"Wah?! "
"Kyaa!! "
High-pitched cries from both sides.
Just as the boy stepped through the house gate, he nearly collided with a passing girl.
The girl fell on her butt from the shock, and the boy hurriedly helped her up.
"Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah..."
The boy approached the girl and offered his hand.
The girl hesitated, looking at the hand.
Face flushing red, she suppressed her shaken heart and, with resolve, took it.
"I’m sorry. I didn’t notice anyone was coming."
"N-no... It’s my fault... I was distracted..."
The boy and girl apologized to each other.
It was rare for them to yield. Humans usually blamed the other person.
Both reacted by blinking at each other.
"You have such a beautiful dress. Are you from a noble family?"
"Eh? Ah, yes..."
The girl’s outfit was vastly superior in quality compared to commoners and poor people.
The boy who spoke also wore an elegantly arranged, good-looking base outfit.
"I’m... I’m Clock. Clock Rivorno. What’s your name?"
"Um... um..."
The girl opened her mouth to answer the boy who called himself Clock.
But she took a breath, as if something was stuck in her throat, before she could introduce herself.
"...?"
"Sh... Shian... is it..."
"Hou~?"
The boy tilted his head at her stammering.
A girl in a white and sky-blue fluffy dress.
Shian had clearly come from some noble family.
But why didn’t she give her last name?
There must have been some reason.
"...I see. It’s fate that we met here. If you’d like, let’s get along, Shian-chan."
"U-um..."
The boy was only ten years old, but he already had a mature spirit.
Without digging into her circumstances, he asked her for a handshake with a smile.
From that day on, Shian became someone he met surprisingly often.
It didn’t take long for him to become her girlfriend.
He noticed immediately that she was the one coming to see him.
Even though she said "only for now" about the fiancé, he couldn’t ignore her obvious interest, and his feelings for Shian gradually turned into something more.
"Ah~"
"...Huh?"
Suddenly he regained consciousness, which he had been letting go.
In front of him was a boy he didn’t recognize, staring at Clock.
It seemed he had fallen asleep while sitting and watching the slaves work.
...Damn, I slept so hard.
The hangover from staying up late last night hit during the day.
He had been letting the slaves do everything while staring blankly, and this was the result.
Clock checked the surroundings with his eyes, but there was nothing unusual. The noise was still loud, the laborers were still bustling, but the bearded fat man wasn’t there.
Boyit probably hadn’t noticed that he slacked off.
"It’s finished."
The slaves seemed to have finished loading and were now resting.
Each one sat wherever they felt like it, waiting. Only the boy had come to ask Clock for instructions. However, on his throat—
Was it a curse mark?
Boyit had mentioned it— he made people unable to speak.
Not only the boy, but every slave left here also had a strange pattern floating on their throat.
He didn’t know what it was or how it worked, but it was clear it was some kind of restraint that bound them from freedom.
Adelina didn’t have such a curse mark. Only the slave tattoo on her shoulder.
She couldn’t speak because of mental reasons, he thought. When things calmed down, he should strip her fully and check.
Normally, when making a slave contract with legitimate means, he would know what kind of restrictions were placed. But Clock’s slave contract mark was stolen. Since it was a magic user or priest’s work, he couldn’t identify it unless he asked one. Because it was suspicious, he couldn’t risk it.
What’s more, he had never bought a slave himself, so he didn’t know how to enforce the contract. Normally it was a slave merchant licensed by the kingdom or an explanation from a priest, but Clock, who stole it, had no right to ask for an explanation.
If Adelina tried to escape, Clock had no way to stop her.
Well, I don’t think she’ll run.
For some reason, she tended to obey him more than he wanted.
Probably she had been raised with that kind of education from the start.
She was conditioned to obey, and she didn’t even think about resisting.
"Ohou, good work."
A loud voice came with the heavy, vulgar footsteps of the man.
"You’re back. How much cargo did you bring? The ship won’t sink, right?"
"Ha ha ha, it’s lighter than it looks!!"
That would be wrong.
As a weapons merchant, if the cargo was metal weapons, it should be heavy.
What kind of "light weapons" were these?
Boyit was doing shady business. He couldn’t help but think he was still hiding something bad.
"Clock. This is the last day in this town and country. Let’s drink one last time before we go."
From a man who would do anything for money, surprisingly sentimental words came out.
No, there was probably another condition he couldn’t show the slaves. But Clock decided not to point it out.
They left the pier and open storage and entered the commercial district.
Not far away, even in the daytime, a decent number of laborers entered the bar.
Boyit glanced around, then sat at a seat in the back that looked like a secret meeting place.
"...Clock. I’ll show you something good."
He was here again, so Clock kept his calm and said, "What’s up?"
He wanted to leave the ship as soon as possible without dragging in more troublesome things.
Inside, he thought that but put on an unconcerned face.
"This. Do you know what this is?"
"...A scroll?"
The scroll Boyit showed was a magic scroll.
A scroll with magic patterns carved on it. Convenient tools used by anyone who wanted to save mana or couldn’t use magic.
The downside was that they were expensive for consumables, but it was a fairly common magic item for anyone above commoner.
It had magic patterns carved on the outside and looked like an ordinary scroll that had been sealed with some magic.
"This is a summoning scroll."
"Summoning? ...Is it an illusion beast summoning?"
Illusion beasts. They were artificial creatures famous as familiars.
There was a time when real original illusion beasts existed.
But now there were no illusion beasts anywhere.
All summoning scrolls for illusion beasts in this world were fakes.
Summoning magic with a scroll wasn’t limited to illusion beasts.
But if he summoned a magical beast, there was no use for it. Magical beasts were enemies of all humanity.
Even if they attacked indiscriminately, they wouldn’t be useful for the summoner.
So the only ones worth summoning were illusion beasts.
"This one is a siren. This one... was it Quetzalcoatl? I’m giving them to you."
"...Huh? For real? What happened all of a sudden?"
The two scrolls he was handed.