Rise of the Legendary Emperor

Noa didn't have any idea how Don could have this much wealth as he gave away a precious dagger as a gift and now his subordinate just agreed to buy the slaves for a whopping amount of five thousand low-quality life energy stones.

Even though Noa had received the highest bid of eight thousand stones, he cut three thousand from the highest bid because of the dagger.

"Wonderful"

Noa clapped in delight and said as Arwen flicked his wrist again.

"Queen Noa, here are the stones, and can we see the slaves?"

Arwen sent the pouch of stones flying towards the royal guard before he could come to him.

"You like to see the merchandise heh? Come, let me show you"

Noa giggled and motioned them to follow him.

"Captain Arwen, isn't it too much price for slaves?"

While following Noa and the royal guards, Lord Clemo whispered to Arwen

"They are going to be a valuable asset to us, Lord Clemo, trust his majesty"

Lord Clemo slowly nodded and followed them in silence.

"Open it"

Following Noa, they came before a dark cellar door and Noa ordered the royal guards to open it.

The dark door opened with a creaking sound and when they looked down, they could see a torch was burning and letting out a dim light.

The reeking smell of blood made Lord Clemo twitch his nose but Noa seemed not to be affected by the smell.

"Come on, darlings"

Royal guards conjured a light globe in their hands as Noa followed them into the cellar with Lord Clemo and Arwen following them behind.

Stepping down on the stairs, Arwen noticed shackles attached to the walls, bloodstains, and various tools that looked like used to torture people.

There was only a sound of water droplets trickling but when Arwen looked closer he found that it wasn't water droplets but blood.

Above the puddle of blood, Arwen and Lord Clemo saw three bodies hanging from the ceiling with shackles attached to their neck and legs.

Arwen couldn't identify the woman from the bodies as the three of them were drenched in their own blood and he could barely sense the heartbeat.

"Queen Noa, are they"

Lord Clemo swallowed and asked

"Alive? Yes, I just played with a bit"

Arwen did his best to hide the killing intent in his eyes as he wanted to kill Noa and hang him like them. 

"Darlings, get them down and give them something to eat, I don't want them to die before King Don darling can play with them"

Noa chuckled and looked at Clemo as he was barely able to smile because it was hard for him to smile at the miserable state.

"For what's it worth, she's still a virgin so King Don can be her first, you know what I mean?"

Noa winked at Arwen that almost made him throw up on her face in disgust.

"Although I ordered my men to stay away from the peasants, I can't guarantee anything, who knows how many people they slept with?"

Even though Don was the ruthless person he met, Lord Clemo didn't get such a wicked vibe from him like he was getting from Noa.

"Now you have seen the merchandise, what do you want to do next?"

"Queen Noa, if your guards could show us the rest of the slaves, our men can transport them into the carriage and we'll be on our way"

"Oh? What's the rush darlings? Can't you stay here for a day or two?"

"We'd love to, Queen Noa, but unfortunately we must leave, his majesty will be waiting for us"

"Hahaha"

However, when Noa heard Lord Clemo, he burst into laughter

"He can't wait to play with the slaves, can he?"

Lord Clemo realized he doesn't know Don a bit as he stood there without anything.

Noa stopped laughing and looked at his guards

"Bring the slaves outside to Lord Clemo's carriage"

****************************

"Where am I?"

Kayako slowly opened her eyes. The last thing she barely remembers was someone feeding something to her. In front of her, she vaguely saw the figures of Nanbu and Ukita lying without moving.

She reached her hand out for Nanbu and Ukita and surprisingly her hands were free.

"Nanbu, Ukita"

She shook their bodies and tried to wake them. She was hearing a heavy downpour hitting the roof of the carriage and she couldn't see the outside as there were no windows in the carriage.

Her first priority was to make sure that Nanbu and Ukita are still alive as they were continuously tortured by Noa and made her watch them suffer.

She felt like she was still hearing their screams and she didn't know what happened to her students.

"Nanbu, wake up, Ukita"

She tried not to shout too much and alert whoever outside the carriage.

"(cough)"

"Nanbu"

A small smile appeared on Kayako's face despite the grave situation she was in.

"Ka...Kaya?"

The words barely escaped his mouth while Kayako used the little strength she had left to help him up.

"Your wounds?"

Kayako noticed the cuts on his body slowly closing up on its own.

"Where are we?"

He asked Kayako and realized that there are no shackles around his wrists and legs.

"Wake the old man"

He whispered to Kayako and crawled to the carriage door.

"Ukita, Ukita"

"Black-armored men"

Nanbu could see the soldiers donned in black armor from head to toe through the door crack.

"Black-armored men? King Don's men?"

"Seems like it"

Nanbu frowned when he remembered the stories of how they massacred King Garreth's men without having even a single casualty. He himself talked about this feat in his class and his brains struggled to form a plan to escape these remarkable black-armored men.

"Nanbu, he's awake"

"Good"

Nanbu crawled back to Ukita and Kayako

"Our students"

Kayako's voice broke as Nanbu wiped away the tears on her face

"We can't save them if we end up as slaves, can you feel any slave bond?"

Kayako shook her head

"Good, it means they haven't marked us yet, we have a chance to escape"

"Wait"

Ukita growled

"What?"

"Think about it, they didn't tie us or marked us as slaves even though they had the chance to do so"

"Not now old man, they are just overconfident, we can use it as our advantage"

"We are in his kingdom, Nanbu, how do you plan to escape?"

Ukita calmly said as Nanbu frowned in confusion

"How can you say that?"

"The rain, there's no rain in any kingdoms at this time, except Agoria"

Nanbu took a few deep breaths after hearing Ukita and shook his head

"It doesn't matter, if we don't escape now, we'll spend the rest of our lives as slaves"

He was more worried about Kayako than himself and Ukita. If she ended up as a slave, her life would be hell and Nanbu would rather see her dead than see them defile her.

"Here's the plan"

Ukita opened his mouth to say something but Nanbu stopped him with a wave of his hand

"I have enough strength to break this door, when I break this door, the two guards would be surprised for a moment, I'll use their surprise and attack them, you two use your strength to cast wherever spell you can to escape into the woods, once you're in the woods, Kayako can take care the rest of it"

"That's your plan?"

Kayako looked pale after hearing his plan as she didn't get much courage from his plan.

"I know it's not a perfect plan, but do you have a better one?"

"What if there's no forest nearby?"

"It's Agoria, there's nothing but forest"

"But you"

"Dont worry about me, just escape as quickly as you can, a few humans in fancy armor can't stop me"

He smiled but Kayako and Ukita knew that his smile was fake as a horse's egg.

"Are you ready?"

Kayako couldn't nod but her tears had already started to wet her face.

"You can't afford to be weak now, Kaya. Remember what that eunuch bitch did to us and to our students, we need to avenge them"

Kayako was not a vengeful woman but she wanted to get justice for those poor children and to get justice,she knew that she had to escape this carriage at all cost.

"Yes"

Kayako deeply exhaled as Nanbu nodded.

"Remember, no matter what happens to me, keep running"

Nanbu closed his eyes and conjured the weak life energy into his hands before Kayako could say anything.

The magical fluctuations of a mid level great master slowly radiated from Nanbu's body as his hands transformed into metal hands.

"Here we go"

Opening his eyes, Nanbu sighed as Kayako and Ukita got ready to follow Nanbu's plans.

"1...2...3"

Just as he said three,Nanbu punched the carriage door as hard as he could.

THe wooden door shattered into pieces when it met Nabu's metal hands and the four black armored guards outside were startled as the debris hit their armor with a clinking sound.

"FOR FREEDOM!"

Nanbu leopard out of the carriage with the battle cry and sent a black armored guard flying with a punch.

Nanbu thought that this might cause some confusion among the other three guards however, the other three guards quickly took a defensive stance and flanked Nanbu.

Nanbu had no time to turn back and see how many guards were coming behind him.If he was in his prime state, he could have easily bested the three peak level masters in front of him,yet,he could now only hope to buy some time for Kayako and Ukita to escape.

"Fist of Fury"

He had no time to waste as he cast the last spell he could with his remaining life energy.

The spell would enhance the strength of his fists and let him deliver rapid punches in lightning fast for a short amount of time.

Looking at the guards who were busy with Nanbu, Kayako mustered her courage and jumped out of the carriage with Ukita to run towards the forest.

Unfortunately for Nanbu,the black armor they wore was extremely strong and even with his enhanced strength, he couldn't make a dent in the armor as his fist started to throb.

"RUN!"

Nanbu knew he's going to lose the battle with the three and heard more footsteps from behind.

"Stop right there"

Suddenly a calm voice reverberated the area as the black armored men stopped fighting with Nanbu.

And in a flash, Nanbu, Kayako, and Ukita were surrounded by a volley of arrows.

Nanbu was tired yet he tried to move a muscle but another arrow flew past him grazing his cheek.

"Try to move again and the next one will go through your head"