“Please follow me. Be warned that the smell is quite strong.”
“I know it smells worse than it is.”
“I-I apologies for my rudeness.”
The scrawny slave merchant, trying not to offend me, the eldest son of a duke, led me to the basement where the rest of the defective slaves were kept.
I felt a little sorry because I could understand why a slave merchant, who had no idea why the eldest son of a ducal family visited such a place alone without an appointment and wanted defective slaves, would be wary of me.
Since the purchase of slaves for human experimentation got banned in the first place, I thought they might be here to inspect whether such sales are taking place or not.
I knew he had at least thought of that, but there was no reason for me to act differently because of it.
“T-these pieces here are defective.”
“Hou, and by the way, the price…”
“—There is no need to pay for them! If the duke were to find out that we earned money from selling these slaves, we would lose our business! Take as many of them as you like!”
I see, so this slave trader is also a wise businessman, even if he is corrupt.
He intended to let go of all the defective slaves at once, who could prove to be negative assets for his business.
No matter how much demand there was for black magic or stuff, it was still low.
That is why defective slaves get sold at a lower price than ordinary ones.
The corpse disposal is not free, and even if you have taken measures against infection with magic, there is a risk that other slaves caught a deadly disease, or worse, the buyers and sellers.
Additionally, one can use the available space more effectively.
In the short term, it would count as a loss, but in the long term, a profit.
And if I said so, he probably assumed that I was likely to take them all in.
As expected of this cunning old man.
◆
I loaded all the slaves, seven in total, four with missing limbs and three with deadly diseases, into the wagon I had brought beforehand, and we entered the forest.
I didn’t just work as an adventurer for the past few months.
I used earth magic to create a path through the forest and illusion magic prepared at the entrance.
After an hour of walking through the forest, we arrived at a two-story wooden house built with the help of magic.
“We have arrived at our destination, but I first need you all to get yourselves healthy and clean up that mess.”
The wagon stopped, and the slaves, hearing my words, stared at me with a look saying, “What’s this guy saying all of a sudden?”
TLN: You guys don’t have to buy the next chapters, since it’ll be available the next 24 hours or so, demn.