Chapter 3

“Hold on, there are slaves in this kingdom?” I said not believing my ears. Verner looked at me like he couldn’t believe I didn’t know. “There is slavery in every nation. In some slaves are barely seen as people, but in most we deal with it in as humane a way as possible. Here we have two classes, debt slaves and criminal slaves. Debt slaves are people who went into debt, and despite everything, couldn’t escape so they are turned in to slaves who work to earn enough to pay off their financial debt.” Ok, that is indentured servitude, a little bit better than outright slavery.

Then he frowned. “Then there are the criminal slaves. They have to work off their debt to society. Depending on the level of their crimes they can be something similar to a debt slave all the way up to those who get put into permanent slavery.” He sighed and then went on. “Now when you are a debt slave you are to be treated much like any employee. There is a fixed rate of pay which has to be met so that they can reduce that debt. Now an owner is only responsible for the basic needs of their slaves such as food, clothing, shelter, and medical care. If a slave wants any improvements in those they can spend their pay to buy better things, but that extends the time it will take to pay off their debt.”

“What happens if an owner doesn’t meet those requirements?” He smiled. “They can have their wealth confiscated, given to the mistreated slave, and sold into criminal slavery. The slaves only have to report this treatment and an investigation will be launched. If the owner is cleared the debt slave has to pay for the inquiry.”

“Now the reason you would appreciate slaves is because they are sworn by magic to keep their owners lives a secret. This way they cannot profit off selling that information and getting out of their contract that way. Even after they are freed from said contract the lives of their owners will remain secret unless allowed to by law.”

As much as slavery hits me in a bad way, I had to admit the idea people could just work their way out of debt didn’t feel all that slavish. In my last year of college I was an unpaid intern and that was more like slavery than this. Since I wasn’t here to change the world, then what I could do was to purchase some people and treat them as if I was actually employing them to work for me.

I thanked them for all the help and as we left the guild hall I looked at my wife who was not smiling like she had been. “You don’t like the idea of hiring slaves do you.” She sighed and shook her head. “What do you want to do then.” She looked at me, and then pulled me into an ally.

“How do you feel about slavery?” I leaned against the wall. “Well I hate it to my core. It’s a vile practice. I also have to admit it is condition of civilization. Even in my old world, with all its high morals, many forms of slavery existed despite global laws against it. How they see slavery here is more like something we called indentured servitude back home. We pay their debt, and in return we pay them a wage so they can pay back the debt and become free people again. I think that if we treat them like free people that are working under contract, and treat them well, then we are at least helping people get back on their feet.”

My sweet wife’s ears were still drooping. “My love, we aren’t going to do what they did to you. We will be employers not slave owners.” She looked at me and then realized she had never told me she was a slave. I pulled her into my arms and held her as she shivered. “How did you know?” I kissed the top of her head. “Lots of things told me over time. I figured if we needed to talk about it you would say something, but it doesn’t make a problem for me other than wanting to hunt down whoever did it and liquefy them.”

She looked up at me and seemed to search my eyes for the truth. She saw it, her face softened, and she pulled me into a deep kiss. When she let me go she stepped back with a little more bounce, smiled at me, and said. “Well let’s go hire some people to work for us.” I nodded as she took my arm and held it tight.

The building we were sent to looked more like a large residence than a slave market. I used the knocker on the door as a panel slid back and a grim face looked out. “What do you want.” The face said. “Verner the guild master told me I could hire some people here for my estate.” I held up a letter which he took and closed the panel.

We waited for a few minutes when the door opened up a distinguished man in a suit was standing there. “Welcome to Berkshide, please come in.” We followed him to a large receiving room with a pair of couches. “So the letter said that you just bought the west side manor and need staff for it. Do you know what you are looking for?” I shook my head and looked to Lilly.

“We will need staff to maintain the grounds and the house itself. We will also need a few people to act as security for when we are traveling.” She told him sounding a hell of a lot more capable than me. The dealer nodded and seemed to think. “For the staff, would you be willing to accept families with children?” Lilly nodded without showing her feelings. “Then if you will excuse me I will bring you some possibilities.”

He left and I looked at Lilly. “Are you doing ok?” She nodded and actually smiled at me. “This is a lot better than my experiences so don’t worry.” I shook my head. “I will always worry about the woman I love.” Her smile grew and she even blushed a little. Then the door opened and people started filing into the room. They formed into two groups that I figured were families.

Group one was a strong looking man with sad eyes, a rather pretty woman that seemed pale and extremely tired, a boy of about fourteen, a girl about the same age, and another girl of about seven. The way they surrounded the mother felt like they were either protecting her or trying to hide her. Group two was a healthy looking couple with twin daughters around fourteen I would guess.

“These are the families we currently have.” I nodded and smiled at them. “So what are their stories?” Berkshide nodded and walked over. “This is the Kramer family. They are farmers from a nearby town that fell on some hard times. The mother became quite ill and with the cost of her treatments the family got into too much debt to recover.” Then the little one grabbed her mother’s hand and called out. “But mama’s doing a lot better now.” The sister pulled her back and told her to hush. Well that just yanked my heart strings let me tell you.

Ignoring the little outburst Berkshide walked over to the other family. “This is the Anston family. They too were farmers, but they had too many bad seasons and couldn’t get out of debt. The mother was also a maid at the local lord’s estate before marrying.” I nodded and looked at them all trying to act as brave as possible. “Now since you haven’t owned slaves before you should know that children under ten cannot be forced into labor. Those under fifteen can do light labor but their parents have the right to take over any heavier labor.”

Lilly leaned over and whispered “Can you heal her?” I nodded and Lilly smiled at them. “We will take both families.” Berkshide nodded and led the families out of the room. When he came back he was guiding a motley group of people. “These are our current combat slaves.” I nodded and quickly eliminated most of them. Those here for violent outbursts, gambling, or drinking were off the list instantly.

This left us with a brother and sister tiger people, a dwarf, and muscle bound young man that was built like a gorilla but fully human. It turns out they were a high level adventurers group that had too many failed quests penalties and couldn’t pay the fines. “We would have been able to pay them off if shorty would have sold his hammer.” The male tiger said with distain. The old dwarf spun on him. “You know I can’t sell my hammer any more than you could have sold your sister.” The tiger man snorted but then nodded.

Berkshide cleared his throat and they all shut up. “So how long did you four work together?” I asked. The dwarf looked at me. “Well me and the twins have been working together for nine years now, Bram here joined us about two years ago.” I nodded. “Well you all fight like you’re family so I figured you were compatible. This will be a milk run for the likes of you since all you need to do is guard the house, the people who work for me, and a little side work like escort. Sound good?”

The large tiger woman smiled at me. “Sir, we are slaves so we don’t really have much say once you buy us. I will promise that we will pull our weight and protect what is yours with our lives.” I smiled at them all. “Well let’s all hope nothing that bad ever happens, I’m more about living than dying any day of the week.” I looked at Berkshide and nodded to him.

He took them all out and when he came back presented me with a large stack of papers. “These are their contracts so if you will sign on the indicated lines...” I picked up the top paper and started reading. After all the years of dealing with contracts, and knowing all the legal snares possible, I never signed something I didn’t read. We did have to make a few clarifications, which even Berkshide hadn’t noticed were in these, and then I signed them all. After that I transferred the payment (seven thousand per family and two thousand for the guards) he bowed to me with a large smile and left.

When he came back each of them now had a small tattoo on their inner wrist. Now that I thought of it I had seen those before, but I just thought it was a fad or something. “Well these good people are now in your care. If you ever need more help, feel free to come back again.”

Suddenly Lilly stopped and her ears twitched. “Sir, do you happen to have any other beast demis here?” Berkshide looked at her thoughtfully and then nodded. “Yes we just acquired a female hound pack. She didn’t really meet any of your requirements though.” Lilly shrugged. “May we see her?” The man nodded and left the room.

When he came back there was a really sad vision that appeared. There stood an amazingly cute young woman that looked like she had gone through hell. Her hair was messy, one ear seemed to have been damaged, and her clothing was of the lowest grade of homespun. “She came to us two days ago so we haven’t had a chance to give her decent treatment. She came to us through the Cassadar union, a very anti-demi nation, as a life criminal slave.”

Lilly walked over to the girl with rather dead eyes. “Are you ready to come home?” She asked the girl and after looking at each other she only nodded. “Will you write up the contract sir?” I said and he shrugged and left the room with her. Ten minutes later we began walking to our new house as a group.

We walked in the door and everyone was shocked. I took them into the dining hall and had them all sit on one side of the table. “First off this will be your new home. There are servant’s quarters to the side of the building. That is where you will live and this is where you will work.” They all nodded. “Now I am a real odd ball so I will probably shock you at least once a day and make you question your sanity. Hopefully you will get used to it.”

This caused them all to fidget in their seats. “The reason I am an odd ball is because I’m not from this world.” They all stared at me. “There was a hero summoning, and for some reason I got pulled in by accident. I was turned out for not being a hero class, and so I’ve been roaming along till I came here. I’m just learning the adventurer’s life with my wife Lilly, and I am also creating a trading business with Ralf’s trading.”

Everyone looked very impressed, but still confused. “I bought this house today so we will all be learning about it together. I hope I can depend on everyone to help each other out without reservation. You are my slaves outside these walls, but I am hoping we will see each other as much more when we are in our home.” Everyone still seemed confused but nodded along.

“Now my first order of business is with Tessa.” Latti ran over and hugged her mother. “Please be nice to mommy.” I smiled at the little girl as she clung to her mother. I looked at Tessa and ran analyze on her. The reason most magic these poor people could afford to heal her was because it would never touch the cancer in her stomach. I reached into my box and pulled out an elixir.

“Here, drink this.” I said as I tried to hand her the bottle but everyone gasped. “Sir that is a high heal potion, we could never pay that kind of care off in our lives.” I shook my head. “Please remember that once I bought your contracts the cost of medical care rests solely on me. I am strictly forbidden from trying to force the cost onto you.” I smiled at him, took her hand, and put the elixir there. Tessa looked at her husband and he nodded.

She drank the potion, grabbed her belly and moaned as her body began to glow. Jon held Lotti as she struggled to go to her mother while crying “Stop hurting momma!” Then I heard Balmor at the other end of the table. “That’s no high heal people, that was nothing short of an elixir.” That caused a major gasp from everyone.

When the glow faded I looked at her status again and she was in perfect health. She didn’t even have a hang nail now. Jon let the little girl go and she was surprised when her mother pulled her into her lap. Not only did she feel good but her face held a wonderfully healthy glow. There were no sunken cheeks, dark circles, or pale skin. “So feeling better Tessa?” I asked and tears began to pour out of her eyes. “I can’t ever remember feeling this good before. There isn’t any pain anywhere for the first time in so very long.”

Jon looked over at Balmor. “What did you mean an Elixir?” The old dwarf shook his head. “Well you know that potions generally double in strength as you go up right?” He nodded. “Well a high heal potion is four times less powerful than a low elixir, and regular elixir is four times that and a high elixir is said to raise the dead after a week. I saw a noble use an elixir like that one on his nearly dead daughter and it not only saved her life but regrew her severed arm.” He looked at me and then back at Jon. “There is no mistaking that what he used was an elixir.”

They all stared at me trying to make this make sense. “I told you all I’m an odd ball. I have a couple of those laying around, and I saw Tessa had a disease that consumes the body from within, so I figured I better do something if she was going to live long enough to earn her freedom.” Jon stood up on shaking legs, walked over to me and fell on his knees. “Master, I pledge to serve you with all I have for the rest of my miserable life. Not for the cost of the potion, but for giving me back my beloved wife. Without her I am nothing, so what you gave to me, I pledge to you.”