3.8

Now that he's gotten so cooperative, there is no way for me to refuse unless I want to be taken for a complete douchebag.

I would like to believe that he's doing it out of the kindness of his heart, but he's a merchant. Kindness is not a part of their trade, unless they can squeeze some coin out of it. Then again, even if he has some ulterior motive, I guess it works out for me just fine. Thanks to that I will truly be able to buy someone as beautiful as Roxanne for myself. Besides, what would both of them have to gain from trying to deceive me like that?

Alan-san mentioned that she's still a virgin, just like all the other female slaves in this store, and we have already established that it is like that because virgin female slaves are worth significantly more than fully capable male slaves. Is it about the money after all? Could it be that the Slave Merchant and Roxanne know that once I'll set out to collect the rest of the gold necessary for the purchase I will probably have much more than that and they plan on stealing it from me after Roxanne kills me? No, that can't possibly be the case. If it was really like that, such a plan wouldn't have even a shred of sense, because Roxanne would have died along with me, and that would prevent both her from getting her share of gold and Alan-san from selling her to some other guy willing to cough up the dough. Well, that is all considering that his explanation about the relationship between a master and his slaves was not made up.

Another option is that the two of them were really just trying to have me buy Roxanne, using the good business opportunity to their advantage. I am willing to bet that Alan-san thinks that if I will be satisfied with Roxanne, I will be willing to purchase more slaves from him in the future, but I'm too blind to see this because my crippling social anxiety robbed me of one of the most essential abilities we humans can have: to have a little faith in your fellow men.

「I'm glad that you are willing to give me the benefit of the doubt, but even with that I cannot guarantee that I'll be able to procure the necessary amount.」

「In that case I'll have to sell her to another customer, which won't be hard at all, considering how beautiful she is.」

「So what you're telling me is that I have to get my ass up in gear and get the money as fast as possible because other clients are ready to buy her? Is that why you gave me those five days?」

I tried to get that information out of him.

「Unfortunately I'm afraid I cannot tell you anything, Michio-sama. That is a company secret. In other words, that knowledge is none of your concern. If you really want to buy dear Roxanne, then I suggest setting your priorities to getting the money, nothing more, nothing less.」

「And here I thought you were on my side!」

「I am on no one's side, Michio-sama. I am, first and foremost, a merchant, a man of business. As long as I get my money, the matter of who gets to be the girl's new owner does not matter to me.」

That statement was cruel, but also perfectly logical at the same time. I should have known. Of course. He's a merchant, the one dealing with slaves. To him, they are nothing that goods which need to be sold either to those who have the money and are willing to spend them, or to the highest bidder.

「Dear customer, as I said, as long as it's those five days, I am willing to wait for you.」

Roxanne looked at me and smiled again. Her perfectly white teeth could be seen through the narrow gap between her glossy, cherry-like lips.

Beautiful, she's just transcendently beautiful.

「All right. Now that that's settled, Roxanne will be moving to the sold slave's quarters.」

「As you wish, master. I will make the preparations at once.」

Alan-san relayed the news to the older lady. So I guess that means the game is all set now.

「Yes, be sure to do that. Michio-sama, let us be on our way. You as well, Roxanne.」

The older lady guided Roxanne to the room across the one I have previously entered, while Alan-san and I moved towards the stairs leading back to the shop's ground floor.

「Yes. Uhm, Mr. Customer, thank you for your patronage.」

Roxanne bowed to me three times in succession, each bow deeper than the last one. Her dog ears were shaking in a cute way. Yup, the game is on for real. If I can truly have something so precious for myself, then I have to get the money no matter what!

「Let's go.」

「Yeah.」

The two of us went down the stairs without looking back again. Okay, now that we were left alone again, I guess it's time to do a little prodding.

「You took quite a gamble there. What if I really won't be able to get the money? Cause it's not like I'm some kinda magician who can conjure them up from thin air you know?」

I started the conversation as we were going down the stairs.

「Oh, I don't think it's like that at all. I heard that you have single-handedly defeated a group of wanted criminals. If that information is indeed true, then that would mean that you managed to earn between 120,000 to 200,000 Nar in less than one day.」

It was a guess on his part but wasn't that much off the mark. He actually managed to estimate the amount of Nar I got fairly accurately. But even so, he still seems to be forgetting about one thing: he wants me to get 420,000 Nar to pay for Roxanne's purchase. Now, in order to get so much money in the shortest amount of time possible, the best option would be to go to the newly discovered Labyrinth and hope to find some valuable items there, but if I want such an escapade not to be anything else than a glorious suicide method, I would have to get myself a Party first, and getting myself a Party would mean the necessity of splitting the loot obtained from raiding the Labyrinth equally between all the Party members, and that would automatically diminish my personal gains, to the point where procuring the desired amount of Nar would be pretty much impossible to achieve.

What the Slave Merchant doesn't know, however, is the fact that just two days ago I was nothing more but a depressed teenager who wanted to end his own miserable existence, having achieved nothing and not obtaining any money at all, be it my world's Yen or this world's Nar. Even after being transported here, the only reason I was able to mop the floor with those Bandits was because I managed to obtain a ridiculously OP weapon for myself after countless experiments with Bonus Points and the Skills. Same goes for milking as much money as possible out of everyone. If not for the Character Reset option which can be used as many times as you want and the fact that performing a Reset takes less than a minute if you know exactly what you want to reset into, I wouldn't have as much dough on me as I have now. What I'm trying to say is that I was only successful so far because my 「special treatment」 as a player allowed me to become somewhat of a demi-god compared to all those people who thought that a Slow Rabbit or a Gummi Slime were terrifying monstrosities that should be avoided at all costs.

「I'm just saying, you should prepare yourself to be extremely disappointed, just in case.」

「I will, you don't have to worry about that. But my intuition is telling me that you're going to be all right. I believe I have mentioned this before, but I have a pretty good eye when it comes to appraising people and their value as potential business partners.」

Dude, where does that confidence of yours come from and why don't you share some of it with me?

With such thoughts in my mind, we returned to the guest room we were initially sitting in.

Currently there are only two ways of obtaining money that would allow me to achieve my goal. One of them was raiding the Labyrinth on my own and hoping for the best. The ideal scenario here would be that I manage to find enough valuable Drop Items to get myself at least 100,000 Nar per day, peaking at 500,000 Nar after five days. Enough to buy Roxanne, and just enough to have some spare change for some initial lodging and food costs. Honestly though, such an outcome is extremely unlikely.

Normally, one piece of Rabbit's Fur was 10 Nar, so in order to get any significant amount of money out of it I would have to hunt a shit-ton of them, and even then I have no way of knowing if all of those encounters would end with me getting an item that I want. From the info that I have gathered so far, it looks like one defeated enemy can only leave one item behind when it dies, and it won't always be the same one. Supposedly there are also stronger monsters who drop more valuable items with higher rarity, but whether or not I will be able to deal with them by myself is unknown at this point.

Another option would be to hunt more Bandits and collect the bounties placed on their heads. If the average sum is 160,000 Nar, I should be able to get the necessary amount a little bit faster. Is the Slave Merchant's confidence in me coming from that? I… I honestly don't know if I should think of it as incredibly naïve or progressive of him.