Chapter 5: You Can Go.
After two hours of work, Rose finally returned to the room. He found the girl sitting on the bed, her hands resting on her stomach. It was clear that she had eaten more than she should have, and now felt a slight discomfort. However, she didn't seem to be ill enough to be sick, judging by the half-bowl of rice that still remained on the table.
After almost a month in these lands, he had come to a harsh conclusion: this place was, quite possibly, the worst part of the empire. Most of the commoners were unaware that the world had been unified under a single banner and, because of this, they lived in the most deplorable conditions. The nobles exploited this supposed ignorance to subject them to the worst abuses.
The situation was so extreme that he himself had to resort to his own provisions to feed the girl, as the palace storerooms were practically empty. There was wheat, yes, but consuming it on an empty stomach was a death sentence. For this reason, he cooked the most insipid meal known: rice boiled only in water, without salt or anything that would alter the stomach's chemistry.
Mina soon noticed his entrance, sharply standing up and beginning to hiss as she stared fixedly at him. Despite the stomach pain, she was sure she could fight him and even escape. After all, she was alone. Furthermore, it seemed to her that the spear, being solid metal, would be difficult to handle. Although he could move around the palace with it without problems, Mina knew that moving and fighting fluidly were very different things.
The plan of taking him hostage to ensure her escape was discarded, as it would probably attract more nobles.
"What is your name?" the young prince asked as he slumped into a chair, seeking the greatest possible distance from Mina. He was aware that, at that moment, she posed a greater danger to herself than he did to her.
After all, he had demi-human siblings and knew that when they got scared, they tended to hurt themselves due to not being able to control their strength properly. And those were well-behaved children, overprotected by him, their older brother, their father, and their stepmothers. However, she seemed to be a savage person, judging by her clothing, which somewhat resembled the traditional tribal clothing of Amazonian warriors, although it lacked the metal that covered parts of their bodies.
"Mina," she said, pronouncing her name, although it was more an expression of gratitude for the bowl of rice than a simple introduction.
"Why were you in the dungeon?" Rose asked, maintaining an imperturbable calm.
"Uh…" was Mina's only response, as she felt confused. She didn't believe that the responsibility for her imprisonment lay with that man.
Noticing her bewilderment, the young prince sighed slightly and spoke with the same serenity. "The nobles who lived here before have left. I bought their lands recently," he explained calmly. Indirectly, but clearly, he was telling her that he had not put her there.
Fortunately, Mina finally understood the reason why he had taken her out of the dungeon and given her something to eat. After all, it wouldn't have made sense otherwise, as she remembered Carter had ordered his men to let her starve until she obeyed. Furthermore, this young man would not have been as kind and gentle as he had been.
That thought made her slightly lower her guard. Even so, she refused to approach the young man and maintained her distance; after all, she wouldn't trust him just because his name was different from her jailer's.
"So, can you tell me what happened?"
[Soften your tone, you idiot!] Desmos scoffed, gently tapping his friend with his haft. Although he had no body, being self-aware gave him the ability to move a little and, fortunately, Rose had left the haft of his body near his head.
Intrigued by the scene and the look of death the young man gave his spear, Mina simply began to tell her story. In reality, if this were a novel, it would be the cliché beginning of a harem: the girl had been deceived in a moment of extreme need, when she was starving, met a greedy human, and was drugged into unconsciousness.
After that, Mina was sold to Carter. There was no need for her to continue the story; Rose and Desmos had already understood everything that had happened. If he hadn't bought those lands and, therefore, the castle, she might have become the sex toy of Carter and his son.
"I know it was difficult to talk, but you are safe now," Rose said in his tranquil tone, which disconcerted her. "Now you should take a bath."
In reality, she smelled bad. If it weren't for the fact that he was first and foremost a gentleman... and he didn't have servants... he would have bathed her himself, but he preferred to preserve her dignity.
"Take a bath?" Mina asked, smelling her body and immediately feeling the strong stench hit her nose.
Rose, pulling out a pair of his pajamas (simple gray pants and a shirt) and a small bottle of body soap from a pocket dimension, told her: "Unfortunately I don't have women's clothing to lend you, so, for the moment, I'll lend you mine. I'll also leave you some soap."
"He... he might actually be a good person," Mina said to herself, unable to believe it.
Her mother had told her, when she was a child, the story of a man who, beyond the sea, had risen many years ago and fought against everything existing to grant equality before the law to everyone, regardless of their race, form, or religion. She thought they were fantastical stories, as the so-called Sun Emperor sounded too incredible to be true, but...
It wasn't simply impossible... He was possibly just one of those rare good humans they had told her about, but nothing more than that, and yet, she needed to escape.
She decided to put those thoughts aside. She simply picked up her things from the table and went to the room's bathroom, where she confirmed that the soap provided by her rescuer considerably relieved the tension in her muscles, which gave her a wonderful feeling of pleasure.
Undoubtedly, feeling her body so relaxed after months was a more than welcome change and a reason for deep gratitude.
Upon finishing her shower and putting on the clothing of the young man who had rescued her, she couldn't help but feel a little strange. The clothes were incredibly loose, which was natural considering he was almost a head taller than her and broader in the shoulders. Furthermore, they were surprisingly light and cool.
However, the biggest inconvenience was that the pants were so big that it was impossible for her to put them on. Therefore, she only put on the shirt, which fortunately served as a short dress, covering below her thighs without reaching her knee, which in any case made her feel quite embarrassed.
Soon, she heard someone knock on the door and, after a timid "come in," the man who had rescued her entered the room. To Mina's surprise, his cheeks were tinged with a strange reddish-gold color.
"I should have assumed they would be too big for you," Rose said, with a slightly embarrassed tone. At that moment, he really hadn't considered that his pants wouldn't fit her.
[Thank God you're tall] Desmos thought, equally relieved. After all, although seeing a cute girl only in a shirt was a scene he would normally appreciate, one thing was a close friend, girlfriend, or lover of years, and quite another was a girl who had just been saved and clearly didn't need to be devoured with his gaze.
"Pervert," Rose mentally scolded him.
Determined to move forward, Rose cleared his throat, regaining a little composure. "I will wash your clothes, and when they are dry, you can leave without any problems."
"Huh?" was the only thing Mina could articulate, realizing that lately it was almost her only response. "You... you're going to let me go?" she asked, trembling as she spoke.
End of chapter.