Chapter 4

Chapter 4<~> Chapter 4

It was pretty late in the afternoon that we finally arrived at Traehall. Traehall seemed like a pretty large settlement with big walls made from huge tree trunks, it wasn’t quite a city yet but it was getting there. Our carriage joined a long line to get into the town, apparently there was some sort of check to get in.

“Hey Swordsman, are they going to give me trouble getting in the town without any kind of documentation? I’m a traveler and it works differently different places.”

“There shouldn’t be any trouble unless you plan to do specific business in the town. Even then as long as you talk to the guard, pay a fee, and get a permit from the adventurers guild, it should be all right.”

“Why the Adventurer’s guild?”

“This is an adventurer’s guild outpost town. A few years back a dungeon was discovered and the rate of stray monsters in the area has increased dramatically because of it. There’s even rumors of demon summoners in the area but I wouldn’t take those claims seriously.”

Well at least that hints at how people feel about demons. “So when you say specific business in the town, do you mean slave trading?”

He smiled. “Among other things.”

“So if I did privately buy that cutie in the back of that carriage before we entered the town you wouldn’t have to pay a fee to get in, you wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of listing him at auction or whatever hoops you have to go through, and we could all walk into town without any problems?”

“That’s true,” he peered around the carriage in front of us. “Though if we’re going to do this there isn’t a whole lot of time left before we get in.”

“Alright, lets make this quick then. You wanted twelve gold, I think the fees and trouble I’d be saving you makes him worth eight gold.”

He smiled recognizing the intent immediately. “Eight is too low, but it does save me the time. Let’s call it eleven for the trouble.”

“Surely you also save on things like listing fees, commissions fees and such at whatever place you actually sell the slaves but perhaps eight is too low. How about nine?”

“Ten gold fifty silver.”

“I don’t want to deal in silver. Ten gold even and I put the gold right into your hands right now. No need to jump through any other trouble, I pull out the gold, put it in your hands, and we walk into town together.”

He gives me an appraising look and quietly thinks to himself for a minute. “I didn’t take you for a merchant ma’am, fine ten gold if you can give it to me before we reach the gate.”

I return to the back of the carriage and dig through my bag. The cute guy gives me a curious look as I look for the pouch at the bottom. His eyes open in surprise when he sees me pull out ten coins and I give him a wink before jumping back out of the cart.

I walk back up to the swordsman and open my palms revealing ten gold coins. He takes one and studies it closely, seemingly interested in the marks on the side of the coin. Before nodding, he then begins taking each coin one by one feeling its weight before moving on to the next. When he’s satisfied he smiles and calls the slave out of the carriage.

He snaps his fingers and points to the ground in front of him. “Kneel boy.”

He nods once and kneels facing away from the swordsman and looks down, revealing the back of the collar. The swordsman turns to me. “I need to know your name in order to transfer the slave to you.”

“Oh uh...” Shit, I completely hadn’t thought about what to call myself until now. Knowing my pause was already suspicious I just blurted out the first name that came to mind. “Uh, Lilith.” Okay look, I know it’s completely stereotypical for a probably succubus demon to be named Lilith but that’s why it came to mind so fast.

After I told him my name I had that weird ringing sensation in the back of my head again but didn’t have time to dwell on it as the swordsman was starting. “I Mark Williamson hereby willingly transfer ownership of this slave to Lilith.” The collar’s runes began to glow red again and after it was clear I didn’t know what to do he looked at me. “Alright now just touch the collar to complete the new contract.”

“Oh uh right.” I put my hand against the back of the collar, it was warm to the touch and as I held my hand there I watched as the runes slowly turned back from red to blue. Once it finished I heard that strange ringing again. Man, what is that? It’s so annoying.

My new slave just kept kneeling in front of me with a blush on his face and I realized I probably needed to give him orders now. “Oh uh, stand up. Oh and you can speak freely again if I needed to give you permission for that.”

“Thank you mistress,” he said standing up.

“Oh, by the way, I never caught your name.”

”Bruno mistress.”

“Bruno?” That was such an unfitting name it wasn’t even funny. I usually think of muscular gym hunks with that name not androgynous cuties like this. That must have been written all over my face because the swordsman stepped in.

I cut her off there seeing where it was headed, “Two bowls of the minotaurus stew then.” I was really curious about the stew, would it be like beef stew or would it taste like something else entirely? I didn’t seem to need food but the idea was still appealing. “And about the room?”

“Yes, I think we have a double left. Would that be all right?”

I couldn’t help but smirk for a moment. “I’m sure that would be perfect.”

"Would you like an ale?” I was about to go for it but then I thought better of it. I wanted to be a little clear headed for later tonight.

“Ah no thanks, maybe tomorrow night. I’ll take some water though.”

“Alright, in all that’ll be fifty copper.”

I dug through my bag for a moment and gave her a silver. “Is this ok?”

She nodded. “I’ll bring you your change.” before walking away. I turned my attention back to Bruno. He had stayed silent the entire time but that was probably expected based on the way the waitress reacted to him.

“Lilith, was it okay to spend that much on me? I’m just a slave.”

I waved dismissively. “Don’t worry about it.” Truthfully I only had a limited amount of money and I spent a bunch to pick him up but I was a little encouraged by how cheap the food and room were compared to the total money I had. I would have to find a way to make money soon but it wasn’t a critical concern at the moment.

“So, have you ever been traveling before?”

“No, it’s too dangerous for most people to travel around with all of the monsters around. That’s why it was so surprising to see you walk up to us so early in the morning. I’m sure Mr. Williamson thought you were a bandit when you walked up.”

Monsters huh? I heard the swordsman talk about monsters and a dungeon when we were entering the town but it was kind of hard to believe there are man eating animals running around all over the place. Though those giant ass wolves really fit the bill for that. Maybe I’m luckier than I thought to come across someone before a monster decided to attack me. I know I’m lucky those wolves decided to leave me alone.

“How strong do you usually have to be to travel around here?”

“Around here? Most adventurers would say the monsters around here were weak but most commoners and farmers like me wouldn’t dare travel by ourselves. Mr. Williamson was a good enough swordsman that barring something really unlucky happening he wouldn’t have any trouble with anything this close to town. I think that he makes a lot of money going from town to town looking for people who choose to sell their children to slavery.”

“I see...” That ended on a rather grim note. The conversation just stalled out there but just in time to save us from the awkwardness our food arrived. The waitress also gave me a room key with a tag that I couldn’t read and fifty copper coins. My hunch was right that it was 100 copper to a silver and most likely 100 silver to a gold based on the negotiation with the swordsman earlier. That made things a little simple even if it was odd the breakdown of currency was that exact despite the varying costs of the metals. Maybe that was taken into account when the coins were minted.

The stew smelled really good and had lots of weird ingredients I’ve never seen before. I took a bite of the meat and swooned, it tasted like an amazing cut of beef slow cooked in the stew.

I looked over and saw that Bruno wasn’t eating yet but before I could say anything he cut in. “I’m surprised you can eat meat. I thought that sheep beastkin were herbivores.” Crap I totally forgot I was trying to be incognito, I really don’t know how to talk my way out of it so I decided to just completely roll over the question.

“How come you aren’t eating?” I asked pointing to his food.

“Oh, Mr. Williamson told me that slaves are supposed to wait for their master to finish eating before they’re allowed to start.”

“Ah, well that’s stupid. Just start eating already.”

“Yes Lilith.” he said with a smile before digging in.

I finished the entire bowl, I never really felt hungry in the first place but the food made me feel satiated all the same.

“That was really good. How did you like it Bruno?”

“It was amazing! I never had minotaurus meat before. It tasted soooo good.” I was pretty surprised by his enthusiasm. He had mostly been rather reserved but the food really got him excited. Though I’d probably feel the same if all I ever ate was the same thing all the time.

“Now that we’ve eaten, why don’t we go back to our room for the night?” I asked him with a lusty grin.

I could tell the look showed my intent because he blushed hard and nodded. I took his hand and lead him up the stairs.