BXBX NOVEL Chapter 158: Takatsuki Makoto walks through the night in the Fire Country
Chapter 158: Takatsuki Makoto walks through the night in the Fire Country
“Waah, so this is how it looks from the sky.”
“There’s a lot of people. As expected of the number two of the big countries.”
Currently, Sa-san and I were flying in the sky of the Gamoran capital.
Sa-san used her Change Skill to turn into a harpy.
“Didn’t you hate harpies?” (Makoto)
They were the sworn enemies of the Lamias in Laberintos.
I felt it strange that she would take that form.
“Well, that’s true, but due to having fought with them for so long, it is easy to transform into them.” (Aya)
Sa-san smiled bitterly.
Her painful memories of the past might have faded a bit.
That must be a joyful thing.
“And so, Sa-san, where are we going?” (Makoto)
“Eh? We are having a date. You were having a date with Fu-chan in the morning, right? Let’s have a walk.” (Aya)
Sa-san responded as if playing dumb.
Date, huh.
I look at the face of my friend that I have known since middle school.
Her expression was serious, and it looked like she was searching for something.
(Sa-san isn’t the type to wander around aimlessly without an objective.) (Makoto)
She is the opposite of me after all.
When we are playing RPG games together, I would always talk to all the residents of all settlements at least 2 times each, and I remember that she pushed me to just move on by saying ‘that’s a hassle!’.
Well, I do feel I overdo it sometimes.
But you know, there’s NPCs that change dialogues from the 1st time and 2nd time, you know?
“Hey, Takatsuki-kun, what’s that big building?” (Aya)
The voice of Sa-san snaps me back from my thoughts.
“Uhm, that’s the arena. The venue where the tournament will be taking place in.” (Makoto)
“Heeh, so that’s the arena…” (Aya)
“Wanna give it a check?” (Makoto)
Sa-san is in the tournament.
If she is going to participate, I think it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get a look at it at least once.
“No, I won’t today.” (Aya)
Sa-san shook her head to the sides.
Looks like the matter of the tournament isn’t her objective.
In that case…
“Is that what you are searching for, Sa-san?” (Makoto)
I pointed at a certain direction.
Sa-san moves her head there.
“Takatsuki-kun, what’s that plaza with a whole lot of tents?” (Aya)
At the place we were looking at, there’s a spacious vacant land with a whole lot of giant tents lined up.
The size of the tents are as big as the circus we once saw in Rozes.
Several tens of tents of those sizes lined up makes for a really surreal sight.
I have the knowledge since I have already asked Fuji-yan what’s there.
“That’s the slave market, Sa-san. The biggest slave business in Great Keith.” (Makoto)
“Slave market…” (Aya)
The eyes of Sa-san turn dangerous.
(Her objective really is Kawakita-san.) (Makoto)
It seems Fuji-yan hasn’t obtained useful information for the noble that has bought Kawakita-san.
There’s only a number of days before the large scale slave auction begins.
“Hey, Takatsuki-kun, can we take a little detour?” (Aya)
Sa-san looked my way with serious eyes.
[Will you head to the Fire Country’s slave market?]
Yes ←
No
(Options here, huh.) (Makoto)
There’s something there.
This might be like entering the tiger’s den.
But this is Sa-san asking here.
“Let’s go, Sa-san; to greet Kawakita-san.” (Makoto)
“Yes! Thanks!” (Aya)
Sa-san’s voice grew cheery in an instant.
“But let me do one little thing first.” (Makoto)
“?”
I tell my plan to Sa-san who is tilting her head to the side.
◇◇
“Hey hey, is something like this enough?” (Aya)
Sa-san was fidgeting with her big body restlessly.
Sa-san is currently transformed into a rich madam.
“I kinda don’t like this.” (Aya)
“Now now, with that appearance, you won’t be suspected even if you enter the slave market.” (Makoto)
A round body and a flashy dress, with several jewel rings in her fingers. You could only see her as a woman who suddenly came into wealth.
I have used transformation myself and am running with the setting of being her attendant.
So I say, but I simply lengthened my bangs to hide my eyes.
It is a bit of a hentai protagonist kind of style.
I will talk a little bit about the differences between Sa-san and my transformation Skills.
Sa-san is a lamia which is a race that’s good at transformations by nature.
The reason is because they can turn into humans, deceive them, and eat them -a scary reason.
On top of that, she has an Inherent Skill called Change which is a stronger variation of transformation, so she can change her appearance 24/7 as much as she wants.
Compared to that, I am someone that learned the Transform Skill through training.
Because of that, my limit for the transformation is around 1 hour, and it is not like I can transform into anything.
I can’t transform into a harpy like Sa-san and fly in the sky.
We will be keeping the transformation for a long period of time on this occasion, so I kept it at just doing my bangs.
“Hey, Takatsuki-kun, was there a need to go through the trouble of disguising ourselves?” (Aya)
Sa-san made a wondering expression.
“Yeah, the General of the Fire Country was investigating our party. If I were to go to the slave market as the Water Country’s Hero, that information will most likely reach him.” (Makoto)
General Tariska was aware of the Moon Oracle.
There’s apparently a lot of soldiers in the slave market here for the sake of security.
I don’t want to have my face remembered by them.
“It would be problematic otherwise if we were to do our last resort, which is kidnapping Kawakita-san, right?” (Makoto)
I whisper this to Sa-san.
Sa-san made a surprised expression at those words, and then grinned.
“You are a bad guy, Takatsuki-kun.” (Aya)
“It really will be a last resort of last resorts. I would like to avoid doing that.” (Makoto)
That’s a crime after all.
“Then, let’s go.” (Makoto)
Sa-san and I nod lightly and we pass through the gates of the slave market.
◇◇
We were stopped by the gatekeepers, but it was them just giving us a good amount of chips. They let us enter pretty easily.
I was taught the manners of this place from Fuji-yan.
Different from what I thought, the inside of the slave market is clean and it is lively.
The main goods are of course the slaves, but there’s also betting matches.
The slaves most sought for in this Fire Country are the slaves with high fighting power.
The military country of Great Keith is also called the country of the art of war, and the ones who have a lot of strong warriors are admired the most.
Even if you are a slave, as long as you are a first class warrior, your treatment is apparently pretty good.
There’s even people that have high fighting power but no brains who would search for a master to sell themselves.
And the way to see if the slave is actually strong, there’s obviously the way of looking at the Soul Book where your Status and Skills are, but the fastest way is to have them fight.
There’s several make-shift rings inside the slave market.
Slaves have a competition of strength there.
The fact that they even add an extra betting element to it to profit really makes me feel their commercial spirit.
There’s an apothecary priest closeby, so it is a proper match.
It is barbaric though.
And so, the inside of the slave market is filled with vigour.
It is a slave market, so I was imagining a more dark atmosphere.
“Wa wa, Takatsuki-kun, there’s female slaves there fighting each other.” (Aya)
“It looks like they are at least categorizing them by weight, race, and gender.” (Makoto)
Is it to make it fair?
With all of this going, I even feel as if it is a sport.
By the way, only the warrior types are fighting.
The mage slaves are not fighting.
It seems like they look at their Soul Book to decide in that regard.
Well, having mages fight in the city would invite disaster.
“Takatsuki-kun! Who do you think is gonna win from those two?” (Aya)
“Hmm, an amazon and a beastkin. Both are strong.” (Makoto)
Sa-san was completely in spectator mode.
The ones fighting are a burly dark skinned female warrior, and a female beastkin warrior that has ears like that of a tiger.
The fight seemed to be even and they are both so strong I can’t tell who is stronger.
Or more like, aren’t those two as strong as Nina-san?
“Do you think I can participate unannounced…?” (Aya)
Sa-san makes an ominous statement.
I was going to respond with a joking tone of ‘Oi oi, we can’t do something that stands out, right?’, but…
*Zuzu…*
I could feel the air rumbling.
A second later, I noticed that it was leaking out from Sa-san.
At the same time, the two female warriors fighting looked over here with shocked expressions…staring right at Sa-san who was by my side.
Not only those two, a number of the warrior slaves in the venue turned over here.
Fortunately, the merchants haven’t noticed.
{Sa-san, let’s get out from here! Hurry!} (Makoto)
{E-Eh? Okay.} (Aya)
We hurriedly leave the place.
◇◇
We arrived in the spring area at the center of the plaza.
It seems to be an oasis-like place.
There’s carriages of merchants lined up, and the horses are drinking water there.
And close to the spring, I could see Water Spirits here and there.
“Aah, that scared me…” (Makoto)
“S-Sorry, Takatsuki-kun.” (Aya)
After escaping from the eyes of the warriors, Sa-san apologized.
By the way, she has returned to her original girl appearance.
“Well, it is fine to just be careful next time. Did your Intimidation Skill leak there?” (Makoto)
Even so, that surprise of the warrior people was not normal.
It was like they were frogs glared by a snake.
“Uuh…that was unintentional.” (Aya)
Sa-san was feeling down.
She probably hasn’t gotten used to the changes from her evolution.
We can only test things out as we go.
I try to change the mood of Sa-san.
“Sa-san, look over there. We found the place we were looking for.” (Makoto)
“Eh?” (Aya)
At the other side of the spring, where my eyes were pointing at, was a tent that’s clearly bigger than the other tents, and there are a lot of guards standing in its perimeter.
“The place where the ‘outstanding goods’ for the next slave auction are in.” (Makoto)
“…Keiko-chan is there…” (Aya)
“Sa-san, calm down.” (Makoto)
Sa-san was on the verge of letting out bloodlust stronger than that of before, so I hurriedly calmed her down.
“Well then, Sa-san, let’s go back.” (Makoto)
“Eh?! After coming all the way here?!” (Aya)
Sa-san looks over here as if protesting.
“Let’s come back late at night. We managed to see where the place is and how many guards there are, so we have to make preparations to infiltrate.” (Makoto)
I’m gonna need the cooperation of Furiae-san for this one.
There’s a lot to do.
Sa-san made a surprised expression at my response.
“You seem to be having fun, Takatsuki-kun.” (Aya)
“Oi oi, Sa-san, look at these eyes here. I’m serious, aren’t I?” (Makoto)
“Yeah yeah.” (Aya)
I got laughed at for some reason.
“Then, I will get some sleep at Takatsuki-kun’s room.” (Aya)
No, you can do that in your own room.
That day, we returned to the inn and prepared for the infiltration.
◇That day late at night◇
The noisy slave market was now completely silent.
However, there’s a lot of guards, so we gotta be careful.
I had Sa-san turn into a harpy, and we aimed for the giant tent from the sky.
Just that, if we were to go like this, we would be found, so…
[Water Magic: Mist].
I borrowed the mana of the Water Spirits and covered the area of the slave market in mist.
I actually wanted to cover the whole capital, but because there aren’t that many Spirits, it wasn’t possible.
The Fire Country is decently close to the coast.
It is a tropical climate, and the amount of rainfall in dry seasons is low, but the wind on the ocean side carries the water, and there’s rare times when mist would be created from this.
{But we can’t just take our sweet time. Sa-san, let’s go.} (Makoto)
{Yeah. The Stealth Skill is doing well.} (Aya)
We silently land at the side of the tent.
And then, we took out the special item we requested Furiae-san to make.
What was inside what looked like a perfume bottle is ‘water’.
But with the curse magic of the Moon Oracle, it has turned into a fearsome item. The name of the magic is Sleep and Lapse of Memory.
I used water magic to turn that cursed water into mist and made the guards sleep.
And even if they were to wake up, their memories of several hours ago will be gone.
Sa-san and I enter through an opening of the barrier magic set on the tent that was opened by using my dagger.
There’s obviously guards inside the tent too, but we made all of them fall asleep.
Sa-san and I use Stealth to silently explore inside the tent.
And so, as we went on, we found one girl at the deepest and most luxurious cage.
It is a wonderful interior for a slave, and if there weren’t steel bars, you could even mistake it for a high class lodging.
It is late in the night, and the woman inside the cage was sleeping, but I remember that face.
The last time I met her was in the Water Temple.
She was also a classmate of mine in high school.
“Keiko-chan!” (Aya)
Sa-san shouted in a subdued manner and ran to the cage.