The long ears poking out of her red hair were definitely the distinctive features of an elf right?

Or… If my memory serves me… They're called Alvs here, right?

Just to be sure, I nudged Amber with my elbow.

"Is that an Alv?"

She turned to where I was looking at and nodded, "Yeah, I'm surprised they even got one so far out from the inner colonies. They don't usually travel that far."

That brought up a question, "Is slavery legal here?"

"Oh yes, of course."

"Then why are these guys being sold in this place?"

"Well… Because these are most likely captured slaves. People who were probably taken by force and blackmailed into being slaves. Those are definitely illegal."

"And what are legal slaves?"

"People who have racked up debt and sold themselves to pay off the debt or even volunteered themselves to be slaves."

I blinked at her, "I… Understand the first part but… There's people who voluntarily enslave themselves?"

"Yeah, they're more like indentured servants I would say and some people just want someone else to take care of them or have someone to follow instead of making their own decisions. I mean, for some people where their life is already shit, being a slave is actually many times better so they take that route instead."

As if to make a point, she gestured around us.

Right… So people who find themselves living in places like these and decide they don't want to do it anymore, they just sell themselves off as slaves instead.

"But who buys them? And wouldn't they be treated poorly?"

"Oh plenty of people really. There's obviously the rich people who want servants for themselves and yeah, there's laws in place that says that the owner can't do what the slave has not consented to do, but it's not hard to coerce someone to 'consent' to something when they're literally dependent on you to live. So those guys mainly buy slaves for their own entertainment or as servants."

I blinked, "Wait… You can only do what the slave consents you to do? Like how?"

"It'll be in the contract. Before the slaves are sold, they would have already made a deal with the slave trader on what they consent to do which included sexual services. Indentured slaves would mostly consent to physical labour but not sexual services and the really desperate ones or the really horny ones would consent to everything. For illegal slaves like these, they aren't given a choice to what they consent to, they just have to consent to everything."

"Right… And who else buys slaves?"

"Mercs like us for one."

I raised an eyebrow at her and she continued.

"Yeah well… Remember how I got betrayed? Not really that uncommon. So sometimes a Merc who has made plenty of money for themselves would get a slave that they know cannot and would not betray them as part of their crew instead. Or… You know… There's also the kind of Merc who just use slaves as meat shields too. Also not that uncommon."

"And people are ok with there being slavery?"

"Yeah. There's more people that want slaves than those who don't. And you might be surprised to learn that the majority of the people who want slavery are people who want to be slaves instead of wanting a slave of their own."

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I gave her a look.

She shrugged, "Our galaxy is pretty fucked up."

I'll say…

"And even if someone were to get a slave… What's stopping them from murdering their new owner in their sleep?"

"The collar," She nodded at the black choker around their necks which looked more ornamental to me.

I managed to catch what seemed to be anger flashing in her eyes for a moment before it disappeared, though.

She continued, "If the slave has intentions of hurting their owner, the collar will deliver a shock that is enough to incapacitate them depending on its settings."

"And there's people who volunteer for this?"

She rolled her eyes, "Tera, there's people who get off on this. Please."

Right… I guess I shouldn't be surprised… Especially now we're talking about a galactic scale where the level of perversion would be much bigger than before.

I raised a finger, "Hold on… These people are illegal slaves right? Didn't the guy say the former Merc was sold into slavery? That makes him an indentured slave right? So that's legal?"

Amber chuckled, "Oh Tera~ Did you forget where we are? There's no such thing as 'illegal goods' here. So there's bound to be legal and illegal slaves being sold together."

"Hmm… But would we get into trouble if we get an illegal slave though?"

"Well… Technically yes, but realistically? Not really. The slave has to prove that they are an illegal slave in the first place but because they signed a contract, even though it was through force, the default assumption is that they are just trying to get out of slavery."

I see… So it's still a fucked up position anyway if you get some asshole as your owner.

I then turned to the elf girl that was seated in the corner of her cage and hugging her knees to her chest, "So… You thinking about what I'm thinking?"

She raised an eyebrow, "What? You want to buy her and bring her back as our sex slave?"

"What? No? You told me the elves basically monopolise hydroponics tech right?"

"You mean the Alvs? Yeah. Oh wait! You want to bring her back with us to make that farm?"

"Yeah. I figured that it would be much better than trying to figure it out on my own if we have someone else who knows about it."

"Hmm… But we don't know if she personally knows about it though? Humans were the ones who created the first Warp Gates and we're the ones monopolising the tech, but that doesn't mean all of us knows how it works."

"True… I guess we should ask?"

She nodded so we went over to the Alv's cage and knelt down beside it, getting her attention.

"Hello there," I greeted her.

She tilted her head up to spare us a glance before looking back down at her feet, which I noted were bare.

"What's your name?" I prodded gently, hoping that we could at least talk.

"... Go away…"

"Do you want to get out of here?"

She stayed silent.

Amber cleared her throat, "That's not the way to deal with slaves like her, Tera~ You're too nice, really. These little princesses got kidnapped from their little palaces and think that just because they aren't tortured and raped by the slavers, they're some special existence."

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Really?"

"Yeah, most slavers don't touch the slaves since that would be a clear sign they were illegal slaves and they'd get caught very quickly. Though some do it anyway if they were selling the slaves to people like pirates I suppose but this one obviously isn't one of them."

I meant if she was seriously going to call her a spoilt princess right in front of the girl while she was locked up in her cage.

But well…

Since she wasn't talking, I decided to talk to the trader instead.

"How much is the elf? Err… I mean, Alv?"

"The red haired bitch? Six million."

"That's a big price jump from the first slave."

He shrugged, "What do you expect? She's an Alv. You don't see them enslaved that often."

"Then I'm surprised no one has bought her yet."

He scoffed, "Not everyone is welcome down here, miss. And not everyone who walks down here is capable of pulling out six million Credits just like that."

Amber narrowed her eyes, "Then why is she even down here if no one is able to buy her?"

The guy smirked, "Heh, bitch hasn't broken in yet. We're planning to move her once she does."

I turned to Amber for an explanation and she rolled her eyes, "He's just saying she hasn't accepted her circumstances as a slave yet and her value isn't as high as they want it to be because of that. So they're sticking her down here to let her realise her reality before moving her somewhere where they could actually sell her for a higher price."

Sounds really convoluted but ok…

"How was she captured?" I asked.

The trader shrugged, "Pirates raided her colony ship I think. She escaped in one of the escape pods only to be found by slavers. You know the rest."

Amber leaned towards me, "If she came from a colony ship, then there's a high chance she knows about that hydroponics thing. You want her?"

I mean… We did come all this way here and having someone who knows how to do it is better than just having the information and then having to learn it myself. At least she could help tend to the indoor farm and I could learn from her too so that's a double win.

I nodded at the trader, "Alright, We'll take her. What do I need to do?"