Resting in the cage, Aiwei didn’t sleep very well, but it was passable, and she managed to recover a bit of her strength.
Aiwei rubbed her sleepy eyes and, out of habit, sat up, wanting to stretch lazily, but her hand bumped into the top of the cage.
Only then did Aiwei snap back to reality—she wasn’t at home, but locked inside a cage.
Aiwei moved her body a little, and her previously muddled mind gradually became clear.
Looking outside the cage, it was still pitch black, with only a dim lamp hanging from the ceiling, but honestly, whether the lamp was there or not didn’t make much difference.
At best, it only allowed the people nearby to see each other’s faces, but it was pretty suitable for resting.
Aiwei sorted out her current situation a bit.
First, she had probably gained the trust of a Vampire Clan servant.
Turns out, pretending to be pitiful was still useful—not everyone was like Fuluoxi, who got more excited the more pitiful she acted.
Thinking about it made Aiwei feel like her acting skills were truly bottomless, but after some thought, she realized it was simply because Fuluoxi seemed to be seriously ill.
And she herself had been branded with the Slave Brand by the other party…
This was really bad.
Aiwei shook her head, tossing aside these useless complaints in her mind and focusing on the present.
At the moment, for Aiwei, Liya was the only Vampire Clan member she could get close to who was willing to be friendly.
And perhaps Liya could be a breakthrough point, connecting her to other Vampire Clan members opposed to Fuluoxi.
Aiwei’s idea was simple. Although Fuluoxi was the strongest Vampire Clan duke, no matter how powerful she was, she couldn’t possibly satisfy everyone, nor could she be friends with every Vampire Clan member.
As long as she could find a Vampire Clan duke who wanted to bring Fuluoxi down, maybe she could try to negotiate by offering information. With the help of another Vampire Clan duke’s power, she might be able to slip away in the chaos…
Thinking about power, Aiwei recalled how she was controlled by Fuluoxi last night, and her pale golden eyes instantly turned cold.
The feeling of her body being forcibly manipulated was something Aiwei still couldn’t forget.
That was the power of magic—mysterious and terrifying.
But according to the memories Aiwei inherited, the original owner should have known magic as well.
No, that wasn’t right.
Aiwei shook her head. It wasn’t just knowing magic, but being especially skilled in it.
Because in this world, the power system was centered around magic.
It was just that each person’s magical affinity was different.
For example, some people had an affinity for the fire element, making them suitable to be blacksmiths or chefs, since they could directly cast Flame Magic that could be freely adjusted.
Some had an affinity for the wind element, and most of them took jobs related to traveling or even street sweeping.
Of course, these were just the most basic traits.
What truly determined whether someone became a mage or a holy knight was the talent they were born with.
In this world, ancient sages had developed something like a status panel, which could be activated through a special spell and was only visible to oneself, making it easy to identify one’s own talent and for the Empire to select talent.
This panel was obtained during the unified Awakening Magic Ritual performed for every child at the age of six.
Following the method of spellcasting from her memory, Aiwei tried to open the panel.
It seemed that low-level magic of this degree wasn’t forbidden, and Aiwei opened the panel.
[Aiwei]
[Strength: 13 (Sealed)]
[Speed: 10 (Sealed)]
[Mental Power: 30 (Sealed)]
[Talent: Hero, ***]
Hm?
Before Aiwei could marvel at the wonders of magic—how it could turn a person’s attributes into panel data—her attention was immediately drawn to the three asterisks in the talent section.
What was this?
From her memories, Aiwei had never seen this kind of asterisk before.
Originally, the talent section only had two words: Hero.
Strange.
Although a bit puzzled, Aiwei still closed the panel. For now, she couldn’t figure out why her power was sealed, so she decided to leave it be.
Aiwei set her sights on the other blood slaves here. Maybe she could unite them and use them as a force to help her escape in the future.
But how was she supposed to communicate with them…?
While Aiwei was pondering this, a timid voice suddenly came from a cage not far away.
“Um… excuse me…”
“Are you from the Empire too?”
Aiwei looked in the direction of the voice.
It was a girl in a coarse linen dress, about the same age as herself.
And the girl had a very notable feature—she was extremely cute.
No, that wasn’t it.
Aiwei glanced at the other girls in the cages who hadn’t spoken but were watching her.
Without exception, all of them were girls, all quite young, and all fell into the cute category.
So this Fuluoxi…
Turns out she was a perverted lolicon.
Aiwei’s eye twitched, suddenly feeling speechless.
She looked down at her own flat figure.
Yeah, she was a loli too.
No wonder she’d been sent here as a sacrifice.
“Um… my name is Xiya, what’s your name?”
The girl who spoke first asked again, her voice still tinged with fear.
“My name is Aiwei.” Aiwei thought for a moment and decided to answer Xiya’s question.
The moment Aiwei spoke, a commotion broke out near the cages.
Then someone who looked like the leader of one of the cages walked up to the bars, staring intently at Aiwei. “Are you that Aiwei?”
After thinking for a moment, Aiwei guessed what the other party wanted to ask. Seeing the undisguised hatred on her face, Aiwei’s gaze remained calm as she slowly nodded.
“Yes, I’m the one who returned to the Empire after being defeated, wanted to prepare for another campaign against the duke, but was drugged by my teammates and sent here as a sacrifice in exchange for peace—the Hero.”
“Or, you could say, the Empire’s princess.” Aiwei said calmly.
As soon as Aiwei finished speaking, the person across from her was obviously stunned, as if she had a lot to say, but the words were stuck in her throat and wouldn’t come out.
There was a lot of information in what Aiwei just said, and the other girls couldn’t react for a moment.
They had always thought the Hero was just incompetent and got captured, but they never imagined the Hero was drugged and sent over by the Empire’s own people.
“If you have any resentment and want to scold me, go ahead. After all, it was my own lack of ability. But honestly, I don’t think it’s necessary.”
“Because we’re all sacrifices who were forcibly kidnapped and sent here by the Empire. The imperial family doesn’t care about our lives, so why should we fight among ourselves?”
Aiwei’s words quickly put herself and the other group on the same side.
“You’re the Empire’s princess. Even as a sacrifice, you probably got special treatment. Maybe you’re just here as a hostage for a while and will leave later.”
At this moment, a girl in the cage to Aiwei’s left spoke up.
Aiwei looked at the speaker and saw that her hands were covered in scars, seemingly from being cut with sharp objects.
Looking around, Aiwei noticed that all the girls’ hands, without exception, bore scars—some had only a few, while others were covered in them.
But through their nearly identical coarse linen dresses, Aiwei noticed something else.
It seemed that, aside from herself, none of the others had a Slave Brand.
Aiwei gently pulled the neckline of her shirt away from her collarbone, and a wave of pain immediately hit her, but she gritted her teeth and slowly pulled her shirt further aside.
Lowering her head, Aiwei could see blood mingling with her clothes at the wound, as well as the nearly healed Slave Brand.
Aiwei stared at this humiliating brand. After a few seconds, she pulled her shirt down further, revealing the hidden Slave Brand.
As Aiwei made this move, the people watching her all gasped in shock.
She could clearly see the astonishment in their eyes.
It seemed just as Aiwei had thought—she was the only one branded.
Aiwei tidied up her clothes again, her expression still very calm.
“You all saw it, right? I can’t get away anymore.”