It was almost certain that this crook had exploited Sadeena’s request and intentionally pushed the prices of the village slaves up. In that case, if we took care of the ringleader, then the skyrocketing prices should settle back down, too. The phenomenon may have already gained some momentum of its own, but we had an all-star cast of underground merchants right here. Surely it wasn’t something they couldn’t handle.

“For example, you could use what happened here to go spread rumors about the Shield Hero sending assassins after people with Lurolona slaves.”

There were plenty of witnesses. I was sure the rumors would spread like wildfire.

“If you surrender and play nicely like those two merchants over there, you won’t regret it. So what do you say?”

“Fine . . . I surrender . . .”

And so, finally, the curtain fell on the underground coliseum incident. Of course, it goes without saying that the following day’s fight was essentially a throwaway match, and we ended it as soon as it started.

Epilogue: Come-On

Epilogue: Come-On

There was a total of fifteen slaves that Sadeena had been harboring. It was questionable whether we would have been able to buy that many with the prize money from the coliseum. The Lurolona slave that Raphtalia had spotted at the slave auction turned out to be among them, too, by the way. The way they told it, Sadeena had been sending one of the Lurolona slaves to the auctions, with the merchant, to buy up the other villagers. You would have to be confident about being able to identify them for that plan to work, of course. Sadeena broke off her contract, too, and was happy to be free once again.

“Alright then. Did you finish talking to them, Raphtalia?”

“Yes. They all believed me. I also told them about your territory and how we’re right in the middle of rebuilding the village there.”

“Good, good. I guess all that’s left is asking whether they want to become my slaves or not.”

“About that . . . Would you mind waiting until we take them back to the village for that?”

Hmm . . . I guess she figured that Keel and the other slaves would serve as an example, and seeing them would make the new slaves decide they wanted to become stronger of their own accord. Raphtalia was pretty clever, after all.

“That’s fine. Alright then, just ask them to join our party for now. I’ll send them back to the village with my portal skill as it refreshes.”

Under the guidance of Sadeena and Raphtalia, the fifteen slaves spent their time enjoying each other’s company as I went about returning them to their home village with my portal skill. Experiencing the portal for the first time was quite a shock, but that soon wore off.

“How about we head back for now, too? I’m exhausted, to tell the truth.”

“Agreed.”