Chapter 116
Chapter 116
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: Official Slave Declaration
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A pitch-black sky.
The occasional hoot of an owl echoed through the darkness.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Crack, crackle!
One massive building in the forest suddenly twitched, then lifted straight up into the air.
Startled by the building's abrupt movement, sleeping birds scattered in flight, while those still awake inside screamed, "Aaaah!"
The building wobbled for a moment before vanishing without a trace.
[Your skill, [World Transfer], has leveled up!]
At the same time, a notification appeared in someone's status window.
* * *
Morning in a certain otherworld.
A single building stood alone in the vast plains.
Birds chirped cheerfully.
"Aaaah!"
Opening their eyes, they found themselves in an entirely different world.
A few slaves mustered their courage and stepped outside one by one, only to gape at the unfamiliar landscape and collapse to the ground in shock.
A bizarre new vista they'd never seen before. And hadn't the moon last night been pink?
Too scared to venture out the night before, they'd waited until morning—only to discover they'd been dropped in some strange place.
The Alttoid slaves gathered, buzzing in confusion as they discussed the situation.
"W-where are we?!"
"Wow... the scenery is insane..."
"That stream over there's got a weird color. Think it's poisonous?"
"More importantly, where'd all the overseers go?"
"Did we all die together and end up in heaven?"
Murmur, murmur.
Everyone looked around with bewildered expressions.
From afar, a girl with messy bedhead approached, yawning lazily as if she'd just woken up.
A pink slime perched impressively on her head.
The girl clapped her hands.
"Everyone, gather over here."
"Who are you?"
"If you're asking my name, it's Dun. Your new owner."
The mention of a new owner caused an uproar. A mere kid claiming ownership?
"Did you buy us?"
Taylor, the slave who'd wanted to punch Dun the day before, approached with a hollow laugh.
"Nope?"
"But how are you our owner, then?"
"Because I brought you here. And drop the casual tone. Know your place, slave."
Dun shot back curtly, legs spread wide.
"Hey, bringing us here doesn't automatically make us your slaves."
"The Alttoids picked you up and made you slaves, and that's fine? Why not me? You picky or what? I pulled you out of that training camp, so you're mine now."
Taylor, who'd been speaking patiently to Dun, was at a loss for words.
"We only became slaves because the Alttoid slave traders raided our village..."
Trying to argue against becoming this kid's slave, he ended up reaffirming his own slave status.
Realizing his slip mid-sentence, Taylor trailed off.
"Oh, so you're saying you won't be my slaves if I ask nicely? Should I just sell you off?"
"That's not it—this could land you in legal trouble with Count Alttoid later."
"Here, my word is the law."
Dun shrugged arrogantly.
"As the owner of this place, I declare: you are slaves."
Dun summoned the Graykas she'd prepared.
Transparent tanks on magical wheels—allowing the sea monsters to move on land—rolled up beside her.
"Graykas, crank the sound amplification magic to max."
[Understood!]
The Graykas replied energetically and cast the amplification spell.
"What I say now is law."
Is law—
Is law—
Is law—
A booming voice enveloped the area.
[Woooah!]
[Speak, Your Excellency!]
The monsters who'd heard Dun's voice cheered in response. Somewhere, record-keeping monsters probably grabbed their pens.
Dun pointed at the group and shouted.
"Those guys are slaves!"
Slaves—!
Slaves—!
Slaves—!
The resounding voice echoed across the region once more.
[Woooah! Thank you for the new law!]
[But who's 'those guys'?]
Cheers mixed with a small murmur from somewhere.
The slaves, including Taylor, stared at Dun in disbelief. They couldn't process the situation.
Dun asked the Graykas to turn off the amplification, then spoke again.
"There, official slave declaration. Like it?"
"Who'd like becoming a slave? Let us go!"
Dun shook her head at their stubbornness, transformed into Minu, and looked down at the now-barking Taylor.
"You said you wanted to be slaves."
"You... that time...!"
Taylor pointed accusingly at Minu's face in shock.
"You really were slave thieves!"
"I genuinely wanted to help, but you accused me of stealing, and it hurt my feelings."
At that, some slaves—who'd actually wanted to follow Minu from the start, free from their chains—suddenly piped up.
Even among them were elf slaves who seemed to know Tia.
"It wasn't me!"
"Me neither!"
They'd wanted to follow ever since Minu freed one of their collars.
It was odd for supposed slave thieves to ask if they wanted to join, and even odder that they'd leave when told to scram.
Suspicious, but clinging to what looked like salvation was too exhausting.
Change was overwhelming.
"You guys just stood there. You should've stopped him from yapping."
"We didn't have the courage!"
"What do you want me to do? It's already law."
If you stay silent, someone else's opinion becomes yours by default.
Minu cleared her throat a few times, then raised one finger to draw all eyes.
"As Taboseok's official first slaves, your job is..."
She pulled a parchment from her inventory.
The long scroll, dragging on the ground, had just three words written on it: "Self-sufficiency," "Rebellion," "Liberation."
Dun pretended to read it intently, muttering, "Wow, you guys have it rough," before continuing.
"Farm grain for me."
"No way!!!"
The more rebellious slaves protested loudly.
Picking on her because she seemed weak and alone?
Minu snapped her fingers.
Dark elves appeared from all sides, surrounding the dissenters.
"Submit!!!"
The dark elves shouted in unison, spears at the ready.
One on a tree nocked an arrow and shot it right at Taylor's feet.
Taylor jumped back, dodging it.
"Urgh... aaack!!"
"I told you."
Dun said solemnly.
"I'm the boss here."
* * *
Dun roughly assigned tasks to the slaves and left.
Under the dark elves' directions, the chaos settled, and everyone began working as ordered.
Tiarin glanced at the captured elves for a moment.
They were the elves who hadn't looked at her with disgust when she said she liked using magic.
As a high elf, Tiarin hadn't spent much time with regular elves like them, but when they met, she'd show off fun magic tricks.
Seeing them—usually dissatisfied with the elf elders—suddenly caught by human slavers, she figured they'd fled the stifling elf village.
'How lowly. How dare you tarnish the dignity our ancestors built.'
'You are the noblest high elf among us.
But your actions are no different from filthy monsters. It's shameful to call you kin.'
Tch. Tiarin clicked her tongue.
She understood fleeing a hundred times over, knowing how nasty the elf elders were.
What dignity built by ancestors? Just piled-up pretension.
"Isaac, Tito, Raya."
Shaking off old memories, Tiarin approached them warmly. Their ears twitched at the names.
"Who?"
"How do you know our names...?"
"It's me, Tiarin. From the exile to the Night Forest back then."
The name Tiarin made their jaws drop.
"Tiarin???"
"No way... it can't be... Tiarin???"
"Yep, it's me. Long time no see~"
Tiarin waved back happily at the elves greeting her with wide-eyed surprise.
"How... how'd you survive Montgehell?"
"I barely clung to life by becoming a monster, then got lucky and rescued by Dun. Now I owe her big time."
"You became a monster, Tiarin? But you don't smell like one now."
"Yeah, you're okay now, right???"
They were shocked to hear she'd become a monster.
Lowland elves prided themselves on purity and nobility, despising monsters.
Becoming one themselves would be a massive mental blow.
Concerned, they checked her over, but Tiarin just beamed.
"I'm fine, fine~ Between being treated like a freak by the elders or becoming a monster and living free, I'd pick the latter any day. Of course, only with Dun around."
"You keep mentioning Dun—is that the girl from earlier? The one who made us slaves again?"
"Yep!"
At Tiarin's cheerful reply, the elves belatedly remembered their plight.
They'd secretly escaped suffocating elf society to build a quiet village, only to become slaves in an instant.
The girl who'd seemed like a savior had turned devilish, enslaving them anew.
Tito the elf teared up, terrified for her future.
Maybe staying in the elf village had been wiser.
"Ah... wh-what do we do... I just wanted a free, simple life, and now I'm a slave..."
"What happens to us now? Whips and labor forever?"
"The dark-skinned elves won't all be like you, right?"
"Puhaha!"
As the elves wept over their exaggerated fears, Tiarin clutched her stomach laughing.
"Becoming a monster changed your personality a lot."
"Why're you laughing?"
Wiping tears from laughing too hard, Tiarin explained.
"That was Dun putting on a tough act. You won't live the stereotypical slave life you're imagining."
Dun's schedule for the slaves was this:
Farm enough to feed themselves. Force them to sleep and wake on time. Stabilize their lives.
After a successful rebellion, she'd free them all to live as they pleased.
"You might end up begging to stay as slaves forever, clinging to her pant leg—so enjoy it while you can."
"...Can't relate yet."
"Fine by me."
Tiarin shook one of her many bracelets, projecting Dun's photo into the air.
"Anyway, my baby... too cute. She wants to treat you well but plays it cool."
Rubbing against the untouchable photo gave everyone chills.
She'd been such a bright, innocent elf who loved magic—what happened?
Did this Dun kid brainwash her into this mess?
Unaware of their growing fear of Dun, Tiarin blew kisses at the photo: mwah, mwah.
* * *
First an adventurer village popped up out of nowhere, and now the slave training camp had vanished.
"I have no excuses."
Gesen knelt before Count Alttoid and cried out.
The count silently paced the study, puffing his pipe, then suddenly stared at a family photo in a glass case—his father, mother, and young self.
"......"
Exhaling smoke over the photo, Count Alttoid spoke.
"To raise what you'd recently blown to bits, my father abandoned my mother. To inherit the business and title without a hitch, I was confined to this mansion from birth, drilled relentlessly."
Alttoid swept back a lock of silver-gray hair from his forehead and took another puff.
After a pause, he grabbed the photo and hurled it at Gesen.
"But you blew it all away in one day!!!!"
Dun, eavesdropping from hiding, dodged a flying glass shard.
'What a hothead count.'
Every visit, he chucked something.
After assigning grunt work to Taboseok's slaves, Dun had snuck into the Alttoid mansion to gauge the situation.
Following the slumped-shouldered Gesen back into the study, Dun noticed something unexpected.
This might not be the ruthless Count Alttoid she knew—too young. Probably the son. Same temper, though.
Gesen had a minor thug vibe, like Min Ji-cheol, while this Alttoid was more guild master type.
She knew the type well from games. Time to crush him flat.
"You didn't notice an adventurer village appear out of thin air? Or the training camp vanish? Tomorrow's the slave black market, the one day you could've covered this loss?"
Alttoid grabbed Gesen's collar as he knelt.
"Father's judgment was rotten. No wonder he favored trash like you."
Everything felt futile.
'Incompetent fool.'
'With this crisis staring you down, you see others? Can't even discern right from wrong.'
'That's why you'll never measure up. No resolve when it counts.'
It all felt like his own failings.
Even his mother's words—listen to Father—haunted him through sleepless workdays.
'It's all worth it,' she'd said.
But he'd obeyed his father his whole life. He had to protect this business with his life.
"Postpone the black market. Find the mastermind behind this, no matter what."
"Yes, sir. I'll look into a suspect."
Gesen thought of Minu, the one he'd drunk with recently.
Something about him felt off.
He'd revealed the black market location—not the training camp—but if the real culprit wasn't found, he'd frame him.
Gesen carefully closed the door as he left the study.
Waiting until his footsteps faded, Dun pulled a table napkin from her inventory—written in Gesen's handwriting with the black market location.
'Die.'
Dun planned to frame Gesen for betrayal.