Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)
Volume 1 - Ch 3.5

To tell you the truth, I still have my doubts about this entire matter, but above all else I dont want to be left alone in this strange, unfamiliar world. If I can have myself a companion, even if it will be a slave, then of course I would like to jump at such a chance right away. What about my moral dilemmas? They are still nestled at the back of my head of course, but lets look at it from another perspective: if I will buy Roxanne, I will do my best to treat her in a respectful manner and to one day set her free so she could decide her fate on her own. On the other hand, if someone else ends up buying her, there will be no guarantee that such a douchebag wont treat her like nothing more but his personal sex toy, and that is something that I absolutely cannot allow. Back in Japan Ive had my fair share of mistreatment, enough to last me several lifetimes and not wish a similar fate happening to anyone else.

The biggest problem here is that slavery is apparently a part of the system of how things are ran in this world, and it looks like it is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future, and we all know that if there is one thing that cannot be easily changed or overthrown, no matter what world you are living in, its the established social hierarchy and the twisted norms that come with it. In my old world, even though it is claimed that we were living in a progressive, advanced society where the concept of inequality has long since disappeared, it was nothing more but a nicely sounding slogan filled with hypocritical bullshit fed to the masses who were dumb enough to believe in it. Okay, we abolished slavery because we deemed it to be too inhumane, but even with that one problem gone, a myriad of others appeared almost immediately to take its place: illegal employment, framing, human and organ trafficking, child prostitution, those are but a few droplets which appeared in the cesspool of shit that humanity has turned into. And heres the real kicker: everyone seems to have agreed that the ones to be blamed for the present state of the earth are the members of my generation, the millennials! How fucked up is that?! And to top things off, the damn boomers expect us to fix everything while they continue to sit around on their lazy asses doing absolutely nothing! The vast majority of us are still either high school or college students, so how can they expect us to replace solutions to the problems that responsible, full-fledged adults with a great amount of life experience cant fix even if their goddamn lives depended on it?! Also, even if by some miracle Id be able to push this world towards the same changes that occurred in my world, the most probable scenario would be the one in which we managed to get rid of slavery, but wed be left with the same old developmental problems that the earth is struggling with right now: poverty, overpopulation, escalation of inequality and the like. Thankfully, going down such a path is not an option right now, due to a very simple reason: as a person, I lack both the mental capacity and charisma to enforce any kind of change or push through with the development of any invention of greater significance like computers, airplanes or solar panels and electricity.

Another issue is the fact that in this world slavery is very strongly connected with the judiciary system and the apparent enforcement of justice. Just like Ive seen back in the village, making someone into a slave is a valid option of inflicting punishment upon the criminals, and my guess is that option is being chosen rather frequently, since it essentially gives you either a free servant or a lot of money if you decide to sell your slave just like I did. In that case, what would be the, maybe not the best, but a good alternative to slavery? I honestly have no idea, but at the very least I feel like more prisons would be built. And not just the small ones, like those cramped town dungeons you see in video games. This world would need one giant, big-ass prison for all those would-be slaves. But in order to build something like that, money would be needed, and when we say money, its obvious that the first thing that comes to mind is taxation, but in order to gather taxes more efficiently bureaucracy would have to be introduced, but in order for it to be introduced, wed need to develop a better education system so more bureaucrats could be raised to collect the taxes which would then be spend to build prisons so that the people wouldnt have to be turned into slaves man, Im getting confused by my own thoughts and its making my head spin!

The worst part is that bringing bureaucracy into the fray would absolutely not be the end of problems and solutions, but I dont know what should be done next because I have absolutely no idea who and what else is connected to the bureaucracy and how in the hell are those connections making the world go round.

But anyway, I digress too much. I didnt come to this new world with the intention of becoming a perpetrator of social change or some Abe Lincolns second coming. No no no, I came here because I wanted to kill myself and was looking for alternatives. Can we just proceed to the part where I actually get to buy myself a slave already?

Roxanne, oh my beautiful, precious Roxanne with that beautiful face and bouncy bazoongas of yours. Just wait a few more moments, Ill be buying you very shortly!

You look as if you reached a conclusion to your inner turmoil. Michio-sama. Has my elaborate explanation helped you make your decision?

I guess you can say that. So, can we proceed with the transaction?

But of course! Now then, if you would.

Alan the Slave Merchant reached his hand to me, and when he did so, a half-transparent window with a system message appeared in front of my eyes.

Do you want to buy Roxanne the Slave?

Yes No

Finally, the moment is upon me at last. I have to say, this anticipation is becoming unbearable, to the point where my hands began to shake.

Do you want to buy Roxanne the Slave?

Yes No

Of course I cant choose No here. I want to buy her in order to have a companion who will aid me in my future travels and to free her when the time would be right.

Do you want to buy Roxanne the Slave?

Yes No

Also, maybe she will finally be the one who will take my V-Card away from me, since both Teirichi-san in the village and the beautiful female knight from earlier showed no interest in helping me with that. At that moment, a thought occurred to me. Nothing related to the situation at hand, but just something I was curious about.

Is the price of sex slaves any different from the price of the normal ones?

No, it is practically the same.

Really? I thought they are going to be pricier.

I honestly thought that was the case, since the sex slaves are mainly used for satisfying the bodily pleasures, just like their name implies.

Their market price is the same because the differences in their duties are minor at best. Both sex and non-sex slaves mostly perform the same jobs, hence the lack of difference in their prices.

Then what about the differences between male and female slaves?

Alan-san nodded and continued.

Speaking of fighting abilities and the ability to do manual labor, men have better abilities than women. However, the price of a working adult male is about 120,000 Nar, whereas for a young woman, her price will be higher, depending on her good looks.

Its true that if its purely for work purposes there shouldnt be any difference in price between men and women. But its also true that good looking girls are always very expensive, that is a principle that was true even in Japan, but they are always in higher demand than guys. That is why even if they cost more, Im sure none of the female slaves are left to gather dust for long.

Well, the Slave Merchants story started to be strangely relatable. Just like in real life, women tend to have it better, even when it comes to the price for selling them. And speaking of selling, I guess I should reset my character again.

This time, I removed my points from 30% Increased Selling Prices and pumped everything into Buying Discount, which gave a discount of 30%. Okay, now we can finally start talking about the actual numbers. Bonus Skill, dont fail me now!

Is Roxanne going to be expensive?

Hm, lets see here

He seemed to be counting from memory, and then he declared with a broad smile on his face. Is he content with the fact that I am finally willing to make my purchase?

Yes, the typical market price is about 600,000 Nar.

..

WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU..?!