As I had noticed before, the capital city of the kingdom of Haelia was truly a sight to behold. Thousands of people walked upon its streets while a booming economy earned money on the vast markets that expanded all over the outskirts of the city. Besides the obviously wealthy nobles and merchants, there was a large number of relatively well-off farmers and citizens that had business all around the beautifully architected buildings.

All of these were very good signs that indicated a well lead domain. The royal family truly seemed to be quite competent even if that competence was currently playing to my disadvantage in the case of that pesky princess.

The knight, his name was Sir Mellen, also appeared to be knowledgeable about the city and the general situation in the area. According to him, the kingdom has had a period of flourishing in the last twelve years, mostly curbed by a series of good harvests and a vast investment into the infrastructure of the kingdom.

Roads and public institutions had been built all across the land, lessening the prices for imported goods while increasing the amount of export. Also, there had been no major outbreaks of the plague in recent decades, resulting in a vast number of laborers that once again powered the economy.

If one ignored the threat of the demons from the north one could truly say that the kingdom was at a peak of abundance and wealth. At least it seemed like this according to Sir Mellen’s accounts of the situation.

I truly doubted that there were no internal strives, no intrigues or dangers that threatened the king, otherwise, he and the princess wouldn’t have been so nervous to keep me under their control. Most likely some sort of danger remained lurking beneath the surface.

“How far till we reach it?”, I asked my unenthusiastic guide after about an hour of looking around the rather broad streets and observing the busy crowd all around me.

“We are almost there.”, the knight said with clenched teeth. I guess going to a place like this was not exactly something that was expected of a noble and righteous knight.

The slave merchant was located right at the center of a grand market, already indicating that slavery wasn’t conceived as something detestable in the eyes of the common folk, unlike what my ‘honorable’ knight would make me believe with his display. Crowds of people were gathered around platforms with a multitude of different slaves being displayed on them.

I have no idea about the currency of this world, but the prices seemed to range between 10 and 200 gulds and seeing how many people were constantly buying slaves the prices seemed to be quite affordable to most people. Of course, this also meant that the marked for slaves was quite satiated, meaning that there were a lot of slaves sold on a regular basis. Something you wouldn’t quite expect in a flourishing country without internal dispute.

Even more interesting than this were the different races that were sold. Only a smaller percentage of the slaves sold here were humans and I was pretty sure that I had seen quite a few beings that looked like elves, people with animal features and people that could be described as dwarfs or hobbits.

My eyes lighted up when I saw a young woman with jet black hair and a pair of cat ears on her head. I thank god for this blessing. CATGIRLS ARE THE BEST!!!!

My inner otaku was screaming loud enough to make my head ring and I had to forcefully avert my eyes just to be able to return to my current task.

Seeing that there were a lot of slaves and that the concept of magic existed in this world, it was very likely that there was some sort of slave magic that could be used to control people. I wanted to use this magic to get the major problem that was Princess Maira under my control.

“Sir Melles?”, I asked the knight besides me. His dark expression had been warding off any employee that tried to offer a slave to me.

“Yes sir?”, he did his best to keep a calm expression, but I could see the disgust in his eyes. What a simple and somewhat boring man…

“I want to ask you about these slaves. How are they controlled? With these numbers, they could easily overwhelm the few guards that stand around here.”, I pointed towards one of the view city guards that stood around the area.

The knight sighed.

“Sir hero will not know this as you have just arrived in this world, but in our world, a force called magic exists”, dude I already know that. You princess tried to roast me with some god darn lightning!

“There are various kinds of magic that can be used only by rare, talented people through incantations in the language of the gods. Some can summon fire, some can create a blast of water or stun an opponent with a bolt of lightning.”, yeah I experienced that one…

“… and there is a form of magic that can create various kinds of seals on slaves. It permanently bonds them to an owner and forces them to obey any of his commands. Also, it makes it impossible for slaves to intentionally harm their masters through any of their actions.”, the knight ended his monotone explanation and returned to his sullen expression.

Well, he might be a prick, but he was a useful prick.

His explanation had made it obvious what I had to do.

“If I wanted a slave, would the kingdom pay for it?”, I shamelessly asked Sir Melles.

The poor guy visibly struggled to not hit me, before finally nodding.

“What’s the price limit?”, a mocking smile appeared on my lips. This guy was really easy to bully.

As I had thought my question made the knight grit his teeth even further while he took out a bag of money and counted how much money he had with him.

“…400 gulds…”, replied disgruntledly.

A wide grin appeared on my face and I turned around.

“Oi, I need two slaves for 400 gulds, who can sell some good quality ones to me?”, I shouted straight into the crowd. As expected within the time a needle would take to fall to the ground, three enchantingly beautiful female saleswomen had already appeared in front of me.

I quickly chose the once who seemed to be the most competent and followed her to their section of the slave market.

“What kind of slave are you looking for?”, the saleswoman asked with a charming smile.

I didn’t even have to think for a moment.

“Females, one with the pointed ears, one with the cat ears. Beautiful face, slim, if possible capable of wielding a weapon.”, at least I have the right priorities, right?

The knight looked like he had just swallowed a fly and I was sure that I withes nothing more than to beat the shit out of me. I don’t know why, but this guy was an even bigger virgin than me and certainly a lot more annoying!

The saleswoman gave me a strange look as I was rather creatively asking for ‘pointed ears’ and ‘cat ears’, but were the heck should I know the local names for elves and cat girl from? It would have been even more embarrassing if I asked for an elven girl and she had no idea what I was asking for.

“I’m sorry, I only came to this world today, so I don’t know how you call these races.”, I said with an apologetic expression.

The saleswoman’s beautiful face changed expression as she realized what I was saying. Throwing a glance at the royal knight standing beside me she apparently confirmed her suspicions.

“I-I will immediately bring you the most beautiful among the Elvea and Beastii!”, having a look of excitement in her eyes she hurried away. I guess being the hero of a country did have its perks.

A few minutes later the returned with a selection of six breathtakingly beautiful young women of varying ages, three elves and three catgirls.

“I-if the hero desires he can have all six for free!”, the manager of the shop had appeared and offered me all six of them for free. Most likely he could use it as advertisement if he could claim that he had sold slaves to a real hero.

For a brief moment I felt tempted, but then I shook my head.

“Two will suffice.”, I quickly made a decision and chose one of the ‘Beastii’ and one ‘Elvea’.

Both were breathtakingly beautiful and had slim bodies with pronounced curves, though they were the least curveous among the selection. I will be honest:

Flat is justice, though a good booty can always be appreciated!

Also, I made Mellen pay the full 400 gulds for them. It’s not my own money so why should I be stingy?

Finally, I made a single request of wanting to observe the process of creating the slave seal. The slave merchant agreed and a moment later I saw him cast a magic spell while holding a hand on the Beastii’s chest.

A complicated, circle-shaped seal magically appeared on the girl’s chest and she apparently felt some pain as she gritted her teeth.

My eyes immediately reacted.

It was just as I thought. The incantations difficulty was too great, so my ability could not completely copy it. Instead, I received a lesser version of the same magic. The question is, how effective it would be compared to the real thing!

The same incarnation was cast on the Elvea girl, but this time my eyes simply told me the effect of the magic without any further improvement on my own version. As the name, ‘A Jack’s Eyes’ already implied it only gave me a rudimentary grasp on abilities I witnessed.

“One last question.”, I said to the merchant.

“I noticed that you used intermediate magic on the slaves. What kind of effect would a lower level slave magic have?”

The merchant looked surprised that I could discern the quality of his spell but remembering that I was the hero he quickly accepted it.

“Sir Hero is really as amazing as the famed heroes of the legends. The difference is quite simple, intermediate slave magic makes it impossible for a slave to harm their masters, while the lower level slave magic only forces them to obey their master’s commands. If they find a loophole, they might still find a way to harm their owner!

So, Sir Hero should always be careful around slaves that only have low-level slave magic!”

I thanked the slave merchant and exited the market together with Sir Mellen, aka the sullen knight, and my two new slaves who’s named I would have to find out later. Right now, I had to get back to the palace and once and for all solve the problem of that pesky little princess!