She was a slave who had managed to kill her Master, which should have been impossible given the mana imbued orders emplaced by her previous owner. If it was anyone else in this situation, he would have almost admired the ingenuity it must have taken to break free of those shackles.
Compounding the difficulty was her background check. He honestly didn’t know what to make of it. Having examined the copy purchased by Healer Perg - the chronology was fragmented and incomplete, owing to the haphazard nature of this world’s record keeping. She had been imprisoned for petty thievery at the age of 17, but subsequent records indicated she had been sold into slavery for murdering a guard partway through her sentence. Since then, she had exchanged hands four times over the past seven years.
To Exill, the safest, most rational choice was to admit an impulsive, self-destructive purchase had been made, then absorb the 2000 Denar loss and return Envy to the Slave Trader. It would be an object lesson on the foolishness of his belief that he could save a life. Savta was unlikely to take him back, though he could still try.
But why couldn’t he do it? Why didn’t he feel relieved from finding a way out?
The cold truth was the slave warehouse was intimately familiar to him, in all its maleficent splendour. To return a living person to that state, no matter their background didn’t sit well with him. He may be soft and kind-hearted, but there had to be a better way.
This left him with the question, ‘How do you motivate someone who is hostile to you?’
The answer he arrived at was to promise something they desired, something valuable enough to incentivize his safety. He took his eyes off the sword wielding Vampire for a second, and reached down into his rucksack to withdraw a small sheaf of parchment purchased earlier that day.
“You know, we often make enemies of people who aren’t enemies... finding that even if we win, we have still lost.” He held up the [Notarized Contract] in front of her and made the following declaration:
“I am willing to guarantee your freedom in exchange for your help. Assist me in all my endeavours, and at the end of its term, we can both walk away alive.”
Envy drew in a ragged breath and finally lowered her sword. His words had caught her off guard and her pupils flickered as she made rapid calculations, “Why would you offer to free me when you can easily manipulate me with your commands?”
Exill shrugged, “I know what you did to your former Master. Call me idealistic, but I would rather work with you than against you.”
“So, you will save up another 15,000 Denars on top of your 13,000 debt to pay for my freedom?” Envy asked sceptically. She didn’t permit her heart to dream, because if this whole performance turned out to be a sick joke, she was afraid she would never recover from it.
“If that’s what it takes, yes… though it might take some time.” Exill maintained a straight face whilst wincing inwardly. He was aware that you had to pay a Slave Trader to free someone, but not that the price of freedom was the slave’s purchase price. This essentially doubled the amount of money required.
“How long will that take?”
Exill sighed and reached for the clay tablet, wetting its surface as he made some calculations, “Our living expenses are 450 Denars a month, assuming we live frugally. If we earn enough from the Labyrinth, and I take the odd healing job we can earn around 2000 Denars a month. That means... you should be free in twenty to twenty four months.”
Envy’s eyebrows rose in surprise, much to Exill’s amusement because he had never expected that the scheming succubus was capable of expressing such an emotion.
‘I can be free in under two years. Then I can search for...’ but she didn’t allow her thoughts to derail. Planning that far ahead into the future could not end well, that was something she had learnt the hard way. After some thought, she made her demands.
“‘Should be free in twenty four months’ isn’t good enough, I want you to guarantee my freedom in two years, whatever it takes.” Her eyes were resolute. She would rather kill him than be forcibly bound to another broken promise.
Exill hesitated... his two-year estimate was on the conservative side and had a lot of padding built in, but he didn’t want to stake his word on what was essentially napkin math.
The job [Slave Trader] could be obtained to minimize his exposure to this risk. It was currently greyed out, requiring Level 20 Vendor and had been unlocked the moment he had purchased Envy. This meant he could free her without the need for middle-men, but that came with its own host of challenges.
After some time, he looked up from his thoughts to find Envy glaring at him, suspicion and disappointment evident in her eyes.
‘Ah... would anything less suffice in gaining her trust?’
What she had gone through was anyone’s guess, but if their positions had been reversed he would have demanded the very same assurances. If he declined her now, there would be no credibility to their partnership.
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“Okay, but the moment you commit a crime, and I’m held accountable as your master - the deal is off.”
Exill reluctantly accepted, he just needed the [Slave Trader] job before the two years were up to free her at no extra cost. Reaching out for a pen, he began to write the contract when the doubtful murderess stopped him again. He had accepted her terms too easily.
“You will not attempt to kill me or give me orders that may lead to my death.” She hastily added, afraid he would kill her the moment she was of no use to him.
“That goes without saying, and similar conditions will apply to you as well.” he responded in turn.
Space was tight on the single sheet of parchment, but he wrote the additional terms and held it up for the mistrustful Vampire to inspect. She still glared at him, unwilling to believe there wasn’t an exploitable loophole, but to her surprise the contract appeared solid.
Aside from guaranteeing her freedom after two years, it demanded her full cooperation in all his endeavours, with lock tight clauses safeguarding the mutual security of both parties. What stood out was a non-disclosure agreement combined with a non-disparagement clause that prevented Envy from divulging secrets obtained in/directly to the detriment of her owner for all eternity.
Exill wasn’t sure how the NDA would work in this World. To this end, he added a tiny reciprocity clause that applied these restrictions to Envy’s secrets as well – after all, it was the only way to determine how much protection it afforded him.
A desolate seed of hope was planted in her heart when they channelled mana through the parchment, binding themselves with the World as their witness. The contract was handed over to her to keep. It was a mere formality at this point.
“I hope this means your days of acting maliciously are over.” Exill sighed, hoping that his efforts hadn’t been in vain.
Envy pondered on it, obviously enjoying the optimistic light in his eyes. She relished teasing this earnest young man. For her, the way his serious face turned red from embarrassment was too delightful to give up.
“Maybe. If you can fix that stingy virgin behaviour of yours.”
“Argh! Why are you even using that word as an insult? How would you even survive if I couldn’t feed you?”
She smiled, perhaps her first genuine smile since she had been enslaved. Reaching out, she tentatively tousled his brown hair, “That is why you will remain my stingy virgin.”
Exill’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of her candid smile and turned away to focus on his clay tablet in sullen silence. It appeared her relentless teasing was here to stay. He turned his focus to the napkin math that estimated her freedom in two years and his mind raced with possibilities and implications. Slowly, he wiped away the crude calculations.
‘What’s done, is done.’ He tried not to dwell too much on things that could go wrong.
***
For the rest of the evening, they sat in companionable stillness, occupied in their own thoughts. The earlier tension in the room had all but dissipated. After several hours, Exill looked up and asked the Vampire something that he had been wanting to test for a long while.
“Can I ask you a few questions? It shouldn’t take longer than a minute.”
“…Okay.” There was a guarded look on Envy’s face, apprehensive of the type of questions her new contractor would ask.
Exill readied his clay tablet, eager to test the efficacy of a skill he had obtained months ago. [Conman]’s active skill [Bluff] – something that made lies more believable - had been unassigned from his active job slot for the first part of the test.
“I would like you to answer the following questions with a number ranging from one to five, where 1 is very unlikely and 5 is very plausible.” Four questions were asked, and Envy’s tepid responses were recorded.
Question Answer I was blessed by the World Spirit 4 I am 29 years old 1 The cost to enter the Labyrinth is normally five Denars 5 The war with the Afrye Tribal Federation is over 5
“Great, for the next part I would like you to answer in the same way, again, 1 is very unlikely and 5 is very plausible.” Exill activated [Conman] this time and asked the same questions as before with a slight twist.
Question [Bluff Activated] Answer I was not blessed by the World Spirit 3 I am 18 years old 2 The cost to enter the Labyrinth has always been free 1 The war with the Afrye Tribal Federation rages on in secret 3
Examining the results for a minute, he came to several tentative conclusions. Although his questions were crude and there were many holes in his methodology, two things immediately leapt out at him.
First was that [Bluff] had no effect on what the listener knew to be false. This was evident from how Envy had replied ‘Very Unlikely’ to the question ‘The cost to enter the Labyrinth has always been free.’
Second was that [Bluff] worked best when there was an element of uncertainty. On the first part of the test, Envy was certain that the war was over with the Afrye. However, when he posed an alternate theory that the ‘war raged on in secret’ with [Bluff] activated, her belief had been shaken.
Lastly, and this was a personal observation, he found it interesting that Envy didn’t fully believe he had been blessed by the World Spirit to obtain [Witchdoctor]. She was shrewd and intelligent, and her scepticism increased his respect towards her.
“So, is that all?” she asked, surprised at the direction of his questions.
“Yes, that is all. Thank you.”
“Then what was the answer to those questions?” Envy couldn’t fully conceal the burning curiosity in her amber eyes. She couldn’t gauge if the questions had been designed to test her intellect or that it hid a more insidious purpose.
Enjoying how the tables had turned, Exill grasped the opportunity to tease her for once.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he replied smugly.
[Job Tree in post-chapter author note]