After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World

Another disguise later, the aforementioned lumbering cripple stood in front of a dark building with a straight back, powerful gait, and a blank expression on his face.

It was a relatively large building. It was one of the duplicable commercial buildings that could be bought from the system at the Town level, so it was actually not dilapidated. It was simply that it emitted an aura that indicated a lot of suffering had happened here, and still was.

This was none other than one of the Town’s official Slave Houses, a place where people could buy and bid for slaves.

The ’weaker’ Terran slaves still alive were sent here. They ranged from level 3 to 5, or they had some sort of ailment or disability that made them unattractive to most, but would be too wasteful to just throw out—especially when they were elementalists.

That said, even if these elementalists were a bit cheaper than usual, they were still many times more expensive than normal people. Basically, an elementalist lacking an appendage would still cost much more than a strong normal non-elementalist of the same level.

The disabled slaves would usually priced only a few silver at most (usually used for bait or another inhuman purpose) in a Town, however, elementalists were still special in the end, so they could still sell for tens of gold each. Some dealers would also charge about the same as normal elementalist slaves due to greed, which was why some elementalists remained unsold.

”Let me buy at least 3 slaves—” Gian said, showing off the bags of gold he earned earlier—changing the actual bags, of course. ”I want elementalists.”

The dealer looked at him and counted the gold he was offering before leading him deeper into the building and to the large rooms where hundreds of slaves were kept. There were different rooms, and the elementalists were in their own area.

The elementalist slaves here were taken from the North Terran territories. Just as the South and Southwest territories were near Ferrol Town, the Terran territories up north were closest to Flaret.

Unfortunately, the allied Ferrol Town was an exception in an otherwise hostile world to them, and the people who landed in this area were not as lucky.

Gian took a deep breath, following wordlessly after the slave trader as he entered the new room.

Calling them ’rooms’ was an overstatement. It was more like a pigsty, the sight and smell of which made people’s stomachs flip.

There were makeshift platforms to maximize the space, like giant double-deckers, but each ’bunk’ would serve several people. Anyway, people were just thrown there together with a shared toilet. He heard it was even denser with non-elementalist slaves.

The slaves—his fellowmen and women—were in poor condition. They must not have taken a bath for months, and the state of their bodies indicated they only ate once a day at most. For people of lower levels, once a day was definitely not enough sustenance.

They were also filled with bruises and dried wounds. The slave dealers might have punished them for misbehaving, but they could also have gotten the wounds before this.

Regardless, they were just left to treat themselves on their own without care. The only fortunate thing was that because they were elementalists, they had stronger immunities and their wounds were unlikely to get infected.

Still, the more Gian looked at them, the more his heart burned in anger. His jaw clenched and his hands formed into fists—

”Which one would you like, good sir?” the voice of the slave trader sounded, pulling him back to the present. He had a face of greed and Gian wanted nothing more than to pummel his face.

However, the man was nearly level 30, and the guards here were at least level 20 as well. He’d only put himself and everyone around him in danger if he made a move. It wasn’t the time yet, but he sure would jump at the chance to beat him up as soon as he could.

”You choose for me,” he said. ”Be sure the elementalists are ambulatory at least, and be sure to give me my money’s worth and more.”

Gian didn’t want the burden of choosing who exactly to choose. He took a peek and didn’t recognize anyone. This was why he simply asked the slave traders to give him people as long as they were elementalists who could move on their own.

He had made his choice before, during the first batches of rescue. He chose the decently strong-looking ones with some fight left in them, despite whatever disability they had. He did not have much money, so he could only put aside the others. Fortunately, they did not know him, nor did they have an idea he would be good to them, so they all avoided his eyes rather than look at him with hope.

A week later, he found a slave he had passed over during the purchase, except he was a corpse between monsters’ teeth, used as helpless bait.

As cowardly as it was, he did not want to have to deal with that again—not when he had so much going on and so little he could do.

He could only follow the game for now. He was working alone, without money or backing, and the best he could do against their system was using their own money or products to buy the slaves.

Gian stood still at the side while the dealer found the ’perfect’ slaves for him. He pushed down the guilt, especially when he could hear the weak moans of the others.

After about five minutes, the slave driver pulled out people. The ’items’ weren’t bad because he was a regular, and they knew to give him decent ones to keep him coming.

Of course, they would all have flaws of sorts regardless.

This was understandable. The territory would not sell other elementalists easily, particularly when they were in good condition.

So the ones he got were a woman filled with scars, a man with a bent arm, and a young boy with a deformed face.

To the locals, these three were eyesores who would be useless either way and would be better sold in gold.

They were shivering from weakness and fear and they obviously didn’t know what to expect of him. It didn’t help that Gian’s face was impassive the whole time, but he didn’t care about it.

They were then handed over to him, without having to do oaths, but they were technically already his after purchase.

There were no oaths involved, and it was his choice to do so despite the risks.

For normal people to buy slaves, they’d have to do the exchange in a Center, and with the Lord’s approval, but that’d mean he’d have to reveal his true name while making the oath.

His name was a starkly Terran name and the Lord could see the amount of gold he had. If they find the right threads to follow, he’d just put himself in danger.

Further, he also sold drugs and bought slaves under different identities, so it wouldn’t do to reveal his name at all.

Buying and selling slaves without the Center or the Lord could be done when the territory simply relinquished ownership of them, making them masterless slaves. This was not done often, but it was a practice done in all territories.

As for the advantages to the seller, there were actually a few. One, they didn’t have to pay for the transfer fees, which could be a substantial amount depending on the number of slaves being traded.

Another, they wouldn’t be part of the assets and—in case the territory lost in the war—the slaves wouldn’t be part of the transfers. Of course, this would be done only to slaves that the Lords had no plans to use in wars, like disabled ones. The rest would always be slaves under the Lord’s side; otherwise, it would be too risky placing them in wars.

Lastly, the Lord wouldn’t have to be bothered each time. Transferring/buying and selling of slaves, outside of war, required the Lord’s presence in the Center, as if serving as an intermediary.

For better or for worse, because slavery was one of the most sensitive and powerful statuses assigned to a person, there was naturally a lot more weight on this.

(Speaking of this, Alterra, which had never traded slaves and only gained them through wars or buying them legitimately, did not know of such a system until very recently, when they started expanding influence outwards).

Anyway, this troublesome process was also the main issue why some Lords adopted this system in the first place, at least to some slaves.

This was especially applicable to this place where the Lord was a lazy addict who abhorred being troubled by ’small’ things like this.

Of course, the risk here for Gian was that they wouldn’t exactly be bound to him either. They’d follow his orders as a citizen of Flaret, but they could still follow others as well.

If he wished to officially make them his slaves, he’d have to register them at a later date—and outside the sight of possible enemies—in the Center. He was planning on doing that when he got his chance, and he had done so quite a few times already.

He looked at the three.

As of this date, he had rescued 43 individuals, 20 of whom had signed an oath to him at the Center.

There were plenty of processes and detours, but it was all so he could do these things under the radar.

He sighed and he couldn’t help but feel melancholic.

If the captain and the others were here...would they have found more efficient ways to rescue these people?