The Mind-Reading Mate: Why Is the Lycan King So Obsessed With Me?!-Chapter 480: One Step Toward Freedom

Then his voice turned colder, and his eyes narrowed slightly. "Besides..." Salem continued, "how could someone who once lived as a slave... ever want to become a master who owns slaves?"

The children looked at him with questioning eyes. From his words, it was clear that Salem had once been a slave too. He had been hinting at it since earlier, almost like he was trying to make them understand.

But how could children who had been tricked so many times by their master trust a stranger so easily?

As if Salem could read their thoughts, he spoke again. "Alright," he said calmly. "I know you won’t believe me just because of my words. But what if I show you proof?"

"W-What... proof?" the boy asked, his curiosity stronger than his fear.

Salem slowly unfastened his coat and pulled it down, not too far, but enough to show his bare chest. "The scar from the hot iron brand," he said. "I bet you have one on your body too."

The boy and the other children gasped when they saw the circular scar on Salem’s chest, the mark left by slave branding.

Every time a new child arrived, their master would immediately press a hot iron onto their body, marking them as if they were nothing more than cattle. Some of them had the slave brand on their chest, while others had it on their shoulder.

But no matter where it was, the mark stayed forever. A scar they could never erase for the rest of their lives.

"Do you believe me now?" Salem asked as he covered himself again with his coat. "I was also a slave, just like you. That’s why, as someone who once stood in the same position you’re in now, I want to save you."

"You don’t have to trust me completely," he added. "But you can still take advantage of my kindness."

Salem gave them a small smile. "I’m usually not this kind of person, you know," he muttered. "So... go on. Use me. Take advantage of me, and use me to reach your freedom."

It was such a strange thing to say. But in front of children who had been hurt too many times—children who didn’t know how to trust anymore—it was better to say it clearly like that, instead of demanding belief.

And for some reason, it worked.

After Salem showed them his brand and revealed a little about his past, even without explaining too much, the children slowly began to feel something familiar from him.

It wasn’t a complete trust, but something close to it.

Salem then called the soldiers to open the cage with their magical weapons. The moment the cage door creaked open, the oldest boy didn’t move right away.

Instead, he asked in a small, careful voice, "If I step out of this place... are you sure no one will drag me back in?"

Salem looked at him in silence, and after a while, he said, "Even if I say ’no,’ you still won’t believe me. So why don’t you just take a shot?" He added, "See it with your own eyes, and you’ll know the answer."

The boy looked at him hesitantly, a sign that he still wasn’t fully sure about this. However, he had received so much punishment all this time that if he had to be punished again this time, then so be it.

Maybe he was a fool for holding onto another false hope, but living inside the cage was just as bad as punishment, so be it.

But if that was the case, the boy had decided to kill himself right away. No matter what happened, he refused to step back into that cage ever again.

Moments later, the boy finally took his first step out of the cage, followed by the other children behind him. The younger ones—who seemed to have only been thrown into the cage recently—still had strong hope that they would be saved, so they trusted Salem completely.

Even though the older ones didn’t say anything, Salem knew they were actually jealous of the younger children. After all, the younger ones were saved before anything truly terrible happened to them, while the older ones had to endure years of pain before they could finally taste freedom.

But at the end of the day, freedom was still freedom. No matter how long they had waited, being able to breathe outside that cage again still felt unreal, like a dream that was too good to be true.

As the last child left the basement, Salem looked around with sad eyes. He lowered his head and stared at the lock lying on the floor.

"How funny," Salem said out loud the moment he realized Edmund was standing at the top of the stairs, waiting for him to leave the basement before locking that hellish place for good.

"What’s funny, Sir Vesper?" Edmund finally walked down the stairs toward Salem. He didn’t show much expression, but if Primrose were here, she would have known her husband was thinking about many sad things inside his mind.

"This lock..." Salem said in a low voice. "Back then, I thought something like this was so powerful. But now... it’s nothing more than junk. I could even open it easily if I wanted to."

Edmund didn’t say anything for a while, but his eyes also glanced at the cages in the basement, then returned to Salem. "When did you mark your skin with the slave brand, Sir Vesper?" Edmund suddenly asked. "I know it’s new."

Salem lifted his head and smiled at him. "Just... a while ago," he said lightly, "when you were busy talking with the Count."

Unlike the other children, he was a beast with strong healing abilities. That was why the slave marks would quickly disappear from his skin after a day or two.

And for that same reason, his old masters would burn his skin every day, every time the slave marks disappeared. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

But Salem spoke like it was nothing. "I’m used to it," he said with a small shrug. "So it’s not a big deal."

Then he added in a calm voice, almost like he had already accepted it a long time ago, "Besides... some people are just unlucky. So whatever."

Salem turned away, as if he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. "Let’s get out of here, Your Majesty."