What... what is your name?" she stammered. Her voice was brittle, barely a whisper. She didn't look like she had been physically abused, but the mental exhaustion of being a captive noble—which I suspected she was—had clearly taken its toll.
"My name is Elfina," she finally managed.
"Well, Elfina, we don't have time for questions. Take this key; I snatched it from one of the bandits. Use it to free everyone here. And remember—whatever happens next, try not to look our way."
Just as I felt the vibrations of approaching footsteps, the cave entrance swarmed with soldiers. More than ten of them, clad in heavy plate armor and wielding spears, burst in. They moved with a practiced precision that suggested they were used to dealing with high-level criminals. Instantly, their spear-tips were leveled at Rina and me.
"Don't move!" their leader barked.
I leaned toward Rina and whispered, "Rina, listen to me. Do not resist. I've formulated a plan—this is the perfect way to infiltrate the territory and scout the surroundings. Just surrender."
We raised our hands in unison. Fortunately, Rina had already stored her Adamantine Halberd back into her Infinite Void storage. The stage was set.
The Empire of Reyn
According to this body's fragmented memories, my home was a nightmare. The servants treated me with contempt, and my own brother had sent assassins to erase me. Returning home now would be a strategic blunder. As for the slaves behind us, they were still paralyzed by fear; they hadn't breathed a word about us being their rescuers yet.
I quickly pieced together the geopolitical situation. We were in the Reyn Empire. The kingdom was currently embroiled in a brutal conflict against four neighboring nations. With four front lines to maintain, their greatest crisis was a shortage of manpower.
Their solution? The Branding. They would round up prisoners and slaves, promise them freedom in exchange for military service, and sear a magical Slave Brand onto them. Once branded, desertion meant instant death. It was a perfect, cruel system of forced loyalty.
The Branding and the Plan
As I expected, they processed us immediately. I welcomed it. The front lines would be the perfect crucible to temper this weak body and accelerate the synchronization with my soul.
In the shadows of the command tent, I overheard the officers whispering.
"That girl in the armor... she wiped out the bandits," one officer muttered to a woman named Lady Silva. "We tried to strip her of that gear, but it's impossible. The armor is bound to her soul; it's like a second skin."
"It's protected by spiritual energy," another added. "But it doesn't matter. We need 'specialists' for the high-risk operations. If she's that strong, she'll be a perfect vanguard. If she dies, it's just her own weakness. Hu hu hu."
"And the boy?" Silva asked.
"We've branded him—Magnus. Our intel suggests they are close. If we keep the boy on the front lines, the girl will be forced to fight like a demon just to keep him alive. Our plan is foolproof."
I smirked in the darkness. They thought they were using Rina to protect a weak boy. Little did they know, they had just invited a Spirit Lord and his deadliest general into their ranks.