Chapter 72: Heading to the Slave Trader’s Mansion

I took first place overall in the status examination.

I also got first place in physical attack power, magic attack power, and magic defense power, earning a total prize of 8 million yen. There was a chance I could have taken first in the skill examination with an A-class evaluation too, but that would have required showing my elixir semen to the male examiners again. Since I didn’t want to stand out too much, I declined. Apparently, getting an S-class evaluation would require going to the royal capital Roaburg and undergoing review by the king and the Royal Skill Research Institute, so I naturally refused that as well.

There was an awards ceremony and celebration party hosted by the city. It seemed like they were just looking for an excuse to eat and drink. Even people who hadn’t participated in the exam could join freely, and apparently a huge crowd gathered in front of the castle gate and partied until sunset. I left the venue immediately after receiving my prize money, so I don’t know the details.

I had something more important to do first.

I was going to free the slave beastmen.

After the exam, I headed straight to the slave trader’s mansion.

It was a fairly large building standing in a district lined with relatively shabby houses. I knocked the wooden door knocker in the center of the door hard several times.

Kan kan! Kan kan kan!

Unlike in the morning, there were immediate signs of someone coming.

Irritated noises came from right behind the door.

"Who is it?"

"It’s me."

"What? If you’re screwing around, I’ll kill you."

It was a voice I’d heard somewhere before, but not the same guy from the morning.

You should’ve properly told your buddies that an important customer was coming.

"I’m the one who made a deal with your boss. I brought the promised gold."

"What the... Wait a second."

He sounded extremely annoyed, but the man still followed my instructions. The presence behind the door disappeared.

After a while, new footsteps approached.

"Come in."

Clack.

Giii...

The door creaked on its hinges as it slowly opened.

The person who appeared was the filthy man who had tried to kill Kemololi the other day.

"You’re...!"

"What? ...Oh, so you’re Sahal. ...Tch. Get in. The boss will see you."

I was led by the filthy man to a room deep on the second floor.

"Hoh hoh hoh. You came as promised." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"What the..."

I was slightly surprised by the scene inside the room.

The short man with the familiar voice was standing beside the desk of the person who appeared to be the actual boss.

Inside the rather spacious room were the boss, the short man, the filthy man, two giant guards, and me.

The short man had been speaking arrogantly, so I assumed he was the boss, but I was wrong.

The boss sitting at the desk was probably the filthy man’s father. They looked about a generation apart in age, but their faces were similar and he lacked any real dignity. He looked more suited to counting pocket change.

On the desk were what looked like a celestial globe, a balance scale, bundles of parchment, an inkwell, a quill pen, and a crystal, but I had no idea what they actually were.

With six men crammed into a small room, the overwhelmingly high male ratio was suffocating. Especially the two giants — whether they were showing off their muscles or had that kind of fetish, they were both shirtless.

They weren’t the sleek bodybuilder type, but the thick, middle-aged Showa-era pro wrestler type — big bellies, massively muscular arms, and thick chests. They looked like the kind of guys who would tear apart a screaming, helpless loli’s tiny pussy with a massive corn-cob-like cock in some ero-guro fantasy story.

While I was distracted by the macho men, the short man reached out his hand.

"Hoh hoh hoh. Well then, let’s have the gold coins first."

I handed over three leather bags filled with gold coins. The prize money had been 5 million, 1 million, 1 million, and 1 million, so I had received four bags total.

"W-whoa!"

The short man’s hands dropped heavily. His face turned red as he let out a pathetic cry and asked the macho guard for help. One of the macho guards quickly stepped in and took the bags from him.

I couldn’t blame him. The large bag contained 500 coins. It weighed as much as several Kemololi. At 30 grams per coin, 700 coins would exceed 20 kilograms. There was no way the short man could carry that.

The macho placed the bags on the boss’s desk.

The short man took out the gold coins and began counting them.

Uhh... Am I really supposed to just stand here and wait until he’s done?

"13, 14, 15..."

"Um... Instead of counting them one by one, why don’t you stack 10 coins and then stack another pile next to it until they’re the same height?"

"What did you say?"

Ah— Did I just accidentally use modern knowledge?

"Hoh hoh hoh. Amateurs really don’t understand. Watch this."

The short man stacked 10 gold coins.

Ah!

The stack was tilting. I see. I had assumed they would stack neatly like Japanese coins, but the coins of this world and era weren’t perfectly shaped. They had some king-like person’s portrait embossed on them, which prevented them from stacking cleanly.

The short man took 20 coins and placed them on the balance scale.

Then he added more coins to the other side.

"Hoh hoh hoh. This way we can count them efficiently, and if any coins have been tampered with or mixed with fakes, the balance will be off and we’ll know immediately."

Haha, embarrassing. I thought I could show off some modern knowledge with something so minor. How lame.

After that, I was forced to wait for a while as the short man counted the coins.

It smelled like men and it was unbearable. I wished they would at least open a window, but the simple wooden plank windows probably couldn’t be left half-open. The sun was setting and it would get cold, so it was hard to ask. I wished the two macho guys would leave... One was standing behind me, and the other had stayed in front of me ever since he took the bag, constantly in my line of sight. The visual pressure was intense.

Seriously, they really looked like they’d perform sexual torture with corn-cob cocks.

Actually...

That was all I could see now.

If you put a balaclava on that macho guy, he’d be a perfect sexual torturer.

"...700 coins. Now, let’s have the remaining 100 coins."

As expected, they knew my financial situation and were trying to squeeze more out of me.

"Wasn’t the promise 700 coins for all the slave beastmen?"

"Today we received a chestnut-haired horse girl. You’ll be purchasing her as well, won’t you?"

"A chestnut-haired horse girl?"

"Yes. Normally she’d be worth no less than 200 gold coins, but we’ll give you a special discount."

It was almost certainly Iferasuki.

...So that idiot had been caught after disappearing since morning.

"She’s my horse pussy."

"In that case, you should have put a slave collar on her. When we captured her, she wasn’t wearing one."

Kh... I don’t understand the laws of this world.

From my values, these slave traders were doing something unjust, but maybe it was legal in this world.

As frustrating as it was, I had no choice but to comply.

I handed over the last bag. This meant they had taken all of my prize money.

"Now, release the slave contracts as promised."

"Hoh hoh hoh. Very well. Boss."

At the short man’s glance, the boss dramatically placed his hand on the crystal on the desk.

Then he chanted something.

What the hell did he just do?

"There. The slaves have been freed."

I see. That crystal was some kind of magic tool that released the slaves.

"Where are the slaves?"

"They’re all in the basement. Go ahead and show him the way."

Doka!

"Ugh..."

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through the back of my neck.

"We have indeed fulfilled the contract. But all we have to do is make you our slave again."

"H-how despicable!"

"...?! W-why can you still move?"

"Eh?"

Doka!

Pain shot through my neck again.

"Ugh... That hurts, you know."

"What are you doing? Hurry up and knock him out!"

"I-I am! I’m using my Skill: Knockout Chop!"

Doka!

Pain shot through my neck once more.

I see. It’s that classic move from anime and movies where you hit the back of the neck to knock someone out.

It hurt a bit, but it was no worse than a hard flick to the forehead.

Since they resorted to violence first, it should be fine to fight back, right?