I was seated near the shore of the cavern, marvelling at the beautiful sight before me.
And by that, I meant Delmare sitting on top of a rock with her tail curled around it while she dried her hair with a towel, the water making her look like some kind of water goddess.
I should also mention that she was also currently as nude as I was since we had to leave our clothes to dry, since my [Air Pocket] did not extend to the rest of my body.
She noticed me looking at her, “Aster? What’s wrong?”
“Hmm? Nothing. Just enjoying the view~”
She looked down at herself, blushed, then tried to cover her boobs with an arm before stopping herself. She then pulled her hands behind her back to push her chest forward.
“Umm… Ehe… Ehehe… Does Aster like what you see?” She asked, trying her best to sound more confident despite the fact that she was thoroughly embarrassed by her own actions.
I giggled and stretched myself, making sure my legs were spread open so that she could see every part of me before I answered her.
“I most definitely am~ So what are we doing now?”
Hearing no response, I turned to see Delmare staring straight at me. Or more specifically, looking at something below me.
I shifted my gaze downwards and I realised she was literally just staring at my erection.
Well… That’s what happens when you have a Siren as attractive as Delmare sitting there with her naked body put on display…
I closed my legs and that seemed to snap her out of it.
“Awawawa! I wasn’t looking! Erm… What did Aster say?”
“Ufufu~ I was asking what you were planning to do with me over here?”
“Ah! Of course! If Aster doesn’t mind, I prepared a song! Would you listen to it, please?”
“Ehehe~ Of course I would, don’t I always?”
This wouldn’t be the first time she had requested for me to do this after all. Everytime that she makes a new song, she would be sure to drag me off to listen to it, which was something that I was happy to do.
The fact that it would mostly lead to sex nine times out of ten had nothing to do with it of course.
I positioned myself to sit in front of her as she readied herself to sing her song.
But just as she sucked in a breath, we heard a loud ‘bang’ coming from behind me and we both turned towards the direction of the sound.
I realised that there was another tunnel that was leading up and away from the cavern half hidden behind a rock outcropping which was also where the sound came from.
All was quiet for a moment before the unmistakable sounds of footsteps started echoing out of the tunnel.
There were then some shouts and curses coming from there followed by what sounded like a whip being cracked.
I turned to Delmare and both of us came to the same conclusion that being spotted by whatever that was coming through the tunnels would not be a good thing.
I gathered up our clothes and stuffed them into my Pack of Folding before following Delmare to hide behind the rock that she had been sitting on, using it as cover to peek at the tunnel entrance.
The voices got louder and louder and soon enough, several people trudged into the cavern.
There were two distinct groups, the first group was the one leading the way consisting purely of Mahuns that were all armed to the teeth with swords, bows and even spears. The second group being pulled along using ropes were a group of people that were Inugamis, Nekomatas or Trasifs.𝑂𝑽𝒍xt.𝗇𝓔t
Well, you don’t need to be a genius to know that these were most likely a group of slavers and their slaves.
Judging by how the slaves were being restrained and forced to follow the slavers, I don’t think these are trained slaves but more like slaves that were just newly captured and being brought along to be sold.
That’s already quite strange since if I’m not mistaken, they should be at least trained somewhere before being sold. Yet seeing how defiant they were, it’s clear that these people were most definitely not trained slaves.
What’s more, the fact that this place was already quite close to the capital city itself so either they were bringing these slaves away from here which would be highly improbable considering their race, or they were planning to sell them as they are inside the capital.
“Get moving you little shits!” One of the slavers shouted, cracking his whip at them.
I noticed a few of them flinching from the sound, which means they most likely have been hit by the whip a number of times before.
Sure enough, upon closer inspection, I could see a number of marks on them that were evidence of being lashed.
“Aster… Who are they?” Delmare whispered, moving closer to me.
“Slavers… Shhh…”
She nodded when she heard that and went back to observing them with me.
“Gather around here you useless shits! Otherwise there’ll be no food for you all again!!”
The slaves grumbled but all of them obeyed, gathering themselves into a group near the centre of the cavern.
The slavers then got to work setting up what I guessed to be their camp, tying the slaves to a post that they hammered into the ground to stop them from running.
“What do we do, Aster? Should we save them?” Delmare asked, giving me an anxious look.
Umm… I guess if you were a hero or something you would go and save them?
But the thing is… Slavery isn’t illegal here… For all we know this group of slaves might be some bandits that had been subjugated to be sold as slaves by those slavers.
Let me just use my [Screened] to check one of the slaves…
[Name: Aoi
Title: Rider, Tree Scout
Race: Inugami
Gender: Female
Current Mood: Frustrated
Stats:
12 Strength
22 Dexterity
14 Endurance
7 Magic
Skills:
Tracking (Tier 2), Hunting (Tier 2), Drinking (Tier 1), Marksman Skill (Tier 1), Martial Skill (Dagger Proficiency (Tier 2), Bow Proficiency (Tier 1))]
Hmm… This doesn’t really tell me anything though…
These stats could both belong to a bandit and a normal law abiding citizen…
Checking the slavers doesn’t help either since all of them had the title of ‘slaver’ in their stats which doesn’t really confirm them to be the bad guys…
That’s why… I think the best choice here is to just run away!
“We should just leave, Delmare… Before they realise we are here…”
Delmare turned to me, “But… What about those slaves? Why… Why aren’t we saving them?”
“Umm… Delmare already knows that slavery isn’t illegal here right? So there’s actually nothing wrong happening there right now… Those slaves might just be bandits that were defeated by these slavers and are being brought to the capital to be sold…”
“But… We’re inside an underground cavern… I think if they were not doing something illegal… They wouldn’t be hiding here, would they?” Delmare pointed out.
“Hmm… Or they might be worried about them running away… Or another slaver group stealing their prey? I’m not really sure…”
“Should we ask them?”
“Eh? You mean for us to show ourselves and ask them directly?”
Delmare poked her fingers together, “Maybe… Maybe not like that… But umm… Sneak over there and ask the slaves when the slavers are asleep or something?”
“That would mean we’ll need to wait here for the entire day… Plus the slaves might lie to us just to get us to free them…”
“Ugh… Then… Then what should we do, Aster?”
It’s not like I don’t understand why she wants to save them… Since she found out that she was almost a victim of being sold as a slave too, she most likely wanted to help save these people from that fate as well.
I did a quick check of all the slavers and I found that most of them had stats around the fifties with the highest one being an eighty in Dexterity.
That means even if it comes down to a fight, I should be able to take on all of them, either alone or with the help of my summons.
Oh! I think I know of the perfect plan to not only find out if these slaves deserve their status and also potentially not involve us risking ourselves to a fight too!
I turned to Delmare, “I got an idea… You will appear on the rock here and show yourself to the slavers. If they are just capturing bandits to be sold, then they should just ignore you and we can leave after that. But if they were to try and attack and capture you, then it means they must be up to no good. In that case, you can simply sing a song to distract them while I knock them out!”
“Oh! That’s a great plan, Aster! Let’s do that!”
I pulled out spare sets of clothes for us to change into since I wasn’t willing to give these slavers a free show.
With everything prepared, Delmare quickly jumped out of the water and onto the rock, getting the attention of everyone else in the cavern.
“Hello there~ What are you all doing here?” She asked innocently.
The slavers looked at her, then at each other, right before they pulled out their weapons to charge towards her.
Guess we know the answer now… Better activate [Mind Shield] while I still can…