Having rumors circulate about a hero loading up a bunch of slaves into a carriage and taking them away somewhere would be bad, so it made sense to leave during the night. I originally thought Filo might have trouble seeing in the dark, but her vision worked just fine at night, so there would be no problem with making our move then.

“Understood.”

I nodded to the queen upon hearing her response and we headed out of the castle and toward the slave trader’s tent.

The slave curse preparations had been completed and the slaves were trembling with apprehension. I figured now was a good time to be stern with my orders. Raphtalia had started out cowardly in the beginning, and Filo had been selfishly obstinate. I was getting a whole bunch of new slaves all at once, so I planned on making good use of my past experiences.

“From now on, you’re all my slaves. But don’t worry. I won’t do anything terrible to you—as long as you do what you’re told. That said . . .”

I couldn’t make it sound like I was too lenient or they would take advantage of me.

“I can’t stand laziness. If you’re not a hard worker, I’ll sell you off without a second thought. Don’t you forget that!”

The slave trader gave an order to his assistant, who then rang something that looked like a gong just as I finished my little spiel. No one asked for that! Look, now the slaves were cowering in fear. No, wait . . . That was probably my fault.

“Ahhh!”

Nice! There’s the trepidation I was looking for!

“Oh, jeez. There you go again, causing misunderstandings . . .”

“Fehhh . . .”

“Also, I plan to continue peddling, so I’ll need some monsters that can be used for transport.”

“I’d be happy to give you some filolials! Yes sir!”

“No, not just filolials. I’ll take one of those, but I want some different kinds of monsters, too.”

“You don’t like filolials?”

“I want monsters that are easier to handle so that the slaves can use them, too. Also, something that can work the land.”

Aside from the usual horses and filolials, I had seen plenty of monsters that resembled cows and caterpillars pulling carts around the town. Besides, if I raised a bunch of filolials, I might very well end up with a whole crowd of Filos. I could hear the chorus of Filos all shouting . . .

“Maaasteerrr! We’re hungry!”

Just the thought of it sent shivers down my spine. Oh god, spare me!

Supposing I were going to raise more filolials, it’d have to be one at a time. I had to be especially careful when dealing with filolials. It might have made sense from a fighting power perspective, but we were still just laying the foundations. With that monstrous appetite, raising more than one filolial at a time would be difficult. Even if we did have the Spirit Tortoise meat, it’s not like we could just hang around the castle town all day feeding it to them.