“Get in there!”

Mia had been pushed into a familiar metal cage by one of her captors, hitting the cold metal floor with a small grunt. They had arrived at the capitol of Eldaha a few hours ago and was promptly separated from everyone else, something that she remembered happened last time because she was considered high price goods, it seemed this time would be the same due to her title.

She recovered enough to look back at the man that had pushed her to see him placing down a bowl filled with a grey substance.

“Don’t make any noise, shut up and eat.” The man huffed, slamming the cage door shut and locking it “Your education starts in the morning.”

The mention of that caused Mia to shudder, having forgotten the *slave education* from the last time.

“Well? Eat!”

At the man’s demands, Mia begrudgingly approached the food, seeing the poor excuse of gray slop in all its unholy splendor. She picked it up, poking the mass with her finger she questioned how she was supposed to eat this, she didn’t remember the food being that bad…

She looked up towards the man questioning, who’s face contorted in frustration.

“Got a problem with it you damn beast? I ordered you to eat so eat!” he shouted, hitting the cage with the bottom of his fist.

The collar around Mia’s neck started to tighten, causing a sigh to escape her lips, and resolved herself to appease him and scooped up a small handful with her hand, taking a bite out of the goop.

“?!”

She spat it out immediately, this was not food, this was definitely not food. The flavor, the texture, the smell that releases inside the mouth, all of it was wrong. The flavor aside, which she did not know how to even put words to, the texture was slimy, sticky, while at the same time being somehow tough and soft at the same time, bits and pieces where still stuck to the roof of her mouth. And what made it all worse was the smell, which only revealed itself once she took a bite out of it, this whole thing alone made her want to reload just to get the taste out of her mouth.

“Hey! What are you doing with your precious food.”

Mia between spats looked up at the chuckling man ‘food?!’ she felt her anger rising, throwing caution to the wind she saved.

The man frowned “What’s with that look?” He looked towards the only entrance to the room “well…guess I have to be proactive and show you your new place, I think the schools call it extra credit?” he then reopened the door, taking a step inside “A slave that doesn’t listen to their masters or- huh? Hey?!”

Once he was far enough into the cage, Mia pounced on him, freezing his body and incasing it in a block of ice from the neck down “What part of this is food?!” she yelled, ignoring the collar strangling her neck.

“Wha- help! Help! Boss! The new slave sh-!?!”

The man started screaming for help, but was cut off as Mia shoved a fresh helping of the grey slop into his mouth “It’s precious food, right? Be sure not to waste it…” Mia shoved another handful of slop into the man’s mouth.

She didn’t get far after that, as the door swung open “Charles! What the he- what the hell is going on here?!”

The slave merchant and a few others entered the room, the merchant himself doing a double take.

“…time’s up” Mia started to load but was momentarily stopped, being lifted into the air as someone had lifted her from the top of her head, catching her off guard and causing her to stop the process.

“Troublemakers need to be punished~”

Mia felt the grip of the unseen assailant tighten, reminding her to escape, she loaded.

“What’s with that look?”

She clutched her head “Who was that…” she mumbled, they were in a cage, with one entrance, how did she not notice someone sneaking up behind her, there should have been no way for that to happen. She heard the cage door open.

“Hey, cowering now won’t help you, get up!” The man grabbed her by her wrist, hoisting her small frame up into the air. “Now, I am going to teach you to be a proper slave and not waste the food your masters have prepared for you.” He then raised his other hand, in it the bowl of grey slop.

“...” She briefly considered having another feeding session with him but decided against it knowing just how close his companions where, speaking of which… she screamed.

“You! Be quiet! Silence!” The man was taken aback, shaking her in the air as just continued to scream, a dull pain in her wrist and arm as the man swung her “Shut up! Or I’ll give you something to scre-“

“Charles!”

The man froze, and Mia stopped screaming “B-boss, I was just uh…”

The merchant came in, inspecting the scene before him “Was just what? Damaging my high priced, and extremely limited, goods?”

“No, I was just… the food…”

“Already having a bad week Charles, this stupid venture is already a bust, the expected stock is already abysmal and here I catch you damaging the few products I managed to acquire?! The best one?!” The merchant slammed his fist into the side wall.

The man shrunk back “No sir I would never! I was just educating them on how to properly be a good slave!”

“M-my arm… it hurts…” Mia whined, still dangling in the air.

“…” The merchant looked towards her, then turned his attention back to Charles “well?”

“…well, what?”

“Her arm Charles! Her arm! Release it!”

“R-right!”

Charles let go of her arm, causing her to drop to the ground and land on her butt “O-ow…” Mia whimpered.

“Charles! You did not just…Bruno!” The merchant snapped his fingers, in an instant *someone* appeared next to Charles, lifting him by his head.

“Troublemakers must be punished? ~”

Mia froze, lowering her head, it had happened again. Someone had managed to get into the room and appear next to her without her knowing, despite her stats and skills.

“N-NO! Boss! Conroy please! It won’t happen again I swear!” Mia could tell he was thrashing about in their grip by the sound, but did not look, she continued to face downwards.

“Yes, troublemakers must be punished.” The slave merchant, Conroy, spoke.

“Oh~ punishment.” The voice said gleefully.

“No! Boss please! No! Nooo-“

And just like that, they were gone. Mia looked up, not seeing any trace of Charles or who ever this Bruno was. The only thing she did see was Conroy, who was grumbling to himself while locking the cage door.

“Swear to the gods this venture was more trouble than its worth… “He grumbled “Expected ten times the slaves, and what do I get? One measly high priced one.”

‘…sucks to be you?’ Mia scoffed, forgetting her fears for a moment to mock the merchant. ‘poor you who doesn’t have his living merchandise. Who didn’t get his home burned down.’

“Honestly, if it wasn’t for the buyer this whole thing might have been a bust.” The merchant shrugged, leaving for the door.

‘who lives in a comfortable home, rich, fat, probably eats like a king ever- the who now?’ Mia paused her mocking, standing up and dashing to the cage door “The buyer?!” There wasn’t supposed to be a direct buyer, she was supposed to go to the auction!

Conroy paused, looking back “The shock release you a bit? Huh, no matter. Yes the buyer.” He shrugged “Usually we’d hold an auction, but with the low stock and lack of profits…nobles demanding results are...” he laughed nervously.

No, no no no no NO, she can’t go to a direct buyer! She was supposed to go to that one shitty noble! To follow the past perfectly so she could end up back at the castle to find out more information! “Wait…the lack of stock?”

Conroy twitched, walking up to the cage and hitting it, causing Mia to take a few steps back “Do you know how many of your stupid back water beasts we were projected to have in our possession?! Not a number barely in the fucking double digits!” He then took a step back, clutching his head “Do you have any idea how much money was sunk into this?! If the other tribes do not go well…”

‘…so the lower captures caused this deviation…’ Mia was now ignoring him as he started ranting on, focusing on her own new problem. It was now no longer a guaranteed she was going to end up with John, no longer would she have access to the information the princess just casually left out in the open.

“…should I just reload?” she asked herself, aim for a new goal? While her first slave slot was back at her bed the second one should be far back enough where she could esc..a…pe…

Mia’s face paled, and she dropped to the floor, silently screaming. She had saved over it to vent her frustrations on Charles! Regret overtook her, realizing how stupid she had been, but then reconsidered, it was worth it.

The food was just that bad.

Calming down she straightened herself up, glad to see Conroy was still rampaging and had completely missed her little display. She’d just have to escape or go with the flow, who knows, maybe this buyer was the noble from before. She would ask but…

“And that was only the initial cost! Transportation and preparing the slave collars, which are now useless by the way! Cost a small fortune! A Fortune! For ancient fucking models! But no, quantity over quality the church hack preached! ‘we will get so many we cant get a lot of the higher quality to match the amount’ he said! BAH! I’d like to see those idiots’ foot the bill! So much god damned money ju-“

Yeah, she wasn’t getting anything out of him anytime soon.