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With the help of the navigation, I smoothly escaped the Great Forest. I mounted the horse I had tied up outside the forest and headed straight for Vestia.
I reached a nearby city before sunset. The process to enter the city went like this: Stop. Show your ID. Where do you think you're going, Slave Trader? Coins jingling. Okay, pass.
I found a suitable lodging and flopped onto the bed.
Vaguely remembering the loads of notifications from earlier, I checked the delayed rewards.
First, 50,000 points from liberating Alfia. It seemed 50,000 points were fixed for fully liberating a main slave.
Given that non-story slaves gave less than 500 points no matter how they were raised, and even Narsha, who had a decent role, only gave 5,000, this was quite a lot of points.
Next were skills that apparently existed but were seemingly useless.
[Generous Master]—The effects of items given by the master are slightly increased.
Simple. To put it roughly, if you give a sword, its cutting power increases, and if you give a potion, its recovery power increases.
I suspected it was strengthened because I kept giving Alfia so much alcohol.
Then there was the newly acquired skill.
[Blessing of the World Tree]—The energy of the World Tree flows through you.
Elves view you favorably.
The abilities of elf slaves are enhanced.
The probability of rare spirits dwelling within elf slaves has risen.
This popped up?
In the original game, this was a skill you could only get by fully liberating a hundred elves. It was the ultimate and most indispensable skill for raising elves.
And I got it just by liberating Alfia alone. The World Tree must have been impressed that I helped Alfia before she broke and threw in this bonus.
If it's like this, I might get additional rewards for completely liberating other slaves by changing the original story.
I might get even more rare rewards.
Of course, I didn't plan to recklessly cause trouble. Things went well with Alfia, but there was no guarantee it would go well next time.
I'd just keep in mind that it's a possibility.
Now for the last one.
Neither a skill nor anything else, but a new system.
[Slave Gacha]Consumes 10,000 points. In addition to various items, you can obtain slave clues at a low probability.
The gacha is hereeeeeeee!
A draw where you could get items and slaves for points. It was a game element no weeb game would be without.
The system was originally unlocked after clearing the tutorial with Mirabelle to prevent reroll abuse with saving and reloading.
I thought gacha didn't exist since it didn't appear then, but it unexpectedly popped up now.
What are slave clues?
It was my first time seeing this. I could roughly guess what it was, but well, I would also know if I drew. No need to rack my brains over it.
Hmm, but 10,000 points is too expensive.
It was excessively pricey. I wasn't in a position where I could leisurely raise slaves, and I didn't know when I would need money and items.
Impulsively spending in such a situation could lead to irreversible consequences.
…But since something new was just released, it'd be rude not to give it a try, right?
Should I have just a little taste?
I still had plenty of points.
Just a taste, that's all.
I pressed the draw button, spending 10,000 points.
A faintly shimmering blue sphere appeared before my eyes.
As the light gradually became more vivid and was about to become blinding…!
Plop.
"Hm?"
An object fell limply onto the bed. A crude, gray bracelet.
[Half-Finished Bracelet by a Meister]
The Meister was making it when, oops, his hand slipped.
Equipment Effect : Stabilizes the slave's mind and body. Slightly enhances magic efficiency.
…That was it?
A cheap bracelet was all I got for spending 10,000 points?
I could've commissioned a magic tool several times better than this for the same price!
Oh, maybe it was that? With one stack added, each subsequent pull increases the odds for the next one… right?
Which meant I needed to pull just once more.
So, I added another 10,000 points to the investment.
Once again, a blue sphere appeared, seemingly about to burst and emit an even more brilliant light…!
Plop.
There was nothing of the sort.
A suggestive pink heart-shaped tattoo the kind a succubus might engrave on her womb fell.
I didn't need to read the description to know what this was used for.
And it was an obvious miss.
Blue meant taking an L.
What's predatory was the color seemingly about to change, but didn't.
So fucking annoying, toying with people.
[Points : 63,120 points]
Already 20,000 points?
My precious points turned into trash?
Did that mean I should stop now?
No way.
Quitting's for losers, a pro knows ninety-nine percent of gamblers quit right before they hit big.
"RNG's gonna be on my side this time!"
[Points : 13,120 points]
"Huff, huff…"
All the moisture seemed to have left my body. My eardrums throbbed with the sound of my heartbeat, and my body drowning in dopamine, trembled.
Had I ever been this exhausted before?
I only felt scared for a moment even when my life was being threatened, but now I felt like I was suffocating to death.
Seven pulls. Every single one was blue. I didn't even get a glimpse of a higher rank light.
It's not too late. If I stop now…
It could hinder future progress if I used any more points here.
Right, let's stop here.
I already had a taste of what it was like, hadn't I? I still had 10,000 points left as well. That was enough.
At that moment, the devil in my brain popped out and tempted me.
Can you walk away now? After failing seven times, probability says the next one is guaranteed to hit. If you stop now, you lose, but if you hit something good, you can turn around all your losses.
Ugh. Was it because of the skill's influence? The devil's words sounded incredibly enticing.
No, I mustn't be swayed.
Angel, help me!
Pop.
Wow, are you seriously gonna leave a top-tier beauty waiting at your door? What kind of idiot is gonna just leave her there? Are you fucking gay?
…?
What was this?
Shouldn't at least one of them try to stop me? Where did the angel go?
There's no angel for a slave trader.
I see! I only had one choice from the beginning!
There was no need to agonize over it.
My mind felt at ease.
I took a deep breath and gathered the strength of three Karamis.
North, South, East, West.
"I see it. The opening thread!"1
Ding-ding-ding beep. The points drained away like life force ticking down on a health bar.
A blue sphere appeared.
The sphere wavered with indecision. Then, as if dawn were breaking, it was suddenly suffused with a brilliant golden light.
"It hit!"
As expected, my judgment was right!
Kyaa, just like that and I was back in the game!
The light that filled the room was exhilarating to behold. When the glow reached its peak intensity, it flashed white. The sphere shattered, and a single piece of paper fluttered down.
I picked up the paper with the speed of a beggar picking up bread crumbs from the floor.
[Slave Clue: Highest Rarity]
Slave Clue.
This didn't exist in the game. When you pulled in the game, a slave was added to your character window like in other gacha games, and you could start developing them right away.
But what about the current situation? I thought it might summon them to my location, but that was not the case.
The paper had random clues about slaves written on it. The slave's background, abilities, and specific places and conditions where you could encounter them.
It helped you meet slaves in this way. It could be a slave I knew from the game, or it could be a completely new slave I had never seen before.
I'll have to check now.
What kind of pretty slave will it be~
With my heart pounding, I started reading the [Slave Clue].
[Slave Clue: Highest Rarity]
At the northernmost tip of the continent, in the endlessly frozen permafrost region of Eisengar.
Tarkind, the iron-blooded warrior and Northguard (Guardian of the North), from the orc horde that attacked his tribe───
"Ah, it's a fucking male character."
I could tell just from the name.
What kind of shitty weeb game gave you male characters in the gacha?!
"I invested 80,000 points just to get an ice dick…?"
I tore up the paper.
"Go fucking die…"
***
80,000 points. If converted to gold coins… A whopping 8,000 coins had vanished into thin air.
I'd been played by the gods. They must have swept away all my points out of worry for inflation because I had been hoarding them.
I had no more points available for gacha, and I was mentally exhausted.
I swear I'll never gacha again.
If I did, I wouldn't be human. I'd be a monkey.
Even though my points were gone, I still had work to do. To meet the third main slave, I needed to go to the beastkin kingdom of Vestia.
Vestia. What a nice place.
While in the Traul Kingdom I was known as the Slave Reaper, with false rumors spreading that I killed slaves, it was different in Vestia. My social standing was completely different there.
Because I had treated and sent countless beastkin slaves to Vestia. I still vividly remembered that day.
The memory of the beastkin who were so grateful they tried to follow me when I left, crying pitifully.
If I got the chance, I'd like to meet those children again.
I arrived at the border between the kingdom and the beastkin kingdom.
On one side were the kingdom's soldiers, and on the opposite side were the beastkin kingdom's soldiers, facing each other.
At the place where strict entry procedures were in full swing, I spotted a wolf beastkin with a distinctive ash-gray tail. I immediately approached her.
"Well, if it isn't Miss Seira. It's been a very long time."
Seira was Vestia's immigration officer. She was the woman who had taken in the beastkin slaves when I brought them.
The woman, whose default expression was impassive, furrowed her brow. She must have had something unpleasant happen today.
"What business do you have in Vestia? Have you come to hand over more beastkin?"
"Unfortunately, not today. I have some business in Vestia."
"You?"
"Yes, may I enter?"
No matter how good my standing in Vestia, I was still a slave trader. It was different from this kingdom's cities where I could enter by greasing a few palms.
But it was fine. Seira knew better than anyone how kind of a slave trader I was. I was certain she'd let me in without question.
"Finally, this day has… Please enter. We've been counting the days until your arrival in Vestia."
"Haha, I never expected such an enthusiastic welcome. I'm at a loss for words. Then, if you'll excuse me."
I took a few more steps and crossed the border. As I followed closely behind Seira, the kingdom's soldiers disappeared from view.
"Miss Seira, are the slaves I freed doing well?"
"Doing… well?"
"I can't get the image of them looking so sad when we parted out of my head. Since I'm in Vestia, I'd like to see them if possible."
At that moment, Seira stopped abruptly.
Her ash-gray fur stood on end.
"How much more do you intend to hurt them…!"
"Pardon?"
"But that ends today."
It was then that I felt a sense of weightlessness envelop my entire body. The world flipped upside down. Then, a sharp pain assaulted my entire body.
When I came to my senses, I was face down on the ground.
It didn't end there. My arm was twisted behind my back. In an instant, Seira had mounted my back, pressing down on my wrist with her knee.
"M-Miss Seira? What is the meaning of this?"
"The meaning? You should ask that of your own conscience."
I tried to turn my head to see her expression, but my neck had reached its limit and wouldn't turn any further. Even so, I could feel her oppressive gaze boring into me.
"Slave Reaper Karami. You are under arrest on charges of habitual beastkin abandonment."