"Is that a problem…? I'm not sure if they checked your status, but Riko and another girl called Yuki should be able to see it too."
"Oh, it's fine if those two girls can see it, since I can't conceive a child with another female."
"Hm? What would happen if other males saw it then?"
"I would commit suicide."
"Eh? Aren't you exaggerating a bit?"
"Nope. Allowing multiple males to see my status would violate the traditions."
"Uh… I'll keep that in mind then."
"..."
Once all the slaves had their ownership transferred, everyone regrouped at the space in front of the building.
Seeing the large amount of slaves in front of him, Jay had a headache thinking about the problems they will have to deal with.
Aside from Yuki, they each had ownership over 6 to 12 slaves.
'With all these people, we will run out of food in a day or two,' Jay thought, unaware that there were this many slaves in total.
He wanted to lessen the burden on their supplies, so he voiced out his suggestion.
"Everyone, you're free to go back to your homes! Even though we are technically your masters, we won't order you to do anything. If we had a way to remove your slave crest, we would not hesitate to do so."
*Murmur*
Chatter erupted from all of the slaves, unable to believe what they had just heard.
"A-are you guys really letting us go?"
"Can we return to our homes?"
Some of them were doubtful of Jay's words, wondering if it was a test of some sort to assess their obedience.
"Yes, we will let you all return home. However, if you don't have anywhere to return to, you may travel with us."
Adding that last sentence, Jay knew that they would all feel deeply indebted to him for his kindness.
He believed that most of them would go back to their homes once they are given the chance.
If any of them stayed behind, he could already foresee how much they will idolize him as their savior.
A demi-human girl, with a moderate chest and droopy rabbit ears, was the first to start running towards the eastern path.
Seeing one person leave, the majority of the other slaves followed, running towards the same path that the rabbit girl was heading to.
However, right as they all took a few steps, Ren shouted "Stop! Who said you girls can leave huuuh!?"
With his words, around 10 girls, who had all sorts of voluptuous proportions, froze on the spot.
The rabbit girl, who was the first to run, fell over as soon as she heard Ren's orders.
Thinking that they had fallen into their new owner's trap, tears rolled down their eyes.
When they noticed the rest of the slaves were still running, they also became confused.
"You girls belong to me now, and I'm ordering you to return to me."
With a satisfied grin on his face, Ren thought, 'No matter what, I won't let these chicks escape from me, heh heh.'
Seeing Ren oppose his speech from earlier, Jay became enraged because Ren had just ruined his plans.
"Ren! How dare you contradict my words when all of you guys agreed on making me your leader!?"
"Haaah? I let you be the leader because I didn't want to make a fuss. However, who the fuck gave you the right to order MY slaves around?"
While they continued to argue, Luna had remained by Kio's side this whole time, observing the dispute between the two.
'I'm glad that neither of those two are my master. One is a naive idiot trying to act like a hero of justice, while the other is a lecherous sleazebag.'
Luna took a deep sigh of relief after looking towards Kio again.
Her impression of him improved a bit more after she noticed that he had no perverted intentions towards her or the elven slaves he owned.
"AHHHH!!!"
"RUN!!"
"Please stop thi-"
As Jay and Ren continued arguing, screams erupted from the eastern path.
"Oh shit! Guys, we have to leave, now!"
Jay quickly switched back to his leadership role, putting a halt to the argument with Ren.
With the group of slaves flooding in from the eastern route, Jay lead them towards the northern path, since he didn't want to risk using the same path they used to come here.
The other directions were all blocked by the city walls, which they had already seen when they arrived.
Although nobody knew how many slaves had died, they could see that there were a lot less compared to before.
After Kio and the three girls ran for a short moment, Luna quickly fell behind.
"Luna, what's wrong? We have to keep moving!"
Kio didn't know why Luna was so weak, since the other slaves managed to at least run for quite a bit longer than her.
"Hah… ha… after getting my levels sealed, I'm not used to this weakened body," Luna replied, panting heavily due to her exhaustion.
"Tch…" Unwilling to give up on her since he had already decided to help, Kio ran back towards her and crouched down, showing his back to her.
"Luna, climb on!"
"Eh?"
"Now!!"
"Y-yes…"
Climbing onto his back, Luna held onto his shoulders firmly while wondering why he was doing this.
'He could've easily left me behind, since he didn't have any obligation to help. Besides, wouldn't this slow him down too?'
Using [Haste], Kio quickly caught up to the rest of his group.
Although he is carrying an extra person, due to how light Luna was, he felt like he is still running faster than his regular speed.
He theorized that he could carry one more person before the strain would take a toll on his body, but now wasn't the time or place to test the limit of his skills.
Unable to see the duration of [Haste], he could only hope that it would last as long as possible.
Jay and Ren were leading the group at the front, followed closely by Akira, Saotome, and some of Ren's slaves since they had to stick close to Ren.
There were also a few slaves who had stayed behind previously since they either had no home to return to or were too scared to leave.
Kio, with Luna on his back, was running beside Riko and Yuki, while Takumi was a bit behind everyone else.
***
Takumi, who had chosen the Magician class, had lived as a shut-in for a year already prior to the appearance of the zombies.
After getting bullied in class, he had refused to leave his room, afraid of making contact with others.
However, one day his parents forced him to leave the house, otherwise they threatened they would cut off his internet connection. So, he unwillingly went to Don Quijote with them, which happened to be the day the zombies showed up.
In the midst of all the chaos, he had lost sight of his parents and ran into a nearby hotel to seek shelter.
This hotel turned out to be the one where the rest of the group hid in, and we already know the story leading up to this point.
***
After they had fled for a few minutes, misfortune struck the group twice at nearly the same moment.
Jay's [Limit Break] ended, and he placed his hands on his knee while gasping for breath.
Yuki, who was already far behind the group, had accidentally tripped when she turned her head back to see how far the zombies were.
As a person who runs on a regular basis, she usually wouldn't make this kind of mistake.
However, when she noticed a shadowy figure dashing towards her, she became frightened and tripped.
"Ahh!!!"
With her fall, she managed to dodge a fatal attack, but she ended up getting three long scratch marks on her back.
Even though the zombies were fast, the group had narrowly outrun them the last time.
The shadowy figure that attacked her wasn't one of the zombies. It was one of the zombie dogs that had escaped from the plaza after being surrounded by the knights earlier.
The zombie dog was full of slash wounds, but it was still able to chase after its prey due its inability to feel pain.
After its attack on Yuki had missed, it continued running and leaped towards the front of the group.
As soon as Yuki screamed, everyone else, aside from Jay who was currently in pain, looked over to see what happened.
They all thought they were out of danger for now, since they can outrun the zombies and there was also a group of slaves behind them.
When Akira saw the danger coming towards their direction, he made up his mind to implement his plan.
Dashing towards Jay, he touched his back and shouted out, "[Skill Steal]!"
With no time to check what skill he managed to take, he quickly rolled to the side to avoid the attack.
"Jay! Watch out!"
Kio shouted, soon noticing what this attacker was, as well as its new target.
Gasping for breath, Jay had just barely turned his head to check what happened after he heard Akira's words and Kio's warning.
However, what he saw wasn't the sight of his group behind him.
A wide-opened jaw, with sharp teeth and bits of flesh sticking in between some of them, appeared and blocked the majority of his view.
*Snap*