I’m the Only One With a Different Genre

3 – A New Slave

***

Outside, Odil spent the day deciphering piles of parchment as high as mountains. Besides breaks for lunch and dinner, I had nothing else to do. Cleaning here and there, the chores were done before I knew it.

Sigh.

“Phew, I’ve done most of the tasks.”

Stretching on the bed where I had woken up, I let out a light yawn.

“Oh, I shouldn’t fall asleep.”

Straightening up, I scratched the back of my head.

‘Let’s recall the original story before it’s too late.’

Thanks to reading before falling asleep, I could easily recall the novel’s content. Summarizing the novel:

One day, the Demon King opened the gate to the Demon Realm and appeared in the human world. Knowing that humans would be massacred, the gods bestowed their power on a just human, designating them as a hero.

The hero fought against the Demon King with comrades and won! So far, a typical fairy tale.

‘Then, following the trendy cliché, the comrades betray the hero – … and the hero dies.’

Unexpected developments followed from there.

The comrades, who had returned to their castle, enjoyed all the honors the hero should have received. However, there was a problem. The Demon King they killed was actually the weakest among the Four Demon Kings!

The belated appearance of the real Demon King, invading the kingdom, led the King of Escania, who learned of this, to go crazy, pleading with the hero party to defeat the Demon King.

Cliché as it was, the hero party, which had been disregarding the hero, stood up in challenge, only to be captured, tortured, and killed. The king, belatedly seeking the help of the gods, went to the temple to pray.

[ Dare you ask for help after killing the hero I chose? ]

Knowing that the king and the hero party joined hands to kill the hero, the god immediately cut ties with humans. The king then promptly pledged loyalty to the Demon King. Subsequently, Escania became the land of the Demon King.

‘The real story begins here.’

The hero, who was already dead, had a daughter. She was brought to Escania as a newborn and sold as an experiment to a dark magician at a young age.

‘That’s her.’

The daughter of the hero, who underwent horrific experiments, went mad. One day, a knight infiltrated the dark magician’s laboratory and rescued her. The hero’s daughter, Iris, not only escaped alone but also saved other experimental subjects, including the trash manager Lian, with surprising compassion.

“If we escape together at that time, everything would have been fine.”

It would have been best to treat Iris here as well as possible and be together until the empire.

“Don’t say a word about the Duke.”

From Noble mtl dot com

He lightly brushed his arm, trembling slightly. It was because the final moments of Lian in the novel came to mind.

“Don’t blindly trust hair color like a fool.”

Manager Lian, claiming to be Iris’s older brother, lies using the same white hair as Iris. Unfortunately, when Iris and Lian arrived at the Duke’s mansion, Iris’s mother, the Duchess, was absent, so there was no one to prove his lie.

Having tasted the Duke’s power, Lian, thinking that everything would be his if Iris disappeared, repeatedly threatens to kill Iris. Frightened, Iris escapes from the Duke.

“Lian was tortured by the returning Duchess and died…”

He was angry that his daughter, who had been missing for a long time, was lost because of Lian.

“Let’s go only as far as the empire. After that, shall we go into the forest and live? I wanted to experience rural life… What do you think?”

At that time, she was smiling with tranquil thoughts.

Thud, thud!

The sound of rough knocking on the door echoed. What’s happening? Frighteningly, the owner’s memories slowly came back.

“Oh, it’s a slave trader.”

Although Lian took care of all the chores in the house, he was not allowed to deal with slave traders.

Odil, being a decent-level dark sorcerer, didn’t have a large residence. That’s why there wasn’t even a proper jailer in the underground prison.

Because of this, if the underground prison were to open, the children could escape to the first floor. Of course, escaping to a safe place from where the dark sorcerer had settled was difficult, but it was possible.

To prevent this, the dark sorcerer cast a spell on the first-floor door. Only someone who could draw a magic circle in a specific direction could open the door. If someone tried to force it, the magic circle would explode.

“Character is clearly visible.”

Because of that, even Lian, who was trusted by Odil, could not open the door. No, he couldn’t even approach it. Odil’s body was no longer viable without Lian’s approval.

Clang, thud!

Odil went down and opened the door, and there was a sound of something being moved. He approached the door and listened.

“Is this enough?”

“Well, whatever.”

Normally, the two would have haggled loudly, but they concluded the deal easily.

“Could it be Iris?”

It seemed likely if the slave Odil had called for fetched a high price. He felt his heart pounding.

“Lian!”

“Yes!”

As usual, Odil sought Lianne to bring in a new slave. I quickly left the room and descended to the first floor.

“Move these kids to the new prison.”

“Yes!”

As I nodded approvingly, Odil ascended, satisfied. I approached the children trapped behind narrow bars.

“H-hyeong…”

“Hush, it’s okay. I’ll protect you.”

Two kids, who seemed like siblings, were huddled together, eyeing me cautiously. Next to them, a red-haired girl lay with a vacant expression.

“Oh… these kids! They’re Iris’s friends!”

They were the three who had escaped with Iris. My gaze focused on the huddled siblings.

“Were both of them boys…?”

Or was one of them a girl?

I dismissed the thought quickly.

“I might be mistaken.”

With that in mind, I opened the cell.

“Come, I’ll guide you to your new place. Be quiet; if you cause a ruckus, Odil might come down. Keep it as quiet as possible.”

Maintaining a friendly tone, I opened the door. The two kids, who seemed like brothers, hesitated before slowly getting up and stepping out of the prison. Noah, the older brother, alternated his gaze between the door and me. I went back inside the cell and said,

“The door has a magic seal, so there’s no way to escape.”

“…!”

Noah jolted, hugging his younger brother tightly. I lifted the girl lying on the floor. She sobbed softly, nestling in my arms. Her pupils were dilated, and drool ran down her mouth.

“She must have been given some kind of tranquilizer as a werewolf… They overdosed her.”

Even if she was a werewolf, giving such a large dose of medicine to a child made my brow furrow. I wanted to let her rest, but fearing that Odil might notice if I left her alone, I reluctantly held the child and headed toward the stairs leading underground.

“You’d better go down quickly. If Odil finds out, you might end up in the lab immediately.”

“Ugh…!”

Hesitant, Noah, looking for an escape route, stumbled toward the stairs.

“Haah, since I have a slave control stamp, would you mind going down without hesitation? I don’t want to drag you down by force.”

At my words, the faces of Noah and his younger brother, Nero, turned pale. Inside my wrist was a slave control stamp, a mark engraved by Odil, making it possible for me to control the actions of slaves. It was a mark of trust from Odil towards me.

If a slave disobeyed the command given by the stamp, they would convulse in agony, foaming at the mouth, eventually losing consciousness. Shivering, the two children descended the underground stairs.

“Go inside there.”

The cell assigned to them was right next to where other kids were imprisoned. The cells were divided by walls rather than bars, making it difficult to face each other.

Creak.

I carefully opened the rusty prison door, laid the girl down, and fetched a moth-eaten blanket crawling with bugs, shaking it lightly before covering her body. After tidying her hair, I brushed off my spot and stood up.

“Do you live here?”

“…! Nero!”

Nero bravely spoke to Lian because of her affectionate appearance. Noah hugged Nero tightly, stepping back with a shocked expression at his unexpected behavior.

“Yes, I live here.”

I answered Nero’s question lightly, heading toward the prison door. Noah looked at me with wide eyes, as if not expecting a casual answer.

‘Aww, so cute. So tiny.’

I smiled happily, looking at Nero. His cat-like face and large pupils, reminiscent of a black cat, were adorable.

‘I should bake some cookies for them.’

Thinking that, I left the prison.

With a clank, I locked the door, and thought,

‘Is this lock really being maintained properly?’

In the original world, the lock was designed to open by inserting two thin iron bars and shaking them. Curiosity piqued me.

Bump, thump.

Even as I left the dungeon, my curiosity did not disappear.

‘Is it really possible?’

What I wanted to check was not my lock-picking skill. I was curious whether the laws of the gag world still applied.

‘Well, let’s see if they work.’

I turned off the fire under the simmering soup I was making for dinner, opened the kitchen drawer, and grabbed two iron bars.