Our little Inventor's Guild

[Mini Magi]

Life was generally... kinda good to Eria. Sure. She had her fair share of encounters with bandits, monsters, and general criminals who would have loved to kill her, eat her, rape her... or all three at the same time, but at least she was also really good at defending herself and running away. Even could afford to make a living all on her own as an inventor. And if her life taught her anything in particular, it was to take the good with the bad. Which is also why she was in a tent one would usually avoid. A slave merchant. Slavery was definitely more on the bad side, but at this point, she had little choice. She needed an assistant. A pair of extra hands to hold, move, and haul some stuff with her, and not steal from her while at it.

Eria went from person to person, each time showing them something on a small notebook, and getting similar responses every time. A few responses, although not all of them. A head shake, a wave of the hand, and a glare. Not that she cared much for the last kind of response. She was smart enough to know that these collars on them were of magical nature, and would keep all potential buyers safe. She then made it to one slave who seemed to have an eye on her for a while now. Probably due to her unusual way of looking for a slave to meet her demands. "Hey there. Got a minute? I'd like you to take a look at this and try to pronounce these, and solve those. And no rush." She raised her little notebook to him, being a bit shorter than this kinda cute blonde. 

The words on it were:
Adelhyde
Fumaric Acid
Bronson Extract 
Flanergide
Karmotrine

What she asked him to solve were:
2+5
55-27
56 / 7
22 * 22

 

[Jtcookie]

Connor was... well he was certainly doing alright for someone in his predicament. Slavery meant that he and the others would only get the bare minimum of rations and would be auctioned off or outright sold to whoever wanted them. Most slaves were either bought for one of two things. Manual labor, and to give someone a good time, the former usually happened the most, the latter, well, slaves couldn't exactly say no unlike prostitutes and such. To his sheer luck he hadn't gone through either but the stress was still taking its toll on him. It wasn't until he was approached by a woman with hair as blue as the sky that he thought he'd spend his life unsold. What confused him though was the question she was asking. Now he didn't have much of an education, but stealing documents and listening carefully to how others spoke and sounded out words gave him a good enough understanding of what she was showing him. "A-" He coughed as he tried to get the first word out.

"A-dell-hide? Fu-mar-ic acid." The third word he had heard and seen plenty of times when someone misbehaved. "Br-... Bro-..." The next word was giving him a bit of trouble, having never seen it before. "Bron-son ex...act?" he said barely getting it right, though he was already far ahead of the other slaves she had shown this paper too. The last two words however he struggled to even try to get them right and sadly pronounced them poorly. However, the numbers caused his eyes to light up briefly. "2+5. 7. 55-27." He paused to use his fingers briefly. "28. 56 divided by 7... um 8. 22 times 22..." That one he could figure out. It wasn't like the numbers he'd seen on the papers of the slavers. However, the fact that he not only could read, but do a bit of basic math was promising.

[Mini Magi]

Not to insult the others, but finally some functional gray matter! Eria gave him all the time he needed to work through the words and numbers, and while the results weren't perfect, he was way ahead of the competition. All in all, this was someone she could work with. And who knew what he would be capable of once he got some actual education too? But first of all: "I'm gonna assume you'll be better at arithmetics, but at least you try. Try to divide the words by their syllables next time you struggle with something. Like Flan-er-gide. Oh, and my name is Eria. I guess the circumstances could have been better, but nice to meet ya~" There were probably worse ways to meet anyway. Neither of them was bleeding after all. THAT was a story for another time, however. 

Before their conversation could go much further, however, another female voice chimed in. "And this one too~ He'll look lovely~" Upon turning to the source of the voice, it turned out to be a noble. Dressed in red, long blonde hair, probably just at the brink of early adulthood, with a guard in armor accompanying her every step, and keeping anyone with funny ideas at range with a halberd. The slave merchant was also following her, which meant... slave shopping. "Hold on a minute!" Eria exclaimed while stepping between them and connor. "I'm already buying this one." "Oh?" The noble turned to the merchant, a middle-aged man in a flamboyant, fur trimmed coat. "How much for this one?" "20 silver," he replied. Now confident, the noble turned back to Eria, her tone of voice posh as could be. "I offer 50 silver." Of course. She was going to outpay the competition... Or so that usually went. "60 silver." Eria replied, focused on the noble. 

"S... 70 silver"
"75 silver! "
"80 silver?"
"90 silver."

 That was definitely not something the noble was used to. To think someone could actually keep up. "I'm getting tired of this. 5 gold." That was a lot of money. Vegetables could be bought for a couple copper coins, silver coins could buy meat, clothes, even a cheap club to hit monsters with. But gold? For 5 gold, one could afford to buy a chest armor. A new one, not one that already had dents. "Your sweet behind will really work for all that money~" She was quite sure she had won. And usually she would have. But Eria, now looking tired of this situation, reached into the inner side of her jacked, took out a little pouch, and held it to the slave merchant. "20 gold, for which you will put a slave mark on him, not a collar, and I suggest you take it before I change my mind." And there was the price for a full set of new steel plate armor, or enough food for at least a couple of months. The merchant was happy, the noble shocked, and Eria was angrily sticking her tongue out to the posh cunt. No can do. There was no way the girl could justify spending so much on one slave. With a huff and puff, she left, and the merchant happily took the pouch and counted some pretty and clinky golden coins. It was a good day for him. With all that done, Eria turned to Connor who was probably quite relieved to not get anything up his butt anytime soon. "So... Guess I'll be your master... or mistress? Anyway, since you're about to get a slave mark on you, any preferred spot? You'll be the one who has to live with it after all." 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Mini Magi

[Jtcookie]

Connor honestly seemed content with being in the service of this nice lady, he had heard rumors of slaves who actually went into the service of kind masters who would treat them well, some who even worked towards freedom, of course such things were far and few between, but he felt he could trust Eria with at least treating him well. That was until the posh noble arrived. He had seen her ilk many times before, they bought slaves for the two reasons he mentioned earlier and to his shock she wanted him for the second reason. His eyes widened as they stared at the noble, fear beginning to form in them, at least until he heard Eria bid for him. His emotions swirled between relief and fear as the two seemed to outbid each other over and over again. He then heard what he thought was the final nail in his coffin. 5 gold... 5. That was far past what he always believed his worth was and he knew his fate was sealed in that moment. What life had been starting to shine in his amber eyes dulled when he heard that price.
 

But, it seemed fate had other plans in store for him as he heard Eria's final bid. 20 Gold. Though he didn't know the full worth of what that was, he knew that it was an exuberant amount compared to his starting price. When the slaver sold him, he heard her say something about a slave mark, he remembered seeing those on some slaves but didn't know what they would do. Looking up at his Mistress, he couldn't help but smile softly. When she asked him where he wanted the mark, he had to think it over briefly before he lifted up his right arm, showing how frail his body seemed after all this time. "My hand, where all can see it." He said to her hoarsely. His voice not used to being used so much in such a short amount of time. He watched as the slaver came over with some kind of ink and began to paint the symbol of a slave on his hands. Connor looked to Eria. "I am at your... service... Mistress." he said, having remembered how others had addressed their female masters before being taken away. The ink quickly dried and glowed briefly indicating that the magic in it was working. 

Taking a soft breath, Connor stood up as the slaver unlocked his chains and handed him over to Eria. He didn't know where he would be taken, but he knew that it had to be better than her, and far better than wherever that noble was going to take him.