I revealed my presence to an incoming merchant, but not my naked body. Even though I was nude for many months now, maybe even the years, I had not lost my shame. In that cellar, I was naked because I had no choice. I was stark-naked now, but that didn't mean I would show my intimate parts to the world for everyone to admire.

By wrapping my fluffy tail around my waist, I covered my lap and ass. My chest was covered by my wings. Like that, I went out of my hiding place to the edge of the bridge and waited for the merchant to reach me. I was ready to flee at the slightest hint of anything that might threaten my newly acquired freedom. It could be that the merchant will ignore me and not even stop. If this occurred, I was ready to address him, but not to stop him by force.

The question was whether I could really do it, the hell I lived in for many months and the social isolation had to rub off on me somehow.

I tried to not look surprised when the carriage stopped right next to me. The man must have been a very experienced coachman if he could control his horses like that. Nervousness, anxiety, fear, I felt them all right now but tried not to show any emotion on my face. Thankfully, they were subdued by my ability [Indomitable Will].

"Hello, Miss," the merchant greeted me and smiled.

"I ..." I said, my fear stopping me. "..good evening, sir."

"I don't want to be rude or intrusive, but it's a little suspicious that you're at the bridge over the Traim at this time. You're not trying to rob me, are you, miss?" He asked me, the smile on his face not fading.

His attitude confused me. It was questionable if he was okay in the head, or was it normal to ask robbers and bandits if they are robbing you?

I shook my head. "No, sir ... I'm heading to the Sahal Empire."

The merchant laughed. His reaction really startled me and confused me even more. He was far too calm for my taste. I tried to be honest because of my need to find out where I was. So his answer was important to me.

"I'm sorry ..." the old man apologized after he stopped laughing. "... miss, I can tell you that you have achieved your goal. This is Sahal,"

That wasn't the answer I was expecting. After he started laughing, my thoughts focused on running away or killing the old man.

"Thank you," I said instead of attacking him. "would you be so kind as to tell me where you are going?"

The man smiled. "I'm going from Mitta to Castiana. You are more than eighty kilometers from Sahal's border with Arda."

As soon as he mentioned Arda, an invisible hand gripped my heart and began to crush it. How did he know I came from Arda? What were his intentions? Did he want to catch me and sell me, or even return me to Arda? As I saw it, that left two options for me, running away, and hope that no one would find me or try to attack him.

"Please calm down, miss," he told me with his pleasant voice. "I have no intention of returning you to those barbarians in Arda."

"How do you know ..." I asked him, but I couldn't finish the question.

The merchant scratched the back of his neck and smiled. "I see that you are a [Slave], a very high-level slave. Someone like you wouldn't be moving alone in the Sahal, not at this hour, and dressed in that."

What was wrong with my clothes? Maybe he saw through my deception and was hinting at my nudity. After all, I was wearing absolutely nothing.

"Oh. What do you mean, someone like me?" I asked him.

"The only ones in the Sahal who have the class [Slaves] are professional slaves, sometimes companions. They are all very skillful people and well paid. Definitely enough to allow them to travel by carriage," he explained.

I nodded. "I see..."

"My name is Liam Scoresby, miss," he introduced himself and held out his hand.

This gesture completely threw me off. It was an ordinary gesture, a general greeting in western civilization on Earth, and nothing that should move me so much and overwhelm my emotions. I didn't cry, yet tears welled up in my eyes, and even though I knew it may be dangerous to take an old man's hand, I shook it.

"Korra ... Korra Grey," I introduced myself with a smile on my face.

I must have looked crazy when I smiled at him with wet eyes. However, I quickly regained my emotions.

"Beautiful name, you must have had a hard time," he told me.

"..." I just nodded.

I couldn't talk about it, and I didn't want to.

"It was nice to meet you, miss, but I still have a few kilometers ahead of me that I have to cover before it gets dark," Scoresby said.

"Sure, just ..." I said, trying not to stutter my question. "... how far is Castiana?"

Under no circumstances did I want to approach Arda. Though Mitta wasn't at the borders, they were only a few kilometers away.

"If you want, I can take you to the city," the old man offered.

I frowned. "Is this really the Sahala Empire?"

Scoresby could be lying. He claimed that we were in the Sahal, but we could easily have been in Arda. I just didn't have a way to say it for sure.

To my surprise, the merchant pulled out a map and showed me where we were on it. I saw the river Traim with a bridge on the road between Mitta and Castiana, north of Sahal's border with Arda. However, it was not a map that reached the standard of modern maps on Earth, and although it showed landmarks and distinctive landscape features, I could not say with certainty that I was exactly where the man claimed. I could only say that I was somewhere on the river Traim.

"Do you believe me, miss?" He asked me.

But I couldn't answer him without lying to him.

"Then, I can only wish you good luck."

"May... can I ride with you?" I asked him.

Although I wasn't convinced, I didn't want to walk all the way to Castiana. That is if the city was there.

"Sure, Miss Grey," he told me, pointing to a spot beside him.

I tried to calm my emotions, which told me to run as fast as I could. But that wasn't the solution because I couldn't avoid people for the rest of my life and spend it somewhere in the wilderness like a hermit. I didn't even want that. I wanted a normal life, I wanted my life back, I wanted my body back, and I knew I couldn't do it alone.

Scoresby moved to the bench to make more room for me, and I sat down next to him. The old man said nothing more, and after urging the horses to go, the wagon sped forward across the bridge. At that moment, my mind was overwhelmed with memories of my life on Earth. It felt like years since I had last sat in a vehicle. The horse-drawn wagon wasn't a car, bus, or train, but it was enough to bring my eyes to tears again. What's more, it was my first ride on such a wagon. I've never sat in anything like this before, and so close to horses. They were beautiful animals and I always respected them.

My stay in the hands of Frederic Dungreen forced me to get used to various kinds of pain, but what I felt after an hour of driving was something completely new. My ass on the wooden bench really suffered.The carriage probably did not have suspension and if so only a poor one. The bench was not covered with leather or cushioned in any way. It was just a piece of board. So my ass felt every stone on the road that the carriage wheels hit and the pothole it drove into.

Among the skills in the Slave class was a skill [Painless agony] that reduced pain, and a similar skill [Pain Resistance] was among the general skills that anyone could acquire. Although I experienced an incredible amount of pain here on Eleaden during my cellar time, I didn't have any of these two as my chosen skills. The reason was simple, that madman didn't want it. If his test subjects did not fully experience the pain while their bodies were mutating and used abilities to suppress it, it would affect his experiments' results.

But this was the kind of pain I didn't mind.