The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 252 Evil Boss Nigel - Beastkin Slave of the Trading City After marking a dot at the center of the continent, the Markanda region, located somewhat eastward from that point, is considered the most chaotic and diverse land on the continent. First of all, the terrain and climate are like that. A melting pot where deserts, snow mountains, and grasslands are all mixed together. Though it's basically barren land, there are several high-altitude mountain ranges nearby where snow accumulates in winter, and in summer that snow melts to create oases in the desert. Each oasis has various large and small nations, each with their own kings, armies, and laws. While wealthy due to serving as a passage for the culture and resources of the eastern continent centered around the Liu Empire to spread to other regions, it was also a place overflowing with as much greed, conspiracy, bloodshed, and crime as its wealth. Among them, Shurabasti was famous as a trading city, boasting such good location and abundant, diverse product listings that dignitaries from other countries would visit specifically to see it. Various jewelry made of gems and gold, special monster materials, famous horses with golden shining coats. And slaves. "……." A street where stuffy air mixed with spices and the smell of sweat. A girl was hanging her head with a dark expression. Cheap one-piece clothing and chains restraining her hands and feet. Her overall features themselves were quite decent, showing glimpses of past beauty and freshness, but due to long fatigue, despair, and hunger, she had become skin and bones, with only remnants of that beauty barely visible now. What drew the most attention in the girl's appearance were the beast ears on her head and the tail on her rear, which proved that the girl was a member of the beastkin, whose kind had now become difficult to find on the continent. As evidence of this, customers passing by the stand looked at the girl with interest and whispered among themselves. "A beastkin? I've heard that they occasionally come up for sale, but this is the first time I've seen one directly." "Is that thing okay? If the Alliance's Guardian throws a fit..." "It's fine as long as we don't enter their territory. If the Guardian could influence the entire continent in the first place, would those Alliance folks be cramped together living in forests like they are now? They would have burst out long ago and burned down the surroundings." "Then it might be good to try buying one. I say, shopkeeper, how much for that slave?" At the customer's words, the slave trader, who had been pretending not to listen while straining his ears to their conversation, quickly rushed over and responded. "Oh my, customer. You have a good eye. The price is 300 Sindar Gold Coins." "What? Are you insane!? The average market price for a healthy adult male slave is 30 coins, and you want me to pour out 300 for just one girl!?" "P-please calm down, customer. What you say would be correct for ordinary humans, but this is a beastkin. Since they've hidden away deep in the Great Forest, they're one of the most exotic races you can hardly see anywhere else, so naturally there's rarity value attached." At the slave trader's words, the acquaintance of the man who had first asked about the slave's price spoke bluntly. "No matter how much rarity value it has, it's meaningless if there's nowhere to actually use it. Look at that—how skinny it is, could you even make it do any work properly? There's no flesh on it, so there'd be no pleasure in holding it either. Let's just go. If it were an elf maybe, but if it's beastkin, it's just rare—it's not like there won't be opportunities later." "Right." "C-customer? Please wait just a moment... Tch." At the sight of the two people swiftly departing without any chance to hold them back, the slave trader's face became greatly distorted. Intuiting what would happen next, the beastkin girl shrank back. Sure enough, the slave trader's palm struck the girl's cheek. Slap! "You piece of trash!! That's why I told you to eat something!! Damn it, you won't sell because you're skinny as a bone!! Do you know how much money I poured out to get you!!" Originally, slave traders don't easily resort to violence against slaves. More precisely, they use it only when necessary, and only as much as necessary. To slave traders, slaves are 'merchandise', and damaging merchandise only lowers the price for no reason, which ultimately becomes the slave trader's own loss. Especially clearly visible areas like the face are targets that should absolutely never be touched under normal circumstances. However, the man was a newcomer who hadn't been a slave trader for long and was inexperienced in many ways, and he was enraged by the situation where the beastkin slave he had invested in, believing it would bring great profit, had already become a burden that wouldn't sell for weeks and only took up space. "S-sorry. I'm sorry." While constantly uttering words of apology, the girl couldn't help but feel wronged inside. She too hadn't starved because she particularly disliked eating food. When she put food in her mouth, it tasted so awful and disgusting that she absolutely couldn't swallow it—what was she supposed to do about that? The more she chewed vegetables, the more they reeked of sand and grass, and meat whose poor freshness was forcibly covered with spices also made her nauseous when eating. Due to the slave trader's nagging, she had forced food into her stomach a few times, but since she ended up vomiting most of it, there was little effect. The body that had resilient flesh when she was in her homeland had withered due to harsh living and deficient diet, and now her bones protruded gauntly. Thanks to this, she could secure safety in terms of chastity, but she didn't consider that particularly joyful. After all, it meant her current appearance was so wretched that she didn't even seem worth embracing. "Hey. I'm looking to buy a slave—are you actually doing business?" Just then, the slave trader's movement of hitting the girl stopped at a voice heard from the side. The girl and slave trader reflexively looked at the person who had spoken to them. Mid-twenties at most. He was a very young man who could even look like late teens if you weren't careful. His hair and eye color were deep black, and his skin was white enough to stand out on a street where many people had tanned brown skin. His clothing was also unusual—unlike the rough cotton cloth commonly worn by people in this area, the young man's clothing had threads that were unbelievably fine and densely woven. The buttons on his chest were half undone, and a luxurious gold necklace hung around his neck. White pants that hadn't lost their luster and color despite facing winds mixed with sand and dust. Shoes with a subtle oily sheen that couldn't even be compared to ordinary shoes roughly sewn from camel leather. Extremely exotic, yet at the same time an appearance that seemed to overflow with wealth no matter how you looked at it—the slave trader's monetary sense rang alarm bells. He approached the young man and attended to him at a speed as if he had boosters attached to his feet. "Welcome, customer! What are you looking for?" "That thing there, is it for sale?" When the young man pointed at the beastkin girl, complex emotions crossed the slave trader's eyes. It was anticipation that he might finally be able to sell that burden, and regret about having just damaged the merchandise. When it was questionable whether he could package and sell it properly even in good condition, now the face was all swollen! "Y-yes, that's right. We were in the middle of discipline so there are temporary injuries, but since it's a beastkin slave, its value is—" "Ah, never mind that. How much?" The slave trader's eyes rolled around. He said carefully. "Sindar Gold Coins, 350 pieces." The beastkin girl listening from the side was inwardly dumbfounded. He probably intended to call out a high price first and then negotiate, but wasn't he losing customers by doing that every time? There was no way business could go properly like that. "Really? Take it." ...There shouldn't be any way it would work, right? "Huh, yes?" "350. I gave it to you, so I can take her, right?" A heavy sound and golden radiance settled firmly on the slave trader's palm. The slave trader looked back and forth between his palm and the young man for a moment, but soon his face was filled with joy. "O-of course! Please take her right away! Here!!" When the slave trader pulled the chain, the beastkin girl's body was dragged along helplessly like a fluttering plastic bag. That behavior, as if handling baggage, made the girl aware of her reality. Ah, I've finally been sold. While thinking that she would no longer be mistreated as a burden, the girl's expression didn't brighten. After all, being a slave was still the same. As long as these cursed chains didn't disappear, her fate would remain eternally bound. While walking away behind the slave trader's cheers, the young man spoke to her. "By the way, what's your name?" "...It's Noa. Master." "I'm Nigel. I'm a boss who runs a small shop. The reason I hired you is to use you as a shop employee." "...I will do my best." "Yes, work hard." It was truly a dry and tasteless conversation. At least that's how Noa felt. 'Making a beastkin an employee—is he planning to use me as a spectacle?' It was certainly an effective method for drawing people's attention and interest. At least it would be better than going into a cage and living as the pet of a wealthy person with bad taste, Noa thought self-deprecatingly. Well, even that wasn't something she could feel relieved about. Her eating disorder still hadn't been resolved. She was somehow enduring with the beastkin's strong life force, but her stamina had dropped to incomparable levels from before, and if the eating problem wasn't resolved, it would only worsen, not improve. And there was no way to solve the eating problem. Unless it was the beloved food from her homeland, there would be no food that Noa's tongue wouldn't reject. *** "Eat." Noa stared blankly at the bowl that Nigel had set down on the table with a thunk. A soup that was white-based with a slight yellowish tint mixed in. Inside, red and green solid bits were mixed together—they were such small pieces that it was hard to tell exactly, but they seemed like some kind of finely chopped vegetables. Next to it was something like a brown lump in an identically shaped bowl, from which came a much sweeter fragrance along with the smell of meat compared to the soup. And next to that was something square and flat with brown edges and white interior—judging by the nutty aroma of wheat and the smell of butter, it seemed to be some kind of bread. Desperately enduring the feeling that her mind might drift away from the various violent stimulations felt at the tip of her nose, Noa asked in a trembling voice. "M-Master. What is this?" "It's mealtime, so you should eat first, right?" "B-but this is..." "Haa." A deep sigh escaped from Nigel's mouth. He glared at Noa with a rough expression. "Hey, you seem to be mistaken about something, but I'm neither a good master nor a benevolent philanthropist. I don't accept complaints about the menu. Got it?" Noa wanted to answer. The one who's mistaken is you. What master in the world eats the same menu at the same table as their slave, and it's not that the menu is unsatisfactory but that it's too excellent, which is the problem. But to pour out all those words, the hunger in her stomach was too intense right now. Noa nodded absentmindedly, half out of her mind, and seeing this, Nigel also curled up the corners of his mouth as if satisfied. She first scooped up the soup with a spoon and put it in her mouth. 'D-delicious...!' A creamy flavor reminiscent of milk. Sweet yet salty, intense yet gently soothing to the stomach. Her stomach, which had been shrunken from not being able to eat anything proper, churned wildly demanding more of this. Only after emptying about half the soup that had filled the plate did Noa regain a bit of reason, looking at the other two menu items with trembling eyes. Surely, are the other two the same? Are those also this delicious? Feeling even fear beyond expectation, Noa carefully bit into the square, flat bread. The taste itself wasn't as intense compared to the soup. However, the soft texture felt the moment it entered her mouth and the nuttiness that came out the more she chewed had a different charm from the soup. Moreover, with five or six pieces randomly stacked on the plate, the advantage was that she could munch away without needing to save any. The last thing remaining was only the brown meat lump. She asked carefully. "M-Master?" "What?" "How should I eat that?" "Hamburg steak? What do you mean how to eat it? Just stab it with a fork. You can eat it without a knife." As if to show a demonstration, Nigel stabbed the lump he called hamburg steak deeply with a fork, then bit into it with his mouth. Since he seemed to frown after chewing, not looking like he enjoyed it very much, Noa was rather relieved. Right, it smells good but it's still meat after all. If it were freshly hunted from nature and then cooked it might be different, but meat whose poor quality was forcibly covered with seasonings and spices wasn't to her taste. 'But still, when the master ate it himself, I can't refuse to eat it saying it tastes bad.' Even if the meat is disgusting, if she washes away that taste with bread and soup, she should somehow be able to swallow it. No, she has to swallow it. With such resolve, Noa chewed the meat lump. "@^#@&^@&@#^@!!" "Huh? Hey, wait! Get a grip!! Hey!!" -Damn it, was it too stingy of me to go with two types of Ottogi instant food and supermarket bread after all!? Along with incomprehensible sentences ringing in her ears, Noa lost consciousness.