I’m still struggling to understand what this was about. The fact Mordred’s name was orange must mean something, I tried to consider the fact on how [Game Screen] would interpret this and thought back on what the color orange would mean in a videogame. Hmm usually it would mean that a character would be close to critical health. If that’s the case, then that would mean that the Knight Commander did a number on him.

  He must still be recovering from that battle and if I had to guess was ignoring that in favor in trying to save me instead…. Mordred please do not do something stupid like that. I appreciate the thought, but I do not need my followers suffering for my sake. I took a deep breath and shook my head over the thought.

  At the very least it seems Damian and V are alright considering their names are still the same color. As for the minions list… besides the humans it seems they’re all yellow which probably means they’re only slightly injured and thankfully the number hasn’t decrease in any of them.

  I breathe a sigh of relief, glad to know that at least all my followers are safe somewhat. Now I can focus on escaping here. I’ll just have to assume the color change for them is just a feature of [Game Screen] from last it ranked up; it’ll definitely prove useful for the future.

  I took the time to look beyond the iron bars of my prison, pretending I was desperate in trying to remove them.

  “Let me out of here!!” I yelled out, selling the deception of desperation.

  There was a single male voice responding loudly. “Quiet down! There’s no hope for you, if you behave then your submission won’t get any worse.”

  I turned to the source of his voice, and it was a single soldier standing guard at the only door I could see which I assumed was the exit out of here. He was holding on to a [Copper Spear] and was barely looking in my direction, in fact it seemed like he was just on the edge of falling asleep. That’s good for me, it’ll make it much easier to escape.

  I realized that there were more cells around me, many of which were filled with other prisoners. Surprisingly there were a fair number of women and children in addition to men. Just what reason would they need to imprison them? Many of them even had particular looking metal collars wrapped around their neck with some kind of jewel on the center of it.

  I decided to call out to them. “Hey, are all of you alright?”

  They got spooked when I spoke to them, moving as far away as they could from me in their own cells. They didn’t say a word except for one who managed to respond with a single word. “M-monster…”

  I sighed from that comment, right a perfectly normal response considering I AM an actual monster. I did notice that they didn’t seem as afraid of me as I thought they would. Rather, they had this look like they had given up overall. Just what is going on here?

  That’s when the prisoner in the cell in front of me started to speak, to my surprise it was another Beastman, which from what I could tell was probably of a vulture species. With a brown head with white ruff on his neck, silverly beak, and with black wings that stretch across his arms to his back while still having humanlike hands with just talons instead of fingers. He had his arms crossed while he was wearing the same cuffs that I had on. He seemed rather relaxed for someone in who was currently imprisoned.

  “Don’t bother, those guys over there are too scared out of their minds to properly answer you. Besides, they think creatures like us our monsters.”

  The vulture then eyed me up, a little intrigued before continuing. “Well… me at least. I thought you were some kind of young lizard Beastman but now that I got a good look at you…. You look more like a kobold. So maybe monster is a proper term for you.”

  Despite figuring out my species he didn’t seem to be too worked up about it. In fact, he looked even more intrigued about me. Not seeing the point of trying to lie to the vulture I confirmed his suspicion.

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  “That’s right, I am a kobold. Got a problem with that?” I replied with a bit of smugness in my tone.

  The vulture simply chuckled in response, clearly amused. “Not at all, just curious why this kingdom would want to capture a monster like you. Did you do something to grab their attention?”

  I gave back a big smile, sensing my own growing interest in this Beastman. “You can say that, got group of loyal followers, some of which were some ex-soldiers of this kingdom in fact. Seems they want to take advantage of that. ~”

  The vulture’s chuckled turned into a small laugh in reaction to my statement. “Really now? I would find it hard to believe but that would explain why they’re keeping you prisoner. So, what will you do now? Those handcuffs restrict your [Skills] not leaving you many options to escape.”

  Seeing an opportunity I started to act. “And if I do, would you like me to offer you a chance to escape with me?”

  The vulture then began to scratch under his chin with curiosity, smirking over the current development. He then eyed at the singular soldier who had managed to doze off. “Weellll since you are offering, name your price. I suggest whatever you have planned you should act soon while you have the chance.”

  “Quite simple really.” I then used my [Dimensional Box] and stored my handcuffs in my storage, causing the vulture shock for the first time. “I’d like to enlist you as my henchman, I find you fascinating and think you would make a good fit for me. ~”

  It took a moment for him to recover from his shock from me effortlessly removing my shackles as he stammered a bit to answer “W-well that is an interesting offer. And what exactly do you want me to do?”

  “Simple really, I’d like your help in my conquest of this world. Of course, I don’t plan to force you into anything of course. Any help you could give I’ll greatly appreciate.”

  The vulture’s expression returned to amusement upon hearing my declaration, a nice change of pace from the usual ridiculous response I tend to get. He had to cover his beak in order to keep himself from laughing too loudly. After calming himself down a minute later he gave his answer.

  “You’re a funny little guy, but I can tell by the look in your eyes that you’re serious. Alright, I’m willing to work for you. Though I insist that it’s temporary with offers of future employment if I happen to change my mind. I would like to keep my options open after all. I’ll just think of you freeing me as a form of payment for my services.”

  “Fair enough, now then.” I casually caused the bars between me to bend open with my [Material Forge] as I let myself out then did the same for my new vulture henchman while storing his handcuffs. “Shall we go? My name’s Vladimir and yours?”

  After rubbing his arms, confirming his freedom from his shackles the vulture responded. “Name’s Zephyrus, but you can call me Zeph. Hope you don’t mind I call you Vlad, makes it easier for me to say. ~”

  And right on cue a familiar message had appeared, though slightly different. (Temp) must mean temporary, probably a way to shorten the word. He did say he wanted to keep his options open, and I am obligated to uphold that.

  I turned around and looked at the rest of the prisoners, Zephyrus seemed to notice and commented on what I was probably thinking “Forget it, those slave collars they have on prevent them from disobeying, and even if they could escape, they’re too scared to rebel anyway. Besides, it’d be too difficult to escape with this many people.”

  …. Wh…what did he say? Those were…. Slave collars? ….

  I was taken back on what he had mentioned. So…. slavery exists in this world huh? I mean I read plenty of these kind of scenarios in various stories though I wasn’t sure if that was the case here. I shook my head, something I’ll deal with later for sure. For now, Zeph was right, our top concern right now is escaping.

  I looked at the sleeping guard who was starting to stir from his little nap. Without a second thought I wrapped the guard up with the wall behind him, snapping him awake. But before he could say anything I covered his mouth as well to the wall making sure he still had enough room to breathe. The only sound coming out of him was the muffled screams as he tried to yell for help.

  Zeph whistled over my handy work “Impressive, didn’t know a kobold could do something like this.”

  “You can say I’m the exception.” I was clearly enjoying the praise he was giving me.

  “I’ll say, now first things first. It’ll probably be a good idea to grab our gear. Luckily for us I took a peek at where they were storing it and it’s right next to where they have us locked up. I’ll show you the way.”

  He then walked in front of me, dangling a set of keys in his talons he pocketed from the guard when I wasn’t looking. He definitely has some skills I can utilize; I better do my best to convince him to have this arrangement be a permanent one. ~