Mog navigated through the complex alleys of the slums before finally arriving at the city plaza. Humans of white, brown, and black skin were the most abundant on the streets. About a fifth of the pedestrians were half-breeds, and a tenth were full-bloods of other races. Orcs made up the majority of them, as many orcish tribes were subjugated and indoctrinated into the empire. However, there were also elves, dwarves, Beast-kin, and halflings in the mix as well.
Most of the humans wore woolen togas with woolen/silken tunics underneath, highlighting their status as full citizens. In contrast, three-quarters of the half-bloods wore only woolen tunics or simple woolen rags, highlighting their poverty and status as slaves. Half of the full-bloods also had slave statuses. From the human population, barely a tenth were slaves, and they wore relatively cleaner and better clothes. Even in slavery, race mattered, such were the social norms of Lamaria.
From the half-bloods and full-bloods, many of them also wore barbaric leather clothing and bone ornaments. Some even wore leaves of some kind. They were, however, usually pedlars and traders from the barbarian lands from around the empire and overseas.
From the human race, several guardsmen were wearing leather helmets, wearing yellow tunics, and wielding small bucklers and hatchets/wooden clubs, the same armor the guards who chased Mog wore before. They were the police officers in the city who also acted as firefighters in times of need. Some of them were slaves, while others were citizens. However, all of them, without exception, were humans.
A minority of all the races also wore metal/leather armors, cloaks, and robes. They had a mixture of weapons on them; Spears, shields, swords, axes, staves, daggers, maces, bows, and arrows... Among them were warriors, rogues, archers, monks, priests, mages... These were adventurers, part of the adventurers guild. They were what Mog aspired to be when he grew up. If he could become a B-rank adventurer, he would be set for life.
Mog gazed and the hubbub of the plaza. Merchants and food stands were abundant, yelling and shouting for passerby's to buy their goods. In the center of the plaza was a huge fountain with a sculpture of an incredibly beautiful woman surrounded by small angels. Her eyes were covered with a cloth, signifying her blindness. Her name was Veona, the goddess of Luck. Her temple was just yonder away to the east of the plaza, and she served as one of the main gods of the empire as well as many neighboring kingdoms and empires.
Mog came to the fountain and took out a bronze coin before tossing it into the fountain, offering a silent prayer for her to bless him with luck. In this world, gods were real. Offering prayers to them sometimes grant a tangible blessing upon those who pray. For example, for a pickpocket like him, luck can affect his chances of fishing better purses and reducing his chance of getting caught by the guards. Rizor taught Mog to be pious and offer prayer when he could. Especially to Veona. Just a bit of bad luck could be catastrophic to a pickpocket like him, so it was advised to be on her good books.
Once he finished his prayer, he went to a bread & broth stall run by a dark-skinned human woman and fished out 2 copper coins, and handed it to the stall owner, "One broth and bread, please."
The female stall owner looked at the dirt-blood child wearing rags in front of her, her face showing a hint of undisguised disgust. However, by the end of the day, money was money. Even if she guessed the illegal origin of the coin, in the end, he was still a paying customer.
She said coldly, snatching the coins, "Fine."
She took out a wooden bowl, poured out a ladle of broth made out of wheat, millet, corn, and tiny scraps of meat, likely cheap meat from a weak monster like the horned rabbit or giant rat. She then gave him the bowl along with a piece of full ray bread, about a third of a pound.
"Return the bowl once you have finished." She pointed at a stack of used wooden bowls next to her stand, clearly what others have already used. Next to it, a slave boy his age was already washing the bowls, removing most of the remains for re-use.
Mog nodded in acknowledgment, taking the bowl and bread before heading to the center of the plaza and sitting near the fountain. While eating the tasty meal with relish, he gazed at the various stalls in the plaza. About half of them sold food, fruit and vegetables, wine, and oil. From the remaining half, two-thirds sold other goods; Furniture, furs, decorations, perfume, clothing, shoes, jewelry, etc... As for the rest, most of them consisted of adventurer stalls, selling weapons, armor, potions in clear glass flasks, a product of alchemy, and scrolls of sorcery, holding spells of arcane power.
A few stalls also sold pet animals such as dogs, monkeys, cats, and birds. They even sold a few weak monsters such as slimes or horned rabbits. All of these fell under the category of pets. Monsters, in particular, as long as they were under slave contracts, were a common commodity. Rizor once told him of the existence of monster girls, all-female races of monsters that resemble human females. They procreated using the semen of humane races and were considered the children of Hekatinu, the great goddess of sex and fertility, as well as a few powerful male gods. Selling them as slaves were taboo. No sane slave merchant would ever do that, lest he earned the wrath of the gods, and especially Hekatinu. One curse from her is enough to wipe out an entire empire within a few dozen years due to infertility.
The last two stalls sold a unique product... Slaves. Unlike all the other products, these two stalls sold literal human lives as a commodity; Children born into slavery, exotic slaves from conquered tribes and nations, people who sold themselves into slavery because of debt, children sold into slavery because of poverty, crime slaves who committed petty crimes like stealing, men captured by bandits or pirates and sold into slavery, and more... All of them served as part of the Lamarian workforce, doing jobs many were disinclined to do, such as cleaning, working the fields, working in brothels, fighting in the colosseum, mining... Some lucky ones even get to have guard duties due to being trained or managerial positions due to being both literate and numerate, but they were both in the minority.
In the first slave stall, barechested men were displayed like stuck animals. Their prices were ranged from 300 silver coins to 1,000 silver coins, depending on how old, fit, good-looking, and educated they were. Mog even heard stories from Rizor that these prices were for only common slaves of labor. Advanced slaves such as mages, powerful warriors, and arena champions, can even go up to insane prices, One such example was in an auction that sold an arena champion for a whole 1.3 million silvers! It was an amount unimaginable to the young Mog.
In the second stall, scantily dressed females were displayed like merchandise. Some of the women were even outright naked, displaying all their assets to the elements; Beautiful and sexy humans, enchanting and lithe elves, barbaric and Amazonian orcs, childlike dwarves, short-stack halflings, and exotic beastkin... They had it all. These females were usually sold for a price ranging from 2,000 silvers to 6,000 silvers and served as an accepted alternative to adultery. If a beautiful female had the same qualifications as a male, her price would be 5-10 times the price of a male, depending on how beautiful and exotic she is.
Mog, who was used to seeing nudity, was not flustered by watching their naked bodies, he just stared at them in curiosity. He saw some of the slaves getting sold, and their new owners signing master-slave contracts, officializing the transfer of ownership.
Master-slave contracts were contracts that enforced ownership on others, a product of magic and ritual magic. Every slaver group had a mage capable of casting this magic variant, enabling the formation of a slave crest. Slaves who were under the slave crest had to obey all orders of the master, even if it was to commit suicide. The only limitation was that a slave mage was needed to cast it personally. However, recent enchantment magic progress has allowed slave magic to be cast into single-use scrolls. To prevent misuse, slave magic became restricted magic. If someone was found to misuse it, then the death penalty was enforced.
As for breaking the slave crest? Only four viable methods were ever found; Becoming far stronger than the caster and breaking it yourself, another slave-magic mage or slaver breaking it for you, the master himself releasing the contract, and using unimaginable willpower to break it. Even if the original caster died, the spell would remain in effect. If the master died, the crest would remain on the slave, making them runaway slaves who were magically obligated to return to a city and get re-enslaved. If someone found a runaway slave out in the wild, he could claim them as their own for a small fee of a single silver in any city or sell them to official slave traders.
After finishing his meal, Mog returned to the stall and placed the bowl in the used bowl stack. After casting a glance at the still cleaning slave boy, rejoicing his own luck at being born free, he walked away and headed towards the public baths.
Rizor taught him that he should wash up every day. It was because not washing up can cause many bad things to happen. While others only washed once per 9 days, he made sure to bathe daily, even if it cost him a quarter of a copper each time! Although he looked dirty right now, it was deliberately done for his disguise. He actually liked being clean and only dirtied himself before stealing. After all, being dirty made his skin a bit itchy and sticky.
Arriving at the public bathhouse, a huge building made out of white stones, he went up to the reception and forked out a quarter of a copper, which was the fee to use the baths.
Upon entering, he saw a large number of people coming and going from the baths. The baths were divided into 3 sections: The male section, the female section, and the mixed section.
The male and female sections had access to a wine bar, massage rooms, and of course, the baths. Before entering the bath, one must first wash off the dirt from the body using a bucket of hot water. Those who have open wounds were also forbidden from entering the baths due to fear of passing diseases and getting infected with gangrene and such. Although magical cures were widespread, there was no point in actively passing such diseases on. Besides, they were a bit costly.
For both male and female baths, one part of it was purely for bathing, one was for bathing slaves, while the last one allowed sexual intercourse. In the male section, female sacred prostitutes from the temple of Hekatinu served as sexual relief... For a donation. Gay relations were also allowed, although consent was required. In the case of the female baths, females were allowed male sacred prostitutes under the condition of using special contraceptive magic for fear of bearing an illegitimate heir.
As for the mixed bath... It was a full-blown orgy. A place of baths, wine, and debauchery1Historical fact about the baths in ancient times. It was also why many people frowned on baths and called them corruptive and obscene.. By going inside such a place, whether male or female, as long as it is consensual, sex was allowed. The orgies would last from morning to evening, the participants being replaced around the clock.
Sexual openness was undoubtedly an inseparable part of the Lamarian culture.
The only reason a venereal disease epidemic does not happen is due to the existence of holy blessings from the temple of Hekatinu, otherwise, everyone would suffer from some form of venereal disease.
Naturally, the 10-year-old Mog went to the male baths to bathe. When he arrived at the baths, Mog didn't walk to the regular baths or the special erotic bath sections, but he went to the slave section of the baths. Unless a half-blood or pureblood from another race held significant power or fame, their bathing area was with the slaves. Naturally, the weak Mog held no such power or prestige.
The slave baths were only half the size of the main baths but considering the number of slaves and other races in the city, the size was apt.
After taking off his clothes and placing them carefully in a designated basket, he took a small wooden bucket of hot water and poured it on himself, washing off most of the filth. After refilling the bucket again, he used his hand to scoop water from the bucket and wash his body. After he was done, he once again poured water on himself. Once done, he took a metal device called a scraper2Strigil and used it to remove any remaining dirt, perspiration, and oil on his body. Only after that did he start bathing.
After swimming a bit in the bathwater, he arrived in front of a bronze mirror, reflecting his visage; Standing at 1.45m in height, greyish-green skin, toned and tight muscles, and a lean body. On his skin, some scars could be seen, the result of his training and rough childhood. He had a straight nose, sharp and intelligent golden eyes, steep-arched eyebrows, longish and pointy ears like elves, high cheekbones, sharp jawline, and thin lips. In his mouth, two sharp canines slightly protruded from his lower jaw. These were the characteristics of a half-orc half-human. Among his kind, he could be considered handsome, but among humans, he was only slightly above average-looking due to his orcish characteristics.
Because the slave baths were purely for bathing and that he didn't interact much with others, Mog was left unbothered throughout his stay. After he finished bathing his body, he also washed his clothes, removing most of the dirt. By the time he was finished, it was already afternoon.
After exiting the baths, Mog took in the sun as he dried his body and clothes. Feeling a bit thirsty, he went to a drinking source near the temple of the gods.
As he finished drinking, he was just about to return home to prepare for the night when he heard a weak and withered voice.
"Please, kind sirs, please help me stand up..."
