"Where am I? Who… am I?"
Shinji opened his eyes to a narrow alley, where humidity reigned and it was as cold as the harshest winters in Japan.
His drenched back pressed against cold, uneven stones, and the air had a stagnant smell of mud and black smoke. The sky above him was as gray as the biting cold implied, although the sunlight partially illuminated the alley.
He tried to move. His arms, his legs, his muscles seemed to belong to him. Yet, he felt as old as this world. An unknown, heavy sensation gripped his chest.
"What is this place?"
He stood up slowly. There was no trace of blood on his body, and he felt no pain. No sign of what he had been through or what brought him to this unknown place.
He frowned, despite trying to remember how he ended up here, nothing came back to him. He lowered his eyes. A white cat, thin, had slipped into the entrance of the alley. Its gaze met Shinji's, then it vanished into the shadows.
"Beato…"
A shiver ran through him, as the word slipped from his lips. He slowly left the alley and the noises became clearer; several people were raising their voices, some louder than others shouting sums that kept rising.
"An auction?" thought Shinji, when he saw a stall to his right. Above it was a wooden board on which unfamiliar letters were etched.
"Sty... Stygia meat from the swamp?" murmured Shinji, unable to explain what allowed him to read what was written on that board.
An old butcher was shouting at a man, probably his customer. A beef carcass on his shoulder with dogs barking in the back, their fangs gleaming in the darkness of the cage they were locked in.
He looked away, but a thought tormented his mind: barely out of the alley, fate showed him a meat stall, as if he had to make the noble gesture of feeding the cat, his first interaction with this world.
He almost laughed at it. He, who had always rejected anything related to the divine but his laugh rang empty. He walked on, following the sound of the crowd when he came upon a group of well-dressed people gathered, all their gazes fixed on what was at the center of the square, a wooden platform.
On it were men bearing scars and marks that could only be credited to torture, but also women and children, all chained to one another in a heavy silence.
Shinji quickly came to realise that these were the people, who kept screaming sums of money in a currency he never had heard of before
"Is that the auction?"
It took him a while to understand, but once he realized that he was facing a slave auction, he nearly vomited.
There was no compassion in the gazes of the bidders as if they were casually buying bread but Shinji couldn't help but face the fact fact that it was the freedom of dozens of people who seemed to be worth no more than mere merchandise.
He stepped back and turned around as soon as he could to return to the alley. The humidity was less oppressive than the horror of what he had just witnessed."
Once he reached the alley, the cat was no longer there, but a young girl was. She was crouched against a stone wall, trembling all over. Her arms wrapped around her knees as if she, too, was trying to escape the terror of what surrounded them.
Shinji approached, letting his instinct guide him.
"Are you okay?"
She raised her eyes to meet Shinji's and gave him the look of a person that lost all hope in humanity.
"I beg you… don't let them take me back…"
Before he could asked her anything, increasingly loud footsteps could be heard. Three men dressed in fully silvered armor came from behind Shinji with one of them stepping on Shinji's foot who nearly fell on the ground. Their leader was massive, with a piercing gaze that unsettled Shinji.
"Get lost," he muttered. "She's ours."
Shinji stepped back.
'That outfit… They're guards… And they let this auction happen at the market?'
Although he didn't understand what was going on, he saw the fear in the little girl's eyes.
"Wait. Listen to me. She… she doesn't deserve this. I can… pay. Work. Do whatever you want."
Shinji had nothing on him, his promises rested only on a lie, no escape was possible if they saw through him.
They laughed.
"You, work for us, with that malnourished body?"
He lowered his eyes. His own freedom was all he had to offer, and three against one, they had no reason to fear him.
Under the pressure of the guards, he pretended to search his pockets when he felt a blade. Despite the fabric separating his hand from the blade, he felt within himself that he had held this blade before.
He started hearing his heart pumping and could even feel the flowof the blood from one end of his body to the other.
"How…?"
Although his odds were already much better, he didn't dare draw it.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Are you paying us, or are you wasting our time for nothing? shouted the leader of the guards."
Despite his desire to play the savior, Shinji realized that at the crucial moment, he was only thinking of himself, of his own benefit.
He looked at the girl one last time so as not to regret his cowardice later. For him, it was better to face it now so that it wouldn't come back to haunt him later.
"Damn it, the auction's over. Because of you, we couldn't get back in time. Show your face here again, and you're a dead man." shouted one of the guards.
Shinji let them go… or rather, he did nothing to stop them as he saw them take the girl whos' attempt to free herself only lead her to receive a relentless beating from one of the guards . When he turned around, the cat had returned.
"You saw me, didn't you? You saw how worthless I am…"
He clenched his fists. Not only had he abandoned the young girl, but deep down, he was relieved to have been spared.
"I judged them, but I didn't do any better."
A puddle of water on the ground to his left showed his reflection, but he didn't have the courage to face himself. He looked away.
"If someone can hear me… give me a chance."
"That one's worth gold! Her body is unharmed! You should've brought her back sooner!"
When he turned his head to see what was happening, his blood ran cold. The young girl was chained, and an iron collar was placed around her neck.
Shinji gripped the blade and ran before he could start thinking about the consequences of his actions, his footsteps echoing against the stone.
'I already abandoned her, what's happening to me?'
He reached the square where the three guards seemed to be waiting for something.
"Stop! he shouted. Give her back her freedom!"
He had finally turned to face them when he brandished the blade in their direction. The silence lasted a second then laughter erupted among the guards.
"Who do you think you are, seriously? Do you even know where you are?"
Shinji didn't respond and charged without hesitation this time but he was neither trained nor fast. He only knew how to move because of the adrealine rushing in his blood.
A first guard grabbed him mid-air and blocked his arm then a second landed a punch in his stomach.
Shinji collapsed, the blade falling at his feet. Two of the guards got into a wagon and threw the girl at the back before heading east as Shinji saw them helplessly.
"Seriously…" said another. "This kid wants to die or what? Must be another one of those fugitives from Thatreth."
The remaining guard approached but a deep, weary voice stopped him:
"Ten coins."
Silence followed this offer. A broad shouldered man with a blood stained appron had appeared behind them. He approached the guard before placing a pouch on the ground.
"For him… and that blade."
The guard shrugged, delighted with this offer for a piece of trash that would've brought them nothing, but their leader was more suspicious.
"Him, you could've had for free, so I assume it's the blade you're really interested in."
The butcher, after a moment of silence, replied:
"I know a blacksmith who might be interested in this blade; him, he doesn't interest me as much, but he could get me more blades if it wasn't a nomad who sold it to him."
He must have been in his fifties despite his robust physique that could be mistaken for a hard working young man's body but the leader of the guards, despite the butcher's experience, noticed that he was lying about the blade as his eyes fixed on the blade betrayed him.
"I don't know what game you're playing, but I accept. Take that trash and his blade and go back to your stall."
Shinji noticed that during all this time, he hadn't even looked at him. So he came to the conclusion that was telling the truth: only the blade mattered to him.
The man nodded before kneeling to pick up the blade. Shinji was still reeling from the guards' blows when he grabbed him by the collar like a sack of meat.
He waited until the guards were far enough away to finally confront him.
"This blade… How… you?"
Shinji opened his mouth to defend himself, but he had no air left and lost consciousness.