Shallan awoke with a confused state of mind. She found herself in a dark room with little sunlight managing to slip through the cracks of the shoddy walls they were surrounded by.
Her danger senses immediately flared and she snapped her head around the room in search of clues as to what had happened to her. Her heart skipped a beat when her gaze landed on the prone and unmoving forms of her fellow slaves.
She crawled to them and checked their vitals. After confirming that they were alive, she started shaking them one by one in hopes of waking them up.
Liora, or Blonde as their disgusting owner called her, was the first to part her eyelids. “S-Shallan?”
“Yes.” She nodded.
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, we are in some unknown room.”
“Strange… I’m not restrained. Maybe Master Kai did something to us…?” Liora questioned with a heavy heart. “Shallan, can you use magic to break us out?”
She shook her head with a wry expression. “No… I have no access to my mana.”
Liora tried casting a spell as well and came to the same horrible revelation as her tanned friend did. “Let’s try remembering what we were doing last…”
“Oh, yes! I remember now. We were fighting the enemies in the valley.” Shallan murmured as memories started resurfacing.
“You’re right! I tried healing Master Kai but before I could, my vision went dark.”
“Yeah, you were ambushed by the dog-kin assassin.” Shallan nodded as she remembered her friend getting mauled by the strange clawed weapon the blonde-haired enemy of theirs wore.
“Oh…! Then I should consider myself to be lucky to be alive…” Liora whispered with a grim expression.
“But still… I wasn’t defeated. I would remember that, I’m pretty sure.”
“Wait!” Liora shouted with more excitement than she planned to. “All of us getting knocked out cold and the two of us, the two highest leveled people, awakening first might mean that…”
Shallan’s eyes widened as realization dawned on her. “Kai was killed and we became masterless, thus we were paralyzed by the slavery magic’s safety measure.”
While the [Slave Contract] was a very overpowered spell, it couldn’t keep masterless slaves in their paralyzed states of being forever. The effect would remain strong for 48 hours, after which it would slowly lose its strength. The two of them had the highest level and more importantly, the highest Vitality of their allies, letting their bodies get rid of the paralization first.
“Yes! But that still leaves the question, what are we doing here? We must’ve gotten captured by the victors…”
Both women suddenly trembled when they realized who would be their captor if their theory turned out to be correct. The tall and extremely scary man who was fighting two such mighty fighters at the same time…
*Clap clap clap*
Loud clapping noises sounded and the man of their nightmares walked out from the shadows. Almost as if he was an assassin using [Stealth]…! But that couldn’t be. He was some strange hybrid mage. This time he wasn’t wearing a mask, letting them see his amused features. “Amazing. You’re right on the money, ladies.” He said while finally ceasing his clapping and seating himself on a chair in front of them.
Both women eyed the man in muted silence.
“For the record, it was my talented alchemist’s concoction that took away your ability to access your mana.” He said before reaching into his storage ring and bringing a corpse out. Shallan and Liora gasped as the miserable face of their tormentor reflected his final moment, which most certainly didn’t happen in a manner he was happy with.
Perhaps due to his deep voice or Shallan’s previous shaking, the other four awoke together and soon kneeled next to their allies while eyeing the man who obviously had the upper hand in this situation. Even without context, they understood that they should obediently listen. However, their eyes also widened from shock when they saw Kai’s desecrated corpse.
“My apologies, he smells a bit. I didn’t feel like wasting resources to preserve his corpse.” The man continued his monologuing with a jovial tone.
“What can I call your lordship?” Liora asked. She wanted to propose some questions, but it was difficult without knowing how to address their captor.
“Oh, how rude of me. Quinlan is the name. You saw me once in the Adventurer’s Guild’s tavern, but I suppose you don’t remember me. I did change a lot since then, after all. What can I call you six?”
“Blonde.” Liora replied on instinct.
“I didn’t mean your hair color, or is that your name? Man, some parents have horrible naming sense… Jack Black…” He started snickering when he said that name for some reason. Shallan had to agree though, it was bad.
“No, Lord Quinlan, it’s just that Maste-“
Liora was interrupted suddenly. “He is not Master Kai but Kai, and I’m asking for the name you wish me to call you, not anything else.”
“… Liora.”
“Shallan.”
They all introduced themselves while having a strange feeling about this all. The man who defeated them was already treating them with more dignity than their owner and combat leader of many years?
“Good.” He nodded. “Nice to meet you.”
“Lord Quinlan, may we know what our fate shall be?” It was Shallan who spoke up this time.
“You’ll be my slaves.” His reply was curt and to the point. They felt pain in their hearts. So they went from one master to the next.
He then continued, “but I won’t demand anything from you besides obedience and excellence on the field of battle.”
“H-huh?” Multiple women gasped at his abrupt and unexpected statement, Shallan and Liora included.
“Ah, please don’t take it the wrong way. It’s not that I’m disgusted by you, you’re all very appealing women, nor do I care that you were touched by this filth,” he paused for a second to kick Kai’s head in a manner that spoke volumes of the disgust he held for their master. “It’s just that I have multiple gorgeous lovers so I have no reason to get myself sex slaves. I think I would get beaten by them if I did… *Ehem* With that out of the way, you already know my demands toward you. Now I want to hear if you have any requests toward me.”
Multiple confused glances were exchanged between each other. Not sex slaves but combat slaves…? And their master wants to hear requests? What requests?