My declaration left both Vyaghra and Jambavan stunned.

Taking about ten seconds to process my statement, Vyaghra asked, "What do you mean by becoming the leader? Do you wish to let this slavery continue?"

"Have some faith in me," I replied. "I have made this decision after careful consideration.

"And also, Vyaghra, you need to stay careful. They're suspicious of your identity and have sent more people to investigate the deaths of the guards in the tunnel."

"You need not worry," Vyaghra replied with a faint smile. "They will never find anything suspicious during the investigation. Her Majesty taught me some low-level illusion spells to help improve my hunting skills. I cast those spells on the corpses in the tunnel before leaving."

"Whoa! So you were already prepared for that," I gasped in astonishment.

"By the way, tell me one thing," I asked, sitting on the chair again. "Can you use that teleport ability of yours to move beyond the gate in mine number 10?"

"No, I can't. The blue flame they used to engrave the slave mark on our body contains an essence of some ancient power. Each of these markings acts as a key to enter through those magical gates. So I cannot enter inside a gate unless the specific marking of that gate is engraved on my body."

"Ancient power?" I gasped. "So you are telling me this blue flame is from your era?"

"The engraving on the gate indeed seemed to be from our era; however," Vyaghra continued after a brief pause, "the essence of the blue flame is even older than that."

The hair on my arm stood up as I murmured in disbelief, "A flame even older than the ancient gods? Is this the secret the Abandoned Land is hiding?"

"Raj, Ay also wanna ask somethin'," Jambavan said, joining the conversation. "Why can't Ay sense any guard here? Ay know most of the guards has left to prepare for that damn festival, but Ay can't sense even one of them."

"Jambavan is right," Vyaghra added, muttering further with a frown, "and why are you reeking of blood? Don't tell me you killed all the guards here."

"That's true," I replied nonchalantly with a straight face. "I killed every last one of those fiends."

Jambavan and Vyaghra both gazed at me silently without saying anything.

"Why are you staring like that?" I asked as their eyes looked through me for almost fifteen seconds, non-stop.

"Ay had a hunch, but it is indeed true," Jambavan said, finally speaking up.

"So it really happened," Vyaghra added.

"Wanna tell me what really happened?"

"You have changed," Jambavan declared. "When Ay first met ya in the forest, ya were just a naive kid with a soft heart. Yer body was strong, but ya weren't ready to kill anyone."

Vyaghra also added, joining in, "When you killed those guards in the tunnel last time, it was because you couldn't suppress your anger. You weren't aware of your actions. It was just a whim at the moment. However, this time your demeanor tells us that you killed them fully aware of what you were doing. You are ready now. Ready to rule over the people!"

They both rose from their chairs, their right hands behind their backs and their left hands touching their chests in a fist. "We accept you as our leader for this mission. Please give us your orders."

I ran a hand through my hair and ordered with a smug smile on my face, "First, tell me everything you managed to find in Grade 2 and Grade 1 mines: the number of guards, their realm, and the condition of the slaves there. Don't miss out a single detail."

Our discussion went on for several hours until it was time for the guards to return.

I provided the duo with their roles for the next course of action before they disappeared into the shadows, just as they had come.

---

The next day, when the watchman arrived, he gathered all the slaves before the mines at the end of the village and demanded,

"What the fuck happened here!? Why is the basement on fire, and where the heck has Thomas gone?

Daniel, explain everything!"

All the remaining one hundred and fifty guards stood behind the watchman while the slaves sat on the ground before him.

Daniel rose to his feet and explained, "When assigning us the task, Sir Thomas touched a female slave. However, upon seeing the unpleasant reaction on the slave's face, he gathered all the guards inside the basement a-and…"

He paused for a moment as hesitation took over him before speaking further, "and he brought that slave with him to attend to his pleasure.

Surprisingly, the slave came running out from the basement, and just before reaching the surface, she ignited the explosives a-and killed all the guards, including Sir Thomas, before being engulfed by the fire herself."

The guards behind the watchman began murmuring upon hearing Daniel's statement. The watchman frowned as he muttered,

"So you're telling me that Thomas couldn't stop a mere slave from igniting the explosives?"

Highly suspicious of Daniel's claim, the watchman decided to verify it with another slave—a man who, in the watchman's eyes, despised Daniel to the core.

"Diego, is Daniel speaking the truth?"

It took Diego almost twenty seconds to pull his huge body into a standing position before stating the line that hardly took a second.

"Daniel is speaking the truth, Sir," he declared.

Diego agreeing with Daniel's statement puzzled the watchman greatly. It would have been less surprising for him if Diego had made a false claim just to put Daniel into trouble.

However, the watchman was aware that the slaves weren't brave enough to lie—at least, that was what he thought.

He let out a long sigh as his suspicion faded and sent the slaves back to their usual tasks.

After that, nothing out of the ordinary happened for a week, but then, surprisingly, Victor Kale arrived at the Grade 3 mines.