Chapter 43: Non-mainstream Slaves

“What do you mean there are no slaves?”

“Sorry. The church has taken almost all of them.”

I froze at the slave trader’s words.

“Sion. Hey, dummy! Snap out of it!”

“Ugh! Th-this. No. Ahh.”

After hearing there were no slaves at the third shop already, my mind went blank.

To think there are no slaves in the great labyrinth city.

The reason was, of course, due to the great change.

“This can’t be….”

According to the slave trader, the number of slaves who died caught up in this great change was beyond imagination.

Originally, the porter profession was mostly filled with slaves.

The porter profession had such a high proportion of slaves that porters who weren’t slaves, like me, were rare.

The weak porter slaves died for various reasons after getting caught up in this great change.

They might have been used as bait for escape.

Or they might have fallen down below and died from mana poisoning.

Anyway, the porter class has completely evaporated.

And right after the great change started, the slave market was cleaned out once.

We were a step too late.

Furthermore, it seems a considerable number of slaves that the church operated independently were also swept away.

The church has gathered up even the slaves they used to release to the slave market to expand the workforce.

The slave factory has closed its doors.

What’s even more serious is that body retrieval isn’t going well below the underground city, so I think the supply itself has decreased.

It’s a total crisis.

“Even the corpse retrieval team was completely swept away by the great change. There seems to be no way. Either wait at least 4 more months. Or go to the non-human specialist slave trader in the black market. One of the two.”

These were the slave trader’s words.

He says there’s no prospect of slaves being supplied for at least 4 more months.

Demand has skyrocketed but supply is ridiculously short.

Meanwhile, the church has stopped releasing slaves and started operating them internally, so the few slaves left were all sold at an average of 3 times the price.

He says this situation will continue until the labyrinth city stabilizes.

“Was it yesterday? It seems slave hunting also occurred in the northern slums. Of course, they were all caught.”

“Slave hunting?”

“Yes. There were attempts to supply slaves to merchant guilds by kidnapping through illegal routes or resurrecting.”

“What madness…”

He says slave hunting occurred to fill the manpower vacuum that evaporated in an instant.

Slave hunting.

The act of branding slum orphans or homeless people as slaves by disguising them as people who died in the labyrinth.

Furthermore, it’s a word that includes all malicious crimes like killing adventurers encountered in the labyrinth, resurrecting them in an ‘illegal way’, and then handing them over to slave traders.

Needless to say, if you do such a thing in the labyrinth city, you won’t die peacefully.

The goddess church steps in, declares you a heretic, and kills you miserably after all kinds of torture.

Moreover, there was nothing to gain from hunting and selling slaves in this way.

As long as the church held a tight grip on slave items, prices were always maintained consistently, so there was no need to handle slave items while taking the risk of slave hunting.

Slave hunting was high risk, low return in itself.

If you don’t want to be torn apart by heresy inquisitors, you should be careful, but with the sudden increase in slave prices, it seems slave hunting, which had disappeared decades ago, has been revived.

“Even though it’s said to be handled at the church and guild level….”

“It will certainly contribute to the economic recession of the labyrinth city. The atmosphere on the streets will become unsettling.”

I saw a new possibility here.

Isn’t this a disturbance caused by outside forces?

Did the cowards of the underworld do this on their own?

There’s no way street corpse cleaners would blindly participate in slave hunting.

There must be something behind this.

Moreover, with such incidents occurring right away when not even a month has passed since the great change occurred, it seemed like someone wanted to ruin the labyrinth city.

I sense malice.

It feels like those with dirty minds are reaching out their evil hands.

“This doesn’t look good. Right?”

“Yeah.”

I talked with Yuria as we walked through the shopping district.

Yuria also said she felt some impure intentions, just like me.

“Hmm. Sion, could it be something done by the kingdom or empire?”

“Maybe. They’re always eyeing the labyrinth city.”

“Hmm. I’m not sure. Well, mom will take care of such difficult things.”

“That’s true. The guild master will handle it.”

“Let’s quickly go to the next shop.”

Yuria pulled my hand.

She seemed to want to finish buying a slave quickly and play with me.

“But Yuria, do you know where the black market slave trader we’re going to now is, and that’s why you’re taking the lead?”

“Oh. No. I don’t know! I’ve never been to the black market. Guide me.”

Yuria, who had no interest in slaves, wouldn’t know the location of a shop specializing in slaves.

If I hadn’t said to buy one, she probably wouldn’t have bought a slave in her lifetime.

Moreover, she says she hasn’t been to the black market.

As expected, Yuria. You’ve lived a wholesome life.

“Hey Sion. This street looks a bit dangerous?”

“It’s probably because we’re near the black market.”

“Heh. You seem to know this street quite well? Did you frequent the black market?”

“Not often. Very occasionally. I’ve only been in a few times.”

There’s a black market in the western part of the labyrinth city.

It’s a place that deals with things that are difficult to sell openly.

For example, tentacle dildos or pet slimes for masturbation.

Or low-risk mimics for compression fetishes.

They deal in drugs too, but I know it’s about the level of marijuana by Earth standards.

It feels like drugs that damage the brain to the level of something like fentanyl are non-mainstream even here.

“Oh my, you weak thing going around such dangerous places? Is it okay to wander around red-light districts and black markets without hesitation?”

“No, Yuria. I’m not that weak. I’m at least stronger than those vagrants over there.”

“Hey! Of course you should be stronger than vagrants! You pathetic Eastern guy! Take this!”

“Aaah! Hey! Yuria! It hurts! It hurts!!! Gack!!!”

Yuria strongly clasped her hands together.

“My fingers are breaking..!!!”

No, really, no lie, it feels like my fingers are going to break.

Her strength is so ridiculously high that it feels like my fingers will fold in half.

“I surrender! I surrender!”

When I declared surrender, Yuria grinned and let go of my hand.

My hand is tingling.

“Hehe. Pathetic Sion. Don’t get cocky. From now on, tell me before going to dangerous places.”

“Ugh. Damn it.”

“What? Damn it? Want to taste some spiciness? Shall we have a round of wrestling? Want me to do the windmill throw for you after a long time!?”

Yuria immediately tries to lift me up.

I can’t resist. If I stay still like this, I’ll surely be subjected to Yuria’s windmill throw.

I’ve been subjected to it a few times before.

I might throw up.

“Hey hey! You keep climbing up?”

“Hehe. What can Sion do if I bully you? Just quietly take it.”

“Gack..!! You brat! Just wait until we’re in bed!”

“What? Bed?!”

Yuria stops at the word ‘bed’.

She gently put me down on the ground after lifting me up and dusted off my shoulders.

“A-ahem.. Bed.. Yeah. Bed is good. Yeah yeah.”

“What’s this. Why are you suddenly shy?”

“No, but. It’s embarrassing. How can you suddenly talk about beds on the street! Eep..! Come here! You’re the bad one!”

“Gack. Yu-Yuria..! I can’t breathe!”

Perhaps feeling sorry for bullying me, Yuria hugged me tightly.

No, is she hugging me because she’s embarrassed?

It’s certainly nice to be in Yuria’s arms, but this time I’m suffocating.

How should I put it.

Yuria is like a large dog.

She’s certainly cute and nice.

But she’s stronger than me, so it’s a bit overwhelming.

Above all, to have this level of public display of affection near the black market.

Mentally ill people could have picked a fight with us, but.

“Eek..”

“Ahem…”

“Red hair.. scary..”

Everyone avoided us.

In the labyrinth city, it’s better not to mess with red hair if possible.

Especially black market residents tend to be terrified when they see red hair.

What on earth did the guild master do when she was young?

She must have killed a lot to maintain public order in the labyrinth city.

“This is the last proper slave shop.”

“The atmosphere is a bit different from the shops before.”

“Maybe it’s because it deals with somewhat non-mainstream slaves.”

There are mainstream and non-mainstream slaves too.

Pretty female slaves sell well, while.

Armless male slaves don’t sell well, that kind of feeling.

The fact that it’s near the black market probably means it specializes in non-mainstream slaves.

I wonder what kind of slaves they deal with.

Creak.

“Cough… cough.. A customer?”

As we entered the shop, thick smoke greeted us.

I see the shop owner covered in a black blanket in front of the counter.

I couldn’t see his face because of the blanket.

It seems he’s been smoking a water pipe all day through a small hole.

“Ugh. At least ventilate a bit.”

Yuria grumbled as she followed me into the shop.

“I’m sorry about that. It’s a shop with no customers at all.”

The shop owner opened the window with his short arm in response to Yuria’s complaint.

He’s extremely small, which I felt even when he was sitting.

‘Is he a dwarf?’

With the large blanket he’s covered in and his tiny physique combined, the slave trader looked just like a child.

Of course, there’s no chance of mistaking his age because his voice was very hoarse, but that’s how he looked on the outside.

“So, what brings you all the way here? To buy a slave? The young couple seems to have quite unique tastes.”

He seems to be making some big misunderstanding.

We didn’t come to satisfy some unique taste, we just ran out of slaves.

“It’s not a unique taste, we just came all the way here because there are no slaves.”

“Well, there is a shortage of goods these days.”

The shop owner got up from the counter and gathered a bunch of keys.

“Follow me. I’ll show you the ones left.”

Yuria and I followed the shop owner into the basement of the shop.

We were going down to a gloomy place, but I wasn’t particularly worried.

Yuria is an adventurer just before gold badge, and I’m not so soft that I’d be taken advantage of by a slave trader.

“It’s dark.”

“Yeah. Do they keep slaves in a place like this? It has an inhumane atmosphere.”

Yuria casually threw words at the slave trader as if for him to hear.

Certainly, as Yuria said, it felt somewhat illegal.

Especially since it’s a slave shop right next to the black market, it’s more suspicious.

“Ah, miss. Most of the fellows in our shop are inherently inhuman. I put them here because they said they don’t like sunlight. I spent a lot of money to prepare this basement according to the slaves’ opinions, so don’t force it. Do you know how much it costs to expand a basement to this extent? I’m getting angry just talking about it.”

A bitter resentment could be felt in the slave trader’s voice.

He seemed frustrated at being wrongly accused about the basement he invested a considerable amount of money to make.

I wonder what kind of slaves he deals with that there are ones who dislike sunlight.

I didn’t know the details since I was coming to this shop on the recommendation of the slave trader I visited earlier.

I only saw the sign when I stopped by the black market, I didn’t think about coming in.

“Here we are. Don’t get too close to the iron bars. Body fluids might get on your clothes.”

“Hmm.”

The slave shop was a small one-story building.

But the basement was much larger than expected.

A huge underground space.

It was full of iron cages.

Also, dwarves covered in black blankets like the shop owner were managing the slaves.

Feeding them, washing them, and cleaning the cages.

It was managed much better than I imagined.

“This is what’s left now. Take a look around. They’re all friends brought through legal routes, so don’t worry.”

The people…? trapped in the iron cages

Some weren’t even human.

It felt like I had come to a circus.

“Non-human race slaves, I see.”

“Is that even an intelligent being..?”

“They’ve been cursed by the labyrinth.”

“Hmm.”

A slime in human form waved at us.

“Is it male or female?”

“Well. That depends on the owner’s preference?”

“…”

“Oh.”

The difference between the masturbation slimes sold in black market adult shops and that slime slave over there is that it was originally human but became a slime due to the labyrinth’s curse.

There are many types of labyrinth curses, but the most common is the curse of transformation.

The curse of transformation was like a penalty that you unfortunately get while wandering the deep levels.

You could get the curse of transformation by stepping on a trap.

Or you might have been captured and modified by monsters in the deep levels.

“When you get the curse of transformation like this, you’re usually given 2 choices.”

Whether to run away bearing the curse.

Or to assimilate with the labyrinth and become a monster.

If you have money, you can get it removed.

But if you don’t have money, you have to live with the cursed state as is.

Living in a non-human form is quite terrible.

You never know when you might be mistaken for a monster and shot dead, and you’re often ostracized.

“So some people voluntarily become slaves. They don’t bother you much if you’re wearing a slave collar. It costs an astronomical amount of money to remove the curse of transformation. It’s on a different level from the potion of revival.”

Since slaves are ultimately private property, people in the labyrinth city generally don’t mess with other people’s slaves.

Treating a slave carelessly is equivalent to challenging the slave’s owner.

‘By the way, the people here have such a cruel fate.’

They became slaves to survive, but if they meet a bad master, they might die from abuse.

In many ways, their fate seemed very cruel.

If they got the curse of transformation, they must have seen the scenery beyond the underground city.

How sad must it be for them to have to fall to being slaves despite having such experiences?

“I don’t know much about the curse of transformation, but does becoming a mutant mean losing all your strength?”

“It varies from person to person. Some actually get stronger due to the curse of transformation. Some lose their sanity. There are all sorts of cases. The friends here are the type with vaguely bad luck. They made it to the surface. But don’t have the strength to live on their own. And didn’t have money to remove the curse. That’s the kind of friends they are.”

“I see.”

“But there’s definitely demand since they’re deep level explorers.”

Even if they’ve become weak, you can’t ignore their experience of exploring the deep levels.

Knowledge about the deep levels isn’t something you can simply buy with money.

“Business seems better than I thought.”

“That’s right. Rich people with unique tastes buy them to satisfy their desires. Or gold badge and above adventurers often look for them as guides. But customers who are adventurers have stopped coming because of the great change. Well, there are also a few slaves who aren’t cursed by the labyrinth, so take a look.”

It seemed this place had its own circumstances too.

“Sion. Over there.”

“Hm?”

While looking for a suitable household helper slave, Yuria found something.