The Place Where I Was Sold as a Slave Was the Imperial Palace

＜Waiting for guests at the slave house＞

* * *

The journey to the Empire was not easy.

With three tightly packed slave wagons and two wagons, plus escorts, the scale grows enormously.

Equipment is at their own expense, but I heard that the mercenary’s meal is prepared by the Slave Hall.

The slaves were served only bland stew without bread, but the mercenaries who accompanied them as escorts were also given some jerky and hard bread.

It is not an ordinary task to eat two meals a day. Most of the wagons were filled with food.

We stopped for a while to have a meal and rest, but it’s time to start again in a little while.

Rudy leaned against the bars helplessly.

Whether the drinking water was a problem or the stew served as a meal was strange, a diarrheal disease circulated among the slaves.

When you eat something, you excrete it as it is. Thanks to that, the hay that had been laid for a long time was a mess.

There were also deaths in cheap slave wagons.

One woman, who was healthy when she left the auction house, died.

I may die more in the future.

As is often the case, Mustache wasn’t angry or embarrassed. He calmly ordered the escort mercenary to dump the body in the forest.

High-ranking slaves were given powdered medicine at each meal, but low-ranking slaves were not given medicine in their wagons.

It seemed that he had no intention of wasting the medicine on a cheap slave in a situation where it was impossible to guarantee whether he would be able to live even if he took the medicine.

Judging from the conversation with the mercenary, it seems that the price of a slave in a low-level carriage was about 10 liri. Most of them seemed to be under 5 liri.

A few die each year on the journey from the auction house to the Empire. So don’t worry, the senior mercenary was telling the newcomer.

“Now, let’s go! Stay alert! From now on, this is the area where thieves will appear.”

I heard a mercenary shouting from the front.

The mercenaries busily pack their belongings.

My body shook as the carriage started.

My body, which has not been properly nourished, flutters helplessly at the vibration of the wagon.

The head, which was against the grate, crashed against the grate with a thud.

But I couldn’t even think of avoiding it.

I don’t want to even move a finger because I have no strength.

The escort mercenary said bandits were frequent, but it was a pack of wolves that appeared a few days later.

As we entered the narrow road along the mountain road, the wolf continued to pursue the group for several days.

When the day got dark, the wolf’s howl resonated in the night sky, and sometimes they came down near the wagon.

A slave died of diarrhea and was abandoned in the woods, and was not seen for a while.

But after one night, they followed me again.

They followed the wagon train all the way to the end of the mountain.

By the time the wolves were no longer visible, the slaves who had diarrhea had gotten better as if they hadn’t.

He stopped in the city several times along the way to replenish, but before he knew it, the food in the wagon was almost exhausted.

By the time I heard anxious words saying that the slaves were starving because there was nothing to eat, the mercenaries cheered that they had finally entered the land of the empire.

It was a desolate field without a wall, with only a few sticks stuck in it.

After a few more hours, a stream with babbling water came out.

Even on a sunny day, it was too cold to get wet, but the stench of the wagons and slaves crooked their noses.

Mustache made all the slaves wash in the river and watered the wagons.

While several male slaves worked, shaking their wet bodies, Rudy washed herself in a place some distance away.

Everyone is busy.

Mustache supervises the slaves and at the same time gives instructions to the mercenary, and the mercenary stays a little away from the guard.

The slaves were too cold to see other people. I’m busy washing up quickly and getting out of the water.

Rudy crouched down in the water and tore off all the seam allowances on his clothes. The seam allowance, which consisted only of slotting without backstitching, was easily undone by breaking only one or two places.

It was so cold that my teeth chatted up and down like an aspen tree.

It seems that the whole body has become ice.

My nerves also froze, so I lost my senses. I don’t feel that I’m moving my body or that I’m touching anything.

Thanks to that, I got marks on my hands from pulling the thread hard, but it didn’t hurt.

As gold coins and some jewels spilled onto the river bed, Rudy quickly placed several stones on top of them.

When you arrive at the slave house, you will change your clothes before meeting your new master.

Then it becomes known that the weight of the clothes is strange.

It’s better to hide it in a place like this, even if there’s a chance you won’t find it, than to get caught and take it all away.

If someone happens to find Rudy’s jewelry here, it doesn’t matter as it is.

It is better for a stranger to have it than to sell oneself as a slave and give it to a buyer.

When Rudy came out of the water, several campfires were lit.

At Mustache’s direction, all the high-class slaves went to dry themselves near the campfire.

All clothes are off.

After that, the high-class slaves were each given a piece of clothing that looked like a long shirt.

It was long enough to cover my thighs, but it was much better than wearing wet clothes.

The same was given to Rudy, but when he wore it, his shoulders pouted and the hem dragged on the ground. The arm didn’t even come out.

After taking a step or two, I stepped on the hem of my clothes and fell forward.

Both mercenaries and slaves laugh at it.

Rudy also stood on his knees, arms out to the sides, and smiled brightly.

As he could not walk properly, a mercenary whom he had become friendly with during the trip put him on top of a wagon.

Through the bars of the slowly departing carriage, Rudy looked at the river and its surroundings.

A river a few hours away from the border of the empire, there was an unusually tall tree nearby.

While he kept in mind the location of the river where he had thrown away the gold coins, the carriage moved further and further away.

That afternoon, I arrived at the gateway that anyone entering the Empire must pass through.

The soldier guarding the gate seems to know the mustache and the name of this slave dealer.

While the other wagons were waiting to enter the empire or talking, the wagon train Rudy rode passed through the gate without stopping.

After passing the gateway, there was a place that was too small to be called a city, but rather large to be called a village.

There, Mustache seems to have been contacted by something.

From that day on, Rudy was given a little better food than the stew the other slaves ate.

And before arriving at the slave house in the royal capital, Mustache started checking Rudy’s face and body condition every day.

It starts with whether the stomach hurts, whether the stool is properly checked, and even checks the condition of the skin.

Not only did she wipe her face and hair with a wet towel every day, but she also applied balm meticulously.

It was doubtful whether she was being sold as a child s*x slave.

‘no way···.’

It’s kind of ominous.

* * *

It’s quite a long way from the border to the royal capital of the empire. However, security and roads were better than other countries, so I was able to move fairly quickly.

Rudy looked at the scenery through the bars while hiding his anxiety.

The royal capital of the empire was more splendid than any city he had ever seen.

There are many buildings and people, but above all things are diverse. There was also a kind of thing called the oriental wind of the previous life.

Will one day be free from slavery and be able to freely walk these streets?

‘It won’t be easy.’

From what I’ve heard so far, once a slave is a slave for life.

Theoretically, it is said that there are cases where you can be freed from slavery by paying a lot of money to buy yourself.

Because being a slave is, after all, paying money to live.

However, no matter how skillful a slave is and earns a lot of money, the money belongs to the master.

It wasn’t his own money, so he couldn’t buy himself.

After all, once a slave is enslaved, he cannot escape unless the master frees him himself.

The better the ability, the better it will become the shackles that bind oneself.

Rudy closed his eyes.

The slave house was located slightly off the main street of the royal capital.

At first glance, it did not look like a place where slaves were traded. It just looked like a luxurious, ordinary mansion.

The main entrance to the slave house was a barred door painted in beautiful colors.

When the slave wagon arrived, the guards on either side of the front door quickly opened it.

As the wagon pulled in, we saw a well-kept tree and a small pond.

After a while, the place we arrived at was a large rectangular building.

Mustache opened the carriage door himself and let Rudy out.

Rudy walked towards the building, following Mustache’s lead.

An elderly man and several maids stood at the entrance of the building, and as the mustache approached, the men and maids bowed their heads deeply.

“welcome. Thank you for your effort.”

Mustache gave a slight nod and spoke quickly.

“When did the guests say they were coming?”

“He said he would visit tonight.”

“I don’t have much time. I must hurry.”

Mustache said nervously, then looked at the maids.

“I managed my skin and hair with balm, but it seems that it is still not enough to bring out the original beauty. You guys have to show off your skills.”

“of course. manager. Please leave it to me.”

The maids’ eyes turned to Rudy. My heart felt a little uncomfortable at the gaze that looked at me as if it were a compliment.

‘Isn’t this really being sold as a s*x slave?’

As if to fuel Rudy’s anxiety, the mustache asked the elderly man.

“Are the costumes ready?”

“Yes, as you said, I prepared it as luxurious as possible.”

The old man with the mustache continued to talk as he entered the building.

In the meantime, slaves unloaded from the wagon outside and moved somewhere.

It seems to enter through a different entrance than this one.

Rudy was carried into the building by the maids.

The maid holding him gives instructions to the other women.

“I need to change the perfume. The balm does not suit this child’s mood. With a little more splendid scent…”

A maid walks quickly across the hallway, and another order is given.

“I feel like my skin hasn’t found its color yet. You prepare the whitening powder and cosmetics… It would be nice if the cheeks were slightly red, so reddish…”

The maids move busily at the woman’s instructions.

It’s no joke. I got really anxious. Should I run away when getting on or off the wagon?

Rudy unknowingly clenched his fists.

The woman took Rudy into a slightly larger room.

The maids who left earlier to prepare were busy in the room.

In the middle of the room is a large wooden barrel filled with warm water.

Rudy was immediately put into it.

Soap seems to have existed even in this era.

I wiped my body from head to toe with soap in a small cloth bag once, twice, until I thought I was going to peel off my skin.

After wiping the body clean, thoroughly remove the water with a cloth.

Then he applied perfumed oil with a scent similar to that of roses.

After the balm is all dry and the body is dry, paint the whole body with white powder that looks like baby powder.

After that, I put on the clothes the elderly man had brought.

He wore a red velvet outerwear and a shirt with colorful frills.

Soft tights were worn under the pumpkin pants made of the same material, and a satin ribbon was tied.

The shoes were made of velvet and satin, as if to match the clothes.

The floor is a bit hard, but it doesn’t seem like it was made for walking outside. If I walked outside with something like this, it looked like the soles of my feet would be damaged within a few steps.

She also lightly painted her face with white powder, and rubbed her cheeks with something like rouge to make them red.

I also added a red color to my lips so that it wouldn’t show through.

No matter how you look at it, it seems like a s*x slave.

He decided to run away, but he was immediately carried away by a maid.

I wiggled my body, but I didn’t budge.

As if a woman was not a woman, strength was business.

The place he was dragged helplessly was a small room with a colorful carpet.

There was a large iron cage that looked like a bird cage in the middle.

An elderly man was waiting and quickly opened the cage door.

The maid went inside, put Rudy down, and said,

“Wait here for a while. I don’t want my clothes to collapse, so I have to stay calm.”

The cage door closed with a click.

The elderly man and maid all leave, leaving Rudy alone in the room.

＜ Waiting for guests at the Slave Hall ＞ End