From Slave to King: My Rebate System Built Me a Kingdom With Beauties! Chapter 208: A Dark Elf?

Byung lost consciousness shortly after their silent exchange, his body simply giving out despite his will to remain alert and aware of the danger before him. The wounds he had incurred from the three-headed dog were more severe than he had initially realized—internal bleeding, multiple fractured ribs, organ damage that his body was struggling to repair even with his enhanced physiology.

But it shouldn’t have been enough to knock him unconscious this quickly. He was more resilient than most, built to endure punishnt that would kill lesser creatures. Which would an it must be the elf’s doing—so magic she’d employed to force his body into shutdown, to render him helpless while she did... whatever she planned to do.

He wouldn’t put it past her from what he had seen in those brief monts. The predatory smile, the possessive gaze, the casual way she’d terrified a monster into fleeing. Byung was worried, but the fear couldn’t prevent the darkness from claiming him as whatever spell she’d cast dragged him under.

The dream that followed was vivid, more mory than imagination.

He saw the defeated goblin king stripped of everything he had—power, dignity, purpose. The figure stood in an empty void, no longer the mighty ruler who had supposedly wielded the legendary sword, but a hollow shell of what he’d once been. The king’s armor was gone, his weapons scattered, his very essence diminished to almost nothing.

This showed a transference of power, Byung understood instinctively. But wondered what he was doing here in this vision, why he was being shown this specific mont.

Co to think of it, he could rember everything now. The fog that had clouded his mind since arriving in this cursed prison had completely lifted. Every mory was crystal clear—Maui, Grishka, the settlent, the dwarf, the sword he’d been sent to retrieve, his evolution system and all its implications.

Byung recalled every single thing about who he was and what he was supposed to accomplish. The relief of having his full identity restored was overwhelming, like being whole again after existing as fragnts.

The goblin king in his vision smiled then, a sad but knowing expression crossing his translucent features. He spoke without words, his ssage conveyed directly into Byung’s consciousness: *Wake up.*

Byung’s eyes shot open right away, consciousness returning with jarring suddenness.

He found himself stark naked, his armor completely removed, his body bound by dark purple ropes made of pure magical energy. The bindings glowed faintly, pulsing with power that suppressed his strength and held him immobile in a spread position—arms extended to either side, legs similarly restrained, leaving him completely vulnerable and exposed.

Byung wondered why he was bound like this, what purpose it served beyond the obvious humiliation and control. But then he noticed he was sared all around with a strange fluid—viscous, slightly warm, with an oily sheen that reflected the dim light. The substance covered his chest, his arms, his legs, every inch of exposed skin coated in whatever this preparation was.

The elf smiled when she noticed his eyes open, her expression showing satisfaction that her captive was finally awake. "Welco back," she said, her voice lodic but carrying undertones that made his skin crawl. "I was beginning to think I’d miscalculated the dosage."

Byung had no idea what she planned to do to him, but every instinct scread danger. He tried to move, to break the magical restraints, but his body wouldn’t respond properly.

But more importantly, more concerningly, how was she able to remove his armor? The dwarven-crafted plates had been created to specifically protect him, bonded to his body that should have prevented anyone else from taking them off. Yet sohow this elf had stripped him bare while he was unconscious, leaving him defenseless.

The elf approached, her enormous breasts swaying with each deliberate step, and she rubbed her hand slowly across his open wound where the dog’s teeth had punctured skin. Byung tried to flinch away from the touch but realized with growing horror that his entire body was numb—everywhere except his groin.

That particular area still had full sensation, still responded to stimuli, and he could feel himself beginning to react to her proximity despite the danger. The contrast between the complete numbness everywhere else and the hypersensitivity there was disorienting and deeply unsettling.

"I’m Velara and you’re probably wondering what’s happening," the elf said conversationally, her fingers tracing patterns in the blood and strange fluid coating his torso. "The substance I’ve covered you with is a paralyzing agent, very useful for keeping subjects still during... procedures. But I left certain areas functional because, well—" her smile turned wicked, "—I might want to have so fun before I’m done with you."

The elf circled around him slowly, examining his bound form from every angle like a predator assessing prey.

"I have no idea what you are, exactly," she continued thoughtfully. "Not quite goblin, though you have their features. Sothing more, sothing evolved. But for sothing to be sent here after so long, after decades of this prison receiving no new inmates, there had to be a very specific reason."

Byung was tempted to reveal to her that he was the goblin king, and had co seeking the legendary sword. The words almost ford on his lips despite knowing it would be foolish to give this clearly dangerous elf more information.

But just thinking about it was enough for her to grasp it. Because Byung had no idea she could read his mind.

The elf’s eyes widened with genuine surprise and then delight as she plucked the thoughts directly from his consciousness. "The goblin king," she breathed, her voice filled with wonder and amusent.

She instantly produced a knife from sowhere—a wicked-looking blade that seed to be carved from black crystal, its edge glowing faintly with malevolent energy. The elf ran it down his torso slowly, not cutting yet but letting him feel the cold blade against his vulnerable skin despite the numbness being in effect, letting the threat sink in completely.

Byung knew with sudden, terrible certainty that this elf must be crazy, must be completely unhinged if she thought she could—

Then he sensed it. That feeling, that twisted energy he recognized from his recent journey. It was the sa corruption he had sensed oozing from the dwarf, the sa taint of the dark continent that marked soone with an air around them that was wrong, fundantally broken.

This wasn’t just any elf. This was a dark elf—one who had been corrupted, made into sothing that her own kind would consider an abomination. That’s why she was imprisoned here. That’s why she’d been locked away in this mory-stripping maze, because she’d beco too dangerous, too corrupted to be allowed to exist in the normal world.

And she was about to cut him open to take his heart for a ritual.

The realization hit with absolute certainty as her knife pressed slightly harder against his chest, right over where his heart beat rapidly with fear and adrenaline. She was going to extract it, probably for so ritual or to consu his power directly, to add his evolution system to whatever twisted abilities she’d already accumulated. These were all just assumptions on Byung’s part but one could never be too careful.

"Do you have any last requests?" the elf asked him, her tone almost polite despite the insanity of the question. Her naughty, hungry eyes t his as the blade’s point began to pierce skin, as the first drops of blood welled up around the crystal edge.

Byung’s mind raced desperately for sothing, anything that might delay her, might give him a chance to escape or fight back. His body was numb, his armor gone, his strength suppressed by magical bindings he couldn’t break.

But his mind was clear now and this gave him an edge because all he needed was to gain access to magic and there would be no limit to what he could do. The orcs had comnted about his sen being of the highest quality, there had to be sothing he could do with that information right now.