Chapter 598: The Slave Exhibition
It was the day for the slave exhibition.
Thankfully, Mother was wearing normal clothes instead of whatever I saw her in that day.
Today I was dressed much more casually in a simple blouse and long pants instead of the dresses I would usually wear, which matched Mother’s in design and colour as usual.
The rest of the girls were dressed in their maid uniforms and following along behind us with Mary and a few other maids.
On another note, we were walking there again and our group formed a rather interesting procession where a trail of maids followed along behind us.
It goes without saying that we drew quite a lot of attention just by our presence.
The exhibition was being held in a large, circular building near the centre of the city shaped almost like a coliseum.
There was already a crowd of people gathered around the space outside the building with a mix of slaves, trainers, traders and other visitors.
Mother led the way with an air of confidence, pretty much telling me that she had most probably been here before.
I have a feeling that this might be another place where Mother gets more recruits for our servants.
Mother led us through the crowd where they parted almost like there was an unseen force pushing them away for us to walk through them.
She headed straight for one of the entrances where it was suspiciously heavily guarded for a place like that.
Like… They even have a collared wyvern standing by the side of the entrance acting as a guard. I’m guessing its presence was more for show so that visitors could be impressed with it?
Amongst the guards was a rather distinctly plump man who had so many pieces of jewellery on him I’d have thought he was a walking advertisement for them.
When that particular man saw us, he immediately came forward and greeted Mother while rubbing his hands together.
“Ohhh! If it isn’t the Matriarch of the renowned Nilm Family herself! Are you here to find more slaves again?”
Mother barely looked in his direction, “Unn… I see you are doing quite well for yourself, manager. Last I remember you did not have as much gold on you as this.”
“Ah, what can I say? The slave exhibition is just getting more and more popular each year! Especially when the news that some of the Nilm Family servants are slaves that have been obtained here!”
“Ara? Is that the real reason? I’d thought that it was because there was an increase of illegal slavers in recent years. Almost like they were being funded by someone to do that.”
Eh? If I am not mistaken… Was Mother accusing the man in front of us to be responsible for this the illegal slavers?
I mean… If I were to say, he does look like your standard greedy villain that you could find in stories I suppose?
The man showed a surprised look, “Truly? But that should not matter right? Only legitimate slaves will be showcased here! There is no way for illegal slavers to slip past our checks!”
If he really was responsible, he at least knew how to act I guess.
“Fufu~ You do not need to worry so much, manager. I do not care about it and I am not insinuating anything. This was just a small reminder that I will not tolerate anything that would bring problems to my Family. The moment something that would implicate my Family shows up, it will be swiftly dealt with, understood?”
“Ah, of course, Madam Nilm…”
“Good. Now I presume our usual seats are available?”
“Yes, yes. Of course. Shall I show you to your seats?”
“That would be unnecessary. What are the highlights for today?”
“Ah! We have the famed Bjorn joining us today with his group of newly trained slaves. He’s–“
Mother waved his hand at him, “Not interested. What else?”
“Umm… We do have some new monsters that were captured from the–“
“No, something else?”
“Ah! Some new criminal slaves just came in from–“
“Next.”
“Err… That… Oh! There’s a noble who sold himself into slavery and he’s”
“Stop talking. Forget it, we shall see for ourselves.”
“Ah… Of course. Please enjoy your visit, Madam.”
Damn… I want to say I felt pity for him but the fact that he seemed to be partly responsible for illegal slavers, I don’t really feel that.
Also, I have a feeling Mother did all that just to put him on the spot and wasn’t even interested in knowing about the highlights at all.
Mother walked past the plump man and I followed a step behind her, which seemed to have gotten his attention as he eyed me purposefully as I walked past.
I know he wasn’t checking me out since I was wearing the mask but I guess he was trying to figure out my identity or something?
Does he know about me? Or maybe he’s one of those people who doesn’t know that Mother already has a child?
By the way he was scrunching up his eyebrows like he was trying to figure out a puzzle… I would think he certainly was.
When we were out of sight of the entrance, Mother slowed down and took my hand in hers before giving me a smile.
“Ufufufu~ Would my little one like to participate in the exhibition?”
I tilted my head slightly, “Eh? I thought the exhibition was for slaves only?”
“Ufufufu~ That is correct. I was referring to Katsuki, my little one~”
“Ah… I don’t intend for Katsuki to be put on display like some kind of prize, Mother. She’s mine and I’d like to keep it that way.”
“Ara, ara~ That’s so sweet my dear~ Although you do know that if Katsuki were to showcase her skills and gain the audience’s attention, it would also bring you prestige as her Mistress too, right?”
“Mmm… I don’t really care about that though? I mean… It’s not like I could make use of that prestige anyway.”
“Ufufufu~ That is true~ Although there are also other types of exhibitions too… Ufufufu, no matter~ Then let’s just head on inside, my little one~”
Mother led me by the hand and we went deeper into the building, which was an open hallway with several small corridors at the sides leading to god knows where.
Interestingly, there was barely anyone around in this part of the building so I’m assuming this place was only accessible for specific customers only.
That would most certainly explain the guards at the entrance I suppose.
We continued moving through the hall until we reached a particular door in one corner of the building that had a plaque that read ‘Nilm Family’ pinned on the door frame.
Unexpectedly, Mother stopped and turned to face me, “Mama needs to do some work here, my little one. Is there any exhibition that you might be interested in watching?”
I scratched my cheek, “Erm… Not really? Although Emilia did suggest that I go check out the combat slave exhibition at least so I guess there’s that?”
“Ufufufu~ That’s perfect, my dear~ In that case, my little one can go ahead and enjoy the exhibition with your friends~ Mama will meet you later, ok?”
I mean… Do I really have much of a choice anyway? The fact that Mother was intentionally splitting up with me instead of just letting me join her in that room must mean that there’s something there that she did not want me to see.
Oh well, it’s not that it’s that important to me anyway. I’m betting that Mother was just going to find more slaves to recruit for our family which didn’t really matter much to me.
I thus separated from Mother and the maids following us split up to form into two groups, one of them following Mother while my usual group followed me.
Mother then entered the room with her group of maids, leaving me with Katsuki and the others to head towards the combat slave exhibition.
I was just wondering where the place for that was when Katsuki spoke up, “Mistress. I know where it is.”
“Eh? You do? How?”
“I came here in the morning to familiarise myself with the place, Mistress.”
Eh? Wait a minute… But we set out in the morning too? How early did you come here to recce the place?! Did you even sleep last night?!
As though reading my thoughts, Katsuki merely bowed, “This is merely what is expected of me, Mistress. You do not need to worry about me.”
Hnngg!! That’s it! Come over here Katsuki! You’re getting a ton of headpats from me right now!!
“Mis… Mistress?” She gasped when I suddenly pulled her to me and started patting her head with all my might.
“Ehehehe~ Just accept it, Katsuki~ You’re so cute~ Mofu mofu~”
“Ngghh… I… I understand, Mistress… Ahhh… Mnn….”
Despite her trying to stay stoic, she was still showing signs of obvious pleasure which, of course included how hard her tail was wagging of course.
I then felt a tug on my arm and I looked to the side to see Delmare looking up at me with a pleading gaze while holding her notebook with her other hand.
‘Can I have some headpats too, Aster?’
Ahhhh!! Of course you can!! Here, here!! Headpats for you!
Naturally, Lisa and Odeta also wanted headpats of their own so I ended up giving all of them a head pat session right over there.
Ehehehe~ This is the best feeling ever~
Err… What were we doing again?
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