Based on the memories of this body, slavery was not illegal. In most of the Kingdoms or Countries, slavery was not illegal. That was caused by wars, the incessant wars between Kingdoms. No, not only between Kingdoms, even between fiefdom was not rare. And it was a common practice in such wars that the winner takes all. Naturally, it included the people too.

To ease the public, however, these people that lived in the losing Kingdom or fiefdom naturally couldn’t have the same status as the other citizens who came from the winning Kingdom or Fiefdom. And so, they forced those people to become slaves. The winner would not only get the citizens to be at ease, but they also got free laborers. So, slavery was a common practice.

That was the war criminal slaves. Well, actually, they were victims, not criminals, but let’s not delve into it any further. More importantly, these slaves that came from other places would start a rebellion if they grew too many. In the beginning, it was something that couldn’t be prevented easily, so the owners treated the slaves so bad to break their hearts, or if they couldn’t break the slaves’ hearts, they wanted to break the slaves’ bodies to prevent rebellion. That was why the slaves were treated badly since the past.

Besides the war criminal slaves, there were other types of slaves, such as debt slaves and children that were sold by their parents. However, not a lot of people could differentiate which ones were the war criminal slaves and which ones were the other types of slaves, so they all got similar treatment. They would be starved, beaten, humiliated, and so on. So, most slaves wouldn’t last long because of that kind of treatment. Oh, also, I didn’t know who the inventor was, but there was a Spell, or rather, a curse called Slave Crest, specially targeted the slaves so the slaves couldn’t fight back at all. If the slaves disobeyed an order, they would feel pain like they never felt before. And if they killed their Master, the pain would be permanent, and that led many slaves to suicide.

Alright, slavery was bad. However, it was almost impossible to demolish this practice too. I heard that some princes in the past wanted to demolish this system, however, the backlash came not only from the nobles but also from the people. Slavery was one of the sources of income for noble after all, and no nobles would want their foundation to be shaken by demolishing this system. As for the people, it seemed it was common for people to think that slavery saved them from certain death. By selling their children, most people could live in comfort for a little while and it also reduced the number of mouths they needed to feed. If they couldn’t sell the children because slavery was demolished, how could they live through this winter? Their children were their properties after all, and they should be able to sell their children. That was how the poor people thought, though not all of them thought like that. Anyway, because of that, most people from nobles to the poorest people were against the demolition of slavery.

So, even though I hated slavery, I didn’t have a single iota of thought of trying to erase this system. As for buying all the slaves and gave them their freedom… it would only benefit the slave traders. There wouldn’t be an end if I did such things, so I didn’t want to do such fruitless things. Not to mention that I didn't have any money to buy slaves...

However, even though I didn’t want to do such fruitless things, seeing a slave market in the open like this still annoyed me. Especially when I saw them treating the Beast-kins. The Beast-kins were people with animals’ traits on them, or was it more accurate to say that they were animals with humans' traits? They looked more like animals that walked with their hind legs. However, they had their own cultures, not much different than humans. They lived in Kingdoms, well, rather than Kingdom, perhaps it would be more accurate to say territories. And they were in wars with us, humans. So, their treatment was even worse than the human war criminals. Because it was easy to distinguish them.

For example, that girl that curled on the floor and apologized vehemently while being whipped. She was around my appearances’ ages, perhaps twelve or thirteen. Yet her naked back was full of bruises and wounds. My heart told me to kill all the humans... scums here, but I forced those feelings down. It was not a good idea to kill all the humans here. Not to mention that I was not strong enough.

I had good feelings towards the Beast-kins. My Dungeon, my past Dungeon was located in the mountain, and nearby, there were Beast-kins villages. Once, I saw a pair of girl and boy entered my Dungeon because of the torrential rain. Because they were unarmed and didn’t have any will to conquest the Dungeon, I ignored them and ordered the monsters not to attack them. Well, still, out of curiosity, they explored the inside of the Dungeon and saw a Slime. That was when they noticed that they were in the most dangerous Dungeon that they knew. It was the only Dungeon in that area though, so it was the most dangerous Dungeon there.

The boy stepped forward, protecting the girl when they saw the Slime. However, because I had given them the order not to attack the two of them, that Slime didn’t react at all even though it had seen the two of them. Curious, the girl stepped forward and started talking with the Slime while the boy was still cautious and ready to pull the girl away at the first notice of danger.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Most Slimes, the low-level ones, didn’t have high intelligence, however, that didn’t mean they were complete idiots. Perhaps, Slime intelligence could be compared to dogs. They could understand words and they could be trained, but that was all. They could also react to words, and that was what happening with that Slime and the girl. The girl kept talking with the Slime and the Slime reacted to her words. Seeing this, both the girl and the boy were perplexed as they thought that the Slimes wouldn’t understand them at all.

Well, after that, when the torrential rain stopped, they left and didn’t return to my Dungeon, until years later, they came with several hundred Beast-kins behind them. I remembered the girl and the boy… well, not exactly. I just remembered that they had fox tail and fox ears. When they came again, the other Beast-kins didn’t have fox tail and fox ears so I guessed that the pair of the girl and the boy in front of the others were the same boy and girl that accidentally entered my Dungeon.

The girl came forward and started shouting. She was asking for mercy and apologized for intruding my Dungeon. She said that their village was attacked by humans so they evacuated to this Dungeon. Right now, they were chased by those humans so with no other choices left, the pair remembered about this Dungeon and came to this Dungeon.

I sent a Slime to them and asked them to follow that Slime. I prepared a place for them to rest and although they entered the Dungeon, I knew for sure that asides of the girl and the boy, the others were restless. They didn’t have other choices though, so they followed the siblings deep into the Dungeon.

After that, they stayed for five days and five nights. The humans that chased after them came to the Dungeon too, but they were attacked by my Slimes. Well, I considered them as intruders so I didn’t mind attacking the humans with the Slimes. They left after heavy losses and knowing that the human left, the Beast-kins left the Dungeon as well. However, some Beast-kins, including the girl and the boy, intended to rebuild their village right around the entrance of my Dungeon. Naturally they did it after I gave them permission.

After that, for generations, they were worshipping me and perhaps because of that I became an Evil Goddess. No, maybe even before that I had been called Evil Goddess by the other Deities. Anyway, back to the Beast-kins. They knew how the Dungeon worked, so every day, they went into the Dungeon and did some combat training so the residual Mana would increase the Dungeon. And when they were attacked (mostly by humans, sometimes by other villages), they would retreat to the Dungeon after getting my permission. So, that was why I kind of liked those Beast-kins rather than the humans.

Somehow, I thought that the Beast-kins were my property, or rather, my people. So, seeing how they were treated in the slave market caused my anger to slowly burn. There was nothing I could do to help them at the moment though, so I burned this scenery to my brain and left silently. I returned to my inn after that.

…

Morning.

I didn’t get a wink of sleep at all. I couldn’t forget the thing that I saw last night and every time I closed my eyes, I saw it again. It seemed it would become my nightmares until I solved it, huh? I didn’t want to be sleep deprived because of it after all.

“Oh, Fey, you wake up early.” Rita greeted me as I sat down to have an early breakfast.

“Rather than waking up early, it’s because I couldn’t sleep,” I replied while yawning.

“Fufufu. So, a cup of coffee for a brighter day?” She asked. I nodded and looked outside the window. It was not bright yet. People had started their activity even though it was still early in the morning.

“Here’s your cup of coffee.” Rita said and she sat down in front of me. I wondered why she liked talking to me, but I didn’t mind it at all.

“So, what’s your plan for today?” Rita asked curiously.

I shrugged. “I don’t have any plan for this morning. Afternoon, I plan to go to the Adventure Guild. Oh, speaking of which, Rita, can I borrow your kitchen? Of course, I won’t borrow it in busy hours.”

“Do you want to cook something? Well, it should be alright if you didn’t borrow in busy hours. I'll tell my father about it.” Rita accepted easily. Alright, I had a place to concoct my potions now. I wanted to make a place inside the Dungeon, but I didn’t have money to buy the pots and other necessities. I didn't bring the pot I bought from the village after all. Fortunately, I brought a lot of bottles with me so I didn’t have to buy them anymore.

“Oh, right, you don’t have anything to do this morning, right?” Rita asked. I nodded and she continued. “You see, my brother, Rayleigh, wants to enter one of the two Academies next year. He has a bit of talent in both Magic and Swordsmanship. However, we couldn’t afford to hire a tutor for him, so his talent is still unpolished.”

I could see where it would go…

“You are admitted to the school, so, that means you are qualified to teach him, right? You see, he is a taciturn and shy boy, but he is quite dependable, so, if possible, can you teach him? As for the fee… I’m sorry that we couldn’t offer much, but is it alright if the fee is you staying in this inn for free?” Rita scratched her cheek awkwardly. It seemed she had to gather a lot of courage just for asking this. Seriously, if she said it like that, I wouldn’t be able to refuse her. Well, as long as they didn’t mind me teaching him though. I didn’t think that I was qualified enough to teach him, so if they didn’t mind, I wouldn’t mind either.

However…

“…are you sure you want me to teach your brother?” I asked to make sure about it.

“Well, we understand that perhaps you are not the best teacher, sorry, no offense, but you see, the best teacher costs so much. So, I think you, as the student, could teach him at a lower price…” She laughed awkwardly.

I sighed. Yes, I couldn’t refuse her. But I should tell her the truth. “…you know, I didn’t do well in my History and Geography. Well, I can help with Ancient Language, Ancient Runes and Magic Theory, but that’s all. Is that alright with you?”

“Yes, that’s alright! Thank you Fey!” Rita smiled, but I stopped her with my next lines.

“Well, I don’t mind teaching him, I only need a condition though. I want him to tell me directly that he really wants to learn from me despite my lack of knowledge.”