Rómulo leaned against the wall near the door, maintaining his distance.
"Slaves?" Erick asked, his face bewildered. Many things had happened in a very short period of time, destabilizing his mental health.
"Of course, slaves!" Rómulo smiled, a purely business smile that did not reach his eyes. "This is where the real value is stored, Erick. The thing that moves the world: labor."
Not knowing what to do, Erick's gaze rotated from the cages in the room, occasionally passing the puddle of water nearby and finally resting on Rómulo's smile.
"The truth is I must thank you, Erick. If it weren't for you, the relatives of these slaves would have killed me. After all, those who attacked my caravan were coming to save them," Rómulo said calmly, not realizing that this was the final nail in Erick's mind.
"Ha, ha," laughing foolishly, Erick could only walk past the cages. Until he reached a small cage near the puddle of water.
He had saved a slave owner. He had eliminated innocent people who wanted to save their loved ones. He had arrived late to save his village. He had received a sword that shone like the sun, something worthy of a hero, but he was a villain, a blind executioner serving evil.
With the faint moonlight filtering through a nearby window, he saw a weak, thin girl in the cage. She looked back at him, but in those eyes, he saw neither hope nor dreams, as if she were dead.
Erick looked away.
But his gaze fell on the puddle, which faintly reflected himself, and in the puddle, he saw the same weak eyes as the girl. In the end, he realized that the only difference between the girl and him was that the girl was in a cage and he was free.
Because both sets of eyes reflected the same thing: a look without hope.
Then, with courage, Erick looked at the girl and she looked at him. It was for a brief moment, but the girl's eyes weakly moistened, as if trying to hide a torrent about to burst.
"Help," the girl said weakly, as the steps of her captor were heard deeper and heavier.
"And well, Erick, what did you choose?" Rómulo said, confident that Erick's mind had broken. He would clearly give Erick the money and allow him to leave, though if someone assaulted him, that would no longer be his problem, you know?
"I decide," Erick said calmly, as a glow appeared in his eyes.
With a hum in the wind, Erick remembered that being a hero does not depend on having someone to admire you or being the strongest. Being a hero is just doing the right thing at the right time, no matter how strong the enemy is.
*BOOM!*
The wind in the slave hall exploded, and for the first time, the hall truly lit up. The girl, for the first time in years since her capture, opened her eyes, and a sword was reflected in them.
As if it were a piece of the sun, the sword shone and carried with it something that contradicted its title: hope.
With a look of annoyance, Rómulo looked at Erick and saw in his eyes no longer the trembling hare, but a born lion. With a lament, he was annoyed, since he knew he had pressured him, but he never thought that so much pressure would turn the subject in front of him into a diamond.
"How arrogant, I think no more questions are necessary, boy," Rómulo said, with feigned calm, sighing deeply.
Staring fixedly, Erick saw Rómulo approaching. He was not approaching with the intention of fighting or anything similar; he was just walking. But he stopped steps away from Erick and, with a burst of anger, punched the cage, scaring the girl inside.
"You damn insolent fool!" Rómulo shouted.
Just at that moment, a commotion of footsteps and voices was heard in the adjacent hallway, and dozens of armed men entered the room, filling the dungeon with the metallic clanging of light armor and the weight of prepared weapons. They were Rómulo's mercenaries.
Gripping his sword, Erick looked at Rómulo with anger. With just this, he realized that he never could have left this place alive, regardless of whether he had accepted the money. This was the path he had to follow, the path of a hero.
[Master-Sword synergy updates to Level 5, shared mind is unlocked]
"That was interesting, kid," a metallic voice was heard in Erick's head.
Erick was scared at first, but then he thought about it: the system, the voice, the sword. With a smile, Erick looked at the tip of his sword and in its shine, he saw the hope it represented.
Without hesitating for another second, Erick looked toward his enemies and in them, he could only see his victory. His decision to be a hero was the shield against fear. His destiny was never to lose.
This was the beginning of the story of the first wielder of the sword that would destroy the world.
[New title unlocked. The Last One Standing]
[Allows the user to always have the possibility of winning, regardless of their enemy]
[New ability obtained. Heart of a Lion]
[Increased resistance to fear, allows the user to maintain calm in difficult situations]