Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)

Volume 7 - Ch 3.12

But wait a second, when did she even had the time to interact with them?

Oh well. If she says that its going to be all right, then I am pretty sure that everything is going to be all right indeed.

The work that theyre going to be doing there is also not the most difficult, so there should be absolutely nothing for you to be worrying yourself about, master.

Sherry also reassured me, so now that I have the words of both her and Roxanne to count on, I guess I really should stop worrying about it.

It will be okay, desu. And then it is going to be fish for dinner, desu.

Miria also tried to sound confident, but because she put a much stronger emphasis on the second sentence that she spoke, I highly doubt if she even meant what she was saying before it at this point.

I feel anxious about letting Miria go on her own because of her dubious motives. I wish I could trust her mor eon this, but as long as I wont be sure that shes not going to forsake her work in favor of chasing the fish in the sewage or the river to which the sewage is connected to, I wont be able to calm down at all.

On the morning of the next day, I decided to join Miria as we went to the village of Hafens fish market in order to pick up the fish for todays dinner for her. I also intend to show her that theres no need for her to be catching fish from whatever dubious place is going to pop up in her mind at any given moment. Instead of doing something like that which can get her in trouble just like that one time when she got Divine Punishment placed upon her, she can just go and buy herself one whenever she feels like it.

For that exact purpose, I also brought a bucket we got during our previous visit here with us.

We will be having fish for todays dinner. For that end, could you please go and find some small fish like the ones that you did before?

Yes, desu.

Prompted by my words, Miria proceeds to look around the entire fish market with a serious expression in search of a fish that would best fit my description. It didnt take us all that long to arrive back where we bought the fish from yesterday. So in the end Mirias fish-seeking instincts told her to go seek out the cat-eared fish saleswoman since she gave us good-tasting fish yesterday as well? I wonder why was that? Does this lady have a certain way of preparing fish, or perhaps she is adding some kind of secret ingredient that makes them taste that much better to them?

Eight Mackerels, just like the last time, right?

Yes, desu.

Miria even ended up making exactly the same kind of purchase as the last time. After placing the order and receiving it from the old lady, Miria carefully placed all of the fish in the backet that I placed next to her, almost as if she was afraid that if shes not going to be delicate with them, theyre going to end up getting damaged.

While I was looking at what kind of fish id she have on display besides the Mackerels, I also noticed that there were shrimps available as well, and many kinds of them at that, starting from the ones that looked like ordinary prawns all the way to Kuruma Shrimps and Baname Shrimps. Well, no matter what kind of shrimps theyre going to turn out to be, because I think that shrimps are so versatile that you might cook them in the same way no matter what type of them are you going to get.

Is it possible for shrimps to be baked?

Yes, I think it is possible for them to be prepared in such a way.

And could you ask this lady if they are going to stay fresh all the way until dinner if we buy them in the morning?

I ask Roxanne to ask this of the old lady, and she proceeded to quickly translate my words to her. In response, the Catkin tribe lady looked at us with a smile and then she poked one of the shrimps, causing it to jump up and jerk vigorously.

She says that the way they are, they should be able to last for about two to three days.

Two to three days, huh? Well, I mean, they are still alive, so I guess it would be pretty strange if they were getting spoiled quickly.

Then add eight shrimps to our order, please.

Roxanne translates my additional order to the cat-eared shopkeeper. The old lady wraps the shrimp in leaves and puts them into the bucket for us.

After putting the shrimps in bucket, she counts all of the fish that are inside of it before she proceeds to tell us the final price that I am going to have to pay for all of them.

Two Shrimps cost one Nar, so the total is going to be twelve Nars.

Even though I didnt understand the words that she was saying, from her actions alone I knew that she was counting the fish and how much Nars I am going to have to pay her, so I gave her twelve Nars and then we went to the Labyrinth

When we got back home it was already afternoon, so now that our quick trip to the Labyrinth was over, it was high time to go and send Miria on her mission of helping with the fixing of the broken sewage.

As a good and upstanding master that I am, I did not allow her to go perform such a dirty job with her regular clothing, but instead I have given her the full farming getup, or to put it in other words, the clothes that can easily get dirty: long boot that reach out almost below her knees, a straw hat and a pair of long gloves. Overall, that getup has a completely different feel to it in comparison to the one usually used for fishing purposes.

Whether or not such a difference makes sense or not, well thats another story entirely. And even if it really wasnt, then I would probably just ignored it entirely.

When we got to the place where the repair were to be carried out, I noticed that much more people than I initially expected have gathered near the sewage and the gutter. I only saw them from a distance, but there were definitely more than just a few of them. Also, every one of the people that have been gathered there has been dressed quite shabbily and their clothes were in much worse condition than the rest of them, so I guess that has to mean that a number of slaves have been roped into helping with the cleaning of the sewage, and most of those slaves were the young men and women.

In a sense, I guess doing something like that should be considered the natural thing to do, right?

Even though the well is located only a little distance away from all of the houses in the neighborhood, going to it and back while carrying the buckets of water around is already hard enough of a Job as it is, which is exactly why I am thankful for my magic and the ability to use such Spells as Water Ball or Water Wall, which make it infinitely easier for me to do anything even remotely water related.

The society of this world seems to be largely affected by the restrictions placed upon pretty much every aspect of their lives by the limitations of technology. So if you really want to live your life on a bit of a more luxurious side, I guess that having slaves, and the ones who re either young men or young women, is something of a necessity.

As a result, the hierarchical differences in the positions of those who enjoy living the good life and those who are forced to toil tirelessly under their heels the entire time in order to make that happen are all too apparent and clear as day to see. To give you the most obvious example, even in this neighborhood, there are those who order others to go and fetch the water for them, and there are those who need to go fetch said water whether they like it or not.

That clear division also means that there is nothing in between of these two hierarchies, that this world is only divided into shades of black and white, with no color grey to set these two apart.