Volume 2 - CH 4

Act 2-4: Beast Girl Slave

TN: Woops, my apologies for the delayed release, I forgot that today is the release day.

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Now that I’ve already become a hunter, my range of activity in this city during our stay has increased by leaps and bounds.

Although Rose has asked me to not leave the inn, I have no intention to obey such an order. The reason is that aside from me, her temporary royal guard, Arnold stood by her side all time. I have never seen him fight for real, but my grandfather had acknowledged his swordcraft. That’s why I’ve no doubts about Arnold’s swordcraft. This means that I don’t need to be by Rose’s side all day as long as Arnold still serves as her temporary bodyguard.

That’s the reason I’m currently strolling around Barse city along with Faf, Asta, and Fen.

By the way, I’ve allowed Fen to tag along since he was too bored after staying inside the picture book for a while. However, he’s under the condition that he should never leave my side; that’s it.

「There’s a lot of food, nodessu!」

Faf screamed with sparkling eyes when she saw the food stalls along the road.

『I want to eat too!』

Fen, who rested atop Faf’s head, raised his small, adorable paw while letting out a childish howl.

Maybe because this was the first time Faf saw a lot of foods being sold in such a lively place, her tension was at max since a while ago. She ran around from one stall to another, buying food with the money I gave her. She stuffed the others’ mouths with the food she had just bought.

Yup! Seeing the content of my pouch dwindling at a rapid pace, I realized I had to think of a way to gain money.

I still had countless loot from that easy dungeon.

However, after the farce in the alley, if people knew that an incompetent like me was selling dungeon treasures via proper routes, I would stand out in a bad way. If the ones who would come after me were people like the fallen hunters from the other day, I would have no problem. However, I don’t think those greedy ba*tards hiding in this kingdom would just watch me sell dungeon treasure in silence. In the worst case, it might turn into an all-out war against the Amelia kingdom. Naturally, if that would happen, I would use all methods at my disposal to crush them to pieces till nothing would be left. After all, my goal is to live a leisurely slow life, not a tumultuous life filled with ups and downs.

If I sold the dungeon treasures via the black market, there was a smaller chance for those greedy ba*tards of the Amelia kingdom to discover me. However, I had no idea where to find the black market. And finding reliable black market merchants during our limited time stay in Barse was close to impossible. That was why I excluded this plan of selling loot for now.

The next option available to me was clearing monster subjugation quests like a proper hunter. However, we’ve only stayed in this city for five days. That’s far from enough to make a killing. Due to all this, I’ve been wondering about what to do now…

As I thought about that, I noticed a large number of people gathering in front of a huge tent in the square. Then, the quarreling voices of a man and a woman reached my ears.

「How dare you use violence on such young children. What do you think you’re doing?」

「Listen, Miss. This is my commodity. In short, a beast. It’s only natural for me to train my beast, you know!」

「BEAST? Are you kidding me! It’s clearly a child of the beastman tribe!」

「Indeed! But, you see, the one who acknowledges the beastman tribe as mindless beasts is your kingdom, ri~ght? Am I wrong?」

That woman’s voice sounded familiar. After pushing my way through the crowd and coming out in the front, I saw a seemingly pushover man with an effeminate voice and a red-haired woman clad in glistening white armor. Yup, it’s Anna. Just what kind of a quarrel did she get into now?

「You’re wrong! Our kingdom never acknowledged the beastman tribe as mindless beasts! our kingdom advocates non-discrimination regardless of the distinction of one’s gift!」

「Wha~t is that I wonde~r? Distinction is already discrimination. Is your head alright?」

I agreed with that pushover-like man. Since a long time ago, the Amelia kingdom government had always been hostile to and treated the majority of the tribes that didn’t receive gifts, such as the beastman tribe, as apostates, like how most people in this kingdom treated me. Take that girl from the beastman tribe, for example, the matter of her being kidnapped in a chaotic situation in the middle of a battle by this kingdom and sold as a slave was an everyday occurrence. And the one who had made such plans was none other than the royalties and nobilities of Rose’s kingdom. For that reason, by quarreling with that pushover-like man, Anna was barking at the wrong tree. Well, naturally, I also hated trash who used violence on such young children.

「YOU, are you mocking me?」

The moment Anna placed her hand on the hilt of her sword, the subordinates of the pushover-like man, the people wearing black clothes, stepped forward to protect their superior.

Good grief! What a troublesome woman! But still, she couldn’t just watch these children get abused, right? In my opinion, she’s far better than those bystanders who’re just standing there in silence.

「Stop whatever you’re about to do after this. You’re in the wrong after all.」

I entered the ring created by those unimportant bystanders and stopped Anna from acting recklessly. Then, I turned around to face that pushover-like man.

「This woman is a bit ignorant about the way of the world. Please do forgive her.」

I offered empty words of apology, just for formality’s sake.

「It seems a child who can be reasoned with has finally come out.」

The pushover-like man heaved a sigh, then raised his right hand. The men in black clothes obediently retreated.

Anna’s armor had a crest engraved on it. So, it was obvious to everyone that she was related to the government. That was why even the slave trader was reluctant to quarrel with her for no reason.

「KAI, HOW DA―!!」

I ignored Anna’s irritating ramblings and took out 80k oars, all the money I had in my pouch. I gave it to the pushover-like man.

The pushover-like man frowned upon seeing the contents of my pouch.

「Wha~t, only eighty thousand oars? It’s far from enough to buy her, you kno~w!」

And just as I had expected, that amount was far from enough to buy the beastman girl.

「Then, how much is her price?」

「Silver-haired beastman children are rare, and she’s a girl on top of that. Her price is two million oars.」

「Understood, that’ll be my deposit. I’ll definitely pay the rest. Till then, give hospitable treatment to this child.」

「I’ll take this deposit if you don’t pay the rest within twenty days. Are you okay with that?」

「No problem.」

Whatever happened, we had no intention of staying in this city for a long time. It’d be my loss if I couldn’t buy the beastman girl during our stay in this city.

「It’s a deal then. Oka~y, now let’s go. Give this child food and clothes! And treat her as our guest!」

「Yes!」

The men in black clothes moved at once and politely treated the beast girl as if she were a noble daughter.

The girl looked back at us many times, and her figure soon vanished into the tent.

「What’s the meaning of this?」

Faf let out a growl and Fen bared his fangs as soon as they saw Anna grab me by my collar.

Asta, on the other hand, just heaved a deep, tired sigh. Well, she might’ve wanted to tell me that I had stepped into another extremely troublesome matter.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t bring myself to get angry at Asta’s dumbfounded reaction.

「You seem to have yet to realize it. Don’t you understand that I bought that child from those people?」

「BOUGHT!? You dare to buy people with money?」

「I do. That’s the quickest and simplest solution after all.」

「YOU, a proud royal knight, actually allowed human trading right before your eyes!!」

Although Anna seemed like a noble daughter, it seems the way she treated the beast was different from the other nobles. Yet, she still called me apostate from time to time. The fact that she spoke ill of me yet came forward to protect that beast girl seemed to be contradictory actions. I wondered which one was her true self, but I had no leeway to investigate that just from her speech alone in this public place.

「It’s allowed. To be exact, the Amelia kingdom’s government allows the slave trade. That’s why there’s no problem with me buying a slave.」

「His majesty the king never allowed slave trade! It’s just not completely banned!」

「Fool, that’s the same as calling it ‘Legal!’ And since it’s legal, we’d be investigated if we had taken that child by force. In the end, your actions will only endanger Rose’s position. Understand now?」

「That’s… troublesome indeed…」

Even though she could only grit her teeth in frustration when she realized the implication of her action, Anna quietly muttered that.

「That’s why the only way, which is the fastest and easiest way, to protect that child is using this kingdom’s rules, namely buying her. Understand now?」

「…」

After I said so, Anna finally withdrew, albeit reluctantly, and let go of my collar.

「Since that’s the case, we have to immediately go back to the inn we’re staying at and think of the fastest method to raise funds.」

「Understood.」

Maybe she still had a hard time accepting this fact, but Anna quickly walked in silence.

「It’s time to go back.」

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I patted Fen, who was still growling at Anna from the top of Faf’s head. Then, I urged both Faf and Asta to go back to our inn.