Volume 2 - CH 3

Chapter 3 – Swordsman And Archer

Having left the drawing room alongside Tamara, Eto walked through the corridor to the elegant annex behind the mansion. According to Tamara, although there are also slaves in the main building, they’re for nobles and wealthy people, and none of them can fight as an adventurer.

Eto was led to a room made to look like a small dance hall, with a white carpet laid in the center of the wooden floor, and a sofa set above them. There is a stage in front of the sofa, where slaves can be lined up for a question and answer session. Then, while Eto is enjoying the tea and sweets that were served in that place, Tamara returns with a few documents in his hand. Those were the data of the slaves that met Eto’s requests.

After reading the documents and listening to Tamara’s story, Eto narrowed down the candidates of slaves to five. Then, immediately after calling the five to the stage, Tamara leaves the room. Among the five, three of them were vanguards with a swordsman profession, and the other two were rearguards with an archer profession. Looking at the prices of the slaves, Eto thought he could definitely buy three of them if he used more money than he had planned to use.

The first to appear on stage was an Ogre man and a half-Ogre girl. According to the data, they’re a father and daughter pair. Both are swordsmen, and in addition, Ogres can also use axes and shields. Meanwhile, the other swordsman is a human male who was a former C-rank adventurer. It was described in the documents that the three were debt slaves who sold themselves to the slave firm to repay their debts.

The archers were a human male and an elf woman. Elves are known as a race good at archery and wind magic. Hence, he thought the price offered by Tamara for her was ridiculously cheap. But according to the documents, she is the only one out of five who was a crime slave. And her crime is murder. Incidentally, the human archer was also a debt slave and a former D-rank adventurer.

Eto next proceeded to ask the reason why they became slaves. The Ogre man and the half-Ogre girl answered that they were in debt to buy medicine for their human mother, who was ill. Unfortunately, although the mother was able to prolong her life thanks to medicine, she wasn’t completely cured and ended up passing away. After that, the Ogre Father continued to repay their debt as a B-class adventurer, but he was gravely injured by the attack of monsters, causing both father and daughter to decide to sell themselves to a slave firm.

“May I ask why you decided to make your daughter become a slave too?”

“Our village was attacked by a plague, which killed all of my close relatives. That’s why I thought it’s better to have her become a slave together with me on condition that we have to be bought as a set, rather than leave her alone.”

“I see. But Amou-san’s injuries have already healed, right?”

“Aa. I am completely healed. I have no problem fighting.”

“Understood.”

Although the half-Ogre daughter is still only twelve years old, she has been trained with the sword by her father since she was young, and her current skill is equivalent to a D-rank adventurer. Which means, she should have no problem defeating goblins and orcs alone. That’s a pretty surprising talent for a twelve-year-old girl.

The human swordsman answered that he was forced to sell himself due to a delay in debt repayment because he was injured during a battle. He added that the debt itself was actually something requested by his friend. But that friend suddenly disappeared, causing him to have no choice but to pay back that debt1. He is a very unfortunate man who was not only betrayed but also injured. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean Eto could just choose a slave with sympathy. He has to consider the slaves’ ability and personality first.

Next is the human archer. It is described that he is an excellent archer from a big clan. However, he seems to have been addicted to gambling and was forced to sell himself because of his debt. Eto naturally heard people say that gambling was like drugs, but since he has no such a hobby, he couldn’t comprehend the feelings of a person who borrows money for gambling.

Lastly, the elf archer said that she killed a slave trader who tried to invade their forest to kidnap their children. She succeeded in rescuing the children safely and returned to the village, but a few days later, a human visited their village. The man was a messenger of a noble family adjacent to the elves’ territory. He said he was investigating the murder of a group of humans by an elf and returned after hearing the outline of the case.

Later, the man appeared again, but this time with a letter from the noble, and told the chief of the village that he intended to arrest the elf for the murder case. Unluckily for her, the witnesses of the incident were only an elf child who was about to be kidnapped and a human who fled, in addition, the slave trade that she killed was the son of an influential merchant who was a purveyor to nobles.

She was then found guilty by a human trial, and the human threatened to dispatch their armed soldier to the elf village if they didn’t surrender her identity. Because of that, she willingly turned herself in for the sake of protecting her village.

Having been taken to the noble with hands and feet chained, she was about to be violated by the said noble. However, since she hadn’t signed a slave contract yet, she bit the noble’s cheek and tore it alongside the meat. Looking at the noble who screamed and fled the room, she laughed at him with her eyes dyed with grudge and hatred2.

“Did you not attend the trial?”

“Aa, I didn’t.”

“Aren’t they too forceful? Tamara-san, is it common for people to be enslaved like this?”

“No, it was clearly not common. However, the judicial record was, in fact, official. As we also investigated and asked about it here and there, we have ascertained that this is true.”

“Hmmm, I wonder how I should decide this.”

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“She is a very talented archer. I think it’s a shame if we let her hand rot just like that.”

After that, the slaves were lowered from the stage. And while recalling his conversation with them, Eto takes a closer look at the documents spread out on the desk.

“Tamara-san, I’ve decided.”

Eto, who has decided who to add to his party, told Tamara.