yemalu

When we got to the market district, we first made a stop at another store with a sign that said "Tiara Merchant Company" at its front. No prizes as to guessing why we\'re here.

A well dressed man was standing outside when we arrived, his eyes widening when he saw us.

He immediately rushed up and hugged Linette tightly, "Linette!! Thank the Gods, you\'re alright!! I was so worried!!"

Linette teared up, "Father… I\'m ok now… I\'m sorry to have worried you…"

I quickly checked him with [Screened].

[Name: Malcolm Tiara

Title: Owner and founder of Tiara Merchant Company

Race: Mahun

Stats:

21 Strength

13 Dexterity

18 Endurance

10 Magic

Skills:

Martial Skill-(Sword Proficiency (Tier 1)), Business Management (Tier 3), Accounting (Tier 2), Leadership (Tier 3), Negotiations (Tier 2), Noble Etiquette (Tier 3)]

That\'s quite a number of skills he has there. Though considering he\'s also the founder of said company, he must have worked hard to build his empire up from scratch so it makes sense for him to have those skills.

Malcolm stepped back from his daughter, "What happened? I got word that the caravan was attacked by goblins and there were no survivors!"

She furrowed her brows, "It\'s all because of Brad! That ingrate wasn\'t happy that I wouldn\'t marry him so he thought that it would be better to kill me while he runs off to Shendhala! I knew he was planning something but I didn\'t think he would do something this drastic… I thought he would only try to rape me on the trip and I was prepared to deal with that…"

"What?! That bastard! I\'ll put up a bounty for him! I\'ll make sure he will never set foot within the Kingdom\'s lands again! We must thank the Gods that you managed to escape!"

Linette shook her head before gesturing to me, "I had help, Father. If it weren\'t for Lady Aster here who had taken a quest from The Guild to slay the same goblins, I would not be standing here today."

He finally took notice of me and bowed his head slightly, "Well met, Lady Aster. I am Malcolm, owner of the Tiara Merchant Company. You have my utmost gratitude for saving my daughter. If there is anything I can do for you, you only need to ask."

I waved my hand quickly, feeling a little awkward that a man much older than I was was bowing his head to me, "Oh! There\'s no need for that! Miss Linette just happened to be there when I was getting rid of the goblins so it\'s simply a coincidence. Besides, she has already offered me compensation for my help."

Malcolm turned to his daughter and she nodded, "I offered the slave we were transporting as payment for her rescue and her protection to reach this city."

"I see. Thank you once again for saving my Linette, Lady Aster. I assume we\'ll need to arrange a recovery group to fetch the wagons now."

"Oh, that isn\'t necessary. Lady Aster has a magic bag of storage, father."

His eyes widened, "Lady Aster must be a famous Mercenary then? Only veteran Guild members are able to afford such a magic item."

"Oh, no no. I only just started yesterday actually. I only managed to get one due to some lucky circumstances."

Like, getting \'reincarnated here and given the option of buying one\' kind of circumstance.

He nodded, "I understand. In that case, where is the rest of your party?"

"Hmm? Oh! I\'m currently a solo Mercenary."

"... You took on… A Goblin raid party… All by yourself?"

Linette chipped in, "Lady Aster is really strong! She is at least Shadow tier in Umbramancy! She even managed to kill a Hell Wolf Alpha by herself!"

How does she know about my Umbra… Oh right… I used it to kill the goblins around them… I actually forgot about that.

"Ho? Then it seems my daughter is fortunate to meet a budding Mercenary like you, Lady Aster."

"Err… Could I know why you are calling me \'lady\'? Just Aster is fine, you know?"

Linette blinked at me, "Lady Aster has a family name right? I saw it on your Guild card… Ah… I apologise, was that supposed to be a secret?"

Oh… Is this a case where only nobles get family names? That would explain why some of the people I met only had one name. Well… I guess I shouldn\'t be surprised considering who I suspect Mother to be.

Since she doesn\'t seem to be advertising it… I guess I should ask them to keep it a secret too.

"Ah, it\'s alright just… Don\'t advertise it I suppose…"

Malcolm smiled at me, "Not to worry, Miss Aster, I am quite familiar with your situation actually."

"Eh? You are?"

Does he know about Mother?

"That\'s right. It\'s quite common for children who aren\'t inheriting the family name to venture out on their own. Quite a number of them would join The Guild too so you\'re not alone."

Err… I guess I\'ll just let him think that\'s the case with me since I\'m pretty sure Mother only has me as her child.

Whatever, I don\'t know how to explain to them anyway so I just nodded along.

Katsuki shifted a little closer to me and Malcolm\'s attention moved to her, "I take it that\'s the slave Miss Aster has taken an interest in? Have you changed her ownership yet?"

Linette shook her head, "We were planning to go there after Miss Aster has deposited our wares, father."

"Ah, in that case, allow me to accompany you as well, Miss Aster, it\'s the least I could do after you\'ve not only rescued my daughter but also taken care of our wares. There\'s a slave shop just a few blocks down the road."

Since he offered, I wasn\'t going to say no either so we quickly brought out the wagons and trade goods before Malcolm led Linette, Katsuki and myself to the shop in question.

From the outside, it looked like any other shop and even the inside looked more like some classy hotel than a slave shop.

A man in a suit was there to greet us, "Good day sir and ladies. Welcome to the Dragon Cage, are you looking to sell or buy?"

"Neither," Malcolm answered him quickly before gesturing to Katsuki. "We would like to transfer the ownership of this slave here."

He took one look at the Inugami girl before nodding to us, "That wouldn\'t be a problem. I will have one of our mages attend to you for this. The transfer fee will be a small silver coin, would that be ok?"

Seriously? Just this already cost a hundred Creas? Then again, Katsuki was valued at three hundred thousand Creas so I suppose that\'s considered a small price and the Guild registration fee was twice of this.

The fact that Malcolm did not dispute the price either must mean that it was an expected price, since he simply nodded his head and fished out a silver coin from his pouch.

"I have confirmed the payment, would the original and new owners follow me with the slave, please?"

Linette and I followed behind the man while Katsuki moved a step behind me. Malcolm seemed content in waiting for us in the lobby area and waved us off.

We were brought to a rather opulent room and even invited to sit on the couch.

Katsuki naturally stood behind me without another word while Linette took the seat beside me.

A woman dressed similarly to the man who greeted us entered from a side door a few moments later.

[Name: Kiara

p Title: Dragon Cage Mage

Race: Mahun

Stats:

15 Strength

12 Dexterity

20 Endurance

34 Magic

Skills:

Cooking (Tier 2), Accounting (Tier 1), Gardening (Tier 1)

Magic Skills:

Kalomancy (Tier 2), Alchemy (Tier 1)]

Kalomancy huh? It\'s a magic that allows the user to bend beasts to their will, I suppose there\'s a subsection of it that allows them to be used in this case too?

"Good day, I will be the mage in charge of transferring the ownership. May I know who the original and new owner is?"

Linette raised her hand before gesturing to me, "I am the original owner. I wish to transfer the slave\'s ownership to her."

With how smoothly she told the mage, I suspect this isn\'t the first time she is doing something like this.

The slave mage then presented a needle and a small vial to the both of us.

"Please prick a drop of blood into the vials and I will begin the transference process."

I watched as Linette took the needle and pricked the tip of her finger, letting a small drop of her blood splatter into the vial before wiping her finger with a cloth the slave mage presented.

I copied her and was slightly surprised to feel no pain, which I suspect must be an enchantment from the needle or something.

The slave mage first took Linette\'s vial and gestured for Katsuki to come forward, the Inugami girl looking towards me for permission and only moving when I nodded at her.

I watched as the slave mage started casting a spell and the blood in Linette\'s vial swirled into the air before splattering against the collar on Katsuki\'s neck, seemingly disappearing as soon as it touched the metal.

I\'m guessing if I hadn\'t had that duel with Katsuki, she would have pulled out that knife of hers and stabbed me in the back right now.

Fortunately, that didn\'t happen.

The slave mage then did the same thing with my blood and this time the collar seemed to glow a little before my blood disappeared as well.

[Slave collar: Magically enchanted collar that prevents the wearer from harming the one recognised as the owner of the slave. Current owner: Aster Nilm]

"It is done, thank you for using our services," The slave mage bowed before leaving without another word.

Well, that was fast.

Katsuki moved in front of me and knelt, "Katsuki once again greets Mistress."

I thought about asking if it was ok to free Katsuki from this slavery business… But something tells me asking that here would make me look very ignorant so I decided to save that question for Mother instead.

Speaking of which… How do I find her now?