Ophis grunted as she slammed her hammer into the wall in front of her with intense force! The wall broke into hundreds of pieces and many pebbles fell out of the new hole. Ophis sighed as she dropped her hammer to the side and bent down to pick up the shiny blue stones mixed with the rubble. These stones were Mana crystals that she has been mining for the past few days. It took her a week before she could find a good deposit of mana crystals to mine and she was glad she finally found some. At least she could escape Andromeda for another week.
Ophis was currently working as a slave under the demon lord's castle. The demon lord gave her five years of slavery as punishment for her crimes against the demon race! It has only been two months since she started and Ophis felt like her life should just end! This is torture! Why didn't the demon lord just kill me!? Just kill me instead of making me do this! I'm a princess! A fucking princess! I shouldn't have to do something like this!?
Each shout in her head was emphasized by slamming her hammer into the wall with intense force!! She was wearing thick gloves, but they were already tearing from how tightly she was gripping them!!
And why am I so worried about what he said!? Ophis ruffled her hair in agitation as she thought about this! She could still clearly remember what Floid said to her two months ago and it just wouldn't let her rest! It was like his voice repeated over and over in her head without pause!
"You didn't do anything for the demon race, you did all of this for revenge. You were just an impulsive child angry at the world,"
Grahhhhh!!!
Ophis let out a scream in anger as she slammed the hammer into the ground!! Who the hell does he think he is!? Who is he to call me a child!? I'm far older than you! I'm hundreds of years older than you, you bastard!! Ophis huffed as she tossed her hammer aside and carried up the heavy bag filled with mana crystals. She silently passed the giants that were working down here as well and she started to make her way towards the deposit room. She was dirty and dusty and her hands felt rough from all the work she has been doing, but she was finding it easier to work down here in the mines. She still remembers how hard it was to even work down here two months ago.
She could never forget that feeling of absolute fear she had when Floid declared that she would become a slave. Ophis knew that she would be punished for losing the war to the hero, but she never thought the punishment would be this severe. She has never done a day of physical work in her life and he was suddenly making her a laborer!
After the demon lord told Rosavellt to take her away, Rosavellt brought her back to the castle, dropped her at the feet of Andromeda, and said.
"Take this one and treat her like a slave "
Ophis glared at Rosavellt and she looked up to see the mild-looking Andromeda looking down at her with those large innocent eyes. Andromeda was a lamia and she was so shy and soft-spoken that Ophis thought for sure that thing would be easy! There is no way someone as shy as this can be cruel at all! Maybe things would be easier than I thought!
How wrong she was!
Andromeda was a monster! An absolute slave driver!! Andromeda first put Ophis with the other humans on the fields and Ophis couldn't believe how scared all the humans were whenever they saw Andromeda. They would shift away from her and cling to each other like she was some sort of wild beast. They were more stuff of Andromeda than even the other members of the household!!
Andromeda would never take any nonsense from any of the slaves. Ophis had it a little easier since she was a demon and she had a strong body, but the humans were easily broken by any punishments. There were a lot of humans, so if a few of them died there was never an issue.
Andromeda would kill any human that showed even the slightest sign of rebellion. Ophis once saw Andromeda throw a female human to the goblins because the human was trying to smuggle some of the children out of the prison! The goblins showed no mercy that day as they attacked her body and none of the humans ever dared to try it again after that! When Ophis looked at Andromeda, she felt shocked at the blank and empty look in her eyes. That was the moment when Ophis grew to truly fear Andromeda! Andromeda didn't even show any sort of remorse. Her face was so blank! Ophis was a demon and she doesn't feel any sort of empathy for the humans, but it was still unnerving to see someone like Andromeda being so ruthless!!
Ophis stayed in the fields for a few weeks, but she was eventually brought to the mines instead. She still didn't know why she was taken away from the fields, but Andromeda told her that the demon lord was the one that requested it. One of the giants there looked at her before getting and looking away as they went on mining the stones down here. Ophis glared back at all of them and she kept her ears sharp as she made her way through, she could never be too careful when she is around these bastards. She is a woman and she knows what these idiots do to women. Ophis has never been touched by any of them and she didn't know why, she was sure that the demon lord had something to do with it because he is the only one that can control them, but she would never let her guard down.
Ophis always stayed on her own as she mined the mana crystals during the day and slept in the castle basement during the night and she hasn't spoken to another demon in over a month!
As Ophis made her way towards the room where she would drop the crystals, she passed by the den of the giants and she rolled her eyes as she saw all the giants crowding around a feast that they were eating. Ophis was hungry but she would never eat in such an undignified manner. The cave was dirty and dusty and Ophis would always wait till she was back in the castle basement before eating! There were even skeletons down here! One of them was wearing a priest's robe and the hip bone of the Skeleton was completely shattered! Ophis learned that this was a former hero that was punished by the demon lord and Ophis couldn't imagine how much force the giants used on the priest's ass to break his hip bone like that! How can I eat in a place like this?
After work that day, Ophis sluggishly made her way back up to the castle basement. She was so tired. Even if she was getting used to this amount of work it was still very hard for her to do it! She didn't have Mana since her magic core was still broken so she couldn't remove her fatigue using magic. She had to use her regular strength to do all this work and she could barely lift 200kg with just this much power! Ophis was a demon and even though she didn't have any magic, she still had enough power to beat a regular human man in an arm wrestling contest.
As Ophis went to the basement and finally managed to fall down face first on her bed, she was rudely woken up the next moment as someone started to bang against her room door! Ophis groaned into her pillow in irritation! Who the hell is that? I just got to lie down! Ophis hasn't had a bath or rest in more than two days and she didn't want anyone to disturb her!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Ophis! Ophis, it's me! Open up!'
Ophis' eyes flew open in surprise once she heard the voice through the door! It was Lilith!! She quickly stood up and she opened it to see Lilith standing on the other side with a worried expression. Lilith was the only person that constantly came around to see Ophis in these past two months. Lilith couldn't do much for Ophis since Lilith was also a slave living in the castle. Lilith was always being watched by the other maids so she had to perform her duties all the time. But Lilith was able to come and see Ophis sometimes and she always brought some food with her when she came.
But this time Lilith didn't look like she was here to bring any food for Ophis. Lilith had a restless expression on her face as she looked around her frantically like she was expecting a ghost to jump out at any moment! Ophis worriedly asked what was wrong and Lilith quickly spoke.
"I heard some of the maids talking earlier and I think the demon lord is going to summon you! You need to clean yourself up quickly!"
Ophis' eyes widened! What the hell!? Why would that bastard summon me!? I haven't done anything that should be worth summoning! Ophis was so pissed! Everything that Floid did to her was just pissing her off! But Lilith was right! She needs to clean herself up! She can't go and face that man while looking like this! It would just make him look down on her even more!
"What do you think you're doing?"
Ophis felt a chill travel down her spine as a mellow voice rang across the corridor. Lilith turned around and her eyes widened once they landed in Andromeda's snake-like eyes.