Chara stood alone in the spectator's booth, the Colosseum was currently nothing less than chaotic when the guards had attempted to escort the nobles out to safety, they had been met with nothing less than hostility about the day's events and now on top of at least one guard being reported dead within an hour a mass number of threats had come flooding in from nobles all across the country threatening to pull their private funding for all Colosseum's in the kingdom if their demands weren't met.
As all the complaining nobles were using the Colosseum's anonymity stamp that allowed them to avoid having anything to do with the Colosseum linked to them for things like visiting other countries that frowned upon such activities, some of the demands were heated.
While a lot were demanding things like proper respect be shown, and complaining that a fixed fight spoiled the fun, a lot of notes were just nobles saying they had been traumatized by the events and demanded the right to rent out the King of the Colosseum for private use as an appology.
When Chara had pointed out to Vlad that it was highly likely the private use they wanted King for was probably less fighting and more using him for physical services she had been kicked out of the office and told to keep an eye out for when her father would arrive.
She didn't bother looking out, knowing full well her father would be heard coming half a mile away she instead looked over to where King had cracked the floor simply by landing on it.
She could still see him in her mind, from a young age all people, of all races, had all been equal in her eyes, equally disgusting, she had been born with a skill that let her see the aura of those around her, and as such she could judge just about any creature just by looking at it, and with her skill she could instinctively tell things about who there whereas a person.
Whenever she looked at her mother, she saw not love, but disappointment that Chara had been born a week late, and in doing so had apparently been born under the wrong star.
She looked at her brother and could see his fantasies of what he wanted to do to her if he ever managed to get her alone.
She had seen her Father, looking down at her on her third birthday, planning out how he would have her marry a nobleman's son three times her age so he could score some of the man's good stock of wine as a present.
Everyone she had ever met she could see through in a moment, and no one ever surprised her with what they thought, most thought of how they would use her body for their pleasure, some thought about how they might use her for political gains, some thought about how much in ransom they might get for her, and others planed on how they would end her life if she got in their way.
The only people she couldn't read were the slaves, the collars shut them away from their magic, and in turn, she couldn't see what they thought. She had thought that maybe these people who had endured such hardships might appreciate her if she only freed them.
So she had experimented to see what might happen, telling her father she was studying the use of one of her skills she had herself assigned one slave and would spend a week being nothing but nice to them before secretly weakening their collars strength just enough to read their aura.
She had seen only plans for rape and murder in their auras every time she tried, no matter how sweet or polite they acted to her and her to them, the moment she took a look they were planning where they would put the knife, the satisfaction they would get vicariously by killing her due to their hatred for her father. Or they were already planning how they would convince her they needed something or another for sleep aid or back pain and when they would slip it into her tea and have their fun.
All creatures on this earth were disgusting, no matter what she had done this fact had been proven true, time and time again. Eventually, she just tuned them out, unless she was directly talking to them for too long or about to be left alone with someone she would simply do her best to tune it out.
As an indirect result of stopping use of a skill she had never turned off for a decade and a half she had lost her ability to tell people apart by race, it had resulted in many mistake that her father had covered up haphazardly, if nothing else it saved her from being sold off to a sutor as she accidentally gained the title of the Bleeding Heart Princess who cared for all races.
In truth she had just acted nice to everything before ignoring them, she had wished slaves a good day, held the door open for an escaping slave, and most recently clapped in earnest for an elf.
Her Father had put his foot down after that fumble, sending her to work in the Colosseum so she could see just how disgusting the creatures she wept for actually were.
And it had started as dull as she imagined it would be, two meat sacks trying to kill each other as other meat sacks screamed for blood, as the Colosseum failing would probably be blamed on her. Vlad, who was already brainstorming ways he could artificially make something a problem, blame her, and then use it to blackmail her for access to her body, ignored her concerns about how much business he stood to lose as he began dictating the letter to her father on how it had been her fault and she needed to be shown her place by a proper man.
She knew it wouldn't work as the Merchant was planning to complain about Vlad to her father, although he was also having a few side thoughts of having her modeling his less than decent merchandise.
She had been prepared for disaster, but it had been the wrong one. When the Barrier exploded and a magic aura that could be felt by people without her skill filled the air, she had been force-fed an entire life story.
Another world, bright lights, crippling loneliness, death, reincarnation, disappointment, slavery, almost two decades of being alone without a hand to hold, a beautiful woman offering her body, the desire to say yes, the fear of being left alone again, rage, pain and confusion at being disfigured, forced passion, guilt at a broken mind, lessening guilt at finding the mind monstrous, passion of one's choosing, more rage, the fear of losing what little had been gained.
All of King's emotions, his thoughts, his fears, and both his lives, flooded into Chara in a moment, she had been unable to move when he appeared before, and now looking at his aura as he looked at her she could only see one thought in his mind. There was no stripping her down mentally, no planning her assassination, the only thing she could see past his rage was an overwhelming desire to protect what little he now had,"
It had been oddly sweet, and while he had many a peevish thought, they all consisted of his Suzie and Fae, they were his and he didn't care for anyone else. The idea of someone looking at her, and wanting not just her body but her safety had brought about a new feeling.
It was possibly tainted by the forced overload of his entire life but she wanted someone to look at her like that.
"No," She decided as she looked at the cracks in the ground, "I don't want somebody, I want him to look at me like that,"
"Say something?" Having been lost in thought, Chara looked over and saw the Merchant, standing far away from her as he puffed on a pipe, having come out for a smoke during her thoughts, now stuck in the Colosseum while his Giant was treated for any injuries it received during the fight.
"Yes," She decided as she tried to ignore his thoughts about her wearing only a fur coat, "I'm sure you noticed how…poorly Vlad handled the business entrusted to him,"
"Hard not to," The Merchant replied after a puff, "I have seen a lot, and I have never seen such a…a unique creature, such a waist for it to be in these pathetic pits,"
"I agree," Chara wanted to take the King to her room and feel his affection towards her, but to do so would require she also take his two women, and that wouldn't work if she tried to take them home to the castle, "I have a proposition for your Merchant,"
"Marvo," He said in introduction, offering his hand that she shook, still trying not to look directly at his imagination of her. "And since you seem to be the only person here with some semblance of sense, not a high bar I know, I'll hear you out,"
"If I let them have their way my Father and Vlad will kill King's two girls the next time he comes out to fight, they'll probably parade their mutilated corpses, and if that happens he will go nuclear,"
"Never heard that term before," Marvo noted, Chara having unintentionally usen a word of King's past world.
"He'll make that last explosion of magical power look like he was just lighting a match,"
"Ah, nuclear," Marvo nodded, "I like it, a powerful word, and you're right, you have a way to get them three out?" as soon as he spoke she saw something shift in Marvo's Aura, and saw what he was remembering as he spoke.
"Not yet," She told him, "But since you have a past with freeing slaves I thought I should at least enlist you in helping me to stall my father out,"
Marvo nodded slowly before staling in his tracks, "Dam, I heard people call you the bleeding heart princess, but if you know I'm active in…" he looked around before finishing his words, "...activities we shan't speak of aloud for our safety, and didn't tell you pappy the rumors must be more than just that,"
"I see all races as equal," She told him honestly, leaving out how exactly she saw all races, "But even I must admit King is quite the…specimen to behold,"
"Ai, I did a little digging, no records on who sold him, and no records of a half-elf child being reported missing,"
"Well first things first before we go gawking at King we need to make sure my father is made properly aware that Vlad is fully to blame and understands the danger to lives, and more importantly to him and his profits, if King isn't calmed,"
"Won't be easy," Marvo muttered, "But I'll see if I can't work some magic,"