For the rest of the day, I let Tray and his servants test out some of the more uncommon parts of HomeBase. Not that anything about HomeBase is exactly common, but things like the massive bathing area, which is basically a spa, as well as the sauna are not something that I’ve ever seen in a noble’s manor before. Even the hastily put together arcade is something you probably can’t have anywhere else, even if the arcade is not really that good yet. This world's level system breaks most arcade games I was planning on making, unless I make some sort of level based difficulty system. But even that wouldn’t be fair, as people with more magic based skills would be at a massive disadvantage against people with more physical builds.
So yeah. Things like bowling and darts weren’t really great, but that was basically all we had for now. Well, the pool table was relatively fair, but even with that, more strength usually means more accuracy. Unless you are too strong and accidentally break the balls, Agunan.
In case you were wondering, from our few test games, Wilma was the best pool player. She has great accuracy with her shots, and knows how to control her strength.
What was I talking about again? Oh right, Tray and his crew.
I did get some minor feedback from them, like some of them finding the sauna great, while an unmentioned person found it to be torture. But they did all enjoy the other services in the spa, even if the massage station wasn’t open due to lack of personnel. Of course on purpose.
For dinner, I again ate with Tray. This time we ate some chicken breasts from Crimson Sunbird. Crimson Sunbird is a chicken, right? At least close enough.
Spoiler [collapse]I was thinking of making fried chicken, but I think that might be a bit too exotic. Well, I do still have the thighs in my Storage, so I might still do that later.
“Is Lady Watchman not coming with us?” Tray asked, as we were ready to leave HomeBase and return to Burch city.
“Alice is busy today, so she cannot.” I told him. Though if things go as I’ve planned, he’ll see Alice soon enough. Not that he will like her after that.
“I see. That is a shame.”
“It really is. I’ll call our ride now.” I said, as I got a card out of my Collection. I then placed it on my founder’s terminal, before I said its name. “B.E.S. Tetran.”
Spoiler [collapse]I was using Tetran again, just so I wouldn’t show my entire hand to Tray. Well, more like my entire Collection. We all got on Tetran, and because Tray didn’t question it this time, it happened very quickly and we were off.
We returned to the city and I beamed us down at the yard of the same mansion we left from. Then I unsummoned Tetran.
“Lord Wood, if you would please wait a bit. I shall prepare a carriage for us, so we can go the the slave house.” Tray told me as he walked off.
I was left with one of his ‘guards’ and two ladies. It looked more like they were here to keep an eye on me, than to serve me.
Luckily it didn’t take too long for Tray to return in a carriage. One of the ladies that was keeping an eye on me opened the door, and I stepped into the carriage.
We had a ride through town, which took way longer than it really should have. Partially because the driver was taking some dumbass route, that wasted a lot of time. I think it was meant to confuse me, so I wouldn’t know where we were going, but it didn’t work against Laura’s mapping. She had the entire city already mapped out, so following where we were wasn’t all that difficult.
After the carriage came to a stop, the door soon opened. Tray was the first to step out, and I followed. Waiting for us was a group of four armed men. And about six women, in not at all subtle outfits. All of the women had a visible slave seal, but all of them looked like the legit slave seal, not the illegal one.
I followed Tray inside the building we had stopped by. It was quite a large house, but not quite as big as the mansion the Blanken Company owns. Still large enough to house multiple families, I’d say.
After being led inside, Tray told me to sit at a couch in some sort of parlor room, so of course I did. He then quickly began bringing slaves into the room to show me. I guess he didn’t want to waste any more time, or something.
I was both taking stock of potential workers, as well as making sure to carefully check each visible slave mark. But even after the first 20, no illegal marks. There were a few people I could see myself buying at least, so not all was lost. I told Tray as much, but I said I’d want to see everything that was available, before I decided who to buy. It pained me a bit to refer to people as products, but I think that was the best choice I could make.
“Did any of them suit your fancy?” Tray asked, after he had shown me a total of 36 slaves. All had the legal slave mark, so no hits just yet.
“Yes. I could see myself purchasing a few of them.” I first answered honestly. “But they don’t seem like the ‘imports’ you spoke about back at my Home. Where are they?” I then bluntly asked.
“So you really do want to see them. I suppose some prefer them.” Tray said as he got up from his seat. “I don’t usually show them to first time customers, but I can make an exception. Follow me please.”
I did as requested and got up.
Tray led me through the house, opening a door. Behind that door was a staircase that led to a basement, and we entered.
The basement was just a bit dark, but Tray put his hand on a light switch and turned on dim magic lights. We walked a bit deeper, until he opened a door. Behind it, a small room split in two by iron bars.
Behind the bars was a group of three people, all females from what I could tell. And they all had one other thing in common, under their long hair, I could just see pointy ears poking out.
If I were to guess, they are elves. I’ve never seen them before and this definitely isn’t how I wanted to meet that race.
On the elves chest, a red slave mark. A specific kind of slave mark that happened to be illegal in this country.
“May I ask about them?” I requested.
“Of course. What can I tell you about them? Do you wish to know if they are pure?”
Pure. What a word to use in this situation. Just be straight with me and use the word virgin.
“That is of little interest to me, as I have my own girls.” I honestly told him. “I wish to know why they are slaves, and about their skills.”
“... I see. Well, I wouldn’t know much about their origins, as the Blanken Company purchased them from a trusted slave trader in their country. The man likes to keep the details to a minimum, so we do not know. I hope you understand.” Tray explained. “The blonds are have some experience with Spirit Magic, while the one with lime hair is a reasonably skilled archer, with the Wind Magic skill. They all are also trained in basic etiquette as far as service goes, including night service.”
“... I see. They are quite good then.”
“Would you like them, Lord Wood?”
“Yes. I do think I could take them.” I told him. I may as well purchase them and then free them. Then I can either take them home, or offer them a job at HomeBase. And getting Tray’s hopes up should be a good thing. “But I do wish to see more imports. I hope this wasn’t all of them.”
“No. Of course not.” Tray quickly said. “Let us head to the next room.”
There were five rooms holding these imported slaves. In total, seventeen slaves. Out of them, all but one had the illegal mark.
They varied in race as well. There were of course the elves, but there were also plenty of beastfolk of different varieties, and even one dwarf. I really want the dwarf, as he is an older male, so having him work with Wilma should be good. As for the beastfolk, there were three catfolk, two dogfolk, four foxfolk and four horsefolk. The horsefolk were quite interesting, as I think they can evolve into centaurs.
“So, which would you like?” Tray asked after our tour was complete and we had returned to the parlor room.
“All of them.” I just said.
“... All? Are you?”
“Yes. I’ll take them all. How much?” I just asked. I was done getting evidence, as well as buying time, so let’s just get this show on the road.
“I do hope you understand that slaves like this are quite…”
“Just give me a price.” I cut him off. “So how much? 1,000 gold? 10,000? Give me a number.”
“... alright then. If you do have that much. For all of them, 8,000 gold.” Tray said.
“8,000, huh? That is fine. Can I bring the money out here, or do you want it in another place?”
“Eh? Here is fine, but…”
“Alrighty then.” I said, as I began piling gold coins on the table between us.
Piles of ten gold coins each, one right next to the other. The table was quickly filling up and I was honestly afraid it would break. But before the table could break, something else happened.
Knock, knock.
Loud knocking could be heard from the direction of the front entrance.
Quickly after that, a slave servant came and whispered something into Tray’s ear.
Tray then turned to me and said: “I apologize, Lord Wood. But there is something that needs my attention. I’ll return shortly.”
“Alright. I’ll take out the rest of the gold while I wait.” I told him, with no intention of doing just that. I know exactly who is at the door, so there is no need. Well, there is a bit of something I need to do, so let’s get on with it.
I got up from my seat and quickly took all of the gold coins from the table back into my Storage.
“Sir? What are you doing?” The slave that was keeping an eye on me asked.
“I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.” I told her.
I then quickly left the room and headed for the door leading to the basement. Once there, I took a card out of my Collection and activated it. Now that the insurance policy is in place, I can leave the rest to Alice.
“We are here to do an inspection. Here are the papers for it.” Big Sis Mariina said to Tray, when he finally arrived at the door. The papers were fully legitimate, signed by Baron Pineda, the person whose house Mariina had been staying at. It was pretty easy to talk him into writing up inspection papers when Mariina told him that there was use of the illegal slave mark in this city.
It wasn’t just us two, but also a group of 10 knights from the city's knight order.
“Y— Yes. Of course. Come right on in.” Tray said to us.
After we got back inside, he quickly told us about having a customer and having to get back to them, so he tried to go to somewhere and leave showing us around to a slave. But after he entered the room Brian was in a bit ago and seeing the table cleared of all the gold coins Brian put there, he began to really panic.
“Why don’t you show us the imports, Tray?” I asked him, with the line Brian taught me yesterday. I don’t really know why I had to say that, but he was quite insistent.
Tray finally realized that I was with the group, and I could see the color leaving his face.
“I-I-Imports? Wh-what would you be referring to, Lady Watchman?”
“The slaves in the basement, what else? Or do you need me to be more specific? What was it? Three elves, a dwarf, three catfolk, two dogfolk, four foxfolk and four horsefolk. I think that was it.” I recapped the info we got from Brian. “Well, I guess one of the foxfolk had the legal seal, so we can forget that one.”
“H-how did you?”
“You think you will just be ignored forever? The System and the Goddess will not let you get away with this for any longer.” I told him. It felt really good to say something like that.
At first, it almost seemed like Tray was ready to surrender, but then it seemed as if the color he had lost suddenly returned to his face.
“Ha. Ha, ha ha.” He then began to laugh. “You really think that is it? You can come here and say things like that and that will make me surrender? No! Never!”
“There is no point in this.” One of the male knights said. “You have basically admitted to your crimes. This company will be audited and you will be lucky if you just lose everything you own.”
“Ha, ha, ha. Really? Do you really think that is the case? You forget one little reality. Bitch Watchman there should know it, considering that her ‘love’ has illegal slaves.”
“Almost, but you are misinformed. Brian actually freed Einar and Eline, and they are now just workers. The slave marks on them were just red paint.” I corrected him. “But I know what you are trying to say. With just a word, you could order the slaves in the basement to kill themselves. So why don’t you go ahead and try it? You’ll see just how worthless your little mark is in the face of the Goddess.” I egged Tray on, so he would go even further. Brian was already in position, so even if this guy tried, nothing would happen.
“Really thinking the Goddess would do anything? You think She would care? Who do you think you are? The Hero? She doesn’t care about us. We are nothing but cattle to her.” Tray said, but I know that isn’t true. Even if we cannot see her work in our everyday lives, I know the Goddess is real and is working hard to keep us all safe from the terrors we don’t even know about.
“All Slaves I own. Kill yourselves now!” We all heard Tray command.
I really hope all of them are in this house, or we might actually have some dead bodies somewhere.
“And now you have no hostages.” I told him. “Now what?”
“...” Tray didn’t answer. Maybe he just realized that there is nothing keeping us from killing him, if he has no hostages. Not that we will.
“Alright.” Mariina spoke up. “Tie him up. Let’s go check out this basement of his.”
We entered the basement by using the directions Brian gave me. And he was there waiting for us.
I gave him a quick hug, as the knights dragged Tray into the basement. I wanted to show him what was behind these doors.
“Hah. Go ahead and see, little Watchman. Your arrogance got all of those people killed.” Tray taunted me, as I approached one of the doors.
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” I said, as I opened the door. Behind it, I saw the cell, just like I had been told. And in it, three perfectly alive elf girls.
As Tray saw the alive elves, his eyes once again went wide.
“As I said, your little mark is nothing compared to the power of the Goddess.”
This was game over for Tray, possibly the entire Blanken Company.
For the rest of the day, I let Tray and his servants test out some of the more uncommon parts of HomeBase. Not that anything about HomeBase is exactly common, but things like the massive bathing area, which is basically a spa, as well as the sauna are not something that I’ve ever seen in a noble’s manor before. Even the hastily put together arcade is something you probably can’t have anywhere else, even if the arcade is not really that good yet. This world's level system breaks most arcade games I was planning on making, unless I make some sort of level based difficulty system. But even that wouldn’t be fair, as people with more magic based skills would be at a massive disadvantage against people with more physical builds.
So yeah. Things like bowling and darts weren’t really great, but that was basically all we had for now. Well, the pool table was relatively fair, but even with that, more strength usually means more accuracy. Unless you are too strong and accidentally break the balls, Agunan.
In case you were wondering, from our few test games, Wilma was the best pool player. She has great accuracy with her shots, and knows how to control her strength.
What was I talking about again? Oh right, Tray and his crew.
I did get some minor feedback from them, like some of them finding the sauna great, while an unmentioned person found it to be torture. But they did all enjoy the other services in the spa, even if the massage station wasn’t open due to lack of personnel. Of course on purpose.
For dinner, I again ate with Tray. This time we ate some chicken breasts from Crimson Sunbird. Crimson Sunbird is a chicken, right? At least close enough.
Spoiler [collapse]I was thinking of making fried chicken, but I think that might be a bit too exotic. Well, I do still have the thighs in my Storage, so I might still do that later.
“Is Lady Watchman not coming with us?” Tray asked, as we were ready to leave HomeBase and return to Burch city.
“Alice is busy today, so she cannot.” I told him. Though if things go as I’ve planned, he’ll see Alice soon enough. Not that he will like her after that.
“I see. That is a shame.”
“It really is. I’ll call our ride now.” I said, as I got a card out of my Collection. I then placed it on my founder’s terminal, before I said its name. “B.E.S. Tetran.”
Spoiler [collapse]I was using Tetran again, just so I wouldn’t show my entire hand to Tray. Well, more like my entire Collection. We all got on Tetran, and because Tray didn’t question it this time, it happened very quickly and we were off.
We returned to the city and I beamed us down at the yard of the same mansion we left from. Then I unsummoned Tetran.
“Lord Wood, if you would please wait a bit. I shall prepare a carriage for us, so we can go the the slave house.” Tray told me as he walked off.
I was left with one of his ‘guards’ and two ladies. It looked more like they were here to keep an eye on me, than to serve me.
Luckily it didn’t take too long for Tray to return in a carriage. One of the ladies that was keeping an eye on me opened the door, and I stepped into the carriage.
We had a ride through town, which took way longer than it really should have. Partially because the driver was taking some dumbass route, that wasted a lot of time. I think it was meant to confuse me, so I wouldn’t know where we were going, but it didn’t work against Laura’s mapping. She had the entire city already mapped out, so following where we were wasn’t all that difficult.
After the carriage came to a stop, the door soon opened. Tray was the first to step out, and I followed. Waiting for us was a group of four armed men. And about six women, in not at all subtle outfits. All of the women had a visible slave seal, but all of them looked like the legit slave seal, not the illegal one.
I followed Tray inside the building we had stopped by. It was quite a large house, but not quite as big as the mansion the Blanken Company owns. Still large enough to house multiple families, I’d say.
After being led inside, Tray told me to sit at a couch in some sort of parlor room, so of course I did. He then quickly began bringing slaves into the room to show me. I guess he didn’t want to waste any more time, or something.
I was both taking stock of potential workers, as well as making sure to carefully check each visible slave mark. But even after the first 20, no illegal marks. There were a few people I could see myself buying at least, so not all was lost. I told Tray as much, but I said I’d want to see everything that was available, before I decided who to buy. It pained me a bit to refer to people as products, but I think that was the best choice I could make.
“Did any of them suit your fancy?” Tray asked, after he had shown me a total of 36 slaves. All had the legal slave mark, so no hits just yet.
“Yes. I could see myself purchasing a few of them.” I first answered honestly. “But they don’t seem like the ‘imports’ you spoke about back at my Home. Where are they?” I then bluntly asked.
“So you really do want to see them. I suppose some prefer them.” Tray said as he got up from his seat. “I don’t usually show them to first time customers, but I can make an exception. Follow me please.”
I did as requested and got up.
Tray led me through the house, opening a door. Behind that door was a staircase that led to a basement, and we entered.
The basement was just a bit dark, but Tray put his hand on a light switch and turned on dim magic lights. We walked a bit deeper, until he opened a door. Behind it, a small room split in two by iron bars.
Behind the bars was a group of three people, all females from what I could tell. And they all had one other thing in common, under their long hair, I could just see pointy ears poking out.
If I were to guess, they are elves. I’ve never seen them before and this definitely isn’t how I wanted to meet that race.
On the elves chest, a red slave mark. A specific kind of slave mark that happened to be illegal in this country.
“May I ask about them?” I requested.
“Of course. What can I tell you about them? Do you wish to know if they are pure?”
Pure. What a word to use in this situation. Just be straight with me and use the word virgin.
“That is of little interest to me, as I have my own girls.” I honestly told him. “I wish to know why they are slaves, and about their skills.”
“... I see. Well, I wouldn’t know much about their origins, as the Blanken Company purchased them from a trusted slave trader in their country. The man likes to keep the details to a minimum, so we do not know. I hope you understand.” Tray explained. “The blonds are have some experience with Spirit Magic, while the one with lime hair is a reasonably skilled archer, with the Wind Magic skill. They all are also trained in basic etiquette as far as service goes, including night service.”
“... I see. They are quite good then.”
“Would you like them, Lord Wood?”
“Yes. I do think I could take them.” I told him. I may as well purchase them and then free them. Then I can either take them home, or offer them a job at HomeBase. And getting Tray’s hopes up should be a good thing. “But I do wish to see more imports. I hope this wasn’t all of them.”
“No. Of course not.” Tray quickly said. “Let us head to the next room.”
There were five rooms holding these imported slaves. In total, seventeen slaves. Out of them, all but one had the illegal mark.
They varied in race as well. There were of course the elves, but there were also plenty of beastfolk of different varieties, and even one dwarf. I really want the dwarf, as he is an older male, so having him work with Wilma should be good. As for the beastfolk, there were three catfolk, two dogfolk, four foxfolk and four horsefolk. The horsefolk were quite interesting, as I think they can evolve into centaurs.
“So, which would you like?” Tray asked after our tour was complete and we had returned to the parlor room.
“All of them.” I just said.
“... All? Are you?”
“Yes. I’ll take them all. How much?” I just asked. I was done getting evidence, as well as buying time, so let’s just get this show on the road.
“I do hope you understand that slaves like this are quite…”
“Just give me a price.” I cut him off. “So how much? 1,000 gold? 10,000? Give me a number.”
“... alright then. If you do have that much. For all of them, 8,000 gold.” Tray said.
“8,000, huh? That is fine. Can I bring the money out here, or do you want it in another place?”
“Eh? Here is fine, but…”
“Alrighty then.” I said, as I began piling gold coins on the table between us.
Piles of ten gold coins each, one right next to the other. The table was quickly filling up and I was honestly afraid it would break. But before the table could break, something else happened.
Knock, knock.
Loud knocking could be heard from the direction of the front entrance.
Quickly after that, a slave servant came and whispered something into Tray’s ear.
Tray then turned to me and said: “I apologize, Lord Wood. But there is something that needs my attention. I’ll return shortly.”
“Alright. I’ll take out the rest of the gold while I wait.” I told him, with no intention of doing just that. I know exactly who is at the door, so there is no need. Well, there is a bit of something I need to do, so let’s get on with it.
I got up from my seat and quickly took all of the gold coins from the table back into my Storage.
“Sir? What are you doing?” The slave that was keeping an eye on me asked.
“I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.” I told her.
I then quickly left the room and headed for the door leading to the basement. Once there, I took a card out of my Collection and activated it. Now that the insurance policy is in place, I can leave the rest to Alice.
“We are here to do an inspection. Here are the papers for it.” Big Sis Mariina said to Tray, when he finally arrived at the door. The papers were fully legitimate, signed by Baron Pineda, the person whose house Mariina had been staying at. It was pretty easy to talk him into writing up inspection papers when Mariina told him that there was use of the illegal slave mark in this city.
It wasn’t just us two, but also a group of 10 knights from the city's knight order.
“Y— Yes. Of course. Come right on in.” Tray said to us.
After we got back inside, he quickly told us about having a customer and having to get back to them, so he tried to go to somewhere and leave showing us around to a slave. But after he entered the room Brian was in a bit ago and seeing the table cleared of all the gold coins Brian put there, he began to really panic.
“Why don’t you show us the imports, Tray?” I asked him, with the line Brian taught me yesterday. I don’t really know why I had to say that, but he was quite insistent.
Tray finally realized that I was with the group, and I could see the color leaving his face.
“I-I-Imports? Wh-what would you be referring to, Lady Watchman?”
“The slaves in the basement, what else? Or do you need me to be more specific? What was it? Three elves, a dwarf, three catfolk, two dogfolk, four foxfolk and four horsefolk. I think that was it.” I recapped the info we got from Brian. “Well, I guess one of the foxfolk had the legal seal, so we can forget that one.”
“H-how did you?”
“You think you will just be ignored forever? The System and the Goddess will not let you get away with this for any longer.” I told him. It felt really good to say something like that.
At first, it almost seemed like Tray was ready to surrender, but then it seemed as if the color he had lost suddenly returned to his face.
“Ha. Ha, ha ha.” He then began to laugh. “You really think that is it? You can come here and say things like that and that will make me surrender? No! Never!”
“There is no point in this.” One of the male knights said. “You have basically admitted to your crimes. This company will be audited and you will be lucky if you just lose everything you own.”
“Ha, ha, ha. Really? Do you really think that is the case? You forget one little reality. Bitch Watchman there should know it, considering that her ‘love’ has illegal slaves.”
“Almost, but you are misinformed. Brian actually freed Einar and Eline, and they are now just workers. The slave marks on them were just red paint.” I corrected him. “But I know what you are trying to say. With just a word, you could order the slaves in the basement to kill themselves. So why don’t you go ahead and try it? You’ll see just how worthless your little mark is in the face of the Goddess.” I egged Tray on, so he would go even further. Brian was already in position, so even if this guy tried, nothing would happen.
“Really thinking the Goddess would do anything? You think She would care? Who do you think you are? The Hero? She doesn’t care about us. We are nothing but cattle to her.” Tray said, but I know that isn’t true. Even if we cannot see her work in our everyday lives, I know the Goddess is real and is working hard to keep us all safe from the terrors we don’t even know about.
“All Slaves I own. Kill yourselves now!” We all heard Tray command.
I really hope all of them are in this house, or we might actually have some dead bodies somewhere.
“And now you have no hostages.” I told him. “Now what?”
“...” Tray didn’t answer. Maybe he just realized that there is nothing keeping us from killing him, if he has no hostages. Not that we will.
“Alright.” Mariina spoke up. “Tie him up. Let’s go check out this basement of his.”
We entered the basement by using the directions Brian gave me. And he was there waiting for us.
I gave him a quick hug, as the knights dragged Tray into the basement. I wanted to show him what was behind these doors.
“Hah. Go ahead and see, little Watchman. Your arrogance got all of those people killed.” Tray taunted me, as I approached one of the doors.
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” I said, as I opened the door. Behind it, I saw the cell, just like I had been told. And in it, three perfectly alive elf girls.
As Tray saw the alive elves, his eyes once again went wide.
“As I said, your little mark is nothing compared to the power of the Goddess.”
This was game over for Tray, possibly the entire Blanken Company.
