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“I feel like you plan to pay me with the amount you get for selling this child. Do you think she’d fetch a large gold coin?”
“No.”
“Figures. I already knew as much.”

Given what I’d heard from the slaver back in Fraus, this girl would likely fetch no more than a small gold coin. That would be nowhere near enough. Two and a half large gold coins was a sum of money that Monia might never have earned in her lifetime.

“So, what will you do?”
“You can do with her as you please. She’s become a slave, but you are free to do whatever you want with her.”
“Is that the only responsibility Miss Monia has to take on?” Lullus asked.

If things escalated any further, I could end up having to order her to die. But I had a really bad feeling about this. Still, Lullus was right.

I could just figure out what to do with her later. I didn’t have a habit of hurting people, nor did I hold that many grudges. When it came to resentment, the Ancient Dragon would probably have more than me. And we’d probably have to meet again.

However, I had no intention of letting this girl go like this. She should at least get what she deserves. And don’t misunderstand—saying that doesn’t mean I’m on the side of justice.

“So what are you going to do on the Collegium side?”
“I guess I’ll have to track down everyone involved and turn them over to the military. Then, I’ll take responsibility and step down as well. After that, the kingdom will probably take over temporarily. Well, it’s my fault for overlooking everything in the first place¹.”
“Can you promise that?”
“Yes. I’m still the head of this place. I should at least do my last job right.”

With this, the Collegium would suffer almost a complete reform, and those involved would be sent to jail. This also meant that the Collegium’s goodwill towards me was only worth 2 large gold coins. I understood their point, but this was not nearly good enough. Right?

“What about compensation for everyone else who took on this request?”
“That’s exactly why I can only offer you the amount I already mentioned.”
“So you’re planning to handle this properly. In that case, I’m fine with it². I was expecting you to just say everyone involved would be thrown in jail.”
“I suppose we’ll all end up as slaves in the end.”

I didn’t want to get involved directly, and I was fine with what the head was saying. Honestly, when I thought about it, I didn’t really care. What I did want to emphasize was that I should be rewarded in proportion to the severity of the situation.

Considering that something similar had led to me becoming a Demigod, I felt pretty strongly about it. But I wasn’t really sure what a truly proportional compensation would be.

I was honestly fine with just an apology from the Collegium or some kind of atonement on their part. At the end of the day, I believed it was better for them to be judged where they deserved to be judged. Oh, but there was one thing I wanted them to promise me.

“I want you to promise me this, too—please make a proper announcement about this incident. I won’t be able to sleep otherwise.”
“There will likely be a change in the system, so we’ll surely be announcing it.”
“Then it’s a promise.”

I said once more as if trying to intimidate him, and the head responded with a “Yes.”

And so, I was left with one slave girl, who simply stared at me.

◇◇◇

“Speaking of which, didn’t you mention something about wanting a slave, Master Finis?”
“Lullus, do you think she has any common sense?”
“No, none.”

I finished what I had to do and we headed home. I had lost count of what time it was, but I once again created a random house in the woods. It was only sturdy, nothing more. I figured that since I could build a house, there was no point in me paying for lodging.

This also meant that I didn’t need money at all.

For the record, I also carried the noisy girl, Monia, with us. The bag she was in was provided to me by the Collegium. The sight must have been quite something—a 14 or 15 year-old girl carrying a bag nearly as big as she was.

“W-What are you going to do with me?!”

This was the first thing Monia asked after I took her out of the bag. Honestly, I had no idea what was going through her mind.

“I’ve received permission to do whatever I want. So I wonder. What shall I do?”
“Y-You’ll sell me, won’t you?!”
“We’re because I wouldn’t make any money even if I sold you. Do you understand the situation you’re in?”
“I did nothing wrong! I just did what the Collegium people told me to do.”
“Can you tell me more about that?”

Since she was already here, I could at least learn what had happened. It felt like the scene in a mystery novel where everything was about to be revealed. Truth be told, I was quite interested. Monia, looking irritated, spoke up with clear reluctance.

“Originally, I needed money for medicine to cure my brother’s disease. But there was no one willing to hire me at the time, so I tried to become an adventurer at the Collegium.”
“Not an uncommon story.”
“But that didn’t work out either. No matter how hard I tried, at best, I could only earn a little extra allowance—it wasn’t nearly enough to cover the cost of the medicine. That’s when the receptionist at the Collegium told me there was an easy way to get money.”
“And that’s how the request came to be?”
“That’s right! Is that so bad?”
“It is. It doesn’t matter much to me, but the human world would view it as bad.”

Monia gave me a strange look. Was it because I spoke like a man, or did she genuinely not understand what I meant?

“I was tricked too! No one told me this was going to happen!”
“That may very well be true.”
“If you get it, then let me go!”
“Say, how many times have you been whipped until now?”

Whipping was, in essence, a punishment for slaves. In a world where status was clearly defined, slaves were the lowest class of existence. If they didn’t act or speak in a way that reflected their position, they would be punished—it was a given. In short, if a commoner spoke to a noble the way Monia had spoken to me just now, it was quite easy to imagine what would happen.

1. Robinxen: Oh… oh the scale of this is a little bigger than expected. Isn’t this basically their equivalent of an adventurer guild too? This seems a little insane, that’s like disposing of an entire branch of the government.
2. Robinxen: Too bad it will be for naught anyway with the whole doomsday thing.

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