After making a mess by attacking me, I didn't see Ragnar. He was captured by some poor soldiers and dragged out of the slave district.
It was likely that he would be taken away to the master's district.
From what he said before, he was often taken to the master district and received violence there. In short, he was used as an object of lust by the boss of the Nest of Slavery.
But, I heard that he wasn't brought there every day, so perhaps he was brought there again for making a scene.
Although I was part of the people who had made trouble, fortunately the poor soldiers knew that I was the victim. So, I wasn't harmed.
After Ragnar disappeared, I followed the directions of a few poor soldiers and walked towards the entrance of the slave district. I left my isolated shabby tent behind.
There were already many slaves lined up. I, too, marched straight like a snake. Behind me, one by one, the slaves who had just come out of the tent entered the line.
Surprisingly, all the faces of the new slaves who arrived here yesterday at the same time as me had bruises on their faces. The bags under their eyes also looked very dark black.
"Hey, is the tent you chose yesterday a tent that has been occupied?"
"No. Damn. After they suddenly came last night, I was beaten up and kicked out of the tent. I was forced to find a new tent."
"I'm the same way. Why won't they share the same tent!"
They were talking amongst themselves. One person held their cheek, and the other walked hunched over as if their back was suffering from osteoporosis.
"Next!"
I averted my eyes because of a loud voice from the front of the line of people.
The voice came from a slave girl in her mid-20s. She was holding some sort of ladle.
In front of her, there was a pot filled to the brim with parsnips. Warm steam was billowing out of the pot. She had just steamed the parsnips.
Following her directions, one by one the slaves came forward and received the parsnips that she had just cooked. She was a slave in charge of distributing food to the slaves.
I was no exception.
However, just as I wanted to take the warm parsnips from her hand, she suddenly lifted them up.
Her eyes stared at my face for a few moments. Her eyes narrowed and she suddenly smiled.
Slurp!
She moistened her lips with her tongue as if she was thirsty.
Her eyes seemed to be staring into the face of easy-to-catch prey.
I didn't like the look in her eyes.
I immediately snatched the parsnip in her hand without waiting for her to give it to me.
"Hehe. It seems that you were the new slave. I will visit your tent later tonight, young boy. Can you tell me where your tent is? I'm sure you'll like what's going to happen later tonight."
She blinked one eye.
Indeed, her body was not too bad for a woman living in the slums. Looking at her two large breasts and small waistline, I believe she was a former prostitute.
She was probably a slave who belonged to the sex slave category. However, I ignored her and walked forward until I was out of the slave district, following the other slaves.
"If you won't tell me, I'll find out myself later. See you tonight, young boy!"
Her loud voice echoed from behind me.
Grumbles began to emanate from the mouths of the other slaves.
They stared at me with evil looks while gnashing their teeth.
However, I ignored all their glares and focused on what I was going to do next.
Without any explanation from the poor soldiers walking around watching me and the other slaves, I knew that we were being led to work in the mine dungeon.
After receiving warm parsnips, we were given a pick by the other slaves in charge of distributing picks.
The pick was the only tool for mining in this era. There were no drills or heavy machinery that made it easier for people to mine.
The pick had two sides that were each sharp, suitable for mining magic stones or other minerals.
During the food distribution, perhaps the potential for riots was so high that many poor soldiers were watching. But when distributing the picks, I didn't see many poor soldiers.
Though there could be slaves who suddenly attacked because they had gotten something like a weapon. But strangely there were no slaves who were stupid enough to do what I imagined.
Finally, I also received the pick and walked into a cave that was located in the eastern part of the Nest of Slavery.
This cave was the cave that would lead me into the mine dungeon.
As I continued to walk, my mind began to go elsewhere.
I'm still thinking about the reason why Ragnar was so angry.
And... Regarding Reine Rosewood's actual whereabouts.
Indeed, as I recall, she was during the Nest of Darkness according to the current timeline. But, how could she not be there, and instead be somewhere in the master district?
Was the entrance to the Nest of Darkness somewhere in the Master district?
I'm sure it wasn't.
Because in the novel Demon Lord and Hero of Light, Jullian had destroyed the entire contents of this Nest of Slavery to the ground.
In the process of destroying the Nest of Slavery, he did not find a place that could be used as a path to the Nest of Darkness.
Only the Mine Dungeon, a place that Jullian did not explore thoroughly.
In the novel, we are told that Jullian only focused on saving slaves and children from the orphanage, he was not told to explore the mine dungeon thoroughly.
From there, I made the conclusion that the path to the Nest of Darkness was somewhere inside the Mine Dungeon.
And inside the Nest of Darkness was where Reine Rosewood was... right?
Then, you probably already know where my assumption came from regarding Reine Rosewood's whereabouts. From within the Demon Lord and Hero of Light novels, of course.
Just as my mind began to insist on the existence of Reine Rosewood, who was in the Nest of Darkness, a system message suddenly appeared before my eyes.
My left hand was carrying the pick on my shoulder, while my right hand was about to stuff parsnips into my mouth. But when the message appeared, I didn't put the parsnips in my mouth.
[Memorize skill - activate.]
It was because of the dizziness that suddenly attacked my head.
The dizziness caused by the memorize skill activating made me drop my warm parsnip in my right hand. My hand switched to holding my head.
Slowly but surely, my memories that had been locked away began to open up. My open memories were memories of Reine Rosewood.
Letter after letter dan word by word from the novel Demon Lord and Hero of Light succeeded blossomed in my mind.
I stringed every letter that appeared in my head into a sentence structure. Sentence after sentence formed until it finally became a paragraph that told the story of Reine Rosewood.
The story was about her motivation to kill Jullian. Where her motivation turned out to be hatred. The hatred arose due to Jullian's sense of heroism.
Because of this hatred, she was willing to join the ranks of the demons.
The scene took place during the final battle.
Reine Rosewood, as the beastman of the nine-tailed fox tribe, she was standing floating in the sky. All nine of her tails were dancing beautifully in the air.
She was face to face with Jullian.
The one who first started the conversation was Reine.
"It's useless for you to act like a hero by saving people here and there. In the end, you can't save everyone, right?!"
"Isn't that obvious?! I'm not a god who can save everyone?! At the very least, I've done my best to save everyone."
"How disgusting. You'd better shut up and let the wheels of everyone's destiny run and roll on their own paths."
"What do you mean by saying that?"
"Do you remember the place called the Nest of Slavery where all the slaves were locked up? I'm sure you don't really remember because it was just one of the places you acted to save people."
"Then what's wrong with that place?"
"Inside there is a place called the Nest of Darkness. And inside there, there was one person who was cooped up. Why didn't you save that person?"
"How could I possibly know?"
"Haaa~ You're good at making excuses. It's obvious that you just want to save a lot of people. If it was just one person, you would never want to save that person."
After a few exchanges of words between them, the fight began.
War broke out.
When I reread my memories, it was not explained in detail about Reine Rosewood being cooped up in the Nest of Darkness.
She only said that she knew that there was one person cooped up in the Nest of Darkness.
Therefore, I made a wild assumption that the person cooped up in there was her, Reine Rosewood.
Then, the reason why she hated Jullian so much was because she was not rescued by Jullian.
Seeing that she was able to get out of the Nest of Darkness or Nest of Slavry, I could only make the assumption that she got out by utilizing the mess created by Jullian.
It's not for no reason that I made that assumption.
There is no specific scene that tells about how she got out of the Nest of Darkness or the Nest of Slavery, but, there is one scene that tells that there is one beastman from the nine-tailed fox tribe who got out of the Nest of Slavery without being rescued by Jullian.
It happened not long after Jullian freed the slaves.
'If she wasn't cooped up in the Nest of Darkness, but somewhere in the master's district, then it makes sense for there to be a scene like that.'