Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)

I am afraid that I cannot say much more, for the sake of one of your workers who was especially good to Roxanne whom she wishes to protect.

Yes, I am very grateful to her for all that she did for me when I was still in your care, so I would like you to pass our warning onto her as well. If nothing else, I dont want her or any of this stores employees to be caught in something disastrous.

She bowed deeply to him.

I see, I see. Certainly, I cant say I dont see where youre coming from, or what you are talking about.

Alan-san acknowledged. So at the very least he has some inkling of what is going on here? Then why didnt he do something about it from the start.

Do you, really?

When you run a slave-trading business for long enough, you naturally give many people more than enough reasons to target you, and before you will realize it, you will have a full plate of things to worry about.

Thats how it is, huh?

Sounds like a cheap excuse if you ask me, and frankly, Im not buying it.

especially since we are getting more acquainted with our slaves and those who buy them than you might be thinking. For example, the man you came here to sell, the one that tried to rob you.

What about him?

The man who tried to steal the equipment from the Bandits I had defeated back at the Somara village. He was caught stealing by his fellow villagers, which resulted in him being stripped of his Villager status and becoming my slave, whom we had taken to Veil in order to sell him at this very Slave shop. Thinking about it now, I guess I should be grateful to the guy. Because he did what he did, I had a reason to come here, and thanks to coming here, I was able to have my fated meeting with Roxanne. So yeah, thank you, random Villager. You have my undying gratitude, but you were quite a messed up matchmaker, I will give you that.

He was sold just yesterday. The person who bought him has filled all the necessary paperwork that was required of him and finished all of the necessary preparations, after which he announced that he will come back to pick him up in two days time so that he could finish the preparations for accommodating him on his end.

Do you often have to deal with the cases that some slaves are unable to be sold?

I wouldnt say that such things never happen however, now that I think about it there is something strange about that mans case. He was practically a fresh arrival, being in this shop for only a few days, and he wasnt even able to speak Brahim at all. As far as slaves go, he had next to no value, but despite that he was bought astonishingly fast. Moreover, the client who bought him seemed to have been decided on buying him in particular right from the very beginning.

Once youve been made a slave as a punishment for theft, I cant imagine anyone would be willing to teach you Brahim, because that would be straight up too charitable. If you cant speak Brahim, I imagine your value as a slave would plummet down considerably.

And that client of yours really decided to buy somebody like that?

Yes. Also, he seemed to be even more interested in him when he learned that the item he tried to steal was a Bandit Bandana.

Yes, Bandit Bandana was the item that guy seemed to be the most adamant on getting from all of the items left by the raiding party that attacked Somara village. Supposedly that thing can only be worn by Bandits, and when done so, it increases their physical capabilities, most likely giving them boosts to all their stats. According to both Picker-san from Somara and the Armor shop merchant we initially tried to sell it to, it could be sold on the black market for a small fortune. If he wanted to steal that, then it most likely means that he must have had a buyer willing to buy it off of him.

His current owner will be here to pick him up tomorrow, am I right?

Thats right.

Have you noticed anything suspicious about him? Anything at all?

There were two guests in total. One of them was asking me all sorts of question related to purchasing slaves, while the other talked with the slave in question. Perhaps he was passing some kind of instructions onto him? I tried to listen in on what they were talking about, but they were doing so in especially hushed whispers, so I am afraid I wasnt able to learn anything of significance.

Maybe its just my bias towards Bandits speaking through me, but that seemed suspicious as fuck.

If you asked me, those guys give me all kinds of bad vibes just from hearing about them from you.

Whatever the case may be, once the payment has been made and all the necessary paperwork has been delivered Im afraid that I cannot interfere in the affairs of my clients and their newly-bought slaves. We wanted to keep that slave in a locked room separated from all the rest, but the buyer requested that we did just the opposite: he specifically requested for his purchase to be kept in an unlocked room until the day he would come to pick him up. For the time being, we are keeping him in a separate room on this floor of the building. Hes been on his best behavior for now, but there is no telling if he wont try to leave in the middle of the night, going as far as to meet the Bandits who bought him at the front door.

Alan-san told us all of that with a calm face. He didnt look worried or scared at all, which was quite bald of him.

Is is that really okay with you?!

Roxanne raised her voice worriedly.

Of course. We are in the middle of a city after all. Even if they do appear, a large number of uninvited guests will not go unnoticed.

B-But if something happens to that nice lady

Do not worry. No matter what happens, we will probably be fine.

Alan-san said that they will be okay, as if he had absolute confidence in his own words.

Well, whatever. We have warned him about the potential danger to his shop, so I say that our job here is done. Whatever ends up happening next, it will be Alan-sans problem, not ours.

Were going home, Roxanne.

I said, standing up from the sofa.

Ah, uhm

Roxanne mumbled as if she was having trouble with finding the right words to say.

Still worried after all?

Y-Yes.

*Sigh* What to do Michio? What to do?

I mean I have dealt with Bandits already, so its not like I feel any kind of aversion towards killing them simply because they are human beings just like me. And as long as I have Durandal, I am pretty sure that none of them could pose an actual threat to me. So, with that in mind

How about this, Alan-san? Why dont you hire me as a bodyguard? What do you say to that?

I presented Alan-san with my proposal.