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

After finishing my breakfast in the morning, I left the inn and made my way to the building opposite of it, the Knight Order guardhouse. After I walked inside, I noticed that the Knight who questioned me before and the beautiful Female Knight were nowhere to be found. Well, what should I do then? I guess it works out for me because it eliminates the possibility of the Knights being extra suspicious of me, but now that I think about it, the whole process would be a lot smoother if I could report to someone whos actually well aware of the situation in the city instead of just some pencil pusher who couldnt give two shits about it. In that respect, being recognizable might be to my advantage in the future, so I better make a mental note of it now so that I wont forget about it.

For the time being, Ill just have a walk at the brothel district to see hows the situation there. According to the information I have gathered the Knights should have a duty rotation around noon, so Ill wait until then and come back to see if any familiar faces showed up.

I walked around the slums for two hours and then some, but from what I saw it does not look to be any different from the usual. Maybe they have yet to find the bodies of the Bandits with their left hands cut off, or maybe the residents of the slums really just dont give a fuck about gang wars happening in their immediate neighborhood? Anyway, if the situation here is stable, then I guess theres no need for me to be here anymore. Enough time should have passed, so lets make my way back to the guardhouse. Waiting turned out to a good decision, because when I came back, I saw a familiar-looking Apprentice Knight behind one of the desks.

Hello there. Working as hard as ever I see.

I called out to the Apprentice Knight

Ah, yes, welcome.

When I looked at him with Identify, I saw that he is still an Apprentice Knight, but now he was lv.5. Last time I was here he was only Lv.4, so that means that in the last five days he managed to Level Up his Job once.

May I take a moment or perhaps now is not a good time?

Oh no, by all means, please, do have a seat.

And I did just that.

So, what can I help you with today?

Actually, last night when I was out on the town, I had a run in with some pretty shady guys. I think they might have been Bandits.

I took out the Intelligence Cards of the Bandits I defeated and handed them over to the apprentice Knight.

Bandits, you say?

Yes. They were the ones who attacked me first so I had no choice but to defend myself. They probably took me for an easy prey since Im still relatively new to the city, but I managed to turn the tables on them.

I exclaimed somewhat proudly. That was my plan here: to make myself look like a capable guy who could stand his ground even when faced with the enemies such as Bandits. As to whether or not this plan will work, I guess we shall see, but judging by the fact that the Apprentice Knight smiled faintly when he heard me say that, I think he successfully bought my story. Or at least thats what I want to believe.

I understand. Can I see your Intelligence Card?

O course. Here you go.

I placed my left hand in front of the knight. After he confirmed my identity, he said that hes going to run a check on the Cards belonging to the Bandits and told me to wait for a few minutes as he disappeared deeper into the building. And he did so without asking pretty much any questions at all, which is a huge success in and out of itself. Alright, so far, so good. Now lets just wait and see if we can keep it up. Eventually the Apprentice Knight came back with a pouch of coins. The beautiful Female Knight came together with him.

Weve confirmed everything we needed to confirm. The owners of those Intelligence Cards were Bandits without a shadow of a doubt. Two of them had a bounty placed on their heads, so youll be getting the prize money for getting rid of them.

Without any further comments he handed me the money pouch, so I took it and left the guardhouse. They didnt even want to hear about the details such as where the battle took place, what happened to the rest of the bodies. It was exactly the same as the last time: confirmation, handing of the money and thats it. I was once again reminded just how horrible the treatment of the outlaws seems to be in this town, and who knows if its not like that in this entire world? But since I cant do anything to change that (and I dont even know if Id want to change that) I guess theres no use thinking about it. What I can do now, is to go and count how much of the prize money I have obtained, and be glad that this whole event went much smoother than I have initially expected it to go. I quickly moved to some shaded place and looked inside the pouch. How much gold and silver coins have I got this time?

After confirming that the pouch contained more than seven gold coins, I felt a sense of satisfaction and unconstrained joy surging in my chest. If I add those to the 33 gold and 228 silver coins that are already in my possession, it will be more than enough for me to finally buy Roxanne!

Returning back to the main street, I made my way towards the Slave Merchants shop with incredibly light steps. These last five days have been filled with nothing but stress, tension and uncertainty, but soon it will be all over. But the closer I got to the shop, the more my heart was being filled with nervousness and anticipation. You cannot feel relax just yet, Michio! There is still one last hurdle for you to jump over. I have to make sure that this whole transaction is legit, and Alan the Slave Merchant wont just run away with my money after I hand it over to him.

Its Michio. Id like to have a word with mister Alan. Could you please get him for me?

Finally, I arrived at the shop and asked the clerk who opened the door to get Alan-san for me.

Please wait here. Master Alan will be with you shortly.

I passed through the room next to the entrance sat in the waiting room. I also summoned Durandal and placed it on my waist. Normally I would have kept it hidden, but in this case, it might be better to present myself with the most expensive looking equipment got so that the Slave Merchant will know that I absolutely mean business, even if I cant exactly tell if Durandal is all that gorgeous-looking. Also, its going to be my countermeasure against any attempts at robbing me of my hard-earned 40,000 Nar. But for the time being, lets try to improve his image of me as much as possible, and maybe Ill get on the list of his best customers, or something along those lines. To that end, maybe I should have worn something a little more extravagant than a simple Leather Armor?

Im sorry for the wait, oh most esteemed customer!

Alan -san has finally come to greet me.

No worries.

Since youve come here, then am I correct in assuming that you have all of the necessary funds?

Of course.

Then please, come with me.

Alright.

And so, he guided me to the room I have visited twice in the past. This will be my moment of truth.