Noah slowly walks closer to Ezren, calling out to him.
"Master Ezren?"
He kneels beside Ezren and looks at his face, he is still awake — barely. The blood on his forehead dripped down on the ground, if this continued, Ezren might end up on death's door.
Noah was left with no choice, he carefully slips his hand on Ezren's shoulder, offering himself as a crutch. Ezren's shallow eyes suddenly widened, he didn't expect a slave that he had brought with him to take the chance to run. He could, but why didn't he?
With Noah's support, Ezren finally stands as Noah leads him to the carriage. Noah couldn't believe that himself of all people would help a noble. But he swallowed his pride, when life is at stake — that reason alone is enough.
"You.. you didn't run, you had the chance, why didn't you do it?"
Noah turns to Ezren, he can seem to grasp the reason behind his action, but he knows one thing for certain — it's the right thing to do.
"I've been beaten, kicked, tortured and starved before. But that doesn't mean I have to be the like of you. Lives matter, even for.. even for someone as insignificant as me. Or someone as arrogant as you."
Ezren let out a shuddering sigh, a boy so naive, yet sees beyond reason. He could only imagine how someone who has been broken countless times could still be standing beside him. Helping him.
Once they reach the carriage, Noah helps Ezren climb the coach and settle him down on the bench. Any second now, Ezren was expecting him to run away, in his current weakened state, no one would stop him from being a free man.
But to his surprise, Noah sat across from him, tearing a piece of cloth from his robe and wrapped it around Ezren's head to stop the bleeding. Ezren frowned, unsure why the slave boy was attending to his injury.
"You are a strange one, aren't you? Helping a noble out of free will. Does freedom not sound tempting to you?"
Noah stopped for a moment, unsure if he should continue attending to Ezren's injury or not.
"It's a thought I dreamed of. But ultimately, we are a prisoner of our own self. Even if I run now, where must I go? I don't have anything valuable, I don't have any means to protect myself."
Ezren paused, he searched Noah's face for any signs of deception, but found none.
"What's your name? Don't tell me you don't have one."
Noah hesitated, he never once had a master who asked for his name before. Well, because none of them bother to even ask about his background.
"It's Noah. Noah Ivanova"
For the first time in a long time, he finally says his name out loud, not because he didn't want to, but because no one bothered to hear. "Noah.." Ezren repeats, testing the name on his tongue.
"You've done me a favor, Noah. You saved my life. Even if it's just by a small act, I'm indebted to you."
Noah was taken aback by his words, indebted? To a slave? It's unheard of.
"But I don't like being indebted to anyone."
Ezren reaches for the iron chain on Noah's neck and pulls out a key, one that matches the keyhole on the chain.
"To the imperfect tomorrow. Noah Ivanova, from here on and moving forward, you shall pledge your loyalty to the House of Floren, as my personal advisor."
Noah's eyes widened as Ezren inserted the key inside the keyhole, the mechanism of the collar chain creaked, slowly loosening as the chain fell to the ground with a satisfying thud.
"A man who saves his enemy is either a fool or a future asset. Let's hope you're the latter."
A slave born a servant, now free from the shackles of cold metal. Bound, instead by something heavier that the rusting chain: Responsibility.
[—To be Continued—]