start crying.
Daniel had never been one to judge without knowing the facts. He knew of the dark side of people, in fact, he could see it clearly thanks to his karmic system. So even if he felt angry when learning that Mea's father was one of Karalis's main forces during the war, and therefore one of the warriors that had been too late to save his father, he still understood that, since the one who accused Mea's father of being a traitor was one of his enemies, that accusation must have been a diffamatory one.. aimed to turn an enemy into a traitor.
Of course, everyone knew about the bad blood between the Rulin's house master and the master of the School of Everlasting Fury. Most had guessed that the latter was aiming to get rid of one of his old enemies when he accused the former of treason, so most of the king's council and the king himself had rejected his ideas of treating the Rulin's master and family as traitors.
What forced the king to change his mind was the public outrage that, when the rumors of the Rulin's house master had deserted for the enemy kingdom spread like wildfire through his still grieving kingdom, had forced him to cave in.
Daniel dropped the topic and waited patiently for their turn to pass through to arrive. Half an hour later, they had reached the commoner's section of the working district.
On his way back, Daniel had stopped more than once to various shops and marketplaces to buy the essentials for Mea, numerous rank 1 beast cores, and a cultivation manual for martial and spiritual cultivation. He and Mea walked towards his sister's school, and waited for her to come out to go back home together.
Daniel had taken that habit in the past couple of years. Whenever he would be close to his sister's school, if her lessons were close to come to an end, he would wait for her to come out, before going home together.
After half an hour of waiting, young men and women started coming out of the building. Daniel looked around until he noticed a group of seven teenagers, four of them were boys and three of them were girls.
Amongst this group of people, one girl stood out the most. She had an imp-thin figure that was shown by her tightly fitting clothes. Her complexion was porcelain white and her cheeks were of a natural rosy color. Her slightly arched eyebrows stood above a pair gentle wide set eyes, with pupils of a beautiful brown-green color. Her delicate ears framed a just as delicate button-like nose. Right underneath, a pair of bow-shaped, healthy red lips opened and closed, showing a set of pearly white teeth. Her caramel colored hair flowed above her chest area in big waves, bordering her face beautifully.
She was chatting peacefully with her group of friends, and when she noticed the young man standing at the school's gate, she waved her arm at him "Dan!!"
Daniel's smile grew wide as he and Mea approached the group of teenagers. As the girl which had called for his name approached him, Daniel said gently "Sister.." The smile never leaving his face.
She hugged Daniel tightly and said "Did you eat what i've left you this morning?"
"Of course!.. it was awful" He said with a smirk on his face.
Daniel had a special relationship with his sister. She was older than him, but since he provided for the both of them, they had always felt strange behaving like the classical "older sister and younger brother". The complicity between the two was so deep that they behaved more like partners in crime than siblings.
After a few moments, Daniel took the books right out of his sister's hands and put them into his backpack. He then looked at her while indicating towards Mea, and said "Sister, this is Mea, she'll be staying with us for a while" he then looked towards Mea and said "Mea, she is my sister, Reila"
He then gave a moment for the news to sink into his sister's head.
Reila had complete trust in Daniel's actions. For her, her brother had good judgement, and whatever he did, he would do it for a good reason. Of course, this had never stopped her from teasing him for his decisions.. With this objective in mind, she looked at Mea "My real name is Rei Hiel, but you can call me Reila. It's a real pleasure to meet you Mea, I hope you're not in trouble because of my brother. If he tries anything weird, a kick in between his legs is always an available option" she said while smirking.
Daniel expected this kind of comment from her, just like every other member of her group of friends, which had become used to the dynamics of this particular pair of siblings.
Mea, on the other hand, was extremely surprised. She thought that Daniel had been rude to her, and that Reila wanted to make him pay for his crude remark, but that wasn't the case.
After bidding farewell to her schoolmates, Reila, Daniel and Mea started heading back home. In their travel back, Mea and Reila chatted for a bit. It didn't take long for Reila to learn about Mea's circumstances.
Mea felt grateful to Daniel, so she didn't want her brother to have secrets from his sister. She had decided that she would tell her situation to Reila, and then let the pair of siblings decide if it was worth helping her.
What surprised Mea even more, was that whenever she mentioned Daniel's actions, the expression on Reila's face grew prouder and prouder.
At the end of Mea's story, Reila's trust for Daniel's judgement had only reinforced. She then approached Daniel by the side, hit his arm with her elbow, and kissed the side of his head.
Mea expected a heated conversation between the pair of siblings, but again, she was wrong.
Daniel had expected his sister's action, as they weren't uncommon. "Sister, I will go home and pack our stuff, would you mind taking Mea with you and go to look for a bigger house in the commoner's district?.." As he said these words, he kept looking at his sister's expression from the corners of his eyes.. he then added "Somewhere close to your friend's houses maybe.."
His sister looked at him with wide eyes. A smile that made people turn around in disbelief grew on Reila's face.. Daniel had promised to her more than once that, once their debt would be settled, and things would have been easier for them, they would move closer to her friends. That had become one of his sister's dreams.
Reila couldn't help but wrap her slender arms around her brother's chest, and squeeze him tightly.
Daniel felt like his promise to his mother had been partially fulfilled.. She was safe, she was happy.. and she would have a good life. These were Daniel's most important objectives.
After a few seconds, Reila let go of her brother. Daniel handed a small bag containing 10 gold coins to her, and asked her to rent the biggest house she could find. He then bid farewell to the two girls and started walking towards the slums.
When reaching his house, before starting to pack their belongings, he took a small pouch which contained the rank 1 beast cores and the books regarding martial and spiritual cultivation, then he sat on his bed.
"Sewah, mind explaining how do I use my karma points again?.."