Chapter 371 - What happned below the mansion
Inside the fairly large cavern, Jack was currently being led around by the hand by Rachel. For some reason, she had taken a liking to Jack and was currently giving him a tour around the place.
"Over there—Aunty Suzy does all the cooking for us." She said as she introduced Jack to the gentle-looking older women. They bowed down and allowed Jack to take a quick look before heading over to the next place.
"And over here is where we sleep, everyone sleeps together because we are one big family!" She shouted. "Although, some of us do have nightmares when we sleep despite the fact that we're so close to each other when we sleep," Rachel explained.
While she continued to show Jack around the place, there was one thing he couldn't stop looking at. It was the fact she had a tail and it was constantly wagging it from side to side. But Rachel seemed so excited it was hard for him to interrupt her and ask about it.
Steve and the others watching Jack's confused look on his face and while dragged around were giggling at him.
"Are you going to tell your brother the truth then?" Leaning against one of the cavern walls was a teenage boy around the age of seventeen.
Although he looked more like an adventurer ready to go into battle at any second than a teenager for he was covered in beast gear and had a dagger attached around his waist.
"Zinc, I will tell him the same thing as I told the rest of you," Steve replied. "Unfortunately, unlike you guys, it will be a lot harder for him. He didn't grow up going through all of it so he might find it hard to accept. The fact that I caught him running away from the mansion though tells me that he may have discovered something."
Finally, Rachel had led Jack to an area that was fairly open. It was well-lit and it looked like many of the cavern's stalagmites had been removed to make room for something.
As Jack got closer, he noticed that on the floor and the sides of the cavern wall were several claw marks as well as craters that looked quite old, with some new ones mixed in were in the area.
"And finally, the last place, our training area." Rachel said proudly.
"Training area?" Jack replied confused.
Just then, Steve had come over and started to pat Rachel on the back to head back and play with the other kids. "Come along now, I still haven't told Jack about this place. Still, good job on showing him around everywhere."
Before leaving though Rachel turned around and looked up at Steve as if she was expecting something.
"Oh, sorry almost forgot," Steve said as he patted and rubbed her head, causing her cheeks to flush. She then quickly ran off and join with the other kids.
"She's a good kid," Steve said. "They all are... Well, I think it's about time I explained to you what's going on with her and why this place even exists."
"Yeah, I'm kinda confused myself. Mom said you decided to become an adventurer."
A painful look struck on Steve's face as he heard these words. "So it looks like you are still calling them mother and father huh, I guess I have to go explain everything from the beginning then."
The two of them went over to where the bedding area was. In the area was a small wooden desk. Again, Jack found it strange that all the equipment in the cave was quite modern. It was a mixture of top of the line equipment inside a cave which didn't quite match the atmosphere.
But when thinking about how his brother was able to scale the walls easily and how high up, they were here, he could only think of one thing... His brother had brought all of these items from the town up into this cave.
"First, I think its best if you tell me what happened in the mansion, and then— I can tell you my story," Steve asked.
Jack went on the explain the details and events of what happened in the mansion. But even after hearing everything that Jack had said, Steve didn't look so surprised at all upon hearing the nitty-gritty bits of the story.
"Jack, I'm afraid that what happened to you has happened to all of us here," Steve said in a painful voice. "As you have guessed, I am a werewolf just like you, Jack. And the same can be said for every single one of us in this room."
Now, Jack finally understood why Rachel had a tail. Keen to know more, Jack decided not to interrupt Steve.
"There is a big difference between us and you though. For you see, I discovered my powers at the age of three. Our father and mother told me to keep it a secret from you and everyone else. And like a good son would— I agreed. When you turned five and was accepted into Avrion everyone was pleased including me.
"But the day you left Jack… Was the worst day off my life. That night when I went to sleep, I woke up in the same underground cell as you… To my surprise, though I wasn't alone there were others down there as well.
"I later found out that they all carried the same blood as me, the blood of a beast. I then saw our so-called father with the other horrible things down there. The male werewolves would be sold off at the auction house, while the female werewolves would be kept underground, for breeding purposes.
"I— like the other male wolves was sold off to some rich noble." As Steve said this he touched the scar that was across his face. "My owner wasn't a good one and liked to inflict pain on others for pleasure. What would be better than a beast that seemed to magically heal every day, right?"
"As days went past though, I was saved one day. Turns out we were not the only werewolves out there. I was never able to go against my owner due to the contract but once he was killed, I was set free."
They offered me their hand and took me to a place where there were even more of us. As I stayed there, they trained me, taught me how to use my abilities and how to fight."
"Then why did you return here?" Jack asked.
Steve then looked over at the other people inside the cavern. "It turns out they weren't as great as I thought. Just like the humans had werewolves as our slaves, they had done the same using humans as a food source. Some of them were guilty of crimes but some of them weren't. I even found out that those werewolves knew of this place for a while now, they would even often come here to purchase those human slaves…"
"Seeing that they were no different. I decided to come back and make a change. I wanted to save everyone in that mansion and bring down father. The only problem was in the time that I had gone, he had obtained a vast amount of wealth and gained strength in the yellow knights…"
"So, I tried saving them one by one, the easiest way— was to get them on the way to the auction, or just as they were being taken from underneath the Dem household. The people around you were all saved by me."
After finding out the truth of what his family had been doing for the last few years Jack fell silent. If it was anyone else telling him this story, he would have disregarded it. But because the story came from his brother, and what he had experienced himself matched with the story. He knew that it was true.
"I just have one question to ask?" Jack said. "Why didn't they sell me, why did they let me go?"
"That dear brother— is a question that can only be answered by your father and mother."