'Did she just call me master?'
Louie had to pick his jaw up from the ground. He looked at the two kneeling women in his bedroom.
"Uuh, what are you doing here, and why did you call me master?"
He slowly straightened up from his crouch and inventoried his Ninjato and his mask and helm.
'What the hell is going on here?'
"Please get up off the floor and have a seat."
They looked at each other, got up off the floor, went to the table, and sat down. Louie took out some mugs, filled them with coffee and pushed it to them. Before he took a seat.
They gave each other an embarrassed look.
"So tell me, who are you and why are you in my room?"
A much smaller BOB came over and sniffed at the women before he pushed his head under the one's hand for a head scratch.
'Huh, what the fuck BOB? What is going on here?'
Louie stood up and took his Ninjato out again.
'Are they controlling BOB somehow? Did they unlock some kind of mind magic?'
They jerked back from the table and got really scared as they saw his expression together with the burning blade.
"What are you doing here, and what are you doing to my dog?"
They tried to make themselves as small as possible.
"We are . . . we're slaves and we're not doing anything to your dog, master, Paterson was our master, we are your property now."
The soft words rushed out.
Her words shook him to his core, and he nearly dropped his sword.
"What? Excuse me? For a moment there, I thought that you said you were slaves and that you belong to me."
They nodded, and he sunk back in his chair.
"HELL NO! There is no way in hell that I will have slaves. You are both free."
'Huh? Nothing happened.'
Louie thought for a moment. 'Got to find out more, don't want to make rash decisions, and make things worse.'
"What're your names? Tell me about yourselves. How did you become slaves."
The tall one spoke up first. "I'm Deidre Viljoen, and this is my little sister Francine. I am or was a seamstress and owned a small alteration store in the mall. Francine was visiting me when we got the message from Gaea. And everything stopped working. . . . chaos broke out."
She hesitantly reached out and took the cup of coffee and took a sip.
Louie indicated that she should continue as he sat back down.
"I was working late, doing some last-minute alterations on a rush job. Francine had just started working at the jeweller around the corner, and she came over to keep me company till I closed up."
She shuddered as she thought back to that day.
"When the earthquakes started, we wanted to run, but it was dark, and the rats were everywhere. We struggled back into the shop and got the counter in front of the door. We huddled in a corner under some old clothes the whole night, hoping to survive the earthquakes and the rats. The next morning we tried to leave again, but everyting was still shaking and the street in front of the mall was filled with rats hunting people."
"We got back to the store and huddled and prayed. The streets were filled with screams and fighting. The whole time we were hiding, we heard people dying. That afternoon when the earthquakes stopped, Paterson showed up."
Francine looked resigned to her fate as she took over.
"Paterson knew things, we don't know how but he just knew things, like if you owned a building and you were in it when the apocalypse happened, and you can survive and defend that property for 24 hours, then you can claim it through the system as yours." She saw that Louie was sceptical.
Diedre noded.
"It's true. He knew stuff that nobody else did."
She thought for a moment before she continued. "Like he said that if you get a class and you don't like it, then you can, within 24h after you got the class, reject it, and you will get a Blue box asking if you want to accept the class."
Louie shook his head. "Damn," he indicated they should continue.
"There were 12 of us, all people that worked in or around the mall. Paterson was the owner of the Spar in the mall. Four others were busy preparing for stocktake when the pulse happened and he had just returned from somewhere after the earthquakes started. After the earthquake, he had somehow locked the front entrance to keep the giant rats out."
"The mall was still standing. I couldn't believe it. But Paterson said that the earthquakes were from Gaea being busy rearranging the world. If there were owners in a building, then the building wasn't heavily damaged, this was Gaea's way to allow people places to defend themselves."
Louie raised an eyebrow at that statement.
She shrugged. "That's what he said, and as I said, he knew things. He never told us how he knew it, just that he knew, and it looked like he wasn't wrong."
"We were going to sneak out the back, but there was some kind of insect swarm there, and we lost 2 of the young guys."
She looked troubled for a moment.
"He said that we should hold up in the outdoor store till rescue comes because it was heavily fortified due to the guns they sell. But it was locked, and we don't have the keys. . . But he claimed that if somebody owned more than three-quarters of a building and the others were missing or dead, they can claim the whole mall, and any door will open for him. And since he owned the Spar that constitutes half of the mall."
Now Diedre spoke up again. "Sigh, I didn't like the way that he kept looking at us, especially at Francine. We were the only two women in the group but we needed a secure place to hold up. He convinced me to give him the tailor shop and said he would give it back once everything was over. He also talked the guy from the pharmacy into it because suddenly, all the doors in the mall unlocked for him. It was miraculous."
"He said that he would lead us out of the mall if nobody came to rescue us. But we must promise to follow his word to the letter till all the monsters were dead. Naively we thought he meant till all the monsters around the mall were dead. We agreed, and that's when we each received the slave brand."
They bared their left shoulders, showing a brand that consists of a circle with the female sign inside connecting to the outer circle with a chain.
It looked like a cattle brand.
Louie shook his head.
'When we discovered how the system can enforce contracts, I never thought of this. I should have seen this. Humanity is a devious race, and there are some pretty sick fucks out there.'
'The last thing we need is somebody that tries and make a slave army, I don't think you can force a contract on somebody, but you can still trick somebody into slavery. Hopefully, there isn't something like a magical slave collar out there.'
"Where are the other 'slaves' now?"
Diedre looked troubled as she answered. "They all died in mysterious circumstances while trying to break through the insects in the back parking lot. That's when his true colour showed. He killed the pharmacy manager when he tried to stand up to him four days ago."
"That's when he told us that we were his sex slaves. He had total control over our bodies. He loved to make me watch as he took Francine. . . he was a sick bastard. He made us do stuff that we would never have even thought of... If he said jump, we had to jump and hoped it was high enough. We were heavily encouraged to call him master."
Louie swallowed his anger.
'I'm glad I killed that fucker, good riddance of bad rubbish.'
Louie looked through his notifications till he found the one he was looking for.
Paterson: Level 4 defeated 500exp gained Reward: Property received:
Deed to Qsquare mall: Demolish/Claim Twenty bars of gold
Various firearms: non-functional
Bowie knife
10 x Red Bull Tonic Drink
K-Y Gel of Empathic Sensitivity
Hygieia's Kiss
2x Sex Slaves (bonded)
'Jip there it is, fucking slaving Bastard.'
'Bonded? Huh, can I sever the bond? Where would I find this bond?'
Louie took a deep breath, pushed his anger away and closed his eyes. He let his mind drift and examine himself.
He concentrated on his mana and followed it through his skin to where it was flowing along his mana channels down his arms past his mana pool. After a couple of seconds, he found what looked like spider silk strands flowing out of his body.
Huh? What's this?
He started following the biggest strand in his mind's eye, and it leads to a ball of a smoky black liquid. As he reached out to it, he got the feeling of loyalty, love and contained savagery. He looks on in wonder.
'That's my link to BOB.'
He stroked the ball with his imaginary hand and vaguely he felt BOB rub his head against his thigh.
He pulled back and saw two strands that seemed to be twisted together. As he concentrated, he noticed that it looked like two fine silver chains instead of silk, like the other that flowed from him.
He followed the chains and came to two floating balls of mist wrapped in chains.
Angrily he reached out to snap the chains but heard two loud gasps. He released the chains quickly.
'What the fuck am I doing? I have no idea how this was done.'
'I might make this worse or even kill them without meaning to. Better find out more about this before trying this again.'
< Social awareness = unlocked. +1 to Intelligence>
He opened his eyes and looked at the sisters that were hunched over and sweating.
"Let's try something else."
"I Lewis Poren hereby absolve Deidre Viljoen and Francine Viljoen of any contracts and obligations that they have towards me. I hereby abolish their slave contract."
Suddenly a BB appeared in front of Louie.
Attention Slave contracts can not be abolished but can be changed to a servitude contracts. Y/N
Service time no less than 10 years. ??
Type of service rendered. ??
Terms and conditions.
Louie shared the BB with them.
"The system won't let me free you, but I can change your slavery to indentured servitude and make it 10 years. I can also change your duty to whatever you want as long as you do it for me for ten years."
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"I promise to pay and care for you for that period. So basically, you work for me, and I give you pay, room and board. There are three indentured medics here with us. They are serving 10 years as punishment for crimes to Starter Town."
They nodded. Diedre looked hopeful.
"I can be a tailor. I have a bachelor's degree in fashion design. I couldn't get work, so I started a small shop doing alterations to dresses and suits till I can get my own brand off the ground."
"Can I do jewellery design? I had just started working at the jeweller's when all this happened. I always designed my own necklaces and earrings." Francine lowered her head as if she was afraid Loo would hit her for speaking out of turn.
Louie thought for a moment and took from his inventory a Jeweller starter toolkit for jewel crafting, a weaver starter toolkit that can be used by both weaver and tailor together with a spool of spider thread and something that he found in one of the bags of tricks.
Saif needle of mending (soulbound) A needle of mending used by Saif Tailors of Cape Town for mending and alteration to clothing.
When used, it will remove the tear and leave the material better than new.
+1 to Tailor skill
Diedre gasped and looked at the needle in shock.
"What is it, Diedre?"
She slowly turned to Francine. "It's a magic needle."
"I would suggest that you go talk to the indentured medics before you decide what to do. I would also suggest that you keep your Status quiet for now. Some people might try to take advantage of that."
They agreed. He could feel that they were relieved that they wouldn't have to be his sex slaves.
"Thank you, Master."
Louie held up his hand. "I'm Louie, I'm nobody's, master. You will call me Louie, or if you must, then do like the soldiers, and call me Sir."
'Louie sighed. More Sirs.'
Francine lowered her eyes.
"We were . . . discouraged from familiarity and punished if we didn't follow orders."
She turned around and lift her blouse. Her back was crist crossed with barely healed scars. "He loved the cane."
Louie fought the rage that wanted to drown his mind under a blanket of red fog.
He stood up and stepped to the table.
They shrunk away from the table at the visible fury in his eyes and the cold in his voice. The temperature in the room dropped a couple of degrees.
"How long has it been going on?"
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"Four days."
Louie buried his rage and asked them if he could tell a couple of people that he trusts about what happened to them.
They reluctantly agreed.
He then told them to sit tight as he opened the door and stepped onto the balcony looking for one of the guards.
He spotted one of the recruits at the shooting range looking in his direction and beckoned him over. When he showed up, Louie sent him to ask Bianca or Johan and corporal Leon and Sally if they would please come to his room.
Louie thought for a moment before he asked the sisters to stand to one side. He placed everything into his inventory and removed his tent. He poured mana into the campstone.
He heard a couple of gasps as the tent erected itself in the middle of the room.
Not long after that, the guard returned with a grumpy-sounding Johan and the rest of the people.
"Damn, Louie, I had just gotten to bed. I must be up in a couple of hours again to prepare breakfast." John raised an eyebrow at the tent and the two women.
He remembered that he had seen them with the guy that challenged Louie.
"I'm sorry, Johan, I just think you should know this."
He nodded at them all before asking the guard to stand watch, and if they were needed to come into the tent and call them.
"Like I said. I'm sorry to disturb all of your rest, but I found out some things that I think you as leaders should know."
He indicated that they should all enter the tent.
There were a couple of dubious stares at the small tent in the middle of the room. They each entered the tent and disappear from view.
There were expressions of wonder as they looked around.
Louie had styled the inside so it looked like the last restrooms from the Dungeon. After all, nearly everything was looted from there.
Louie just shook his head as he heard Harry Potter a couple of times.
Johan was the first to ask. "Louie, where can I get a tent like this?"
Louie shrugged. "I got the tent from the vendor but I modified it to be like this, but I was warned by Gaea not to do it anymore. I made some stuff that she wasn't happy with."
"Really? Gaea herself warned you? What did you make?"
He sighed and looked up the BB for the chest, and shared it with Johan.
Chest of WTF! Dimensional space of 1 cubic kilometre. (bonded)
There is no inventory grid. Only bonded can open the lid.
You must visualize what you are looking for.
Command word can be set to empty the chest. (??????)
What are you trying to do? Steal a world? Twice?
John burst out laughing. "How the hell did you make that?"
He shrugged again. "A spell that I have together with some stuff that I bought from the vendor."
He showed that everybody should take a seat.
"Sorry for calling you from your beds. I would like to introduce you all to Diedre and Francine Viljoen. You might have seen them with that fucker, Paterson. Sally, can you please heal these two young ladies?"
Sally gave him a curious look but got up, walked over, and placed her hand on each of their foreheads.
Suddenly, the bell-like tone flowed through the tent, and a glowing Sally started floating about 30 centimetres off the ground.
She turned her blazing golden eyes on them. A cold anger-filled voice reverberated through the room.
"SHOW THE MAN WHO DARED TO INFLICT THESE WOUNDS."
Everybody jumped out of their chairs and drew their weapons.
Louie found himself standing behind his chair, dressed in his armour and holding BOB by the scruff of his neck.
'What the hell is this, don't tell me it's Sally's goddess?'
After taking a deep breath Louie steps forward.
Louie bowed his head as he addressed her.
"He is dead. I killed him."
She turned her glowing eyes on him, and he felt as if she looked straight through his soul into his deepest darkest corners.
"YOU HAVE MY GRATITUDE FOR THAT SEEKER. WHY ARE YOU HOLDING THEIR SLAVEBOND?"
Louie saw everybody turn their heads in his direction. There were a couple of mouths that silently asked. 'Slavebond?'
Louie stood up straight.
"I killed the offender in a duel and received all his property. Afterwards, I was made aware of the bond, I did try to remove it, but I couldn't. So I have talked to them and offered to change the bond to be more fitting."
She touched the heads of the frozen sisters again.
"YOU OFFERED THEM INDENTURED SERVITUDE, THAT'S ANOTHER WORD FOR SLAVERY."
Louie felt his anger rising.
"I will not practice or allow slavery in any of my towns or structure. The indentured servants that are there are serving time as punishment for crimes, they will be cared for and rewarded for their service, but they will serve. It's the same as any priest or paladin serving in their god's temple."
The temperature dropped so low that the cups of coffee on the table froze.
"YOU DARE COMPARE MY PRIESTS TO SLAVES?"
'Don't like it when somebody tells you wrong? Fuck this, the bed are made now got to lay on it.'
"Servitude is servitude, be it a maid cleaning my home or a priest spreading your word."
There were a couple of shocked indrawn breaths.
The silence ticked over as she floated between the sisters. The temperature slowly rose back to normal.
She nodded. "TRUE, YOU WILL RELEASE THEM WHEN THEIR TIME ARE UP?"
Louie nodded. "If the system would have allowed it, I would have released them at this moment."
"GOOD." she reached over and place a hand on each left shoulder, and a glow covered the sisters again.
"A GIFT." She waved her hand in Louie's direction.
The glow faded, and Sally slumped to the ground.
Leon, who was the closest, and rushed over to help her to her feet and into a chair.
The Viljoen sisters sat with big eyes, barely daring to move as everybody slowly relaxed.
A BB appeared before Louie.
Attention
This dimensional space was graced with the presence of a celestial being, anybody that enters this space will receive a boost:
-100% mental stress and tension
+25% clear thinking
+45% scrying when looking for lost friends
+25% possibility of astral travel to loved ones
+100% rest while inside this space.
Louie right-clicked on the title.
Liberator
Through great cost to yourself, you had gone out of your way to liberate those that had been oppressed by their masters. Permanent increase in Intelligence +2.
+50% to constitution and willpower when fighting for a cause you believe in.
"Damn." The tension drained out of the room.
Bianca looked up. "Holy hell, who was that and what was this about slaves?"
"That," Louie said, "I believe was one of the newly awoken goddesses. If I'm not mistaken, then she was Tawaret." He looked at Sally for confirmation.
She held her head in her hands.
"Yes, Tawaret. Mistress of the birth house, protector of women and children. And especially pregnant women."
Louie shared the BB with them. "The tent was blessed."
Johan got up and poured himself another cup of coffee.
Louie noticed that his hands were shaking. "You're one lucky bastard, you called her a slave owner and still, she blessed the space."
Bianca looked up. "What's this about slaves?"
Louie told them all what happened and asked the sisters to show the slave brands.
He looked on in surprise as the brand had changed to some strange symbol.
"Our Class has been removed, and in subclass it says (indentured) and the brands are gone, She changed them."
They started crying.
"What does that new symbol mean?" Asked Francine between sobs.
Sally looked up and saw the symbol on the sisters' left shoulders.
"That's a SA. The symbol of protection and its one of Tawaret's symbols."
She turned her wrist around, and there was the same symbol on her arm.
"I got mine when I became her paladin. I think those are just a sign that she will keep her eye on you two."
Johan sighed. "The system binding contracts, I'm glad for that. But this, this is a nightmare."
Louie agreed. "People will have to watch what they say. Like my gran used to say. You need to turn every word over twice before using it. . . Think before you promise something."
Leon shook himself. "What must I tell the troops? Humans are weak, stupid and lazy. How are we going to keep them from abusing this knowledge, most won't, but there are those out there who would love to go full Gor."
"Tell them that the system enforces promises and contracts, tell them their word is their bond. Don't say anything about slavery. Just keep an eye out for those that are quick on the uptake. But know this. I will not tolerate slavery. If any soldier or any other person in a town or any place of mine thinks of practising slavery. In that case, I will kill them myself."
They all agreed.
"Good, since we are already up, I'm going down to the workshops. I'm going to place a full container and pallets with stuff that we salvaged from a store in one of the workshops. You can go through it all later today."
They got up and wished everybody a good night again as they stepped out of the tent.
The sisters asked if they could sleep in his room.
He ensured that the guard was still present before he took a bed out and placed it against the wall next to the tent.
"I still got a lot of work to do. You can share the bed."
He turned to the guard. "Please spread the word that if I'm needed, the person must come into the tent to call me and that somebody must come to call me at 06:00."
The guard looked at the women standing at the bed.
"Yes, Sir."
He saluted with a fist to the chest and turned around, and left.
'Fuck, now they are starting to salute me.'
Louie indicated that BOB should stay and guard the girls.
He wished them good night and entered the tent. He sat down in a chair, and his shoulders slumped.
'Shit, I can't get a break. Slaves and slave bonds. What else will happen?'
He rapped his knuckles on the wooden section of the armchair.
He opened his Status and saw the new title.
Status
Name:
Lewis (Louie) Poren
Race:
Human (Male) Lvl 10 (196 850 – 204 800=lvl 11)
Class:
Seeker (2) (55%)
Sub-classes:
(exterminator) (2%)
Titles:
* Jack Black Brodifacoum,
* Trailblazer,
* Liberator.
* (Dungeon pioneer)
Affinity:
Darkness