Chapter 12 – The Slave Dealer I Owed a Favor—Slaaave Deaa-ler

Illegal mage Gaikaku Hikume’s compound was crammed with real, honest-to-goodness contraband.

All sorts of items were banned for different reasons, and among them were things so dangerous that even owning them was a crime.

That was why Gaikaku personally packed the nastiest pieces into secure containers, kept them separate from the rest of his cargo, and loaded them onto a special wagon.

After giving a few final instructions about the remaining baggage, he stepped out of his base.

Since he had no intention of ever coming back, he set off to say goodbye to the handful of people he actually knew.

Of course, Count Borick wasn’t on that list.

If Gaikaku dropped in on the count, it would end in murder—or at least attempted murder.

Even an illegal mage like Gaikaku had no interest in a pointless fight.

So who did he go to see? A slave dealer who’d helped him out more than once.

In other words, there was no one else he cared enough to visit—a fact that spoke volumes about his personality.

“Yo, manager. You open?”

“Ah—aaah! W-welcome!!”

Tucked into a corner of the slave market was a tiny, bargain-basement slave shop that specialised in “problem cases.”

The moment Gaikaku Hikume walked in, the shopkeeper practically leapt out of his skin.

Long before the Conjurer Knight Order even formed, he’d already known his customer was Gaikaku Hikume.

He also knew Count Borick had been appointed a knight the other day—only to be dismissed that very same day.

As a humble subject of the realm, the shopkeeper could read between the lines.

And what he read terrified him.

“C-congratulations on becoming Knight Commander.”

“Hm? Ah, yeah… thanks, I guess.”

“If possible, please continue to favor us in the future…”

A relationship that predates a man’s promotion to Knight Commander is pure gold.

If he could keep it going, the shopkeeper’s future would be bright.

“Huh?”

“Eh?”

A dark cloud drifted in.

“…I’m Knight Commander now, so I won’t be coming here anymore.”

“Huh?!”

“Tell me—how would it look if the Knight Commander kept hanging around the slave market?”

“…”

Turns out that “bright future” never existed.

“No waaay—!”

“Have you actually done anything worth my gratitude? All I did was buy up your dead stock. Honestly, you should be thanking me.”

Suppose Gaikaku were dirt-poor and the slave dealer had supported him somehow.

Sure, Gaikaku would feel obliged to repay the favor.

But in reality, Gaikaku had simply taken the dealer’s unsold slaves off his hands at fair prices.

If anything, Gaikaku had been subsidizing this rinky-dink shop.

“You were such a loyal customer—!”

“Say you bought discount bento every day. When you got promoted, would you feel like paying the shop back?”

“…Probably not.”

This place never sold top-tier slaves at rock-bottom prices. It peddled bottom-tier slaves at the going rate.

Gaikaku didn’t intend to spend real money on slaves, so he shopped at the cheapest store.

He cared so little that even dropping by to say goodbye was more courtesy than the dealer deserved.

“Knight Commander-sama—! Please keep patronizing us—!”

Now the man was pleading as if his fate were being decided by the Supreme Court.

“Quit whining! And what even is a ‘Knight Commander’s favorite slave dealer’ supposed to be?!”

“I’m not asking for luxury—just enough sales so I won’t starve—!”

“Hold up—were you really living off only my purchases?!”

“…Yes.”

“Then close the shop already!”

A truly tragic store.

Being a slave dealer is sad enough, but this one dealt in bottom-tier slaves, and its owner was on the brink of hanging himself.

At this rate, he couldn’t even feed his slaves—let alone himself—tomorrow.

“You’d have a steadier life apprenticing at a normal shop! Being a manager is a hundred years too early for you!”

“I know that—but at least hire me, please—!”

“You’ve got zero redeeming qualities!”

This was going nowhere. Gaikaku sighed.

“Haah… Fine. Since this is our last day, I’ll pay you enough to close up shop—covering every slave you’ve got left.”

“A-are you sure?”

“You won’t need that much anyway. And seriously, this is the last time. You’ll be flat broke afterward, so figure the rest out yourself.”

“…If I can restart from zero, that’s a blessing.”

The (former) slave dealer burst into grateful tears—tears that tasted a lot like resignation.

“So, what’ve you got today?”

“Twenty dwarves, ten beastkin, and ten dark elves.”

“…Twenty dwarves?”

“They’re the stars of the show!”

“That’s way too big a headliner…”

Dwarves.

Short but tough, with plenty of muscle and stamina.

Masters of mining and metalwork, good at squeezing into tight spaces.

Individual skill varies wildly, but because they can work behind the lines, even the mediocre ones find jobs easily.

Having that many of these useful folk stuck in a dump like this—and not selling—was anything but normal.

“You probably haven’t been keeping up with mundane affairs, sir, but a major mine ran dry recently. The dwarves who worked there all hit the streets at once. Other shops are swimming in them, too.”

“Ah… so the dwarf market’s flooded.”

Once a mine dries up, even dwarves have to look for new work.

When top-grade dwarves overflow the market, nobody glances at the low-grade ones.

“Actually, that’s perfect. I’ll take them all.”

“Thank you very much!”

A joyous going-out-of-business sale—the whole inventory cleared out.

“From here on out, start your life over. And never become a slave dealer again, got it?”

“Yes, sir!”

The ex-slave dealer wept with gratitude.

Here’s hoping he really does walk a new path.

※

Shops fold all the time. Boom or bust, they go under when their number’s up.

Like weekly-magazine serials, they float up and vanish in an instant.

(Tomorrow it could be me…)

Gaikaku shuffled through town with the slaves he’d just bought in tow.

The slaves trailed behind him.

As usual, every last one of them was female.

That red-haired beauty back at the shop was proof enough—when you want brute labor, buyers tend to pick men.

…

While leading the rag-tag procession, Gaikaku picked up the sound of quiet sniffles behind him.

At first he figured they were lamenting being bought by some random guy, but the reason was far less delicate.

“Hey, answer me—I’m not mad. How long since you ate?”

“…Two days.”

“Right. First things first, food.”

Hearing that the slaves had been kept hungry made the shopkeeper seem like a villain.

And yes, the shopkeeper was to blame—but it wasn’t malice, just poverty.

Judging by how gaunt the man was, his own health was probably the worst of the bunch.

“Dark Elves can’t handle greasy stuff, but Dwarves and Beastkin love the fatty bits. Sit tight; I’ll hit some stalls.”

“A-are you sure?”

“If you starve to death I’m out the money… Oh, and you’re not at critical starvation, right? If you are, I’ve got to watch for shock.”

“N-no, not that bad…”

“Good. Eat up. We’ve got a long walk, and work waiting when we get home.”

Gaikaku made the rounds of the street stalls, buying dishes here and there.

Buying for forty people emptied a few vendors completely.

He couldn’t carry it all at once, so he had to make trip after trip.

Owner or not, he was basically an errand boy at this point.

“Haah… S-so, so tasty.”

“M-mmph, mmphmmph!”

(Figures. He was never cut out to be a slave dealer…)

It felt like wandering into a pet shop on a whim and finding all the pets skin-and-bone.

Watching the slaves devour the fast-food bread he’d bought, Gaikaku renewed his vow never to end up like that man.

“Hey—Gaikaku, right?”

“Hm?”

The Dwarves, having already licked their plates clean, looked up at him as they spoke.

Their gaze wasn’t fawning puppy-eyes—more like skeptical squints.

“So, that Knight Commander thing—true?”

“Nope. Total lie.”

…

Gaikaku said it was a lie.

But he said it so lightly it circled back to basically meaning yup, it’s true.

“Gaikaku Hikume… Commander of the Conjurer Knights. Not an elite, yet Tistria-sama scouted him personally and hired his whole crew—nothing about him is normal.”

“Oh, so the rumors are making the rounds.”

“They say every achievement of Count Borick’s was actually your doing.”

“Rumors really are scary.”

Lined up in chronological order, it goes like this…

Count Borick suddenly starts busting out incredible magic.

He racks up military merit, and local security improves.

Tistria shows up at Count Borick’s estate.

Count Borick is announced as “Sir Borick,” demoted from lord to knight.

Sir Borick is then announced as having been fired the very same day.

Gaikaku Hikume and his band are taken in by Tistria as the Conjurer Knights.

Even with just the public facts, anyone can fill in the blanks.

Still, since they weren’t actually doing evil, the townsfolk weren’t angry.

As Tistria herself said, they’d been defending the people as a private force, so everyone simply nodded and went, “Ah, so that’s how it was.”

Which is exactly why the rumors spread—no need to keep quiet, and it’s a top-tier punch line.

You could hear it even in that run-down slave shop.

“That dealer kept muttering, ‘No way there’s another guy named Gaikaku Hikume.’”

…

“So are we really becoming knights? Can we?”

“Tistria-sama caught me, so yeah—I’m riding this as far as it goes.”

Gaikaku flashed an ambitious grin.

Frankly, it was manly in the worst possible way.

And that kind of bad-boy manliness can, at times, move people.

“Hmph. Fired from the mines, and now we’re supposed to be knights? Fighting with weapons, huh.”

“Honestly, the work won’t change much.”

“Eh?”

“You wouldn’t know, but conjury and sorcery are mostly prep work.”

For once, Gaikaku wore the straightforward face of a slave master.

“Slave labor—let’s get to it.”

“…Right.”

Doing the hard work where no one sees you sounds noble.

You hide the grim, grinding days, then shine in the spotlight.

Isn’t that admirable…

It’s not fun, though.

※

Supreme Knight Commander Tistria had added one more Knight Order.

As she’d said many times, that meant taking on risk.

Asking for the budget of an entire Order meant she herself would be expected to deliver results to match.

And now a “difficult case” had landed on her desk.

Frankly, it looked like pure harassment.

“Bandits have appeared between the territories of Count Alhena and Count Wasat… Possible collusion with Count Alhena… hmm.”

Gaikaku would have chuckled bitterly if he’d heard—it was exactly his old gig.

Up until just the other day, Gaikaku had been this problem incarnate.

Outlaws shielded by their lord are, in a word, unbeatable.

No matter how bad their crimes, a little tribute money buys forgiveness.

Even so, the damage piles up, petitions roll in, and the Order gets saddled with the request…

But even for the Knight Orders, these cases are hard to crack.

The local big shots not only refuse to help—they actively cover everything up.

No matter how elite the force, it’s only natural that solving it takes time.

Yet solving it anyway is what makes a Knight Order a Knight Order…

“We might be better off assigning this case to the Conjurer Knights…”

Tistria wasn’t stupid—she knew the Conjurer Knights weren’t as good at straight-up frontal tactics as regular Orders.

Which was exactly why she figured they might excel at trickier methods.

“He used to work under Count Borick. That means he’s good at handling nobles, too.”

In fact—

Maybe she’d mixed in a “novelty act” like the Conjurer Knights precisely to hand off these shadow jobs.

“Gaikaku Hikume, don’t let me down.”

Her eyes held not a shred of emotion.