Escape [Chapter 3]

When he woke up several hours later, he was startled by the sight of the girl. She was still sitting in the position he had left her in, as she had been. She was sitting on the floor, sniffling from the cold, but she was trying her best to stifle a sneeze and avoid moving, maybe because she had seen the results from the mini operation, but she was obediently sitting there as instructed. He didn't expect her to wait for express permission to move. Lear found that extremely adorable and stood up, picking the girl up from behind by her armpits, causing her to squeal in surprise. He told her to stand up while holding her in mid air and once she had extended her legs, he put her down and placed a duvet over her from his bed to help her warm up. She may have been numb from sitting so long, but she didn't resist everything as she had been before he started.

In admiration for her resilience he decided to give the girl a small gift, which he had originally planned to take himself. One that should help her when she eventually began to use mana. If she was talented like she said, it may help her to sense mana that much sooner. He gently picked up her hand, and pointed it at all the scattered tar on the floor, and told her. "All the hard work you've done until now, it will all help you when you get older, ok? I'm sorry for everything you went through until now, and you can tell me anything whenever you want, ok? I'll do my best to fix it or get it for you! From now on, everything will be fine!" While he spoke, he put his focus into pulling mana from all the tar at once and yanked it towards her quickly. Since he wanted to bind the mana to her without causing any harm, he pushed it in one orb at a time through her chest, tying the mana to the ends of her soul like hair extensions. This would allow for it to be easily purged should she be incompatible with fire attribute mana and it would be accessible if she decided to use it. As the mana was stored, the tar broke down, leaving ashes in its place. The red orbs of mana beelined around her body, becoming steadily acclimated. As he had hoped, without knowing what took place here, others could only see her as having plentiful natural mana. Those that could see the soul of a person were the only risk factor to this adjustment.

He strolled over to what seemed to be Leon's closet once he had finished checking her mana circuits and after rummaging through a sea of identical clothes, he found some long, silken shirts that were discarded to the side and he tossed a particularly warm one in her direction, telling her to put it on and grabbing another similar shirt under his arm for later. The lapels rested upon the girl's collarbone, just about avoiding falling off of her. It was baggy on her and reached her ankles. He walked towards her, giving a look of approval. As he approached, the girl said "bend over", with her right hand cupping the side of her mouth gently. So he bent down, facing his ear in her direction to listen. She faintly whispered, "What were those red balls just now, young master Leon, and the white balls around the room now?"

Leon was pleasantly surprised. While he had put mana through her and opened part of her mana channels where he could painlessly do so, she shouldn't have been able to percieve anything. He went through her chest instead of mind to avoid any issues or torment after all. Perhaps the aptitude measurement scale or whatever had some credibility after all. Most of all, it was sweet how she had called him young master and told him quietly. He enthusiastically whispered back, "Those little lights you see, those are all mana particulates! Make sure you don't mess around with them without somebody being with you, ok honey? And if you want to stop or start seeing them, for now just close your eyes for some time and imagine those lights when you want to see them, and think of the colour black when you want to stop seeing them. It can take some practise and it's ok to do this on your own, but don't do too much else by yourself."

As he whispered, he smelt his hot breath, which smelt rank. He himself couldn't bare it so he could only imagine how the girl felt. With that, he decided they both needed to wash up immediately and he should brush his teeth too since he had vomited. He had grabbed the shirt for this reason, but he planned to go after exploring the house more. This was definitely more urgent though. He asked the girl to guide him to the bathroom quietly as he grabbed a shirt and trouser and tore them to resemble a vest and something between shorts and hot pants.

He exclaimed, "Let's go!" to the girl, and so they departed on a stealth mission to reach the bathroom. The girl went all out, excitedly. Peeking around corners, hiding behind drawers and decorations, and rushing forward where she felt it necessary. Lear followed behind casually, listening for sounds with his improved senses and using mana sense to look for fluctuations. The decor resembled that of an old, abandoned castle with portraits hanging on the walls and armour lining the hallways. It really hit home that this world wasn't his and that he wasn't Lear anymore...

They arrived at the bathroom and they both entered. Lear spared no time putting the clean clothes into an empty basket and he stripped absently, swiftly tying a towel around his waist. He began to fill the tub, warming the water and asked the girl why she wasn't coming in. They were both extremely grimy right now. Lear had puked all over himself, and he had food spilled on him accidentally. The girl was already filthy but she had also sweat a lot during the time they had spent together.

He cleaned himself up with the shower quickly and then looked over to the girl. She had barely moved after coming in and was staring off into the corner, red-faced. Lear got up and after removing her shirt and underwear, he sat her upon a stool, and began washing her hair, lathering it carefully with soap. It seemed she was hot, or might be getting sick from her behaviour so he gave up on the idea of a bath. He continued to wash her back carefully as she washed her front. To distract her, he began to ask her questions and by the time she was clean, and he drained the bathtub, he had discovered a number of things. The girl's name was Rachael, she was nine years old and had been working as his maid for three years now. She was from the slums, and had pretty much been sold off by her abusive guardian due to Leon's persistence in the matter and a handsome price of five hundred silvers. He wasn't sure how much that equated to but it must've been quite the sum.

He found out that he was the second youngest of five children. There was his elder brother and first-born, Joseph and his sisters, Priscilla, Blaze and Elaine. The lady who had been in the doctor's office had been Emma, his father's wife. Leon and Blaze were born of a concubine, Lizbeth. He was told the twins were the family head and his twin. The family head was Edgar and he could be identified by his clean shaven face. Ray on the other hand had a beard and was the younger of the two. Ray was also the one who had punched him. Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to enquire for physical profiles of others so he was still uncertain about the others. Furthermore, it seemed Rachael had no information on the current affairs of the house, and he warned her not to go digging into trouble as he got ready to exit the bathroom after drying off, brushing his teeth and putting his makeshift clothes on.

They walked out, holding hands and the girl led him towards her lodging as instructed. By now, she had completely forgotten that Leon was not allowed out of his room.

When they had arrived at the detached building which held the maids' lodging, they instead stopped in front of what seemed to be a kennel. The floor was barely big enough for someone to lay in, curled up. Strewn across the floor was straw that smelt as bad as a barn. Lear's veins began to pop out at his temple and neck. This disrespect was too much! He was absolutely enraged. He silently fumed and told the girl to pick up a set of clothes and any personal effects she'd like to bring to a new room. That moment, a maid happened to wander past the doorway, and after seeing them, she smirked briefly before screaming. It was a scream people let off when there life was in danger, no less. And commotion ensued. Maids emerged from their quarters and he felt a large mana signature approaching from the main building quickly.

Looking around he saw that this situation wouldn't easily resolve and so, he swiped Rachel off the ground and ran towards the window at the far end of the room as fast as he could manage. As he leapt up to break out through the window, he was grabbed by the back of his shirt midair. "Ah ****" he said, turning his head slowly. He came face to face with Priscilla and put his feet back on the floor. Being with her alone was terrifying. Back then, she had been cut off left, right and centre. So she would definitely give him a piece of her mind now, he thought to himself.

Priscilla ordered Leon to walk with her, and strode in front of him. Lear told Rachael to stay calm and not make a sound no matter what. Priscilla's confidence annoyed him and he decided he would break out from under her. He wouldn't be going before the family head again today. So he walked behind Priscilla. As they reached the maid and kennel, Priscilla asked her to follow beside her for testimony, and glanced at the kennel, disgusted, averting her eyes. They then continued to walk silently.

Along the way, just after a third flight of stairs, Lear saw his opportunity and swiped a helmet off a nearby armour stand. He planned to sell it and buy clothes and a decent meal for Rachel with the money. Lear had decided he would commence his breakout at the next window, and head to a nearby town. Priscilla wasn't being careless as far as he could tell and he was wary they would arrive before he knew it. He didn't know the layout of the house after all. As Priscilla continued to walk, the maid walking beside her tried to alert her to Leon opening a window. Luckily, Priscilla was already irritated and told the maid to shut up angrily without hearing the maid out, continuing to walk. Leon had finally opened the stiff window enough to drop down and without looking back, he did so.

While his drop wasn't perfect, he made sure to land firmly so Rachael wouldn't get hurt in his arms. After checking on her and placing the helmet on her head, he began to run. He ran, and in less than a minute, he heard Priscilla bellow in the distance, "GET YOUR **** BACK HERE THIS INSTANT LEON! ELSE YOU'RE ****** WHEN I GET YOU, YA LITTLE ****!"

He glanced backwards, and seeing she was in the window, and hadn't jumped down behind him, he decided to keep running. His stamina was horrendous and his speed wasn't any better. Within ten minutes, he had slowed down to an exhausted jog and on sheer willpower alone, he continued to jog with Rachel perched on his arm. He didn't think Priscilla planned to follow him thankfully or she would have caught up by now without a doubt.

Another twenty minutes passed, and Lear's jog had devolved into a brisk walk as they passed through a well-maintained flower garden. In the distance, he could make out a large gate with a horse-drawn carriage in its vicinity. He shifted course to walk towards it, and Rachael enthusiastically piped up, telling him he'd made it to the first of four gates.

Suddenly, Priscilla emerged from behind a tree and this time, she grabbed him by the leg, causing him to fall on his back, and dragged him along like that. In the spur of the moment, the best he could do was seat Rachael on top of him, and she was now sledding across the floor on his chest. Priscilla didn't take her eyes off of him as she dragged him across the floor this time and knowing he couldn't escape, he let it happen. Priscilla didn't say a word along the way, she was clearly mad at him.

"I'll go with you without complaining if you get Rachael a few sets of clothes and food, that was the plan anyway" Lear said haughtily, in an effort to taunt her into responding.

"Do you think you even have a choice right now, Leon you twat?" she snorted. "I was planning on handling this professionally and leaving it to father but you're still spouting crap, huh?"

She proceeded, "If you take ten consecutive punches from me without passing out, I'll consider it. You can figure the rest out with dad. Deal? As long as you didn't do anything to the maid you'll be fine..."

He wanted to argue and try to reduce the number after seeing her strength, but seeing her eyes, he knew it wouldn't change no matter what he did. He said, "Deal!". Priscilla had a bemused look on her face as she said "Perfect. Let's get started then." She dropped his leg, moved Rachael and punched him right in his left shoulder. She then proceeded to punch him three times consecutively, exponentially increasing the force and aiming at the same point. Then she punched him in the abdomen with explosive power, incomparable to the preceeding blows. She punched him in the stomach and chest twice each, holding back less and less each time. He spluttered in pain, he couldn't move at all from the ditch under him, now shaped in his likeness. Before she punched him for the last time, she winked at him, grinning cruelly.

She then wound her fist back, and drove her fist into his abdomen hard. As it made contact, blood flew out of his mouth, constant like a fountain and he looked up at her, barely able to keep his eyes open. He put up his middle finger and instantly, something hard made contact with his jaw before he could react, causing him to pass out.

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When he came to, he was leaning against a wall, just outside a room he quickly deduced to be the family head's. He got up, and while he felt extremely sore, he could tell he had been mostly healed. Priscilla's last punches were definitely not thrown for him to handle. She had thrown that tenth punch to completely obliterate him. That meant she had thrown nine weaker punches to get the full pleasure of beating him... how vicious. At this rate, he might just die of blood loss.

He looked left and right but he didn't see Rachael any more. He hoped she had the decency to uphold the bet despite the extra hit that knocked him out. As he stood up, a note fell from his now red shirt's fold. On it was a string of symbols he couldn't comprehend, but he assumed it to be writing. It was a significant revelation that this world's writing system was completely different to his own, since the language was comprehensible. He would have to look into learning to read and write it seemed. Lear brushed himself off, and headed into the room behind him.

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