As Rex stood before the large doorless gate that served as a seperation for two starkly diffenert worlds right now he considered the walk a major success. The kids were now less so trembling from fear of him and his men, but from the sights they had to take in as they saw what weakness in this world could do to you. As Rex had hoped their eyes were filled with determination to work hard to ensure that their mother and other siblings would be protected. If they could ensure no such thing happened to their family they were more than willing to sacrifice their own childhood and happiness.
"Determination is a wonderfull thing, but it is also important to not get so lost in your chase for power that you neglect the reason for said chase to begin with. While you will have a chance to work hard and grow much stronger, right now all you have to do is be obedient to your parents and cherish your family. I am more than enough of detriment for nigh any power since you are in essence mine. Just servants for all intent and purpose, but mine regardless, and my full wrath falls on anything that aims to harm what is mine."
Recieveing a few quiet 'thank you sir' from both Sophie and Alfred, Rex looked around once more as he took in the devasteted streets around him. It was his actions that brought this down, and many more like this would follow. Rex almost cracked a laugh for how his previous self would have considered his current action cruel and savage, inhumane even, but then again, he was not living here, was he? A world where the greatest law was ones own fist, and how much it could both take down and enfore its own rules on others. Human in nature were greedy and envious and given the chance we would always rely on our base desires and instincts. Of that Rex was sure. He was a perfect example after all.
The weak cover in fear and try to somehow scrape by, while those at the top use whatever is at their disposal to solidify their position and then enjoy their lives to the fullest, within the rules others of 'their kind' allow one another. If he though back to his own world, the same happened back there as well, though there the form power had taken was connections and money. Have enough of either and most of your depraved fantasies could be realised with no one being able to do anything about it. Not enough evidence to convict someone, or proper manipulation of news to sway the public opinion. Or convicting innocent people for crimes they did not commit, all because the real culprit was too well connected or rich. At the very least in this world he had the means to ensure no such things would happen to him.
As they spepped through the gate into the district their scenary changed entirely. This district was encompassed in a rather high wall that was covered in crawling plans all over, giving the district a rather lush greenery vibes. Numerous gardens made the place quite the sight and it even reminded Rex of the praks inside the large cities of his old world. he did notice a rather weird atmosphere in the air. While everywhere else in the city doom, gloom and desperation hung in the air, this place seemed oddly calm. As if there were no invasion taking place in the city.
Rex glanced at the two men standing by the gate, raised one eyebrow and asked them.
"Were there not for of you guys here some while ago?" the two guards akwardly scratched their heads and one spoke uncomfortably.
"Yes sir, but we allowed the other two to go and purchase some services from the ladies here, since sir said that we are not to plunder here and ensure it remained undamaged."
"Oh. Well, that is fine, as long as they are paying is see no reason to stop them. I asume you plan to switch one they are back?" the akward silence was all the answer he need, so he did not inquire further, just said "have fun then" and proceeded with his own plan of action. As Rex walked deeper into the district he could sense most of the women here were hiding in their respective lodgings, or brothels. There were no men having their fun right now, except for a few Svergi men who were going quite wild on a couple of girls. If the moans were an indication both parties in those exchanges were rather enjoying themselves, the sound of their sessions traveling outside through the opened windows. Under normal circumstances no single action could be discerned in the bustling mess of the district but now, the moans of those girls were like a guitar solo in a concert- all ears were only on them and their passionate moans.
Rex had left the family near the gate in one of the small gardens, not too far from the Svergi guardibg the entrace, while mentioning to said guards that the human family there were his servants to be and should not be pestered. With that out of the way he had walked towards the largest building in the district, while sending mana pulses charhed with his voice through the building he passed by. He asked the girls most knowledgeable about their ditrict and its workings to gather at the center of the district. Their fate, so to speak, would depend on what the girls in question could achieve and persuade their noew overlord in, so he had advised them not to cover and hide.
Once he had reached the center building that looked a bit like a rather expensive hotel made of mostly white stone with rather finely crafted decorations on its walls and light grey roof that seemed to be made of some sort of wood, it took no time whatsoever for women to start arriving in the clearing. In less than ten minutes the place was sporting around twenty women. And as soon as the twentieth arrived a lady of aproximately fourty stepped forward and bowed deeply to Rex, the low cut dress displaying quite a bit of her cleavage in the act.
"The night ladies have gathered at your call sir. What is it that we can do for you, since we have been spared thus far from the ravages of war."
"Most of your girls are slaves, am I correct in that asumption?"
"Indeed sir." a brunette from the side responded "Just as we are." she added as she indicated a choker that fit quite neatly around their necks. "The owners of such places wanted a more apealing version of the collars for their 'hardworking' girls and thus this was made. It stil serves the same purpose as the ussual collars, inflicting pain upon masters command."
"And who are these masters you speak of?" Rex asked as he charged the district with his mana, making sure no orders could come through to activate said chokers. "I am blocking the signals for now, so no matter what is discussed here, and whatever decisions I make, no pain will be inflicted upon any of you through those slave collars, and at the end of the day they will all be removed, so speak freely."
And to hammer home his point a few of their pain chokers cracked and fell of their necks, ensuring his words were percieved as facts. What followed was an hour of explanations of how the place was run, who the masters are and any other question Rex could come up with on the spot. He had recieved quite extensive amounts of information and his brain was already working full throttle to find the best ways to utilize said information. It had to be pointed out that Rex's high level of interest in what teh women had to say was not entirely altrusitic in nature. Sure, he would ultimately spare and free the women here, sure he would allow them to get out of Echlisiarchy with some amount of money looted from the corrupt nobles and such, but it was only a fair trade after all. The amount of knowledge he attained regarding a proper runing of brothels and what not was worth a lot as well. All sorts of small details that, while not increadibly impactfull on its own, would in totality ensure the success of his future business.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
"Seesh, I think i could frame myself as the dark lord with what I have in store for those saintesses and oracles." Rex chuckled to himself when some particularily evil ideas slid past his mind, when he slightly delved into the possible future of his to be brothell, but luckaly he had a relatively timid solution for the biggest two obstacles that his to be establishement could face in the future. Namely aging of merchandise and unwanted brats to be. Problems he already had solutions for not only in mind but also in practise. The array to ensure no success on the latter problem, and a huge amount of earth grade food as a solution for the aging. All he needed was to train his managers and ensure the working enviroment of his establishements to be.
Once he was done dealing with the women and advising them to start their new lives probably in Blythe, since the city had been growing a lot and as his base town the level of crime and shady characters was particularily low. A result of Victors countless efforts as well as Rex mere presence as both himself and Neo the monster mercenary. He was more than aware of the dangers the women faced in the world he lived in now, and as such he had put in quite a bit of effort to ensure no proper criminal gangs and underground bosses formed in Blythe, making it if not the safest for your ordinary citizens, then one of for sure.
It took a bit more time still for him to order a few of his goons to remove the torture devices from the ordinary girls in the establishements- an action that was safe due to Rex's mana still oversaturating the zone. With the women released and free to do whatever they wished Rex changed his focus to the other district he still had to solve and since there the questions would not be mostly sex industry based he was more comfortable to gring his new servant family along. The two parent were more than thankfull to Rex for his willingness to not bring their children with him to that particular meeting. Rex also saw tha tthe guys had switched at the gate during his little chat with the local management, so he just waved a little to the guys, releasing them from guard duty and allowing them to go and have other fun in the city, or whats still left of it.
On his way towards the foreigner district he had little of interest to talk with Alfred's family, most pressing matters already having been covered, so besides a few exchanges here and there their twenty something minute walk was mostly quiet. Rex was more than okey with such a happening, having filled his comunication and interraction bars he had for entire weeks ahead, maybee even more. Sure he did not have much of a trouble speaking and interacting with other people, but he strongly preffered to avoid such things outside of home, where he was having enough human interactions already.
And unlike the Red light district, this one was already waiting for him for quite some time. The merchants and artisans, as well as the local guild branches were located here, so there was a clear power structure in place. Not to mention that there were notably more people here than in the previous district. A few hundred whores were already quite the number for a city of ten thousand. Still, in comparison to the thousand people here it was quite the difference.
Rex was met by a couple of A class adventurers who looked very cautiously towards the guards his army had placed here, and one they saw the giant men adressing Rex with respectfull nods, they too were smart enough to show the better part of their personality. Rex did not have to do much to get things rolling. he just mentioned to the guards of the district side that it was he, whose decision would ultimately decide their fate, and who would have guessed that said guards were quite hasty to bring Rex to their bosses as soon as possible. Thus it was slowly getting dark when he was sitting in a rather cozy sofa in the local branch of adventurers guild as on other seats around the rooms were nervously sitting the other big shots of the place. Advebturers guild master of the branch, merchant guilds local branch representative and a few other minor characters.
And once Rex noticed that the adventurers guilds branch master asked regarding his attack on the city, and if he is planning on taking on the adventurers guild, Rex cut him off, asking in return.
"Where are the cookies and tea? You do lack the decorum of a proper host, you know that right? What I am doing is the same thing Echlisiarchy had done to my kind for centuries now I believe. I find it perfectly justifiable for me to do the same. If i had to look for the ones at fault it would be your people for even entertaining the idea of setting up shop here. You cant possibly hope I would believe that you knew no better than that, and did not expect the blowback to come just so soon. Besides I have ow, so graciously given you the possibility to buy out your useless selves. Not only that, I will also allow you to pass on the word through your information network to the other branches of the guild in Echlisiarchy territory. Your job will be that, and only that, since I have little plans for spending more of my time while dealing with pointless diplomacy, where I could spent my time in a much more efficient way that also brought smile to my face."
Yet another hour and so later they had finished their meating, Rex now happily munching on some expensive looking pastries and sipping quite the expensive tea as well. He had controlled most of the pace of their rather brief conversation, since he was not interested whatsoever in dealing with the fools. His imposing presence adn menacing oura that was flared a few times to shut some fool up ensured hasty, yet efficient solutions for his problem. He then followed the adventurers guild branch manager to their information sharing magilac device, and once he was enough in the loop of how it worked he allowed the exact signal to pass through the barrier he had set up, effectively allowing the other guild branches within the territory of Echlisiarchy to know of Rex coming well in advance, and move their people as well as their valuables outside, avoiding a possible scuffle with unreasonably powerfull and well trained military force. Rex also avoided giving them basically anything besides his reason for attacking, which was rather self explanatory, once he pointed at his eyes and mentioned the Blythe fiasko. There were no members of information distributing forces who did not know about the royal fuck up Echlisiarchy had pulled off in Blythe, even if not really a fault of theirs regarding the setup and execution. Who could have expected SS class entity to just so happen to be their target?
With the message to other adventurers guilds branches ine Echlisiarchy sent Rex and his group left the place and returned to the pillaging of the rest of the city. Their festivities, if one could call the Svergi men going wild, lasted throughout the night. Something Rex himself was not present for, what with him having retired to Elysion with his new servants, where he stood on no ceremony, and quickly branded them all, including Al, who had sticked together with Alfreds family throughout the day. Needless to say their jaws dropped when they realised that the friend blood mage of Neo was himself, or more precisely Neo was a persona Rex used to have some extra fun outside.
Rex sent them to get familiar with the work the maid core did back in Blythe, tasking Val and Mel with integrating family and Al into their new lives. Rex spent the rest of his night with his girls as ussual. Unexpectedly the next morning after breakfast he run into Al, who looked at him with shiny eyes that practically worshiped his existance. The maid who was acompanying the girl explained just how moved the young maid in training was when she took the first bite from her meal along the rest of the girls there. How tears of pure happiness streamed down her face, and how they had not stopped for quite a while when she was told that it was no celebration today, and that that was their everyday meal was like, so once she got over her emotional explosion, she begged quite a bit to express her gratitude towards her new master, and the maids relented, knowing Rex was kind master towards his own people.
With the explanation of the experienced maid, Al, who was brought out of her revelrie, quickly knelt on her knees, bowed towards Rex and promised to work hard to show her grattitude towards her saviour and new master. Where suffering and death would have surely found her soon, she was now brought to a place no slave could ever even dream of being. She would work diligently and do anything her master needed, and not because of the brand, since it did not force her to obey, but because she wished to do so. Rex patted her head a little, smiled and spoke.
"How about you learn from the maids for now, and lets talk aout other more mischievous ideas once you reach adulthood?"
With the girls zealous agreement he bidded the tow maids goodbye and returned to the now mostly scorched Provedence. He had to give it to his army. They were damn fast when it came to tearing cities apart.