A Harem in the Fantasy World Dungeon Volume 4 Chapter 5 Part 23
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Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist Editor: Weasalopes
Heh, good thing that I managed to make her my own before that happened, but at the same time, I feel like I should be a little more grateful to the guy, because if it was not for him educating Roxanne in such a way, then who knows if she would still be the same lovely, well-mannered and obedient Roxanne she is today?
「Well. . . . . . . . . . . all things considered, to me it seems like you would still need quite a fair amount of luck to be noticed and then taken in by someone rich, since the client’s mind and preferences are something that no slave has a way of knowing, so in the end, if a slave manages to catch the rich client’s eye, then it all boils down to the price that the Slave Shop’s owner dictates, and whether or not the client is going to be willing to pay the specified price or reaches the conclusion that this is still too much and that he is going to try his luck looking elsewhere, right?」
Anyway, while this aspect of how the slaves are being kept up and cared for by the Slave Shops they have been sold to is undoubtedly very interesting, we should not let ourselves get sidetracked by it too much. I have to make sure that we stay on the main subject without going off topic at every possible chance, otherwise we will be talking about it way into the late night hours.
「Of course, you are right, master, but in practice such cases tend to be more on a rare side of things. It is true however, that most of the slaves who dream of winning themselves the favor of a rich patron are those who have lost their previous lives and were turned into slaves due to unfortunate circumstances.」
「In other words, being spotted by a wealthy client is a form of potential escapism for some of the slaves?」
If you think about it, that makes a lot of sense. If someone was made a slave against their will, then of course they would try to do anything in their power to stop being slaves as soon as possible, but if they wound up in a multi-slave residence or establishment, then getting back their freedom for themselves would take not only an exceedingly large amount of luck, but also strength of will and tenacity to make yourself more appealing than the rest of the slaves they have been stuck with. I have never been a slave myself so I cannot say for sure how such people must be feeling, but if I were to hazard a guess, then I would say that it would be pretty similar to how I wanted to escape from my shitty life back in Japan, the only difference being that I thought that suicide would be the miraculous panacea that would make all of my pain and suffering go away.
「Okay, so that takes care of one way of how slaves are being treated. What about the other ones?」
「Right. The second way of slave treatment involves Adventurers, Explorers and anyone who is venturing into the Labyrinths on a daily basis and they have lost their adventuring companion. Instead of hiring a new Party member for themselves, such people might choose to buy themselves a slave who is going to accompany them instead.」
「Oh? So things like that actually do happen, huh?」
I guess it would be similar to my case, only that I did not buy Roxanne because I lost my previous companion. I bought her because I did not want to be all by myself in this strange, unfamiliar world.
「Yes, and in that case, the rights of ownership can even be transferred from a parent to a child once they grew up, and the same rule can be applied if the owner remarries. However, if you buy a slave that is of a different race then you then there will be no issues with inheritance. That is also why slaves are recommended as caretakers for children, since they can look after them at all times and even go to the Labyrinths to fight for them on their behalf.」
「So in that particular case it is okay to just think of slaves as long-term caretakers?」
It looks like this world seems to be filled with various things and opportunities across all aspects and walks of life, just like in my old world. In accordance to that, those who have the money to afford it will not think twice about buying themselves slaves, because a slave is always a pair of extra hands, be it for tasks such as taking care of the children, doing household chores like cleaning or cooking or even going to the Labyrinths to make money for their masters. I can certainly see the benefits of having them, and I also understand why in general it is better to have your slaves be inherited by the other members of your family in case of your sudden, unexpected death. They are just too good of an improvement to your daily lifestyle to not have them.
「When the master of the slave dies and they had no family to pass the slave to, it is common practice to include a passage in your last will and testament that states that the slave is to be free of his slave status and get his freedom back, and many such slaves tend to turn that into an opportunity for themselves, since if they were heading into the Labyrinths and managed to get a hefty amount of experience while battling there, it makes them a perfect choice for a potential Party member and companion, and people who buy slaves for the purpose of making them the members of their Party have been around for years, being almost as old as the system of slavery itself.」
「And the slaves have nothing against it? I mean, statistically speaking, not all of them have to be thrilled about the perspective of heading into as dangerous of a place as Labyrinths on a daily or almost daily basis.」
「Even if some of them feel like that, they usually keep it to themselves and endure it. After all, being somebody’s Party member is certainly better than lifetime of serving someone who would only exploit and abuse them.」
That is an argument that I cannot argue with. Also. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
「Exploitation and abuse? That is pretty crazy!」
I mean, I know that no anyone is capable of treating slaves as fellow human beings and instead treat them like things, or their personal possessions that they can do anything the hell they want with them, the examples from the history of my own world are more than plenty. . . . . . . . . . but even knowing those examples, I still find it hard to believe that someone could be mistreating their slaves in the world of this game, but that is probably because I did not see any such mistreating with my own eyes just yet, and to be honest, I hope that I will not have to be a witness to them for a good while longer.
「It definitely is more than crazy, but thankfully, the majority of the wealthy clients buying slaves are people who managed to achieve some degree of success in their lives, which usually means that they are calm, well behaved and treat their slaves in a good way, and they are doing that because they do not want to antagonize their slaves, because they know that they are going to be the ones who are going to be taking care of them when they grow old.」
If that is so, then I wonder if the good way of treating their slaves by the nobles and wealthy people is a genuine act stemming from kindness and understanding, or is it nothing more but a cold pragmatism fueled by the knowledge that if they are going to try to abuse them, it will have a negative impact on the master-servant relationship with their slaves in the future, where the masters are going to be needing them the most?
On the flipside, even if they are treated badly, slaves have probably learned to put up with any abuses that bad masters have been throwing their way because they probably realized that any attempts at getting revenge for getting mistreated would be utterly pointless. After all, in the relationship that slaves have with their masters, slaves are the ones with the weaker positions of the two. If they tried to do anything to their masters, the abuse would just get even more severe than it already might have been.
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