07.LITTLE GIRL GIVES A GIFT

“Hah… Hah…”

“Now, stop acting like an old man and come here already. We don´t have time to waste.”

“Is this supposed to be something a brat should be meddling about?”

“What I am worried about is how many years you have left.”

Not caring about Borudo´s sour sidelong glance, Bela headed to the town.

“”Well, it seems my protective charm is having effect.””

Bela felt that the gazes of people evaluating how much she would be paid for were less than at the times she was by herself. That was obviously because of the dwarf old man walking behind her. Because he still had just been released from the cage, he was still wearing rags. Despite being small, dwarfs had their characteristic muscular physique, and so, despite the rags, it seemed that his muscular and covered in wounds body was drawing attention from the surroundings.

Most of the scars were from whips, but because it was apparent that that dwarf was entangled in some kind of trouble, it seemed there weren´t many people that wanted to casually get involved with him.

“It seems that you have been very noisy today, right.”

“Is that so? These last months, I´ve been inside a cage all the time, so I don´t really know much about what´s going on outside.”

In these last months, Borudo´s world consisted pretty much of only being in a cellar and sometimes going outside to the courtyard that was there. It has been months since he has walked in a town like this.

“Ah, is that so? Well, fine then. I kind of have an idea why you are lively anyway.”

Borudo tilted his head to the side in confusion of Bela´s words, which seemed to be holding a hidden meaning. However, without caring about it, she staringly looked at him from his head to his toes.

“What is it?”

“No, it just that I just saw they washed you up.”

“I´ve just been bought after all. They do that kind of stuff before sending the slaves to people.”

Borudo answered. If Borudo was still dirty, Bela would have to first have him wash his whole body. However, since it seemed that this wasn´t going to be necessary, she advanced her plans and decided to head to the equipment shop.

—————

“Welcome, Bela-sama.”

“Yeah, I am here again.”

Bela answered to the shopkeeper. With amazement, Borudo, who had suddenly been brought to the shop, looked around at the interior design that despite how it was of an equipment shop, was of good quality. However, with a hand gesture , Bela signaled him to go forward. Thus, just as ordered, Borudo headed to the front of the shopkeeper.

“What is it?”(Borudo)

“Ah, this is the slave I talked about yesterday. It looks like he is as much brawny as I had guessed before. So, can you have it prepared?”

Without reacting to Borudo´s words, Bela asked the shopkeeper.

“Yes, there are no problems. Do you want to have it immediately set up?”

“I will be counting on you for that. Borudo, go have a dressing up together with those onii-chan´s there for a moment.”

“Yeah, do I look deaf to you? Yes, yes, I got it.”

“[Gimru]!”

“Gyaaah!”

By the binding spell, once again, Borudo screamed in agony.

“Leave it at that. You aren´t some brat at the rebellious age.” (TL note: What does ->シャキッとおし<- mean?  -.- It translated it to “leave it at that” since it would make sense if that meant something similar to that.)

“Dam… m.. Yes, I have understood, master. ”

With an angry tone of voice, Borudo readily stood up and was brought to the back of the shop by the other shop assistants.

“Sorry there. Really.”

“Please, don´t mind. It seems that slaves that are captured old are this much difficult to deal with after all.”

The shopkeeper gave a bitter smile. After people grow old, it becomes difficult to correct their personalities. Bela, who was aware of that, nodded.

“Right, it becomes hard to train once the age takes them. I bought a really troublesome product.”

Saying that, Bela laughed with her usual “Hyahyahya”, and the shopkeeper gave a dry laugh in response. That was something a child usually wouldn´t really be talking about.

“Then, that thing we talked about yesterday. Did you get the info?”

While looking at the behavior of the shopkeeper, Bela changed the topic of the conversation.

“Yes, well… It looks they are going to lose in the end… My country…”

With a low voice, the shopkeeper answered Bela´s question.

“It is said the front lines are hectic. People are crowding into the invading troops of the kingdom of Paroma, so it can´t be helped.”

The shopkeeper was talking about the territorial war at the Moro territory Bela had been thinking about participating. At the time Bela came to this shop yesterday, she heard about this topic about the unrest of the war being talked about. The reason for her to have decided to buy Borudo was because she believed he would pay off after a while. However, Bela still had done this with incomplete understanding of the situation since she didn´t know in details about the movement of the Paroma kingdom.

“I heard that they didn´t have it that easily though.”

With Paroma ´s current situation, they feared that they wouldn´t be able to defend against the other neighboring countries if they invested more military power than they had already done. The kingdom of Ruuin didn´t expect that their power would increase even more once they got here by somehow getting more soldiers and other supplies for the territorial war.

“Right. There have been rumors that they were able to get a supporter, though.”

“Well, those are just rumors, aren´t them?”

“That was from yesterday. I don´t know about today.”

There was no way it was possible to get detailed information about what was happening at the present.

“We merchants are greatly affected by how the tide of the war goes after all. By now, we are trembling in fear about it.”

Bela smiled at the shopkeeper, who his shoulders shrugged, saying “It looks tough for you”.

And then, after they had some more idle chatting, Borudo finally came back from the back of the shop. However, it looked like Borudo was feeling hesitant. Perhaps it was because he understood how expensive the thing that he was wearing in his body.

“What is it? You have the face of a pigeon that was shot.”

Saying that, Bela laughed. Borudo was wearing a full plate armor. While it seemed to be second-handed, it was of first quality. What he was holding was a big steel axe; this one seemed to be new.

“Hey, is it fine for you spend this much?”

It was a price high to the point of making Borudo timid about it, but without even batting an eyelid, Bela took from her pouch all her fortune, which amounted four million goldin. It was a price that one could use to buy two or three average battle slaves.

“It seems the size isn´t bad.”

“Ye-yes.”

Borudo nodded at Bela´s words. The undergarments were prepared to suit the armor, and there weren´t any objections with the feeling wearing the armor gave.

“This is one of the shops of the Benmark company, you see? Well, it looks like they have good quality equipment selling here.”

The shopkeeper nodded with a smile at Bela´s words. Actually, yesterday, Bela had bought equipment for her as well. She had a custom armor being made for her by using the armor parts from the time she killed the delinquents near Yarke town. The focus of that armor was on it to be easy to move around with it on similarly to the equipment used by the Korobo race. Bela also had purchased a brand-new war hammer.

“You… No matter how many bigrobears you´ve killed, for you to be spending like this without even batting an eye…”

“[Gimru].”

“Angyaaah!!”

Without any mercy, Bela disciplined the old man that lacked any learning capabilities.

“It is not “You”. You are a man that really don´t learn. Don´t forget your position as a slave. Are you that stupid?”

“Gh, kkk. Master… is it fine for you to give me such good equipment?”

Borudo was a gnome pilot. He didn´t directly battle, so there was no way it was necessary for him to have equipment for himself. He didn´t think it was necessary for him to be so heavily armored.

“I can protect myself on my own. What I want you to be is a protective charm for me.”

“Charm?”

“There are many people that have nothing to do with their life that just want to get trouble with me when I am walking outside.”

Bela answered Borudo´s question.

“Ah, it was that.”

And then, he made a face that was satisfied with the answer.

If a person was to ask someone to kill Borudo, anyone would decline. However, when it would come to the little girl in front of his eyes, she definitely had the appearance that made it seem like one could make money by selling her. It was possible to imagine by looking at her brown colored skin of the Rahsa race that in the future she would get a body men would be fond of.

“”Her insides are all rotten though.””

That thing wasn´t a brat. At least, she was different from the children Borudo knew about.

“Now then, we should get going.”

“Hah? Where to?”

“It seems you are a slave that really likes to be disrespectful. [Gim…”

“Ah, wait. Rather, please, wait.”

“Don´t forget who is your master.”

“Mas-master.”

“Hyahya, it´s fine this way. A slave must be respectful and modest just like a slave is supposed to be.”

While saying that, she gave a farewell to the shopkeeper and was elegantly guided out from the shop.

“So, where are we g… heading to, master?”

Borudo, who was tired of the punishment, once again asked Bela, who was walking slightly in front of him. And then, without giving him punishment this time, Bela answered him.

“Where? Isn´t it obvious. To work.”

The savings Bela had been gathering until now were completely used up. She needed to get more money.

“All my money had gone to you, you see. You will need to sweat to get to eat your rice.”