Chapter 46: Are We the Baddies

Asura was recovering in her room after having a second freak out in the stables. She knew that Aaron hadn’t meant to scare her, but he still did it, as it seemed the inadvertent memories he brought up had hit her again when the pirate sergal taunted her. She had thought that she would have had better control of herself than it turned out she did. She had thought she could hold her composure and talk to that boy, but apparently not, or at least not yet.

Her father was with her, gently patting her back and trying to console her. It was working, she could tell, as her breathing calmed down and returned to a normal rate. She may not necessarily approve of everything her father did, but she never questioned his care for her.

“Are you ok, my shining emerald?” He asked her, “Twice in one day you were on the bad end of one of those freaks.”

“I am yes, thanks dad, I think I’m ok now” She hugged him close.

“Good to hear, little one.” He smiled and hugged her back, enveloping her in his arms, “And don’t worry. That brute will get what’s coming to him for whatever he tried to do to you.”

Asura’s eyes shot wide open and she suddenly pulled back, “What did you say?” Had she heard right? Was her father having Aaron punished for what happened, that meant her dad would know where he was moved to at the very least?

Her father blinked for a moment in confusing, “He must have done something to scare you like that, I haven’t seen you so panicked since…” He tried it off and looked away not wanting to finish.

Asura herself was starting to shake again at the thoughts, but when her father tried to hug her again she held up a hand, “No… he didn’t try to… I mean what happened wasn’t… like when I….” She took a deep breath, swallowed some bile and managed to finish the sentence, “Like when I was raped.”

“Sweetie, You don’t have to talk about…”

“BUT I DO” Asura was getting a hold of herself, “Dad he… the off-worlder boy, he DID NOT try to rape me. I … I just had a flashback, like… like a waking nightmare. I just panicked.”

“So, what are you say….”

Asura interrupted him, “He doesn’t’ deserve whatever is happening. I think…. I think that he and the other one might not even BE pirates. They might be innocent!”

“Sweetie, all off-worlder’s are monsters, they took your sister, your mother. You….”

“That was YEARS ago!” She shouted getting louder, “And the pirate wave might be over now!”

Her dad tilted his head in confusion. “Pirate wave?”

Asura took a breath, “When our people first started expanding across the planet the first people out were often criminals, the banished, people like that, just keeping ahead of civilization. I learned that from our books. What if it’s the same here? The offworlders were all monsters because they were LITERALLY the criminals of their society just like how ours worked. They backed off when we fought back and took many of them prisoner right? Now it’s years of nothing and suddenly a SMALL number of them show up again. With almost no weapons?”

Asura gasped for air, “What I mean is… I think he and the girl, his mate I think. I don’t think they are pirates. I think they are explorers and our people, YOU, are now guilty of the same thing that happened to ME!”

“Sweetie, you don’t know that.”

“and You do? Where is he!?”

“Bhasura…”

“WHERE IS HE?!”

The guards of the harem rooms were more than a little taken aback when, of all people, the crown princess of their kingdom, at least since her sister had been taken, showed up to the male harem room and proceed to barge through the door. Technically she had every right to be here. The slaves were for the enjoyment of the nobility and their guests after all, but the princess, a former victim of these slimeballs, showing up caused whiplash of all on site guards as they turned to follow her sudden entry. The neck injuries were only exacerbated as her father burst in after her.

Once inside she tried to ignore the scantily clad or nude males around. While most were restrained it was still not somewhere she normally wanted to be. She took a breath and held focus till she found what, or who, she came for. Aaron was standing by a wall, naked and rubbing his butt. The rubbing motion, coupled with the oily substance on his rear told her she was well too late to save him from a rape session or two, but she still wanted to help him if she could.

Aaron’s eyes widened when he saw her, but before he could formulate a response, she had grabbed his arm, said, “Come, with me now”, and started tugging him towards on of the private rooms.

Aaron’s eyes only widened, realizing where he was being taken. The private rooms were where he was made use of by those men. She couldn’t. Surely, she wasn’t going to…. Not that he’d be opposed though. This fox-ish woman may have had an odd green fur pattern, but she was shapely and attractive. He almost started to get excited when a man followed the pair into the room. Aaron immediately recognized him as the man that had sentenced him and his sister to this, which meant he was in charge of this place. That likely meant he was also Asura’s dad.

The confusion as to what was going on was enough to, mercifully, confuse his boner into deflating and avoiding awkwardness of popping a stiffy for the princess in front of her dad.

Asura sat him down, and told her dad to sit opposite him. His implants were still working their magic on the auto translate as he understood much more of her speech now she realized, so that was good. Once both men were sitting Asura spoke, “Aaron, is not a pirate. Aaron, can you explain to my dad what you are?”

Aaron wasn’t sure what the point of this was but obeyed her nonetheless. He explained about being explorers and cataloguing planets, and how it got cramped so they found a much larger ship. The new ship had evidence of slave trafficking on it so they decided to investigate.

The king looked more and more concerned and pensive about what Aaron said.

“See what did I tell you, dad!” Asura said, “You enslaved two innocents!”

“We only have his word on that” He replied, “How do we know he didn’t lie to you or me?”

“I just... I don’t…” Asura rubbed her temple at the impertinence of her father. If they had been pirates why bother with a cover story rather than just, weapons. At least it then clicked with her, “SO if you think he might just be making it up, go get the other one from the slave kennel, ask her for her perspective. If it matches his then that should confirm that they aren’t just lying.”

The king took a breath and slowly spoke out a response, “You know. If you’re right we have a… a lot to make up for with them.”