10-36. The Man in Black Clothes

Satou's here. When I'm doing a big job, I make a list of what should be done, and then progress in accordance to the priority. When I make the priority, forgetting to take the dependency into account will lead to failure, so I have to be careful. There is no meaning if I have to plan an A-grade process before I check if the degree of completion is A-grade.

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"How is it?　Even among the many slave trading companies in the royal capital, only Orield firm has these array of product lines."

The trader made a signal, and then 10 beautiful women and girls entered the room. It's quite a sight for sore eyes since every one of them is only wearing a thin piece of cloth.

I've come to the royal capital to look for a person with a certain skill needed for my plan.

"Orield-dono, I should have told you that I'm looking for educated people."

"Yes, of course. Every one of these girls can read and write letters, they have also been properly educated on other things."

I confirm the skills of these girls once again. Only the former Serushioku noble girls have the Shiga kingdom language skill, so I can't judge it from their skills. If I'm not mistaken, the country of Serioshioku was the country of princess Menea's fiance, the one that was destroyed by the weaselkins.

I check them one by one, and confirm whether the girl with the skill I want is among them.

The slave trader takes a languid pose while explaining each of the girl's skills and appeal points.

"Leave the second and the third ones from the right, and then the girl on the left end, and also, let's see, the red haired girl over there."

"Yes, understood."

Once the explanation was finished after about 10 minutes, I asked the trader to leave the target girl, and three other girls as dummies behind. The dummies are the former noble girls, and a girl who can use life magic.

When the slave trader gives a signal, the girls strip off their thin cloth.

No, it's nice and all but I'm not asking for that kind of service.

"How much are they each?"

"Yes, this former duke daughter is 300 gold coins. She has the blood of the royal family although of a small kingdom, she's an excellent girl who has not only Etiquette skill, but also Shiga Kingdom Language and Poem Recital skills."

She looks somewhat strong-willed. She's fair-skinned with normal breasts, but her waist looks like the type that can have an easy delivery. Her curly blond hair coil around her voluptuous body. 17 years old. Level 4.

"This former earl daughter is 200 gold coins. Her lineage is a bit inferior compared to the girl just now, but she's obedient, and her body is splendid, she would be useful for various things."

This timid girl has splendid breasts that are nearly D-cups, she's also fair-skinned. She has soft-looking straight long silver hair. Her eyes are of beautiful blue. Her skills are Shiga Kingdom Language and Etiquette. 16 years old. Level 3.

Up until now are just the opening act, the next one is the main act.

"This one is a girl who worked as a heraldry official at the castle of Earl Lesseu. She was rude to Earl Lesseu-sama, and got turned into a slave. Her body is somewhat childish, but her ice-like transparent beautiful face is something to look forward in the future. Her skills are plain with only Heraldry and Naming, but of course she can read and write letters and she excels at filing documents, so she should be helpful for merchant-dono. Her price is slightly cheap at 30 gold coins."

This girl who looks like she's given up on life is the reason why I've gone out of my way to come to this firm. I'm thinking of changing the name of the girls with compounding skills who were capture by the lost thieves, and let them hide themselves in other cities.

She's quite a beauty just like the slave trader's praised. She's beautiful enough to be compared to Arisa and Mia, although of different kind (of beauty). Her breasts are small, but they're at least A-cup. Her hair is pale gold. Her small lips and her lax-focused ice blue eyes only foster her lifelessness. Her name is Tifaliza. 15 years old. Level 5. Her title is [Orield's Slave], but there are hidden titles like [Superficial Courtesy], [Rude One].

I feel like looking for another person with Naming skill when I look at these titles.

"This one is a spell-user girl. She also worked in the castle of Earl Lesseu-sama like the one before, but she also made some mistake, and was turned into a slave."

"Fumu, she must be expensive since she can use life magic right?"

"No, she's only as much as 50 gold coins."

"Fumu, how many times can she use magic in succession?"

"I hear that it's about twice."

This girl's level is only 2 even though she can use life magic. She probably got it from a gift. Although her looks is inferior compared to the girls before her, she's cute enough to warrant the praise. She's a 16 years old girl with dark brown eyes under her red hair. Her name is Nell. She's about as tall as me, her breasts size seems to be around Lulu's. I feel that her waist is a bit thin.

"I'll buy the heraldry user and the spell-user for 30 gold coins. The fallen noble girls have good looks and lineages, but I don't need them if they need other people to take care of them."

The two girls have market price at 48 gold coins so I haggle it to a bit cheaper price, but the slave trader agreed to it just like that. Afterward, the person with [Contract] skill came, and then the trade is completed. I've confirmed that the girls' titles have changed to [Kuro's Slaves].

When I was leaving, I passed by a slave, and felt like I had been duped by the slave trader. That slave had the Naming skill, and priced only at 2 gold coins. Even though I knew that there were three slaves with Naming skill here, I feel a bit of fail.

On the other hand, since other slaves who can use life magic aren't much different in price than Nell, they probably judge the price of magicians from their ability, not look.

"Well then Kuro-sama, please come to our firm again whenever you need slaves."

"Yeah, I'll come here first thing first when that happen."

I replied with some lip service to the slave trader who was rubbing his hands, and then went back to the inn by riding the carriage that had been arranged in front of the firm.

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When we enter the inn room, I take out one-piece clothes and sandals, and put them on the bed. I looked back when I noticed some rustling sounds.

Why are you two taking off your clothes?

Well alright. I've already seen these girls' naked bodies in the slave trader firm just now anyway. They're clean enough to not need to be washed with life magic.

"Change into these clothes. We will leave this inn shortly."

"I understand."

"Yes."

I can't exactly stare at girls changing clothes, so I write a letter saying that I have vacated the inn, and put it on the table. I've already paid the inn in advance of course.

I took the two who had finished changing to the mansion of ivy's basement by teleporting through two relay points. I've put the relay points when I was going to the royal capital, they are 300 kilometers apart each. I've also put a teleport point nearby the royal capital of course.

No coup d'etat occurs on the royal capital. I don't know whether I've prevented it, or the notion that coup d'etat will occur in the royal capital is just an unfounded fear. I searched for places with fiend drugs just in case, but they were in the medicine warehouse of the normal army facility, it might be just their equipment.

The reports from the viceroy and the guildmaster should have arrived here, so there's no need for me to butt in on purpose.

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"Teleport magic.... Chantless.... Is master the hero of Saga empire?"

"No. I forbid you to disclose the fact that I can use chantless magic. This is an order."

I take off the Collars of Subordination from the neck of the two who consent. They had Collar of Subordination since they were treated as crime slaves.

"Eh? How did you take it off?"

"How, even high ranking magicians need to perform a ritual to take them off without the key..."

I take the two who are surprised to the living room.

"Kuro-sama, welcome back. Are these people the human resources in question?"

"That's right."

"Kuro-sama, welcome back."

"Porina, gather everyone besides the five people with the Compounding skill in the courtyard. Leriril, check if there's any girl left in the building."

I instruct Porina while receiving a tea from her. I ordered the two slaves to stay here while they're drinking the tea, and then I went to the courtyard.

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"Explorers, gather. You're going to keep them safe in the labyrinth."

I announce so, and then teleport to the labyrinth together with the 47 armed explorers. Of course I held a long wand, and even used a dummy chant.

"Here is the first area. Monsters rarely appear here, but I ask you to escort them from here to the great stairway of the labyrinth entrance. I'm entrusting the foremost person to be the commander of the escort."

"Aye sir, Kuro-sama. I will tell them that we have ran away from the lost thief."

I haven't let them bath for the past two days in order to have some credibility in that claim. Their equipments are something that have been taken from the lost thieves. They're relatively good compared to the ant armor and bone armor. I had given the silver sword of ant wing magic sword to the commander in exchange for the bothersome job I asked her. This weapon used ant bone as the base, and it had become a transparent silver sword when I made it by following the recipe. It's slightly more fragile compared to a normal iron sword when it's not filled magic power, but it's a sharp magic weapon that can cut nicely. It's written in Trazayuya document, and it seems to be a relatively major magic sword in the labyrinth city. It's roughly about 30 gold coins worth. I made it as Nanashi, so the maker is blank like the casted magic swords.

It's cheaper to make than casted magic swords, but since making it is quite laborious, I probably won't make it again unless it was a request.

Continuing on, I divide 87 carriers in two groups and then teleport with them. Lastly, I teleport with 23 slaves whose masters are still alive. I let one act as a guard in five-person groups, and then they escaped out of the labyrinth.

I had given five big copper coins to each people who were released through the labyrinth, enough for their immediate livelihood. I felt that it wasn't enough, but since Porina said that I gave too much, I didn't give more.

Now then, excluding the five people with the Compounding skill, there are three explorers, and 55 slaves remaining in the mansion of ivy.

The remaining slaves didn't have a master, so they requested me to become their master. I'm thinking of releasing the one who seems possible to go independent with their worker-type skills, while the rest can be released after I find them jobs.

The explorers who remain are the noble girls from foreign kingdoms. I have no choice but to leave them behind since they were crying and saying that they'd better off dead than having to endure the rumor about how they've escaped from lost thief.

Now then, I guess I'll continue on to the next step.

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