12 - Episode 8: The Three Idiots' Desire Extra-Territory
In the initial plot, I thought about introducing a slave-chan, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that beautiful girl slaves are difficult, so this is a story where I gave up on that idea.
Continuing at the base, the discussion among the three continues.
"Well, I think increasing party members is a good idea,"
"To be honest, we have too much attack power, or rather, we're too focused on firepower. It's not like we're muscle-brains,"
"Do not use adventurer activities as a cover, you closet perverts! Be more honest with your desires!"
"You're way too blatant with your desires,"
While receiving retorts from Geoglyph and Later, Marianne protests that an open pervert is more amusing and thus better than a closet pervert!
That said, the three of them are adventurers. Since they are adding someone, they want them to be counted as combat power. And looking at the current balance, it is extremely skewed.
Geoglyph, specialized in magic, so he is the rear guard. Later, specialized in close combat, so he is the vanguard. Marianne, due to the number of attacks and her servants, can do both, but since she herself is not that strong, she is the middle guard, making it easy for the other two to protect her.
At first glance, these three seem balanced. In reality, they are a super-attack-heavy party where everyone is only suited for offense. Defense? What's that, is it delicious? All three have skill compositions that only think about hitting. Since they haven't thought about defense or healing at all, their motto is to kill them before they get killed. If this were an MMORPG, it would be a reckless composition that might be denounced as a landmine party.
That is why both of them agree to increase the numbers, but they also want to be picky since they have the chance. Then, the options suddenly narrow.
"Even if I let my desires out, in my case, what I want is a beastman, right? Or a beast with enough intelligence to speak,"
"Well, Ray is a kemoner, after all,"
"And if they can also handle combat, they're usually vanguards. We're not even doing raid battles, do we need any more vanguards?"
"Hmm. Beastmen have low mana release capability due to their race. Instead, they are good at internal mana manipulation, so it's true that there are many vanguard jobs,"
"What I want is a rear guard job. Preferably someone who can use healing magic. And for some moisture... as I thought, an elf would be great..."
The other two react to Geoglyph's muttered words. They are relieved to see that he hasn't dedicated his heart solely to the maid robot.
"Oh? What's this, Sensei, are you into demi-human moe too?"
"Are you an elf-ski?"
"Ahaha. I'm an old otaku, so when I think of fantasy, it's the story of the ring or the cursed island. So I have a bit of a longing for elves. If it's SF, it's androids,"
"What will you do? If the elves of this world are the kind that go 'Hyahhaa' into a peaceful orc village,"
"I would hate the Amazoness type... Perverted elves are fine, but I'd want a princess knight elf to do a Kukkoro for me,"
"Why is your view of elves based on thin books?"
Incidentally, it seems there are standard demi-human races like elves and dwarves in this world as well, and there seems to be a fair amount of interaction with the human race. Apparently, it's because they fought together during the great war called the Evil God War thousands of years ago, but the only one who knows that is Geoglyph, who grew up secluded in his family's library.
Therefore, the other two's perceptions remain from their previous lives, and while they are sensitive to trends, they aren't that into old works, so their view of elves is a bit skewed. On the other hand, Geoglyph is an SF otaku, so during periods when few SF works were released, he scoured old works, and being a fundamentalist typical of old otakus, he seeks the source. As a result, his perception of elves is the story of the ring or the cursed island.
Regardless of that.
"But how do we actually increase the numbers? We can technically recruit through the guild, but since it's the Imperial Capital, there aren't many demi-humans. The standard move at times like this is to scour the slaves, but..."
"Ah..."
At Later's words, Geoglyph and Marianne looked off into the distance.
"What is it?"
"There is a slave system in this world too, but, well..."
"I'm telling you for your own good, you should stop,"
It seems these two were reasonably familiar with the slave market.
Geoglyph, as the son of a lord, as part of his education. Marianne, as the granddaughter of a large merchant guild, to satisfy her private desires under the guise of market research.
However, what the two saw was a reality that made them want to cover their eyes.
In the first place, this is another world. Chronologically, it's the Middle Ages. Human rights go without saying, but then naturally, hygiene management follows suit. Or rather, it was worse than imagined. Even in the original world, people were packed into slave ships without a gap, and the treatment was no different. They don't do wasteful things like one cell per person. Beyond a sweatshop, it's practically packed like sushi. Geoglyph and Marianne even remembered prisons in Indonesia or Mexico.
For slaves as simple laborers, that's fine, and for slaves other than that, other added values emerge, so it becomes slightly better, but then it's reflected in the price. Especially if they can use magic or are beautiful, this tendency becomes prominent and the price suddenly hits the ceiling. A rear guard job that they seek, one suited for support and also a beautiful girl, is already a national treasure level of rarity. It seems even high nobles cannot easily get their hands on them.
"So it's polarized between low quality or damn high price,"
"Well, if you search the ones shoved into sweatshops with a gacha feeling, you might find someone, but it's not worth the effort. They're all lumped together, so it seems illegal ones are sometimes mixed in. If you get stuck with one of those, it might spark a fire on our end too,"
"In that case, it's easier, faster, and safer to find a super-cute commoner girl interested in being an adventurer and bring her along to train her combat power,"
"I see. But Princess, in that case, why don't you just bring one of your friends? I believe you participate in some gathering called the Shako-kai?"
"When Ray says it, it sounds like nothing but a zokky gathering,"
"Well, it's true there are many beautiful noble daughters, but they don't have the luxury to be adventurers,"
Here too, the values of the Middle Ages thrust reality upon them.
After all, even commoners are whispered about as being left behind around the age of 20. Much less for the children of nobles who are given the role of continuing the bloodline and protecting the house, where a super high-pace life schedule of engagement around age 10, marriage to the fiancé upon becoming an adult at 15, and childbirth the following year is relatively normal. It's so fast one wants to ask what kind of RTA this is.
Naturally, in the social circles where these values prevail, there is no time to be an adventurer. Especially depending on the power dynamics between houses or the gender demographics of the generation they were born into, the competition rate skyrockets, and this tendency becomes prominent for girls who are not blessed with a good match.
Put simply, they are aggressive.
Boys can afford to wait until they're older, and if anything, they take a relatively relaxed stance, saying they'll make the woman they truly love a concubine, but for girls, it doesn't work that way. Noble daughters who can devote themselves to anything other than marriage hunting are either already engaged, or are eccentrics like Marianne. And those who are already engaged would never go out of their way to be adventurers, which involves danger. If they jump into danger and become damaged, both physically and metaphorically, they could seriously ruin their lives.
"The marriage hunting situation of the high-born... it's totally carnivorous. It was amazing when it was my Big Brother's turn,"
"What's this, Sensei, aren't you the same?"
"I'm just a third son, and I've been saying I'd become an adventurer since I was a child. I don't even have a fiancé. The family name still remains, and I can't even marry without the family's permission. That's why in this life, I'm still a virgin,"
Later placed a hand gently on the shoulder of Geoglyph, who was giving a humble laugh.
"Want to go to a brothel together? I know a good place,"
"Reviewing different races sounds good too...!"
"That's unfair! What about me!?"
"Well, you're a woman in this life, so we'd leave you behind, or you could go to a female-use adult service... Ah, I see,"
Female-use adult services have existed since a long time ago even in the previous world. In Japan, if you go back in history, they actually existed since the Edo period. But hosts are naturally men. However, as a yuri-pig, she wants to be partnered with a girl, which means she would have to go to a male-use adult service, but first of all, with this appearance, she probably wouldn't be accepted. If anything, she might be recruited as an employee.
"I'll ask just in case, but are there no lesbian adult services?"
"I'm saying it's unfair because there aren't any!!"
Incidentally, there are various theories about the opening of lesbian adult services in Japan, but it was quite recently, around 1996.
To be continued tomorrow.