Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Don’t fall for your slave, please! part

When the fight at the tavern ended they went straight to the trading outpost. Once they arrived they could finally speak freely.

“Are you sure he’s gonna be fine?”

Ayumi asked

“Don’t worry dear, he assured me he could take it, also none of us has any healing skill so there’s nothing we can do”

Hiraku shrugged

“Yes, but that hit must have really hurt him”

“I said don’t worry, it was one of his employees the one who hit him so he must have known the plan”

.....

The warehouse was big enough to hold a lot of products, yet it was almost completely empty. They already sold almost everything they had back at the settlement so the only thing they could do now was buy ore and elemental stones to the miners and since they had their stock at the mine, they didn’t need to rush things.

Instead of buying, Hiraku asked Bob to gather as much wood as possible and Luke to make some sleds while he was busy gathering information, getting acquainted with the people in town and making deals.

Ayumi’s job was to make sure Hiraku didn’t spend too much and also investigate new materials, technologies, or pretty much anything that fell into her hands.

They’ve been so busy that they needed to hire people to help in building the small aqueduct, but they also needed people loyal to them in order to perform other kinds of tasks that needed to be kept secret.

Hiraku proposed that they bought some slaves, Ayumi was against it at first, but then she gave in because it was the only solution that made sense. Bob and Luke were spending too much on prostitutes and even she couldn’t keep up with her workload.

So they decided to leave it into Luke’s capable hands, since he was actually the best negotiator they had.

The day after the fight at the tavern occurred Luke and Bob headed to the brothel after breakfast. They had to spend the night at the outpost since they needed to discuss things, but once they managed to convince Ayumi to get some slaves the only thing they cared about was going back there.

“Good morning, you two look as handsome as always”

“You too miss Mary, I need to discuss something with miss Bianca, is she available?”

Luke asked Mary, she turned to the girl next to her and nodded.

“Wait a minute please”

Since Bob had nothing to do with the negotiations he went straight to the bar. It was always slow in the morning, but because the clients would often spend the night in there it was still crowded.

Prostitutes were used to seeing Bob around, even though he spent most nights at the trading outpost, he still came to have breakfast, so they knew he wasn’t interested in any of them.

The most experienced prostitute came rushing to his table.

“Good morning mister Bob, the usual?”

“Yes please, miss Veronika”

Veronika went to the kitchen and came back with hot soup and a piece of bread, then she sat beside him.

“Miss Veronika, are you free after breakfast?”

“I’m always free for you dear”

She replied with a lovely voice. Bob had his breakfast in silence as always, he wasn’t a good talker and Veronika was used to this. Instead of pressuring him to speak, she just sat beside him and smiled the whole time.

Once he finished eating out of habit, since he already had breakfast at the outpost, they went into the first room they found available.

Bob sat on the bed and she started undressing in front of him, looking at him in the eye. It was their routine and she would repeat it flawlessly everytime.

She had a beautiful but mature face and didn’t look a day past thirty, her ample bossom was envied amongst the other girls and it filled her with pride. But that wasn’t the reason behind her success.

As soon as the other prostitutes started showing signs of aging they wouldn’t draw as much attention as the younger ones so they made their lives impossible causing all kinds of trouble. This was allowed to a certain extent by madame Bianca, but it didn’t matter if they had been for years at the brothel, as soon as they couldn’t pay for their upkeep they would be sold to the city. The luckiest ones were bought back by their families before that happened, but those were very few.

Her case was different, she didn’t have a family nor did she have anyone that cared for her outside the brothel. So, instead of making the lives of the younger and prettier prostitutes difficult, she helped them. This lead them to be grateful to her and would share their earnings with her, in exchange she would teach them all sorts of techniques she picked over the years and would take care of them whenever she could.

Every time a girl got sick and couldn’t work, Veronika helped her to get back on her feet and then they would pay her back.

But, she barely had any clients since her best years were past her.

But Bob didn’t care about this, he considered himself lucky he found someone like her in this place and when she came close to him completely naked he received the warmth of her embrace with open arms.

Her breasts pressed against his face provided much needed comfort every time he felt down, since the day he came back from the massacre near the mine.

Every girl knew Bob had a big coin purse and when he came back from the massacre they fought among themselves for a piece of him. But Veronika stood in front of them and took him to a room, risking her relationship with the other prostitutes.

That day, she lulled him to sleep and didn’t charge him a single coin. The next day he asked for her again, and she rested his head on her lap.

After seeing so much death, so much pain, so many innocents pass away in front of him, he was severely traumatized. But with Veronika’s help he managed to get back on his feet.

Now the only place that he could be himself and let go of all his emotions was precisely where he was right now. In between two warm mounds with a gentle caress on his head. Nothing else mattered to him and he would even cry himself to sleep sometimes, he felt completely safe in there.

But today was different, when she got close to him he stopped her.

“Miss Veronika, there’s something I’d like to ask you”

He said in a somewhat shy voice that worried her. She too enjoyed the they spent together, more than working, she could feel a special bond in between them. She didn’t know if it was love, but it was the closest thing she had ever felt for a client.

“Can I hug you while we speak?”

She probed. Not only because she wanted to know how serious it was, but also because she was used to this and whenever Bob didn’t come she felt lonely.

“Its better if we speak face to face”

Those words scared her, but she was a professional at hiding her emotions. She sat next to him with the same smile she had before painted on her face.

“I want to know if you would like me to buy your debt from miss Bianca”

His words took her by surprise, she was ready for him telling her that he wasn’t going to be seeing her anymore, that he preferred a younger prostitute or that he was going out of town. But those words that would have made any prostitute happy, turned her world upside down.

“This is too sudden mister Bob, I don’t know what to say. There’s still many girls in here that need me, without my help they would be doomed”

She said as she completely dropped her smile.

“Don’t worry about them, you need to worry about yourself. I hear from Luke that you don’t have any other clients and you won’t be able to pay for your upkeep later. Or do you prefer to be sold at the city?”

“I... I really don’t know what to say. You could buy me even if I didn’t want it, why did you ask me?”

“Because I don’t want to force you”

“Why do you want to buy me? I’m too old, there are younger and prettier girls in here that dream of being rescued every single day. Also, I don’t know how to do anything else, what use could you have for a slave like me?”

A part of her wanted to follow him blindly, but she knew that she was safe at the brothel, at least for the time being. If she was bought by him her fate would be entirely on his hands. If he ever got tired of her or if something happened to him she would be completely helpless again and she doubted madame Bianca would buy her again.

Besides, at least at the brothel madame Bianca allowed them to earn coin for themselves, if they were to be bought she would discount the money they had from the price as long as they agreed to it. But once they were sold to someone nothing guaranteed they could buy themselves back, which led to most girls only asking to madame Bianca to discount their price with their own money when they were being bought by their own families.

“We need help at the outpost, and I’ll treat you well”

Bob said as he grabbed her hand. But even after pondering for a while she couldn’t find an answer.