episode_0027

However, her angry charge was stopped so easily that it seemed like nothing.

“Stay calm. I don’t want to hurt you any more than necessary.”

“Ugh!”

It wasn’t just because Emma, who immediately ran in front of me, transformed back into her half-human, half-horse form and pressed her down.

She was running at me before Emma could subdue her, but the tentacles that were hanging instead of legs were tangled together and she was about to fall.

As if he had never moved that body himself.

‘…was he forced to look like that?’

Emma, who was suppressing her with force, seemed to think the same thing as me, and I could sense sadness rather than hostility on her face.

“Ugh! Let go of this! What have you done to my body?!”

“…Just calm down first. We have never done anything to you.”

“Don’t lie! Then what is on that window-”

“When you attacked us and tried to sink our galley. These are the things that were buried when the tentacles were cut off.”

“…What nonsense?… What did I do?”

“Are you really unable to remember anything? What is the last memory that comes to mind?”

While confusion instead of anger flashed across her face, I continued speaking.

“Of course-… What… Why can’t I remember… Ugh…”

She was frowning at my words and remembering, but then her expression suddenly turned white, and she lowered her head and started to gag.

“Ship… Ship… Ships on the sea… I said that?”

‘Maybe only fragmentary memories remain?’

“What is your name?”

“…Lesala…Lesala.”

“Good. Le Sala. The good news is that, as far as I know, there were no deaths among the ships that were attacked.

Most of them escaped with damage, and I believe this was the first time a military ship was dispatched and a full-scale battle took place.”

“… Heo-eok.. Heo-eok… Jin.. It must be true. The person who died because of me…”

“Yes, with the medal I received as an adventurer, I can promise you this is the truth.”

She was still breathing hard and her face was full of anxiety, but as she clung to my words to find even a glimmer of stability, I answered with a serious expression while holding up the golden medal with one hand.

Only then did Lesala’s heavy breathing subside and she looked much more relieved. I remained silent and waited until she recovered to some extent.

“…I’m sorry. He almost died because of me…”

“If you did not commit it out of your own will, you cannot be held responsible for it.

However, you must find out who caused you to do such a thing. So that there are no more victims like you.

What is the last thing you remember before your body changed like that?”

She closed her eyes for a moment and seemed deep in thought.

“…I was the daughter of a wealthy merchant.”

When she finally opened her eyes, she started talking again.

“Our family traveled the sea on boats and caught fish… and sometimes even talked to mermaids.

Stupid people treat them like fish… but if you get to know them, they will present the mysteries of the sea to you.

…It might have been better for them and our family if we hadn’t received those gifts.

If that were the case, at least that witch wouldn’t have touched our family.”

“…Is that witch’s name…Circe?”

“I guess you know as expected? Actually, if you become a gold-level adventurer, you must be well-versed in the dark corners of the empire…”

It wasn’t an unexpected name.

If there were a being capable of transforming an ordinary human into a completely new race, it was the name that would be first on the list of candidates.

It seems that she is the real owner of those mysterious elixirs and experimental tools.

Luvia, the daughter of a nobleman in the southern part of the empire, also had a stiff expression on her face as if she had heard of her before.

“One day, people came to our family’s mansion and asked us questions about mermaids.

At the last minute, he even offered to share the profits with us if we helped lure them out and sell them.

Of course we kicked them out. And a while later, when I was washing myself in the bathhouse of the mansion…”

Lesala’s body was shaking as she told the story.

“…A shadow fell from behind. A woman standing with her back to the sun.

I couldn’t see her face clearly because of that, but she was holding a long jar in her hand.

And feeling ominous, I asked her who she was.

The bitch laughed and poured the liquid inside into the bath I was soaking in. Then purple foam covered the water…”

Lesala closed her eyes tightly and said no more.

“Circe… I’m not familiar with the Empire’s circumstances, so I don’t know exactly who it is… but how could they commit such a terrible thing?”

After hearing Lesala’s story, Emma seemed severely shocked and asked me in a bewildered voice.

For Emma, who has lived most of her life in the grasslands beyond the empire, this may have been the first time among us that we have heard of her notoriety.

Emma’s question of “how” probably has two meanings.

The first is probably a question in a moral sense.

Emma had already been taken as a slave by the humans of the empire and had seen them trade even her own people as slaves, but the fact that she could turn people into monsters without reason at will was a new territory for her.

The second would be a question about method.

How on earth was it possible to turn Lesala, a wealthy but ordinary human merchant’s daughter, into a monster capable of single-handedly destroying an Imperial naval ship?

“…Circe is a witch who has lived for a very long time.

It was relatively recently that its influence was revealed in earnest in the shadows of the empire, but even that was before the Catenis family became the most powerful as it is now, so at best, it was more than 30 years ago.”

Circe’s traces predate the start of ‘Slave Maker’. You can see the legacies she left behind for the empire throughout the game.

That’s right…

“She is, in a word… one of the reasons why the empire’s slave trade grew so large.

The scale of the slave trade has grown enormously because of the witch’s magic and the vicious magic that modifies the human body.”

“Remodeling the human body…what on earth is happening?”

“…Have you ever heard of livestock slavery?”

“There were cases where humans treated our centaurs like horses… but seeing the owner say that, is it even worse than that? ”

“…You can say it literally. Cows and chickens. Because we have to keep producing milk and eggs.”

“…What?”

Emma questioned as if she couldn’t believe it, but when I nodded with a dark expression, she was shocked by that fact and stuttered.

“No…what on earth?…”

“I heard that it is the result of studying the physical characteristics of Minotaurs and Harpies, changing them to suit their tastes, and then applying them, even if imperfectly, to humans…

Because of this, as the scale and profitability of the slave trade increased, the number of people becoming slavers increased.

Slaves from different races may be much more expensive, but this… means that if you turn slaves into livestock in large quantities, the profits increase accordingly.”

Circe was one of the hidden dark forces that corrupted this empire into a hell of royalties.

Slaves who were already of low value in the ‘slave maker’ could be remodeled into livestock and sold, or could run a ‘farm’ selling the products of the remodeled slaves.

“A witch who can commit such evil deeds could just live a normal life and make a name for herself… Why on earth would she do something like that?”

“…Ridically, the main reason is simply because he wants to test his magic. That’s why he has a close relationship with the Catenis family even now that they have become a powerful force in the empire.

If you just listen to the matriarch’s request, you can constantly get test subjects and do whatever you want.”

Come to think of it, it is said that due to the ships being attacked in the Strait of Messina this time, the existing maritime trade route was blocked and they had to use another route…

Other ports and cities that could replace existing trade routes would have reaped enormous benefits.

How many of them are connected to the Catenis family or its allies and subordinates?

“Besides… how many minotaurs and harpies must have been sacrificed to extract the characteristics of those races…”

Moreover, looking at Lesala’s condition… there was a high possibility that he had touched the mermaids this time as well.

What song did we hear her singing under the sea?

“Mermaids… do you know what happened to our family?”

Lesala, who had been quietly listening to me talk about Circe’s evil deeds, asked in a trembling voice if her thoughts had reached the same point as mine.

“…It won’t be good. Still, since their home base is the sea, unlike other races, they can move around to avoid the empire to some extent…

There must be quite a few mermaids captured by the empire. And Miss Lesala’s family… I’ve heard that merchants who were friendly with mermaids went bankrupt.

I’m sorry to tell you this.”

-Crackling…

Lesala grinds her teeth so hard that my words can be heard.

Tears filled with bitterness poured out of her eyes.

As I watched her angry expression in a gloomy atmosphere, I quietly approached her, leaned down, and made eye contact again.

“…But there may still be people left who can be saved.”

“By what route? Who can take on the evilest witch in the Empire? What about all the corrupt powers that have colluded with her?”

“It may be impossible to kick them all out right away… but there are people who can save at least some of those suffering from their abuse.

The person who gave me this medal.”

Before I knew it, Lesala’s eyes were looking at me as she listened to me, and there was a mixture of confusion, disbelief, and hope in believing what I was saying.

I told her that.

“The Empress will listen carefully to what you say.”