"Raphael, you can free her."
Following Azekiel's commands, Raphael freed the hands of Leor.
After being freed, Leor weirdly looked at everyone. They were freeing her? Why? What were they planning? To her surprise, she didn't even think about attacking them now that she was free. She wanted to know more about the mark.
She believed that Azekiel was the only person who could explain what the Mark was. He also appeared to be their leader. If she could take him hostage, everything was going to be in her control.
She decided to take Azekiel hostage, but for some reason, her body just refused to listen to her. She couldn't use her vines for her benefit.
Azekiel smiled, noticing the unease on Leor's face. "Can't attack me?"
"What did you do to me?!" Leor roared in rage. She was sure that this Mark was behind her, being unable to attack Azekiel.
"You won't attack anyone as long as I don't command you to," Azekiel said as if issuing a command. "Now stand up!"
Leor felt as if her body wasn't in her control as she stood up. She felt like a puppet. She wanted to kill in anger, but she couldn't even do that.
"Mark of Servitude..." Azekiel explained, pointing at the mark that had appeared on Leor's body.
"The mark has tied you to me. In essence, you're now my servant until I free you from Servitude. You can't harm your master, and you can't defy my command either. Oh right, I forgot to mention one thing."
"You won't try to escape. And you won't go out within five meters of me!" He issued another command, remembering that it was also important. Even if Leor couldn't attack him, she could still attempt an escape. With his new command, he had effectively removed that possibility.
Not only did they not have to worry about her leaving now, but she was like a soldier for them who could be used for a battle.
This was the favorite skill of Lia that Azekiel had found. In fact, even he was surprised when he heard about the skill.
Even though the skill also had specific criteria that needed to be met before it could be successful, and it had a duration as to how long it could last, it was still a great skill that became really useful in a situation like this.
After covering all the bases, he started walking back to the Orc Village. Bound by the command, Leor had to follow him against all her wishes. She tried her best to find a way out of this problem, but to do that, she needed to know more about this Mark.
It was the first time she had heard about this Mark or saw it. Other than what Azekiel told her, she knew nothing about the mark, let alone how to free herself from its shackles. She didn't even know if the mark was eternal or went away on its own. If it was the former... Just the possibility of that horrified Leor.
She didn't want to be a servant of a human! She didn't want to be a mindless puppet who could be used for anything, from satisfying carnal desires to being used in battles. Just the thought alone was scary.
'I will accept death but not this!' She made up her mind. If she could neither hurt her enemies nor escape, the only option she had was death, and she decided to embrace it.
'Huh?'
Even as she made up her mind to kill herself, she couldn't go through it. The same thing which was blocking her from killing Azekiel was also stopping her from killing herself.
"Just what abomination is this? I can't even kill myself!" She exclaimed in rage. "What is this Mark? Free me this instance! You want Liam? I'll bring him to you! Just free me first!"
"The Mark of Servitude... It was a spell created to control Wild Beasts... However, it also works on everything else that has a life. The spell stops a beast from killing the master, but also stops it from doing something that could bring it to death..." Azekiel answered.
"The spell was used by Witches to ensure beasts who could hunt for them. Since they couldn't often deal with human towns, they relied on forest and on self-hunted food. To save time, the beasts came to play," he further explained.
"I'm sure you can understand what a hassle it can be if a beast they caught and sired went ahead and did something that got it killed? It could put them on the path to do all this again. Thus they made sure that didn't happen."
"Shouldn't you thank me for that? I indirectly saved your life just now?"
Leor couldn't take Azekiel seriously when he talked like that. It was as if he was trolling her. She didn't even know what Witches meant or what beasts he was talking about. Whatever he explained gave her no explanation as to how she could free herself.
She also noticed Raphael disappear into thin air as if he was a ghost. She again couldn't sense him. It was similar to what happened before, where Raphael came to her out of thin air.
These humans... They were strange. Not only strange, but they were also very cunning and strong.
If she also couldn't kill herself, Leor found another way to negotiate her freedom. She remembered Azekiel mentioning before that they were after Liam. So they had no enmity with the Triads. If that was the case, she could negotiate her freedom with him. In exchange for her freedom, she could bring Liam to him.
Azekiel also seriously thought about her offer for a minute. It wasn't a bad offer in the core. All he wanted was Liam, after all.
"Don't listen to her," Before Azekiel could come to a decision, Lia chimed in. "Even though it's more effective to have her bring Liam to us, they live in a separate domain. As soon as she goes far enough from you, the effects of the Mark of Servitude will decrease. And if the connection grew weak enough, the mark will be broken before it's time."
"If you let her go, it'll be like wasting a great opportunity over nothing."
Since Leor couldn't see or hear Lia, Lia could talk openly without hesitating that she might hear.
Azekiel took her words seriously as well.
"I don't think that would be necessary," he refused Lia's suggestion. "Now that so many of you have died, your sister would know what happened here. She will come by herself soon enough..."
