Chapter 82 The Same End

– Bughhh.

I quickly covered my mouth, closing it shut and forced myself to swallow my own vomit… The bitter disgusting taste lingered in my mouth as my eyes also started to slowly focus back, letting me see my surroundings.

– Young master, you really don’t hold magic well do you?

Hestia asked while giving me a hand to stand up, which I took of course.

– Where are we?

Christina asked curiously. The other girls were also looking around at the dark room.

It looked like a chemistry room with the glass bottles and different kinds of equipment inside, which was still unknown to me. But I trusted Steward enough to know that these things would be safely handled by Stella who was the one mainly using this room.

Christina who was looking around very curiously, suddenly gasped as she looked at the strange equipment with a strange glint in her eyes.

– Wow! That’s an incus modifier! And that’s a high grade stylus for inscribing! You even have a rank 9 arcane table and more too! These kinds of equipment are out of the world, you can’t own them without the council’s approval. Some are even shut off from the public…

Christina suddenly looked at me very confused and curious. But by her attitude, I could guess that the equipment was very valuable; that’s why she got so excited. But for me, the equipment was just something that came along with the house; maybe this kind of equipment was promised to me with the agreement Steward and I had but I wasn’t sure as I said.

– I don’t know what these things are, sorry. They are actually things my little sister uses.

The girls who were standing here suddenly swiveled their heads toward me, a bit wide eyed by my statement for some reason. Only Hestia who was standing by my side was alright as she just snickered with a knowing smile on her face. The little girl who was next to me suddenly grabbed onto my waist with a slight frown.

I stroked her head for a second to calm her down while I made a wry smile and turned toward the others. With a clear look, I said:

– By the way, welcome everyone. This is my home so I hope you’ll like it!

Seeing me say it like this with a gentle smile on my face, the other girls also felt a bit more at ease as they looked at each other and straightened themselves. The request was partial success. It was unknown to me what would happen next, if I would die or not. But I knew one thing about my current situation…

– Seems like I am in need of opening a shop.

I muttered quietly. I observed everyone around me group up with each other, muttering and whispering to one and another with a worried or anxious look on their face. It was understandable, they didn’t know what they were stepping into and neither did I. But I had an idea which could relatively benefit all of us at once.

With that rounded up and out of the way, I told everyone to follow me to the second floor. Christina seemed really entranced by the equipment, almost drooling but she caught herself and nodded to my words, sorting everyone and following me downstairs.

– Hestia, how far can your healing powers go?

I asked Hestia while we were walking down the stairs. She never left my side, making me almost feel like she was always there for some reason. Maybe I just got used to it?

Reacting to my question, Hestia glanced at the little girl that was in my embrace and a bit sleepy. She didn’t hear what I said because my words were too quiet for a normal human to hear, but for Hestia it was a piece of cake of course. She smiled with delight as she said in a sweet tone:

-I can heal away the external and internal wounds with my divine flame; I can also cure diseases and make the scars disappear. I am not sure about the eye though… It is most likely that I can’t bring it back since it was destroyed already.

Her quiet words made a small sting appear in my heart but at the same time, it gave me a lot to be thankful for. Hestia indeed had such capable healing powers… Even though she couldn’t recreate a lost limb, she was still very capable making me glad that I had evoked her accidentally.

With the conversation over, we all descended to the second floor which was met with a pleasant sound as everyone looked around a bit curious. The house wasn’t as large as the other buildings I have seen, which were basically mansions, but it was still a large 3 story house with numerous rooms. The space here was also more comfortable to me as I disliked large hallways.

– Everyone, can you please go to the end of the corridor? The first door to the left is the kitchen and you can eat something if you want. Anything is fine, I don’t mind. I will join you after I set this little one somewhere comfortable. And by the way, does anyone have any injuries or diseases? If so please say it now so Hestia can heal it quickly.

The question in hand was met with shaking heads and small no’s from everyone. Christina also invoked a vision spell and looked at everyone just to be sure about it, which made me grin for a second about her security measures. In the end, she reported that it was indeed clean and that no one was hurt, making me sigh out of relief. I then told them to move on, which they did in a very formal and orderly manner.

Even though everyone was tense while walking inside of this home of mine that wasn’t really comparable to the mansion’s they were in previously, they still acted in utmost carefulness and respect even though they were secretly glad to be here. Some of them even tried to hide the small grins on their faces.

Hestia and I also started to move on as I lead the way towards a different room where I was going to place the girl at… my room to be precise.

-So what are you going to do next? Excluding the child in your hands, I am doubting that you would need 12 maids to take care of your house. I even noticed that the building has a mass cleaning enchantment which cleans the dust, air and dirt inside making maids generally useless…

Hestia said as we arrived at my room. It was big but not too much as it had everything you need to live and more things which weren’t really important. I placed the sleepy white haired girl onto a chair while answering her question.

-I have something in mind, but that will mostly depend on the girls. It may even be that some of them would want to meet their families again. But seeing that they still had limits to their now partial “freedom,” one of them being to stay in a set amount of distance to me, it would be obviously hard to do. And on top of that…

I thought for a second as I remembered the state they were in, the eyes they showed me when we met the first time…

-It is most likely that they have people who they can’t return to or don’t want to return to; reasons to stay rather than leave; or things that they can’t stand… you know what I mean.

Hestia grunted in agreement as she now focused on the little girl with white hair that was unsteadily sitting on the chair. A white flame ignited in Hestia’s eyes as she began her work on her. I left them at that point as to not distract Hestia from her work. I walked towards the kitchen where the other girls were, smelling a very nice smell which had strong pleasant aroma to it. As I walked into the kitchen, some of the girls were sitting at the table while the others were preparing to make some food on the grill which looked very appetizing.

(Grrr)

A loud sound could be heard making everyone stop what they were doing and look at me who was standing next to the door. I felt my face flush up for a moment as I realized that the sound was actually…

-Master Dawn, I am preparing some eggs and bacon. Do you want to sit and eat with us?

One of the girls behind the kitchen asked holding a pan while grilling some eggs on it. My grumbling stomach had everyone grinning at me for some reason as I kindly accepted her offer with a nod. I sat down at the end of the table surrounded by the girls who were a bit distracted by me. I heard small whisperings around the table about not sure how the girls should now act in front of me. So, I was the first to react to melt the ice and turned towards Angela who was sitting next to me. She was a bit too nervous while fidgeting with her hands but when she saw me smile at her, for some reason she couldn’t help but stare at me as I asked her:

-So what is your hobby?

Angela was surprised and grew red quickly and started stuttering, trying to answer my question.

-I… I like to read actually… that’s the only thing I do…

I smiled and said:

-Me too, what kind of books do you read?

-Really? Oh… ehm, mostly literature or romance…

The other girls perked their ears up as they listened to my and Angela’s exchange. It started a bit slow but progressed faster as Angela started to ease up a bit, letting her words come out easier and speaking more freely. Our conversation even caught the attention from the rest of the girls, slowly pulling them into our chat. Lastly, it ended up with everyone introducing themselves more properly, speaking about themselves and what they did before they got here. This allowed me know that we had people with different kinds of professions, some even with magical knowledge like alchemy and circle engineering. Others were undecided as for what they wanted to become since they were still too young to have properly decide.

The oldest in this group was a woman who was 21 years old, who was also the cook for this lunch. She was also the one who had asked me to join the table, her name was Elisabeth Morgan. And the reason she ended up in this place was because she got caught in the middle of her work when she was in the Central. It turns out that Elisabeth was actually an assassin before she was a slave. Coincidentally, her second profession was that of a cook, explaining her well versed experience with the kitchen. It also showed off her skills with the blade which looked fairly threatening in her hands.

Her beauty and skill had caught the attention of the slavers when she was caught, which was when she was 18 years old. She ended up in slavery for 3 years until I came along.

Her story was very interesting as I found out that Elisabeth didn’t have any parents and that she mostly grew up in the Central. She learned her cooking from an old man who also happened to be a great cook and an assassin who taught her his trade. After all, for someone to survive in that place, you would need exceptional skills and the man seemingly taught her very well. Elisabeth talked fondly about the old man even though he sounded very strict; he seemed to have cared a whole lot about her as she did for him…

There can be some good memories in that place huh… Thinking like this a bit surprised, I also listened to the story that the others spoke about themselves. Most of the girls were enslaved for about 3 to 5 years and Angela seemed to be the only person who was enslaved the longest which was 7 years. Sarah, the raven haired little girl only recently got enslaved as she was sold by her parents which she once told me when we met in the corridor.

Angela was the daughter of 2 slaves, logically becoming a slave herself. She wore the iron collar when she turned 8 years old, which was the requirement to wear it sealing the deal and being raised as livestock. She never saw her parents or knew them; she just heard some rumors about them and nothing else. Overall, Angela was raised to be taught all kinds of different things to raise her assets and then be sold some day for her worth. This all sounded really messed up and I could see that everyone agreed with that fact, even though no one said it out loud.

Angela was a cheerful girl, raised strictly but not beaten or physically abused. She was conditioned mentally and taught that being a slave was the best thing in the world. She did believe that at first but quickly grew out of it as she realized the depth of her situation. She also yearned for freedom someday, but without a chance as she was guarded heavily. She wasn’t allowed to leave the premise at any circumstance to protect her from any danger. Angela was very poor when it came to the knowledge of the opposite sex, she had never communicated that much with them and because of that, she started to get interested between the relationship of men and women. This was due to the romance genre she read, which was a bit comical but cruel and pitiful at the same time.

In a sense of meaning, Angela was somewhat the young lady from the mansion thinking about the treatment she got since she was young. She had even undergone combat training which wasn’t a lot, but Elisabeth commented that Angela was truly skilled in hand to hand fighting and sword play. This made Angela blush from the compliment as she denied it humbly.

Regarding the rest of the girls, they also told good stories which were drowned in tragedy and other happenings. We had already come to the point in where we talked freely about ourselves without feeling ashamed about. The girls pretty much all knew each other quite well but they didn’t know me, but they trusted me enough to know such things about themselves for some reason. I didn’t object and listened to every one of their stories which were sometimes brief while other times long. They came from different places such as houses with prestige, or simply from the streets. But what they all shared was the same tragic end as they get caught by the slavers to begin their new life as a slave, finally ending up here. This same ending for everyone was probably something that kept them together.

Even Christina talked about herself again, but this time she revealed that the person who had sent her to the Central was actually a person she had loved before. He wanted her dead because of a power struggle in her family, which sounded very ironic. I could tell she was hurt for being reminded by that so I quickly dropped the issue and asked if the food was finished yet. The reply came with a smiling yes as Elisabeth started serving her bacon and eggs with a few pieces of toast. The meal was set for everyone and the smell was godly as the bacon mixed with the eggs, creating a pleasant smell.

-…

As I was about to bite into the food, I noticed that everyone wasn’t eating at all and just staring at me for some reason. It was really odd, making me ask what the problem was. Christina was quick and answered my question with a troubled smile on her face.

-Ahh… You see Master Dawn; slaves usually don’t eat with the master on the same table. We sit on the ground and eat from a bowl without utensils… We also only eat after the master finishes eating so we don’t gross him or her out…

I raised my eyebrows at Christina’s explanation for a bit, looking at everyone else. I understood why they weren’t eating so I just raised my hands for everyone and said:

-I don’t have to seriously tell you to eat every time I sit down, do I?

My question in turn was met with a few embarrassed looks and scratching heads. Even Christina made an awkward laugh but then the sound of eating could be heard as Angela who was sitting by my side used her fork to eat the bacon swallowing it with a slight grin.

Everyone seeing this also started to stop being shy or respectful as they slowly ate their food on the dish. Growing out of old habits will be tough for them right?

Sarah, who was on my other side also started to eat nonchalantly and quiet about the current situation. She was concentrating more on the food that was in front of her than the others. She put a whole grilled egg inside of her small mouth before making funny noises as she slightly burned herself and also dirtying her mouth, making me wipe it off with a tissue. My movement was slightly instinctive because I had Stella who I always did it on. Doing this with Sarah might have made her slightly uncomfortable but surprisingly, she didn’t resist and stayed still when I finished cleaning her. She continued eating afterwards but still kept a few glances over me, sometimes pulling my arm for me to clean her up…