Pov Kira:
We had rented an inn room where we spent the rest of the afternoon going over the information we had about the nobles who are in the Kingdom at the moment.
It was almost time to head back to the boat when we finished seeing all the information.
"The number of nobles in this Realm is much higher than I imagined." (I)
"Looks like a few days before we arrived there was an auction on the body of a rare sea monster." (Elsaris)
"They divided the body into pieces like skin, blood, bones, core, organs, etc." (Elsaris)
"They sold everything separately with auctions, so many nobles from lesser Realms came here." (Elsaris)
"But it seems that this Realm usually has a lot of nobles from other Realms visiting." (I)
"But it must be less than half of what I had this time." (Elsaris)
"What surprised me was that none of the nobles of this Realm are corrupt." (Samira)
"Perhaps because the royal family of this Kingdom treats this place as a commercial company they do not accept corruption, as far as we know so far corruption is such a serious crime that it leads to the death of the entire family and the auction of the title of nobility that can be purchased only by people of that Kingdom." (I)
"This place is the symbol of extreme capitalism, this is madness, how can a nation survive like this?" (Samira)
"They are only able to support themselves, but when a real crisis strikes, everyone will flee this place and see this Kingdom fall into ruins." (Elsaris)
"Did you find any possible targets?" (I)
"Some, I even managed to find someone that Érica and Irina were looking for." (Elsaris)
"Who did you find?" (I)
"A famous theoretical Mage among the lesser Realms, it seems he has been a slave for over 20 years, he is in the Realm now along with the Prince of a nation." (Elsaris)
"If he's such a good Mage, then why is he a slave?" (Samira)
"The information is a little vague, but it seems that the realm where he served as a royal Mage was attacked and conquered, he was captured and forced to be a slave, he was too competent in his job to be killed, but because he was an enemy before, turned him into a slave to make sure of his loyalty." (Elsaris)
"He's a Runic, there's a description of what he looks like here, he was sent to escort the Prince back to the nation with various monster parts they managed to buy." (Elsaris)
"What is this Prince-like?" (I)
"He's an intelligent person, but he's also despicable, he seems to have been accused of rape more than 50 times in this Kingdom alone, but he escaped punishment by paying a very high cash fine." (Elsaris)
"It also seems that this Prince is responsible for the commercial links between his Kingdom and this one, he is competent in his work." (Elsaris)
"But from the information I have it seems that all of this prince's servants are slaves, it seems a little strange to me." (Elsaris)
"This is really weird, does it say anything about the Kingdom the Prince came from?" (I)
"As I said before, the information is very vague, all it says is that this Realm has a history of 50 years, during that time they conquered 3 Realms nearby, this Realm is focused on a military culture." (Elsaris)
"How can such a new Realm conquer so many Realms?" (Samira)
"I also find that strange, they seem to have a higher military strength than they should." (I)
"I also find that suspicious, but it's not our problem, the important thing is that we found someone qualified as a theoretical Mage." (Elsaris)
"Let's talk to the master later, I also found someone the master will want to pay a visit." (I)
"A noblewoman from a neighboring Kingdom, it seems that she always comes to visit this Kingdom with several new boys from many different races." (I)
"It seems that every time she comes to this Kingdom she buys dozens of slaves, the strange thing is that they are all boys aged 9 to 12 years old." (I)
"…" (Samira)
"You mean…" (Samira)
"I don't know, the information we have doesn't say much about what she does with these boys, all I know is that she's a human woman over 50, she's her family leader, a Duchess." (I)
"There are many nobles with strange tastes like her, I can only say that she is unlucky to be here right now." (Elsaris)
"…" (Samira)
"The master might pay her a visit in person, the master mainly hates people who harm children." (I)
"Zenos can be very cruel when he's angry…" (Elsaris)
After we reviewed the names of five more despicable nobles and 3 influential merchants, we jotted all the names down on a list to speak with the master later, in the end, it was a count of 7 nobles and 3 merchants.
When we realized that it would soon start to get dark, we left the inn and took a cart to return to the port.
———-
Pov Zenos:
When we enter the large mansion that functions as slave trade, we are greeted by a beautiful human woman in maid clothes and a thick iron necklace around her neck.
"Good morning dear customer, what do you want today." (maid)
"We want to buy some slaves today." (Jay)
"Please follow me to a waiting room, soon the boss will be available." (maid)
I asked Jay to take the lead this time, I'm fully aware of my very young appearance, people might find it weird the way a child behaves and talks, they might find it even weirder someone like me buying such specific slaves, so I'm going to leave that part in Jay's hands.
We followed the maid into a room with sofas, chairs, a table with snacks, and a drinks rack, the room was quite large.
We waited an hour for a White Elf looking 30 years old to enter the room, he had short white hair and wore glasses, his appearance was calm but as soon as I saw him I knew he was sizing us up.
"Good morning dear customers, sorry for the delay, my name is Algust, I am the honored owner of this establishment." (Algust)
"May I know what kind of slaves you are looking for?" (Algust)
"Good morning, Algust." (Jay)
"I'd like to see your catalog to get an idea of the type of slaves you currently own." (Jay)
"As you wish, here is our catalog." (Algust)
Algus hands the catalog into Jay's hands, I let Layla sit on his shoulders to see the catalog with Jay so I can share Layla's vision of seeing the catalog without drawing attention to myself.
The catalog was in a reading crystal that Algust passed to Jay, when he started to slowly go through the catalog I realize how many slaves there are here.
Jay goes through the slave information slowly so he has time to read it carefully, there are many human slaves being more than 50% of the slaves for sale here, the other slaves are of several different races.
I noticed that they have a large number of combat slaves and sex slaves, but I can imagine that they are the two types of slaves most sold, what surprised me was that the number of sex slaves was very equal between men and women, but the slaves of combat were more than 80% men.
There were also various types of slaves with different abilities, such as Craftsmen, cooks, servants, etc.
It took us two hours to look at the information on several slaves, but it wasn't very detailed, it was still too vague for me.
It was early afternoon when we asked for the maid who served us and was standing next to the door until now calling Algust who had left to attend to other customers.
When Algust returns he sits on a couch next to us.
"They have already chosen?" (Algust)
"We would like more detailed information on slaves trained in these professions." (Jay)
Jay passes the list of professions to Algust.
List:
1. Civil construction expert
2. Alchemist
3. Doctor
4. Magic Engineer
5. Craftsman of accessories
6. Theoretical wizard
Algust looks at the list before starting to fiddle with the reading crystal, after a few moments he turns towards us.
"We have some slaves with experience in contraction, but they are all manual laborers." (Algust)
"I also have many types of Alchemists, half of them are criminal slaves, but we also have Alchemists who specialize in research, there are only two." (Algust)
"We have few slaves with medical skills, but if you're interested I can look for one, and in a week I'd have one available." (Algust)
"We have several Mages, but most of them are combat Mages, but we still have theoretical Mages for each element." (Algust)
"Unfortunately, I don't have any slaves with the capabilities of a Magic Engineer or Accessory Artisan." (Algust)
"Here's a list of the slaves we currently have that match what you're looking for." (Algust)
Jay picks up the reading crystal one more time and spends a few minutes looking at it while I'm still sharing Layla's vision over her shoulder so I say a few things to Layla through our connection and she talks into Jay's ear what I just said to her.
"I don't care about gender, race or age, bring me the best on this list, but I don't need anyone who is prejudiced against other races." (Jay)
"As you wish, I'll go get them now." (Algust)
Algust leaves the room to fetch the slaves and we stand and wait.