Chapter 5: The Caravan

Slaver’s POV

As we journey on the road to Paltus, I can’t help but wonder, how much money I will make. There is a common saying amongst the merchants that for every disaster, there is profit. All disasters including wars, of course. Well, as a citizen of the empire, it wasn’t a disaster for us really, but it was a bloody massacre for the savages.

The war between the Sor Empire and the savages of Rosum is a bloody affair. Two years ago, the empire expanded the eastern borders and claimed that the land of Rosum belongs to the empire. Rosum is a land of savages; A hundred tribes who spent most of their time warring against each other. The empire wanted these lands because of the rich gold mines which scattered across Rosum.

How did the empire find out? From what I’ve heard from the story of another merchant, the Moonshadow tribe, a tribe that belongs to the demi-human cat race, opened a trade with Quentlan, a small city which belongs to the empire. It was the first time that a tribe from Rosum would trade with the empire but from what I’ve heard, the Moonshadow tribe suffered famine in their lands and in dire need of food. The tribe didn’t know the value of gold. All they knew was that gold was useless as it is too soft to use for their weapons and whenever they mine for iron, they would throw the gold away. Quentlan saw this opportunity and traded food with lots of gold ore. The Moonshadow tribe claimed that gold could be found everywhere in Rosum and this news spread across the empire like a wild fire.

In the past, Sor Empire didn’t consider Rosum as a worthy addition to the empire. It was a land full of rocky labyrinth-like mountains and worst of all, mana is dense on that land which causes more monsters to spawn and it was most likely the cause of famine in its little fertile lands. When the news reached the emperor’s ears, he demanded an invasion of Rosum.

I love wars. The prisoners of war will serve as slaves for the empire and as a slave merchant; this is the best opportunity to go to the war-ridden lands to buy those prisoners. Most of these prisoners were war veterans and they will be highly valued for those who buy slaves to fight in the arena: the tamers. They tame these savages and teach them the art of combat and they would make these savages fight in the arena for money.

One year ago, when I bought twenty slaves that they captured from Moonshadow tribe, I made 100 gold in profit. These cat-people proved to be agile in combat and they would slaughter their enemies with speed rather than strength and even women from these cat-people were capable in combat. I sold them as fighters for the arena. I could only imagine the smile of those tamers who bought slaves from me. It was worth every coin.

I came back to Rosum to procure another batch of slaves and this time I had a good deal. In fact, it was the best deal I ever made in my life. Fifty able bodied slaves for just fifty gold? Hah! They tried to raise the price but I can still sell these slaves for more gold. Some of the slaves I bought were the most fearsome races in Rosum: 5 from the bear-men tribe, 8 from the wolf-men race, 3 from cat-people and 7 from lizard-men. Although the rest of the slaves I bought were humans, they belong to savage tribes and they’re fearsome in battle.

We’re three days journey to Paltus, the capital city of the southern province. I’d be tempted to sell these slaves to Sor Prima, the capital city of Sor Empire, for these slaves would cost more and I’d double my profit but it was too far for a journey and it would take me more than a month to get there. I’d rather sell these slaves fast and go back to Rosum for more.

We’re almost there, only a few days and the tamers would fight each other for my wares. I can almost feel the weight of the gold coins on my hand.

“Halt…” A man shouted and the caravan stopped.

“What is it? Bandits? Are we under attack?” I nervously asked the captain of the mercenary I hired from Paltus.

“I don’t know but look…” He pointed out the body on the road.

“It looks like a trap… but don’t worry, we’ll take care of it.” He looked at me and gave me assurance. He whistled to his men and as if they already knew what to do, they searched the area.

A few minutes later, they confirmed that there was no one surrounding us. I got off the carriage and we approached the body.

It was man. The man had strange clothes so I can tell he’s not from here. He had a wound on his back and on his shoulder. As we inspect the body, the captain checked for the pulse.

“He’s still alive.” The captain said.

“Where is he from?” I asked.

“I don’t know… judging from his clothes, he’s not a local but from what I can tell, he came from that forest…” He replied.

“That forest?” I gulped. The Forlon forest was known for its danger. It is the home of the minotaurs. It was for the same reason that this road was always avoided by travellers as the minotaurs would attack them at night and bring them to their lairs to be eaten. I chose this road because it cut our travel time for three days. I’m starting to regret that decision. “And those wounds?”

“Probably from a minotaur...” He said. “So what are we going to do with him?”

I’d probably let the man die on the road under normal circumstances but seeing that the boy survived from a minotaur attack, he could be a useful addition to my wares. I see blood on his fist which means that he gave a minotaur a fight unarmed before he fled. It is rare that someone lived through the night when a minotaur attacks. The truth is all of those who survived saw a minotaur from a distance. When you hear a loud roar and if you have half a brain, you would do your best to hide.

“Take him with the others and heal him…”

The captain nodded to my words and ordered his men to take the man on the wagon. Luckily, one of the mercenaries knew a beginner level healing spell. It would not close the wound entirely but it would stop the bleeding. I have a bottle of healing potion in case that I suffer a wound from bandit attacks and it only cost me 25 silver coins. This man would sell for at least 5 gold. I made him drank the whole bottle so the wounds healed entirely.

The man was still unconscious, probably from losing a lot of blood. I put a slave collar around his neck to make sure that he cannot escape. I poured out my mana into his slave collar to finish the preparation. It will activate a seal and the slave chain cannot be removed unless they’re expressly granted freedom by their current owner which is me.

“Let’s go…”

And so we continued our journey to Paltus…

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I had the most terrible dream as if I relived my past all over again. It was strange that in my dream, I was able to see myself in third person like I was watching a movie about myself and the narrator’s voice was like Morgan Freeman. Is it God?

I wanted to open my eyes but my body disagreed with me. I wanted to sleep more.

I try to forget what happened in the past and leave it behind me. When Elise died, I lost all my motivation to live. I even had thoughts of taking my own life but I decided to move on because that what Elise would have wanted for me.

As I reminisced the good memories with Elise, I felt somehow strange, like my body was in motion. Suddenly, I heard a thud and I bumped his head.

“Ugghhhh…” I groaned.

I opened my eyes slowly and the first thing I saw was a blurry image of a face.

“Where am I?” I asked.

“On the road to Paltus…” The man said. “At least that’s what I heard from the guards…”

As my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw the man sitting next to me. He’s a black-skinned man. The man has shaved head and thick lips.

“Paltus?” I tried to get up and sat down but my body felt aching all over. “I never heard of that place before. Is it in Africa?”

The man looked at me confused.

I looked around me and saw a dozen people around. We were in a cage. “Why am I in cage?”

“Because we’re slaves…” The man answered me.

“What the hell?” I realized that I was wearing nothing but a loin cloth. It was like wearing an adult diaper but the difference was the loin cloth looked like it wasn't washed for days. I touched my neck and noticed that I was wearing a collar. I grabbed the collar and forcefully tried to remove it but it was impossible.

“Why am I wearing these?” I asked the man while still trying to remove collar.

“So you wouldn’t escape... You can try to run but they can track you down as long as you have it.” The man said. “You won’t be able to remove it. They used magic…” He added.

“Magic?” I looked outside the cage. I saw men have swords sheathed on their hips. Some with spears and others with axes. He doesn’t know if he would believe in the man’s words because he never saw magic before. Is this a renaissance fair or something?

“How long was I asleep?”

“For a day… They found you on the road, wounded.”

I remembered that I found himself in a cave after an earthquake. I was attacked by a bull headed monster and the monster impaled my shoulder with its horns. I escaped but I lost consciousness on the road. I touched my shoulder and it doesn’t hurt anymore. Although there was aching all over my body probably because of over exertion of muscles, there was no wound. Like magic, the wound just disappeared. ‘Magic… Of course…’

I sat quietly as I stared outside the cage. I saw other wagons with cages being pulled by horses. Inside the cages, there were other slaves. My eyes widened with amazement as I saw that some of the slaves weren’t human. Although they looked like human, they have animal features to them: animal ears, tail and fur.

I remembered back in the old days, I used to watch anime when I was in high school. A fantasy anime, in particular, would have a race of cat people. Ending their sentences with: Nyah! to look cute. I used to find it cute but in the end, I found it boring and stupid.

At a distance, I saw something that made me realize that wherever I was, I was no longer on Earth: the two moons on the sky.

“So where are you from?” The man asked. “The name’s Pimo, by the way…”

“My name is Ben…” I replied.

I don't know how I would answer the question about where I came from but for him, it would be best to lie in order to blend in. No one would believed me If I said that I came from another world and they would believe that I was crazy.

“I’m from the land far east of here across the sea… How about you?”

As we continued our way to Paltus, I learned that Pimo and the others were from a land called Rosum. Pimo belonged to a human tribe and his village was located on the southern part of Rosum. The Sor Empire invaded Rosum. Pimo didn’t know what the empire wants from Rosum but he heard that they were after for the mines. I also asked a lot of question which made Pimo a little irritated. Seeing that I'm an ignorant foreigner from a distant land, Pimo indulged my questions.

I learned that the other slaves who have animal-like features were called demi-humans. The demi-humans were humans of mixed races, such as the Nekons which are half humans and half werecats and the Inuns: half humans and half werewolves. All of these races were common in Rosum.

As Pimo’s story continued, we didn’t notice that the sun has already set when the caravan stopped and made camp.

The slavers gave food to me and the others. We were given a piece of bread. It was hard to chew and it was going stale. I didn’t complain as I saw the others eat it in silence.