Without any progress, I stopped combing through my memory and started to piece together as much as I could about myself and my situation. Learning about the world, other than the information I needed to survive, was useless for me in my current situation. I had to learn quickly about the things here. I looked around to find someone I could talk to. I remembered I had seen an elderly woman to my left when I had briefly scanned the room previously.
I turned towards where the old woman was located and found her in the corner of the room staring outside through the only window.
Scars that covered her bony body peeked through her worn-out tattered one-piece dress. Her unkempt hair sprawled in every direction around her. Her wrinkles and tanned skin, compared to the others, showed she was the oldest and most experienced here.
I tried to stand up to walk to her, but the excruciating pain returned to me.
I groaned in pain and almost wanted to give up on my plans. If I were to give up, I would have to accept my fate as a slave for life. Mustering all my strength, I started to slowly drag myself to the old woman. After what seemed like hours of painstaking crawling, I managed to reach the woman’s side. The woman noticed me crawling to her but she remained silent.
“Hello Madam, I’m Rose. Would you mind if I sit and talk with you?” I carefully asked her, trying not to anger her in any way.
“...”
The old woman did not reply back and looked at me for a minute before turning her head with a “hmph”. Seeing her being cold, I instantly knew that it would take time to gain her trust. I pushed myself up to lean against the wall while recuperating my strength. Tired from crawling with my beaten body, I drifted into sleep.
When I woke up, I found myself lying on the lap of the old woman. Surprised, I hurriedly rose up and felt the pain returning again. Ignoring the pain, I sat awkwardly beside her. As I think of something to start the conversation, I heard a soft voice besides me.
“You are awake? You should be careful with your injury. You were beaten up pretty badly last night.”
I was speechless from the surprise that she talked to me. I realized that she was looking out for me even though I was a stranger to her and thus, thanked her. I once again introduced myself to her before I tried to converse with her, hoping that she would be willing to talk to me more. I prayed internally that her first sentence to me would not be her last.
“Thank You, Madam… ermm..”
I was flustered because I still did not know her name or a way to address her. After a moment of silence, she replied back without making eye contact with me while still looking outside.
“... Ann… You can call me Ann.”
“Ah, yes! Thank you, Ann. My name is Rose. If you don’t mind me asking, what will happen to us?”
“You are new here, correct? Tell me what you think?”
She asked me without directly responding to me. I knew that I had become a slave, but I had to ask about the slave system first so I promptly replied, “We are slaves in our holding cells but I don’t know the slave system so I am scared what would happen to me.”
Hearing what I said, Ann turned to me with a surprised look, as if shocked that I was calm despite how young I looked. She soon returned back to normal and started explaining.
“We would not get any visits, other than the servants or the customers. The servants in charge of giving us food will come three times a day. Customers rarely come by as the slaves would normally be brought to them. However, there have been some customers who prefer to personally visit the slaveholding cells to personally handpick.”
I was not surprised that there was almost non-existent human traffic in this place. Right before I could ask another question, Ann continued.
“If you do get picked, you will be branded with a slave contract with your new master and leave this place with him. However, you can be sent back if your master is not satisfied with you in any way. Being sent back will affect your value and lower your chances of being purchased.
Your value not only depends on whether you had been returned, but it also depends on your age. The young ones are sought more so they are sold faster and are more pricey. However, if you are older, your price will be lowered and customers would rarely choose you.”
After her explanation, she stopped explaining as if she did not want to talk to me anymore. I used this silence to process what I had just learned.
“Then, would that mean that you had not been chosen? What would happen to you if you have not been sold for years?”
The old woman, hearing my question, turned her head slightly with eyes filled with disdain and anger. However, I could sense that her anger and disdain was targeted at someone or something else, which I could not yet comprehend. She scoffed and replied solemnly:
“When you get over 40, you will either be thrown away into the forest filled with monsters and be left alone to rot; or they might even dispose of you. By ‘dispose of’, I did not mean that they will abandon you in someplace. I mean that they will kill you.
You should know that to the slave merchants, a slave’s life doesn’t matter to them. Those merchants are way worse than demons, they are monsters.Those monsters see us as nothing but consumer goods. If they deem us useless, we will just be cast aside. I had seen lots of older slaves that had become too old to be sold met up with such tragic endings. From how long I have been in, I only have about two more years before I have to face my fate.”
After finishing her explanation, I saw her eyes filled with anger and hatred but I sensed something hidden from her voice; she had given up and had accepted her fate. I felt sorry for her and watched her silently while trying to think of something I could do for her as well. Then, I silently spoke up and suggested:
“Then let’s escape! I’m su…”
Before I could continue on my idea, I was interrupted by Ann.
“Don’t think about it. Those who tried to escape were captured and punished to death or killed at the spot. Even if you do manage to escape from them, we will still be surrounded by monsters so you will be eaten or killed by them. If you really value your life and you want to live well, just go along with the flow. If you are lucky, you will get a good master who will treat you well. Ah… It’s about time to sleep. You should go to sleep first. Take my advice to heart and don’t do anything stupid.”
Hearing her warning, I got dejected and did not speak anymore. I curled up and silently cried. Why did this have to happen to me? I was just an ordinary modern girl. To think that I would be reincarnated as a slave, all those transmigrations into a noble or an OP character were all lies.
EDITORS
Moshi
Yandere Darkling
Arexio
Axiom
nawww thanks for the chapter!
A side story after just 3 chapters? I guess you have something important to show about the world by doing that.
it's what I wrote but Im still thinking whether I should include it in now. its more like the dark past thanks! I just thought of another path for the story