51 - 第五十一話 新しき仲間
"Master, what were you doing?"
"Oh, I don\'t think Peris would understand. It\'s a slave trade."
"Drei?"
They buy people for money. The people who are bought have to do what the people who bought them say."
"It\'s a commodity, isn\'t it? I believe that the products we buy are free to do what they want."
"Well, that\'s a good point. I wish my daughters could hear what she says!
Akima laughs and laughs. As I step out of the room, a man who seems to be an official of the slave city approaches me.
"I apologize for the other day. Sir, the slave you purchased will be delivered to you.
Apparently, the next time a slave market is held in the capital, it will be punished, but this time there will be no repercussions. I left Akima and followed the man with Peris. We were then taken to a hotel room.
After a while, a well-dressed man, who appeared to be a slaver, entered the room.
He said, "Well, thank you very much for your time. I would like to start the transaction immediately. The price is ... yes, this will be fine. Then we\'ll move on to the slave contract. Bring them here!
A sheep beastman is brought in. Unlike the previous stage, she is dressed in a one-piece dress. The previous stage, she was dressed lightly to show off her curves. However, she is really beautiful when you see her in front of you.
"Then, may I have a drop of your blood?
Hm? Blood? I didn\'t do that when Master Elsa bought me, did I?
"Aren\'t slave contracts done by spell?"
"In the case of criminal slaves, we are required to receive the blood of the buyer and make a blood pact with him. Once the blood pact is made, the slave will not be able to resist his master at all. The master must not be disobeyed by the criminal slave. Please understand that this is required by law.
It\'s pretty tough to treat a criminal slave.
"As for the blood, please use the magical tool. If you put the tip of it on your fingertip, it will absorb the blood by itself. It will not hurt and will not leave a scar.
The tip of the glass rod given to me is placed against my fingertip. The rod immediately sucked out my blood. The slaver takes it and, chanting some kind of incantation, drops my blood onto the sheepman\'s palm. The beastman\'s palm glows.
The slavery contract is now complete.
"How do I cancel the contract? What happens to this slave if I die?"
"Since the slave has made a blood pact with the owner, if the owner dies, the slave dies too. If you do not like it, you can cancel the contract at the nearest slaver. In that case, please contact us.
"Okay. And then there\'s the whole freeing the slaves thing. How can I do that?"
"It is not often that we hear about freeing criminal slaves, but in that case, we need your permission, Priestess.
Priest?
"Yes, sir. A criminal slave can be freed only if the priest accepts the slave\'s atonement. However, that would require a tremendous amount of money, and above all, the atonement would have to be accepted by the Priestess, so I must say that it would be quite difficult.
In other words, once you fall into criminal slavery, it is almost impossible to free yourself. What the hell did this beastie do?
"We have heard that the beast concocted poison and killed many villagers. I think you know what kind of a man he is when you see his impudence. Please be very careful with him.
With these words, the slaver quickly left the room. The remaining sheep girl came and knelt down in front of me.
Thank you for your purchase. I will serve you well from now on. Please do whatever you wish.
"Hmmm, let\'s get out of here for now, shall we? My name is Linos. By the way, what\'s your name?"
"...no, sir. I would be happy if the master would give it to me.
"No, you have a name you\'ve been calling yourself, haven\'t you? What is that name?"
I\'m Meirias.
"Well, I\'ll call you Meilias, if that\'s all right."
"Thank you very much."
"Well, Meilius, I\'ll get right to it, but we\'re hungry. We haven\'t had lunch yet. This is Peris. He\'s our head chef. Has Meilius had lunch yet?"
No, not yet.
"All right, let\'s go get something to eat. Shall we go for beef stew?
"I want to go!"
"Okay, it\'s settled!"
Me and Peris follow, followed by Meilias. When we get outside, the soldier from earlier is wandering around. As I was thinking how hard he was working, I was unexpectedly approached by him.
"Mister Linos, you too are in need of a slave, aren\'t you?"
Princess Licorette peeks out of the carriage window.
"The soldiers entered the slave market a few minutes ago, were those your orders?"
"Yes. Even if they are beasts, they should not be bought and sold for money, even if they are still young.
"I agree. I wish people would voluntarily quit buying people for money.
"Who do you think you are? The beastie behind it was not purchased by you? You have no right to say what you have just said, when you are paying money to buy the comfort of a child who is not yet old enough to be your friend.
"Maybe so. No, I\'d like to free him, but he\'s a criminal slave. I\'d like to free them, but they\'re criminal slaves and it\'s not easy to free them.
"Freeing criminal slaves? How dare you speak so brazenly about...?"
"I agree with you, Mr. Ricolet. Being a slave is a very unsettling experience. We should not let our children experience such a feeling. I may not be qualified to say this, but I really think so.
What the hell are you...?
I used to be a slave myself.
Princess Licorette looked momentarily startled. Maybe I shouldn\'t have said that. Well, if something happens, then we\'ll just have to wait and see. I leave the place with the two of them and move on. Soon we arrive at a hotel with a nice beef stew and enter the restaurant.
"Good evening, Mr. Linos, and welcome to our hotel.
I brought our head chef and a newcomer with me today."
Well, well, well, Mr. Peris, welcome. The newcomer is...! Mr. Linos, you are the one who...
He\'s the newest member of our team.
Yes, sir. Please, this way...
The boy, who is always so polite to me, is looking very restless. Ah, it\'s because of the curse of Meirias. I\'ll put up a ward so that Meilias won\'t be affected by the curse for the time being.
We are shown to our seats. But Meirias does not sit down, but stands behind me.
"Why don\'t you sit down too, Meilius? You can order whatever you like. The beef stew here is excellent!"
"Gosh, it\'s outrageous that I have to eat at the same table as the master!"
"Okay. I don\'t feel comfortable standing there. Sit down anyway. That\'s an order. Is there anything else you want to eat? Anything you don\'t like? No? I\'ll have the same thing I have, okay? I\'ll have three beef stews, a salad, and three omelets."
Soon after, the ordered dishes are brought to the table.
"Come on, let\'s eat. Peris, I want you to steal this taste.
I\'ll take care of it!
Peris is munching away, mumbling something like, "Hmm, tomatoes. Meirias also mumbles "Oh, it\'s delicious" as he eats. He seemed to like it.
"Well, Meilius. I was going to free you from your slavery, but it seems like it would take a lot of work, so I guess you will have to stay with us for a while. I\'ll follow up with you, but first I need you to promise me something."
Hi! Meirias stops eating and stands up as if he were flying.
No, you can stay seated. Listen to me while you eat. It\'s not that hard. First of all, don\'t lie to me. If it\'s hard, say it\'s hard, if you don\'t like it, say you don\'t like it. The second thing is to keep secret what I say secret. This is okay because we have a slave contract. But even if the slave contract is terminated, you must keep it. And the third and last is, stay well. If you look sad, it makes me sad too. So I want you to be as cheerful as possible. As much as you can."
Meilius nodded, looking like a pigeon hit by a peashooter.
After enjoying the beef stew and other dishes, we left the hotel and headed for the Darke Trading Company. We met up with Ilimo, who had been connected to the hotel.
"Ilimo, I\'m Meilias, the newest member of our group today. Nice to meet you. This horse is Ilimo. Please take care of him.
Hello, nice to meet you. Meirias greets him with a polite "hello". They walk for a while until they leave the city and see that no one is around anymore.
"Meilius, let\'s start by revealing our secret. You must never tell them.
With that I make sure that Meilias can see Peris and Ilimo.
"Bek! Belial! And the unicorn pegasus!
"Pheris can fly home, right? Meilius, get on Ilimo. Hold on to my back."
Ilimo forced Meirias, whose eyes were darting about, to get on board, and they flew through the air. It is a secret story that I returned home with my heart pounding against the back of my head as Meilias\'s breasts hit my back.