Okay! And left! Right! Left! Right! Left! Right!...

Waggling my hips with every accentuated step, I strut my stuff down the runway, perfectly timing the momentary flexing of all my muscles each time my foot hits the floor to give my body some extra bounce.

And step! Step! Step! Step! Now twirl! Twirl! Aaaand strike a sexy pose!

Stopping at the end of the catwalk, I twirl on the spot, flashing my chiselled thighs as the short skirt from my ultra-fashionable sailor uniform splays outward from the sudden spin. Reaching up with both hands, I seductively run my fingers through my pitch-black hair, making sure to flex my beautiful throbbing triceps that are now on full display.

Giving a playful wink out to the stands, I turn away and continue my strut back up the runway.

And left! Right! Left! Right! Left—!

CRACK!

A sharp crack of a whip rings out, accompanied by a light stinging at my back. Stopping in my tracks mid-strut, I turn towards the source of the sudden interruption and give them a puzzled frown.

“Fweh? I thought that one was pretty good just now, don’t you think?”

At my words, the plump, middle-aged man holding the whip suddenly bursts into tears.

“No! We’ve been doing this for hours already! Please just listen to me!” he cries, the tears streaming down his greasy face.

“I am listening!” I snap back. “You wanted me to model my merchandise across the runway, right? That’s what I’m doing!”

“No!” he sobs. “You are the merchandise! And this isn’t a runway! You’re a slave! Stop talking! Stop moving around! Please just stand there silently until somebody buys you! That’s all you have to do! Please... If something like this happens in the Capital in front of other people, the Mistress will have my head...”

Apparently, I’ve become a slave now.

For the past several hours, I’ve been practising my runway strut rehearsal on an empty stage in front of an empty audience in preparation for my big upcoming debut where I’ll potentially be bought and sold as somebody’s property. Hot property, of course. Pepper Black is a woman who is always on the market for a rich girl with a cute, kissable mouth!

“When all those unconscious prisoners washed up along the shore of Surstrom Lake, I thought I’d finally hit my lucky break...” the man whines through occasional sniffles. “I managed to get there before all the other slavers turned up in droves so I got the first pickings. I ended up taking the one who looked the strongest and most capable, but... You’re useless as a slave! You don’t listen at all! Whipping you doesn’t do anything either! I wish I would have just picked someone normal instead!”

After the Spire fell over and collapsed into the lake, the resulting wave blew away everybody across the water and washed them to shore. It seems a camp of slavers took advantage of this sudden opportunity to pluck up any unconscious prisoners they could find and enslave them. Me included.

I don’t know where Mei-Mei and the others are, but I’m sure they’re somewhere in this big slaver camp, training to be slaves—just like me! I hope they’re having just as much fun as I am right now!

“There, there,” I reassure him, patting the slaver gently on his greasy, balding head. “We’ll get through this together. I’ll prove you made the right decision picking me back there. Don’t worry. People will be lining up just to buy me!”

—And then I throw up.

Reaching into my mouth, I grab the mysterious object and pull it out with ease. Flipping it over in my hand, I can instantly tell that it’s a hat. A red and white cap with a one-sided brim and a little red button on top. Shaking some of the sticky juices away, I set it softly on the man’s thinning head with a wet little plop.

“Th-thank you, slave...” he says, lightly adjusting his new headwear with an oddly bashful look.

“Please,” I reply. “Call me Pepper.”

“O-okay, Pepper... Call me Mash.”

As both slave and slaver bond over a newfound respect for one another, I offer him a soft smile, before posing an all-important question.

“So, after the twirl and the wink, should I blow a kiss to the audience afterwards or would that be too much?”

Bursting back into tears, Mash dejectedly resumes our slave training session as I continue to strut my stuff down the empty runway for the next several hours, much to the dismay of the sobbing slaver.

“Fwah~!” Breathing out a happy little sigh, my day of training has come to an end and I’m eventually escorted back to my cage by a very downcast Mash.

Opening the cage door for me, he sighs and half-heartedly cracks his whip in my direction.

“Get in,” he says. “Or don’t. It’s not like you’re going to listen and I can’t really stop you either way...”

After being arrested and then sent to Surstrom Spire for a few months, I’m kinda sick of cages now, so I think I’ll go with the ‘or don’t’ option!

Turning away from the cage, I decide to go for a wander around the camp instead, leaving the slaver to his gentle sobbing behind me.

From what I can tell, this camp is pretty big! A home for hundreds of both slaves and slavers alike. It’s like a whole village in here! Simple wooden barricades with spiked tips line the outside of the camp, acting as a basic makeshift wall of sorts. Seemingly a temporary and lazily put-together effort to keep lowly wandering monsters at bay, while giving any potential escapees a slightly more difficult time. Closest to these walls is where the slavers make their homes, feasting and laughing happily around warm fires under the translucent blue moon. At the centre of the camp is where all the cages filled with slaves are. That place is kind of a downer so I think I’ll hang out with the slavers tonight.

As I approach a group of slavers drinking around a table, I hear them chatting away and arguing with one another about something in particular.

“I told you, it turned red! I saw it with my own eyes!” one shouts, slamming his tankard against the table.

“Hah? The moon turned red? Bullshit! You were obviously drunk, you dumb dope!” another shouts back at him.

A red moon, huh? Looking up into the starry night sky, I gaze upon the shining moon high above. From what I can tell, it's still the same ring of silver around a hazy blue light that I saw when I first came to the Outside. It doesn’t look like it’s changed since then. It definitely doesn’t look red...

"Fweh? What's this about a red moon?" I ask, pulling up a seat at the table and shovelling a whole steaming potato into my mouth. After a light crunch, it instantly breaks apart between my teeth, showering my tongue with a burst of buttery goodness. “Fwah~! Crispy and fluffy!”

“I’m telling you!” the drunk man continues. “Last night, I saw the moon turn red! Just for a moment! Blink and you would've missed it!”

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“Fweh... I guess I must’ve missed it then.” I reach across the table and grab a plate stacked high with cooked meats and start happily sliding the salty steaks down my hungry gullet.

“Yeah, we all must’ve missed it, hey? Don’t listen to this dope, he’s clearly—” The other slaver pauses mid-sentence when he sees me happily chewing on my meats. “... Who the hell are you?”

All the other slavers at the table turn my way as well.

“Pepper,” I answer flatly. “Mash’s slave.”

“...”

The crack of many snapping whips rings out into the night, disrupting the previously soothing atmosphere as I’m quickly driven away from the feast and back to the cages where all the other slaves hang out.

Lame... But at least I got to keep my meat...

Walking past all the full cages, the dead eyes of ragged, dirty-looking people stare back at me with gaunt faces, their bruised and beaten bodies visible beneath their torn rags.

Humans, elves, wolfmen, lizardfolk... Fwah! They’ve even got centaurs! I’ve never seen one before! It seems they’ve got all manner of races in here. There’s even a section for monsters too! The occasional goblin or kobold screeches up at me weakly as I wander past their cage. I think there might even be a troll somewhere back there but I don’t have any interest in monsters so I turn back. There are no cute girls in this section after all.

Fwah! Speaking of cute girls...

Stopping in front of one cage in particular, I crouch down and hold a fistful of meat out between the bars to all the cute, hungry-looking slaves on the other side.

“Oh? You girls look hungry! I took these from some of the guys with whips. Want some?”

“...”

They don’t respond, instead barely turning their hollow eyes my way.

“Mm! I guess I’ll just have to feed you myself!”

Ripping open the cage door, I step inside and start feeding the cute slave girls my salty meats. After an hour of indulging myself, I eventually leave the cage empty-handed and with a satisfied grin on my face. Having a room full of pretty women nibbling weakly at my fingertips with their cracked yet kissable lips as I tear off strips of meat for them is a satisfying experience! Let’s do this again tomorrow night!

Placing the cage door back where it belongs, I make my way back to my own cage, making sure to avoid any patrolling slavers along the way. Dealing with those guys is annoying. The whips they use don’t hurt, but they’re really loud, and these guys will keep following me around until I go back behind bars. It’s a real pain.

Finding my own cage, I step inside and crash on the dirt floor. Closing my eyes, I gently drift away to the soothing sounds of Mash’s gentle sobs. The fact that he’s still here is kinda weird, but I ignore it and get some sleep...

...

When I awake, I find the sweaty, middle-aged man standing over me, a whip in his hand and the cap still atop his head.

“Come with me,” he says. “The Mistress wants to see you.”

Leading the way, he turns back for a moment. “Please,” he adds weakly, and continues onward.

Oh? The Mistress? That’s gotta be a woman! And if it’s a woman who’s asking for me, who am I to refuse?

Jumping to my feet, I follow Mash out of the cage and out into the morning light.

He leads the way past the cluster of cages and takes me to a section in the slaver side of the camp. Ignoring all the dirty looks from the other slavers we pass, he leads me to a tent much larger and grander than all the others I’ve seen. Passing the guards standing at the entrance, we move on through and into the wide-open space on the other side.

Despite being a tent, it’s a lot roomier in here than I first thought it would be. On top of that, you can’t even tell that it’s a tent from the inside, being almost indistinguishable from a room you might find in a house or building. Coloured lanterns from across the room emit a dim and gentle light, bathing everything in a soft pink glow. A number of whips and oddly shaped tools of varying sizes adorn the walls, many of which I haven’t seen before and don’t recognize. Chains hang down from the ceiling, tipped with different kinds of binds and shackles. And at the centre of the room—

“Hoh? Is this the naughty slave I’ve been hearing about?”

A blonde woman, clad in tight, black leather, stands before us. Her sharp, grey eyes lick my body up and down as she bites softly on her bottom lip.

“—!” My heart skips a beat at the sudden unexpected sight of such a cute and erotic lady.

“Y-yes, Mistress Thea,” Mash responds meekly. “This is the one...”

“Hmm...” Strutting over with heels clicking across the polished wood floor of the strangely room-like tent, the woman stops right in front of me, still scanning her eyes over my body. “I’m impressed, Mash. You managed to find a good one.”

“Th-thank you, Mistress Thea...” he replies, removing his cap momentarily to wipe the greasy globs of sweat pooling in the creases of his flabby forehead. “B-but, the problem is she just won’t listen to me. I would ask if you could p-please assist me in her training...”

Not even giving the man a single glance, the leather-clad woman reaches for a whip at her side and narrows her eyes at me.

“Very well,” she says. “I like the look of this one, so I’m willing to help you just this once.”

“Thank you, Mistress...”

Still glaring at me, she runs a tongue across her lips and tugs at the whip with both hands, pulling it taut with a satisfying snap.

“Strip,” she orders, with a sly smile.

“Yes, Mistress!” I bellow, instantly undressing in less than half a second and placing all of my perfectly folded clothes at my feet.

“... Eh?” Mash looks on with visible confusion at the sight of my complete and total obedience at carrying out the Mistress’ orders in a single blink of an eye.

“Wha—?” the Mistress looks somewhat shocked for a second too, before quickly regaining her composure. “V-very good. I’m very impressed. The speed at which you did that was masterful. Without hesitation too. Almost as if you wanted to strip for some reason...”

“Thank you, Mistress!”

Circling around me, I feel the woman run a fingernail along my exposed back before leaning close to my ear.

“How about you get down on your hands and knees for me,” she orders, a devilish tinge to her voice. “I want to hear you bark like a dog.”

“Yes, Mistress!”

Dropping my naked body to the floor in an instant, I get on my hands and knees and deliver an expert imitation of the only dog I know.

“Foul creature!” I bark. “I’ll never allow a demon to escape back into the world!”

The Mistress gives me a puzzled look. “W-what kind of dog is that?”

“A very angry one, Mistress!”

“I-I see...”

Taking a short moment to compose herself again, she suddenly jabs a heel into my back and rests her weight against it.

“Very good, slave. Enough of that though. This time, I want you to show me that those muscles of yours aren’t just for decoration.” Leaning down to me, her voice drops to a seductive whisper as she grinds her heel against my exposed back. “This time, I want you to give me push-ups. And don’t you dare stop until I tell you to.”

“Yes, Mistress!”

With the weight of the erotic slaver lady on my back, I begin to rapidly pump out push-ups at an intense speed. My movements become a blur and the ground shakes beneath my hands as I easily breeze my way into the triple digits in just a few short seconds.

“S-stop! Stop!” she orders almost immediately, struggling to stay on her feet as she’s thrown from my back and the entire room shakes around her. Many of the hanging tools across her shelves and walls clatter noisily to the floor as I slowly grind to a halt and stand to my feet once again.

“Yes, Mistress! Thank you, Mistress!”

Fwah~! Being a slave is great! Having a cute girl tell me to strip and work out is like a dream come true!

Catching her breath, Mistress Thea gives Mash a quick glance and a short nod in acknowledgement.

“Mash, I’m truly impressed. This one is already completely and totally obedient. She does everything I tell her to, quickly, enthusiastically, and without question. Almost as if she’s happy to follow my orders. There’s nothing I can possibly teach her. I’m tempted to buy her myself, to be honest...”

“Eh—? Wha—? Ah... Th-thank you, Mistress...?” In response, Mash just blinks back at her in confusion.

“Tell me, slave, before I let you go...” Her sharp, grey eyes stare directly into my own. “... Is that something you’d like? Being owned by me?”

“Nothing would make me happier, Mistress. Meeting you today was like a dream come true.” Staring back into her eyes, I beam at her happily with nothing but my true and honest feelings.

“—!” Her eyes soften for a moment and she quickly turns her back to me, hiding the light blushing of her reddened cheeks. “V-very well... I’ll let you go for now. I hope that maybe... we can do this once again when I’m not so busy...”

And with that, she disappears deeper into her tent, leaving me and Mash to stand there on our own. Picking my clothes back up, I quickly slip my sailor uniform back on and make my way to the exit.

“W-wait!” Mash stops me as I go to leave.

“Fweh? What’s up?”

“Strip!” he orders, pointing a stubby finger at me.

...

“Hah?” I glare back at him with a sour look on my face. “Gross. No way.”

“Eh? B-but...?”

“You can’t just say stuff like that to girls, Mash. That’s sexual harassment. You can go to jail for that, you know?”

—And then I take my leave, exiting the tent and leaving the man behind.

...

“... Eh?”