In the capital of the Slavia kingdom.
Night-time.
A man wearing a hooded coat is wandering around the bustling city. Even though it is night, people are still as lively as in the day. Many would say night-time is the true daytime. The man walks towards an alley and appears on the other side.
Three shadows follow from behind as they watch every step he makes. The man finally arrives at a building and knocks thrice, pausing a little after the second knock. A slit on the door opens and a pair of eyes look down. The slit closes again followed by the sound of locks being opened, chains being moved until finally the door creaks open.
“Wait for me here.” Says the man and the shadows obeyed.
The man enters the building. He is then escorted by the person who had just opened the door to a room in the basement. There, a mountain of a man is sitting on the chair. It is Dread.
The man removes his hood as a well-maintained face appears. The man is a bit chubby but not in a disgusting way. He is clean and the clothes he wears are beautifully tailored. His attire practically says ‘I have a ton of money’. This man is viscount Fred Stokes. A man who deals in slavery.
He takes a sit across Dread and glares at him.
“I hope you have an explanation for me, Dread?” says Fred.
Dread remains quiet. His quietness only makes Fred Stokes enraged as he slams on the table that separates them.
“SPEAK! WHY IS IT THAT MY SPIES TELL ME THAT MY SLAVE HOUSE IN WAHAM HAS BEEN DESTROYED? AREN’T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE PROTECTING IT?”
Dread lifts his head up as he glares at viscount Stokes.
“Your slave house?”
Sweat rolls down Fred’s forehead as he takes a huge gulp.
“Don’t get mistaken viscount Stokes. You work for us.”
Those words only infuriated Fred even more.
“WORK FOR YOU? I AM THE ONE WHO SPENT MY FORTUNE TO BUILD THAT BUSINESS.” His anger subsides, “This is a mutual deal, remember? I work for nobody. The only reason I’m here is because of Zeke and ‘him’. You are just a puppet. You don’t get to speak.”
Dread remains quiet once more.
“Sigh. So, what are you guys planning to do with this problem?” asks Fred.
“Zeke has already been sent to deal with this problem.”
“Oh, Zeke. I guess I shouldn’t worry then.” Fred smiles as he looks at Dread. “So, ‘he’ didn’t even think of sending you, huh. After all, Waham is your responsibility. I guess you are not that important in the Society.”
Veins pop on Dread’s forehead as he holds in his rage.
“Anyways. It seems that the Law Enforcement Division will be sent to Waham to investigate what has happened there. I hope for your sake that there is nothing in there that could lead back to me.”
“You don’t need to worry. Count James Caskcut has already been informed to investigate what had happened instead of what we do there.”
“Caskcut, huh? Well, I guess that’s one worry off my shoulders. I heard two Slayers will also be heading there with the Law Enforcement. I believe it’s the King Cobra Slayer and the High Orc Slayer.”
“Then you don’t need to worry if it’s King Cobra.” Says Dread as he smirks.
“What I’m more worried about is that Barion, the High Orc Slayer. He is close with Marquis Read. If he catches wind about what we are doing in Waham and blurts it out to that Read, then we can kiss everything goodbye.”
“That won’t happened.”
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Fred looks at Dread once more.
“You seem different today. You seem sad in a way. Did ‘he’ punish you or something?”
Dread remains quiet. All he could do was remember his conversation with him.
It was in the middle of the day when Dread received a call via a communication crystal ball. It was ‘him’. The man behind the scenes. The man who is the boss of the Bandit Society. The man known by the name X.
“Sir. I wasn’t expecting your call today.”
“I’ve heard about what had happened to Waham.” Said the man in the crystal ball.
The scene behind him was dark and his face wasn’t clear. But one thing was apparent. This man was wearing a mask. His golden eyes shimmered through the slits of the mask.
“I’ve just received the message now. I’ll go to Waham imme-“
“Forget it. I have already sent Zeke to clean up your mess.”
This information shocked him. After all, Waham was his responsibility. Letting someone else solve his problems just further revealed how pathetic he was.
“Please sir. Please give me a chance to fix this.”
“This is the second time you’ve failed me. I hope for your sake there won’t be a third, Dread.” Said X as his eyes shimmered.
Dread was frozen in fear as sweat slowly dripped down his face. And just like that, the conversation was over.
***
Back to the present.
Fred then takes out a cigarette and lights it with a match.
“Now, to the troublesome problem. It seems the slaves were rescued somehow.”
“Yes. My men believe that it was the Freedom Fighters again.”
“It would seem, but witnesses say nobody came out of that building which is weird. I mean, someone would have seen dozens of slaves being freed, no.”
He takes a puff out of his cigarette and continues. “Not only that, the Freedom Fighters usually work at night. It’s not their style to operate at noon, risking exposing themselves in the process.”
“Do you think it was someone else.”
“I can’t say. We just don’t have enough information right now. But I’m sure Zeke will have something when he returns.”
“You said troublesome problem. What’s so troublesome about this?”
“Well, you would know if you worked on the administrative side of things, but I guess it makes sense that you don’t know. The client that we were supposed to send those slaves to was Gloria Enriech, a duke of the Great Empire and none other than King Andrew’s sister.”
Dread can’t stop himself from gaping his eyes wide open.
“Ah, I see. She’s not the patient type that one.”
“Yeah. And not only that, but she is also our highest paying customer. She also paid upfront for those slaves, and she wanted the Gray wolves beastmen more than anything. Now, I’ll have to meet her face to face and explain.”
Dread chuckles. “I would help you quell her anger but too bad. I’ve been forbidden from leaving the capital for now.”
“I see. Tell me though, how is she?”
“Crazy. That’s all I can tell you. You can never know what she will do.”
“Ah, I see. I guess I’ll be leaving for now. I still have to take care of another problem. It seems we had another client who we were supposed to deliver the monsters to.”
“Oh. And who is he?”
“I don’t know. Some guy who goes by the name ‘Doctor’.”
Fred then leaves the room. A man enters the room from another door. It is one of Dread’s underlings.
“Boss.”
The underling looks at his boss who is red in rage. Before he can do anything, he is grabbed by the face and slammed towards the wall. The head is smashed into nothing.
All this time, Dread has been holding in his rage. He was looking for a way to quell it and the poor soul who opened the door was the one to do it with his life.
***
Outside of the building.
Fred walks out of the building through the same door he had entered. Immediately as he leaves, the shadows return and follow him.
Slavery in the Slavia kingdom is legal. Meaning people can trade using slaves. But by law, slaves must be people who have committed a crime of sort. These slaves are then used as workers to either build roads, fix houses, fight in wars and more depending on the gender and race. Now, people who have become slaves can work for their freedom or pay off their debts. Of course, it depends on the severity of the crime they have committed or are held accountable for.
For those whose crimes can never be forgiven, they are subjected to the worst kinds of treatment such as an impoverished lifestyle.
Trading beastmen is also allowed but they also must be criminals. That doesn’t apply to the Cat clan and the Gray Wolves clan though (since being them is a crime on itself).
So, if that’s the case, can innocent beastmen who are not from the Cat or the Gray Wolves clan live in a human city? The answer is yes but they are rare. The reason being the fact that there are underworld organisations who kidnap people. Be it humans, elves or beastmen, these organisations kidnap people and sell them at auctions or some other way. They are also subjected to discrimination, so their lives aren’t sweet.
Viscount Fred Stokes holds the biggest slave business in the Slavia kingdom and because of that, he was included to the council. Of course, he made a lot of money trading with slaves but he had skeletons in his closet. He would hire bandits to kidnap people, usually children, from faraway villages and sell them for profit.
He did all of this behind the back of the council. Now why would he create unauthorized slave businesses? The answer is simple. It’s because of taxes. Slave taxes are enormous. Even though the slave business brings in a lot of money, half of it goes to the treasury of the kingdom as taxes.
That’s why he does what he does. It’s all because of greed. But now he is working for the Bandit Society. It wasn’t because he wanted to. He was sloppy in covering his tracks to the point that someone was able to find all his dirty secrets. That person being Zeke.
Even though he joined them without meaning too. He later learned that there were benefits in working for them. After being told a bit about their plan, he couldn’t stop himself from drooling from all the excitement.