So Pumpkin and her mother were okay. That’s good to hear, after all, I had them to thank for the early headstart I received upon my transmigration. The wares of their merchant carriage served to give me the funds needed to establish myself in this harsh new world, and the weapons of the husband and the sole guard allowed me and Ayame to grind the Labyrinth without spending money. In fact, we used those very same weapons to later save them from goblin captivity. Life can be funny at times.
I was also pleasantly surprised that the count did as promised and brought these people to a healer. A lot of nobles would’ve just tossed them aside. However, I also understood that he could’ve brought them to an Arch-Priest. Three women were complete goners mentally, but the other two were only physically crippled, but very severely at that.
They most certainly could’ve been saved but it would take long healing sessions, likely costing multiple gold coins for a full recovery. These women were simply not worth it in his eyes, so he didn’t waste money on them. A cutthroat decision that was cruel but understandable.
“I’m a widower who didn’t own a home, just like Ilde and her daughter, so we had nowhere to go. We looked for employment and that was when the barons of our village recruited us. It was a bad decision to accept the job.” She grunted with fury. “I think I was too ugly and old or something, but while I was recruited as only a maid, the other two were forced to enter the harem of Tristun.”
“First of all, you’re a good looking middle-aged lady, don’t sell yourself short. Also, isn’t Tristun the grandpa?”
She chuckled for a moment due to my compliment before turning serious and nodded into my chest with a heavy heart. “Tristan is the kid, he is into typical beauties, Triston is the father and the current head of the family, he is a sadist who tortures his harem members with a whip most of the time, and Tristun is the grandpa, he is into psychological torment, which is why he went for the mother-daughter pair… He keeps torturing Ilda by doing bad things to Cecile, which the mother must watch or at least have knowledge of.”
So Cecile is the name of Pumpkin. What a poor girl, and her mother as well. They went from happy little village merchants whose lives were on the up due to the success of the husband’s figurine sales, then they watched him get murdered and were hauled off to be bred for a few days until Ayame and I saved them. Then they just had to fall into the lap of this degenerate family. I was already here to ruin some lives, but this only fueled my motivation to dish out some much-needed hurt to even greater lengths.
“Where are these people?” I asked while stroking this poor woman’s head. Although she wasn’t assaulted this time, her friends still were, and she was forced to watch from the sidelines.
“I-I don’t know. The women are kept locked up in the basement. I think Tristun is with Cecile in his bedroom, Triston is probably in his study, while I have no clue where Tristan is.”
“Lead us to the basement then. Let’s start there.” I decreed and she once again nodded into my chest before gathering her strength and detaching herself.
“Hey! Maid! You’re not supposed to be here!” A guard shouted once we reached the stairs leading to the basement. “What the…” Once he recognized that there were some rather imposing figures following Emily, his bravado quickly crumpled.
“Has this man been good to you?” I asked and received a firm shaking of Emily’s head. “What about that one?” I pointed at the guard I subjugated.
“He is good. The combatants who are allowed inside the mansion are their most trusted subordinates. The ones outside are not.”
“I see.” I nodded and reached for the guard’s throat with so much speed he didn’t even react. I firmly gripped his neck in my palm, at which point he finally caught up with reality and started stammering a plea for mercy, but I wasn’t interested.
I squeezed.
The crunching started immediately. The cartilage in his neck gave way under the overwhelming force without even putting up a decent fight. It collapsed inward with a crack. His windpipe was destroyed, cutting off his strangled gasp before it could escape.
The veins in his forehead bulged grotesquely, struggling against the pressure as blood pooled in his face. His eyes were bloodshot and both bulged outward from their sockets. A sudden pop echoed as one eye ruptured, spilling a viscous, crimson-tinged fluid down his cheek.
“Well, that’s that.” I stated while tossing the corpse to the side.
The maids who were following us gasped in shock and fright while Barna, the guard who realized that he almost had this fate had he made a few slightly altered choices leading up to this moment in his life, started shivering and sweating profusely. His wife had to help him walk down the stairs.
Inside the basement, I came across three separate cells. Each was filled to the brim with women who were chained to the walls with collars around their necks. The putrid smell of theirs hit my nostrils immediately as soon as I stepped in. While I didn’t support it, I at least understood treating your slaves as if they were objects. Most people brought worker slaves to make money. They were utility purchases. However, treating your harem like this…? The women you lay with? This was just disgusting.
I suppose this is what happens when you are too poor, or in this case too stingy I assume, to buy sex slaves and are too deranged to court a woman the way it was meant to be done. You gotta restrain them by these archaic methods so they don’t escape. Some humans truly were pure scum.
It was time to free these women and then mete out some much-needed justice.