So, the capital itself is dead center on the continent, like, its uncanny how in the center it is, but it also has a massive river flowing through it which kind of divides the the entire continent, like the Amazon river. Right now, I'm sitting my dainty little ass on a rooftop watching these very docks.

I don't see any slavers nor slaves not that they have a look, unless I'm wrong, though there are a few new ships I haven't seen before, not that I come here often. What do slavers trade with besides people? Is it like a kid is worth copper, a milf worth a gold coin? Or is it the other way around?

What counts as exotic here? Or is it a kink, non human races, does it apply for non humans as well? Wait, does that mean? Oh god am I going to see....

I shudder.

Ugly Bastards slave owners....

Thinking about them makes me want to hide in my own skin. I wonder if its still an ugly bastard if its a woman? Questions for later I suppose, its game time.

I summon my bow and narrow my eyes. A small group of humans are moving to one of the new ships. Now that I look at the thing its quite big, guess that's my target for now. I see them head onto the deck, a few spread out while their boss I presume goes down below.

I jump from roof to roof to get closer. There doesn't seem to be guards. Not slaver or city, my guess would be that the good ol king made a little private order for the dock guards to piss off.

Don't see any civilians either which is good.

Alright, I'm about 500 hundred or so meters away from the deck right now on the roof, let's see if I can spot them all.

I raise my bow and pull at the string, an arrow materializes. I look around the ship and fire off an arrow at the guard on the crows nest. The arrows hits him in the neck, he falls into whatever the hell you call the crows nests nest?

I push the string forward and three arrows materialize. I pull the string back and look to the upper deck. I let go and the arrows swiftly take all the guards out.

I stand and slide off the edge of the building I'm on. After reaching the ground I dashed forward onto the rampart and leapt onto the deck.

I materialized another arrow and took out the nearby guard. That seemed to be it. You know this would be really awkward if these guys weren't slavers. Let's hope I'm not wrong.

Alright, there's the hatch, I think that's what those, well, doors are called on a ship. I open it up and look inside. I can see well, but clearly its meant to be dark. Enhanced sight helps quite a bit.

I climb down to the lower deck and look around, just crates so far, can't see any person, but now that I think about it, that was quite a small group of guards. Is the rest at the palace? Or are they out drinking? Fuck, am I on a time limit?

I shake my head and focus on the now.

I sneak forward, but I latch an arrow just in case of anything. I stop near a crate and open it up as quietly as I can.

Well. that's...new?

I find weapons? I thought those were illegal these days? So are they smugglers? Maybe...

I half expected BDSM gear for some reason, what does mediavel BDSM gear look like I wonder? Or are those just torture devices?

I continue on before I find the next hatch and then I hear the faint voice of the boss figure I saw before.

"...you will make....investment......us..." is all I can hear

Eh, fuck it. I open the hatch and hop down and pull back my bow.

In front of me, rows of cages with women in them. Beastmen, Elves, Dwarves, some half breeds. I see a few larger cages towards the back where the guy is. Animal poacher as well?

He seems to have noticed me. He steps forward.

"And you are?" he asks

"Just a barkeep." I reply "You, um, got some pretty shady shit going on here if you don't mind me saying." I add

The man remains silent, as if waiting.

"You know I killed the guys on top right?" I say

"Those were my best men.." the guy sounds terrified and bewildered suddenly, I can't tell if he's being serious or not

But while I think I accidentally let the arrow loose and hit him straight in the head.

Well, accidental murder? No, wait he was the bad guy, plus he was monologing. Justified murder!

I move to his body and look for a key, I find quite a few, what idiot has 19 different fucking keys for like 25 cages of slaves? The humanity, I swear.

I head back to the front and begin opening the cages, only now do I notice I have like some twenty odd different slaves looking at me from them. Cages seem cramped, that's never a good sign, well, people within cages in generally aren't a good sign, unless its prison I guess.

I finally unlock the cage and move on to the next ones and repeat. Once I opened the smaller cages I move to the back. The big one the guy was talking to I guess. It's covered as well, for some reason.

I yank off the cover and I'm met with...a.....tail...? It suddenly moves around and I raise my eyebrow, but as I glance further into the large cage I see the form of a beautiful female rise. The body strecthes and I think I see glowing ruby eyes, but that might be my imagination.

"Hello?" I call out

The figure from within the cage rushes towards me, her hands grasp the bars, her face getting close to mine. Oh, so she's a Lamia. Her eyes yellow with some red scales around them, they have a nice formation. Her hair is red as well. She opens her mouth and hisses with her tongue at me, trying to scare me I presume.

I scratch the back of my head and smile at her.

"Hello!"

Her face of attempted intimidation turned into a face of confusion.

"I've come to save you." I then say

She lets go of the bars and moves a little back, she crosses her arms.

"I would've found a way out." she says, her voice is surprisingly soft, but also she's bullshitting

Oh, and she's naked as well, I glance back to the other slaves who are kind of just talking with each other or looking at me. Hmmm, they're dressed like Conan the barbarian, bare minimum of rags, but this girl isn't. It couldn't be a plot device to show that the main character isn't a complete degenerate, could it?

Only a partial one.

I take off my vest and shirt throw it at her. She looks at in me confusion for a brief second before realizing her predicament.

"T-thanks..." she says blushing heavily

I find the lock for the cage and quickly open it, letting her out. She slithers, I think that's the phrase. She comes out from the cage, but ignores me. Ohh, I see what this is. I chuckle to myself and move to the hatch I came from, passing all the former slaves.

"Alright, um, follow me if you want to live." I tell, maybe I could have phrased that better, but never mind, I'll have my Terminator 2 moment one day

I climb to the upper level, with the slaves following, same as before, seems like I was kind of right. Soon we reach topside and that's when I see it. I stop the slaves behind me from coming up and tell them to wait for a few minutes or until I call for them.

I climb up and summon my bow again and latch three arrows. There's about four guys coming up. They soon notice me and the bodies that I did not hide. They begin to rush me, I fire my arrows, killing three of them quickly, I summon another arrow and launch it at the last guy's knee. I mutter a little enchantment as the arrow flies.

As it pierces the guy's knee it sends him to the ground and pins him. Ah, I love my special arrows. My bow disappears and I approach him, he tries to swing his sword at me, but I knock it away. I crouch beside him.

"So, buddy, tell me, what are slavers doing here?" I ask him

"You won't get anything from me." he spits in my direction

I see, so its going to be like this then, shame I suppose, unless.....

"Listen, you guys took like 20 or more people, I didn't actually count, you also have an entire deck of weapons which is also illegal and before you say anything about your boss and his 'special men' I can assure you that they're pretty dead. Well, you can see the special guys right around here." I point it out to him "So, instead of needless torture and stuff how about you just tell me why your here and I'll let you on about your life. Think of it like a second chance. So, how does that sound?"

He looks at me for the longest minute before nodding.

"Y-yeah, you're right man, sorry for spitting at you..."

I nod and smile, I know I killed like all his friends probably, but slavers and stuff you know, so it isn't as important of a problem.

"We made a deal with the king about a month ago, he wanted slaves from all around the place. He also wanted a few weapons for his army, but a majority of what's down there is for other places that ordered it."

"Alright, say how is it looking out there?"

"What?"

"Like, the other human kingdoms or the non human kingdoms. Is their peace, war or ruin. You know, that stuff."

"Um..most human kingdoms are fighting politically, some are at war, I don't know about the other kingdoms."

I nod and reach for the arrow and yank it out quickly. He yells out in pain and I tap him on the shoulder.

"On your way now." I tell him

As he begins to stumble away I summon my bow again and latch a spark filled arrow and shoot it up in the sky. I do a little fireworks display to get some attention.

As I ready a second spark arrow I hear the latch open and the Lamia from before comes up.

"I said to stay below." I tell her

"I don't take orders from you." she glances away acting high and mighty

She does look around to see the corpses, she makes no reaction, she does get closer to me.

"You don't eat corpses right?" I ask

I instantly feel the smack of her tail behind my head, I did deserve that. My bow also disappears.

"Humans..." she scoffs

"Yes, nasty bunch, right?"

"Aren't you human?"

"Why yes, your eyes don't deceive you." I laugh

"Why did you save us?" she asks

I turn to her and grab her hand and look her in the eyes.

"I could never let such beautiful maidens be left to the hands of evil." I say softly

Her cheeks go red and she snatches her hand away and glances away.

"W-well, t-thanks any-anyways.." she replies

Got her.

I hear distant steps and look at the ramp, a decent amount of city guard arrive. Once they see me they slow donw.

"Dantes..?" one of them asks

"Hey guys! So, I was told by some guy that there were slaves and illegal weapons on this ship, oh and corpses. Turns out the guy was right. You can come out!" I call back to the latch "Also, he said to check the other ships"

The guard at the front turned to his companions and gave them a silent order, about a third of the detachment went to check the other ships.

Soon the large group of slaves gets out from the lower deck. The guard at the front approaches me.

"Well, uh, thanks, Dantes. You're cooperation is always great." he says

I nod and smile.

"But didn't-" the lamia begins to speak and I quickly cover her mouth

"Why, yes, yes I did give you some of my clothes so you wouldn't be naked, you're welcome." I glance at her and mouth please

I take away my hand from her mouth and look back at the guard. He nods.

"Guess...we should ask them...and take care of them...."

"Jolly plan, now I shall be on my way home. You know where to find me." I salute the guard and head towards the rampart

Well, that was fun I suppose. I'd be nice to do that again, not the saving the slaves part, the old world was bad enough with that stuff, let's hope it isn't worse here, though killing the bad guys did feel nice. Heroic even!

I make my back to Bob who is where I left him luckily. As I ready the saddle I hear a voice from behind me that makes me jump a little.

"Um.." wait, I know that voice

I glance behind myself and see the lamia girl.

"Yes, hello. Can I help you?" I ask

She clasps her hands and looks side to side. She plays with her thumbs as she stands not too far from me.

"Um...I..Can....You..." she stumbles with her words, not able to make a sentence

Oh right, now that I think about it, I never checked with the other slaves if they have somewhere to go, tho I do think the city guard is competent, even if easily bribed with food, drink and money. Maybe that is a little bad. I shake my head and look at her.

"You don't have anywhere to go?" I ask

She sighs and nods.

"You want to stay with me?"

"At your place! Not with you!" she qucikly replies

"Naturally." I chuckle "Tsundere.."

"What?"

"Nothing! Oh, I see a wagon right over there, let's get going!"

I hop on Bob and head over to the wagon and after hooking him onto it I get back to the Lamia. She'd slowly get on and we'd be on our way.

"By the way, I never got your name." I say

"It's...Nyllie.." she replies

"Nice name." I say glancing back, I see her blush lightly

"T-thanks, Dantes.."

Ah, she did listen in, at least we have introductions out of the way.

"Say, my clothes aren't too small for you right?" I ask

"Your shirt is a little...tight.."

I glance back, oh yeah she's right, damn she has a massive chest. Maybe I should get larger clothes, wait, does this city even sell Lamia sized clothing? Again, questions for later.

"Um..where are we going?" she asks

"My place, I have a tavern at the edge of town. How long do you plan on staying?"

"Do you want me to leave that fast?!" she sounds suddenly worried

"I just want to make the proper accomodations for you, Nyllie."

"O-oh, um..I don't know.."

"It's fine, I hope you don't mind having a few other roommates."

"Roommates? Others live with you?"

"Yeah, you'll meet them soon enough. See that building there? That's my tavern, the Outlander. Have you ever been here before?"

"N-no..I've never been outside of my people's kingdom."

"Mind if I ask how you were captured?"

"I was...betrayed by an ally."

"Sorry to hear that.."

"Um, Dantes?"

"Yes?"

"Who are you really? I saw you take out those men with your bow."

Oh, she saw, well I suppose that isn't necessarily a bad thing now.

"Well, let's just say that I plan to travel soon."

"Travel? Could I come with you?"

I glance back.

"Really? I thought you'd might want to stay in the tavern for at least a few days."

"I..I owe you...for saving me...."

"Well, not really, but if you want to come, sure, I won't object. I hope the others won't either."

I glance back for a quick second, I see a slight smile from her, cute. I look forward, we are here, finally! Now I have a wagon, which, wait that was a perfect thing to take actually. I head behind the place and get Bob into his litlle resting place.

Nyllie gets off as well and I pull the wagon to the side of the building. I take her to the door. I let her in first.

As I enter Tyra lunges at me and clings to my head as Kua pops out from behind the counter.

"Mentor! Where were you?!" she shouts

"Um, I had an errand...Hey, Tyra can you get off me?"

"Kua wouldn't let me teleport." she says bluntly

"Alright, anyways, this is Nyllie, she will be staying with us for a while."

Nyllie awkwardly waved to Kua and Tyra. Kua's eyes went wide.

"Mentor! Y-You didn't..!"

"Why is that always what you go to whenever I bring someone here?!"

She blushes and places her hands on her cheeks

"Mentor..you..aren't wearing a shirt...so I just assumed..."

This is a new side to her I didn't think I'd discover. I manage to peel off Tyra and hold her up.

"Yes, thank you for not teleporting. Um, so, what's the plan. Yes! Tomorrow we go to kill the king!"

"What?!" they all shout