I opened my eyes to the loud voice of a man.
Did I fell asleep on the toilet? I get it, stop screaming already.
Suddenly a big hand lifted me and carried me like a baggage. What the hell? I looked around and found a man with a beard. The man said:
「So you survived! You sure are annoying for a little slave!!」
The Beard violently threw me into the carriage. It hurts. Just what the hell is happening?
There were several children in the carriage. Their age was between 5 and 10 years old, and their eyes were dead. Apparently, I am the only man here, the rest are all girls. To confirm my situation, I decided to speak with the oldest girl. ⌈1⌋
「Emm, can I have a minute of your time?」
Hearing me, the girl only directed her unfocused dead eyes my way.
「It was better for you to die there」
What the hell are you saying, kid? Her unexpected answer made me speechless.
「If you die, you can finally take things easy. It may have been your last chance to find an easy death, you know? 」
Such rude words for a kid! After a while, the coachman stopped the carriage.
「Hey, Brats!! It’s dinner! Come down! If you don’t hurry up, you will get nothing! 」
The Beard was screaming loudly. The children got off the carriage while trembling. And I too followed after them.
The food given to us tasted like ****. Eating even a single piece was a torture, it was at such a level. Children lifelessly stuffed the food into their mouths. And I gave my portion to the girl, who spoke with me earlier.
It seems there was a rain until a little while ago, there are puddles of water all over. The one beside me is especially big. When I looked in the puddle, I saw a child’s reflection on its surface.
The child reflected in the puddle moved according to my movements. It raised the right hand, raised the left hand, lowered the right hand.
–Is this me?
It was a figure of a 5-6 years old kid however you look at it. Just what happened to me?!
Then the Beard lifted the frozen me up.
「Ora! Time is up! Get in the carriage, damned snails!!」
I have been shoved in the carriage again. It really hurts, I must say.
In the rattling carriage, I try to understand my situation. Why am I a kid? Where is this place? What happened with my work? ⌈2⌋
「If you won’t eat, no one will buy you」
The girl who received my portion said.
「What do you mean?」
「The slave merchant said that a man should have a large build to be sold as a soldier or a miner. Did you get hurt when you fell from the carriage a while ago? You may be disposed of if you are sick or injured, you know? 」
「No, I’m not injured」
「I see. I thought you couldn’t eat because of the injury」
It seems she was worried about me, the only guy here. After that, I got a lot of information from this girl.
- The Beard is a slave merchant
- Everyone in a carriage is a slave (including me)
- Female slaves are sold to a brothel or as a maid, rarely as an adventurer
- Male slaves are sold to perform a physical labor or in the mines
- The future of slaves is determined by the owner. If you are bought by a pervert serial killer, your corpse might be found later in some ditch
The girl said that it was rare for boys of 5-6 years old to be sold as slaves. The man is a valuable worker for the village, even if his house is poor, the villagers will cooperate to raise him.
It seems that I was stuffed into the carriage, then cried for a whole night and tried to escape. There, I fell from the carriage and hit the ground with my head. And this is how we arrive at my current situation.
「It seems we will arrive in the capital by tomorrow, so I will go to sleep now. Probably, this would be my last opportunity to sleep all I want」
「You won’t run?」
「Idiot. I will just become a feed for monsters. I don’t want to end up in someone’s stomach」
Really? There are monsters in this world.
After a while, the girl quietly fell asleep. You sure are amazing to sleep in this rattling carriage. The rest of the girls seemed to be asleep too.
Apparently, I was reincarnated. In the body of the child. With a status of a slave.
In the end, I didn’t manage to fall asleep till the morning.
