Alice:

Alice was holding Mason's small hand with her right hand. So she waved her left hand around and gave Bronsen a meaningful look. He interpreted this with no difficulty and dutifully took her left hand.

Cassy, holding Becky with her right hand, ended up with Drayden holding her other hand. Since Cassy was to Alice's right, Drayden ended up walking next to Mason.

"Remember, we stick in our pairs!" said Alice.

The other Misfits murmured their agreements. Mason looked up to Alice and grinned.

"See! Mason agrees with me," said Alice.

"He sure does!" said Drayden.

So Mason turned his head and smiled at him. Drayden couldn't resist and also held Mason's hand.

Oh, how cute! I'm indirectly holding Drayden's hand via Mason.

She noticed that Becky looked a little bit wistful.

"Oh, I know. How about Bronsen going and holding Becky's other hand?" said Alice.

So, they ended up with Alice and Drayden holding Mason and Cassy and Bronsen holding hands with Becky.

Cassy was giggling.

"I'm sure there's no problem with this!" she said.

"Of course not, this doesn't count," said Alice.

"What doesn't count?" said Evereena.

"Oh, well, hey, look at this stall!" said Alice.

The stall in question sold plushie toys.

Do they make these things here? That's amazing.

Evereena is still looking puzzled...

Alice fosicked through the toys.

"Anything that you would like, Evereena?"

Taking Alice's cue, Bronsen and Cassy moved to the next table in the same stall and were having their own discussion with Becky.

Evereena:

She looked at the array of toys.

I remember Mum giving me a stuffed animal when I was younger.

I played with it a lot.

Just then, a bunch of young teenagers, five of them, approached, laughing and chatting between themselves. They saw the Misfits and the four slaves and stopped. They stared without taking the slightest effort to hide it. There were giggles and whispers between them.

"Ooh, look, slaves. Does that mean we can ask them to do anything we like?" said one.

"Well, my older brother tells me that..." said another. He dropped his voice and whispered even more energetically to the others.

Four of them burst into laughter, and the fifth one, a girl, looked highly uncomfortable.

Evereena felt like she was shrinking into herself. She held onto her mother's hand and looked down.

Cassy:

Those little shits.

She stepped forward smartly and gently pushed Evereena's head up again. She smiled a big smile at her.

"Hey, hold your head up! Don't let a bunch of dickheads wear you down."

The 'dickheads' in question didn't like this, and there were some jeers back. So Cassy stood in front of them, arms akimbo, and said,

"Hey, you lot. They can't help being enslaved, so how about a little consideration?"

All that got was more jeers and giggles. Well, the fifth one, the girl, seemed to take this in since she drifted away and then disappeared. But the other four didn't even notice this.

Cassy was building up a head of steam; she felt she might explode at any moment and give those kids a piece of her mind. So it was fortunate that Bronsen, still holding Becky in one hand, also stepped up and put a hand on Cassy's head, right between her cat ears.

"Now, now, we all know you have a slight temper problem."

A snort of derision from Cassy, plus a few more derisive comments from the dickheads.

"But really, perhaps we should just leave them for the time being?" said Bronsen. He moved his hand slightly and gently stroked one of her ears. It twitched in appreciation.

However, Cassy wouldn't let him distract her from her primary concern.

I don't want to leave them without getting an apology!

System-san, how about doing something?

Ding! Special ability [Intimidation] granted - only 5 points out of a max of 100. This is the maximum number of points this ability will ever get for you Misfits; a super-powerful intimidation skill is too overpowered.

Oh, cool. This is what I've always wanted when dealing with bullies.

She continued to stand there, arms akimbo. And she practised her intimidating stare.

The four remaining teenagers noticeably wilted. They must have decided they had urgent business elsewhere as they rapidly decamped.

There was the sound of clapping. Cassy looked around and saw the stall holder, a middle-aged male, was clapping his hands.

"Say, that was impressive; you must have some [Intimidation] skill. You reminded me of my old drill master when I was in the guards."

"Oh, thanks," said Cassy.

Bronsen was still patting her head, then he picked up Becky and shared a three-way hug with Cassy.

"Now that's more like it!" said Bronsen.

Alice:

I've got [Intimidation]! Actually, that means that we all have [Intimidation]. Wow, that is something to celebrate.

She was so regretful she couldn't use it against the bullies in her class. Especially that one who was always trying to leer down her blouse.

Seeing Cassy and Bronsen sharing a hug with Becky, she did the same with Mason and Drayden.

It's shared with Mason, so it doesn't count as being alone with Drayden. It definitely doesn't!

Drayden is nice-looking...

Evereena:

She felt so embarrassed and ashamed of herself.

But, the Misfits had protected her.

Those four big kids seem so much friendlier since this morning.

And that toy looks a bit like the doll I had from before...

Bronsen:

Oh my, Cassy is so adorable. Ah, but so is Alice, OK?

And look, Evereena is staring at the doll. Oh, it's got a tail. Well, of course, it will have a tail.

The Misfits had been given a small amount of money for spending. Plus, a lesson on the relative worth of the various coins. So Bronsen asked the stall owner how much the doll was.

"For you, 80 cents."

"Here, Evereena, here's a dollar. How about buying the doll for yourself?" said Bronsen.

Evereena looked blank. She looked like she didn't know what to do with the money.

Fortunately, the stall owner was up to it. He cleared his throat and said,

"Low-level slaves don't ever deal with money; all their needs are taken care of by their higher-ups. In fact, only the blue-collared slaves ever use money."

"Oh." said Bronsen, "OK. Err, but what about higher-level slaves?"

"There are only green-collared slaves above the blues, and then the emperor himself, with his gold-coloured collar. And, if I remember my lessons from my guard days correctly, the green-collared slaves are few enough that the emperor can control them directly. Whereas the blues..."

The stall owner gathered his fading memories.

"The blues are too many to control directly, so it's something along the lines of they can earn and spend their money, and the ones that are the best at that are considered the ones to be the best at deciding what to do with the resources they can buy with their money. Or something. Remember that each blue-collar controls a large number of red and black-collar slaves, and the lesser slaves do whatever the blue-collar tells them to do."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

That sounds a bit complicated to understand all at once.

So Bronsen decided to give up on any further inquiry, pay the man the dollar coin, and get the change back.

"There you are, one doll with a removable dress and tail!" he said, handing it to Evereena, "Oops, the tail isn't actually removable."

Evereena looked up at her mother. Esther nodded her head. Evereena took the doll and hugged it.

Drayden:

So, Bronsen and Cassy are hugging each other.

Well, I think that is nice. Even if Alice keeps mentioning the J for Jealousy word.

And what do we have here?

He noticed that Mason was staring fixedly at one of the plushies. It was obviously meant to be a man with a brightly coloured costume, and it appeared to have no less than five skin colours.

Wait a bit; I've only seen two-tone and occasionally three-tone skin colouring. Esther is one of the few with three tones. Say, doesn't that make her similar to a Calico cat?

Whatever.

"Mason, would you like that doll?" he said.

Mason looked blank, as if he couldn't quite understand the concept of owning his own doll.

Has this poor kid ever owned anything of his own in his entire life?

The whole idea of slavery was making his guts churn in disgust. So Drayden, without any further fuss, bought the doll and gave it to Mason.

"It's yours. Here, take it."

Mason took it and hugged it. But he still looked as if he was unsure of the situation.

Hopefully, he'll get better and act more like a typical eight-year-old.

Drayden fosicked around a bit more through the toys.

This looks almost exactly like a teddy bear, even if it has a tail.

So he also brought it. He turned to Cassy.

"Here, a teddy bear for you."

Cassy laughed briefly.

"Yes, it does look like a teddy bear. Even if its skin has got two shades of orange."

Drayden kept holding it and carried it with him.

Cassy:

Cassy was still holding Becky and hugging both her and Bronsen.

I hadn't realised how much I had missed Bronsen this past Earth year. Oh, and also Alice, of course!

She rubbed her cheeks against Becky's, which meant she also incidentally touched her head to Bronsen's. She noticed that Becky was intently watching Mason as he held his doll.

Five minutes later, they happily waved goodbye to the stall owner, with all three children holding their dolls. In Becky's case, it looked like a brightly coloured horse.

They ambled along, with Cassy still holding Becky's hand. Since Becky's other hand was busy clutching her horse doll, that left Bronsen unattached. But, coincidently, he had ended up on the other side of Cassy, so they just so happened to hold hands.

Cassy had difficulty holding in her giggles since Alice and Drayden were also holding hands.

"I think that we Misfits need to talk about this later tonight. Don't you think so, Alice?"

"Ah, yes, yes. But, I mean, Bronsen, we need to be careful..." said Alice.

She is definitely green-eyed with jealousy, but she can't stop being attracted to Drayden, can she?

Esther:

It was almost painful; she kept on getting flashbacks to her life before being a slave.

Holding hands. Isn't that what couples did who 'loved' each other?

It felt like the word 'loved' had to be dragged out of her ancient long-term memory, covered in dust and spider webs, rusty from long disuse. She had never seen any other adult slaves holding hands. Her master kept the two of them away from other children, so she had never seen any other examples of a mother looking after a child. And, of course, her master never spoke with her about love or anything to do with affection.

Couples loved each other. They then had sex. No, that's not how it was said; the phrase was 'make love'.

But didn't couples stay together? If Alice and Bronsen are a couple, and Cassy and Drayden are also, why are they holding hands with their non-partners?

Maybe I can ask Aragon. There's certainly no one else I can ask.

And I don't think Evereena understands any of this at all.

They stopped at a food stand, and the Misfits bought everyone some roasted spudnips. As they were eating, Bronsen must have had an idea,

"Esther, why don't you and the others wear a scarf to hide your collars? That way, it won't be so obvious that you are slaves."

One more thing they don't know anything about.

"Ah, sorry, but, you see, if we hide our collars, the collars somehow detect it, and after a few minutes, our skin under the collar starts getting uncomfortably warm. Leave the collar hidden too long, and we can get burn marks. So, sorry, we can't do that."

"Oh," said Cassy.

None of the Misfits looked very happy at that.

Kalitran:

A middle-aged man named Kalitran was also out walking through the markets. He was a nephew of the recently deceased king and thus had moderate rights to consider himself part of the nobility if not royalty.

This was a bit of a worry since most nobility had already deserted the country, fearing the forthcoming slaver invasion.

Not Kalitran. Being without family and firmly of the view that one should be tough and face one's trials and not run away, he had stayed. Also, having paid attention to the politics around him, he knew that the invasion, while inevitable, was not imminent. Probably several decades before the slavers were in a reasonable position to do so.

So, it was only a short leap of logic for him to conclude: why can't he become the next king? After all, every other likely contender, and most of the people who would typically be deciding which contender should be king, had all abandoned the kingdom and weren't coming back.

But how do I get to that position?

Can I step up and declare myself to be the king?

And what about the old king's daughter?

Maybe she might consider herself to be the next queen.

Eleanor's existence was beginning to annoy him immensely.

She's well known, with all her stupid 'charity' work.

Kalitran was not one to mollycoddle the workers.

The strong will survive; the weak need to toughen up and get moving!

A strong leader will act to maximise the chances of the strong surviving and to encourage the weak to get strong!

He was sure that he would be a better leader than Eleanor.

But how?

And, damn this slaver menace! No matter what, everything will be moot in a few decades.

But, at least I can lead for some of that time.

Of course, this led to his bleakest thoughts: And then I will have to run, exactly like every other noble. What a damned pain. Probably alongside most of the commoners, also. No matter how great a king I might become, I will end up as just another refugee.

With these thoughts, his high ambitions, and dismal black futures, he meandered through the markets without paying much attention to the mere commoners around him as they got out of his way. And then he tripped and fell awkwardly onto the ground, getting dust onto his neatly laundered expensive clothes.

"What the fuck!"

He was momentarily livid with fury - before he forcibly controlled his emotions.

It helped that he had a low level [Emotional Control] ability.

What the hell happened?

Ah, right, I see.

He realised he had fallen over a small child that had wandered into his path. A small child with a slave collar?

Shit! What? Oh, right, those two slave kids who came from Crysteth. And, what's this, the other slaves from the rimwall? And those strange Misfits.

What a bloody nuisance - they should have just killed those slaves and been done with it.

He suppressed a flash of horror at the prospect of someone using them. After all, if he became king, he would be a prime target. He looked around-

I guess those two guards in the background are detailed to keep track of the slaves.

He brushed the dirt off his trousers. One of the male Misfits hastily grabbed the boy and seemed to be comforting him.

Who cares what they feel?

But I suppose it is too late to get rid of them now, so we need to be strong and face the situation.

He got a good look at the two female Misfits.

Say, they look pretty cute. And young. And they are supposed to have high abilities.

Hmm, I wonder how high their [Sexual Technique] abilities are?

Kalitran had quite an eye for the ladies - this may have been part of the reason why he didn't have a family. Seeing the two female Misfits standing to one side, he put on his smoothest smile and walked over to them.

"Hi, ladies, you must be the Mistfits. How are you finding our little town?"

My, they are young and attractive. Nice hair, too. Strange that they are all monotone. The shorter one with black hair has got nice perky breasts, and the taller one has somewhat bigger breasts, but they go well with her taller frame... and her legs are long and shapely...

Imagination starting to run wild, he shifted into his flirting mode. He opened his mouth to utter some more platitudes when he was within two metres.

But, strangely, his desire dropped.

Actually, they don't look all that good, after all.

He could see their faces clearly now.

They're not all that interested in me, are they? Nyah - and, I don't know, are their bodies really that nice? Are they maybe strange? I don't know; perhaps getting involved with them is too much of a hassle. All of that effort needed to get them to bed, Aww, forget it. They already have their partners.

So he switched his state of mind away from his fantasies and merely said hello to the ladies, then cordially smiled, waved at them, and walked away.

Let's go and change out of these clothes.

He went back to his original train of thought.

I know; how about I talk with the Treasurer? He is, after all, about the only palace officer left with any power. And I don't think he has ambitions.

Cassy:

Cassy watched the man walk away.

"Alice, did you get some creepy vibes from that specimen?"

"You bet I did. But, did he seem to lose interest in us when he got close enough?" said Alice.

"Yeah, he did. I can't remember that ever happening before. Normally, the creepers need two or three firm refusals before they get the message."

"Oh well, sometimes we get lucky."

Cassy moved over to Mason, who Bronsen was currently cuddling.

"There now, you didn't get hurt, did you?" she said, wrapping her arms around them.

Mason, who had looked terrified when he had accidentally walked into the man's path, calmed down.

He's so cute. Not to mention Bronsen's, too!

Bronsen:

Bronsen distinctly heard Cassy's tummy rumble. He also saw up ahead a food stall.

Let's have lunch!

So, without further ado, he charged ahead. Behind him, he could hear Alice muttering, 'There he goes again'.

(Remember, the Misfits had enhanced perception. They could eavesdrop on all sorts of conversations within ten metres of them if they wanted.)

The stall was staffed by two young ladies, maybe in their twenties, and they sold shish kebabs. Easy to prepare, plenty of meat and vegetable chunks on each stick, and easy to eat while walking.

Drayden saw Bronsen rushing ahead and immediately followed suit.

However, Bronsen had a delayed surge of caution. In other words, he had a momentary flashback of Alice, both arms bitten off, screaming at him in furious rage.

Oh shit. I had better stop right now. Otherwise, all hell will descend upon me.

So, he stopped, incidentally stopping Drayden, who was right behind him and turned to look at Alice.

She returned his look and showed her teeth.

"Very good, Mister Bronsen! But, you know, I feel hungry too," she whispered.

Mason heard since Alice was hugging him.

Cassy and Drayden also easily heard her. Bronsen clearly saw these two share a look; eyebrows raised just a little.

Oh-oh, I think there might be story time by Alice in the near future.

Anyway, now that I have gotten authorisation...

The Misfits also heard the two young adult ladies running the stall have a little exchange.

"Ooh, isn't the big one so handsome! Do you think his girlfriends will allow me to have a little bit of the action also?" said one.

"Keep dreaming, girl! You're, like, totally outclassed. And, besides which, I think the other one looks ever so cute. Ooh, yes, cute and hot. And did you see how they cuddled those two little kids?" said the other.

"I certainly did!" said the first one. Who sighed with unrequited longing.

Bronsen and Drayden received two not-quite-sunburn-grade glares from Cassy and Alice.

The two boys now shared a look.

Gulp. Let's be on our best behaviours here.

Drayden nodded his head in agreement. Then, the boys resolutely turned back to the stand.

Five minutes later, after purchasing eight shishkebabs (four large, two medium-sized and two small ones), the group slowly ambled away from the stand, with everybody concentrating on eating their food without dropping it.

And, as they did, the Misfits could still hear the food stall ladies talking to each other.

"Say, they're not all that hot, after all, are they?" said one.

"No, they're not. I don't know, is it because they're monotone?" said the other.

"Hmm, no? I don't think so. Maybe it's because they are obviously in their couples? Although I'm a bit confused at which couples they are in."

"Maybe - nyah, that's never stopped me from 'admiring' sexy men before. Not that I've ever acted upon such desires, mind you!"

"I guess they're a bit strange or something. Although I can't quite place my finger on why."

"Never mind, it's not important. What is important are these two new customers. Smile at them and entice them in!"

The voices faded out as the Misfits and co walked further along.

I wonder what all of that is about?

Eventually, about mid-afternoon, they all returned to their accommodation.