NOVEL NEXT Chapter 42: Slaves
"All of them"
"What!?"
"I'll buy all of them."
The slave trader looked at the raven sage lookalike as if he was crazy.
"You'll buy... all of them?" he said slowly, as if trying to ensure he had hear correctly.
Grant merely stared him down. "Did I stutter?" he asked calmly.
The slave trader laughed nervously as he attempted to get the man to stand down. "With all due respect, customer, there are over 200 non human saves aboard our shipment, and none of them are cheap!" he said as he clearly pleaded for the man to listen to reason. "That is thousands of gold-"
"-Or a few platinum coins, no?" interrupted Grant.
Click
Click
click
Clank!
The sounds of heavy coins could be heard as the merchant's jaw dropped.
Platinum coins!
He swallowed, overturning his greed in favor of what he alongside the other followers had decided upon.
These slaves were to break out of their chains and cause a commotion in the outpost, to turn public opinion against beasts.
If he bought all of them here, then how could they plan a slave outbreak? They'd only have humans left!
Still, he was a merchant before he was a human purist.
"My apologies honored customer, some of them have already been reserved, but if you want, we can still 0ffer you-"
"Poor."
"-Pardon?" the merchant asked as he felt a thick, murderous intent land upon him, as the sweat on his forehead beat down greater than it ever could on this hot day.
"I had hoped we could do this the easy way, to let your greed overtake your devotion to a poor cause. It seems not."
Panic
The merchant grew fearful as he heard the man's words. He could not see the man's eyes, and yet the man could see through his.
He knew.
Fumbling through his pocket, he quickly began looking for the alarm to warn the others, but before he could grasp the tool, the man began choking him, and the man gasped, reaching for his neck, desperately attempting to dislodge the hand that grasped his throat.
"Don't worry" Grant assured the choking man. "I won't kill you; hell, I'll be paying you to fulfill one of my requests." he cooed as his other hand traveled upwards to the center of his forehead.
"I'm sure after all is said and done, you'll see it my way."
"What are you doing!" shouted the follower as they were dragged away by the guards.
The overseer who had been assigned to the outpost sighed, as he roughed up his hair up as he watched the two scream as they were taken away.
This would be so much trouble.
"I'm surprised you turned them in." he said as he turned to the merchant.
The merchant shrugged. "It was in my best interest. I realized chances were, they were going to toss me to the side once I had served my purpose, if you will."
The overseer understood that. Of course, this meant he had almost gone ahead with assisting them, but still, he could use all the help he could get, so he would ignore this one.
"Besides," the merchant continued, "someone offered me platinum coins to rid myself of danger. I can't think of a better deal than that."
This had the overseer interested. "And who was this person who offered you such a sum of money to expose these suspects?" he asked.
If there was someone who was capable of giving platinum coins, all either on a whim, or with greater goals in mind, then it was important for him to know who it was, if only to know not to step on his toes, and to keep a closer eye on them, see who they're working for.
It never boded well to ignore unseen dangers.
Grant moved even as he felt the intent rising, squashing the wretched desire inside himself as he continued on.
As the centuries had gone on, and as he had absorbed memories, he found that the desires of these people had become his as well, and even some of their opinions.
This unfortunately included racism and prejudice, amongst all the dark things that dwelled within a man's heart.
He squashed it well enough, using others and setting contrasting desires against one another, but at times like these, where he had replaced the prejudice of others with virtuous thoughts he acquired from others, occasionally his body's equilibrium would crumble a bit.
Thankfully, he only had to replace one man's prejudice, and thus it meant nothing in front of the countless people had absorbed, but that did not mean it had no effect, and like all the other things he had taken, it had to be suppressed.
This would be a worthwhile choice, however. Without the prejudice, the man's choices would change. No sane slave merchant would willingly associate themselves as the cause of a slave uprising, much less one he had intentionally started. Without that disgusting fervor in the way, he would see that the only way it could really end for him was death. If the uprising slaves didn't kill him, then the fanatics would.
More likely than not, he would go to the nearby authorities to protect him, and there happened to be an S-rank guildmaster here to protect him, and a desperate administrative office trying to connect the church to the new spike in tension.
And that, was one less gear in the machine for the churches plans.
As for the nonhuman slaves, they would go into his divine realm.
Correction, they were there already.
He had decided to assign them to his Korvold and Axobodl progenitors to oversee and train in living in their new homes.
Frankly, the priority had simply been dunking on the church of Isis, but the aftermath was not so easy to deal with.
With well over 100 slaves, they all had to go somewhere.
He had considered abandoning them on someone else's front doorsteps as refugees, but that would likely another miserable living, with many just turning themselves over again as slaves.
Kanuck had a good heart, even if she had eyes that eclipsed her stomach, and with the guiding hand of A'Tan, he was sure they would lead good lives within their domain as long as they stayed put.
He scrubbed the memories of all the shady ones and war criminals to give them all fresh starts, and to make sure they didn't corrupt his progenitors.
And now?
Now he was going to have a small chat with the paladin.
Peter had been playing with the children leisurely, a calm smile on his face.
The children belonged to an orphanage of Isis, and were one of the few places he could find solace in this wretched place.
He felt this special place of his violated as he sensed a presence approaching, one that the guards had failed to alert him of.
"So this was where you are. Playing with children." came the voice, mocking him with every word.
Looking around carefully, paladin Peter noticed that no one seemed to notice the man from whom the voice came from, not the guards, nor the children.
Even as he spoke, they continued on, as if the man did not even exist.
The paladin did not react, merely complimenting Grant's work.
"I can't see the magic circle." he said simply as Grant stood beside the man, observing the children.
Grant shrugged. "Can't sense it either, can you." he plainly pointed out.
It wasn't just about seeing after all. More experienced fighters are capable of sensing before seeing, an important skill for surviving.
"I'll admit it's impressive, but I must ask; what's your purpose for seeking to meet me in private?" He asked simply, yet the shield he was so famously known for had begun apparating.
He had expected the kids to start fleeing once they saw him pull out the shield, but watched on in surprise as they continued to play, merely without the paladin. It was confusing.
Grant stated his purpose. "Isn't it obvious?" he asked. "I've come to declare formal war on you."
Immediately, a well of killing intent emerged from the paladin as he raised his shield into position.
"Not bad, not bad," Grant mockingly commented, "but unneeded. This is merely a declaration."
He released his own tidal wave of killing intent, carefully matching the paladin's.
"I wanted to make sure you understood before it all started falling apart. You see." he said as he walked around the wary paladin.
"I don't usually interfere in the affairs of others, even when they try to kill me. A little slap on the wrist maybe, the death of a few dozen, whatever it takes for them to stop bothering me."
He slowed down a bit.
"Even when children get involved, I sit quiet, because even I understand you can't stop everything. That's not how creation works."
Grant stops, his killing intent slowly overwhelming the paladins.
"But what you did, or rather what you didn't." Grant's head twitched uncontrollably, at angles a human head shouldn't be able to do so..
"Such a horrific thing was happening, where a child was forced to swallow his family, to endure such great pain, such MISERY! And you just watched, nay, you desired to profit off his pain. A paladin of the goddess of kindness and mercy watched as cruelty was forced on children."
Giggle
"NOW Where'S THe KinDness In THaT??" The man's voice distorted, and the word's twisted. The killing intent overflowed, crashing like a tidal wave, threatening to squish the stain before Grant.
To this, Peter had no response.
Grant taunted. "The hypocrisy stinks off of you! To think you can so calmly play with these children while ignoring the pain inflicted upon another. Did he not deserve your kindness? Or is that only reserved for the human children?" The words were vile and insulting, spitting in the face of all of Peter's beliefs.
But Peter did not hesitate.
Peter's word's were unyielding, unhesitant, even as he raised his shield higher. "I regret nothing." he stated, continuing with sureness in his voice. "To purge the temple, to purge the empire of filth, I am willing to take any action necessary, no matter what it will cost. No matter how much it pains me."
Hearing this, Grant snorted. He cracked his head back into place, and sneered. "Is that so?"
How much it hurt him?
He snickered. He howled.
"Very well then! I promise from here on out that the efforts of this foolish subsection of the church will see no results. That every effort that they make in this town will be foiled at every turn, until all possible paths are blocked off, until there are no ways out!"
"Paladin Peter! Paladin Peter!" Shouted a voice, as the sound of someone panting and running could be heard in the distance, as the two faced off.
"Would you look at that?" Grant crooned as he stared at the paladin. "You've made your moves, and now my first has been made. I look forward to your final expression of desperation."
He giggled uncontrollaby.
"It makes it all the more delicious at the end." Grant taunted as he simply disappeared into the ground, not even a trace of magic, nor divinity, just gone.
Looking at the incoming fanatic, Peter asked. "What happened?"
It seems that Grant was more dangerous than he had bargained for.
Watching the child, Grant sighed.
The child was scared and staring at everything around him with suspicion and distrust.
Despite no longer being in the old cabin he had been in, the boy was still scared, unable to shake off the horror of that time.
Grant was watching through cameras of course, having sent Berg in to serve the food.
The boy was shivering in the corner, as far away as he could be from the golem, glaring suspiciously at everything, even the food.
This... this would be a long journey.
I might have to study how to handle abused children. Man that sounds like a lot of work, but then again, might make the story better. Who knows. I'll have to sleep on it.
Anyway. Postnote.
Slimes are one of the oldest races in existence.
This pertains in part due to their basic existence. Slimes are, in their base state, single celled organisms. This changes as they evolve, sure, but as an existence, they're the easiest ones to come into existence, having existed since the beginning, alongside elementals, old gods, and cells themselves.
They don't change because they don't really need to. Like bacteria, they survive well enough, and sometimes even survive long enough to evolve. Over the centuries, spirits have changed forms, the old gods have shifted and changed as their understanding of the world has grown, and cells have gone on to become multi-cell organisms. Empires have risen and fallen, and entire ages have been forgotten.
Slimes? They have not changed. Neither have most of their evolutions honestly, since the schema's for their evolutions have long predated the existence of life on Earth.
Because slimes aren't just earthly creatures; they're universal.
They're a planet's first monster. Thanks to conversations we've had with interstellar beings, we know that slimes exist everywhere, and there's even a planet where slimes managed to evolve into a sapient race.
So next time you're looking down on a slime, just remember that they have been here long before us, and will be here long after you. They might be stupid, weak, and basic, but basic works
-Grant