Testing My Luck in the New World

                “I must offer my apologies again, sir,” Alphonse sighed and pushed his hair back. “What a terrible first impression our establishment must have made for you.”

                “What was that all about? Who was that girl?”

                I asked while he poured us some of the tea the maid that came in with him brought with her. Apparently, because he decided to pour it himself, the maid bowed and left the room since she apparently had no more use in being there with us. She hadn’t said a word the whole time and, if I weren’t mistaken, looked happy to be allowed to leave.

I accepted the cup he offered me happily, only just now realizing I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink at all since I woke up in this world. It tasted of unsweetened black tea, but my once spoiled tongue didn’t mind the bitterness at all.

                Alphonse straightened his back and took a sip himself before looking me in the eye.

                “That girl is one of ours. She’s passed all of our education requirements to become a proper slave, but we just can’t seem to educate that pesky ferociousness out of her. Really, it’s quite sad.”

                So, she was a slave? Then her violence must have been somehow related to that. Probably just her trying to break free from her bindings.

                That must also be why Alphonse was able to stay in that room during her brutal rampage and come out entirely uninjured. High level or not, if she was a slave in this establishment, he had to have been her master. She had to have known on some level that hurting him specifically would only cause her pain.

                However, the slave spell apparently didn’t take into consideration the destruction of property or the maiming of his thugs. I felt a modicum of sympathy as the thugs she brutalized were hauled away for treatment, but not anymore. Not after knowing this. Though my presence here didn’t make me any better than them, I guess.

                “Sad how?” I asked.

                “Well, to put it simply, the prices of slaves are based not only on their physical strength, but their gender, their age as well as their looks and the overall condition of their body. Primarily, when Adventurers come looking to buy, they focus more on strength and looks and I’m sure someone such as yourself must have noticed already, but she is well equipped in both those fields.”

                “Yea,” I agreed, nodding along with his flattery. “But what’s that got to do with…”

                “Because she’s proven not to be worth our investment in her,” he interrupted, his brow furrowing as the strong grip on his tea cup caused it to squeal against the saucer he held it against. “We bought her, educated her, trained her and despite all of this, because of her attitude, she is unsellable. She could have been worth a large some of gold, but she starts a fight every time a new buyer comes to our establishment. A beast-kin’s ears are no joke, you see? As soon as she realizes someone with a penchant for her kind showed up to buy, she causes problems.”

                My cheeks steamed at the reminder of having been caught out as an animal-eared cutie enthusiast, but I could see why that would upset him. If their prices really ranged as far as he suggested earlier, then she was becoming quite the substantial loss for them.

However, I cared not for his business. Regardless of legality, and my hypocritical feelings for this trade, it dawned on me that this might actually be good news for me. This was his mess, but as he fumed over his tea, I thought of a way we could both benefit from me cleaning it up.

                “Wait,” I said, setting my tea cup down. “I thought you said slaves couldn’t hurt their masters. Then how does she keep causing all these problems?”

                To keep the conversation flowing in as natural a direction as possible, I asked a question I had already figured out for myself.

                “They can’t hurt their masters,” he answered. “Guards hired by her current master, myself, are not affected by the slavery spell as I do not make money from them directly. However, if I were to step in while she’s on a rampage, then I might end up risking her life if she accidentally hurts me.”

                I gulped.

                “So, a slave will be punished for accidentally hurting their master as well?”

                He mentioned as much in terms of accidentally killing their master, but this made some sense as well and it explained away his earlier inaction.

                “That is correct. However, it depends on the severity of the injury afflicted. If it were something as insignificant as, say, accidentally pricking their master with a sewing needle as they patched up a tear in their trousers, then all that happens is that they get a headache. Aside from that, it is more or less up to the master to decide whether they deserve further punishment. If the injury inflicted is severe enough to need a healer or a potion, or if the master happens to be of a particularly ill-tempered sort, then the slave is treated as though they meant to do it and the spell punishes them accordingly.”

                He looked into his cup and sighed deeply. It was a sight of weakness I had not seen from him yet, so I was on guard for more of his clever merchant tricks to sneak more information out of me. I took another drink myself to cover up the sour taste growing in my mouth for where I was wanting this conversation to go, before asking for more information myself.

                “I can understand that much. But because she won’t sell and keeps causing fights to break out, what’s going to happen to her?”

                Alphonse nodded as if he expected the question. It seemed natural, given how I have already shown him I know little to nothing of slavery in this world. So, that seemed like the next logical question. And he answered with what must have seemed like a logical answer to him.

                “To be honest. She’ll have to be put down.”

                “What?!”

                Outraged at the thought alone, it angered me even more than his choice of words rendering her being to sound like nothing more important than some street cat being taken to a vet to be put down to end its suffering. To end his suffering.

                “I’m sorry if the idea of her death bothers you, sir, but I’ve made an investment on her. So far, she has done nothing but burn away my coin with her intolerable attitude.”

                No. No way. No damn way. There was no way I could let her die here. I knew nothing about her or her true personality. I didn’t even manage to get her name after staring at her for so long. But something deep down told me I’d regret it for the rest of my life if I let hers end here.

                It could be lamenting the loss of life, any life. Could be the failure as me, a man, to protect that girl. Maybe it would just be me regretting losing that chance, small as it may be, that I could have something with her. Regardless, it was unacceptable. I had to put my foot down and change his mind anyway I could.

                My mind was a flurry of possible ways to do this, but the one I settled on made bile rise up my throat before I pushed it back down with another, generous glug of tea. If I was expecting composure from myself here, that pretty much ended the thought.

                “Th-Then… Then sell her to me. Sell her to me for 100… No, 99 gold.”

                I demanded and he looked genuinely taken aback by both the demand and the hopefully stern tone I delivered it with. I had to hope my knocking the price down seconds after putting it up didn’t make him laugh at me.

                Why did I go and ask to make change with the innkeeper again? The way she reacted to it didn’t exactly leave a good taste in my mouth either. I could have had that one extra gold to barter with.

                Alphonse had been mid-sip himself when I said this and, expertly, paused for a second, letting his cup hide the contours of his lips, as he pondered this over. When he came to some silent conclusion, he set the cup down on the table. The resounding noise it made sounded much like a judge banging his gavel upon dismissing a case that lacked standing.

                “Sir, surely you jest,” he said, his brow arched wildly above his cold, black eyes. “You were asking not long ago about the cheapest slaves we had. My apologies for saying so, but I doubt you can afford her.”

                This was my chance to turn his little merchant game on him. I don’t know if my Merchant class might suddenly kick in and help me, but I wouldn’t doubt it at this point after how the Swordsman class seemed to help out against the wolves. In the heat of the moment, I came upon the realization that I seemed to understand just a bit more of how money worked in general ever since I claimed this class. And I needed it now more than ever.

                “N-Normally, no, I wouldn’t be able to. However, you said yourself that she’s losing you money on the investment made on her, right?”

                “Well, yes, but…”

                “To top it off, not only has she been unsellable so far, but I assume you must be paying your guards extra every time she roughs them up to keep them happy and, more importantly, to keep them quiet to protect the name of your business. Correct? That’s even more coin gone every time you meet a prospective customer. Not to mention the sour taste this place must leave in their mouth after the fact.”

                A strand from Alphonse’s slicked back hair fell over his forehead. He rolled his jaw, mulling over what I said, but I knew he must have already long since considered all of this.

                Because his men were not slaves themselves, that means he pays their wages. So, in order for his men to keep quiet about their injuries and to keep them coming back to work, he would have to appease them by paying not only for their recovery potions or a trip to whatever kind of healer or doctor might exist in this world, but he would have to pay them hush money to keep them from spreading word about the violent slaves he was trying to sell. And they certainly seemed like the lot that would do such a thing to swindle more money out of him.

Then add in the fact that he likely covers the cost of any weapons and armors damaged in the attack and that if he didn’t, his staff would abandon him for leaving them ill-equipped to handle the more violent slaves or thieves they were likely hired to deal with.

I felt a little smirk start across my lips and suppressed it immediately. I was on a roll and I couldn’t let this chance slip away by letting him notice what I was doing.

                “Sell her to me for 99 gold pieces,” I said. “Not only will you make a bit of your money back tonight, but I will take her out of your hair so you don’t have to deal with her anymore. You get paid and get rid of a troublemaker and your men get to feel relieved they won’t have to fight her anymore.”

                “But, sir! You wouldn’t be able to control her any more than I could!”

                “That’s my problem. As long as I have the slave contract binding her to me, I don’t have to worry about her causing me any harm, right? You’d lose everything you’ve spent on her so far by just killing her. This way, you can at least claim some profit from her.”

                “Erk!”

                He grunted and squeezed the handle of his tea cup a bit too much. A crack appeared in its once smooth surface.

                Since my confidence boosting skill didn’t work against him earlier, I had no idea where all this was coming from. Maybe with the Merchant class being related to trade and because we were talking business, it kicked in to help me out. But it didn’t make sense for it to only kick in now and not earlier when he was casually belittling the size of my wallet. I feel like that should have been something worthy of riling up my inner Merchant.

Confused, but amped, I tried to hide a trembling lip behind my tea cup, though its contents had long since gone dry.

                Even if I won her contract, the cost of it alone would almost ruin me. I couldn’t forget that. He gave me options on potential employment in this city, but that didn’t mean I had a job just yet. This was going to be a risk for both of us.

                Alphonse seemed to think over everything I just said while staring at me, surely searching for a chink in my nearly non-existent armor. When he lifted his head and slicked his hair back, I feared he may have found one.

                “Sir. What you are asking for is absurd. Not only would it simply be cheaper to have her killed, selling her to you could come back to haunt me if she causes trouble within the city. As I was the one who sold her to you, there would be no end to the inquiries into the quality of my slaves.”

                “That won’t be a problem.”

                “Sir… How can you possibly know that?”

                While he still seemed to have no idea what my level was, if he himself as a level 50 Slave Merchant couldn’t handle a slave, then how could a low-level Adventurer new to the ways of the country possibly hope to do so?

                “It’s simple,” I said. “You saw what happened in there. Regardless of the reason why, she calmed down the moment she saw me. With that, I believe that I can get through to her.”

                He scratched his chin in a way that hid his mouth while looking me over.

                Even I couldn’t explain why she calmed down at the sight of me or why I was so drawn to her, aside from her obvious beauty, but if there was a reason for it, all I had to do was learn it and use it.

                I couldn’t let this chance slide the way I squandered my life by willingly forfeiting my ability to use my intelligence for any sort of benefit. What I knew now didn’t matter in the long run. It was how I used what I knew. I didn’t use it back then, but now I could. Now I will. And I could turn this around for all of us and make everyone happy, including her.

                “Sir, if what you say is true… then perhaps you do have what it takes to reign in that wild woman. But…”

                “But?”

                “But I cannot just part with her for only 99 gold. As a Merchant, I’d be a fool for accepting a trade as unbalanced as trading a piece of gold for a single copper.”

                His powerful greed as a Merchant that demanded he do whatever he could to get as much as he could out of every transaction kept him too level-headed to get the jump on him when bargaining for something, someone, worth so much to the both of us.

                I was about to protest his decision by repeating the grave losses he already incurred, but he continued on his own.

                “Instead, if you wish, sir, I will allow you to place a downpayment on her with your 99 gold. While I am willing to offer her at only half her expected value of 50,000 gold pieces, I will allow you to take her with you while you both work to pay off this de… loan. How does that sound?”

                Geez. That deal would put me in a 24,901 gold-deep hole. And on my first day in this world to boot. My Merchant ability wasn’t giving me any ideas on how to lower the price by even a single percent. Nor was it telling me to run away from his offer. So, I was on my own.

                All it took was the mental image of that girl, her pointed ears aiming themselves right at me as Alphonse stuffed her neck through the hole on the business end of a guillotine to get me to make up my mind. He was right. There was no reasonable way I should have been able to buy her. To save her. So, this was my only chance.

                I guess I won’t be buying a house anytime soon.

                “Deal,” I said, offering my hand before he could rescind his offer.

                He took it with a satisfied smile. Looking particularly exhausted, he stood up and stretched. After what happened, I figured he was worried he wasn’t going to be able to sell anything to me today. I imagined that selling slaves was vaguely similar to selling cars in that you were selling one large item worth a lot of money. Not everyone could afford your prices, so any time you spent trying to talk them into it, only to fail in the end, was both time and money wasted.

                “I will bring her right out so that you may look her over. If she is not to your liking, you may still cancel the deal up to any point before you’ve put up the gold for the downpayment. One moment, please.”

                He left me alone in the room. Sweating, I thought to sneak a little more tea from the pot he left behind, but the sour taste in my mouth wasn’t going to be quenched.

                I agreed to buy a person. A slave. My goal for coming here was just as half-assed as anything else I’d done in life. Maybe, subconsciously, I was only doing this to have another excuse to be lazy. Having someone else around to handle all the things I didn’t want to do could easily wind up being just as an excuse to revert to how I was back on Earth, as any sort of pleasure I’d get from being with her.

                There was still time to back out, but if I was going through with this, I had to make sure I didn’t let that happen. And if not going through with this meant her death, then I had to do it.

Alphonse came back several minutes later with the chestnut-haired cat-girl walking in behind him. She carried only a single suitcase. While she didn’t look too pleased, as noted by the distinct droop in her ears just as much as the depressing turn to her lips, she still followed behind him without any guards holding her down. Maybe because her last outburst ended up with her being forced to sleep, the fight in her was gone.

If what he said about her was true and that those outbursts were just to make herself look as unruly as possible so that she wouldn’t be bought, then the sadness I felt in her must have been due to her failure to accomplish that goal. Or, maybe she managed to hear his threat to kill her and reluctantly decided this was the better option.

Ending up next to a man like me being the better option. It was as almost laughable thought.

                I stood and Alphonse gestured to her once the door closed and introduced us.

                “This here is Yua. Yua, this young man here as decided to purchase you. Please greet your new master.”

                Probably biting back numerous complaints as her teeth dug into her lip, she faced me directly, her all too alluring face beautiful even when clearly despondent. She bowed to me.

                “… Master, I am Yua of the northern cat-kin tribe. It will… it will be my pleasure to serve you.”

                “H-Hello,” I said, admittedly meekly. That confidence I had when trying to win her contract seemed to have gone home without me. “It’s nice to meet you. I hope we can get along.”

                I don’t know if I was expecting a smile, even a forced one, but I wasn’t too surprised when all she did was grimace at her feet. I still had no idea what made her calm down when she saw me earlier, but the effect seemed to have worn off already.

                Perhaps sensing this, Alphonse stepped in between us.

                “Sir, would you please review her contract one final time before making your decision?”

                “Sure…”

                He nodded respectfully and instead of pulling out a sheet of paper, he held out his hand. Yua placed her hand on top of his without needing to be asked and continued to stare at her feet. Alphonse turned to me.

                “Put your hand on top of hers so that you may review her.”

                I nodded, more embarrassed than I care to admit to touch such a beautiful woman’s hand with or without her permission. However, I powered through and did as he asked.

                Judging by how hard she fought and how strong she clearly was, I found it entirely surprising how smooth and soft her hand was against mine. It wouldn’t be too far off to have expected that her hands would be rough, calloused and covered with scars from all the training she must have had to gain the amount of strength she used to throw around the thugs the way she did. But the back of her hand was as smooth as if she never received so much as a scratch on it and used the best lotion the world could offer each and every day to keep them pristine.

                A second or two after my hand touched hers, a window not too dissimilar to my menu appeared in between us. It displayed a side-by-side comparison of both of our names, stats, classes, abilities as well as several other little details. Neither Alphonse nor Yua made any indication that they noticed how mine read, so I guessed only I could see it.

                It was easy to assume that this was just part of the magic binding her to her prospective master. Assuming most things that couldn’t be explained by natural causes in this world as being the work of magic was probably a safe bet to an extent. But this way, I could see who she was and what she was capable of without having to ask.

                Feeling as though looking at the information that should have been hers alone to know, I moved through the menu, thinking that this was as good an opportunity to learn as much about her as I could.

                The first thing that I noticed was that she was indeed labeled as a cat-kin like I thought and like how she called herself. Though it said nothing of this northern tribe. Next was that she was eighteen years old, just like my new body, and that she was only level 3. While it was slightly concerning that she had a higher level than me, I made sure not to mention it since they didn’t seem to realize this. I moved on.

                Her classes she had to offer were Beast-Warrior and Monk. I was familiar with both straight away thanks to the games I played in the past, but seeing them did make me question why both her and Alphonse and everyone else I’d met so far had only two classes, when I had four so far.

I nodded to myself, deciding that with her strength and her classes, she really would be a great help in tackling the dungeons if I chose to go that route. Then I switched to the next tab.

                Her abilities were displayed here. Like myself, she didn’t have much to offer because her level was so low. She only had the abilities “Rend” and “Iron Fist.” I figured that Rend was some sort of slashing ability available only to the Beast-Warrior class, but when I looked back to the hand under mine, I saw that her nails were no longer than any other girl’s. Did she need some sort of weapon to use it? Hopefully said weapon wasn’t her teeth.

                The Iron Fist ability on the other hand, was familiar to me. I didn’t yet know fully what it did, but I remembered her using it on the thugs earlier. It seemed to either be a basic power attack or a general attack-raising ability. My guess was the former. Meaning that she had two attacking abilities that would be very helpful and versatile. Meanwhile, I could only chuck Fire Balls at our enemies and flail around with my sword.

                The last tab looked to be all about her health and other general information about her. Here it listed her age, hair and eye colors, all of which were already obvious to me at a glance, but below it was another empty section labeled “Illnesses.” So, at least she was physically healthy, which was more than I could have hoped for for a slave. We’d have to work on her broken heart later.

Then below that it listed some much, much more personal information that I was sure she might have wanted to keep secret.

                Enticed by the lure of secret, forbidden knowledge, I continued reading her health page while holding her hand and when my eyes reached the bottom, they bulged. There it read something no man other than her betrothed should have known about her.

                “S-She’s a virgin?!”

                Yua’s face instantly turned bright pink and her right ear started to twitch. She bit her lip hard and glared, looking like she wanted to smack the consciousness out of me just for saying that out loud. Luckily, her contract hadn’t been transferred to me yet, so she wouldn’t be hurt because of my mistake if she did this. Unless, maybe if it counted as ruining a trade for her current master.

                But still, how had a girl this beautiful not found a man yet? Was it because of her personality? Not likely. Her circumstances as a slave were likely the cause for her attitude. But before all of this slavery business, there had to have been no end to the men that made passes at her before. Seeing her now, I refused to believe otherwise.

                She may hate me for pointing this out, but I couldn’t deny this surprising information about her made me a little happy.

                Nodding as though understanding my outburst completely, Alphonse said, “Most of our female slaves are virgins. Most buyers don’t want someone that’s already been sullied. Does this please you, sir?”

                I hated to say it because of the context of the situation, but I believed him without any sort of need for him to prove it. My guess was that this place, any slave house really, typically sold men for fighting and hard labor and sold women to tend to housework, including the sorts of work needed in the bedroom.

                A bit apprehensive of how Yua might react if I actually affirmed his question, I just nodded. Her head lowered more, completely hiding her face as a slight tremble took to her shoulders. I’ll have to make that embarrassing outburst up to her later.

                After I let Alphonse know that I was done reviewing her personal information, he nodded and snapped the fingers of his free hand. Not even a second later, one of the maids from earlier came in and set out a small, very shiny silver tray on the coffee table. I had been here in this city long enough to know what that was meant for, even if I didn’t know why all the Merchants seemed to insist on using these trays. So, I reached into my pouch to access my item box discreetly and pulled out the sack of gold coins I hadn’t even seen yet and line them up in stacks of ten for him.

                It was awkward to try and do this with only one hand, but Alphonse didn’t complain. He was probably used to it.

                When I finished, he held his hand over the tray and incanted, “Appraise Item.” Apparently, I wasn’t the only one to figure out that skill could be used to count coin.

                One last time, Alphonse nodded and turned to Yua again. She looked to him apprehensively, almost looking like she might rather risk running away instead of accept this trade, which she probably would if she could. But she didn’t try to run. Maybe it was some sense of pride in the face of danger that caused her to draw a breath and hide her emotions, but she managed to calm herself as much as could be understandably possible in this situation. 

The same window opened up between us again, this time with a prompt asking if I accept the trade. So, I hit Yes and looked to Alphonse. He put his other hand on top of mine.

                “I, Alphonse De Grave, hereby relinquish the contract of Yua to Sir Alex… on the condition that the remainder of her worth be paid in full within three days.”

                “Wait, what? I only have three days to earn almost 25,000 gold?!”

                [Yua has become your slave]

                Before my question could be answered, a light shone between our hands and the window with Yua’s private information faded from existence. I guessed that that was supposed to be my only chance to read it, but another notification popped up and my menu opened straight to my stats page. From there, I saw another tab appeared with her name and in it, all of her information.

                The light faded and I pushed the menu aside. Tearing my hand from theirs, I spun to face him.

                “What the hell is this three days business? I never agree to that amount of time!”

                Alphonse smirked, finally showing the true colors I expected of him, yet somehow still fell for. Now that the deal was done and laughed.

                “You’re not much of a Merchant, are you? You accepted the deal without first hashing out the fine details, but what’s done is done. You have three days to pay off her contract before it’s voided and ownership over her is returned to me. Have a good day.”

                Alphonse strolled out of the room with the tray of gold, laughing all the way.

                Yua didn’t say anything. Still looking red in the cheeks over my blurting out her personal information, she only glared at me. The apprehension in her emerald eyes was heartbreaking.

                I chased after Alphonse and grabbed his arm, nearly knocking the tray of coins from his hands.

                “Hold on! You can’t do this. How the hell am I supposed to make that much money that fast?!”

                He shook me off easily and smirked.

                “Like I said, sir, what’s done is done. For all intents and purposes, that girl belongs to you. For the time being, anyway. Until you fail to pay me back, that is.”

                “But… what if I can’t?”

                I asked the question again, stupidly hoping his answer would change. Alphonse just laughed in my face.

                “If you can’t pay it all off by the time the three days are over, then ownership of her will revert back to me and the remainder of the debt will still fall onto you. However, because of your failure, an interest of ten percent will be added onto it.”

                “Ten percent…”

                I nearly felt like bursting into tears at having already financially ruined myself. But I held back. Held back because I knew that would just make this black-hearted bastard happier.

                “What… What will happen to her if I can’t pay?”

                “Sir… I believe I already told you what I planned for her. What you should be more concerned about is what will happen to you when you fail. Ta-Ta, future slave.”

                With that as his final word, he left me there in the hallway, unable to say a word back at him. He didn’t even bother to show me the door or have one of his guards throw me out.

                The second I gave up on trying to change his mind, another notification popped up, as if his continued laughter was what finalized the sale.

                [Merchant class increased to level 2]

                I could almost laugh at the timing. Had it come a couple of minutes earlier, maybe I could have seen through his bullshit and…

To think, I went from being elated at the thought of just being with such a beautiful woman while thinking I was saving her life from meeting a brutal end, to having my soul shattered by the same type of greed and arrogance that ruled the lives of everyone in my old world. In every world. My world.

How the hell could I have had a full-on conversation about contracts and not stop to read for loop holes when presented with one?

He must have seen how I looked at her. I felt it myself. He knew I wanted her the moment he saw us together and he tricked me the same way I tried to trick him. Only, he was a much better trickster. He got me to completely forget about anything other than buying her.

I should have realized his offer to loan her to me was too good to be true. What the hell happened to me being so smart that everything just became needlessly easy? How could I be so stupid!

                “Master…” Yua appeared behind me as quietly as, well, a cat. “Perhaps it is best we leave.”

                While she spoke with a bit of a gruff attitude now, her cheeks were still red. Less so, but still clearly embarrassed. She no doubt had been prepared for what was expected of a female slave such as herself. Despite this, she bared the risk before her and leaned into whisper into my ear.

                “Master, I believe that if you wish to pay him back as fast as possible, it is best that we leave now so that we may prepare.”

                I guessed that her cat ears weren’t just for show and that she truly heard everything we talked about earlier and decided it was in both our best interests that I manage pay him back.

Seeing no other option, and with her now acting as my saving grace for pulling me out of my depressed stupor before it could totally consume me, I turned to her to say thanks, but she rejected me instantly by whipping her pretty face away the moment our eyes met.

Yea… I guess I deserve that. Slaves didn’t seem to need to be nice to their masters. Another aspect of this trade that I failed to consider.

Sorry your new master is a complete idiot, Yua. Hopefully we can still get along. Somehow.

With a sigh, I straightened my back and prepared what was left of my dignity and left De Grave Imports with her.