The next day we all woke up early, everyone had things to do, so we split into three groups.
The first group would go with Nira to shop at the Trading Guild, they would look for items that were still missing from the Dungeon that Nira had on her list, and they would also look for the materials Leonardo needed to continue the contraction of the city and some other non-urgent items that those in the Dungeon are wanting.
The second group was going to come with me to or should I say go with Nix to clean up the slave trade sites, the Elves have been very good to me and others so I thought I’d take a look at the legal and illegal Elf slaves to release them depending on each one’s situation.
The third group will consist of Kira along with Elsaris and her family that we took from the Dungeon to help Kira, they will investigate why there was so many Church of Light soldiers in this city.
After all, this was decided we parted after eating something, so I step into Nix’s shadow so as not to draw attention again since I don’t know if there are any Church of Light people still here in town.
I spend the rest of the day together with Orion inside Nix’s shadow while Layla was sitting on Nix’s shoulder, Sophia was also coming along to help us know the best choices when deciding what to do.
There were only two legal slave traders in town, one of them dealt with criminal slaves and the other with debt slaves.
The merchants who handled criminal slaves didn’t have any Elves with them and after looking at their slave list through Nix’s eyes, we left as none of their slaves paid any attention to me.
The debt slave trader had five Elves, three children who were 2 boys and a girl, and also had two adult White Elf men, the two boys were White Elves and the girl was a Dark Elf.
After looking into their debts I discovered that none of them are blood related to each other, the two boys came from a village that is suffering from hunger and was used to pay the debt of the whole village, the girl inherited the debt of the Adventurer parents who died, the two adults were turned into slaves because of gambling debts.
I also take a look at the rest of this place’s slave list just in case.
I talked to Nix asking for a few minutes to think about the merchant who leaves her in the room and leaves for a while.
“(Layla, make sure no one hears us.)” (I)
“< Sound Barrier >” (Layla)
I talk to Layla in her mind to create a sound barrier around the room as I want to make sure no one hears my voice as I speak from Nix’s shadow.
“What do you think of these 5 Elves, Sophia?” (I)
“Children being sold or used to pay debts is cruel, but common to do, unfortunately, for an Elf is worth more it can have saved a small village from turning over dozens of children or even adults to pay taxes.” (Sophia)
“But if we save these children, I don’t know if we should take them back to their villages, maybe it would be better to take them to the Illusory Forest village.” (Sophia)
“I imagine there must be people from the village in this town, right?” (I)
“Yes, in almost every city in the Grimo Kingdom there will be someone.” (Sophia)
“What are we going to do with the two adults?” (Nix)
“I’m thinking about doing nothing, they became slaves for gambling debts, do you understand what I’m getting at?” (I)
“I didn’t understand.” (Layla)
“I mean they were foolish enough to keep playing even after they lost all their money, it was because they kept losing even after they were out of money that they ended up in debt.” (I)
“I have no obligation to help someone foolish enough to seek self-destruction.” (I)
“I agree with you master, a person should be responsible for their actions, what happens to them will be something they themselves have sought for themselves.” (Sophia)
“Children are different, they weren’t in control of their own lives, so they deserve help if possible.” (Nix)
“So we’re taking them, so I’ll leave the decision of what to do next to you Sophia.” (I)
“Right.” (Sophia)
“I’ve seen other kids on the list in similar situations, what should we do?” (Nix)
“I’m already taking some, so I might as well take them all, after that let them decide if they want to go to the elf village or stay in the dungeon.” (I)
“Are you sure the Elves would accept children of other races?” (Layla)
“Why not? We’ve seen that there are other races that live in the village, races that stay there even during the Annual Monster Wave.” (I)
“The master is right, we can accept them in the village, many Elves choose to adopt children because of the delay in having children of their own or simply because they miss their children because they are too far away.” (Sophia)
“We are a breed with a long lifespan, so dedicating 1 or 2 decades to raising a child is not enough time for us.” (Sophia)
“Even if these kids decide to stay in the dungeon it won’t be a problem, there aren’t any kids in the dungeon right now, but there are many women and men who had family in the past who are desperate to have them again.” (Nix)
“I’ll let you handle it, but I’ll only accept children who aren’t prejudiced by the Dungeon races, otherwise send them to the Elves to take care of.” (I)
“That’s fine with me, but I think you’ll find you have nothing to worry about, kids can adapt quickly, plus they’re more open-minded than adults.” (Nix)
“Since how much do you know so much about children?” (I)
“Vanessa and Freya taught me about it, I only saw that it was true when I saw the children of the Illusory Forest village reacting to the Dungeon residents.” (Nix)
After a little chat with everyone and a decision made, Layla deactivates the barrier and Sophia calls the slave trader.
Nix takes care of the negotiations which go very well and we managed to get out of there with 28 children aged 5 to 13 years old.
We took them all to the inn where we are where we stayed on the ground floor, that’s because there is a small restaurant where people can eat.
Nix orders food for all the children as I leave the city, going from shadow to shadow, then I open the Dungeon letting Caryna and Rakan’s two subordinate Elf mages leave the Dungeon to enter the city with a large freight carriage I’ve sinned in the Dungeon.
After that I lead them to the inn where we are while hiding in its shadows, I ask the three of them to take the kids out of town in the middle of the afternoon I also left a sleeping potion that has a slow effect for Caryna.
The children should be sleeping when you open the Dungeon gate and only wake up when they are already in the City of Shadows so they don’t get scared.
After all, the Dungeon gate is a Dragon’s head with an open jaw, any child would be scared, I was scared when I first entered the Great Serpent Dungeon. .
———-
When the time came in the middle of the afternoon Caryna and the Elf sisters took the children out of town in the freight car.
I stayed in the shadow of the carriage until we left town and then we went into the middle of the forest where I let the whole carriage into the Dungeon.
When we entered, there were already several Elves inside waiting for us, I asked for this earlier when I came to call Caryna and the Elf sisters.
The children are taken by the Elves to the city floor while the carriage is stored in the item storage until they reach the city floor where they will use it again to take the children to the mansion.
I don’t want the kids to see the city for now, at least until I’m sure they want to stay in the Dungeon, I told them not to tell the truth about where they are and only say if they want to stay or go to the village of the Elves, in addition, I asked them to see how the children who want to stay react to the different races of the Dungeon, so I leave everything in their hands and go back outside closing the Dungeon gate and flying hidden into the city straight to the inn where we are staying.