She'd gone from malnourished to merely run-down — but her status had shifted from Unawakened to Awaiting Awakening. In other words, with the catalyst of an awakening crystal, Field could obtain a Chosen on the spot!
"My lord, is something the matter?" Ashina fidgeted with her little hands, nervous.
Ten days of meat cutlets had warmed Ashina's manner toward Field considerably. Before she was captured, life had been bitter — scrounging for wild grasses to eat day after day. Now she'd fallen in with this strange noble and feasted on fish and meat morning to night.
Maybe that was just a wolf's lot in life: surprises around every corner.
"What is this?"
"An awakening crystal. A treasure that cost me sixty gold." Field's heart ached at the figure — he'd had only five hundred to start. "Every Awakening Day, this is what the Empire uses to seek out Chosen."
A single awakening crystal could screen close to a thousand people.
"Huh? You truly believe I'm a Chosen?" Ashina was at a loss. "Um... let's not joke around."
"Close your eyes and feel with your heart. I've received a god's revelation — don't worry." Field made it up on the spot, then set the crystal orb before her.
Ashina didn't believe for a second that she was a Chosen, but she had no wish to disappoint Field. After these days at his side, she'd come to think him a very different sort of noble — kind to her, at least.
The instant her hands touched the crystal orb, countless blue starlit motes poured out and gathered into the elegant, coolly aloof phantom of a goddess.
"The Winter Goddess, who governs ice and snow!" The demi-human slaves present recognized her at once — she was, after all, their own faith. "Heavens! Ashina is a Chosen of the Winter Goddess!"
"Thump, thump~"
The slaves dropped to their knees in a wave, trembling with emotion, half-wishing they could offer up their own hearts.
It was Field's first time witnessing such a scene too; he broke into a sweat from sheer excitement. This was a true divine miracle.
The blue starlight wove itself into a strange rune. Ashina instinctively reached out to touch it; the glow gradually drew inward, until at last it was branded onto the back of her hand.
At the same time, Ashina's body changed. Taller now, her full, flawless legs beyond reproach. Her skin shamed frost and outshone snow; her expression turned coolly serene; her crimson eyes radiated an icy aura. Her features grew finer than before — her beauty climbed a good thirty percent.
Commanding. Disdainful. Bewitching.
A natural-born allure.
"I really did become a Chosen. My lord, how did you do it?"
Ashina's little mouth rounded in disbelief, and in that moment she was filled with awe for Field.
For a Chosen's appearance could not be foreseen in the slightest. Even the Empress of the Holy Griffin Empire had a daughter who was nothing more than an ordinary person.
The other slaves couldn't believe it either. They'd all been slaves alike — how had a few days of the lord's training turned one into a Chosen? They knew how Ashina had been treated these past days; they'd assumed Field was breaking in a plaything, and never dreamed he'd actually produce a Chosen.
A Chosen was the will of a god.
The slaves guessed that Field was a man the gods favored — and at once they came to revere him too.
"A trifle." Field waved a hand, swollen with pride but feigning modesty. Then he strode to the front of the crowd. "Now — is there anyone still worried about our journey to the North, or opposed to my plans to open up the territory?"
The people exchanged glances. Who would dare?
"Trust me — so long as you do your jobs well and complete my tasks, I'll not only restore your freedom, I'll give you lives free of want for food or clothing." Field declared it aloud.
"Please, let me sign a contract with you."
Ashina volunteered. Field had said before that he'd make her a Chosen to open up the Nightfall Territory.
"Of course. It was fated." Field played the holy charlatan a moment longer.
Forming the contract was simple: Ashina drew on the power within her rune-brand, linked it with Field, and the contract took effect.
With the Chosen contract sealed, Field produced the slave contract. The slave brand had long since been washed away by the Chosen's purifying power, but Field went through the motions all the same, tearing up the slave contract before everyone and declaring Ashina a free citizen of the Nightfall Territory.
Ashina smiled radiantly. She raised a hand, and the rune transformed into a massive black dragonkin wolf, springing fang-bared out of the empty air, its body sheathed in jagged, gleaming scales that shimmered with cold light. The sight startled everyone.
"And this is?" Field was a little dazed.
"A dragonkin wolf — um, the mount the Goddess bestowed, I think." Ashina tidied her hair, every gesture brimming with poise. "I've also gained a great many combat skills."
After becoming a Chosen, one might receive all sorts of strange treasures; even if a Chosen fell in battle, the treasures could remain. House Rose held a sixth-rank divine-artifact lance, left behind by the fallen "Blood Rose" Chosen — and the family name, Rose, had come from her.
Field opened Ashina's panel.
Name: Ashina
Level: First-Rank Chosen
Class: Wolf Cavalry
Divine Skill: Spear of Frozen Impalement
Legion Skill: Howling Charge (cavalry under her command gain +100% charge force)
Ashina's combat power had rocketed up. Her dragonkin mount alone could stand toe-to-toe with a third-rank battle-qi knight.
With force at his back, Field's nerve fattened up at once. Stepmother, brother, the lot of them — worthless! Sooner or later he'd grind their faces into the dirt.
Field smiled. "Now — let's go take a look at the barracks and the armory."
As he neared the wall, Field could see scattered skull icons marked on the map, and the markers were moving.
"There are corrupted monsters here." Field drew his sword with a ring of steel. "Wiping out corruption for a fellow lord is the duty of every noble of the Empire."
He lit the mist-dispelling lamp bought from the Church, and its holy radiance instantly scattered a great swath of gray mist — no fear now of the slaves being poisoned to death by the death miasma.
"I sense the power of a Chosen." Ashina pointed at the golden lamp in Field's hand.
Field blinked. "No question about it. Pity I don't know how the Church makes them. Pure profiteering — twenty-five gold a lamp, and it only lasts thirty days."
Entering the pass, Field didn't let the rabble wander freely; they advanced in a tight cluster. They were only slaves dragooned into service, with no military training; sticking together was the wisest choice.
Ashina nudged the barracks door open a crack and saw two armored corpse-soldiers inside — though without weapons, evidently corrupted by the gray mist before they could grab any.
"Kill them!" Field's voice turned ruthless; he had his eye on the dense scale-armor those corpses wore. "Try not to wreck the armor."
"Understood!"
Ashina kicked the wooden door open and charged in, two strides at a time.
After becoming a Chosen, not only did one's physique improve dramatically, one also gained mastery of specialized combat arts.