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

"Good legs?"

"It lets us jump very high. Eh, about 25 feet up for the average Rabbit Beastkin."

I blinked. Nothing special, my butt! You can probably dent metal and smash concrete with that!

The conversation ended, as Shang and the others were finished with the guards in the room; we continued making our way down the hallway, until we finally reached a different room. The door to this room was bolted, just like ours, and I exchanged a glance with Shang.

"Slaves?" I asked, lifting a brow.

"Hrn, probably the ones that work here. The others in our caravan were brought downstairs," he said, unlatching the door. "But be prepared for anything."

The wooden door slowly creaked open, and three sparsely dressed men with thin frames immediately scrambled to their feet; even while standing, they looked like they were laying down, as they took on slumped postures to make themselves as small as possible.

"Yes, master? Is there something—"

They paused as they noticed the people standing at the door, and stared. I looked back at them, and saw two middle aged men who were highly malnourished, and a younger— but just as thin— man standing over thin cloth beds.

After a moment of silence, the younger man managed to muster up a question. "W-what’s going on?"

Perhaps, somewhere deep down inside of them, they knew what was going on; the situation spoke for itself, after all. But they must not have believed it. So I spoke flatly, not bothering to explain how this came about.

"We’re getting out of here. You’re all free."

"W-we are?" the younger man asked, voice shaking with shock— at the suddenness of it all.

"Yes." I dangled the key in front of their faces, and grinned. I walked up to them, and continued. "Now let’s just—"

"Don’t!" One of the older slaves threw himself between me and the man. He spread his arms out, blocking me, and hurriedly spoke. "Don’t do it. Please. Just leave us alone."

"What?" I uttered the words stupidly. I was flabbergasted. I nearly dropped the keys in shock, but held on.

I was not the only one caught off guard by their reaction. Shang stepped forward, and raised his hands placatingly.

"I’m sorry, Eld— Hrn, Sir." The Dog Beastkin paused briefly as he adopted human formalities. "I don’t know what you think is happening, but I can assure you that this is no trick. We are setting you free. So if you just—"

"No!" the man nearly shouted the words this time.

Everyone stared at him in shock; not just us, even the younger man was surprised. He turned to his elderly companion, and asked the question in everyone’s mind. "What are you doing? They’re helping—"

"Do not listen to them!" The older slave grasped the young man by his shoulders. "You’ll die if you go with them."

"W-what?" More than one person in the room said the word, but the younger man’s voice was the loudest. "What do you mean by that?"

The older slave shook his head and crossed his arms.

"What they’re doing is suicide. They unchain you, then what? You fight? Sneak out?" He looked around the room and met everyone else's eyes. He briefly passed his other companion— the second old slave— and got a nod in agreement.

"There’s an entire city out there. If you go with them, you will die! You— you can’t fight through all of them. I’ve seen the gladiators try to revolt. They— they knew how to fight. And how many of them were there— hundreds? Maybe thousands even?" he spoke, voice shaking with each word, and despair the only thing in his eyes. "But how many people are in Bys? How many tens of thousands of soldiers did they have to face? They— they thought they knew how to fight, but they failed. Most of them were killed, and the ones that do survive were punished."

The older slave slowly shook his head, and looked pleadingly at the younger man.

"You can’t escape. Even if you do— you’ll always be a slave. If someone finds you, they can just take you and sell you again. Just stay here."

The young man hesitated, he looked between us and his two older companions, uncertain of what to do. He was torn between doing what he wanted, and doing what made sense— what was safe.

He stared around the room, and for a brief moment our eyes met; I wanted to tell him to come with us, to not lose hope. But I did not.

"It’s your choice."

The young man paused, and looked at me; he looked deep into my eyes, as if he was searching for something deep inside of it. And finally, after much deliberation, he made his decision.

"I will go."

The other two slaves shouted in outrage, but his decision was final; Shang and Rin held back the two older men, stopping them from doing anything, as I uncuffed the man.

"What’s your name?"

"Feri," he said.

"It’s nice to meet you, Mr Feri," I said, trying my best to smile. "I’m Melas."

The manacles clicked open, and dropped to the ground. Feri inspected his hands, turning it over and flexing it, almost as if he thought the chains would suddenly reappear on it. But when it did not, tears welled up in his eyes, and he began to sob.

"Thank you, Melas. Thank you."

He clutched my shoulders, and collapsed to his knees as he cried. I hugged him for a minute, letting his emotions pass over; and when he was finished, he picked himself up and covered his face, ashamed of crying in front of a child.

I almost felt… happy. As if I did something so amazing to free this man. But I did nothing; it was his own actions that helped him free. Plus—

"It’s not over yet."

Feri turned to look at me as I whispered those