577 The Market

One thing I noticed while we were making our way there was the fact that there were a lot of monsters and slaves, all of them wearing a collar around their necks.

If I remember correctly, this particular country was known for their taming and training skills. Thus, new slaves and captured monsters would be sent here to be trained and tamed.

That would explain why there are so many slaves.

Even along the path, I saw people of different races with collared necks being led by several guards watching over them. Not two feet away from them would be a monster with a similarly collared neck either kept in a cage or being used as a beast of burden.

We reached the gates without incident and there seemed to be some kind of checkpoint in front of the gates that everyone had to pass before entering the city.

Not only were they checking the identities of the people wanting to enter the city, they were also checking the identity of the slaves and also confirming their purpose of entering the city.

We had to join the queue at the back but the line was moving quite quickly so it didn't take long before it was our turn.

The guard at the gate addressed the woman who had been leading the pack, "Yo, seems like you have big clients today huh? What are they here for?"

I'm guessing the guard and the woman must be familiar with each other for them to speak so casually like that.

The woman then took out a roll of parchment which I realised was the same one that Mary had shown the woman with the Hell Wolf Alpha from before. She must have passed it to her before we headed out while I was busy fluffing Katsuki and the wolf.

The guard received the parchment from her and quickly scanned through its contents before glancing at us.

His jaw visibly tightened slightly before handing the parchment back, "I see. Ahem… Please go on ahead."

The woman on the wolf nodded before whistling, prompting our wolves to follow after her into the city.

The city itself sported wide streets and a variety of buildings of vastly different designs. I suppose the streets were wide because of the monsters that needed to pass through them and the buildings differed depending on their purposes.

Our guide led us to a small manor house where a pair of Amraps were waiting at the front of the door, both of them wearing maid uniforms.

I'm going to guess that house belongs to our family too. Just how far does Mother's influence reach?

"We're here. Thanks for using our services," Our guide called out bluntly.

All of us got off our mounts before the woman gave out another whistle and the wolves bounded away after her, leaving us standing in front of the manor house.

The two Amraps came forward and I realised they must be twins with how similar they looked aside from the style of their hair and their demeanour.

"Welcome, Madam, Young Mistress," The both of them greeted with a bow.

They already know who I am huh? I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Mary stepped forward, "Young Mistress, these two are Vehyia and Dehyia, they are maids stationed to take care of the house here and are in charge of training any new acquisitions we might have."

Acquisitions?

Ohhh… I think I get it now…

I had thought the market Mother was referring to was an actual market or something… Now I know that she was referring to a slave market or something.

Does that mean we're here to shop for slaves? But I already have Katsuki though? I don't think I need another slave, do I?

Then again, Mother might just be here to look for slaves for our Family instead.

The two Amrap twins straightened themselves and I could finally get a good look at them.

Both of them had chocolate skin like Odeta and they had very similar features except one of them wore their fiery red hair in a sort of wild, unkempt style while the other had straight red hair.

The one with straight hair gestured to herself, "This is our first meeting, Young Mistress. I am Dehyia and this is my sister Vehyia. It is an honour to finally be able to serve you."

Vehyia gave a thumbs up, "Just look for me or my sister if you need anything, Young Mistress!"

I felt a nudge from my side to see Odeta beside me.

She leaned down and whispered in my ear, "Sister Aster… Can I spar with them?"

"Only if they want to."

She gave a guts pose as we entered the manor house with the two maids holding the door for us.

The interior of the manor seemed to be a little similar to our mansion back in the capital. So much so that it wouldn't be a stretch to say that this was basically a smaller version of that.

Mother must have realised what I was thinking as she explained without me asking, "Ufufufu~ It's intentionally designed that way so it would feel like home, my little one. It also helps the new servants to acclimatise~"

The underlying meaning of her words could be clearly seen.

She then turned to the Amrap twins, "We shall leave our luggage here for you. We'll be heading to the market immediately."

The two Amraps bowed, "Of course, Madam. Have a safe trip."

Ah, we're heading out immediately huh? Well, we're already dressed up anyway so it's not a problem.

With Mother leading the way, we left the manor house and began walking deeper into the city.

Not that I was some spoiled princess or whatever, but I was surprised to see that Mother was not using a carriage or even the wolves from earlier as transport but actually walking to our destination in this city.

I can't remember the last time Mother actually had to walk for a long distance on her own two feet ever since we started living in Crown Capital city unless we were far from an actual city.

I'm guessing she must have a reason for this arrangement so I kept my mouth shut because I sincerely believe she would take my question as a request and then arrange for a carriage or something.

As we made our way down the street, we garnered quite a bit of attention considering we were two well dressed ladies leading a group of maids behind us.

Was this what Mother had wanted I wonder?

We eventually reached a part of the city that was near the sea and the atmosphere around us changed noticeably.

While the part of the city we had come from was more quiet and, to a certain extent, more civilised, this part seemed to be more boisterous, noisy and chaotic.

There were monsters growling and scratching at their cages; slaves crying, moaning and begging to be released; slavers whipping and beating the aforementioned monsters and slaves; merchants and customers haggling with each other over the slaves and monsters.

So this is the market… Or more specifically, the slave market.

The moment we stepped past the proverbial threshold that marked the boundary of the market, three merchants swarmed us from three different directions and started pitching their business to us.

"My fair ladies! We have new slaves for sale! They were freshly caught and transported here from the Shendhala Oligarchy!"

"My lady, if you wish for high quality slaves then I must insist that you take a look at my stock instead! All of them have already been trained properly so they will not be as unruly and improper as the ones from that guy!"

"If you are instead looking for a monster to help you with any labour, I have a newly caught Ground Dragon for sale! If you would just follow me, my ladies!"

Mother waved at them, "I apologise dear sirs, I already have an appointment with someone else."

The three of them grumbled to themselves but walked away without saying anything else.

Maybe that was some unwritten rule between the merchants here?

Mother continued moving through the market and I busied myself with just looking around at the sights.

There was a clear difference in how some slaves were being treated compared to other slaves. Some of them were clearly being abused while others were being treated quite well.

I thought it might be a case of the slaves being pretty and not but some of the slaves that were being abused were actually not that bad looking compared to the ones that were being treated well.

I asked Katsuki about it and she nodded at the slaves that were being abused, "Those are criminal slaves, Mistress. The ones being abused like that are probably murderers or bandits that have been captured. The others are probably debt slaves or slaves that were sold away by their family willingly."

"Sold away willingly?" I asked.

She nodded, "Some families might have fallen on hard times or even find that they have too many mouths to feed. That might lead to them deciding on selling off a member of their family to keep themselves afloat. The family gets money to live on and the slaves get sold to someone who would clothe and feed them so it's a win-win for them."

Ah, that's right. Slaves are treated differently here. It's easy to forget that since I have never treated Katsuki as one in the first place.

But I'm still wondering what exactly was Mother looking for here? She did say she has an appointment right?

…

She's not buying a dragon is she?