5 Chapter 4

In the study room, one could find Omar poring over several documents with a considerably annoyed gaze. He has been at this for several days now, and it was still as infuriating as the first time he looked at it.

"Miss Chedale, please remind me, do we have a way to go back to the past?"

The canine demihuman looked at her master with a raised brow as she answered.

"As I told you previously, that is not something possible. So please stop imagining going back to the past to slap your father stupid and get back to work."

"Che, you are no fun." Omar said as he continued to look over the documents.

He had already received the expected 'no' from the Royal Family in his request for help in dealing with the bandits, as such Omar was now waiting for a reply from the Hakoku about a possible alliance of convenience.

Of course, Omar had no intentions of blindly depending on just one possible way to deal with the bandit problem he had. As such he had also sent out a request for a slave caravan to come over as he intended to buy several specimens.

It was a good thing that bandits would hardly ever dare to attack one such caravan, that being due to how the slave trade guild was an extremely dangerous 'beast' in this continent and the bandits gained far too much by selling captives as slaves to the guild. If any bandit group attacked a caravan then all buying of slaves in the region would come to a halt and dozens of assassins would be sent over until the group that attacked was eliminated.

Hells, most times there wasn't even a need to send assassins as the other bandits would hunt down the idiots that attacked a slave caravan so as to make the slave trading business return to normal.

Shame that the slave trade caravans were basically the only caravans that could come into the territory safely right now. This bandit issue was truly infuriating.

"Miss Chedale, when exactly will the caravan arrive?" Omar questions to which Chedale looks over some papers before speaking.

"They should be arriving in a few hours."

"Excellent. I will go to the library for now as I still need to look over some things before they arrive." Omar said, standing up and preparing to leave only to have Chedale stand before him.

"I am sorry, but last I've seen you have a pile of paperwork you need signing considering your plans." She said to which Omar grumbled and sat back down.

"Tch, that is why you can't find a boyfriend." He said to which she just ignores his words.

This was a rather unusual relationship between master and slave, but Omar quickly put Chedale to work as his secretary after she acclimated to the work. She was an excellent subordinate and worked extremely well in all regards, being proper and capable in basically all aspects.

Knowing this, Omar made sure to instruct her to speak her mind and not care about decorum or their positions all that much when they were at work. Someone as capable as her would be able to see flaws in Omar's actions and point them out, helping him correct them.

And, as to be expected of a former noble and someone qualified to tutor Royalty, she took to those words quite nicely and became something of an anchor to stop him from doing anything truly stupid.

"I will just sleep in the library tonight then," he said to which she shrugged.

"If that is your decision, you are the lord here and you dictate the rules. However, tomorrow you have sword class early in the morning and magic lessons right after before back to administrative duties, so try to not tire yourself out too much and sleep well." Chedale said to which Omar almost smirked.

He had LITERALLY infinite stamina, he could not 'tire himself out' even if he tried, as far as he was concerned. He used the night to study up in the library about anything and everything he could.

From what Omar understood, his house was once an extremely prosperous kingdom until around 100 years ago when it got on the verge of collapse due to Siltvelt's expansionism of the time.

They were invaded and were losing badly, but they managed to hold firm regardless even if it was just a question of time before their fall. It was due to Melromark that raised its flag to face the advances of Siltvelt that the Centurion Royal Family even survived in the end, so desperate was the situation. However, this was not for free, and, in the end, the Centurion Royal family became a vassal of Melromark and turned into the newest Dukedom of Melromark and the frontlines of the fight against Siltvelt.

This is relevant because ALL the books from the former kingdom Royalty were still in the Centurion Library, books about magic, science, botany, alchemy, enchanting, warfare, politics, art, architecture, shipwrights, and a lot more. Despite becoming a part of Melromark the Centurion house by no means gave the accumulation of their kingdom to Melromark, especially when the Centurion house was much older than Melromark itself having been the oldest kingdom before their ultimate downfall.

Thanks to this Omar, who could learn things from books extremely fast and was reading them daily for several hours a day, was still very far from reading all there was to read there.

He already had learned much, but he would need practical experience to truly master most of it.

He didn't even bother sleeping to look for information from the Grand Line Essence because, in the end, that knowledge belongs to a different system and world.

Who knows what he will find there? He could spend hours learning something that would be useless and, if that was so, then he would be better served to learn more of the things from this world to help the territory and to be able to better teach the future slaves he intends to buy.

He can always slowly learn from the Grand Line essence later after at least helping stabilize his territory's condition and set things in motion correctly.

As Omar thought about what was to come, he couldn't help but frown at the thought of slave-owning. He honestly didn't want to depend on slavery that much, but what option did he really have? There was hardly anyone trustworthy around him besides Brian, there were bandits everywhere and his small army was mostly useless as it was now.

He had too much money and he feared even going out of his house right now as who knows who might try to kidnap him for his money. With slaves he could at least trust them to not betray or harm him, he could teach them the jobs they would be better suited for and give them a decent life, he had the money for that.

As he reclined in his chair, Omar took a look at the documents he had in front of him and groaned. The backlog of documents that needed to be signed and looked over by the Duke was far too huge and, once again, Omar cursed his useless father to high heaven for, during his 6 years of tenure, never once bothering with dealing with the paperwork and leaving everything to Omar to solve now.

///---///

"Dear customer, it is a pleasure for me to come over to meet you on a day like this." A fat small man with a top hat said with a wide smile, four of his teeth being made of pure gold and his beady little black eyes hidden behind black glasses.

Overall, he looked like a villain right from the get-go.

"And it is a pleasure to meet you as well, I apologize for any inconvenience you might have found in your way to come over here." Omar said with a gentle smile to which the slave trader waved him off.

"No worries, no worries. It was quite easy for someone like me to come over, even if I am a bit surprised that you called for me instead of coming to the capital if you have any need for my merchandise. It is what your father and mother usually did when they wanted new items to spice up their lives." the merchant said to which Omar waved him off, knowing his parents liked running away from their territory and problems to go to the capital and buy slaves for their carnal pleasures.

Thankfully they always made sure to only get infertile slaves as to not have children and they took their bed partners away, the last thing Omar needed was to have inheritance issues due to some corrupt asshole trying to push a half-brother to take over, and the lovers of his parents around causing issues and trying to pretend to be family.

"Well, my parents were failures as nobles but I am personally very busy trying to fix all the issues they generated," Omar said honestly, and it was true. Even if mostly ineffective he sent out his knights with a simple directive, every three knights form a band and they had to return to the castle every month with at least 10 bandits heads or their salary would be cut in half and they would suffer corporal punishment. It was not a popular decision, but it was one he did anyway.

To make it more bearable he also put that the top scorrers, the ones with the most kills, would be the ones to deliver punishment and the salaries cut would be given to those at the top depending on their contribution.

The reason for this is simple. If the useless knights were united it would be hard to manage them and their punishment would be hard to deal with as they might revolt. Omar lacked the absolute strength to force them to obey right now, but, from the moment an hierarchy based on merit is formed, those at the top would only feel like the Duke who gave them more money is wise while those at the bottle would just think that those at the top are the ones guilty and try to replace them while the top would fight to stay at the top.

Either way, both groups would not focus their anger of their reality at Omar as he wasn't the one who appeared when the evil actions were happening, they would blame each other the most as time passed and by the time their minds change, hopefully the situation of the dukedom would no longer be the same and he could dispose of those who become rebellious while keeping those who would become fanatically loyal.

"Besides," Omar said with a kind smile. "I did promise you a good deal and I am sure we can work something highly profitable between us." Omar said to which the slave trader's eyes took a shine to thought of money coming in.

"Yes, yes, I am sure it will be profitable." The slave trader said as he indicated for the young lord to follow him. "Please, right this way. I brought you all the slaves I have in hand for you to take a look over as you mentioned in your message you wish to buy them in bulk."

As he said so he began walking through various cages and palanquins where the slaves were located. There were humans and demihumans of all sorts, it was only a shame that there weren't many truly rare breeds as they were normally stronger in potential and talent. However, even without that there were still some good results found, even without that rare species there was still an abundance of talent to go around here. There were some that were even just as talented in some areas as Astrid, and she was a top genius in magic. That alone made them worth the money, even if it was several hundred gold coins, they would be worth it for Omar.

All in all, there were around four hundred fifty slaves for sale, an impressive if somewhat small number. They all had a sign describing their characteristics as well as their special attributes, levels, and whatever else there was to know about them.

After looking over everything Omar nodded his head a few times before asking.

"Interesting, and about monsters? Do you have some for sale as well?" Omar questioned to which the slave trader frowned slightly before nodding his head and returning to his usual looks.

"Yes, of course. Right this way, my Lord." The slave trader said and brought Omar along.

The section for monsters was quite a bit smaller, by comparison, there were around 60 filolial, 25 griphons, 63 caterpiland (a type of monster that looks like a caterpilar and is good at pulling carriages), 30 elemental horses, and 9 earth dragons for sale together with around 120 monster eggs.

Nodding his head again and again at what he was seeing Omar turned to the slave trader and spoke up.

"I will take it."

Hearing these words the slave trader quickly got excited as he would be able to sell quite well this time around.

"Excellent, who will you buy from me?"

Omar just tilted his head in confusion.

"Wasn't I clear enough? I said I will take it, as in ALL of them. Slaves and monsters alike."

The slave trader froze, his eyes blinking incomprehensively as he tried to understand his words.

"You, you intend to buy ALL of them?"

"Yes, your merchandise is of good quality and I am in need of fresh blood to reinvigorate my personal. How much will it all cost?" Omar said nonchalantly.

His lands lacked industry, safety, commerce, and population, but they certainly didn't lack gold and money. Even with years of war spending a lot of money, they were after all a former royal house of the oldest kingdom in the continent.

Adding to that, the rewards it received from being the winners of said war, they had almost as much gold as even the Royal family of Melromark who took the lion's share of the spoils of war. His coffers had right now around 200 million gold coins entirely at his disposal to spend however he wanted, and that was without considering the works of art and other things that could be turned into money, funds were ultimately not any true issue for Omar.

"I, I will need some time to calculate everything and-"

"How about three thousand gold coins for it all?"

"DEAL!" The slave trader said. Sure, there were some slaves there that were expensive up to even twenty gold coins, but most weren't even worth more than three or four silvers, and one needed 100 silver coins to make a gold coin.

Truly, what Omar was offering was almost forty percent more than what these slaves were actually worth. The slave trader quickly added the epithet 'sucker' to Omar in his mind, thinking him someone that would be quite easy to trick.

However, Omar had his own plans and reasons for making a deal like this, even if it was economically bad as a plan.

"I am thinking that I need to repopulate these lands, you see. I wanted to buy several slaves to help with that, mostly children and women. Even if they are sickly or have amputations or other physical problems, there would be absolutely no issue as I would buy anyone as long as they are breathing. Do you believe you and your friends in the guild can find some of those for me?" Omar asked, knowing the answer.

"Of course, I will talk with my compatriots with the Slave Trade Guild and I am sure we can create something of a permanent trade route where we can bring in the goods." The slave trader said, when a lord spoke about such profitable business there was no merchant that would ignore it.

It wouldn't cost them much of anything to take care of that, after all, and it would be good to have somewhere to throw their useless merchandise and get money back.

Not that Omar minded if the merchandise is 'useless'. If the slaves were sickly they could serve as test subjects for healing procedures and miss Chedale was a great doctor and healer anyway. Most would certainly be able to be cured and perhaps new medicines could be found with the wider subjects to study and the funds needed for the study of cures that could save who knows how many others.

It was not a pretty thing to say, but those truly sickly slaves would otherwise not even have a chance of surviving, dying meaninglessly. Better to have at least a fighting chance by becoming Omar's propriety and, if they still perish, at least have left clues to heal others with similar afflictions and ensure less meaningless deaths. Not even considering that Omar had access to Devil Fruits, he could always just find a fruit that could help with medicine later on.

Besides that, the more relevant matter is that creating any sort of trade route, even if right now only for slavery, would be a boom for Omar. If he wanted to develop his lands he needed trade routes to let goods circulate, if slave ships came over and started using his port to transport slaves around Melromark and Siltvelt through this route as well, that is all for the better.

That is a trade and the start of an economy, even if an untasteful start for one, and that was something he desperately needed to start revitalizing his lands.

After shaking hands with the Slave Trader it was a fast process to sign all the documents and complete all the necessary rituals to have all those slaves and beasts connected directly to Omar.

Omar was quite satisfied with this purchase and quickly got to work. With the help of Brian, he organized all the able-bodied slaves available, part would help take the beasts to the stables with the help of the mirage fox clan who were quite good at taming monsters while the rest helped miss Astrid in building a shelter for everyone to sleep in before proper housing could be provided. Say what you will about the young magic caster, but she was definitely one of the greatest talents in earth magic in this century.

As for Omar himself, he went straight with Chedale to see all the sickly slaves amongst those bought. While going there he pointed to around 19 of the new slaves and spoke up.

"You guys, come with me. You have the talent for healing, and we have a lot of need of such talent." Omar said as he beckoned to come with him. It was as good a chance as any to let these new guys to start learning some practical skills regarding healing and with Omar in the lead instructing them he was confident they would quickly improve in their techniques.

///---///

It took several hours of back-breaking work to get everything done, but Omar was quite satisfied with the results he got by the end of it.

[First Aid (intermediary)] - a basic survival skill, often used, when no healing magic is available. Allows for quick healing of the body via natural methods like bandaging and aplying herbs to injury.

[Operation (Beginner)] - Allows the user to know how to operate someone's body to fix problems in it.

[Human/Demihuman biology knowledge (Intermediary)] - Knowledge of how the body of humans and demihumans work, what each part does, and all it entails.

Omar was quite satisfied as he got three new skills in and with two reaching intermediary in just an afternoon of work. Thanks to his, miss Chedale, and the 19 slaves that helped in treatment the slaves that before were close to death or had debilitating injuries now were on their way to being properly healthy.

Not only that, it was clear that seeing their new owner literally putting his hands in the work to help heal their sickly or injured members made the other slaves have a better opinion of him, especially since he calmly explained everything to those he selected to help with the work. Even when they failed at something he instructed patiently about what the mistake was and pointed out what it was they did wrong as well as how to fix their mistakes.

Having completed the treatment for healing the more injured slaves Omar asked Chedale to find him a booklet and bring it over. When he had it in hand he began walking through all the slaves, taking their names and writing down their individual talents, their current levels, and everything else of note he found about them including if they needed any unique form of care, either physical or mental. It was a somewhat slow process and by the time it was over it was already well into the night.

"Thank you all for the information. Dinner will be served in a short while." Omar said with a friendly smile to everyone there who was honestly surprised by a lord, especially one so young, that bought so many of them but was treating them like actual people instead of mere tools.

After Omar spoke these words he pointed out around 40 of the slaves and directed them to follow him. While passing by he noted the several monster eggs and took the smallest one, it was only a bit bigger than a chicken's egg but Omar could feel great talent from this one so he took it to see what exactly it would bring.

With that done he continued moving inside the mansion, egg in hand. With all 40 selected slaves following him they walked silently, the slaves were still afraid of what this new master of theirs would do to them.

Coming with him to the kitchens, Omar named 25 of them and directed these slaves to start working there under the tutelage of the current cook present. In truth, Omar wanted to stay there as well to learn how to cook as to teach others more effectively, but the other 15 would need him more at the moment and the cook present would work well to help build the foundations of these 25 that had a good talent for the cooking arts.

Of course, he let express orders not to abuse, belittle, or mistreat these slaves and to treat them like disciples or assistants if at all possible, which again was quite a shock for the slaves there. Some were slaves that became thus a short while ago but there were some that were already 'used goods', having been bought by multiple masters before. Seeing their owner's treatment of them, it felt less like a slave and more like an employee.

Walking further in the mansion Omar called in Brian. Of these 15 that followed him, 14 were of similar talents, if not higher, than Brian himself in being a butler and management. Considering Brian had managed to keep the Dukedom afloat for six years while the Duke refused to do any work and made only policies that were counterproductive to the development of the land, one could see how capable Brian was.

If Omar could have 14 others people with similar capabilities to Brian working for him, then dealing with the bureaucracy of the Dukedom would be much easier to deal with and the advances of the place would be greater without a doubt.

And finally, after arriving in his own study, Omar turned to the final person that was with him.

The final one was a boy with blue hair and red eyes and wolf ears and tail, he was about eleven years old, being five years older than Omar himself, and was quite thin. He had an even higher level of talent than Brian when it comes to talent for a butler, eclipsing him in some areas and would definitely be taught by the old buttler later, but ultimately his abilities towards administration were not particularly good while his talents for combat were extraordinary. Omar thought about it and with his talents, he would see that he is trained both as a butler and as a fighter, it would be tough but doable Omar believed.

This boy was a werewolf demihuman. Werewolves (also known as werefurs in some places) are a large, wolf-like group of demi-humans, being normally quite tall and sturdy. In their therianthrope form, they can different colors of furs from blue to grey with this boy clearly being of the blue variety. A werewolf, when in this therianthrope form, have great stats across the board. Having someone like that by his side, later on, would be reassuring.

Looking at him carefully Omar nodded, again and again, there was a total of four truly talented individuals amongst the selection he bought from the slave trader for combat and this one was the first place even if by only a sliver. The others, he can just meet later if needed, but before that Omar felt that he should just concentrate on one at a time and he had a good feeling about this one. With a kind smile, he spoke up.

"Let me reintroduce myself, in case you haven't heard my name. I am Omar Centurion, a Duke of Melromark. While I bought you, I have no intention of abusing or hurting you in any way, you will receive proper payment, training, and living conditions. I brought you here for one simple reason, I have the ability to see through someone's potential, and from all those brought over, I have seen that you are the most capable one for what I desire. As a Duke, I will need someone to stand by my side to be my personal butler and bodyguard moving forward, and I want you to take that position. Can you do it?"

The boy looks scared before shaking his head frantically.

Omar frowned slightly but asked.

"Can you tell me why exactly you can't do this? I assure you that your training, while rigorous, would not be hard to the point you can't handle. Your conditions will be most ideal, your payment will be generous and, if you desire to leave later on and be a free man, I won't stop you at the time."

The boy looks around a bit frantic, searching for something. After a while he finds what he was looking for, a pen and paper.

Taking it in hand he scrambles in it for a bit before showing it to Omar and opening his mouth.

'I am a werewolf but had my tongue and fangs removed. Without having those I can't grow in levels or transform my body so I won't be able to do what you ask.'

Reading those words Omar thought back on the description of the werewolf race, there was a mention of that. A werewolf demihuman had three key aspects they must have if they want to keep growing, their tongues so they can howl, their fangs so they can bite, and their nails so they can claw at the enemy. If one is lost, they can't transform, if two are lost, they can't grow in levels, and if all three are lost their vitality soon vanishes and they die.

Having just those two lost, it made him unable to communicate by speaking and can't grow any stronger, it was truly locking his paths for growth all around.

Looking at this kid who had this sort of punishment inflicted on him, Omar felt sorry for him. However-

"That won't be a problem." Omar said confidently, making the kid surprised. "I can heal you from those, no problem. In less than two months I will have a cure for you that will definitely heal you from all this and give you back your fangs and tongue. Of course, I will do that regardless of whether you accept my proposal or not, but, if you no longer have this problem, would you be willing to become my personal butler?"

The kid looks at Omar, who was smaller than him but felt larger in the kid's eyes, and wrote down.

'Yes, my Lord.'

///---///

AN:

Guess who this adorable ball of blue fur is. Hehe, I wonder who can find out.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed it and I was wondering something and would like your guy's opinion. I have hit some issues with deciding on the guardians since I don't think stealing too many party members of Naofumi and the others is a good idea.

Omar doesn't want to replace the heroes or kill them. What he wants is to actually be able to effectively help them not only in the waves but also be decent human beings (so, no utter stupidity for the dumb trio). He wants to make sure they survive and are of actual use against the waves instead of depending on Naofumi for everything, as well as create a strong enough army to help fight the waves.

Basically, it is doing what Naofumi does in the WN, but taking more time to do it and with my own spin into it as well as without depending on the cheat of a Hero Weapon that makes leveling, alchemy, stats, and everything easier. So, I hit a problem.

There aren't enough characters unless I take those from the heroes' parties. Right now, after a lot of discussion with my cowriter, I only have a total of 6 guardians with 6 open spots. So, I came to an intersection.

Should I let another world's character to be guardians or not? If not, I will have to use barely known characters, that would be no different from OCs, as well as actual OCs. Heck, I am looking at Takt's harem for possible guardians, and all of them are extremely annoying people all around and come with all sorts of problematic personalities. Hells, even thought of getting someone from Glass' world and even Glass herself.

So, there you have it. If I do follow through and use characters from other realities they would be from the Taimanin series (as they would be relatively easy to write) and Kamidori Alchemy Maester, which are all hentais but have decent enough plot and can be used quite well overall. If I do that, Yukikaze and Rinko would be maids and guardians BTW, just in case anyone is wondering. Up to you guys to decide, and I need to have this figured out as soon as possible since I need to decide on Devil fruits and organize the time to work out.

So much math for a fanfic, sheesh.