Chapter 591: Emilia Is Cool
Off the top of my head, there's only three groups of people that I can think of that might be watching us.
The first one was obvious, which would be the maids from my family watching over me of course. But the fact that I felt that chill meant that it wasn't exactly a friendly type of look I felt so it could not be them.
The next possible group would be Emilia's people watching her and though they are against her, I doubt they would send such a killing intent at her since they aren't aware that Emilia knows about their plans yet.
So with those two options out, that leaves the third option… Which was that ninja family that Crystal is part of.
I guess either she didn't or couldn't tell them about us in time or they were watching us for some other reason.
Though… I suppose there might be another completely unrelated group of people watching us as well. But I'm not sure who else might be interested in us.
I turned to Emilia and she grabbed me by the arm to pull me towards the stairs while whispering, "Yes, I felt it too. But don't let them know that we know."
Ivar descended the stairs without showing any change in his demeanour so I'm guessing he had completely no idea that we were being watched.
I followed Emilia's lead and acted like nothing was wrong and descended down the stairs after Ivar.
We eventually reached the basement where the supposed criminal slaves were stored and… Well… The sight of them down there was pretty much how I originally expected slaves to look.
There were rows upon rows of cages and a few of them were even chained up to the wall to restrict their freedom. A few of them even seemed to have suffered through a beating recently and most of them looked quite miserable.
I frowned, "Is there a need for them to be treated this badly though? If they already have been collared and trained, there's no need for this, is there?"
Ivar half turned at my comment, "Hmm? Oh this? Don't worry about it, it's just my hobby, really. I take the worst criminals and then make sure they suffer as much as possible before they get sold off."
… In other words, he tortures criminals for fun?
I'm actually not sure how I should feel about that…
I guess that really means we have nothing to worry about since this was literally his hobby and there's a lower chance of him screwing up?
He began walking down the row of cages and started introducing the people inside to us, the first one being a male Mahun.
"This one's a bandit, he had pillaged and raped the girls in three villages before getting caught. Even forced himself to steal the lips of two girls which is why he's here. I would personally recommend that he be used as a personal punching bag. Or if either of the young ladies have pets, he can also be used as a chew toy."
He didn't wait for our response before moving to the next cage and pointing to the female Wrunch inside, "This one's a serial rapist. She raped at least six men, three women and five futas before getting caught. According to the guards, she isn't even sorry that she got caught and even said that she would continue doing it after her sentence ends.
I recommend doing denial play with her if you're into that, if not, she can serve as a punching bag too."
Like before, he did not wait for us to say anything before going to the next cage. At this point, I believe he was less interested in showing us the slaves but was just simply showing off his collection or something.
Ivar pointed at the cage on our right where a male Yoblin was hung upside down on his foot.
"This one killed his family then burned down their home before passing himself off as an orphan and then burned down the orphanage and killed all the orphans inside it too. I would recommend testing out your whipping skills on him if you want him."
He was just about to move on before Emilia asked, "Do you have any thieves here?"
Ivan turned to face her, "Thieves? Hmm… I'm afraid that I do not have any since most thieves do not fit into the 'worst criminals' territory."
Emilia sighed, "Ah… That's a shame, I actually wanted to get myself a former thief slave. Is there any you like, Lady Nilm?"
I realised that she was just looking for an excuse to get out of here.
I shook my head, "I'm afraid I will also have to say that none caught my attention."
Ivar smiled at us, "That's a shame but no worries! I heard you would be attending the slave exhibition tomorrow, am I right, Lady Nilm?"
News must spread pretty fast around here.
"Yes, I am," I admitted.
"In that case, I have some slaves prepared for the exhibition tomorrow as well that aren't in the shop. Do look out for them! They might just be to your liking!"
"I'll keep that in mind. Thank you for the tour."
"No, no, the pleasure is all mine. Please come again whenever you feel like it."
Just as Emilia and I turned towards the stairs that would lead out of here, a figure suddenly appeared and threw something at Emilia.
She snatched it out of the air and when we looked back at the stairs, the figure was gone.
I realised that what Emilia held in her hands was a kunai that had a roll of paper wrapped around its handle.
Emilia unwrapped the paper and revealed its contents, which turned out to be just three simple words.
"Watch your back."
Emilia scoffed and scrunched up the paper into a ball, "Those bastards think they can threaten me? Well, I'd like to see them try doing something!"
Ivar looked a little concerned, "Umm… Do you ladies need help? I have a safe room at the very end of the basement."
Emilia shook her head, "Unnecessary. If those little thieves even think they can come and fight me, let them."
Ah, so it really was the ninja family? At least that's what I'm assuming from what Emilia had said.
They got here pretty fast huh? Or maybe they had been tracking Crystal from the start and the sister's call for help only made them show themselves?
We thanked Ivar again and left the basement of the slave shop after that to go out into the open.
Almost instantly, I could feel the killing intent that I felt the first time we were going to the basement again.
I looked at her, "Should we… End our outing here then?"
Emilia huffed, "Why should we? To show them that we're afraid of them? Hell no. I'd say we just go on like that never happened and I'll show them what's the difference in power between us!"
"Err… Are you sure about that? Do we even need to take this risk?"
"Hmph, you forget who you're talking to, Lady Nilm. I am not just some powerless little merchant. I fight my own battles. Since they felt confident to challenge me like this, then let them come. You hear that, you cowards?!"
As though accepting her challenge, several knives came flying out of nowhere and headed straight towards her.
Emilia didn't even bother drawing the sword at her waist and merely snatched all the knives out of the air by the handles.
She looked in the direction the knives appeared even though there was no one there, "Was that the best you can do? I thought you at least had some kind of skill if you were willing to challenge me like that but I guess it's just another pathetic one."
Another knife was thrown at the Nekomata from behind and Emilia didn't even look before snatching the other knife out of the air as well.
She let out an exaggerated sigh, "So slow. Couldn't you have thrown that any faster? That was pathetic. Almost as pathetic as the younger sister who practically jumped onto an enemy ship unprepared and got done in pretty much immediately."
There was a soft growl coming from another direction right before the air above us was filled with knives and flew down towards us as if guided by an unseen force.
I was just about to try and defend myself when Emilia moved her hand to her waist to grab her sword handle.
I saw the flash of metal for a moment but her hand didn't look like it moved at all.
Then, a split second after that flash, all the knives in the air were deflected away to land around us harmlessly.
Emilia chuckled, "Do you see what the difference is between you and me now? If I wanted to cut you down, I would have already done so the very moment you appeared. Go home you stupid mutt."
I felt the presence withdraw albeit grudgingly.
…
She's really cool… I wanna pat her…
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