"Liz… never mind."
This was a rare occurrence, as the golden-haired Sarkaz girl often found it difficult to sleep due to her healthy body, but for some reason, today, she seemed to be sleeping very soundly.
"Ah—hoo, hoo, hoo."
However, in the next second, the golden-haired girl suddenly opened her azure eyes, gasping for breath, seemingly startled awake by a nightmare.
"The stars, the starry tentacles, one has been severed. Its madness and fury are becoming clearer—Shining, Shining, we must hurry!"
Wearing a white dress, the Sarkaz girl called Liz clutched a slender hand holding a blue lantern and looked to the west.
"Over there, over there, we must go quickly… If It awakens near a large city, it will cause widespread devastation."
Liz's expression was urgent. She struggled to stand up, but several attempts failed to get her on her feet.
She had a mobility impairment in her legs; although she could walk with difficulty, she often lost strength when she became anxious.
"Your condition is still severe, and we are already being pursued. Yet you insist on stopping midway to interfere in these unexpected matters…"
The woman called Shining was not angry; she merely met Liz's gaze calmly.
"I don't deny the righteousness of this matter, but I don't think we have the ability to prevent this disaster—my abilities also have limits. Bringing you out of Kazdel was already a near-death experience."
Placing the "staff" in her hand flat on her lap, the Sarkaz woman known as Shining calmly asked Liz for the reason behind this action.
"Shining, believe me, we are not just two people. I have a premonition that further down the road, we will find light—on this land, we are not the only two constantly journeying to avert those illusory calamities."
Through the cave entrance, gazing far into the west, Liz's lips curved slightly upwards.
On the distant horizon, a city, appearing no larger than a sesame seed from here, was slowly moving. Its destination was to rendezvous with three other mobile cities.
And the triennial rendezvous signified only one thing: an unprecedented grand event was about to be held in Kazimierz.
"I just… saw the moon and light."
—
"This is the last batch, my lord. Please count the numbers. The price is the same as last time."
"Hmm, good quality. But why is there a Zalak? We need Kuranta, only Kuranta are sacrifices to my Lord… Never mind, let's proceed. Gentlemen, please transfer them to our vehicle."
In the wilderness, two convoys were parked close together.
One group was fully armed and shabbily dressed. In the cages in the back of their trucks, people with empty eyes, blank expressions, and dirty clothes were crammed—clearly, this was an armed slave-hunting team.
In Kazimierz, a country where slavery was permitted, slave-hunting teams, though not legal, were not heavily policed.
The other group's attire was somewhat eerie. Perhaps to shield themselves from the sun, they all wore white robes, upon which were printed unsettling eye patterns.
Even the slave traders, who normally killed without batting an eye, felt a chill when they saw these strange, cloaked figures with peculiar smiles, and only wanted to leave quickly.
"Hurry up, you good-for-nothings—thank me, I sold you for a good price!"
The slave traders cracked their whips, lashing the slaves, who were chained together by handcuffs and leg irons, herding them like pigs onto the cloaked figures' vehicle.
The slaves had long been completely numb from hunger and exhaustion. Even when whipped, they remained unmoved. Whether they were sold to steam factories in Victoria, deep mine districts in Ursus, or became test subjects for Columbia research companies, it was all the same to them.
But among these numb slaves, a pink-haired Zalak girl, while slowly walking with her head down, continuously observed her surroundings with her bright, intelligent brown eyes.
She wanted to live, she wanted to leave this hellhole, she wanted to—become a Knight!
—
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