Chapter XXXI: The Human Rights Issue

…

…H-How many is this…?

I count them in my head.

32 slaves… As expected of my father, there’s not a single male.

Most of them are wearing the uniforms for household staff. About twenty. They sit on their knees on the floor, some rope tied around their wrists.

…But the rest of them are chained. My father’s… errm, pleasure slaves.

All of them are dressed in rags. It’s easy to see their treatment has been rough.

“Consider all of yourselves no longer slaves.” I tell them. “If you wish to continue working here, you may stay. Your current lives will be maintained, if you choose to do so. You will receive a small amount of pay at the end of each year.”

“...For those who were my father’s… pleasure slaves, if you wish, you may be trained to replace those who want to leave.” I finish, before turning around and walking away, back to my room.

I don’t want to deal with this. I really don’t. I don’t understand why I find it so difficult.

I head back up to my room and lay down in bed. I feel exhausted from just that alone.

I pull my blanket over my head and just lay there. I’ll get up later, when I have to do my magic training.

“Bedo… What’s… the situation with the slaves, now?” I ask “...How many have left?”

It’s been a couple hours since I freed the slaves. It’s night now.

“...Most of Former Master’s pleasure slaves have decided to leave, along with 7 of the servant slaves.” Bedo tells me

“...Please hire 7 servants from the town… choose those who are poor, and in dire condition, preferably, so they can be a bit more loyal…” I tell Bedo.

“As you wish, master.” Bedo replies.

“Dismissed.” I tell him

Bedo leaves the room, shutting the door behind him.

My mind is on the situation with the slaves. I’ve been distracted today.

…Situations such as that need to be prevented. They need to be prevented as much as possible.

I think to the cause of most of the slaves.

With the war being rather recent, most slaves are former soldiers from the neighboring countries. They’ve done no wrong. Only being born on the wrong side of the border.

However, if not being made into slaves, what should be done with the prisoners of war? There are many who are bought back by their country, but those are the more wealthy individuals. Many have families who can’t pay to get them back. And their country certainly can’t either.

If prisoners of war were released immediately after the conflict ends, then the other side wouldn’t pay to get any of their nobles or soldiers back.

Killing prisoners is a barbaric thing.

Additionally, both are rather expensive.

People just sitting there, doing nothing, is useless.

There’s also criminals who become slaves, but having jails is, well, stupid, to say the least. It’s a drain on resources.

There’s also people who are kidnapped, and those sold by their families.

If they were sold by their family, then they’d just end up starving or being abandoned if their family was found. And it’s not easy to find their family again in the first place.

…

It’s a complicated issue that you can’t win in. It’s made even more complicated by the fact that many kidnappings are done by framing the victim with a crime.

…haaa.

There’s also the problem that people of the Akashi territory love slavery. There would be riots if I were to get rid of it.

…

I suppose the best I can do is try to prevent the abuse of slaves, as well as prevent unfair kidnappings via framing…

Hmmm…

Okay…

I head to my desk and pull out a paper and a feather pen, along with a jar of ink.

I begin writing out my idea.

Have 3-4 checks on the slaves of slave owners each year to make sure the slaves aren’t being abused. Though slaves that were enslaved due to certain charges such as murder or treason, do not have this as protection.

Slaves that are being abused are taken by the government, and the owner is to face a heavy fine. Enough charges will lead to the slave owner being made a slave themself.

As of now, the person who reports a crime will get the criminal as a slave. I take away this reward, which was fraught with corruption. There are no benefits to reporting crime, other than being safer, which should be good enough.

Slaves due to crime will be taken control of by the government.

Those slaves will be provided to trusted slave traders.

Slave traders will have forced to have a licence. If not, they will be deemed as criminals, and become slaves. Their wares will be confiscated.

…It’s a situation that is a bit better. It’s also one that deals a small blow to the Underworld, since they’ll end up having to pay bribes to corrupt officials to get licenses, or, better yet, fail to do so and become slaves.

Their competitors will also be provided with benefits.

…

While I’d like to get rid of slavery entirely, I don’t think it’s really possible to do so. This is the best I can do for now. I can tell that this alone will cause some problems for me…

I put away the feather pen and close the jar of ink, before heading to bed. I need to let it dry, so I’ll wait until morning. Before having Bedo implement it.