If I Want to Live, I Have No Choice
"Don't you think it's strange?"
Inside the quiet carriage bound for Greenhill, I was the one who ended up speaking first.
"I know exactly what you're thinking."
"......"
"Freeing slaves you paid good money for is strange enough, but pairing them off with men and marrying them besides? To anyone watching, it would look terribly suspicious."
"......"
"For those women, marriage was the only real option. If I'd simply cut them loose on the spot, they'd have ended up as wolf feed, or snatched by bandits and made into playthings. And if not that..."
She wasn't listening to a word I said.
The half-elf's gaze stayed fixed past the carriage window, on the dark trees sliding by in the black forest.
But she was only pretending not to understand. Of that, I was certain.
Talking to myself this whole time was getting on my nerves.
"You think you'd be any different?"
"....."
"Say I dropped you off right here. What would you do? Walk all the way back to that defeated nation, ah..."
Come to think of it, did this girl even know where she was?
I had no idea how she'd come to be living in that country in the first place.
"This country is called Helion. A kingdom. The country you came from is the Republic of Abella. They went to war with us and lost. That's how you ended up here—captured from that country. Are you one of their people?"
The moment I brought up nations, the half-elf finally looked at me.
As I thought—she hadn't known.
"Figures. You must have just had the rotten luck of getting caught and dragged here."
"Ah."
"My name is Luciel. Luciel Gathergold. And yours?"
"...Erina."
"Nice—Erina. Family name? Do elves have those, like humans?"
"Seraphina."
"Erina Seraphina. Good. A pleasure to meet you, Erina."
The half-elf had finally opened her mouth.
Her pronunciation was flawless human speech.
Her name was entirely human as well, which told me she'd probably never lived among elves at all, but grown up blended into human society.
"Right now we're headed for Greenhill, the village where I live. For the time being you'll stay there, and—"
"Are you going to marry me?"
"...Um... no. Um. I don't know about that. Um... no."
We'd barely finished introductions and she was already dropping into casual speech?
Granted, I'd started with casual speech myself. But I'd paid money for her—honorifics felt a little absurd on my end.
As for age—half or not, an elf was an elf, so she might well be older than me.
And asking point-blank whether I was going to marry her—talk about abrupt.
Then again, I had just suddenly urged a roomful of slave women to marry those men, so I was hardly in any position to complain.
"Then will you keep me as a slave?"
"No."
She talked more than I'd expected. Clear pronunciation, too.
"Then what are you going to do with me?"
"Well. That's something I'll have to start thinking about now."
She'd left the other women behind and come along with me, so naturally she must have assumed she'd either marry me or become my slave.
The truth was, I'd never once thought about what to do with this half-elf.
My plan, from start to finish, had been to buy up as many slaves as I could and set them free.
Truly, I wanted to save them for the purest of reasons.
You might wonder what a merchant who worshipped nothing but coin was doing with romantic notions.
You don't have to believe me.
But looking at them reminded me of my old self—the me who had been abruptly dropped into this world three years ago.
I remembered how I'd arrived without even that clichéd status window, without any special ability, without so much as a set of starter equipment.
That was why I couldn't help wanting to help them however I could.
"Then let me off here."
"....."
Erina must have noticed I hadn't made any decision about her fate, because that was what she said.
Why so extreme?
"I can't do that. It's far too dangerous."
"Then marriage?"
"No,"
"Then slavery?"
"No-oo."
"Then let me off."
"Ugh, for crying out loud."
Treat her well for five minutes and she gets bold fast. For what it's worth, on paper I'm your owner, you know.
"We've cleared the forest."
The coachman said it carefully, turning around in his seat to face us.
I opened the window and looked out. Far in the distance, the houses of Greenhill were faintly visible.
"Everyone off. From here we ride."
I settled up with the coachman and the two bodyguards for the remainder of their fee.
They'd come farther than the first group I'd dismissed, so I added a few extra silver coins to their pay.
"Good work, all of you."
"But will you truly be all right?"
The bodyguard dismounted from what had originally been my horse and handed me the reins as he asked.
"I'll manage."
"If you wish, we can escort you as far as the village entrance."
"It's a thirty-minute ride. I'm fine."
He said it as though doing me a kindness, but there is no such thing as free in this business.
Like a taxi—even a little extra escort meant another copper or two on the meter.
The coachman's expression suggested he had something to say as well, but I shook my head.
"...Then please take care, my lord. I'll stop by your general store myself one of these days."
"Much obliged."
The coachman said this while sneaking glances at the LED flashlight in my hand—apparently it had caught his eye.
That guy really might drop by the store someday. If he does, I'm selling him a flashlight at a premium.
Batteries sold separately, of course.
"Nodo, let's head home."
I mounted my beloved steed, Galewind Nodo.
Nodo was a mare with a soft, light-brown mane.
She was well-bred stock from fine bloodlines, but she was getting on in years and not particularly fast. What she had in abundance was patience—and above all, she could carry a heavy load.
I held out my hand to Erina, who stood there blankly.
"Not riding?"
"You said to get off, so I'm leaving."
"Where to?"
"Home."
"Seriously?"
I asked again, pointing at the pitch-dark forest road, without a single point of light.
But sure enough—now that she'd actually dismounted, the once-firm half-elf hesitated, suddenly afraid.
One thing I knew for certain: I refused to treat this woman with force.
I'd felt that way from the first moment I saw her in the auction house.
"All right, then let's do this."
I made my proposal.
"You'll live in my village for about a week first. Once you've learned your way around the place a little, staying or leaving will be entirely up to you."
......
No answer came.
Instead of one, though, Erina took my outstretched hand and climbed up onto the horse behind me.
"Hold on tight. You could fall."
And so we set off toward the village once more.
This day had felt impossibly long.
Now it was just the two of us, but I wasn't particularly worried.
Even in the dark, the road was a single path, and the lights of Greenhill glimmered in the distance—no danger of getting lost.
I'd traveled by night plenty of times before, and the worst it ever got was a wolf or two slipping past in the woods. Nothing had ever happened this close to the village outskirts.
Hmm...
That is, until the bastards I was about to meet showed up.
"Halt!"
Ne-e-e-eigh!
Two men hidden in the brush on either side of the road burst out at the same instant, sword and axe in hand.
The moment I tried to wheel the horse around, two more sprang out behind us.
Bandits.
My horse Nodo reared up on her hind legs, and if Erina hadn't thrown her arms around me in that instant, I would certainly have been thrown.
"Get down!"
"Damn it."
A quick lesson in otherworld common sense.
You run into bandits while mounted—and those bandits are on foot?
Obviously, the smart move is to stay on the horse. (Come to think of it, it's exactly the same back in my old world...)
At night, the play is to snuff your torch (flashlight, in my case), then spur the horse to its top speed through the lightless dark and shake them off.
After that, ride into the village and call for the town guards.
If I'd been alone, that's exactly what I would have done.
But with Erina riding behind me, it wasn't an option.
A horse carrying two grown adults is slow. The bandits would run us down long before we reached the guards at the village entrance.
And decisively: one of the two behind us had a bow trained on us.
With an archer—a ranged attacker—in the mix, the whole equation changed.
Bolt blindly, and whether the arrow found the horse, me, or Erina, someone was guaranteed to take the hit.
I'd let my guard down.
I'd assumed the village outskirts would naturally be safe.
But I had prepared one safeguard for exactly this kind of situation.
"Off the horse! Are you deaf?"
Fine. Do as he says, for now.
"Getting off."
I raised both hands to show I had no intention of resisting, then dismounted first.
"The slave girl too."
The one who appeared to be the leader had said it plainly—slave—aimed at Erina.
Among bandits, the man with the best gear is usually the boss.
Right now Erina wore the silk cloak I'd draped over her—no shackles on her limbs, her slave brand hidden from view.
And yet he'd said it anyway. Which meant he knew I was a slave trader, and that Erina was the slave I'd bought.
In other words: a premeditated crime, scouted out in advance!
Fear washed over Erina's face again.
I reassured her first.
"It's all right. Nothing's going to happen."
"Right—nothing's going to happen. The man dies, and you, slave girl, we're definitely keeping alive."
The leader snickered, twisting my words back at me.
I reached for the cowhide satchel hanging from the back of Nodo's saddle.
Inside were the receipts and ledgers from my slave purchases, along with a few odds and ends.
No gold coins, but there were a few coppers I'd set aside as emergency money. Played right, it might serve as some kind of bargaining chip.
But it was a vain hope.
These men had no reason whatsoever to negotiate with a fish already on the hook.
"Don't bother. Just hand over the horse."
One of the underlings seized Nodo's reins and led her off behind them.
Then the bandit leader's blade swung around—from the horse to Erina.
"At least let the woman go. Money's what you're after, isn't it?"
At that, the bandits burst out laughing.
"Are you insane? We waited hours for this bitch."
"He paid a fortune for her. Six gold coins, I heard."
These bastards? They even knew that?
"Did you follow us from the auction house?"
"No. We heard."
"From who?"
"You're awfully curious for a dead man. What, want our home address too?"
At the leader's words, all his men snickered.
Men in this line of work always laugh like villains—sneering, mean.
They're all the same. Do they attend some 'Villain Academy' or something?
But who was it?
Someone who learned right away that I'd bought an elf for a small fortune.
And passed that information to these bandits.
There was someone behind these men.
"Wait here a moment. I'll be right back."
"......"
Erina looked at me with doubtful eyes.
The leader shone his torch on Erina's face, and his own lit up.
"Ooh! So this is that elf thing?"
"Boss, let me see too."
"Pretty?"
"Pretty. Gorgeous."
"Big tits?"
"Haven't unwrapped her yet."
"What about the ass? Strip her, quick!"
"Me too, I wanna see!"
"You idiots! What if you all crowd over here, huh? What do you think he might do?"
Was this a comedy sketch?
One of them says "pretty" and they all stampede over like a pack of dogs.
Riiip.
The front buttons of the silk cloak draped over Erina tore free and scattered.
If they wanted to see a woman's body, they could just unbutton the damn thing and take it off—why tear perfectly good clothes?!
Those buttons were expensive too! Repairs would cost me ten coppers!
"Oooohhh!"
"Whoa. Incredible."
"A six-gold elf, for real."
"Are elves' tits always this big?"
"Dunno. First elf I've ever seen."
"Those thighs... wow, those hips! That ass!"
"Hey! Someone's supposed to be watching that guy!?"
"Ah, that can wait. He's got no weapons anyway."
"Hold the torch properly! I can't see!"
Not one of them spared me a glance now. They were all fixated on Erina's bared body.
Fair enough, really. From where they stood, I was unarmed, my horse confiscated—a fish already caught.
Above all, that was simply how merchants were seen here.
The merchant, by nature, was treated as a weak, sly mongrel who fiddled with coins and had never swung a real sword in his life. A stray dog roaming the neighborhood would have been more of a threat to them than me—at least it might bite when angry.
Click.
Amid the commotion, I quietly thumbed off the safety on that thing in my inner pocket.
The metallic click was crisp enough for everyone to hear—but those men wouldn't have noticed even a louder sound.
Good. Now I was ready.
I asked my question.
I knew it was pointless. Even so, I wanted to give them one last chance at a peaceful resolution.
"Done? Can I go now?"
"Go?"
"You got everything you wanted. Seems to me I'm free to leave."
"Why should we leave you alive?"
"....."
The leader spoke without tearing his eyes from the valley between Erina's two huge breasts. Then, at some point, his gaze turned cold as it swung to me.
"Let you live, and you'll walk straight into the village and straight to the guards for help. They'll tear the whole forest apart looking for us. Not that we'll still be here by then."
"Then what's the problem? Nobody's been hurt."
"What if we kill you right here? Bury you deep in the forest, properly, and no one will ever find your corpse. It'll be a long, long while before anyone even knows you're missing."
Figures.
This world has a habit of springing exactly this kind of thing on you the moment you start to feel at home.
Still, lasting three years here on nothing but nerve, fighting to stay alive—that was something.
"What a shame. Then what about my shop... If I die, what happens to the ten gold coins in the safe inside?"
At ten gold coins, the underlings turned their heads toward me one by one—but the leader, sure enough, knew it was a lie.
"Even if you had a hundred gold hidden away in Greenhill, I wouldn't care. This six-gold slave bitch is more than enough. We take her from city to city, put her out for men, and we'll earn back her six-gold price and then some in under three months."
At the word cum-dump, Erina shuddered and clutched her chest to herself, trembling as if gooseflesh had broken out over her skin.
Cold, practical arithmetic. Forget banditry—why not come do honest business like me.
"Hey, since we're on the subject—go bury that bastard."
"Me?"
The leader had picked the archer to deal with me. The archer made no effort to hide his irritation at being saddled with the chore alone.
"You three gonna start on the elf slave while I'm gone?"
"Not here. And there's an order to things, isn't there? The elf's cunt goes to the boss first."
"Tch..."
The archer scratched his head a few times, then picked up the shovel lashed to the horse.
He tossed it to me, bow trained on my chest, and said:
"Shall we go pick out your burial spot, then?"
And so the archer and I, just the two of us, left the road and walked deep into the woods for about five minutes.
By then, off the path, a small clearing had opened up among the dense trees. This felt like the place.
"Dig."
The archer pointed his chin at the ground, wanting it over with quickly.
For now, I dug as I was told. Whether because it had been so long since I'd exerted myself, or because the falling temperature had hardened the earth, the ground refused to give.
But I had to dig it properly.
After all—I was going to bury that bastard in it.
"Hold on a moment, Mr. Archer."
"What."
When I finally stopped digging, he looked down at me.
"Seems deep enough to me."
"Keep digging. Not even close."
"My arms are killing me. Think you could take over from here?"
"What did you say, you little shit?!"
Shing.
Apparently tired of keeping his bowstring drawn, the archer pulled a dagger from his belt.
Then he waved it this way and that, making sure the cold-blue blade gleamed even in the dark.
"Can't you see what this is? A knife. A knife. Wanna die? Like this, and this—shuk, shuk, shuk! A few stabs and you're dead. Still not getting the situation?"
He came right up to my face, shoving the knife at me, snarling his threats.
At this range, it was certain. I could kill him for certain.
I know. I didn't want to complicate things.
I'd rather not see blood—but there was no other way now.
If I wanted to live, I had to kill.
BANG!
In that instant I pulled the trigger, and a gunshot that felt like it would split my eardrums shook the sky.
Startled birds burst from the forest all at once and blanketed the heavens.
Thud.
The archer collapsed where he stood.
"This is called a gun. It kills a man in a single shot."