The Expelled Boy Does All Sorts of Things with the Onee-sans He Saved. - Chapter 003: The Shopkeeper Keeps Warning Me

Chapter 003: The Shopkeeper Keeps Warning Me

The shopkeeper kept trying to dissuade me.

The women didn’t say anything.

No — they couldn’t speak.

Their faces were completely expressionless. Their eyes were dead.

And most noticeable of all was their physical condition.

“These girls were driven out of their countries or betrayed during wars and civil conflicts. As you can see, this is the result,” the shopkeeper explained.

Their bodies were far from whole. One had lost an eye, another was missing an arm, another had no legs. Their hair had also fallen out. They were in terrible condition.

“After being thoroughly abused, they ended up as slaves. But they were already in this state from the start, so there was no way to sell them. On top of that, they’re so weakened they could die at any moment.”

Tears almost came to my eyes. Even from what little I could see of their faces, they were very beautiful. What kind of lives had these women lived?

“They originally came from different places. They must have been real beauties back in the day.”

“Can’t they be healed?”

“Only something on the level of an Elixir or Extra Heal would work. People who can use those are extremely rare, I hear.”

“………”

I hesitated.

I could heal them. But if I said that here, it would cause all kinds of trouble.

Still, I couldn’t abandon them.

“Um…”

“Hm?”

I gathered my courage and spoke to the shopkeeper.

“P-please give them to me.”

“!?! Hey now, stop that. A kid like you clearly doesn’t have that kind of hobby, right?”

“B-but—”

“Look, even if you buy them, what are you going to do afterwards?”

“That’s…”

While I was struggling to come up with an excuse, he continued.

“For us, it saves us the trouble of disposing of them. But if something happens to the young master of the Belladonna family, his mother will kill me.”

“Eh!!”

I looked up in surprise.

“I know who you are. I saw your face at your birthday party about five years ago, so I recognized you right away.”

“Why didn’t you say anything!?”

“Well, you were wandering around alone in a place like this. At first I thought it was someone else, but I figured it out when I saw your card.”

So he had noticed after all.

“That’s exactly why I wanted to stop you. If you buy people like this, you’ll cause trouble for your family too.”

“B-but…”

My mother’s face flashed through my mind.

“You get your kindness from your father, huh?”

“From my father?”

“Yeah, you’re a lot like him. Even though you’re still just a kid.”

That made me a little happy.

“That’s why I want to buy them even more.”

“………”

“Please!!”

I desperately pressed him.

The shopkeeper folded his arms and thought deeply. Then he said,

“Alright, you win. I give in to your enthusiasm.”

“Really!?”

“Yes, but there are conditions.”

“Which are?”

“First, no returns. Second, continue to be a patron of our store. Third, don’t regret this later.”

“I-I understand.”

The shopkeeper kept telling me not to regret it. Why?

“For the price… we also have special contracts, so for the first time I’ll give you a service price of 3 silver coins.”

“Eh!? Isn’t that way too cheap?”

“Well, we were planning to dispose of them the day after tomorrow anyway.”

“I-I see.”

I felt relieved. Good. I was able to save them.

“Please continue to support us in the future.”

“Y-yes.”

We shook hands. The contract was complete.

“Now then, let me introduce them to you.”

“Eh?”

“It would be cruel to send you off knowing nothing about them.”

“Y-yes, that’s true.”

The shopkeeper went up the stairs. After a while, he returned with collars and some papers.

The collars were not bulky; they were simple black ones that looked more like chokers.

Come to think of it, he hadn’t introduced any of the previous slaves by name. It was strange that he was suddenly doing so now for these three.

“Um, why are you suddenly—”

“Because these ones are famous, in a certain sense.”

“In a certain sense?”

The shopkeeper spoke while fastening the collars on them. The first was a woman with brown skin.

“Rosaria = Anna = Felville. Former general of the Kalos Empire.”

“…………Eh?”

A dumbfounded sound escaped my mouth.

“I said, she’s a former general of the Kalos Empire.”

“EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!?”

“Like I kept telling you — you’re going to regret this.”

The Kalos Empire… isn’t that one of the countries hostile to mine?