The Slave Market, Part 1

I spent the first day in Wazar in peace. Now I had to secure a stable source of income for the future. I hadn't thought much about revenge as I was busy thinking about securing my current needs. The first thing that came to my mind was to buy some slaves.

Slaves are people who spent over 9 months in debt. Any amount of money owed to anyone results in you becoming a slave under the law. However, there is another method through which people are made into slaves. In a situation where a family has drowned in poverty, they can sell a member of their family as a slave. This way, not only are the people saved from their poor standards, but they also have less mouths to feed. This business was initially turned into a crude practice and many slaves were mistreated. Some were decapitated just for fun. Many children fell under slavery and it ruined their lives. Ever since, they created a law prohibiting the slavery of children under 18 years of age. Yet children were still being sold under the law in black markets. Many bought these young children to prevent them from facing horrendous situations but the opposite happened and the economy of the black market was on the rise.

I had no intention of buying incapable slave children out of pity. And breaking the law in my position, was similar to attracting attention to myself which I had to avoid by any means possible.

I took a deep breath and got out of bed. I walked into my bathroom a metre away from the large bedroom. There were two sinks in the bathroom, a grand bath tub. A set of curtains were present in front of the shower and two lavatories 10 feet away from the sink. I took a bath and wore my same old clothes. It was then I realised I should buy more sets of clothing as well.

I left the mansion and entered the garden where my horse was busy grazing grass. I rode on my horse and decided to make the first stop at a clothing shop nearby. I spent 30 minutes riding across town in circles asking people where the nearest clothing store was and I finally found it a 100 blocks across the street. I parked my horse in the corner and walked in the hypnotically amazing store. I walked in and met the old feeble manager standing across a table.

I asked, "Do you by any chance make custom clothing?"

The old man replied, "Yes sir we do. What is it that you require?"

I had never seen a man as old as him neither had I seen a man as humble. But I shook this thought off my mind and started ranting the types of clothes I was to wear.

"I would like 7 full sleeved royal blue vests with an intricate pattern woven in the colour gold ranging across the sleeves. I would also require 2 leather chest plates that cover the torso entirely. Other than that, 12 black coloured loose dresses with a red cape similar to the king would be fine." (The king of Sar)

The old man wrote my request on a piece of paper with a feather he dipped in ink. The man was shivering as he spoke, "In how many days to do want this delivered?"

"You may take as long as it takes, but I want them delivered fast."

I then gave him my address and ordered the man to bring the set of clothing directly to my mansion. The merchant complied.

I looked across the store to find clothing to wear for the time being. I had no intention to wear a nobles clothes as I faced no hostility from the people of the city nor did I have any reason to, as none of them were even aware of me. I looked through the tunics and bought one in every colour (five in total). I then bought 15 full length loose linen leggings which were ready made. Along with this, I bought a huge leather bag to carry the clothes. The total price amounted to a meagre 25 gold. I left the place and walked in the shoe shop next door which caught my eye as I was coming to the clothing store.

I didn't pay much attention to the average looking store manager and bought 3 leather shoes for another gold coin.

I mounted my horse and left the area with a huge leather bag stuffed with clothing. I returned to my mansion and placed all my belongings in one of the 7 rooms I was not using at the moment. I wore a red tunic and a black hose* I had bought. I held the sword in my hand with the sheath covering it.

I now decided to go to the slave market to buy some servants. Slaves were essentially expensive and were only ever taken by nobles to do menial tasks. Owning a huge mansion, I had to buy two slaves to clean the house, one slave to take care of the horse and the garden, and a calm, loyal, warrior to fight in the dungeons along with me.

Reaching the slave market wasn't hard due to it being large and profound. I had left the mansion on foot as the slave market was only 2 kilometres away. I reached the slave market to see men setting tents across a wide area with slaves encaged in large metal cages. Then, amongst all the commotion, a slave caught my eye. A man was seated in a cage calm as the wind. I could tell he was strong but not aggressive. I decided on buying this man as my first servant.

Author's Note:

1. A hose is a form of legging. However, in this case it is similar to a baggy set of jeans.