Conan was now being taken to a slave farm by the person who had bought him. Large slave traders were responsible for buying or raising children and training them in various skills. Some were trained in combat to protect their owners, others were educated to become literate, and others were made submissive so they could be sold as toys.
There were several cases where these farms could pose as orphanages, selling their lost children to people in high positions as servants or guards if they were sold to merchants.
"Where are they taking me?" Conan said to himself.
When he stood up in the carriage, he was kicked out by the man who had bought him, dragging him outside and taking him to a large mansion-like building.
He followed the man inside, walking down a long hallway until they entered a room. Inside, the same thing happened as before, and he was pushed to the ground. When he lifted his head, he could see several children and teenagers lining up in front of him.
"Did you bring another one? Well, at least this one looks healthy except for his eye..." said a woman standing in front of all the rows of children. Staring at Conan, she said, "The last one you brought was useless and we had to get rid of him. Anyway, hold him down," said the woman.
Following her orders, several teenagers grabbed the distracted child and easily immobilized him.
"What!? What are you doing!?" Conan shouted, trying to escape.
Out of the corner of his good eye, he could see the woman approaching with something in her hands.
"Is that... a collar?" he thought as he watched the woman walking toward him.
The woman elegantly placed the necklace around the boy's neck, activating the runes inside it. In order to mark him forever, the runes began to overheat, burning Conan's skin and leaving a mark.
As soon as the runes began to overheat, Conan's skin burned, causing him to cry and kick in a desperate attempt to escape. But both his cries and movements were ignored and suppressed by the teenagers holding him down.
Conan was now unconscious from the pain, his neck dripping blood and giving off a strong smell of burnt flesh.
"Take him away. As soon as he wakes up, we'll start educating him," said the woman, watching as the teenagers carried away the unconscious child's body.
<<>>
After a few hours, Conan woke up in a moldy room on a dirty bed. Although he tried to look around, he found it impossible to move his neck due to the burns, which caused him agonizing pain.
"Looks like you're awake," said a voice from the doorway, one of the teenagers who had dragged him into the room.
"It's him!" Conan thought when he saw him, but he only ended up falling off the bed and screaming in pain as the collar moved.
"Stop crying and get used to this," said the stranger, grabbing him by his clothes and dragging him away against his will.
As he was dragged away, Conan kicked and screamed once more. During the minutes he was being dragged, he tried to convince the boy to let him go. But this didn't work, and he was dragged into a room where the same woman who had put the collar on him hours earlier was waiting.
"Seeing you so lively, I guess your neck is fine," she said, approaching and removing Conan's collar.
Feeling the metal separate from his burned flesh, the boy couldn't help but let tears fall from his eyes. Soon the collar came off his skin, revealing his neck marked with runes and engraved with the word "slave."
"H-help! Please!" he screamed in his head, due to the pain in his vocal cords.
His cries were drowned out as soon as the smell of burnt flesh reached his nose, causing him to feel nauseous. The woman did not flinch as she grabbed him by the hair and pushed him to the ground.
"You'd better be quiet if you don't want things to get worse for you," she said to Conan in a threatening and cold tone of voice.
However, this only made him cry even harder, to which the woman responded by hitting him hard, knocking him unconscious in an instant.
"Take him away and don't feed him for two days. That way, we'll start his education," she ordered the teenager standing in front of the door.
"Yes, ma'am," he said dryly, picking up the unconscious boy and carrying him away. "You'd better behave yourself or you'll end up dead," he whispered softly as he left the room.
As ordered, the boy was not even allowed to go near the large hall where the other slaves gathered to eat. He was forced to get used to his routines.
One of them was physical training with other boys and girls of the same or older age. The sole purpose was to tire him out and increase his hunger, making him easier to manipulate.
As ordered, the boy was not even allowed to approach the large hall where the other slaves gathered to eat. He was forced to get used to his routines.
One of them was physical training with other boys and girls of the same or older age. The sole purpose was to tire him out and increase his hunger, making him easier to manipulate.
Even so, calling it training made no sense, as he was beaten by the others, either because he was weak from not eating for two days or because of his lack of combat experience.
His sparring partner hit him hard in the stomach with a wooden sword, knocking him to the floor, where he clutched his body and cried out in pain.
"Come on, get up! Or do you want to go another two days without eating?" asked one of the men in charge of supervising the area.
Conan's body tensed at the man's threat, and he quickly got up, leaning his body on his own wooden sword. He could barely move it because of its great weight and size.
"I-I'm ready... standing," he said, breathing heavily and letting the tears fall from his face.
"All right then, continue!" he said, raising his hand as a signal to continue.
Upon hearing the man's words, the other boy immediately attacked Conan, striking him in the face with his sword and knocking him to the floor again.
"I'm sorry, but it's you or me," he apologized, watching Conan fall unconscious with blood dripping from his nose.
Seeing Conan unconscious, the man let out an angry sigh and lifted him up by the collar of his clothes, looking at all the other slaves and alerting them.
"Training is over!" he shouted, watching everyone leave the room and carrying Conan away.
leaving him in the room where he had first woken up without bothering to stop the child's bleeding.
After a few minutes, Conan woke up, wiping his nose and looking around at the other children and teenagers in their different beds. Each room held 10 to 15 people.
"Looks like I won't be eating anything," he thought, looking at the others with bread and potatoes in their hands
Seeing this, his stomach couldn't help but growl with hunger, which gave him a sharp pain. In an attempt to dispel his hunger, Conan decided to sleep, ignoring everything around him.