Chapter 47: Ch. 46 – Aversion

Shouldn't Elly be back by now? What is taking her so long?

knock knock

Can't be her, Elly wouldn't knock. So who else would it be at this time of the day?

I summon Maria, "Could you fetch the door please, Maria?"
"At once, my lord."

A moment later she returns with an older gentleman and several children. Guys? This is NOT a kindergarten. And what's with those collars... oh, shit...

Obviously, none of the children look happy to be here, the youngest is just ten, the oldest fifteen. Only the man seems to want to be here for some reason.

"I greet you, new lord of this grandiose fortress. I am Ludwig, a humble slave trader."
"Greetings, Ludwig. My name is Jared Delacroix, Jared will suffice. What can I do for you?"

He seems quite happy, "Oh, you don't need to do anything for me, lord Jared. On the contrary, I want to do something for you."

I don't like where this is going.

"What would that be? I've honestly no money left to spend on slaves."
Rather, I'd like to end your whole business model, but I'm in no position to deal with any kind of backlash from that, so that will have to wait...

"That is not needed, I wanted to give you two free of charge. By my observation, you are in need of some... helping hands. Of course, if they should ever fall into your disfavor, they may also serve as a little snack. You are free to do with them as you please."

What do you want me to do with these little children? Do I look like a catholic priest to you!?

"Forgive me, but I'm not too knowledgable on the topic, what exactly makes a slave a slave?"
"Nothing much, they just get a special slave seal", he points to the collar around a child's neck, "this seal is bound to their owner. Should a slave try to harm their master or refuse to follow an explicit order they will feel immense, unrelenting pain until they either reconsider or die, most reconsider quickly, I assure you. Finally, should a slave be further away from their owner than 5000 DU without their owner's explicit consent, they will die a slow painful death."

Sick and disgusting, just as expected.

"And what is in it for you? I doubt a cunning businessman such as yourself would ever give something away for free."
"Consider it an investment. The sooner this fortress is operating at its peak capacity and gets a booming industry, the sooner would its residents be able to afford my merchandise. Currently, I have to sell them under value because the people are too poor and the day-to-day costs eat into any profit I could have.
If I may be so bold, I would like to convince you to lower some punishments for any kind of law-breaking from death to slavery. If you do, I'd like to buy those from you."

'Lower'? If you ask me, that is worse!

...but then with the low population and the threat of the monsters outside... don't go there, Jared, don't go there...

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"I will consider it. May I ask where you get your... wares from currently?"
"Hmm... I'd consider it a trade secret, but if it buys me some goodwill towards my request, it is a price I'm willing to pay.
So, some people willingly go into slavery when they have no alternative, most of them are from the slums, as you may guess. Then we take debt slaves and rarely some of the villagers from outside sell us bandits they have taken captive. I assure you, none are taken illegally."

Just play nice, Jared, just... play... nice...

Seems like Maria is playing with the kids, at least there's someone they get along with.

"I appreciate your honesty. So, I'll be honest with you as well. I plan to make several law reforms that will probably affect you. For one, I plan to reclaim the slums little by little. Can't take it all at once without causing a massacre."

He doesn't need to know that I also plan to outlaw the whole slavery business once I have made sure that I can deal with any form of retaliation.

"Hmm... yeah, that would indeed affect my business. Thank you for telling me, I will adjust my operations accordingly."

"I'm curious about these children, what have they done to become slaves?"
"I'm sorry, but it is my business policy that I don't reveal the reasons how I given slave has found its way into my custody. I believe if I did slaves with certain backgrounds would get treated worse. Is there anything else you would like to know?"
"Is there a way for a slave to get freed?"
"Ha~ha, ha! No.
Once the slavery seal is in place it can't be removed, at least not short of divine intervention. It is a very elaborate process and it can only succeed if the gods agree, at least that's what I was told by my teacher. I never had any issues with it."

Are you kidding me? The gods themselves condone slavery? ...why am I not surprised. The whole situation was suspicious from the start, this just fits into the picture.

"Now, if you'd like to choose two of them. I've only brought my finest slaves with me today."
"Sure."

Wait, why am I agreeing to take them? This is the opposite of what I want...

I'm not stupid enough to believe that it is okay for them to be slaves as long as I treat them decently. Even in ancient Rome slaves got more and more rights over time until they were basically just regular employees, but in the end, they were still slaves.

But how can I free them if the enslavement is god approved... no, wait, this is just what he says, he can just as likely be wrong about this. Maybe Jeff's files have a use for once and there's the secret to freeing slaves in them?

Ethics aside, we will at least need a slave to test the procedure, should we find one.

So, who should I volunteer to be a guinea pig?

There's a dwarf, elf, half-elf, human, beastkin, hero candidate, ... uh, what was that?

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