Chapitre 40: Return to the City (III)
"I have lovely ladies, boys, and men. I specialize in beast-kin. What kind of quality are you looking for? For a noble lady like yourself, we could sell you a beautiful man that can become a great butler."
What the heck is this guy even saying? Does he want me to start collecting a harem or something? I shook at him with disgust.
"How many do you have?"
"I'm sorry?"
"I'm asking how many slaves do you have for sale?"
"Fifty-five beast kinds in total."
"What's the total to buy them all?"
"All?"
"Are you deaf? How much is it to buy them all?"
"1390 g-g-gold coins."
"That's it?"
The fat man was flabbergasted in how naturally I stated that number. "I-"
"Shut up porky and draw me a contract. Now." I demanded. Where the heck was I getting all this confidence from? Well, honestly, the way porky was treating this beast-kin made me infuriated.
"Why, you little cheeky brat."
"Are you going to sell me the slave or not. I'm offering to buy them all of your hands in the amount you specified. This is a once in a lifetime deal. I'll also throw in one more gold coin, and this gold coin is worth three times as much then one gold coin." I fished out a golden coin in hand and twirled it in my hands.
The greedy man was salivating at the sight of the gold coin. The fat man was silent. He quickly ran toward the back, where he brought out a paper and pen. Pushing aside the stuff on the table, he placed the paper down in hand. Quickly jotting down the information and signing it, he turned the contract over for me to sign.
"This is a magic contract. The moment you sign this, you are bound to set an amount of price."
I quickly look it over. "Before I sign this, what would I be getting for buying off all the slaves?"
"I would personally throw in two more slaves to the deal that I have been personally keeping."
"Really? What's so special about them?"
"Well...." The fat man went silent.
I knew it. He was selling a defective product to me. Either way, I did not care, my goal was one thing only to buy them all. "Like I said, this gold coin is not like any other gold coin that you will ever come across in your life. I only have one." I continued to twirl the Draconian Gold coin in front of his face. I could tell that greed was setting in on the fat man. "Give me one of your finest, expensive, and most powerful slaves and all the slaves in this tent, and I'll give it to you."
The gold rolled around in my palms. With a twitching hand, the fat man grabbed towards the gold coin. Before he could snatch it out of my hands, I held onto his, and we shook.
"W-w-what did you just do?!" The fat man exclaimed in horror.
"We made a porky contract. And do you understand what it means to make a contract?" I evilly grinned. This poor fool was so full of greed that he forgot to pay attention to his opponent.
"No! You can't! My Slaves! You dirty rat! I will not-" The fat man started to hyperventilate heavily. He clutched his heart as he kneel forward. "I-I will not g-g-give you my sl-" With a horribly spazzing like sound, he fell forward dead.
I couldn't help but stare at him in shock. Was the handshake contract that deadly to the point it kills someone? I absolutely had no words for what just happened.
Gently kicking the fat man on the side, I probed if he was still alive. There was no movement, except silence. I quietly picked up the pen from the desk and scratched out the total amount of gold coins offered for the whole amount of slaves. I wrote with the pen one Draconian gold coin as close to the fat man's handwriting. Bending over, I pulled out a knife and pricked his thumb.
Picking up his bloody thumb, I pressed down onto the paper with his fingerprint. Then I quickly signed the paper. The paper swell in golden light, and my signature floated out of the paper. Like a flash, the signature broke into many small pieces of black line. It flew towards each of the slave collar in the whole tent. I couldn't help but look down with awe at the paper in front of me. This was even better than I had thought. The proof of ownership was not in the form of a paper at all.
Leaving the one Draconian gold coin in his hand, I rummaged through his pocket for keys. I did not want to stay here any longer. Quickly, I ran to the first cage, where I met Siva and Seth.
Their eyes were glued towards me with curiosity and unease. Going through the key, I opened the door for them to come out.
"Come on. I need your help in gathering everyone out of their cage here."
"Gather everyone?" Siva tilted her head confused. Her ears flopped to the side, giving her the most adorable look ever.
"Yea, we are all leaving this forsaken hell hole."
"Leaving? You are our master?" Siva was awed at how fast things were happening.
"Well, more like freeing you instead of keeping you here. I'll take you back to my place and get those collars off. Seeing people selling others just leaves a bad aftertaste in my mouth."
Seth quietly excited behind Siva. I quickly handed him half the keys for him to open the cages.
"Come on."
Seth nodded and left. Siva, on the other hand, stays close to me. Gazing at me with curious eyes. She really did remind me of a lost golden retriever puppy because of her hair and ears. It just looks adorable. Though I couldn't help but look up at her. She was a lot taller than I remembered inside the cramped up cage.
"Are we really going out of here?"
"Yes."
"Did you really buy us all?"
"Yes."
"Are you a princess?"
"No."
"A noble?"
"No."
"A daughter of a rich merchant?"
"Well, none of what you stated."
"Then what are you?"
"Just a smart kid that tricked porky." I winked.
For the first time, I saw her smile brilliantly. Even though her body was thin and bones, she still held herself up pretty well. If I look closely at her, she was gorgeous, it was just that the clothes that she wore, dirt, and messy hair covered her beauty.
"How did you and Seth end up as slaves?"
"We were captured by humans."
"Ah." I went quiet. "I'm human as well."
"You are?" Siva started with a questioning look. "But your ears are pointy, aren't you an elf?"
I shook my head. "My ears are just like that."
"Oh." She quietly whispered. "But it's alright, I can tell you are a good person."
"So you don't hate me?" My voice squeaked unexpectedly. I must've held back some worry that I did not know about until my voice cracked.
"No. Why would I? You gave me food and water."
"I see." I went towards the next cage and opened it.
We continued to go through the tent, opening up more and more. From young to old, the total number of Beast-kin all surrounded me quietly. They all stared down at me with lifeless eyes wondering what I would do next.
"Is that the slave merchant?" Siva asked. Her voice quivered as she looked at the dead body lying on the floor. "Is he dead?"
"Yes."
"How?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know, natural death."
Siva stared at me when I said that. Even I don't know if that was true. Looking down, she saw the gold Draconis Coin in the dead man's hand. She reached down to pick it up.
"Stop!" I yelled, afraid that the curse of the contract would affect her.
Pulling back her hand in fright, Siva looked at me in fear. "I-I-I'm s-s-sorry." She stuttered, holding back her hand in shame. Her sorrowful expression even wounded my heart and made me feel like a horrible person who just smacked a puppy in the face.
"That coin is cursed. I highly suggest you not to touch it."
"It is?" Siva eyes became wide in fear.
"That was the last thing that he was holding when I saw him die."
"Oh...." Siva's voice became quieter.
Everyone present was also fearful of the golden coin that was lying in the hands of the Slave merchant. None of them dare to pick up the coin. I was glad that I prevented a possible death. I wasn't even sure if it was even possible to get a curse transfer down to them, but it was something that I did not want to take. This was a fantastical world, and curses could be a real thing here.
"You know you guys can take off the collars. You won't need it anymore."
Everyone stared at me in disbelief. They could not believe what I just stated. I wondered if I said something wrong. I couldn't help but voice my opinion. "Is there something wrong with taking off your collars?"
"Well...." Siva's voice became soft. "We can't take off our collars. It is imbued with magic. If you look closely, you will see that the owner's name is written on the collar itself. If we forcefully take it off, we will be killed in seconds."
"It's that bad?" I was appalled at how inhumane the collar was. "I didn't know anything about that. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to tell you to commit suicide." My hands were rubbing against my fingers, worried. "Is there no way to get it off?"
"There is."
"What would that be?"
"A high ranking mage can take it off."
"Oh..." My head was spinning. This could be a serious problem. "There is nothing that we can do except find a mage. That's going to be a bit hard."
"It's okay," Siva spoke. "I know you will treat us well."
Everyone was nervous about what I had to say. I could tell that each one of them had a light of hope that could be seen. I breathed in deeply and let it all out. "I promise to set you all free."
"We will be waiting patiently, young mistress."
Everyone slowly bowed. I couldn't help but feel an ache in my heart. This was all too surreal, as I did not plan this at all. Now that I think about it, the next problem was getting everyone here back to the wagon. The most challenging problem was to explain this all to Phil. I swear I could feel a cold shiver thinking about him now.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone