Fort Geranium

Eighth Chapter: Pitfall Gambit

[Mariana von Ulysses’s Point of View]

“Please take this,” Carol took out a small vial of red liquid. Play any RPG and you would guess that this was the fabled ‘healing potion’- it was bitter. However, the moment I took a single sit, I felt my entire body being invigorated, a surge of lost strength flowing back into my body to stabilize my condition. The bruises on my face instantly faded away, and it was as though that fight never happened. “It’s lucky that you’ve sustained only minor injuries or else this potion wouldn’t have been enough,” she let out a sigh of relief.

‘Ah, so potions aren’t omni-cures that can revive you,’ I thought to myself what a shame but I suppose everything has its limits. I took the remaining vial and handed it off to Charlotte who at first said she would be all right if she didn’t take it, but I made her. I thought her pale complexion was because of malnutrition or something but it seems that was her natural color- a pretty snow white. Seeing the effects take hold so instantaneously like that was amazing. “Hmm, I wonder if I could incorporate its effects…” I whispered to myself.

“Lady Mariana?” Carol asked.

“Ah, no. Anyway, we should hurry to the slaver’s guild or there’ll be trouble,” obviously they would want to take back their ‘products’ and if they see us with her they’ll probably think we stole her. Better to return her formally then purchase her to save face.

“Understood… but please stay close,” Carol sighed once more.

***

The moment I stepped into this distasteful place the scent of agony and depression violated my nose- I knew then that I would not like this place. A den for vile men in the business of selling off other people; of course from the enlightened view of a twenty-first century individual I’d see this as nothing more than barbarism. Yet this was the way of the land in this, endorsed even by my father who was the rightful overseer of this realm, including this facility. I couldn’t condone them but I could not outright dismiss them out aloud, lest I wanted to drag my father’s good name through the mud.

At the very least, there were no actual slaves that were on display.

The wooden floorboards creaked as my shoes strode against them, each step compounding the horrid atmosphere swelling inside my stomach. At least the front was well decorated, heck, even better than most restaurants but the true exhibit of this place was behind closed curtains. The young Elven slave, Charlotte, followed meekly behind us, clutched ever so tightly onto my hands. She was scared but the fact that she held onto me so was proof she had some semblance of trust in me. “It’ll be fine, we’re just going through some formal procedure,” I assured her.

She looked back at me and gave a hesitant smile, “Y- yes… I understand.” Poor thing, I wondered to myself how such a cute little girl could’ve ever ended up in such a dismal situation.

With Carol’s guide we passed through the front desk and were led into an office at the back of the building. It was there we were ‘pleasantly’ acquainted with the owner of this slaver’s guild. One could have only guessed from that title he would’ve been a disgusting fat man who liked to twirl around his villainous moustache all day, but no, the person was quite cordial in nature, at least from the front. He was a rather younger looking man, perhaps only in his late twenties, his soft caramel hair drew out the delicate features of his face, all accompanied by that perpetual smile. Well dressed and slender.

His appearance would’ve been more suited if his occupation was ‘cleric’ or something, but no, he was a slaver. That disconnect really made me double-take but I had to shake off this discomfort if I wanted to do this right. He seemed human enough, though the context was ‘fantasy’- who could be entirely sure he was?

“Ah, welcome, it seems you’ve kindly returned one of our belongings back to us,” he thanked and bowed with a smile on his face, ‘belongings’ he says. “I am the owner of this fine establishment, the slaver’s guild of this region, Ardos Miller,” the way he spoke was elegant and high of class. I wouldn’t have been surprised if someone told me he was a noble, but human nobles are far and few between. Actually, I think my family is the only one.

The man smiled down at me. A rather condescending one, well I was in the body of a seven-year-old so no point in objecting to such treatment.

In any case, ‘slaver’s guild’ this concept didn’t sit well with me from my high horse. ‘When in Rome’ as they say, but reckless actions aside, was it worth it to corrode my own values just to appease someone else? I’ll take no actions today, but I don’t have to like being here either. For now I had to be satisfied with simply getting a chance to save Charlotte.

“Yes… we ‘found’ her as she was being cornered by some children of the demonic factions. We healed her and now we’ve come to return her with the desire to purchase her on the spot,” Carol replied. I told her the entire story of how I came across her on the way here. Now, I couldn’t help but let out a little grimace at the way Carol answered so honestly right now. ‘Big mistake,’ I muttered under my breath.

“Hmm, I am thankful for all the effort you’ve put in to bringing her back, however selling her off right now may be a little difficult,” Ardos, the slaver, made complicated expressions as he pretended to hesitate. “You see… she’s already due to be sold to someone else and they’ve already put a… ‘hefty’ bid on her,” through the slight cracks in his speech, I could finally get a glimpse of this man’s true character. Sure enough, he merely had no moustache to twirl around all villain-like, because I have no doubt that if he did, that’s what he’d be doing now. Add a monocle and a cigar and that’d complete the imagery.

In any case, this was more of a slip up on Carol’s side. As much as I loved her, she was somehow so naïve for an adult. By telling this man our intentions we just handed him all the chips for this conversation; who knows if he was telling the truth? It was actually extremely likely that he made up that story to inflate Charlotte’s purchasing price. From the looks on Carol’s face the situation didn’t seem to be in our favor. I lightly tapped her to ask, “is something wrong?”

“Uh… the thing is, I’ve only brought with me enough money for today’s shopping,” she whispered back. “To think we would purchase a slave, that thought never crossed my mind.” Fair enough, I didn’t think we would do that today either.

“I see,” I nodded.

“Yes, so it might be best if we temporarily left Charlotte here and return to the mansion for negotiations with Lord Ulysses on this matter beforehand.” Sure enough, that was the most practical course of actions, but during the time we took to do all of that who knows what could happen to Charlotte? She could be horribly mistreated for running away or sold before we’re ready. Carol turned to Ardos to address our course of actions, “it is a shame, but for now we’ll return to the estate to renegotiate our funds…”

“Actually there’s something we should talk about before that, Mister Ardos,” I interrupted to Carol and addressed the slaver directly. Since Carol so willingly handed over her cards to our opposition, I had to pull stuff out of my ass for the next few minutes.

“Ho? That is?” he asked.

“Are you aware of the increase in demonic faction presence in our realm?” at my sudden question Ardos was taken aback. He needed a moment to think about it for a moment, which was the perfect time for me to continue my assault. “Actually, you may have already guessed but we hail from the Ulysses dukedom. I, myself, the heiress to the dukedom- Mariana von Ulysses.”

With my introduction Ardos was finally on the defensive. He was stunned for a good few seconds before attempting to return to a sense of normality. “Ah, m- my apologies I did not know someone of such a high standing would be…” but I interrupted him once more to further my own vantage.

“No, no, I’m not such a venerable person. I’m merely the heiress with little of my own merit,” I laughed it off playfully like any seven-year-old would… at least my imagined version of them. Seven-year-olds liked to laugh creepily, right?

“Your modesty is truly admirable but…”

“Which is why I wanted to expand my own contacts. I will be taking over father’s position on day and when that day comes I wish to be able to stand on my own two feet without relying on pre-established power.” After I had cut him off so many times it was time I gave him a bit of space to digest all that information. Since I’ve said this much, it’s doubtful he’d still take me on as if I were a regular seven-year-old. ‘Now then, what’s your next move, Ardos?’ I wondered to myself.

He let out a small chuckle, “my apologies; appearances can be deceiving. To think that the Realm’s daughter has it so well held together, it is nothing short of… unnerving.” He stared back at me, this time with the respect given an opponent of equal stature. “Then… Mistress ‘Mariana von Ulysses’, I believe you mentioned something about an increase in the presence of the demonic faction around here. Indeed, comparable to the other days, their existences are felt more strongly.”

“Do you know why?”

“I’m afraid I do not.”

“Really? Think very carefully; I’m sure that someone of your caliber could easily come up with one or two answers. Heck, I could give you five right now off the top of my head.” I answered with confidence, but of course that was a lie; I was just as clueless.

Well, not totally. The increase in demonic population here probably has some correspondence to my father being here. Our state is a vassal to the greater Scarletheim empire so they probably want to keep a tight leash on father and thus sent their minions to follow him around. A human pet.

“Hmm, perhaps they’re here to collect on taxes then?” A reasonable assumption. Since there’s no such thing as electronic banking, someone’s going to come here to physically haul out the most likely ludicrous amount of tax they’re pinning on us. Such is the fate of vassals with no real rights, what a joke.

“A fair hypothesizes, and if you happen to be correct, that burden will have to fall on all of us as a collective human realm.” I sighed, theatrics of course, “a lot of businesses might go under and no doubt even this place will suffer quite a bit.”

“Hmm~ and your proposal?” a little blunt but he does pick up things fast.

“A small… ‘give and take’,” I gestured. “In exchange for a single slave, I’ll convince father for a little leniency to this ‘fine establishment’.”

“Haah~ so it falls to that does it?”

“Naturally.”

“Tell me, why do you care so much about this single slave? You stand to lose more in deal than I do.” To anyone who’s lived in this world and know only this world, that would be a curiosity. However the answer wasn’t that hard, I just didn’t like that slavery was happening to this girl, so I wanted to intervene. That was my raw intentions but I should probably say it in a more enigmatic and foreboding manner.

“Do you really think that’s the case?”

“I’m sorry?” puzzled he took a closer examination of Charlotte. She shrieked back at the sudden attention, trying to bury her face into me, ‘ah so cute,’ I temporarily felt distracted.

“A single slave for god knows how much money,” I shook my head, “that’d be too foolish even for me.”

“… Quite.”

“Well, I’ll leave the exact details up to your imagination,” I cleared my throat to continue. “Then, do we have a deal?”

Ardos gave out a small sigh and nodded in defeat. He dropped all pretences of that perfect smile, “This is practically blackmail; I see no other options in this regard. Take her if you must.”

“I’m glad you can see reason.” The gloves now on the other hand, I smiled back at him.

With that we were given a single piece of paper with Charlotte’s name on it. Apparently it was a magical parchment that served both as a proof of her slave status and as a contract towards her owner. Though to me personalliy it was nothing more than a worthless piece of paper, I accepted it gracefully for formality’s sake.

Charlotte was handed over to us at no cost. Villains really make the best partners because if you know which cards to play, they’re especially susceptible to corruption.

***

“Wait, before you go,” just as we were getting ready to leave with Charlotte back to the mansion, Ardos stopped us one last time. He called out for me specifically.

“Yes?”

“Just who are you?”

“Well…” Since I’ve revealed myself to be no normal seven-year-old so there’s bound to be questions. How should I answer this one? As I was pondering a small black bird came down and sat upon my right shoulder. “There’s no deeper mystery to me than there is for yourself, but if you must have an answer, then… I am but an ‘entertainer’, fated to dance for a bored and bemused god.”