Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)
Volume 1 - Ch 3.8

Now that hes gotten so cooperative, there is no way for me to refuse unless I want to be taken for a complete douchebag.

I would like to believe that hes doing it out of the kindness of his heart, but hes a merchant. Kindness is not a part of their trade, unless they can squeeze some coin out of it. Then again, even if he has some ulterior motive, I guess it works out for me just fine. Thanks to that I will truly be able to buy someone as beautiful as Roxanne for myself. Besides, what would both of them have to gain from trying to deceive me like that?

Alan-san mentioned that shes still a virgin, just like all the other female slaves in this store, and we have already established that it is like that because virgin female slaves are worth significantly more than fully capable male slaves. Is it about the money after all? Could it be that the Slave Merchant and Roxanne know that once Ill set out to collect the rest of the gold necessary for the purchase I will probably have much more than that and they plan on stealing it from me after Roxanne kills me? No, that cant possibly be the case. If it was really like that, such a plan wouldnt have even a shred of sense, because Roxanne would have died along with me, and that would prevent both her from getting her share of gold and Alan-san from selling her to some other guy willing to cough up the dough. Well, that is all considering that his explanation about the relationship between a master and his slaves was not made up.

Another option is that the two of them were really just trying to have me buy Roxanne, using the good business opportunity to their advantage. I am willing to bet that Alan-san thinks that if I will be satisfied with Roxanne, I will be willing to purchase more slaves from him in the future, but Im too blind to see this because my crippling social anxiety robbed me of one of the most essential abilities we humans can have: to have a little faith in your fellow men.

Im glad that you are willing to give me the benefit of the doubt, but even with that I cannot guarantee that Ill be able to procure the necessary amount.

In that case Ill have to sell her to another customer, which wont be hard at all, considering how beautiful she is.

So what youre telling me is that I have to get my ass up in gear and get the money as fast as possible because other clients are ready to buy her? Is that why you gave me those five days?

I tried to get that information out of him.

Unfortunately Im afraid I cannot tell you anything, Michio-sama. That is a company secret. In other words, that knowledge is none of your concern. If you really want to buy dear Roxanne, then I suggest setting your priorities to getting the money, nothing more, nothing less.

And here I thought you were on my side!

I am on no ones side, Michio-sama. I am, first and foremost, a merchant, a man of business. As long as I get my money, the matter of who gets to be the girls new owner does not matter to me.

That statement was cruel, but also perfectly logical at the same time. I should have known. Of course. Hes a merchant, the one dealing with slaves. To him, they are nothing that goods which need to be sold either to those who have the money and are willing to spend them, or to the highest bidder.

Dear customer, as I said, as long as its those five days, I am willing to wait for you.

Roxanne looked at me and smiled again. Her perfectly white teeth could be seen through the narrow gap between her glossy, cherry-like lips.

Beautiful, shes just transcendently beautiful.

All right. Now that thats settled, Roxanne will be moving to the sold slaves quarters.

As you wish, master. I will make the preparations at once.

Alan-san relayed the news to the older lady. So I guess that means the game is all set now.

Yes, be sure to do that. Michio-sama, let us be on our way. You as well, Roxanne.

The older lady guided Roxanne to the room across the one I have previously entered, while Alan-san and I moved towards the stairs leading back to the shops ground floor.

Yes. Uhm, Mr. Customer, thank you for your patronage.

Roxanne bowed to me three times in succession, each bow deeper than the last one. Her dog ears were shaking in a cute way. Yup, the game is on for real. If I can truly have something so precious for myself, then I have to get the money no matter what!

Lets go.

Yeah.

The two of us went down the stairs without looking back again. Okay, now that we were left alone again, I guess its time to do a little prodding.

You took quite a gamble there. What if I really wont be able to get the money? Cause its not like Im some kinda magician who can conjure them up from thin air you know?

I started the conversation as we were going down the stairs.

Oh, I dont think its like that at all. I heard that you have single-handedly defeated a group of wanted criminals. If that information is indeed true, then that would mean that you managed to earn between 120,000 to 200,000 Nar in less than one day.

It was a guess on his part but wasnt that much off the mark. He actually managed to estimate the amount of Nar I got fairly accurately. But even so, he still seems to be forgetting about one thing: he wants me to get 420,000 Nar to pay for Roxannes purchase. Now, in order to get so much money in the shortest amount of time possible, the best option would be to go to the newly discovered Labyrinth and hope to replace some valuable items there, but if I want such an escapade not to be anything else than a glorious suicide method, I would have to get myself a Party first, and getting myself a Party would mean the necessity of splitting the loot obtained from raiding the Labyrinth equally between all the Party members, and that would automatically diminish my personal gains, to the point where procuring the desired amount of Nar would be pretty much impossible to achieve.

What the Slave Merchant doesnt know, however, is the fact that just two days ago I was nothing more but a depressed teenager who wanted to end his own miserable existence, having achieved nothing and not obtaining any money at all, be it my worlds Yen or this worlds Nar. Even after being transported here, the only reason I was able to mop the floor with those Bandits was because I managed to obtain a ridiculously OP weapon for myself after countless experiments with Bonus Points and the Skills. Same goes for milking as much money as possible out of everyone. If not for the Character Reset option which can be used as many times as you want and the fact that performing a Reset takes less than a minute if you know exactly what you want to reset into, I wouldnt have as much dough on me as I have now. What Im trying to say is that I was only successful so far because my special treatment as a player allowed me to become somewhat of a demi-god compared to all those people who thought that a Slow Rabbit or a Gummi Slime were terrifying monstrosities that should be avoided at all costs.

Im just saying, you should prepare yourself to be extremely disappointed, just in case.

I will, you dont have to worry about that. But my intuition is telling me that youre going to be all right. I believe I have mentioned this before, but I have a pretty good eye when it comes to appraising people and their value as potential business partners.

Dude, where does that confidence of yours come from and why dont you share some of it with me?

With such thoughts in my mind, we returned to the guest room we were initially sitting in.

Currently there are only two ways of obtaining money that would allow me to achieve my goal. One of them was raiding the Labyrinth on my own and hoping for the best. The ideal scenario here would be that I manage to replace enough valuable Drop Items to get myself at least 100,000 Nar per day, peaking at 500,000 Nar after five days. Enough to buy Roxanne, and just enough to have some spare change for some initial lodging and food costs. Honestly though, such an outcome is extremely unlikely.

Normally, one piece of Rabbits Fur was 10 Nar, so in order to get any significant amount of money out of it I would have to hunt a shit-ton of them, and even then I have no way of knowing if all of those encounters would end with me getting an item that I want. From the info that I have gathered so far, it looks like one defeated enemy can only leave one item behind when it dies, and it wont always be the same one. Supposedly there are also stronger monsters who drop more valuable items with higher rarity, but whether or not I will be able to deal with them by myself is unknown at this point.

Another option would be to hunt more Bandits and collect the bounties placed on their heads. If the average sum is 160,000 Nar, I should be able to get the necessary amount a little bit faster. Is the Slave Merchants confidence in me coming from that? I I honestly dont know if I should think of it as incredibly nave or progressive of him.