3 bar menu

A Harem in the Fantasy World Dungeon Volume 2 Chapter 4 Part 6

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Editor: Weasalopes

When we arrived at the slave shop and knocked on the door, the young servant came to greet us.

「Welcome. What can I do for you?」

「Is Master Alan inside? Could you get him for us?」

「Yes, of course. And please, do come in.」

We came inside, just like the servant told us to. As I was going through the door I glanced back over my shoulder, but I wasn’t able to see the Bandit, meaning that he must have retreated deeper into the alleyway where it would be more difficult to spot him.

Roxanne and I were guided to the back room, where Alan-san was meeting with all his customers. His servant opened the door for us and told us to wait inside, leaving us with a short 「Please wait here for a moment」.

I entered the room and sat on the sofa. If Alan-san is really meeting with some customers right now, then it is possible that we will have to wait quite a bit for him to come down to meet us.

「You can sit down if you want, Roxanne.」

「Thank you, master, but it’s fine.」

「So you’re just going to stand the entire time?」

「I think that will be for the best. Besides, I am used to it, so it’s not a problem for me.」

I sat down, but Roxanne continued to stand up, just like she said she would, but I don’t know about that. What does she mean by 「it will be for the best?」 anyway? I want her to be treated as my equal, so maybe I should tell her to sit down, or stand up myself? Well, Roxanne’s judgement in those kinds of situations is probably way more accurate then mine, since I cannot read the mood of people’s intentions for shit, so I just decided to nod and drop the matter entirely.

It wasn’t long before Alan-san came down to greet us.

「Oh, now what do we have here? Welcome, and thank you for stopping by my shop once again.」

「Sorry to bother you. Weren’t you with another customer just now?」

「No, not at all. I am free at the moment.」

「I see.」

Yup, now I am absolutely sure that this place is 100% targeted.

「So, what did you wanted to discuss today? Because I assume that is the reason for your visit?」

Alan the Slave Merchant sat on the sofa. After giving Roxanne a brief but stern look, he joined his hands together and leaned forward in front of the table.

Ahh, I get it. He thinks that I came here today to discuss a refund for Roxanne. I can’t say I really blame him it that is really what he thinks. After all, if I was in his shoes and a customer who bought a slave from me returned after just a few days, I would also assume that it was either to make a complaint or to try and get his money back. *Sigh* Maybe Roxanne was right about not sitting down after all?

I remembered that the first time I came to this shop in order to sell the Villager who has become my slave because he tried to steal the Bandit Bandana that rightfully belonged to me, instead of being sent to this very waiting room he met with us inside of the shop itself. But the fact that we are sitting here right now seems to be indicating that he is not treating me as a random customer anymore, but maybe that was because that young aide, or worker, or servant or whatever you want to call him didn’t tell him I came here to sell Roxanne? Then again, assuming that would have been kinda dickish of him, when we only asked him to announce to Alan-san that we wanted to speak to him. Well, I guess there’s nothing I can do about it right now. I just have to go with the flow.

「Allow me to cut right to the chase. This place is being watched.」

「Watched, you say?」

「Yes, that is indeed what I said. We came to warn you about it, because Roxanne said that she couldn’t ignore the shop that helped her out so much and the people who work here.」

That should make it clear enough that I am not here to sell Roxanne today, but now everything hinges on how is he going to react once he realizes that I will probably not be buying any new slaves as well.

「Is that so? Ohohoho, I guess I’m getting so old that even I fail to notice such things more and more often.」

The corners of Alan-san’s mouth rose a little.

「Duly noted. I will be sure to be more careful in the future.」

「That’s it? I told you, there is a suspicious-looking man watching your shop from the outside.」

「I understood that, and I realize full well that things like that might be happening from time to time, due to the… peculiar nature of my business. Nevertheless, I thank you for you attention and the time you took to inform me about this matter.」

He told me with a gentle expression. Looks like he’s not taking me seriously. Again, I can understand why he is acting like that. Everybody would have done the same if someone suddenly came to them and told them that their business is being eyed by some shady individuals.

For him, I am not a regular customer, not a nobleman, a great knight, a big-shot or even someone well-versed in the matters of slavery. To him, I am just your regular one-time customer same as all the others he probably has to deal with on a regular basis, no different than a total stranger. Thinking about it that way, it’s not surprising that he dismisses the words of such a nobody as a mere triffle.

「Anyway, we just wanted to give you this warning, so we will be on our way now.」

「Once again, thank you for going through the trouble of informing me about this, but running this kind of business often makes us a target of many-a-different people, many of whom are too indecisive to actually set foot in the shop, loitering around the entrance.」

「Trust me, the “customer” we saw outside definitely didn’t look like that. He seemed to be one of the more “problematic” kind, the one that is not interested in simply “buying” slaves.」

「Or perhaps he was a private eye hired by a wife suspecting her husband of infidelity.」

Is he trying to say that this shop being monitored is an occurrence so common that he stopped paying any mind to it? I guess that’s true given the shady nature of his business, but still…

「Uhm… the person who watches your store right now… is a Bandit.」

Perhaps she was bothered by the fact that we were not being taken seriously as well, so Roxanne chose to open her mouth with such bold words.

「Hou… a Bandit, you say?」

Alan-san’s face tightened visibly.

「Yes, that’s right.」

「What makes you think that?」

When I confirmed Roxanne’s words without batting an eye, Alan-san inquired further. Well, I knew that sooner or later it had to come to this. Even if someone is really eyeing the shop, that alone does not make them a criminal just yet, so obviously he wanted to know what I based that assumption on. But I cannot tell him that I found out about it by using Identify on that guy, so I have to feed him the best possible lie I have in my repertoire.

「He’s one of the people whom I got to “know” while I was making money to purchase Roxanne.」

I managed to scramble up the necessary amount of money to buy her only because I decided to do some Bandit Bounty Hunting, but I imagine that since he is a Slave Merchant then he must at least have an inkling of how someone like me managed to get that much money so fast. He might not be getting the entire picture here, but he can probably guess enough to know that I wouldn’t be lying about something like that.

If you wanted to take on Bounty Hunts related to Bandits, naturally you had to know where to look for them and how to discern them from ordinary citizens. And I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, but after all the investigating that I carried out in the slums, I guess you could say that I got to memorize quite a few suspicious faces rather well.

「I see now。So that’s how it is.」

Alan-san sank deeper into the sofa. He then closed his eyes and let out a big sigh. Was he finally going to seriously listen to what we had to say?