Wandering in the woods around the ruins of the castle, Marc was studying his surroundings. He wasn’t an expert in Botanic, but during his pharmaceutical studies, he had to learn a lot about the flora, especially about mushrooms. So he was able to recognize most of the trees, bushes, flowers and the likes as ones that were also living on Earth. But some others were new to him. According to Lagakh, those plants were common ones that you could see everywhere. Even the one with the weird blue fruit with yellow stripes called cara. Or were they yellow with blue stripes? Whatever their color was, Lagakh put them in her backpack saying they were nutritious and harmless to eat.
During their food gathering, Lagakh taught to Marc a lot of new words, getting him a little bit of experience in his Linguistic Skill.
They didn’t encounter any creatures except a little bunny who flew too fast for them to catch.
Lagakh’s backpack and his Inventory were full of fruits, vegetables and edible mushrooms around midday, so Marc called it a day. And they ate a bit before going back.
At the castle, Marc ordered to Lagakh to do whatever she wanted but to be back to eat at nightfall.
During the afternoon Marc continued to study the books. He had the impression he recognized some words in those, but the filling wasn’t strong enough to let him read them.
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His name was Gontrant, and he was a hunter. Today he had ventured deeper in the Gabizah forest than usual.
He had an arrangement with the orcs living there. He didn’t go near their camp, when he meets them in the forest he would give them the result of his hunt and would not give their location to the Watch. And they would not slaughter him and his family and even sell to him a bit of their plunder. Well, only the part they had no interest in, but they were sometimes some useful stuff for a lone hunter and his reclusive family.
But the preys were few those last days, and his traps were always empty. So he decided to hunt in the deep part of the Gabizah forest.
And what he saw staggered him.
Lagakh, the dangerous and cruel woman at the head of the local orcs, was gathering fruit and calmly talking to a human. After a bit of observation, Gontrant saw the slavery collar around Lagakh’s neck, and that surprised him even more. He followed the pair to the old castle’s ruins. There he didn’t saw any of the orcs he knew were living here.
Gontrant understood that something happened here and that the orcs were gone. Only Lagakh was still there, and she was enslaved to a strange and tall human.
He stayed there a bit to be sure of that, hiding in the bushes. And when he saw Lagakh go in the forest, he stalked here.
She went a bit away in the forest. And after half an hour of walking, she stopped, unsheathed her sword and practiced with it.
After a time Gontrant saw her getting mad and screaming after a big bush. She tore it apart with her sword and yell at it with all lungs. Gontrant felt a bit embarrassed at the spectacle of that strong woman taking her anger at a defenseless bush deep in the forest, where she thought no one would saw her.
Gontrant slowly moved back and went to check what the human was doing back at the ruins.
The human was alone in the ruins, that all what Gontrant was able to saw. He didn’t want to venture to fast in it, it could be dangerous.
A little bit before nightfall, Gontrant left the forest, thinking about the reward he would get soon. Now that the threat on his family had disappeared, he would get to the Watch at Guerion and signal them that he had spotted a group of orcs.
There was a reward for this kind of information, but until now, it wasn’t worth the risk to anger the orcs.
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During the evening’s meal, Marc thought about Lagakh’s situation. He had to upgrade the orders he gave her before. He remembered having read some of Isaac Asimov’s books, and he thought the Three Law of Robotics would be a good base to use. They would just need a bit of adjustment to fit the current situation.
“Lagakh.” He said to get her attention.
“Hm?”
“I will give you three new orders, they are crucial. You must consider them as Law to be followed at all time. Do you get it?”
“Yeah, important orders, I got it.”
“Pay attention. You’ll have to obey those Three Laws for the rest of your life.
First: you may not injure me or, through inaction, allow me to come to harm.
Second: you must obey the orders given to you by me except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third: you must protect your own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
Usually, I won’t give you orders that could put your life in danger, but if I do you’ll have to obey them. Except if they imply to kill me. There is nothing more important than my life, whatever I order you in the future, you will never be able to go against the First Law. Or against the two other Laws. Understood?”
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“Yes, I get it. No matter what your future orders will be, I cannot break those Free Laws. I am your slave now and forever.”
“Yes, you are. It also meant that if someone tried to remove your collar, you’ll have to prevent it, as you’ll become a threat to me.”
“What?!”
“Yes, I’m not stupid. I know that you hate me and that if one day that collar is removed, you will kill me as soon as possible. And if someone or something tries to free you, it will make you a threat to my life, breaking the First Law. So you must always keep your collar and prevent anyone or anything from removing it, even me.”
“...”
“Meaning that you must fight to stay my slave.”
“You... You’re really smarter than you look like. If you know how much I hate you, you need to know that I will never stop looking for a way to kill you. To painfully and slowly kill you if possible, but to kill you, nonetheless.”
“I know. But with the Three Laws, you won’t be able to do it. Now, it’s enough for tonight, tomorrow, you will teach me about the local geography, the economics and all those kind of stuff. I want to know those stuff before going to Querian.”
“It’s Guerion, you fucking bastard.”
“Squeak!” Paulet intervened in the conversation lightly head-butting Lagakh’s left leg.
“Stop insulting me. And don’t harm Paulet either. I can resummon it when I want, but that’s not a reason to harm it. Now go to sleep, in the second bedroom.”
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‘That fucking bastard! Motherfucker! Pig’s shit! I will find a way to bypass those fucking Laws of yours and to kill you! And your fucking mushroom too.’
Following her orders, Lagakh went to the shaman old bedroom. She took a bit of time to prepare it before going to bed, taking some of her stuff from her previous bedroom and blocking the door of her new one. But soon the collar started to itch at her neck, reminding her that she had to obey and she went to bed.
Before falling asleep she thought about the Three Fucking Laws. She couldn’t find a way to break those, even more with the precision that she had to fight to keep her collar if necessary, Marc had insisted on that point. But she didn’t lose hope.
She had freed herself from slavery once, she even got the title Shackles Breaker for that. She’ll find a way to free herself once more. And like the first time, she would kill the slaver. It would just be more difficult. This human was smarter than her previous owner.
It would be harder to free herself from a human like this one, able to think smart, than from the fat and stupid one she had once belonged to.
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After breakfast, Marc and Lagakh walked outside the castle’s ruins and in the forest, looking for more food to gather.
“So, tell me. What is the side of the country we are in? And also his name, political state and the likes.”
“We’re in the kingdom of Heridygt, it is part of the Jhagie continent. It’s a country of medium size, don’t ask me more about the size, I don’t know much. There is a human king, he’s named Batou Porion and a lot of noble.The kingdom is at peace since last year. The local region is Deotau and it is ruled by the Baron of Guerion, name’s Gary Hupe. It is a remote region with nothing of interest.”
“I suppose that’s why your little band could act easily. What about the economics? What’s the currency? And how much cost the fabrics we found in the basement?”
“Hrmf. The local economy is pretty bad, there isn’t a lot of things to export and the region is not on a big commercial road. As long as you stay in this kingdom, you can use the heridygt’s or the lavarian’s pieces at the same value. There are copper, silver and gold ones. One hundred copper for a silver and one hundred silver for a gold. If you need to transport more money, it’s best to use gems.”
“And in the others countries?”
“If a country is big enough, it often had his own currency. But the lavarian’s pieces are valuable on the whole continent.”
“Ok. You didn’t answer one of my questions. How many do the fabrics are worth?”
“They are worth between one and three gold. You want to know anything else, or can we work in silence?”
“I still have a lot of questions. For example, what is the major race in Heridygt? And how are the rest treated?”
“The majority are humans, closely followed by hobbits. But there is also a lot of other races: gnomes, dwarves, elves. Those races are pretty well considered and numerous, but the others tend to be outcasts or slaves. Like orcs and goliaths.”
“Any furries?”
“What are those?”
“Beastmen? Humans with tails and ears like animals. Sometimes with fur. There were quite popular in the stories on earth.”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Just answer the question.”
“Well they are, but not many. They tend to stay in their tribe, or pack, or whatever they called it. The gnolls are the most common. But some rich and perverted humans magically modifies their slaves for more ‘exotisme’.”
“Does that means what I think it means?”
“I don’t know what you're thinking. But if it is a pervert thought about those poor souls, then you are despicable.”
“Ahem… I wasn’t thinking about that.” ‘I totally was.’ “Anyway, will I have problems if I walk with you by my side in Guerion?”
“Normally no.”
“Normally?”
“As long I no one recognizes me it should be okay.”
“Care to develop?”
“I would rather not, it brings back memories I'd like to forget.”
“Fine, I won’t force you to tell me everything of your past. But tell me a bit more about the situation.”
“Pfff. If someone strong enough, or with the good connexion recognize me and decide to make a ruckus, it could go back. I killed the last man who owned me, and he had a lot of friends in the arena.”
“I see. Well, if you wear a hood, it should be enough to hide your face from those bastards.
“It should yes.”
“You talked about an arena? Tell me more about it.”
“Yes. A place where fights are organized. There is multiples kind of fights. Some are between gladiators, other against beasts. Sometimes they are criminals who choose to try their chance in the arena instead of slavery. If they fight a number of times depending on their crimes, they are free. If you want to avoid any unnecessary attention, we will not get near it.”
“Why that?”
“Cause I fought a lot there the last time I was a slave.”
“Interesting, I’ll think about that. Now continue to gather food. I will go back to the ruins and resume my studying. Don’t forget to come back.
“Hrmf.”
“Come with me Paulet.”