I am Drak. Right now I stand inside the Study of my ‘Father’ and look him in the Eyes.

  “I want more Servants.”

  “Of course, Drak. Do you have one in mind? I will make them comply to be your faithful servant and always-”

  “Do you think I am stupid? I do not want one of your Servants, who are rotten to the core.”

  “I… I am sorry, Drak. What can I do for you instead?”

  “There is something named the Black Market, right? I need a special sign to get in. I can not go to the open Market again anyway.”

  “The incident, I understand.”

  “You do not understand! How could they just suddenly appear and try to apprehend me if I sell stupid legal crystals? Claire accidentally… Who and why are Guards chasing me?”

  “You have no Merchant license and no Diploma. It is normal for them to suspect you.”

  “They suspected me too harshly, you know something. Answer!”

  “...The Empire is rumored to know about everything. Especially the Imperial Family is in the know of what happens not only above but partly below the Duchies. Somehow I did not get a Notice of the movements of Guards, as they can be ordered directly by Imperial decree. They are searching for something and you were suspicious.”

  “Great. I need a better Mask. I will look through your trinkets later. Give me an invite into the black Market and tell me where I can get illegal slaves.”

  “Good Slaves for Servants are hard to find on the Black Market but I know a Slaver who sells prostitutes which have been trained not only in bedding but reading and writing to be more appealing for the more rich-”

  “I do not care about those! Tell me about someone who has Slaves like Claire.”

  “That Coachman brought you to the most run down Slaver in the City last time, I do not think-”

  “You are rather disobedient lately.”

  “I am sorry! Of course I will write down the Slavers I know which might be what you look for.”

  —

  In a dim lighted Cellar a Door was seen. A chubby black cloaked person knocked on it and the viewing port slid open.

  “Sorry, I'm busy. Come back tomorrow.”

  “But Today is Tomorrow, Yesterday.”

  “...Enter.”

  The door opened and behind was a long corridor. At the end the Chubby person and his rather meager looking guard person was welcomed by a yellow toothed person.

  “Welcome to our humble shop. How can I help you?”

  “I search for meat.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Hearing this the person was a bit disappointed. ‘Meat’ meant low level Slaves, but every sold Person is one mouth to not feed. Bringing the guests to the place with the sorted out slaves he did not even care anymore and left Drak alone to search for what he needed himself.

  Drak was seeing so much misery, but could not buy them all. His Crystals were a good income but he could not buy so much as he had no place to shelter them.

  With a sigh he looked around. Many have lost limbs or had heavy infections. He could heal them but that would make the people outside suspicious so he grit his teeth and just did what he came to do.

  In this place somehow he remembered his own pain and misery but was now stable enough to wade through it. Looking around he could see many different people but nothing caught his eye for a long time.

  Until he saw her.

  While she did not even look at him, he felt something peculiar about her. If he had to say her state it would be Broken beyond repair. Through the rag they called clothes there were scars everywhere. Not only did she look like someone sewed together a doll out of many little lumps of fabric, over her face was a heavy scar which led to her hollow left eye hole, infested with some small bugs.

  Going to her she was numb. She didn't even react after Drak crouched down next to her way too small cage she was in. There was something about her he resonated with. While he did not know if she would even come with him he just thought he could at least help her get out and live freely, as she must be really cheap to buy.

  “Do you want to come with me? If not, I can heal your wounds and let you free. I can not take away what you already suffered, but you can have a future.”

  Noticing Drak for the first time she looked at him. While she did not say a word her remaining eye was starting to not only hold despair but a tiny spark of hope.

  —

  In the Cellar of Fort Berklin was a small laboratory. It could not even be called that, if it were not for the books and medical knives everywhere. Laying on the wooden table was the scarred girl. Claire and Drak worked on her by removing the filth on her, especially the bugs nest inside her eye.

  “First we heal your scars, you have suffered so much, do not worry.”

  But their patient refused. She was scared of losing the scars. As it was the first thing she ever said, Drak just accepted her weird request and started to heal the internal wounds which had grown back totally wrong.

  The last was the Eye but it mutated after Drak put too much effort into returning it.

  —

  “Ahh!”

  *Clirr*

  A maid let the vase she was cleaning fall to the floor as she saw something she thought was a Monster. A Zombie in a Maid outfit or maybe something even more sinister.

  Running to the Head Maid she just sighed and explained.

  “It is Drak’s new Maid. He pulled her out of some kind of garbage dump for what I care. While I understand your shock, just don’t look at her.”

  “Can this sick Child not have a normal Maid?!”

  “Are you volunteering to be assigned to him?”

  “Never!”

  “Then just ignore the Bastard. The Duke somehow reduced his ‘education’ and even said just to ignore him and not be too mean to him.”

  “Can’t he just die?”

  “He has the Blood of a Duke. If he dies suddenly there will be questions. We can only hope someone gets provoked and he dies by the law of Nobility.”

  “Ugh. Now I have to put away the shards of the vase. Maybe I should put them in his flea ridden bed.”

  This event in similar ways happened multiple times, before the whole Fort was knowing of what was walking the corridors.

  Unbeknownst to all of the people in the Fort a second large underground place was created below their feet. Some strange experiments were made on the two Maids by Drak. The reasoning he had was, he was scared. Scared of someone else trying to kill one of his precious people and wanted to make them stronger. He was unnaturally strong after research and many questions to his ‘Father’ and tried to find a way to give more Magic to Claire and his new Maid Raja without just hugging.

  The Maids were a bit afraid, but would do anything Drak asked. For them he was the one that gave them their second Life and he had the right to do whatever he wanted with it. Their dedication became fanaticism in the time they were together with him.