Chapter 16
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"Now. I hope you will accept our policy since you already know about our history. Hmm… how about we will hold on to these bandits, and when you have gathered enough money, you may buy them from us. How does that sound? Most humans are mostly state property anyway." Lhorne suggested
"Tailfolks preferred to kiss our feet rather than buy humans as slaves! I mean that literally," Wharne shouted in disbelief.
"Well, I hope you did a good job. Then, you may buy them."
Nora deflated. "At least keep their lives. Okay?"
"Lily. Wait. We are not done yet. Tell them you have blessing and Tale of Fire. They might listen more if you tell them you will help them with that." I whispered. If I played this right, I might get promotions.
I recall in my corporate slaves day that my younger coworker immediately got a promotion in just 3 months. He got that promotion because he revealed that he had a connection to some influencers that are good for our marketing business. I will use that method now. Blessing is quite rare. Moreover, it is a blessing that also grants magic. I am sure we will be given a warmer welcome.
"Mister Wharne, I had a blessing. And also can use magic. Do you think I can help you more if I use magic?" Lily asked.
The elves then went silent. Wharnebald's eye went wild as he scrutinized us.
"Any proof? Sorry about this. I know some scammers in the past that lied to gain what they wanted. "Wharne said warily.
My tail perked up in front of Lily, and with a flick, a candle lit up before her eyes. All the eyes were zoned in on Lily.
"Is it Tale of Fire?" Wharne replied. Lily nodded her head after I confirmed her.
"Sir. Are you done? You have a meeting. Count Sarge is calling you…." an elf receptionist knocked.
"Damn it…. Lhorne, good job. You know what to do. Bring her to the best inn, and for those humans…. don't do anything to them. This is the village chief order." He said.
After that, Lhorne guided us outside. He introduced us to several inns and paid for our stay. Humans went into a separate slave building. Since we were concerned, we took a look at them at the merchant guild.
"Welcome to merchant guild. A human slave for 30 gold, Tailfolk for 500 gold coins with conditions attached since they are just debt slaves. Dwarves cost 2000 gold only for work purposes due to the alliance agreements between our factions. Do you want to see the goods?" The wolf-eared receptionist spoke with delight.
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"No. I just wanted to confirm the new human slave, Mattheus, with his friends that just arrived recently."
With that, the clerk's mood suddenly went sour. His tail went limp as if to express his dissatisfaction. But he immediately put on a business smile and looked through the record. "Sure, Mattheus is a mercenary, so he would be a little bit more expensive at 70 gold."
"See, these are their living condition. They worked as farmer and laborer in the day and sleeps here during the night." he pointed to a barrack look-alike with bunkbeds filling the entire room. Other races sleep in different rooms, though.
"There are a lot of humans…." I muttered. There were over 200 humans here, both kids and poor-looking men and women.
"Yeah, we captured many of them when we intercepted their expedition. There were also bandits and slaves child trespassing on our territory. Frankly, we don't know what to do with them."
"They aren't selling… we should cull some of them to raise the price!" the tailfolk guild manager shouted in dissatisfaction. The way they talked about culling the slaves like some sort of chicken or pest frightened me. But seeing that nobody wanted to buy human slaves even when it was priced so low told us how much the populace hated the humans.
"Well, don't kill them just yet. These girls might buy them all." Lhorne said while pointing to Lily and Nora.
"Really? Foxkin and Catkin will buy humans? Why? We can't own land since these are elf's territory. Are they some privileged… no they looked too poor to be some wealthy merchants." The manager gauged us by looking at our clothes.
"Well, we shall see. Lily here might be the savior of tailfolks here. The first outsider to be granted nobility. She had blessings." Lhorne smiled as he watched Lily.
Hold up just a second. What do you mean by granted nobility? I thought we were just going to be given more money or some more perks since they wanted to secure our ability. Blessings are rare, but they are not THAT rare, right? Are you sure it was acceptable to grant us nobility? With the exception of knights, there are only so many nobles in this world, right? Can you give it so freely like that?
Tears went down from the wolfkin face. The manager couldn't hold up his tears as he looked at Lily like he was worshipping some kind of new goddess. That expression was totally fanatic! So Creepy! Like a Yanderes! We need to get out of here!
"Lord Lily… I am sorry to have disrespected you. Please step on my tail as an apology!" He suddenly knelt while kissing Lily's foot. He wrapped his tail around her legs as if to show obedience.
Lily was in shock as she looked at Lhorne. He, too, was taken aback at the wolfkin behavior. He tried to defuse the situation only to be met with a genuinely fanatic answer.
"Long has been my father and mother lived here while telling the tale of our ancestor's lands. The warm hearth and loving family. The grassland and savannah for hunting, the winds swept while the grass sways…." He teared up as if he was looking at us with total respect.
"The elves were kind. But we are still strangers. We have nothing. So many of us were in debt and sold as slaves…." He said.
"Humans treated us as pets while the dwarves and elves had no use for us. But if you were to be a noble of this land, we might be able to gain something that resembled our home, just like our ancestors. Please accept my heartfelt apology and the hopes of our kin." He said while looking at us as some kind of messiah.
Lily then looked at Nora and stared at the wolfkin in a daze. An electric shock seemed to shock her body as images of running, and hunting flashed over me. It was Lily's thought. The grassland was spread out as she roasted meat with Nora while behind her were fellow tailfolk chatting in tents. Emotions flooded out from her as the joy of freedom was laid in front of her.
"I-I will do my best!" She spoke aloud. Determination was born in her tiny heart. This was the first time I saw Lily wanted something. I need to work harder as her tail since our journey just began.