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

But what did seeing even do? It did not change anything— seeing would not have let me save Shang if he was about to die. And yet, seeing changed everything too.

After witnessing the bloodbath unfold before my very eyes. As I saw my friends killing so easily. And as I looked at Rin, and saw her smiling at the violent scene; as her face resonated a desire to join in. Everything changed.

It was just my perception of it all, and yet that was the most important part; the world did not revolve around me, but I experienced the world through my own eyes.

And it was through my own eyes I stared at Rin’s excitement, and felt a hint of fear creep up my stomach. But why?

Because Rin and I saw the same thing: ruthless killings and bloody murder. They were killing slavers, but my stomach wretched and I had to stop myself from puking. But she smiled and watched it gleefully.

I looked at her standing next to me, yet it was like there was a huge rift separating the two of us; I was almost afraid of her. I nearly jumped when she finally opened her mouth to speak.

"It’s over," the catgirl’s voice was soft, like a whisper. She turned to me and smiled gently. "You can look now."

Her voice and face were kind; I was certain she noticed my aversion and revulsion to the violence, and meant to reassure me. I turned away and faced the cafeteria. Stop it, Melas. They’re your friends, I tried to calm myself down, and realized my hands were shaking.

I was no longer holding Rin’s hands; I didn't even know when I let go. I wandered past the dead bodies in a daze, and headed in the direction Feri pointed at.

At one point, I tripped over a severed arm. I let out a silent scream, and quickly ran past it. Didn’t I want this? The thought vaguely hung at the back of my head; but I could not focus on it.

I moved mechanically; like a machine designed for one thing and one thing only: to set the other slaves free.

I walked up to the metal door Feri directed me to, and fumbled for the keys. I unlocked the door and swung it open. Light poured into the room, and I stared in.

Dozens of figures sat up in the room, awake from the prior sounds of battle. All their eyes turned to me, and I stared back.

I tried to muster up something to say; to announce their freedom, or something to that degree, but found no words inside of me.

After a moment, a lone figure stood up. A disheveled middle aged man approached me from the staring group of slaves. It was Theodore.

It was counterintuitive, but from his gaze, I saw a semblance of normalcy. A kind older man, who lived a simple life— a world free from all of this misery and death, until tragedy struck.

It reminded me of myself; our circumstances might have differed, but the outcome was the same. And I felt a kinship with the man, knowing that I was not alone in how I felt.

It was welcoming.

"Melas—"

I ran in and hugged him.

It took us an hour before we were ready to leave. Unshackling everyone one by one— even when there were multiple keys for us to use— took some time.

In addition to that, the freed Human slaves went to arm themselves with the weapons from the dead guards. Some of the Beastkin did too, like Shang, but Rin happily let the others take what they wanted.

Finally, the injured Beastkin— the ones who got hurt during the fight— raided some of the storage rooms. They grabbed some healing potions, and distributed it amongst themselves; they used some immediately, and kept the rest for future use.

I was no stranger to seeing violence in fiction back on Earth, but repeatedly seeing it again and again in reality was different. I just wanted to get out of here; I no longer wanted to deal with death and slavery. I just wanted to get away from it all.

But what about your revenge? a thought reminded me of my declaration to the world, and of my grand quest.

It was something simple to think about: the idea of inflicting pain upon those who hurt me was a lot more captivating when I was fueled by anger and rage. But when I was simply watching it happen, I suddenly found myself taking on a whole new perspective.

I still believed that these slavers deserved to die. I believed they deserved their retribution by the hands of Rin and Shang. Yet, I still found myself averse to the action of killing them myself. And that was almost a problem.

If we found ourselves in a situation where I, too, had to fight or die, would I simply freeze and let death take me again? I felt my heart rate pick up as my imagination took over, and I foresaw my failure. I did not want to let that happen, but would I even be in the right state of mind to act if such a scenario occurred?

I sighed. There’s no use worrying about it now. Focus back on what’s important. We’re almost out of here.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Theodore discussing something with Rin and Shang; they probably were talking about me and how they were going to take care of me from this point on. They probably realized that I couldn’t stomach the sight of death, nor could I look at them the same way after witnessing such ruthlessness, and were thinking of ways to keep me away from seeing possible altercations in the future.

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