Bound and Broken: An Isekai Adventure Dark Fantasy (Melas Book 1) by V.A. Lewis (autobiographies to read .TXT) 📕

From what I could tell by the makeup of the room, we were in the main room of a warehouse; it was small. We were not even unloaded from our wagons— they did not plan on staying more than the night in this town. There was a single hallway to the side, with a few rooms on either side of it.

I sent my magical third arm into each of the rooms, trying to find the man from earlier. Unarmored man, is that you? Nope, just another guard. How about you? Nope—

Eventually, after leaving a room full of guards playing a card game, I found an emptier room. Tables and chairs cluttered the room, but only a single one of them looked like a proper desk for work. It was like a meeting room. And there, sat the supervisor from earlier.

He was awake, and he was working. I found the keys hanging around his waist, and slowly pried them off. I did it as carefully as possible, and fortunately for me, it worked. I kept the keys low and towards the ground, carrying it underneath the door and back to the main room.

It was easy. Almost too easy. It was only another minute before I held the key ring in my hand, smiling. I brought the key down, about to try each and every one of them to free myself—

"Hey, what was that?"

I immediately hugged the keys and turned over, pretending to be asleep. A guard stepped into the wagon, frowning.

"I could’ve sworn I heard something…" he trailed off, but after looking about for a moment, he shrugged and left.

I waited a minute before I breathed a sigh of relief. I felt perspiration forming at the palm of my hands, but ignored it. I brought the key ring up. There were only three keys, but one of them had to have worked, right?

I brought the first key down into my manacles. I turned it, and it didn't work. It’s fine, there’s still two more.

The second one was a dud too; I felt my heart racing now. What were the chances I tried the two keys that did not work? Regardless, the last one had to have worked.

I turned the final key inside of the keyhole. There was no distinct clink. I did not feel the heavy chains leave my hand. It was not working. Why was it not working? It had to work! I twisted the key harder in frustration—

And my hand slipped. I watched as the key ring flew out of the cage, landing with a jangle. I heard running footsteps, and I rushed forward for the keys, bringing my hands out between the bars. The wagon flap was thrown open, as I clutched the metallic ring with one hand.

A guard stared down at me, and I just stayed there, frozen. Like a deer in the headlights. The man just stood there for a moment, his mind processing the scene. Then he finally broke out of his stupor.

"You— where’d you get that?!"

He dashed forward at me, as I tried to back up. Unfortunately, he moved faster. He snatched the key out of my hands, pulling back away from the cage as quickly as he could. I managed to grab his shirt, and struggled to keep him from leaving.

"Let me go," he bellowed, holding the keys up above from my reach. He struck me across the face. "Guards, I need—"

The words left his mouth as he reeled in for another hit at me. I flinched, letting go, and immediately heard a scream.

A pair of legs swept the man of his feet, and pulled him into the iron bars. His face smashed into the metal, and teeth came flying out. The chained legs gripped the guard tightly as he struggled to pry himself loose; but the person holding onto him was too strong. The person who came to help me— to save me— was…

Rin.

The catgirl held the man against our cell, wrapping her legs hands around the man’s throat; the other guards ran in to help the man, but one look from Rin quickly changed their mind, and they began to shout for help instead.

Meanwhile, the first man was choking and gasping for air, but he could not escape Rin’s death grip no matter how hard he tried. Eventually more guards for the Mancis Company arrived at the scene, some were carrying long wooden sticks with two metal prongs poking out of one end. They began poking their sticks into the cages to keep the other Beastkin back, and one of them jabbed his pole at Rin’s chest.

Lightning crackled between the metal prongs as it came in contact with the Rin, causing millions of volts of electricity to flow into him; the Cat Beastkin jolted but did not immediately go of the guard. She was recoiling in pain from being zapped by the non-lethal weapon, and yet she held on.

Eventually, Rin released her legs, backing up from the constant shocks of electricity coming from the mana tools. The guards kept zapping her for a moment longer as they dragged the man’s body away from the cages. But it did not matter.

He was dead.

The aftermath from this incident was a chaotic one; there was shouting and screaming by both Julian Mancis and Marcus. They wanted to know how exactly I managed to steal the keys, but no one could answer the question.

As I eavesdropped on their argument, I picked out one thing which made my heart sink: I stole the correct keys. Just not the keys for the manacles. The keys I got were the keys for the cages. If I had not been so foolish, we could have escaped.

My excitement at being free from the chains, coupled with my fear of getting caught led