Cold sweat began to run down the back of Xiao's neck. He hadn't realized that his uncle had already made the exchange. He had said he was going to sell it, not that he had already sold it!
"So, what is one of my slaves doing here? I don't think you came here to turn yourself in. From what I've heard, you're not the type to wait for things to happen without having a plan, or am I wrong?" The man spoke while still sitting in his chair, but you could feel the pressure he was putting on the boy. You could feel the hairs on the boy's skin standing on end.
"... Are you really going to sell me as a slave?" Xiao asked, looking at the man sitting in front of him. There was no point in being afraid or trembling now. Summoning what little courage remained in his thin body, he decided to confront the old man.
The man laughed dryly. "Why not? Children sell for a good price. They can serve many purposes, such as labor slaves for some noble merchants who want another subordinate to make more money and buy more slaves, or bed slaves for nobles so rich that they just want a different doll every day. Why wouldn't I accept this trade?"
"Because... two slaves are worth more than one, aren't they?" the boy said as he approached the table, looking directly at the man.
"...two?" The man seems to realize what this means and gives a weak smile. "Two adults don't cover the price of a child, even if you're a little skinny and may have some diseases. I'm sure a nobleman could very well send a priest to cure you of your diseases and then stuff you with food until you look presentable. Two old adults with no teeth? Do you really think that's a fair trade?" The man placed his hand on the hilt of his sword as if it were a cane, standing up and towering over the boy.
"I'm more useful working for you than being a slave to some noble out there. You'd lose a little value selling them both, but I'd make up for it in less than two years, I'm sure of it." When the man asked if it was a fair trade, he wasn't complaining, he was negotiating. The boy, who had to survive basically by negotiating with the other people who lived in the slum, managed to notice this opening in the conversation, and speaking of negotiation, he hadn't lost since the time he was tricked by a crazy guy who made him buy a rock instead of spending money on food. That episode in particular was still stuck in his head like glue.
"What? You're going to take care of the prostitutes for me? Kill the members of other gangs who show up in our area looking for trouble? Are you going to collect taxes from the residents of our area? Are you going to 'polish' my sword to survive, boy? You're not even that handsome!" Ha!" The man laughed scornfully, getting up from his chair with the help of his sword, approaching the boy and placing the sword next to him. "If you were two years older, I might "consider" putting you in my gang as a bootlicker, but you wouldn't even be good for that. What do you have to offer me that could be worth more than me selling you to some nobleman who would give me enough money to live a good life even here in the slums?
"You have a daycare center in your area."
"What?" The man looked confused for the first time, staring at the boy as if he had just seen a ghost.
"You said it's more worthwhile to sell me than to sell my uncles, but you run a daycare center two blocks west of here. If you think I'm worth that much to sell, why didn't you sell the whole daycare center?" The boy asked, looking at the man in front of him, raising an eyebrow as if he found it curious. "I'm sure you would no longer be a slum dweller if you sold so many children at once. You probably wouldn't even have to work for the rest of your life. And even so, the daycare center is still there. Why?"
"Daycare centers are the territory of the Church of the Seven Saints. I can't do that without suffering the consequences."
"That's a lie. There are no priests at the daycare center, only a nun, and you give them supplies from time to time. You don't even charge them the protection fee you charge other establishments. Or are you going to tell me that an entire daycare center, where no children have been sold in recent months, wouldn't have been an easy target for you?"
"..." The man lowered his sword, looking at the boy, trying to figure out how he knew that. Of course, he didn't charge the daycare for protection because there were several children there and few adults. Even if he did charge, he would receive almost nothing from that place, and taking care of the children, he hoped they would become members of the gang in the future, but how did a 12-year-old boy find out all this without him knowing?
Xiao had the advantage, he could see the old man's head calculating the benefits of listening to what he was saying, about the inforamation that he had shown him, the secret to a good deal is not to give the other person what they want, but to get them interested in what you have to offer!
"Their case is different from yours, they don't have parents who would sell them for money, your uncle didn't even charge me much to sell you, you know? Only about 15 gold coins, considering that I can sell you for 300 gold coins, a profit of 285 gold coins. If I were to sell your uncles, I could only sell them for 50-75 each. It's not worth it, is it?
-I wouldn't charge to sell them, so all the profit would be yours.
- Does it matter? 100 gold coins is still much less than I could get for you. The old man shakes his head, then looks at the big man beside him. This conversation is going nowhere, Caius. Take him to the other slaves. We'll try to sell him tomorrow. The old man seems to lose interest in the conversation and turns back to sit in his chair.
And there goes the advantage he had created. Don't trust children for advice on economics!
"I'm good at getting information!" The boy tries to approach the table, but the fat man grabs him by the arm and pulls him away, heading for the door. His mind is spinning, trying to remember something, when a vague idea pops into his head. It was nothing more than a gamble, but one worth taking when the other option was becoming a slave, which was a much more dangerous gamble!
"The iron turtles and blood lizards are preparing for war against you!" the boy shouted before the door was slammed shut in front of him. Caius stopped where he was, turning to his boss, not knowing what to do after the boy had dropped that bombshell in the room.
A suffocating silence filled the room. The white-haired man had his back turned, but it seemed as if his anger was radiating throughout the room, making it darker and colder. The boy held his breath unconsciously, as if trying to hide from the pressure he felt in his chest.
"Where did you hear that?" the man asked without turning around, resting one hand on the table as if to pick up a piece of paper. His tone of voice did not reveal the hatred he emanated.
"... On the way here, I saw two important members of theirs going to a bar and entering together. I'm sure that if you send someone to the Mudboat Inn now, you'll see them talking in a corner!"
"That's no proof that they're plotting something. It could just be a meeting to settle scores or something like that," the man said, turning his head slightly to the side.
"Even if it's not the first time there?" I do odd jobs for the innkeeper every week, and every week they meet in the same place and only leave after hours. Besides that..." The boy remembered earlier, the two hooded men who were exchanging a red item in that dark alley. Even though the boy tried not to look too closely, a quick glance revealed that they were also members of those gangs. one of the hooded men wore a hood with a red lizard on top, as if the lizard were hugging the man's head, while the other hooded man, even though his hood did not reveal who he was affiliated with, in the brief moment that he reached out to take the red item, it was possible to see a silver turtle tattoo on his fist. Both gangs were exchanging this valuable item, rarely used in times of peace, but for those who lived on the outskirts, where gang wars were common, Xiao knew the item well—I saw two members exchanging berserk pills in a dark alley on my way here.
Berserk pills were banned in the city because they allowed an individual to burn their own internal mana to strengthen their limbs, in exchange for losing their sanity. They were practically time bombs that gang members used on slaves and threw them into war. Even an old man could be scary using one of these, making his muscles strong, but without any rationality behind them. Those who took this pill became animals who only wanted to see blood in front of them. Blood pills were only used in large-scale wars in the slums. If two members of rival gangs were going so far as to exchange these pills in broad daylight, they were most likely already certain of what they wanted to do.
Crack! The hand that was resting on the table squeezed it so hard that part of it exploded into pieces, several pieces of wood scattered on the floor of the room, the man's hand remained intact even after breaking part of the table, the boy knew very well where that surge of superhuman strength had come from.
[mana...] It was common knowledge that mana existed. After all, everything in this world was powered by mana: humans, animals, flowers, even the elements themselves, such as earth, wind, water, and fire. Everything was made of mana, without exception, but only those who had challenged the divine tower had the power to modify and use mana as a tool.
"... Call Bereta, tell her to come quickly, leave the boy..." The man picks up the wine glass and, instead of pouring it into a cup as Caius had done before, he takes a huge gulp while sitting in his chair, placing his free hand on his head as if fighting a headache.
Caius immediately lets go of the boy and runs off noisily down the hallways. Xiao doesn't dare approach the man, who doesn't seem to be in the mood for conversation, so he simply stood by the door, rubbing his arm, now red after being squeezed by Caius. He was trying to pull as much information as possible from his head, trying to think of a way to be useful to that man, his freedom, and now that he had dropped this bombshell on him, perhaps even his life depended on it.
Caius returned quickly, bringing with him a prostitute with curly brown hair, slightly taller than Xiao, with sweet light brown eyes that looked like melted chocolate. Her body was slender, but nothing too provocative. She seemed to have had time to change her clothes to see the boss, as she wasn't wearing the revealing dresses that the others were wearing in the brothel. She wore a simple red dress without embellishments, but one that knew how to enhance the charm of her body just right. She seemed nervous, probably because she had never come to see the boss before.
"Did you call me, boss?" Did I do something wrong?"
"No, do you know the mud boat? The inn?" the man asks, looking at her with a cold stare.
The girl swallows hard and says timidly, "Yes... the girls and I usually stay close to there at night to get some customers. I know where it is, and some customers have already invited me to serve them inside." She says, taking one of his arms with one hand, as if she doesn't like talking about it.
"Okay," the man looks directly at the boy, "what were the men you saw at the inn like, boy? For your own good, it's better if they're still there..."
"...a man with a red lizard tattoo on his face, he had a dirty iron tooth in his mouth, a man with a turtle tattoo on his right arm, with a small head, strong, he had green clothes with details that made him look like a turtle shell."
The man turns back to Bereta and gives a threatening smile. "Yes, I want you to find out if these men are really at the inn. If they are, come back here immediately and report to me."
"Yes, sir! Right away!" The girl was trembling. She turned quickly and started running toward the stone corridor that led to the exit.
"As for you, boy, you're not leaving here until this situation is resolved. Take him to a room and lock him in there." The man stood up, picked up his sword, and headed for the door. "Call my men. I'm thinking of painting some houses with blood tonight."
Caius smiled mockingly, seeming excited by the idea. "Oh yes, sir, I'll inform our men that we're going to have quite a party tonight! With looting included!" Ah, how I miss the days when I was a pirate... Caius laughed and pushed the boy toward the door, taking him to an empty room with the number 7 above the door. After the boy entered the room, he heard the door lock behind him. There were no windows, but there was a lamp attached to the wall, just like in the boss's room, lighting up the room. He could only see a clean blue bed. Even without windows, the room seemed cool and well ventilated. There was only one door behind the boy. He approached the bed and sat down on it. he had never felt anything so soft before, maybe only when he lay down in the snow that was on the lawn near the dead tree behind his house, but since he wasn't dressed for the cold, he quickly got up when he started shivering, but this bed was the softest thing he had ever felt in his life, without a doubt.
-...- The boy couldn't close his eyes, he tried his best. During all the years he had been doing odd jobs, he ended up becoming an informant without having to think too much about it. People needed information, he went and got it. At first, people didn't take him seriously because of his age, but as soon as they discovered that the information he gave was accurate, rumors began that he was a gossip. He hated this rumor. He had tried to clear his name of this several times, all in vain, because he was practically the only person in the slum who consciously worked with this. People didn't seek out this information before; they simply heard people saying something and repeated it as if it were a river. Not him. He liked to know the reason behind things. When someone said something to him, he was meticulous enough to never believe them, and always try to confirm for himself whether what they said was true or not. This behavior earned him the nickname "gossip," because in addition to listening to what people said, he also sought out the source.
Time passed, and passed, and passed... the lamp eventually went out, but he didn't care. He was staring at the ceiling. Surprisingly, it was impossible to hear the moans of other customers inside that room. The boy closed his eyes, and before he knew it, he had fallen asleep, completely sprawled on the bed. he didn't hear the men running through the corridors carrying weapons and the buzz that was building outside that room.
"I was off today, does anyone know what happened?" a teenager asked nervously to a man in front of him who looked only a few years older than him.
"I just heard that the boss is throwing a party today, that's why he called everyone," the man said with a sigh as he picked up a small sword and placed it at his waist.
"Ah, but if it's a party, why did they tell us to arm ourselves?" the teenager asked with doubt on his face.
"Idiot, if the boss said he's throwing a party, it can only mean one thing," the man turned to the boy who was picking up a small shield and holding it awkwardly in one hand, while holding a dagger with the dexterity of a dead cat in the other.
"What?" the young man asked with a smile, thinking it was a party to celebrate something.
"... Do you like the color red, kid?" The boss is going to take everyone to the blood lizard barracks to kill everyone there. You'll be so covered in blood that in two years, you'll still have blood in your ears, that is, if you survive!" The veteran laughed loudly, throwing his head back, then left, leaving the boy desolate, alone with his shield and dagger.
"...but I left my dog alone at home today..." The boy followed dejectedly in the direction all the other gang members were going, wondering if his dog would be able to escape from his house if he died that night.