Quest: Reunion at the Slave Market
Upon arriving in Coreloot, Grace assumed human form and browsed several of the slave traders there.
Yet every slave they offered was of uniformly poor quality.
No matter how much the war has driven slave prices up, I have no desire to spend money on merchandise like this.
Grace was certain that being purchased by her and becoming an employee of the inn would be an extraordinary stroke of luck for any slave. Precisely for that reason, she had no intention of bestowing such fortune on just anyone.
There may be unpolished gems that simply never shine because of a poor environment, but from a casual glance none of the humans here looked like that sort.
She had expected as much. Slaves who washed up in Coreloot rather than being sold in the neighboring kingdoms were usually like this. Any rough stone with even the faintest chance of gleaming would already have been bought long before it ever reached the city. The fact that something remained unsold all the way to Coreloot generally meant there was something wrong with the goods.
“Hah… Maybe I should just cross into the kingdom itself and look at the slaves there.”
With that thought she set off for the next trader. She had not yet checked every establishment in Coreloot, after all.
Hm?
Approaching the next shop, Grace sensed a commotion inside.
What’s going on?
Curiosity pricked her, and since she had intended to visit slave traders from the start, she stepped through the doorway without hesitation.
“You never said that slave could use aura!”
“Hah… You’re the one who bought without listening properly to our explanation. We’ll accept the return, but you’ll only get half the original price back.”
“Don’t make me laugh! If you’d just explained it properly from the beginning…!”
“I distinctly told you this slave has restrictions.”
The trader shot the slave a look of pure exhaustion, as if silently ordering her to elaborate.
“That’s right. The sole condition under which I become an obedient slave is this: that no harm comes to me or to the young ladies I protect. You tried to lay hands on them. That is why I was free to tear off my master’s manhood.”
“Grr…!”
From the exchange Grace pieced the situation together easily enough. The slave must have special conditions attached. Ordinary slaves could never defy a master’s command, but one bound by such clauses could ignore orders—and even harm the master—the moment those conditions were broken.
Slaves like that are often tangled up in politics…
As if confirming her suspicion, both the aura-wielding female slave and the women who appeared to be under her protection—clearly of noble birth—were dressed in clean, well-kept clothes.
No… beyond nobility. Royalty?
In that case the aura user had almost certainly been a royal guard.
“Damn it!”
The man who had come to return the slave spat a curse and stormed out.
“We meet again. Looking forward to working with you.”
“Haa… Yeah. I figured this would happen, so I never cleaned your room. New record, by the way. Not even a full day—returned three hours after purchase.”
“Hahaha! Thanks to that you pocketed half our price in profit in just three hours, right?”
“True enough.”
The slave and the trader bantered with easy familiarity, as though the entire farce were routine.
“Ah, my apologies. I didn’t realize a customer was present.”
“It’s fine.”
The trader bowed. Grace, however, was thinking something entirely different.
That woman’s voice… I’m certain I’ve heard it somewhere…
From her angle she still could not see the face clearly, so she had not yet identified the aura-wielding slave. The other party, however, heard Grace’s voice and whirled around in open shock.
Ah…
The instant Grace saw the face she knew.
Hair so white it seemed almost transparent, and eyes the same pure white.
And then—
A voice only the two of them could hear:
You… Topaz?
…Diamond unnie.
Oh, Topaz! So you’re enjoying a little playacting as well?
No. It isn’t really playacting.
One of the dragons who liked to disguise herself as a human and live among them for amusement—Diamond. By pure chance Grace had run into her while she was in the middle of such a game.
What name are you using right now?
Grace.
What, your real name?
It’s common enough. And this isn’t playacting anyway.
Not playacting? Then why the maid uniform?
That’s…
Never mind, perfect timing. Buy me and the girls. You’re here on your master’s orders to purchase slaves for fun, aren’t you?
Grace fell silent for a moment under Diamond’s one-sided declaration. It was true she had come to buy slaves, but—
“…Do the two of you know each other?”
When Grace and Diamond simply stared at one another, the trader asked.
“Yeah. She’s the little sister from my neighborhood, back before I took the kingdom’s knight exam. Looks like she landed a good job.”
“I’ve never seen a maid uniform quite like that… Ah, forgive me.”
The trader’s brief curiosity could have been taken as probing, so he hastily apologized.
“It’s all right.”
More importantly, unnie—you want me to buy you and the two behind you?
Yep. We’re sold as a set, but even buying all three of us costs about the same as one ordinary slave. So don’t worry about the price.
I was planning to buy three female slaves anyway, but…
See? Perfect!
Wait—just a moment.
After a rapid mental exchange with Diamond, Grace considered, then spoke aloud.
“Unnie. I need to hear the exact conditions placed on you.”
“Ah, those? Easy enough. First…”
Diamond cheerfully listed the terms of her contract.
One: when she is purchased, the two people at her side must be purchased together.
One: no harm may be done to her or to either of the other two.
One: her status and the status of the other two are to be treated as forfeited.
“….”
Having heard everything, Grace sighed inwardly and asked,
“Unnie… those two behind you—surely they aren’t…”
“Shh.”
“…Haaa…”
Grace looked at the two women cowering behind Diamond. The first two conditions were simply Diamond’s way of protecting them. The problem was the third.
Those two… they’re not ordinary royalty. They have succession rights.
Yep. But my knighthood and their claims are both treated as null, so it shouldn’t be an issue… If your master wants absolutely nothing to do with politics and therefore can’t buy us, I’ll understand.
Grace pondered a moment, then addressed the pair behind Diamond.
“You two.”
“…! Yes!”
“…Yes…”
“Have you ever done any work?”
“W-we did some menial chores for a while…”
“If you teach us, we’ll work hard!”
They were not completely useless, and they seemed motivated enough. Satisfied, Grace turned back to Diamond.
“Unnie, if I put you to maid work, can you handle it?”
“What, your master’s into that sort of thing? Explains the uniform… Anyway, relax. I’ve been raising those two since they were this big.”
“That’s good enough. How much for the three of them?”
She asked the trader.
“Ah… considering they were returned after only a few hours and the price has dropped again… this much.”
“I see. I’ll take them.”
Grace paid and received the contract. For the moment she was treated as their temporary owner; once she delivered the papers to her own master, the three would serve the same person she did.
“This time, please last a little longer…”
The trader muttered, clearly convinced she would eventually return them.
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean!”
“Unnie, let’s go.”
Having bought the slaves far more cheaply than expected, Grace found herself with money left over. She considered heading straight back to the inn, then hesitated.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Since we’ve come all this way, I’m thinking of spending the rest on a few things to take back.”
“Oh, if that’s the case, let’s buy some books.”
Books?
Grace looked at Diamond in mild surprise.
“I’m fine, but these two don’t know the local language.”
“So you didn’t come from one of the kingdoms next to Coreloot?”
“Nope. A country quite far from here. They can understand speech well enough, but they can’t read or write it.”
In other words, would it be all right to pick up a few books good for language study?
“Hmm…”
Ordinary slaves had no real need for literacy, yet being able to read and write would certainly be useful. Grace nodded.
“All right. And clothes for everyone as well…”
“Ah, don’t worry about that.”
I can just make them with magic.
Grace narrowed her eyes at Diamond’s casual remark.
“Don’t tell me… these two know?”
“Yep. They know I’m Diamond the Diamond Dragon.”
Grace was left speechless by the brazen admission.
Wasn’t the whole point of the game to hide that you were a dragon and live as a human?
“Th-that’s… Unnie isn’t a bad person!”
“Unnie told us not to come, but we snuck after her…”
“….”
Grace fell silent, then muttered,
“Well… maybe it’s for the best.”
“Hm? Why?”
“Where we’re going there’s already one more dragon besides us.”
“Really? Opal’s there?”
“Not Opal unnie. Garnet unnie is there.”
“Ugh… that one…?”
The two humans behind Diamond blinked rapidly.
Another dragon?
Opal? Garnet?
Noticing their expressions, the two dragons looked at them.
“Ah, did I never mention it? She’s a dragon too.”
“I’m called Topaz the Yellow Dragon. In daily life I go by Grace.”
Faced with the two dragons speaking so calmly and matter-of-factly, the two humans—
“Is this a dream? Two Jewel Dragons? No—three, counting the Garnet who’s supposedly where we’re going?”
“You’re right, unnie. This is a dream. Yes. We must be dreaming.”
—promptly denied reality and declared the scene before them a dream.
Not long after, they would climb onto the backs of Diamond the Diamond Dragon and Topaz the Yellow Dragon and soar through the sky, at which point they would finally be forced to accept that it was all real.