Dungeons Online

Chapter 129: The laws of slavery

"You are finally back," Claudia said, crossing her hands on her chest. "Where did you yeet out to?" she asked, seizing Tom from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. 

'Is that how it feels to be a husband returning late in the night from a drinking party?' Tom asked himself, not sure how he should feel about the situation. 

"I got us a place to stay," Tom replied plainly, not seeing any benefit to linger on the topic. "How are the things on your end?" he asked, hoping to change the topic as soon as possible. 

"The guild master told me to get you as soon as you return." Claudia shook her head before releasing a deep sigh. "Come, then," she added a moment later, turning around and heading deeper into the guild.

'They are still partying,' Tom thought, catching a glimpse of the crowd in the service area of the building. The woman that was sufficiently quick on the uptake to grab the opportunity he gave a few moments before was now wasting all the earned money away on a huge variety of drinks. What's more, she already gained a huge following of people happily accompanying her in this drunken endeavor.

All for the single coin that Tom offered for the woman's help.

'I really need to get the worth of those coins settled,' Tom thought as he silently followed behind his friend. 

"You are finally here," the guild master said once the two of them entered one of the rooms. There was a group of officials and the defeated trio inside the room outside of the woman herself, all focusing their attention on Tom and Claudia. 

"Is it done?" Tom asked, glancing over at the guild master. Then he scanned the former powerhouse of the city, quickly noticing how each of them wore a small, leather wrap around their necks. 

'Isn't this something they can tear away with a single pull?' he thought, puzzled by the unexpected. 

Tom was quite familiar with the idea of what made slaves, slaves in the fantasy world. No matter what novel or story he would look into, a metal chain locked around their neck would be the prime example. But now, there was no sign of anything that crude on his slaves. 

"Yeah." The guild master nodded her head. "For the next seven years, which is the longest possible slavery term, they will be unable to disobey any of your commands," she said before throwing Tom a peculiar look. "I hope you are aware of all the limitations to their service," she added, looking at Tom's face with her eyes slightly squinted. 

"I can't recklessly throw them to their deaths, I can't sexually abuse them, nor can I give them any orders that would let others violate the aforementioned." Tom looked up to the ceiling of the room while taking up a thoughtful expression on his face. "Is that right?" he asked as he lowered his head a moment later. 

'Huh?' Tom shrugged slightly when he noticed the darkened expression on the guild master's face. 'Did I make a mistake?' he thought. After a moment of considering the consequences of doing so later, Tom mentally prepared himself for bringing bloody carnage onto everyone in the room. 

"I'm sorry," the guild master lowered her head. A drop of blood fell out of her lips that she cut with her very own teeth. "I thought that was one of the things that you wanted them for, you know, seeing how the girl is quite cute and all..." the woman said, avoiding Tom's eyes as if they could burn her soul away. 

"Does it mean my other requests will turn troublesome?" Tom asked, not paying any mind to the woman's troubles nor the look of hate that the soccer girl threw at him. Out of everything that was going on within the room, only to look of disgust that both the scrawny archer and the burly warrior threw at him managed to bother him a bit. 

"No, it's just the price of slave's conditioning with what I ordered..." the woman spoke out, only to turn silent before finishing her sentence. 

"I just paid two of the coins that you gave me for two days at the Inn," Tom said, rolling his eyes at the anxiety of the woman. "Do you really think I care for money all that much?" he asked before turning his head and looking at the trio of the slaves. 

"Kneel," Tom ordered, eager to test the effects of the conditioning. 

In an instant, the trio bent their knees only to slam their foreheads against the floor. 

'Huh?' Tom shrugged in surprise and squinted his eyes. 'So the way they fulfill the order is dependant on their own interpretation on it?' he thought, before waving his head and saying, "at ease." 

"Sir, despite my mishap... Are you satisfied?" The guild master asked, looking up at Tom's face with hope burning in her eyes. 

'From how subservient she is, does she want to curry favor slash avoid trouble, or is she doing her absolute best so that I would underestimate her later on?' Tom asked himself, unsure about the answer. 

While it was almost certain that he was stronger than the top team of adventurers in this town, he still couldn't be sure about the level of power of the guild master. 'Judging from the titles she called herself with at the very beginning, she is likely not to be some random pushover,' he thought, sizing up the woman for yet another time. 

"Raise," Tom said, ignoring the guild master's question. This time, contrary to how they didn't move at all when he told them to be at ease, the trio of slaves moved up. 

"What are all the restrictions regarding what I can do with them and what they can do while under service?" Tom asked directly. It was a question he couldn't pose earlier, as it would betray his lack of common sense, lack of knowledge of what this world likely expected everyone to be aware of. But now, with the guild master admitting to her mistake, he could ask the same question as a sort of assurance that there were no further mistakes on her end. 

"Outside of what you said, sir, you can't make them participate in things that would break the common laws. While at that, this restriction does not apply to the local laws, so you cannot be careless when moving around," the guild master said, her expression souring. 

"Is that it?" Tom asked, taking up the role of a bitchy client, almost all the way to the point of becoming a Karen and threatening the guild master with calling her superiors. 

"Just in case you get the girl pregnant, you will be obliged to take care of the kid. In other words, unless she will endorse the idea of giving up on the child, you cannot do any harm nor mistreat it. After all, the children do not bear the responsibility for their parent's sin," the woman said. Even though her expression proved how unsure she was about her current situation, her eyes didn't break away when Tom looked right into them. "And once her term will be up, it will be up to her to decide whether she takes the kid or not," the guild master added, crossing her arms on her chest, proving that this was a term she wasn't willing to give up on. 

"Judging from your behavior, it's not a rule that most of the slaves are protected with," Tom said, putting a small, vicious smile on his lips. But as the contest of stares continued, he suddenly shook his head only to allow a small chuckle to escape from between his lips. "Don't you worry," he said, turning his head towards the slaves before pointing with his chin towards the girl. "I do not plan on seeing them more than twice from now on. Once I give them my orders, they will be free to go around doing their best to fulfill them. But before that, there is one thing I need to know," Tom said as his expression turned serious once again. 

"How can I ensure that no information I will share with them will ever reach the ears of anyone else?" Tom asked, turning the discussion back on track of what was truly important.

"You can't," the scrawny archer muttered as he threw a hateful look at Tom. "Whatever you will tell us, we will make sure to..." he didn't get to finish. As if some kind of failsafe went off in his brain, the man's eyes turned white as he started to mindlessly salivate. 

"As you can see, there are restrictions on what slaves can do as well," the guild master said as a small smile of satisfaction grew up on her lips. "As for your question, you don't need to worry," she said, casting a quick glance at Tom. "The moment they try to reveal anything or cause you any harm, they will be deprived of air for as long as it takes to change their mind," she said before shrugging her arms. 

"And what if they won't change their mind?" Tom asked, unwilling to let any questions of this magnitude go unanswered. 

"Then they will kill themselves, as their chain will suffocate them to their death," the woman explained, pointing her hand at the scrawny archer who was already shaking on his legs. 

"Good," Tom said, nodding his head with satisfaction while ignoring the intense look that Claudia continued to throw at him all along. "You guys, follow me. I don't want to see your damned faces for any longer than necessary, so let's get this over with."