Chapter Eight: Carrot and Stick
“Slave Trader!”
First thing in the morning, we set out for the slave trader’s tent.
“What is wrong, Hero? This early in the morning? Yes sir.”
“The monster seal you put on my Filolial didn’t work. It was junk. Depending how you respond to my complaints, my monster and slave might make a real mess of your place here. Right?”
“I’m hungry, so I’ll be back later.”
“If you don’t behave yourself, we’ll make breakfast out of YOU.”
“The seal we’d put on Filo wasn’t working, and I couldn’t even take it off.”
“You don’t say? Tell me more about it.”
I explained the morning’s events to the slave trader. It was pretty hard going from that point on. Eventually I calmed Filo down and convinced her to return to human form, and then we all made our way to the tent. Raphtalia was clearly on edge, worrying the whole time about keeping Filo from doing anything crazy.
“It seems that a normal monster seal is not strong enough to control a Filolial Queen. Yes sir.”
“What does that mean?”
“Very powerful monsters cannot always be restrained by a normal monster seal. The Knight Dragons, for example, require a special seal.”
“So a normal seal isn’t enough to control Filo?”
“That right.”
The slave trader opened a notebook and began frantically scribbling in it, like he couldn’t stand to let these new developments go unrecorded.
“So are you going to put on a special seal for me or what?”
“Unfortunately we don’t offer that service for free here.”
What?”
“Well it does cost a fair amount of money to perform, therefore we are unable to offer it without compensation. There is only so much we can do. Yes sir.”
So I guess he wouldn’t do it for free.
“How much?”
“With how much I believe I can expect from you in the future, Hero, I’ll give you a deal at only 200 pieces of silver.”
Ugh… That was expensive.
“Isn’t there anything…”
“Before you continue, I’ll have you know that the typical market price is 800 pieces of silver. I have great respect for you, Hero, and therefore would never lie to you.”
Ugh! That hit where it hurt.
I recovered from the shock and, mind still reeling, and with extreme trepidation, handed the slave trader 200 pieces of silver.
“If you’re lying, I’ll let my friends here rip you apart.”
“Naturally. Yes sir.”
All of a sudden I noticed that Filo had returned to her Filolial Queen form. Raphtalia was holding onto one of the wings, as if it was her hand, and led Filo into the room.
“Just stay still for a minute, okay, Filo?”
“Why?”
“If you stay still, I’ll give you a present later.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Filo looked thrilled, and she went to where the slave trader was pointing and stood there silently.
Good, if there was any time for magic, this was it. I caught the slave trader’s eye and signaled that he should start, and he quickly nodded. Suddenly twelve robed men appeared and formed a circle around Filo. They then emptied a jug of some type of medicine over the floor, and then turned to Filo and began chanting. The floor began to glow, and a magical square appeared.
“Wh…What?!”
Filo snapped her beak rapidly in protest, but she was unable to fight it off, and the square expanded to cover her.
“Ow! Ouch! Stop it!”
The monster control spell was hurting her, apparently, and she ran in distressed circles, snapping her beak here and there. The magic square began to shake.
The robed men all let out a gasp of astonishment.
“We’ve taken all precautions, using as many people as we have. I’ve never seen a monster be able to move under so much force. Who knows what she is capable of. Yes sir.”
That reminds me, she was only at level 19. Just imagine how powerful she would be at 70 or something like that. The slave trader’s words carried great weight.
Finally the spell subsided, the monster control spell was etched into her chest, and she quieted down.
“It is finished. Yes sir.”
I could see a monster icon flashing in my periphery, but it looked different than it had before, as if to imply a greater level of control. I didn’t even stop to think, but quickly checked the box that detailed necessary conformity to my orders.
Huff… Huff…
Filo was nearly out of breath when she walked over to me.
“Master! That really hurt!”
I felt a little guilty about testing it so quickly, but I immediately gave her an order.”
“Turn into a human.”
“But it hurt so I don’t wanna! Give me something yummy!”
She had immediately refused my order and demanded food, and so the curse on her chest began to shine.
“What? No! I don’t like this! Make it stop!”
Filo released some type of magic that moved towards the curse, but this time it was unable to break it, and the curse itself began to react.
“Ouch! Ouch!”
Filo fell to the floor in pain.
“If you don’t do as I say, it will only hurt worse.”
“Ouch! Owwwww!”
She complained the whole time, but finally turned into a human. Once she did, the curse stopped glowing and disappeared.
“Heh! At least it worked this time. Nice job, Slave Trader.”
“Yes, well, it is very powerful magic. It’s not so easy to break, you see. Yes sir.”
I went to stand before Filo, who was lying on the ground.
“It cost me 100 pieces of silver to buy you, and now it’s cost me 200 pieces of silver to control you. That makes for 300 pieces of silver. I’m sure you’ll pay me back.”
“But… Master!”
She was reaching out her hand for me. It felt bad, talking to a little kid like this. Even still, I couldn’t keep going on if my party wouldn’t listen to what I told them to do.
“Do what I say.”
“No!”
“Fine then. You don’t want to listen to me? I’ll just give you to that creepy old man over there. You want that?”
“…?!”
Filo finally seemed to understand her place, and stopped protesting. Her face twisted up with emotion.
The slave trader was looking me over. He looked somewhat distressed, but also very happy.
“How much would you buy her for?”
“Good question. She’s very rare, but considering how much trouble she seems to be, I think that 30 gold pieces seems fair. Now that she has the stronger curse on her, she should be much easier to control, and there is certainly no shortage of work that I could have her do. Yes sir.”
That slave-trading bastard. After all he said about not wanting her, and not being able to sell her—and here he was, already had a price in mind! I didn’t know what he was really up to, but I got the impression that if gave him Filo, that would be the end of her, then and there.
And Filo, she was looking up at me, abject terror in her eyes.
This wasn’t good. I’d thought that all the goodness in my heart was gone, and yet here it was, threatening to resurrect. Whether it actually came back or not would depend on Filo’s behavior.
I wasn’t her lovable older brother—and I wasn’t the type to sit around doting on a pet.
“There you have it. If you throw another fit, I’m not going to come running, you hear? I’ll give you a bitter, gross medicine that’ll run through all your veins and kill you.”
“No! Noooooo!”
Filo was practically screaming.
“Master! Don’t hate me! Don’t hate me!”
She crawled over to me and held onto my legs as she shouted.
Ugh! This was miserable…
“If you listen to what I say, I won’t hate you. You have to listen to me.”
“O…okay!”
“Okay, good. So when we are sleeping in the inn, you can’t turn back into a bird. You have to promise.”
“Okay!”
She looked up at me, her face beaming. This was taking a real toll on my conscience.
But then I turned my eyes away from her pleading face, and the slave trader noticed and leaned in to watch, with excitement, how the scene developed.
“This play of heretical anger is astonishing, yes. I take my hat off to you again. You truly are the Legendary Shield Hero.”
I didn’t appreciate the aspects of my character he had chose to congratulate me on, but I suppose it was nothing to complain about.
“Mr. Naofumi… don’t you think that it’s enough?”
“If I don’t, she won’t listen to what I say. You were the same way, remember?”
Raphtalia nodded.
“You’re right. It was like that.”
“There are times to let someone have their way, and times when you have to reel them in.”
I didn’t mention that I considered myself the judge of such matters.
“Ah yes, carrots and sticks! Carrots and sticks! Yes sir.”
“I wasn’t talking to you, Slave Trader.”
And I wished he wasn’t so presumptive.
“Sorry for all the trouble.”
“If that’s how you feel about it, then to make things easier in the future you should teach me how you raised this Fil…”
“Anyway, we have somewhere to be today, so we’ll just be off.”
“Ah, yes. I am once again impressed that you don’t allow yourself to become subject to my own pace… Yes, your will is very impressive indeed, Hero. Yes sir.”
So that was the end of our talks for the day, and we exited the tent.
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