Chapter 215 - 209. Courage
"I was barely measured as a B-class," Ren started his story after they were finished with their soup. "But for some reason, my foster parents refused to put me in the Temple--ah, I used to live in an orphanage."
Zein felt the corner of his eyes twitched. This story was just starting, but he felt like he already knew the scenario, like a deja vu.
"They instead brought me to this...umm..." the young guide fidgeting again, looking like he had a hard time spelling the words.
"A guild?" Zein asked, but Ren shook his head. "...a brothel?"
The young guide bit his red lips and nodded quietly. Dear Gods--it was worse than Zein had thought. Zein already had it bad with the rogue guild’s slave contract, but at the very least, Umbra operated as a real guild, albeit an illegal one. The worse version of Zein’s experience was what happened to Ren--being sold to one of the underworld’s most prominent illegal businesses; a guide brothel.
The rest of the story was pretty straightforward; years of being pimped out to high-profile espers with perverted taste, locked up and abused mentally and physically, being forced to do things he didn’t want to.
When a joint operation between the government and guilds was enacted secretly to get rid of these illegal activities, it was the twins that rescued the young guide.
"I...had lost my voice then," the young guide recalled. Interestingly, Zein could see that instead of looking miserable, Ren recalled the memory with delight. It was, after all, the beginning of his new life. "They took me in, treated me so well, and...and...although I’m barely adequate, and had become a burden for more than a year, they didn’t throw me out after I can speak again, and they even made me their exclusive guide."
That was quite wholesome, Zein thought. He had wondered if the twins were one of those ’worshippers’, but...he also wondered that even if they did, would it be so bad if the guide in question looked happy?
That being said...
How did they know he was also a victim, though? Zein tapped on the table in confirmation. The information available about him so far, if people dug deep enough, was his service in the borderland.