159 -) Buyback
“P-please help! Please save me!” The man shouted.
Since he asked me for help himself, there was no need to hesitate.
I unsheathed the long sword on my back.
In the meantime, Elaris had already stopped before Wyn and Woya and was shooting arrows toward the cores around Nari. She doesn’t even know Nari, but she is just a good kid, so she did not even question why we were helping these people.
The girls immediately started to suppress the two cores, and I also stepped before the man while holding the sword in my right hand.
As soon as one of the cores started to come toward me, I dashed over it and made a quick slash.
The core stopped moving and was split in two. One of the pieces dropped toward the right, and the other one slid to the left. It started to evaporate before touching the ground and completely vanished in a few seconds.
Just after that, the other core fired an earth bullet. I noticed and deflected it using the side of the blade at a bit of an angle. It did not stop and fired a few more times while lapping around us like a mosquito.
I waited for the right time while dodging and blocking its attacks, and when its expected direction turned toward us, I moved toward its trajectory. It tried to change its course, but I was faster.
With another swing, from upward to down this time, I cut it in half clean. It tried to put both water and earth shields, but it was no use. The cut was clean despite the increased resistance.
After seeing the other second core destroyed as well, I turned to look at the girls’ situation.
They had already taken care of one of the cores, and the last one looked tattered. Right at that moment, Elaris’ arrow hit it directly, and it started to fall.
It was nearly destroyed, but it seemed like can still move. Fortunately, Woya was close to it. She crouched a bit and held her long sword with two hands. It looked like she was a baseball player, about to hit the ball.
It took less than a second. Woya performed an experienced swing from down to up. The core started to crumble as soon as the sword touched its body. Then disintegrated completely.
I watched the girls with a satisfied smile. The girls would normally sheath their swords, collect money dropped to the floor, then rush toward me to get their praise. But they were preoccupied with something else.
They both ran toward Nari, who looked completely battered. They spoke with her with worried faces, and Nari replied with hollow eyes.
Then Nari said something and came toward us. Actually, it was her master, not us. She had many bruises over her body. Her hair and equipment looked disheveled, and there were even places that were bleeding, although not serious.
“M-master, I am sorry,” Nari said with a bow toward her master. “I-I could not get here because the monsters blocked the path.”
She looked like she was afraid of what he would do. She was even trembling a little. Contrary to what she said, the man was not even listening to her.
The man was looking at me with wide eyes as if he was looking at something unexpected. There was even a hint of terror in his eyes. So I could only interpret it as he found me defeating those cores so easily, quite surprising.
“Huh!?” However, he noticed Nari at the end and started to walk toward her slowly with an expressionless face.
Nari’s trembling intensified as he got close, and when the man was right in front of her, “Slap!” He hit her.
Nari put her hand on her cheek instinctively as she fell. Her eyes filled with tears, and her trembling could be seen clearly from outside.
It did not affect only Nari. Elaris jerked and put both of her hands on her mouth with wide eyes. Wyn and Woya showed bigger reactions. They reached like they were the ones who were hit. They took one step back and turned their face with anguished expressions.
“You b*tch!” The man shouted angrily and started to kick Nari, who was on the floor. “Why do you think I spend so much money on you, huh?!” Even though he hit her and she rolled on the ground, he continued to hit her.
“You ungrateful waste of food!” Even though Nari was curled and taking hits without so much reaction, he kept hitting her. “Why are you even alive when you can’t even protect me?!”
The girls watched this with horrified expressions. After a few seconds, they looked toward me, intentionally or not. The problem was… I had no reason nor intention to step in.
She is clearly his property, and he can do whatever he wants to her. There are limits, like a ban on killing and torturing without reason, but I did not hear much of these rules being implemented before.
I heard that in a few cases, masters would abuse their slaves just for fun, and another influential figure who was not friendly with them would ask for punishment for that master. Even so, it would end only with monetary compensation.
Aside from that, I had no reason to protect her. I have no connection or affection for her. The only emotions I felt toward her were annoyance and impatience. So I just wanted to wait, but…
The look in the girl's eyes was hard to ignore. They looked like they were begging for me to stop it. Of course, they were also aware that they could not ask directly, especially in front of a stranger, not after how a master would actually treat their slaves.
Sigh! I sighed as if it couldn’t be helped. “Ahem, ahem!” I cleared my throat and made it loud intentionally.
“Oh!” The man flinched when he noticed that I was standing beside him the whole time. “S-sorry, sir. I did not even thank you. I was so furious that I lost my rationale.”
“It is okay.” I replied regretfully, then glanced toward Nari before adding, “But you don’t have to go that far.”
“... I-is that so?” The man did not understand at first that I was referring to Nari, then flustered as if he couldn’t find what to say. “I-I am sorry that you have to see something like that. However, I nearly died because of her. Her job was to protect me, yet… She also is a nutcase…”
He started to ramble nonstop. How she doesn’t understand a thing, how she is wistful, how she eats so much, etc. He nitpicked every little detail.
In the meantime, the girls got to Nari and tried to take care of her. They were unsure what they should do, how much they were allowed to help, if the man would be furious with them too, and what their master would think.
It was clear that they were shocked. They knew how hard it is to be a slave. They always feared being sold and separated in the end. They gradually got used to it thanks to their master’s goodwill, but here is the hard truth. They remembered once again what it means to be a slave.
They could not help but look at their master with pitiful eyes once again. It was almost unintentional. Nari was really in a bad state. She was groaning, and tears were flowing from her eyes.
Seeing these eyes again, I thought that I should refrain from taking action this time. I can’t be swayed every time they look at me like that. It will be a bad habit eventually.
The man continued his chatter for a while until I could not help but interrupt him. “By the way, what are you doing here? She is one thing, but you are not strong enough to hunt on this floor.”
“W-well…” When I questioned him, the man was flustered. “I don’t have much choice either. I thought that my armor would be enough of a lifesaver.”
His armor was in tatters. He must be fighting while fully trusting every attack on his armor. On close inspection, the armor looked quite high quality, but in the hands of an incompetent man, even top-tier equipment would be worthless.
According to the man, he was a merchant. He inherited his shop from his late father around 2 years ago. The shop was already in debt, and it took him time to get accustomed to being the head of the shop.
He is not a fool, so he was aware that he would go bankrupt. He decided to take a radical decision. He sold everything he had at the highest possible price, paid immediate debts, bought a strong slave, and went to the dungeon with his family heirloom armor.
He changed his job to a soldier. Since he could not beat any monster on floors 20 and higher in terms of speed aside from earth-type ones, he chose to go to the 22nd floor to farm Obscuras.
It was fine at first. He was able to deal with these cores, albeit slowly, collect coins, and save money to pay his debt. However, now he can't continue.
He was not an experienced warrior, so he entrusted all attacks to his armor to take care of. It was fine until now, but it reached its limits in the end.
“Thinking about it again, maybe it would be much better if I had sold the armor from the beginning.” He said regretfully.
It has been a few months since he bought Nari, and they have been farming on the 22nd floor ever since. Nari is fast and athletic. She is also experienced in combat. So she doesn’t need any armor, but he can’t go on without it.
“So?” I tilted my head while watching the girls take care of Nari out of the corner of my eye. “What will you do from now on?”
“...I don’t know.” He hung down her head and answered dejectedly.
I looked at Nari. Her eyes were half open and groaning. She looked like she was out of it, but I noticed that she was listening to us intently. She is a level 5 beast champion. She has leveled up by 4.
“...” I looked at the girls once again and saw their hopeful eyes. “Ugh.” I grimaced lightly so no one would hear, then asked the man, “What about selling her?” while pointing toward Nari.
The girls’ faces bloomed with joy, and Elaris looked confused. As for Nari, her eyes shot open. “P-please.” She said in a weak voice.
“Huh!” The man scoffed. “I would love to, but who would buy this useless girl?”
“Please, I will be good,” Nari spoke again, with a louder voice, almost begging. “Please, I will do anything. Just take me back.” No, she was literally begging.
“Fuhh!” I exhaled with trouble as if trying to throw out my problems. “How much would you sell her for?” I asked as I looked the man in the eye directly.
“R-really?” The man looked surprised. “Would you really like to buy her?”
“Yeah,” I replied casually. “How much is it?”
“...” The man looked troubled. It was clear he could not give a number right away. After dozen of seconds later, he hesitantly turned to face me and asked, “Umm, how about 80 gold coins?”
“80 gold coins?” I looked doubtful as I asked. I already sold her at 70 gold coins. There is no way I will buy her for a higher price.
“I-I am only saying 80 gold coins because you saved my life.” He quickly added. “I bought her 105 gold coins. It is a loss for me.”
“You said I saved your life. You said she is useless. And look at her condition. Do you think that you can sell her at the price you buy? You can get at best half of what it is.” I said as I increased my volume.
“Y-you are right. I am short-sighing.” He stuttered and offered a new price, “How about 50 gold coins then? I can’t be disrespectful to my savior, can I?”
“...” I looked at him. It was a good price normally, but not in this situation. He clearly owes me, and Nari is in a tattered state. “30 gold coins,” I said indifferently.
“3-30?!” He looked shocked. “P-please, can you at least give 45 gold coins?” The man was desperate. He clearly testified to our prowess, and he was alone. It is good enough if he can get any money at all.
“40 gold coins,” I said coldly as I looked him directly in the eyes. “This is my final deal.”
“... U-understood.” The man agreed reluctantly.
I took out 40 gold coins immediately and gave them to him. “Here.”
The man took the money without a word, and Nari was my slave once again. The girls were beaming with joy. I was not even happy to get her for cheap at all, but seeing them smile like that, it was worth I guess. I smiled faintly without noticing.
The only thing that remained was to change Nari’s seal. For that, I have someone in mind. Even though I bought her out of pity and to satisfy the girls, I have no intention of bringing a troublemaker to my household, not again.