I was once a farmer's daughter, raised around cattle with plenty of love. But my father's love ran thin when his soil ran dry. And so he sold his only daughter to a man who would later sell her to the highest bidder. And for what? Another chance to gamble, not because he wanted to win but to experience the thrill of a loss.
Passed from one man to another, I ended up in a slave trader's hands. I hoped and prayed every day and night that one day someone with a big heart would save me from that cage. For a glimpse in time, I thought it would be that young boy who'd visited me last night. I knew he was there for a virgin, most likely to break his own virginity. Alas, his hesitation left me rotting in that cage. A worse fortune than what I'd already been through, to be given hope only for it to be taken away.
'I hope you experience it too…' I knew it was wrong for me to do so, and yet I could not help but curse him deeply. 'I hope you rot in hell.'
Lifting my head, I found myself looking into a mirror. Dressed in a casual-looking sundress with plenty of yellow flowers imprinted throughout the gentle white fabric. My bosom pressed a little tight for comfort in the dress, and the deep cut around the neck showed more of my cleavage than I felt comfortable with.
Trying to adjust the dress, my fingers halted as they hit the scars that ran across my chest. Small lacerations throughout my body from whips had left skin-deep scars, making certain areas of my body slightly darker than the rest of my skin. One such scar ran right across my chest.
Tracing the scar, I tried to remember when and where I'd gotten it from. Was it my fiancé or the slaver? I couldn't quite remember, yet somehow, it felt like it had always been there. Staring at it in the mirror, I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. Whether it scarred my appearance or simply added embellishment to what used to be my perfect skin.
"Hmm…" Adjusting the dress, I decided to leave the cleavage as is. "Doesn't matter now, does it?"
Turning around, I tried to get a better look at how the dress looked from the back. Laces were strung tight across an open back, stopping just above my waist, although the curve of my buttocks made it so that the fabric and my waist had a few fingers' worth of space between them.
'How am I still fat after barely eating for months?' Squinting eyes at my reflection in the mirror, I couldn't help but wonder why. Gently pressing my hand across my buttocks, I curved my fingers under them and gave them a subtle lift. 'Gosh, it's heavy…'
Heaving a sigh for everything about my body was trying to make me feel subconscious. From the scars on my breasts to the heft on my rear end. The only thing that did bring me some relief was the fact that I wasn't chosen for my body; instead, it seemed this devil had some true work cut out for me.
'Besides, I'm sure guys prefer thin women.' Or at least that's what I'd heard when I was part of local gossip back in my village. 'Whatever–'
A sudden knock on the changing room's door made me nearly jump out of my dress. Bracing my heart and clenching it, I quickly turned and stammered out the words.
"I-I'm done, I will be out in a second!"
As the sound of retreating footsteps echoed from behind the door, I finally let go of the breath that I'd been holding, a habit picked up from the constant lashing in that cage. It was best to respond when a knock or a baton hits your door, lest you wish to feel it skidding across your head.
'That scared me…' As that thought settled and my anxiety was lifted, I realized something peculiar about my recent interactions. 'I'm more scared of a knock than I was of the devil. Why? Were devils more comforting than what had become of my fate?'
That question roamed my head even as my new master walked me through the open streets. The town of Luminos, or so it's called. I'd never heard of this place until I was brought here after monsters trampled my village. My fiance and my father probably perished in that skirmish, but by some twisted trick of fate, it was the slaves who'd been evacuated first. They were worth more than the villages to the slavers and the capital, at least that's what I think.
"We're going to buy you some new shoes," caught off guard yet again, my body stiffened at the demon's voice. "After that, you're coming with us to stay at the inn unless Aura has already found a place for us to set up that shop."
"O-okay, master…" Following him, I was brought to another shop. A leatherworker specializing in footwear. And to my surprise, not having a slave collar made the attendant treat me no differently than my master.
The polite word… I thought it had been a myth all this time. But to watch the man's daughter putting different shoes onto my feet, I was almost on the verge of tears. And the smile on her face as she looked up at me, perhaps it was trained, perhaps it was real, but to be seen as a person again, I had to pinch myself to know that it was real.
"You have quite the skin, ma'am." Setting my feet into clean water, she used her fingers to stretch my toes. "A bit stiff in the feet, but I think a massage will open them right up!"
To my master I set my gaze, but he seemed busy talking with the merchant about the different pair of shoes which he wished to purchase.
'What kind of devil is so kind?' I thought, not knowing if I deserved to be treated as I was in just the last few hours. He told me that he would grant me freedom, but if he spoils me so much, then how could my heart ever be free of his thoughts?