...So listless. And I have no idea why. It would seem that I actually handled all the outstanding issues. Well, the situation in Grenwille is still going on, but we're there mostly as moral support to Lemand now, then anything else. Elaine, much to my amusement, turned out to be a member of Newspaper Club and gleefully informed Newspaper Gals that the cure for consumption is in process of being vetted on the first patient. I'm also amused by the fact she cited Lemand as the principal inventor of this, though my and Moon Unit's names crop up too. Not sure if it is her idea of being petty or that's how she genuinely views the distribution of labor, but her report dovetails with my plans perfectly, so I smile and confirm to MeeMee, LeeLee and DeeDee that yes indeed, that report is entirely accurate and sure, Lemand will be writing a treatise on methods and spells used to achieve the results and yes, the treatise will be copied and presented to the court, temple and medics as soon as it is finished and polished.
So, to alleviate my doldrums, I throw a bit of pizza party at my dorm room. Girls only. My wives are obviously invited (Bridgit uses me as a conduit to temporarily bamf Moon Unit back to dorms), Rafiqa and Selene show up in the middle of preparations, and the Newspaper trio come in right as we're ready to camp down and party. I have a bit of entertainment planned, while we are at it. It's been in my plans for a while to figure out the magical equivalent of TV, and I'm going to show off my newest prototype. No network to run it off from, obviously, but I did try to project some of my memories of cartoons, and it came out even better than I expected. So this evening, we're going to be entertained by assorted animals of various anthropomorphisation acting goofily for our amusement. But that's for later. For now, we're all set around the table, eating pizza and chatting.
"So what will be the next grand adventure?" - Selene asks suddenly.
"What do you mean?" - and I'm honestly not sure where she's going with this. Grand adventure? What?
"Oh, come on. You always have something cooking up." - she cajoles - "What is next in the plans, I wonder?"
I groan. "I'll have you know that I actually caught up on everything and fully intend to peacefully finish the term and enjoy some well-earned vacation." - I retort, rubbing my face tiredly.
"Really? That thing with consumption was the last big thing you planned?" - she teases - "Don't keep me in suspense, come on. You're planning on inventing something big again, doncha?"
"No, seriously. I sorted that one out, I dealt with the impostor, now all I plan to do is relax and pamper my faithful harem silly." - I tell her off.
"Impostor?" - Rafiqa pipes up suddenly - "Someone had the utter idiocy to try and pretend to be you?"
I pause as I suddenly realize only my wives are privy to this. Oh well.
"Shh. Don't spread it around. And... sort of?" - I admit - "I shouldn't have mentioned it, it's just a minor thing."
"Aw, come on. Tell us. That sounds like the sort of story I want to hear." - Selene insists.
Sighing, I rub my head. "Fine, fine. Nothing too exciting." - I tell them - "Basically, someone claiming to be madame Konistan had duped the scribe in Merchant Guild claiming that she was the one who opened Sweet Dream and such, and how regretful she is the registry went through before her marriage so the name on the registry is wrong. Scribe bought the lie and proceeded to cross out Alyssa Gillespie in the guild registrar and replace it with madame Konistan. Silly bint thought she's doing me a favor. This was brought up on the trip to Kraut by Marceu van der Klaas, who expressed his surprise and disdain that I would marry Konistan. Obviously, I didn't take kindly to that, we reviewed the ledgers and found the correction. Once I knew that was going on, I told everyone to be on the lookout for madame Konistan showing up. She did show up a few days later with marquis de Brege in tow, demanding to see ledgers for Sweet Dream and promising to sell the shop to de Brege. I caught them in the shop redhanded, told de Brege off, captured the impostor and stuck her in the mansion cellar to cool off. Then, me and Mihel van der Klaas went to the guild, found the guilty scribe and sorted that out. Inquisition verified all the ledgers were restored to rightful condition, and now I've interrogated the impostor herself in the morning with sir Malachi, found out what she knew, which was remarkably little, and punished both the impostor and scribe. Nothing really to write home about, just a petty con not really going anywhere."
Lily-Anne perks up. "Oh, I know about the scribe. She's going to work at my shop when it opens, right?" - she confirms.
I nod. "Well, yes." - I admit, raising my hands when everyone else begins to talk at once - "Not handling any ledgers or money, girls. Duh. She's going to be greeting people and helping them pick out the clothes, nothing more. I'm not about to trust someone gullible with any valuables."
"So what did you do with the impostor?" - she inquires - "I hope you're not going to ask me to take care of her too? Scribe I can understand, she's just a silly girl getting caught in someone's lies, but I don't want any actual criminals to be in my employ, you know?"
I shake my head. "No, no. As we were able to confirm, she signed marriage contract to Konistan when he was already dead, so... No way." - I retort - "Sir Malachi did say she's going to be an indentured servant for the rest of her life, once she's done with my punishment, provided she lives that long."
"Soo... What are you going to do to her?" - Selene inquires curiously.
"Well... Honestly, I'm planning on taking her indentured service writ to madame Cocoshon and asking if she could use another girl in her brothel." - I offer wearily - "I can't think of any place where any of us would want her, and while I'm still mad at her for giving people an idea I would even consider marrying Konistan, she didn't actually manage to do anything in the end."
"That's pretty lenient of you." - DeeDee remarks thoughtfully - "If she works diligently, she should be able to buy herself out of indenture in ten years or so. Courtesans do get a lot of presents if they are good to their clients."
"Father would've sentenced her to be fed to dragons alive, if she impersonated me..." - Rafiqa muses - "Northern laws are really kind."
I shrug. "I just want to be rid of her." - I admit quietly - "That whole mess annoyed me like no one's business."
Overall, it seems that the girls are impressed with my kindness... Except for Selene, who has.. rather much more distressed expression.
"That's not right." - she murmurs - "Alyssa, that's not right! How is that any better than selling me to Sultanate!?"
And that brings an awkward pause all around the table. I facepalm.
"Way to go, Selene." - I grumble - "Ok... I didn't want to spread this around, but I guess an explanation is a must right now. Selene is a bit of seer. Not enough to reliably forecast future events, but she occasionally does see visions about herself in one of the possible futures. The one she is talking about is one where I didn't decide I like girls and instead clung to engagement with Edward. In which I, apparently, after being thoroughly torqued off about her trying to poach my fiancee had hired a bunch of thugs to kidnap her from Academy and take her to Mersaille to be sold to Oijan merchants as a slave. Obviously, this is not a future that can happen now, given that I fully endorse Edward's engagement to Selene."
Selene is working her mouth like a fish. She apparently forgot about the fact no one else knows about transmigration, and is currently having a bit of cognitive dissonance. Thankfully, my explanation is long enough for her to reengage her mental gearbox.
"Yes! And that was horrible!" - she proclaims - "Look, I get it. She tried to steal from you, a lot. And you are very sore about her petty shit giving people wrong impressions about you. But when all is said and done, you did put an end to it before she actually got away with anything, right? Isn't it too much to put her up for legal rape in perpetuity?"
"Courtesans are actually a pretty respectable profession, and I doubt she has any issues with whoring, given that she agreed to marry a dead man, alright!?" - I snap back angrily, closing my eyes as I finally realize what was bothering me. Selene IS right, it's going a bit too far. I am justified in putting madame Konistan to labor for her transgressions, but putting her to stud is excessive by far.
I take a couple of deep breaths to calm down, and mentally rejigger the situation. I already told Malachi I'm going to give her to the brothel. But I didn't specify it would be as a courtesan. Taking one last deep breath, I look up, into Selene's eyes. "Alright. Fine... Let's amend this, then. I will curtail her indentured service as owed to me to ten years. I will pass her to madame Cocoshon, I already told that much to sir Malachi and he put it to record. But, I will give her a clear stipulation that madame Konistan is to pick on her own if she wants to be a courtesan or if she prefers to work her crime off as a scullery maid in the brothel. Does that satisfy your sensibilities?"
"That's practically letting her go free!" - Lily-Anne objects - "Besmirching a noble name deserves a rebuke!"
I raise my hands in the air. "Look." - I tell everyone - "When all is said and one, I just want her gone. Selene is right about one thing, it's not up to me to force someone into sex. So I'm going to pass her on to madame Cocoshon with clear instructions to let her choose if she wants to atone with her hands or with her cunt, and on that note, I am washing my hands clear of her. Whatever she does with her life from now on is of no concern to me, lest she crosses my path with hostile intentions again."
"...If she gets to pick, then fair enough." - Selene offers slowly - "Sorry."
I chuckle and lean over the table to ruffle her and Lily-Anne's hair in the same time.
"Hey, that's what the friends are for." - I offer, sitting back - "It actually bothered me, but I couldn't figure out why until Selene pointed out the whole forcing to sex part."
Lily-Anne pouts at me. "You're far too kind, Alyssa." - she grumbles - "If it was me who was impersonated, my father would have ordered her whipped raw in the public square and thrown into the moat."
She shakes her head and smiles at me. "But then again, you is... well, you." - she proffers - "If you're fine with just that... But this madame Konistan better remember your mercy for all of her life."
I suddenly perk up as something else occurs to me. "Gah, I almost forgot!" - I yelp - "Moon Unit, I apologize for the hassle in advance, but... I sort of advertised your copy machine to the Merchant Guild? And they would want to commission a bunch. So, uh... Once we officially return from Grenwille, we will probably have to see about setting you up with a proper workshop and labor to produce them. I'll help and cover the expenses, obviously. Oh, and we need to visit Merchant Guild to register you... And Lily-Anne, you need to come with us too, so we could get the paperwork on your shop rolling... And Roxolane, you too, because we need to properly register your portals and prepare licensing because dwarves are going to need paperwork come in before long and ... Augh, Selene, WHY!?"
Honestly, Selene is very much a complete and utter dimwit.
No, the punishment is not too much. In fact, it is very lenient. "Madame Konistan" knew the risks very well and still decided to take them. Whatever punishment she receives is entirely her own god damn fault.
That does not address the fact that Alyssa herself is closer in mentality to Selene then to the expected mores of this world. Right now, she was angry, but she WILL regret the decision later, once she thinks about it with clear head, because it DOES push on her own issues a bit.
So, well... While Selene by the measure of this world is a bleeding heart hippie, in this particular case her piping up did save Alyssa some entirely unnecessary self-inflicted headache later.
Nah, she's a bleeding heart hippie by our world standards as well. She complains and pulls out morality cards left and right while not putting in even a minuscule effort to try and fix the root issue.
It's the hypocrisy born out of ignorance and misguided feeling of moral superiority that I can't stand.
@Angry_Clown She`ll get better. Marginally. ^_^
I needed someone to be morality pet, and Selene fits the bill best.
So she's undoing the curse on an entire country where i assume there are still plenty of innocent who are defenseless against wildlife and you can't just rely on a random husk to help? Or something about the people she drove insane from the teleport and then shrugged off with 'eh, i'll just give them a focus'? How doublecrossing is bad, and eating the people you doublecross doublebad? "We don't approve of waterboarding"? "s*x bad, vore good"? =P It rather sounds like Selene's issue is 'but this time it was a girl!'
Meh, modern morality was abandoned looong ago, just have one of the wives police the morality, and leave the bleeding heart to think about the bad ends she should be facing otherwise =P
@Ferreae Not correct, there. Any situation where there`s not enough bees to drive off hostile wildlife is also a situation where using weapon is not going to be dangerous. Well, aside from obvious "gonna fight that dangerous predator" dangerous.
As for the situation.. Selene is objecting because of her transmigrant moral norms which she still holds and cherishes. Alyssa agrees with her because this particular situation bothered her, and Selene`s objection clued Alyssa in on WHY it bothered her - because Alyssa, when all is said and done, has huge issues with slavery and rape, and while she can overlook either of those when angered, she is going to be bothered about enabling either once she cools down. So she agrees with Selene and adjusts the punishment to avoid triggering her own issues.
Besides, there is a little tidbit she didn`t clue Selene in on.
Malachi DOES note that once Alyssa`s punishment is over, "madame Konistan" is going to be persecuted by the kingdom law. And marriage, due to nobility bloodlines is very SRSBZNS in the setting, so her punishment for THAT is still a lifetime of indentured servitude. So Alyssa putting a time limit on her own punishment means that the moment "madame Konistan" steps out of the brothel, she is going to be seized by guards and remanded to whatever labors kingdom decides are most appropriate for her. Her honestly best chance is to agree to be a courtesan and willfully prolong the indentured service given by Alyssa until she dies.
She’s a girl with modern sensibilities. It is a valid point that is neither inherently right or wrong.
In any case, Selene reminded about that MC does have some things to do after all. Better to be busy than bored I guess
I mean, for modern account, identity fraud coupled with normal fraud would be harshly punish, but clearly not to the extent of passing the rest of your life in a brothel. I doubt that it would even got you prison for life.
@Dradel Depending on the amount of money that would be affected, the depth of damage done to standing of person impersonated and other factors. For small scale cons, anywhere from two to seven years in prison is possible. For large scale cons, five to fifteen is more likely.
More on topic, cases where monetary damages were caused are usually punished by garnishment of wages. Which means the person punished can only keep enough of their wages to address their basic needs, the rest goes towards restitution. This can easily last the whole life, if the crook managed to steal and squander a lot.
@Cytotoxin So i also gonna join the rest and complain about Selene, but for a different reason.I always say that the most disgusting thing for me is rape and child abuse as a sort of punishment. So no matter what i disagree whit her being forced to prostitution. Torture, killing, slavery as punishment i have no problem also i have no problem where she used torture to get information. My problem lies that Selene if she's not gonna change gonna influence ML to the point where she gonna trie to implement those so-called modern-day moralities and ruin her character.For now she kills when she thinks is right to kill,she use torture when she thinks it needs to be used, and even eats people. That's her character someone whit her own sens of judgment and morality why she is unique and i love her character so much because of that and also becouse she makes her own path in a Monarch system and not rely givin a f what the rest of the aristocracy say about it.But if Selene does not change her influence can also change MC and everyone around here like in most stories as the Marry su type character where mc would make mistake because th conflicting morality that can cost here much.Thats why i thing Selene needs to go throu some character growth fast so this would not happen.Maybe im reading to much to it but ho knows
And happy new year all the best in 2021
@Lord_Grimm Um. So... What exactly was the point you were making?
Yes, Selene is usually going off morals that are relevant to more advanced age. No, she`s not going to be a zealot who insists there is no other option, she is cognizant of the fact pushing too hard with unmatched morals might result in undesirable consequences. In this particular case, she speaks up both because it bothers her and because she had heard enough from Alyssa on the topic before to figure it should be bothering Alyssa too, at least once she cools down.
@Cytotoxin it is also implied that in her previous life Alyssa was almost raped so she probly would not feel good about forcing some to have sex.
@Cytotoxin
Coming from current chapters (I am re-reading this beautiful artwork... again hehe) I am surprised she didn't just eat her head, and be done with it.
@Mira_Zenon
It would be complicated and annoying to explain the "I`ll eat her head" to sir Malachi. His primary job is more or less hunting down the beings with that kinda diet, after all.
@Cytotoxin
True. But she can easily just have her "disappear," or even use some of her biomass to make a fake body to "die tragically." She has many ways to cover up her diet in my opinion. But, I doubt she'd be fine with that in the end though, if simply sending her to be a s*x slave sets her off tilter. At least at this point in the story anyway.
@Mira_Zenon
Actually... Alyssa has REALLY skewed morals in that regard. She would have killed the conwoman without batting an eye ...if she was NOT volcanically angry about the con giving people an impression she had whored herself to Konistan.
To give you some idea just how badly skewed Alyssa`s moral compass is... in her regard, simply stealing a thing from someone is worse than killing that someone and taking the desired thing from the corpse.
The primary consideration Alyssa has for "severity of sin" is the amount of possible consequences she personally would need to deal with. As such, murder is something Alyssa resorts to very easily, because dead men tell no tales and concoct no revenge schemes.
She is cognizant of that and aware that it`s drastically different from the "normal" mindset, and consciously works on minimizing the bodycount she leaves in her wake because overindulgence with final solutions tends to create incorrigible repercussions.
@Cytotoxin
True enough. Good thing for the world too. Because the only ones who can even say "No" to her, are the literal gods lol. Oh, and maybe Cy. But let's be real. Cy will just join in, and smile and laugh at the Mother/Daughter bonding haha.
You guys are monsters!! How can a single comment chain be this long!! I gave up reading halfway of this comment chain can't believe you all read it and replied with long ass notes... And I'm pretty sure u were talking about laws and shit
@Cytotoxin I agree with you, most westerners would be okay with indentured servitude as it is effectively a "working prison sentence " but being required to be a prostitute is causing the victim to have been subject to sexual trafficking which is a very serious crime. While her morality is warped to some extent by her being an eldritch horror, it is clear she abhors slavery, and in particular, sexual slavery like the Sultanate
@Cytotoxin was she not offered to be a maid at the house, she did sill have a choice even without this right?
@fartdog1234 Would YOU want a domestic servant that was already on the record for attempting identity theft? One aimed at you, no less?
No, initially Alyssa was angry enough to just toss the impostor at madame Kokoshon and forget she ever existed. After Selene interjects, Alyssa cools down enough to make it a clear stipulation that the impostor can decide between prostitution and scullery. At no point whatsoever Alyssa ever considers giving employment to the impostor in any capacity. She has more then enough warm bodies around to ever need to put up with inherently untrustworthy staff.
I’m sorry for a comment 2 years latter but this goes completely against mc’s admittedly skewed mortals, one of few things she has been shown to hate is rape, another thing being slavery. But here she tries to put a woman in a position where she is raped repeatedly(but wait, she gets paid very time she gets raped, she could run away or kill herself to escape…. If these are her options then it is rape) Selene has a proposal than gives her a reasonable choice meaning rape doesn’t happen but madame
Konistan still pays for her crimes of attempted theft(), a false marriage (wow so bad), and impersonating a noble (by far the biggest problematic thing she did)
sorry once again for this comment you will probably never see on a novel you’ve probably mostly forgotten
@Herwin haha 2 years and you still bothered to respond, that's some dedication
@Liber8T https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/002/504/879/538.jpg
@fartdog1234
@Herwin Never did things you later found dubious in a fit of rage? Alyssa is NOT a particularly calm person. A lot of things that are normally anger-inducing are rendered beneath her notice by her current circumstances, but if you find a hot spot to trigger her temper, Alyssa is notably short-fused. She does need some time to cool down and rethink things rationally after making decisions angry. Sometimes, she even had to roll things back or apologize.
To wit, if Selene was present during the interrogation and objected to what Alyssa decided, the result would be markedly different - Alyssa would just go "She`s already a whore, there`d be nothing new for her in the brothel." Notice how Malachi reacts to her decision, by the way. By contemporary sensibilities, rape is considerably narrower in scope and does not include indentured servants in consideration at all. For the duration of their indenture, they are essentially property and de jure can be "used" in any manner their superior desires. Even if they happen to die or become crippled or sustain mental damage, yes. Generally, it is considered bad tone to outright order such a person to mutilate themselves or commit suicide, but that`s pretty much it as far as protections go.
In short, by the current morals, Alyssa is showing considerable restraint - and everyone including the ill-fated madame Konistan agree on that point. Honestly speaking, being put away to brothel out of Alyssa`s eye and consideration is beyond the best option she could have hoped, were she to run in any other noble beside Alyssa. It would not be uncommon for the average aristocrat to make her serve as a footstool for the duration of her sentence - and that would be one of the milder options, too. There existed distinctly likely possibilities of simply being whipped to death or tossed into the river in a sack or just blatantly hanged at the direction of the offended noble.
Read up on medieval executions sometime - you`d be surprised on how godawful they were made and why. Hell, sometimes all it took to warrant an excruciating death was to be related to someone.
@Liber8T Sorry :(, I love reading comments and wanted to comment but yours was at the top of the page
@Cytotoxin Thanks for the reply, your detailed and reasonable comments are always nice to read, I only mentioned it because a lot of authors and anime/movies/hentai/po*n have some disgusting takes on similar situations that are just accepted.
I’ve since caught up with the story and enjoy it a lot.
@Herwin Sometimes people are dumb. Fact of life.
@Cytotoxin not sure what your talking about but since po*n was mentioned above then i say people are also kinky... Very...
@Liber8T We`re talking about... unfortunate stances on rape and misogyny that certain authors and mangakas seem to exhibit. While shying away from the topic entirely is not a sign of grand writing skills, one needs to remember that the stories ultimately exist for the readers and putting down glorifications of blatant abuse done under very flimsy justifications will definitely have it`s impact on how readers will react to the story... and what kind of people will read it.
P.S. That being said, being kinky is a wholly different concept and one I am much more comfortable with. Insofar as I am concerned, so long as everyone involved is doing so of their own volition and grasps the relevance of act to them, it`s nothing to be alarmed about.
@Cytotoxin ahem, is that so. Good to have a summarized explanation from such a long comment chain. tho I don't really mind the first part that much, cuz all in all, it's just a novel
@Liber8T A character espousing abominable opinions is one thing, an author doing the same is quite another. ^_^
@Cytotoxin ye. FBI would like to have a word with people like that
@Liber8T Doubtful. FBI rarely wants to have words with people who never set foot in USA, after all.
@Cytotoxin I meant that as a meme 🗿💀 (if you noticed then sry)
@Liber8T I realized, but... the joke is a little misaligned. Another joke in the same venue would be to call for Chris Hansen, but... we`re not exactly dealing with pederasty here.
@Cytotoxin Ur not? I thought u were cuz p*rn and kink was mentioned above
@Liber8T In this particular case, we`re griping about an unfortunate tendency among many authors to trivialize, romanticize or excuse rape and other blatantly abusive behavior. This problem is not limited to hobbyist writers either - a number of commercial projects suffer from this too. In particular, the "revenge" fiction tends to be rife with those.
To give you an example, look up Healer Redo. Main character has many legitimate grievances, that much is true. The way he goes about addressing those, however... yeah, well. Let`s just say that proverb about digging two graves if you yearn for revenge is quite appropriate there.
@Cytotoxin I read the manga of that before it was even serialised... I kinda liked it... Revenge stories are also my thing... And I thought his actions for revenge was quite appropriate, with his sanity destroyed and all..
@Liber8T There is having revenge and there is cutting off your own nose to spite your face.
Insofar as I am concerned, revenge should be, first and foremost, productive. Eye for an eye makes the world go blind - an old maxim that underlines the problem quite well. Retributive justice is flawed. Therefore, in my opinion, revenge should focus on remunerative justice. It is not just about taking something from your enemy, it`s also about getting it for yourself.
In that regard, majority of revenge stories are... not great. The revenging hero more often than not would rather burn down the kingdom than take it over, so to speak. And this, somehow, is posited as a more moral choice.
@Cytotoxin well, it seems we just have different preferences. Cuz I certainly would enjoy it more if they burn down Kingdoms.
@Liber8T Do you, now? Food for thought - vast majority of the kingdom to burn had no meaningful way to make an input on the events that led to the current situation. That`s just asking for a plucky youth to stand up against the encroaching evil... ^_^