~ Chapter 28: The untold story of a maid ~

[Luthecia's point of view]

 When one was bought as a slave, they could forget all hope and dreams they had before as a free man or woman. Every second, every minute, and every hour from that day on was to be offered to their new masters.

That was the law and truth of this world.

As such, using slaves as nothing more than disposable tools was a surprisingly common thought and belief, especially among those who held a noble status. At times, people saw it as better for slaves to be bought by common folk than by nobles. After all, it wasn't that uncommon for old retired adventurers who struck out on finding a beautiful woman for themselves to marry a slave or have her carry their child. The other way around was never impossible to see because women adventurers always had a man or two waiting for them. All they had to do was pick wisely.

At the age of sixteen, I was sold into slavery in order to repay my debt towards the owner of my hometown's inn. I had been working there for nearly four years, but one day, a noble came and foolishly asked me to please him with my body.

Naturally, I refused.

Angered, the man set the whole inn on fire with his spells and then using his authority pushed all the blame on me. To pay for the repairs, which mysteriously doubled over night, I had no choice but to abide by the kingdom's law and request to be sold as a slave, with the innkeeper as the direct receiver of the payment.

This was all that noble's fault, we all knew it, but we could do nothing about it. We were commoners with no backing from someone of high importance. For the noble, this was just too much of an easy game to win.

While I was working at the inn, I often heard how his kind would toy around with the lives of us commoners, but I never thought I was going to become one of those unfortunate victims.

At this point, my future seemed to have been set in stone, and my fate surrendered to that vile man. However, right when I was about to lose all hope, he appeared before me...

It was the day of my auction. The noble I offended had sent a steward to buy me. Nobody dared to outbid me because of that man's influence, but just as the decision was about to be made, a hand was raised.

“26 gold coins!” he offered.

It was double my value.

“You! How dare you! Marquees Rahtaroz wants this slave!” the steward yelled.

“Who? Sorry, never heard of that fellow, which means his authority in this Kingdom is one far beneath mine.” the bidder replied and calmly shrugged.

“Who are you to dare claim such an outrageous thing?” the steward asked annoyed.

“I'm just a humble Duke passing by.” he showed him a smile, and in that moment, the foolish steward froze.

In other words, he was lower in status only to those who were part of the Royal Family.

The bid was won by him, and I was brought over to his house.

That man was called Reynald Drakarys, and from that day forward, I became his maid. I would later witness as his family fell from the rank of Duke to that of Baron, but this didn't seem to bother him and his wife in the slightest, rather... they were happy with this outcome.

The Drakarys family were indeed strange individuals from this point of view, but in their house I was never treated as a slave. Even their children, although born with noble blood flowing through their veins, they always looked at me more as a free woman employed by their parents rather than a slave they owned and with whom they could do as they pleased. Still, as long as this collar was around my neck, my status... remained the same.

In the Drakarys house, I led a happy life for more than 11 years, and I could only thank the gods for my luck of having been bought by the young duke back then.