Chapter 34 - Company Policy

Gren was still worried about the shape-shifting woman but she wasn't saying anything anymore. It seemed like she was traumatized by what she experienced. The Advanced Arsenal was useful but he didn't know what was controlling it. Was the monster that she saw an administrator or was there some other reason for her vision?

{Do you know what she saw?}

<Unknown query>

{Is there a monster controlling the Advanced Arsenal?}

<Unknown query>

Gren didn't know how to word his questions to get an answer. He couldn't ask about something somewhere and expect the AI to know what he meant.

{What does the Administrator look like?}

<Insufficient Access>

It seemed like that line of questioning was understood but he forgot that the AI didn't like telling him anything important.

"Greeennn! I found the perfect person!" It seemed like Jasmine found someone strong. Of course, if they were a female demihuman then he would be buying her anyways. Gren walked towards the door and realized that every time he walked there was a second set of footsteps. Turning around, there was Tahloh. Her thighs were still wet but Thomas didn't have anything on him to help dry her with.

"Wait." The voice that Gren had heard was the shape-shifting woman. "Orc girl, come here. I can help clean you up. It's only fair since I caused it. Human waste is just food to my kind." Gren didn't want to watch but couldn't look away.

Tahloh walked over to her and Gren watched as black tentacles extended from the cage and enveloped Tahloh's crotch and thighs. "Hey, Gre... what is this?" Jasmine came in to see why Gren wasn't coming when she called to him. She didn't know what she was witnessing. Tentacle play, maybe?

"Ah, the black ball girl is just helping clean her. It seems like she eats human waste." Jasmine chopped him on the head. "Hey, what was that for?"

"We haven't even been here an hour and you've already tried impregnating one of the slaves?" Jasmine seemed to be angry but it was really a misunderstanding.

"No, she peed after being scared by the black ball girl. It wasn't me this time." Gren didn't hesitate to sell out Tahloh to save his own skin.

Jasmine chose to believe him for now and pulled him away from the NSFW scene. The other female demihuman area was on just on the other side of the hall. However, before the two of them could make it to the other room there was a group of five guards and a well-dressed man with conventionally attractive facial features that were being led their way by the attendant. Jasmine was surprised but Gren knew what they were here for. "This is the customer." The attendant pointed towards Gren with her entire arm.

The well-dressed man introduced himself with a slight bow. "The name is Albert Genrich; I am the head of the Adierton branch of the Genrich Trading Company." Albert straightened his back and continued, changing his tone. "Now that I got the introduction out of the way there's one thing I need to ask you first. Are you serious?"

Jasmine was looking between the two of them confused. "Absolutely. As long as you don't try to rip me off and I find that they're at a reasonable price then I'll buy them all." Gren couldn't explain things to Jasmine now since he was already discussing things with a merchant. If he showed a weakness they'd exploit it. Well, it's not like he couldn't afford it either way.

"In that case I believe we can begin our discussion." Albert turned around to talk to his guards. Two of the guards stayed back with the guard by the female demihuman rooms, a third ran off to the rear entrance for people with carriages, and the fourth guard to leave seemed to go towards the front entrance. Albert turned back to Gren. "Now, shall we go to my office?"

The group that went towards the office consisted of Gren, Jasmine, Albert, the attendant, and the last guard; the guard was a beastman woman with a really fluffy tail. Every time the guard took a step her butt would sway which made her tail sway with it. "So, what's your plan? People don't want to buy that number of slaves without a plan."

Albert seemed to be trying to get information from Gren but he really didn't have a plan. There was one thing he'd probably do after buying them though. "I'm thinking about creating a mercenary guild. I don't know if you know this yet but a village was just wiped out by a group of bandits. It seems like things have been becoming more dangerous lately."

"I've heard about that. There's even talk of war brewing in the west." The five of them finally reached the office. It was plainly decorated but the red rug gave it a small bit of character. There was a couch on one side of the room with a coffee table in front of it and a wooden chair on the other side with a filled bookshelf behind it. "Sorry, your draconoid friend will have to stand. I don't get many demihumans in here, especially ones her size. Feel free to pour yourself a glass of water from the jar on the table."

Albert pulled the wooden chair near the coffee table and sat down after pouring himself a cup of water. "So, a mercenary guild? I take it that you're not interested in weak or young demihumans then." The attendant brought out a thin book from the bookshelf and placed it on the table in front of Albert. "Thank you."

"No. The young ones can grow up to be strong and there's more to a guild than just the mercenaries, right?" Gren didn't know what a mercenary guild actually did but for now it'd be best to just talk about it like he's trying to start a business.

"Indeed. Still, I doubt that each and every slave we've got would be useful to a mercenary guild." Albert turned to the attendant with the thin book in hand, pointing to one of the pages. "Can you create a copy of this list for our friend to look at?" He looked back towards Gren as the attendant started to make the copy by hand.

"You see, there are a few peculiar demihuman women we've got on hand. It is our company policy to make sure that you know what you're buying first. I'll ignore the obviously useful ones like the Minotaur for now." "Ah." Jasmine suddenly exclaimed. "Did you have something you wanted to say?"

"No. It's just that I wanted to tell him about the Minotaur earlier." Albert seemed a bit confused so she continued. "I wanted someone strong and he wanted someone with combat experience. Since she was both strong and a warrior I was going to pick her."

Albert nodded. "So, you're sure you want the Minotaur then. The price will be on the paper she's writing out for you. You can back out at any time before you pay." Albert wrote something down. "Back to the odd slaves I wanted to bring up. There are some dietary requirements, specific habitat requirements, and other concerns I want to address before you buy them. It's not good for business if a slave dies and someone blames us for it, after all."

"Firstly, let's talk about what's legally a demihuman. Do you know the official requirements?" Gren shook his head. "The kingdom treats humans and demihumans as citizens even if there are differences in how they're treated. This is because a demihuman requires at least some resemblance to a human in some way. A human face or body parts. There used to be an intelligence requirement but that has been dropped. I'm mentioning this because two of the demihuman women we have on hand wouldn't have met those requirements."

"Can you tell me more about them?" Gren made a deal so he'd buy them anyways but he was curious about them.

"The first is a chicken type of demihuman. Her eggs are delicious but she has very little intelligence. She's not much smarter than an actual chicken. The second seems to be some sort of caterpillar. She doesn't speak at all and her only human quality is her face. Her fur is really soft though." Gren was interested in the eggs.

"There are also some safety concerns. There are three demihuman slaves with potentially deadly venom. They would be useful in taking down enemies but if you're not careful around them then it might be you that dies. The three with venom are a wasp, a scorpion, and a spider type demihuman." Gren nodded so Albert continued on.

"As for special habitats you'll need to have a place with water for a few of them, a cold room for a water elemental--more commonly known as a snow woman, and a room with great airflow that can withstand heat for a fire elemental." The copy of the paperwork was placed in front of Gren. "We can sell a cage that uses magic stones to keep the inside cold and a cage that can withstand heat but we can't provide the water tanks or the airflow. We can house a slave for you until you can prepare one but there will be a fee."

Gren looked at the paperwork while listening to Albert. "As for the dietary requirements, most of the women will let you know what they eat and you'll be able to find it easily in the market. However, there are three exceptions. The first is the caterpillar I mentioned earlier. She eats leaves and you can't just buy them from the market. She wouldn't eat lettuce but loved dryad leaves. That brings me to the second demihuman: the dryad. Water and sunlight aren't enough. She needs lots of nutrients in her soil. We've got some fertilizer in the Genrich General Store near your draconoid friend's home."

"The last demihuman with a special diet is a vampire. The vampire needs to drink blood and due to her aggressive nature she will attack people if you neglect to trim her nails or you decide to take off the mask on her head. The mask makes it hard for her to drink blood but we'll provide a special cup that you can feed her with." Albert decided to ask Gren if he had any questions at this point but Gren declined.

"There's one last demihuman I'd like to talk about. Her name is Faith. She and my sister, Amelia, were really close when my sister spent time in Adierton. Unfortunately I couldn't protect her by buying her. No employee is allowed to purchase slaves from the branch they belong to. Company policy."