Don’t Run Away My Lord

2 – Dragon of the Human Continent (2)

Her hands shimmered with a golden light, and she gently touched the heads of the exhausted humans.

Miraculously, those who were moaning as if they were about to die seemed to regain their strength instead of fading away.

What on earth is that…? I’ve never seen anything like it before. Is it magic?

“What is it?”

“It’s divine therapy. Shall I do it for you?”

Before I could even answer, her hand came towards my forehead.

“No, I’m fine. It’s not that exhausting.”

Without saying another word, she turned to the other humans.

Hmm… Divine therapy, huh…? Does that mean she’s a human cleric?

* * * * *

The carriage finally came to a stop after the sun had completely set.

As I lifted the cover and looked outside, it was still a desert.

The only difference from daytime was that the sand was now shimmering colorlessly under the moonlight, forming waves.

I wonder where we are… We must have reached the edge of the desert.

The other humans sat quietly, as if they had no curiosity about where they were or what was happening.

Just as I was about to step out of the carriage, someone pulled me back roughly from behind.

When I turned around, the woman with the large chest, who had spoken to me before, was holding onto my waist.

“What are you doing?!”

“I just wanted to see the situation outside.”

“If you don’t want to be dragged around tied to a camel, come inside right away!”

“What are you talking about?”

“This is a slave carriage…! If those people catch us outside, we’ll die…!”

I placed the cover and entered the carriage.

“I know. I’m aware.”

“When you suddenly got on the carriage, I doubted if you were really crazy, but now I think you are.”

“I’m not crazy.”

“A crazy person doesn’t know they’re crazy.”

The woman grabbed my wrist and forcefully sat me down on a wooden chair.

“Just stay quiet like a mouse. He’s the only one here who can communicate, so I don’t want to see you get hurt or killed for no reason.”

“Got it. I’ll do that. But do you know exactly where we’re going?”

“Probably to the slave market. Sigh…”

The woman seemed to have no strength left to stand, and she plopped down in front of me.

With a trembling head, she murmured in a voice that could almost be heard.

“Why did I come all the way here just to be caught by slave traders…”

“Why did you come all the way here?”

The woman pointed down.

“Because of this.”

She showed me a circle she made by touching the tips of her index finger and thumb.

“I came all the way here because I went crazy with greed for money and got myself into trouble.”

From what I saw, she looked like a clergywoman. I know that clergymen don’t have greed for money.

“Hmm…”

The woman looked up at me with a very puzzled expression.

“It’s like you’ve learned the world through books when you speak. Your way of speaking is really strange…”

She glanced at my bare upper body and spoke.

“Don’t you wander around in this scorching desert, or willingly get on a slave carriage? It seems like you don’t know anything about the world… What on earth are you doing?”

“Just a drifter. I encountered bandits along the way.”

It was a spur-of-the-moment lie, but she didn’t seem to doubt it and accepted it.

“Is that so? You must have had a hard time. Anyway, to answer your question, I’m not a clergywoman. Of course, I can use divine power. So until recently, I was a saint of the church.”

“And now you’re not?”

“No. I was expelled.”

“Seems like you did something serious.”

“hehehe… If it was a mistake, maybe it was a mistake…? That’s what I mean…”

But the woman just laughed and didn’t say anything more.

She then looked down at her chest, as if she was doing it subtly.

Even when I looked at it again, it was truly an incredibly large chest.

There seemed to be a significant reason that was embarrassing to talk about…

Since I had my own curiosity, I didn’t pry any further.

“Well… I heard that they’re looking for an unlicensed saint who can perform divine healing at a low price in a small trading group, so I took on this burden.”

“So you encountered these slave merchants during your journey.”

“That’s right. The people on top died… and I survived by sheer bad luck, so I ended up being dragged along like this.”

With that, the woman let out a deep sigh.

“It seems I have such bad luck. I wonder why I have such bad luck. Even the goddess doesn’t seem to care for an expelled saint like me.”

Riding on the slave carriage and speaking so freely to a human I just met today, you have quite a talkative personality.

Well, from my perspective, it’s good because I can gather a lot of information.

If I ask various questions, I might be able to find out a lot.

“But where is this slave market? I’m planning to go to the city, can I go there?”

“I don’t know. If my guess is correct, it should be in the southern border area of the Verabche Kingdom… There is a large slave market in the Marquisate of Saenggalen.”

Verabche Kingdom and the Marquisate of Saenggalen.

The names are unfamiliar, but anyway, as long as I’m riding this carriage, I can at least go to the city.

In that case, even if it’s a slave carriage, it’s better to keep riding until there.

If I get off here, the surroundings are still a sandy desert, and it seems like an endless journey to the city with a human body.

“Then for now, it’s better to keep riding the carriage.”

“Yes…? So, we’re going to the slave market?”

“I don’t know the way from here to the city. Why bother when we can just ride the carriage and it will take us to the city…”

Suddenly, the woman stood up and grabbed my shoulder, shaking me violently.

The iron chains that bound her wrists hit my chest with a clanking sound.

“Snap out of it…! If we end up going to the Saenggalen slave market, it’s really the end! We’ll be sold to a terrible place and exploited until we die…!”

“Is that so? Then why doesn’t everyone try to escape and just sit here quietly?”

“Because we can’t escape. The surroundings are all desert, where can we possibly go…?”

The woman’s hand that was holding my shoulder fell lifelessly.

“Sigh… Why did we get caught up in this desert crossing business for a few measly coins…”

Looking at the woman who sat back down, I asked.

“Hey, human. If I understand correctly, you’re saying there’s no other way but to go to the slave market, right? Since running away is useless.”

“That’s right…”

“Well, then just stay for now. Whether it’s this way or that way, as long as there’s no chance of dying in the process, we have to go to the slave market anyway.”

“Who knows? Maybe we could kill all those slave traders and steal their camels.”

The woman chuckled as if finding her own words amusing.

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, nothing. Just something I said without really meaning it. Forget about it.”

But I had no intention of forgetting what she said.

“Explain that method in detail.”

“What…? No, I was just saying something that’s impossible. There’s no way we could do something like that.”

“When I heard it, it sounded like a good idea. I want to go to the city, and you don’t want to go to the slave market, right?”

“Well… that’s true…?”

“If that’s the case, then we can go wherever we want. We can go to a city without a slave market.”

The woman who had been silently watching me nodded her head in surprise.

“Yes… that’s right.”

“Then explain it properly. What you said earlier.”

“Well… just a moment…”

The woman slightly lifted the cover and peeked outside.

In the center of the space surrounded by several carriages, a fire was burning, casting a flickering light, and the sound of lively chatter could be heard.

The scent of something delicious being cooked wafted through the air.

There were a few people on camels standing guard around, but because they were far from the carriage, they couldn’t hear our conversation.

The woman, who had checked everything, lowered the cover and approached me, sitting down.

Although her large chest pressed against my knees, I didn’t pay much attention to it.

Given the grim situation, I couldn’t be bothered by such trivial things.

“This is what I’m saying. There are ten slaves in total, so if we kill them all, we can have the camels and the carriage. That’s what I’m saying. Of course, it’s impossible.”

“Why? It sounds quite convincing.”

“Those people are all riding camels and armed. On the other hand, what do we have?”

The woman raised her wrists and showed me the chains.

“Moreover, even if we could communicate, talking among ourselves would be useless. That’s why it’s impossible. If something like that were possible, the slave traders would have continued their business, wouldn’t they?”

“If it’s possible, would you do it?”

“What are you planning to do? Are you going to take the lead?”

“If I can, I’ll give it a try. But let’s make one promise.”

The woman tilted her head as if curious about what I was going to say.

That gesture seemed quite cute.

Perhaps it was natural for a polymorphed human to feel attracted to a human female.

Wait a minute… Does that mean reproductive activity is also possible?

But it doesn’t seem like the situation to confirm that right now.

Let’s get back to the point.

“If the situation works out well, I hope you can accompany me for a while.”

It wasn’t a sudden decision.

Since the first conversation with the woman, I had been thinking about her actions until now.

Talking to her, she seemed to know a lot, and especially in this situation, she didn’t seem completely discouraged and said everything that came to her mind. She seemed to have a strong and assertive personality.

If I were to be with such a person, it would be a great help for me to adapt to the human world.

Of course, I could manage on my own without any major issues, but there would be small annoying things that would come up, and at those times, this strong and resourceful human female would be useful.

For that reason, I kept thinking that I would have hired her immediately if we had met somewhere other than the slave carriage, and if she hadn’t been broke and barefoot…

But now that the woman has revealed what she wants, I can try to make some kind of deal with that.

With my proposal, the woman opened her mouth hesitantly.

“Why?”

“As you can tell, I don’t know much about the world. So it would be nice to have a smart guide.”

“I’m sorry, but… are you assuming that I will accept that proposal?”

“Right now, you’re in a situation where you can’t do anything without someone’s help. Isn’t there no other choice?”

The woman slowly nodded her head.

“That’s true, but… that sounds like you’re saying you can save me from here.”

“It’s probably possible.”

“How?”

“Before that, it’s probably in order to tell you exactly who I am. I’m Black Dra—”

Before I could finish speaking, the cover was lifted and a rough hand grabbed my arm.

“Who’s talking nonsense!”

The person on the camel grabbed me and dragged me out of the carriage.

After tumbling several times, I was finally able to stop the camel’s hooves from trampling me.

This… being a slave is truly a miserable occupation.