RISE OF EROS

Chapter 23: CHAPTER 22

I followed the young lady who was walking gracefully ahead of me. Her butt was like a peach swaying from side to side covered by a thin cloth that was the skirt she was wearing, I have to admit my little brother reacted a bit.

To my luck or misfortune, we reached our destination before the lady's butt caused problems difficult to solve at the time, so we entered a large room.

There were a lot of small rooms there, like the office cubicles in my previous world. Between the corridors, several people walked accompanied by a lady similar to the one who accompanied me.

So I figured out what was happening. The cubicles were cells, inside them were the "Products", in other words, the slaves. The people walking were customers who would possibly be buying slaves, and the ladies were like the one accompanying me, a guide, and saleswoman.

Being a reincarnated person from a world where this business is highly reprehensible, I felt a little upset that, people were treated like things, but I was also very clear that I couldn't do anything, or at least for now, maybe in the future.

Not wanting to be in a place like this for long, I started walking the halls, checking the cells to see if I could find what I was looking for. Unfortunately for me, plans don't always go as planned.

I needed guards for the brothel, but just by looking at the people in the cells, I couldn't guess anything about them. That's made it difficult for me to choose, so I had to ask the lady who was guiding me, and because of her explanations, it took longer than I wanted to be at that place.

Apart from that, an unexpected event also occurred. To be more exact, I found an irregularity. One of the slaves caught my attention, I didn't know why, but I knew there was something special about him, and due to the uncertainty, I asked Fluffy what was wrong with him.

Fluffy told me that the man most likely had something special. It could be that he was a great warrior, he had a good skill or great experience, and that's why he caught my attention, since he could be an opportunity or a threat.

Only I could see Fluffy, and since we were communicating mentally, there was no problem while we were talking, the lady who was guiding me just thought that, I was deliberating about which slave to buy. After a few minutes of silence, I asked about the situation of the man who called my attention.

The young lady told me that, he was a hunter who fell into slavery due to a large debt, that was unable to pay. According to the girl, it was not clear why he contracted this debt, but some speculated that his family fell ill, and take a loan to buy medicine.

After listening to the story, I approached the cell where this man was. His physical constitution was a bit worn, it was evident that, he did not eat much, which was strange, since the sellers did not want to show "Products" in poor condition, so I asked, "Do he has any diseases?"

The lady understood the reason for my question, these slaves are supposed to be those who know how to fight, therefore they are a little more expensive and are treated with good food, taking into account that reason, this man did not seem healthy, even so, she replied, "He doesn't have any apparent illness, he also eats the same food, and portions as everyone else, we honestly don't know the reason, so despite his good looks his value is low".

Certainly the slave had the features of a handsome man, if, he is provided with good hygiene and food, he would surely be very striking due to his appearance, but at the moment he did not seem so.

As I looked at the man, he also saw me. I could see a strange shine in his eyes, his expression was somewhat different from the other slaves, who mostly seemed resigned and preferred to be dead.

I approached the cell and without arrogance, but without servitude, I asked the man, "Why do you look like that, if you are receiving the same treatment from everyone?" My question surprised the lady leading me.

She thought that, I was crazy to ask such an absurd question, there was no way for the man to know, however, she said nothing and remained silent.

The man didn't answer, but he kept looking at me with a glow of vivacity, and a bit of surprise. I remained silent for a while, thinking. Soon deduced, the reason the man didn't answer me was not because he didn't know, but because he didn't want to reveal the reason.

That was my thought, I didn't know if I was right, but I continued my questioning taking that conclusion as correct, without any basis or foundation, I can only call this instinct.

"Can you fight?", the man only nodded slightly, it seemed almost imperceptible, but I didn't care, what attracted me to this man was not his attitude, build or fighting skills, what intrigued me, was the sparkle in his eyes.

At first, I thought it was the brightness of wanting to live, because his look was different from the many slaves in this place, who had already given up on living, but little by little my thinking changed, I didn't know why, but my instinct told me, that sparkle in his eyes was something else.

However, I didn't think so much about it, in the end, after buying it I could ask him or investigate what it was, so I turned to the lady, and told her that, I would buy him and after walking through the corridors of the room for another few minutes, I chose the other 4 people who didn't seem to have completely abandoned their will to live.

With the chosen slaves, the lady led me to another room after talking to a man who looked like a hall guard, because he was in sturdy armor and looked powerful.

In this room, the lady took out 5 sheets of paper, they were the contracts of the 5 men I was going to buy.

I already knew how this transaction is carried out, because when I bought the brothel some slaves were transferred to me, so I knew the process, I just had to stain the contract with a little drop of blood.

Within minutes of being in the room, the 5 men I had bought as slaves entered, led by 3 heavily armored and powerful looking guards.

The 5 slaves had few clothes, barely tattered torn pants, without shoes, and with the upper part of their bodies uncovered. The dirt on their bodies was evident, but this was normal.

You would think, as combat slaves they are high-end "Goods", therefore certain additional benefits like clothes and shoes would be offered, but the reality was, they were only considered middle-class "Goods".

The true high-end "Products" are sold individually, and are more expensive than dozens of slaves like the ones I had purchased.

Not wanting to delay things, I spilled some blood on the contracts, then the 5 pieces of paper glowed a bit and two small spheres of light came out of each contract, one entered my chest, the other entered the chest of each slave, then the master-slave contract was finalized.

These contracts have few, but powerful functions, the most important being that it prevented slaves from hurting or deceiving their master.

The second was that the master held the slave's life in his hands, with a thought, he could take his life and In the same way, a thought could prevent him from taking his own life, therefore, a slave cannot commit suicide.

Most of the slaves do not value their life, because nobody wants to live subordinate to another forever without freedom, so it would be thought that, the slaves would not care if the master killed them, it would be like a liberation for them, the problem was, no master would use the contract to kill his slaves.

By holding the lives of slaves in his hands, doesn't just mean that he can kill them just by thinking about it, but that they have the ability to inflict pain.

If they were only killed by slaves, they would be more than willing to be killed, but if they had to be tortured incessantly, that is what they could not bear, so despite having no hope in life, they would rather be slaves than endure the pain that breached the master-slave contract.

The reason is that these contracts were bound to the soul of the slaves, so the pain caused is because the soul is being hurt, and that pain is worse than any physical pain.

The one who told me about all this was Fluffy, and he also told me that it would be impossible to bind myself as a slave with a contract like that, because in my soul there was a bit of divinity, and therefore it was above anything that affected the soul.

There are countless items, weapons and things, that can attack the soul, however, unless this item or weapon had divinity attached to it, it would be ineffective against me, but I got off-topic.

After signing the contract, I left the establishment with the farewell of the young lady who served as guide. At a leisurely pace, followed by the 5 pitiful-looking men, I arrived at the brothel I owned at the red-light district.