Asher the Insane

74 - The Queen's Journey Part 06 - Foundation

Aini spent months imprisoned, while Baohu spent months looking for her.

The slavers had yet to deliver her to the emperor.

Bai Fu, the leader of the slave auctions, had what he thought was a brilliant idea.

"We'll sell her for even more than the price of the reward. You may think about that and ask, 'Why would anyone want to buy her for more money than they would receive when they hand her over to the emperor?'

Hehe, my friend, you don't pay to get the reward. You pay for a foot in the door. To get a favor in the royal courts themselves. For the Emperor to remember your name, your face. Understand?"

But, his ambitions were foiled when he was slaughtered at the hands of Faye the Paragon of Alexandra, during the sale of the princess and a few other slaves of high value, including you, Asher.

You, who freed the rest of the slaves, who, in turn, killed most of the remaining slavers.

While the revolt was still happening, Aini and Baohu fled from the slave fort into the surrounding wilderness, but Aini stopped in her tracks and then ran back.

"What are you doing?!" Baohu asked while trying to stop her.

"This is our opportunity to set the people free. We cannot simply abandon them. Whoever those two are, they provided us with a wonderful chance."

"What if these two will do the same to us as they did to the slavers?" Quite disturbed, Baohu questioned.

"The purple-haired girl seems to be the horseman's companion. And he is not so bad, or rather, not evil as a whole. I've shared a cell with him for a week. He wanted us and all the others to be free. We'll just make sure that they'll get out of there safely."

That didn't entirely persuade him.

"Can you still recall how you felt when I was taken? There are dozens, if not hundreds, of people in there, struggling to return to their lives and retake what was taken from them. And I'll be damned if I am not going to aid them. You can help me or not. It's your choice."

"Aww, hell," was his reply, and Aini and Baohu immediately went back into the fray together once more.

They went deeper into the holdings of the Underground, which were now mostly devastated, taking care to avoid the heaps of meaty mush that were the only thing left of the guards, slaveholders, and other possible clientèle.

Aini and Baohu gathered an enormous group of the now-freed captives, attempting to assist everyone who came their way, and eliminating some of the few remaining guards. Most were brand-new slaves who had not yet been sold, although a handful were convicts who had been used for extortionary purposes other than being sold, such as blackmail or intimidation.

They had every right to be angry, but nothing was left standing against which they could exact retribution.

The slave hold was demolished, and the owners of this enterprise lay dead as pulp smeared on the walls and grounds.

Aini, on the other hand, did not think about revenge. She, like anyone else of course, had anger coursing through her veins, but she quickly transformed it into a plan.

Aini addressed the crowd when everyone had gathered outdoors, asking, "Has anybody seen the two who have released us? The horseman and the girl with purple hair? The man's name is Asher. The girl is called Faye."

Nobody had seen them. It seemed that after this spontaneous gesture of altruism, they just vanished.

"Damn," Aini whispered to herself, then called out, "People of Alaran! Hear me. My name is Wo Aini. I am Emperor Wo Chongbaini's daughter. They locked me up as you were, but I'm now free. I am aware that they have reduced you to nothing, but now is our moment. I have a rather straightforward objective. Take down the absentee tyrant and transform Alaran into the best version of herself. I am aware that many of you are afraid of what can happen or would like to return home after what you have been through. Yet, I must force you to answer a question.

Will you watch helplessly while what has happened to you happens to the people you care about? In the face of difficulty, are you going to cower in fear or will you fight back? No one should be condemned to a fate they did not select.

Join me, and together we can make sure that something like this never occurs again."