I Was a Sword When I Reincarnated (Web Novel)
chapter-401

Eliane moved on to different types of auctions.

“Are you only interested in armor, weapons and magic stones?” (Eliane )

“What other types of auctions are there?” (Fran)

“Thinking about it, you might be interested in the demonic beasts materials auction, the cooking one and the magical artifacts one? (Eliante)

“cooking auction?” (Fran)

I thought she would react to it. It seems that Eliane is quickly understanding Fran. With an amused smile, she nodded.

“Yes. Most ingredients are sold there. There is not only magical beast meat but also rare ingredients, like ghost mushrooms, magical vegetables and other such rarities. All of those are not found on the regular market,” (Eliane)

“Nn, got it.” (Fran)

“Besides, you can also exhibit recipes and culinary secrets there.” (Eliane)

In short, anything related to cooking is exhibited there. We really should go if we have the time.

“Dishes are almost never seen in this auction though.” (Eliane)

“No need, can cook them myself.” (Fran)

“Oh, you know cooking?” (Eliante)

“Nn.” (Fran)

- Oh really… Maybe she should teach me.” (Eliane)

Seemingly nervous Eliane muttered those words. She probably didn't know how to cook at all and given the state of this room, I wouldn’t say it’s surprising.

There were more auctions of course, arts, real estate, clothing, jewelry… But of course, Fran didn’t care about those at all. A particular one however…

“Slave auction?” (Fran)

“Indeed, the only slaves exhibited in this auction are criminals, are you interested”? (Eliane)

“No!!!” (Fran)

“… Why do you look so frightened? (Eliane)

“Nevermind!” (Fran)

Of course, for Fran, the topic of slave trade is still heavy. She was not going to take part in any form of slave trading

Her aversion for slave trading extends further than just illegal trading. It doesn’t matter whether they fell into slavery because of debts or any form of crime. Fran simply hated the concept of slavery.

For people who sold themselves as slaves or simply ended up as ones because of debts, The situation still wasn’t too bad. Their basic rights as humen were well protected, you could almost say they were slaves only because they were subjected to slave magic.

They have salaries, food clothing and lodging. No form of abuse, sexual services or coercion are allowed and the master might be severely punished for attempting to command them to do these things. The master himself is also bound to the magic so he cannot do break these rules. It’s more of a contract than slavery really, like involuntary labor for governments back on earth, except you also get food, clothes and an accommodation.

At best, the person is released after a month. no discrimination against debt slaves is allowed. In some cases, useful skill can be even be learnt from doing this, so it seems that a lot of people don’t consider being a debt slave to be too bad. It’s really just a labor exchange isn’t it?

As far as the fate of people whose crimes are still somewhat light goes, the law still prevents their masters from treating them cruelly, although they don’t have nearly as much rights as debt slaves and are mostly used for dangerous or exhausting jobs, like bodyguarding or any kind of heavy physical labor.

Sounds like involuntary 3K labor (Note. In Japan, this means "Hard, dirty, dangerous work"). However, they still can eventually be released as long as their crimes aren’t too heavy, so they still retain a certain amount of rights.

Both debt slaves as well as criminal slaves are bound by a contract of their own accord as the slave contract cannot be activated without the consent of both parties.

For those who were enslaved for grave crimes, their fate is as one would expect. Criminals sentenced to death all choose whether to be publicly executed or to be bound to a slave contract. Those people are made to do basically whatever is wanted of them except a few select things (E.n I’d really like to be more specific but I don’t know what those few things are either, I imagine killing yourself would be prohibited though).

Some end up as sex slaves, others end up in detachments, etc … I was interested in learning about this system before when I first heard about it but since Fran couldn’t bear this conversation, I didn’t know the exact details.

As for illegal slavery, anything goes. They’re forced to be bound to a contract through torture and end up completely at the mercy of their master.

The punishment for illegal slave trading is extremely severe but the interest in illegal slaves is very high, both to be used in crimes or to be sold to aristocrats.

For Fran, as a former illegal slave, this topic was very hard to bear. Sensing this Eliane changed the subject.

“There is also an auction for familiars. Only trained ones can be displayed there and you have a wolf familiar right? It might be interesting for you. Also, I didn’t see him with you, is he not by your side today?” (Eliane)

“Urushi always by my side.” (Fran)

Urushi came out of Fran’s shadow at this moment.

“Woof!” (Urushi)

“This is ... a Darkness wolf? I didn’t even know these could be tamed! He can actually sink into shadows?? To have such a familiar as a bodyguard… He looks really strong, although this size is somewhat problematic in this room.” (Eliane)

“Urushi can be small.” (Fran)

To demonstrate, Urushi shrank to a lower size.

“Woof !” (Urushi)

“Well, he’s a very unique individual isn’t he?” (Eliante)

It seems even Eliane couldn’t detect Urushi hiding in Fran’s shadow, his ability is just as impressive as ever isn’t it?

Having received our ID for the auction, Eliane asked us where we would be sleeping.

“Fran, have you decided where you will spend the night today?” (Eliante)

“Not yet.“ (Fran)

“Can I recommend a good place to you then? It’s often used by high ranking adventurers” (Eliane)

Looks like we might get our place for the night, the only question was about whether Urishi could sleep with us.

"Urushi allowed?" (Fran)

“Yes, familiars are allowed in the hotel. There won’t be any problem if Urushi keeps this size. (Eliane)

I see, great then. The auctions will be hosted in 2 weeks so we’ll be able to visit the capital and gain information in the meantime.

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