Chapter 32 - Employment Agency

Gren was a bit uncomfortable once he realized that he was getting a lot of stares from the people around him. Obviously they were staring in envy at his food-powered carriage with a whopping one dragonpower that was fully equipped with wings for more downforce and had front bumpers; it even came optional with its own front-facing flamethrower! It wasn't at all that they found it odd for--what appeared to be--a human child to be sitting on a carriage that was being pulled gleefully by a draconoid. Gren had decided to conveniently ignore reality.

"So, what kind of workers are we looking for? You said you couldn't move things so they'll have to be strong, right?" Gren wanted to ignore the stares so he decided to distract himself with conversation. "Are you sure we can trust them?"

"We'll need to get a single demihuman that's much stronger than me or a few that are just as strong as me. It depends on how much money we've got and whether or not there is anybody that matches our requirements. As for trust it really depends on the individual so I'd rather be cautious and pick people without a criminal background." Jasmine seems to have put some thought into it.

"So this place we're going to is an employment center? Are there any warriors or mercenaries there?" Gren was thinking about hiring some people to "test" some weapons so that he could earn some points. Then he could give them the weapons as part of their payment and hire on a different group. This would give him a steady stream of points. Then he could start selling weapons to make even more points while making money at the same time.

"Ummm, I'm not sure what that is but they should have warriors and even ex-soldiers though they'd probably have a criminal background. There might be some that were injured but I don't think they would be able to fight." Jasmine hadn't heard of anything called an employment center.

"If you hadn't heard of one then it's fine. They're basically just places where you pay for workers." Gren didn't know much about the cities so he didn't know if there was something similar.

"I've never heard it called that but that sounds a lot like the place we're going. This is the only one that deals with demihumans. I haven't been there before but I hear that my dad's companions were bought from here. Ah, we're almost there. You can see it up ahead." Bought? Gren hoped that she just meant hired.

Up ahead was a large building and a Gren could see someone entering the place with an animal in a cage. After getting closer, Gren could see that his initial thoughts were wrong. Inside the small cage was a small person covered in hair. The cat person was pulling at the bars and shouting at the person carrying the cage. It seemed like the cat person had scratched the person judging by the cuts on their arms and the marks on their thick gloves. "There's nyo way that my meowster would throw away her purrescious Purrnina."

Any empathy that Gren felt for the cat person's situation seemed to have disappeared. There's no way that he'd get involved with someone that had such an annoying way of speaking. Not only that but it seemed like they were proud to be someone's pet. The only thing Gren could do is pray for her to find a wealthy cat lady to leech off of. And with that thought he put his hands together and bowed his head.

With that distraction out of the way, Gren was hauled to the back of this building where various types of carriages could be seen. There was even a carriage that had bars on it that looked like the kind used to haul prisoners in the wild west. Gren had already figured out what kind of place this was but decided that he'd go in anyways. He could just remove their collars and free them after they finished the job.

Jasmine parked the carriage and one of the nearby guards started walking towards the two of them, only arriving after Gren had been taken down from the carriage. The guard took out two identical wooden tags and hung one on the carriage. The guard hesitated a bit but handed the other tag to Jasmine after glancing at her neck.

After receiving the tag she hung it around her neck and spoke to Gren. "They give us these so that they know whether or not we own the carriage. If we lose it then they'll call the guards and we'll have to prove that it's our carriage before we're allowed to go. Also, most large companies like this will write down our descriptions when we take the tag to prevent someone from taking the tag stealing the carriage."

When Gren and Jasmine entered the building there was an attendant nearby that approached them. "Welcome to the Genrich Trading Company." The attendant looked over at Jasmine's neck before continuing. "What type of slave are you looking for today?" Gren could tell that the employees were verifying whether or not Jasmine was a slave but ignored it. They dealt with demihumans and it was better than the employees assuming that she was a slave.

Jasmine is the one that responded. "We're looking for strong demihuman slaves. It would be best if they had no criminal record. I'd like to look at the women first but if I can't find what I'm looking for then I'll want to see the men." Jasmine had everything thought out already.

The attendant nodded. "Understood. And what would be your upper limit for today?" The attendant was always smiling and speaking with a happy voice.

Jasmine was about to speak when Gren responded. "No upper limit. Show us the best you've got and we'll decide whether or not the price is reasonable."

"Understood. Would the two ladies follow me?" It had been a while since Gren had been called a girl. Gren didn't realize it but the faded red robe looked like it was pink to people that didn't know it was supposed to be red.