I’m going to show you how to deal with rebels.

It was early in the morning. The camp was deserted of almost any slavers, who had long gone to rest in their tent. Outside, the slaves were sleeping on the bare ground, trying their best not to invade each other's personal space. Had it been winter, they would all have slept together, snuggling up, but it was summer, so overcrowded places could soon become unbearable. Fortunately for them, this year's summer was relatively mild, so the nights weren't too hot.

It was still dark outside, and the air was still cool, filled with moisture. However, the first signs of life soon started to show, as the birds began their morning chorus. It was only a matter of time now before the early sun started to rise, dyeing the sky to a soft gray color. But amidst this musical silence, birds were not the only one that could be heard.

In the camp, a man was trying to make his way through the sleeping slaves. In a too great rush to watch where he put his feet, he stepped on a couple of them, as they groaned upon their brutal awakening. But the man didn't care to apologize. They were, after all, only slaves. He had something much more important on his mind. Something much more preoccupying.

Finally reaching his destination, he stormed into one of the tents.

"Ed!" he shouted, his eyes looking for someone.

Inside, another man was trying to finally find some sleep, after pulling an all-nighter. It was Eddie, the camp's accountant. Unlike most slavers, Eddie was not physically bulky. He was of an average size, not very imposing, and quite boring looking. But he was also one of the highest ranked slavers here. He was, after all, the brain of this camp. Eddie was one of the very few members of the slavers' gang to be literate. Among all the musclebrains, he was the only one truly proficient with numbers out there, which is why, despite not participating in raids, he was promoted to accountant.

These past few weeks, Eddie had been very busy. The gang had recently received a huge order of slave supply. Five thousand of them, regardless of their gender, age or race. It was the biggest order the gang had received ever since Eddie arrived, and naturally, they didn't have this many slaves in stock. The gang frequently needed to resupply the market in slaves, so they never accumulated more than a thousand of them at once. But this order was also a golden opportunity for the slavers. Slaves did not all hold the same value. While it was easy to find buyers for strong men and beautiful women, it was already much harder to sell children, elderly or weaklings. But this time's client offered to buy anyone. And not only were they willing to buy anyone, they also offered one silver coin per head. A total of fifty gold coins. A golden opportunity.

For the gang, it was absolutely out of question to miss such a great deal. In order to satisfy the client's order, they had temporarily stopped resupplying the market and recently multiplied their raids, capturing as many slaves as possible. In the matter of only a few months, they had achieved their goal, accumulating over five thousand slaves. But this sudden growth in the number of slaves also brought a few problems. The camp did not have the capacity to hold this many slaves and quickly became overcrowded. Outnumbered, it was difficult for the slavers to keep an eye on everyone. It didn't take long before the first revolt emerged. Revolts were not so uncommon. They happened once in a while, so the slavers were used to it. But this time was more challenging considering the number of slaves involved.

All of this because of one man, Troy. The idiot had been enslaved a few weeks ago, after he failed to pay back his debts in time. Completely wild and dissident, the slavers had been unable to completely tame him. Too entertained by his behavior though, they had also completely underestimated the threat he represented. In only a few days, Troy had rallied hundreds of slaves to his cause, provoking a major uprising. Still, with the slave collar on, they didn't represent a real threat, and the rebellion was easily put down. However, dozens of slaves were killed in the process. And those losses weren't insignificant. Each one of them was worth one silver coin after all.

After the uprising, things calmed down a little bit at the camp, but the atmosphere was still as tense as ever. While most slaves didn't dare to do anything, fearing reprisals, others didn't care to hide the spite in their eyes. Even if no other major uprising occurred since, a few insurgents did appear from time to time, causing trouble.

It was amidst all these disturbances that the camp's accountant needed to keep track on each one of the slaves. The deadline for the order was approaching and the leader was soon going to return. In order to arrange everything before that, Eddie had been working non-stop for the past few days, sorting out the remaining slaves. After a sleepless night, he ultimately went to rest in his tent, only to be disturbed as he was finally starting to fall asleep.

"Ed, Ed!" the slaver rushed to his bed.

"What?!"

The accountant got up at once, shooting the slaver a deadly glare.

"We have a problem!"

His eyelids suddenly twitched, as this is exactly what he had been fearing to hear.

"What is it?" he asked with a much calmer, but serious voice.

"We have escapees!"

The accountant frowned.

"I just went to check on the insurgents," the slaver continued, "and the gate was opened! Three of them are missing!"

The gate was infused with protection magic, reacting to the slave collars. Were any of the slaves to touch it, they would immediately be thrust away, assailed with searing pain. A slave wouldn't have been able to open it. Only a slaver could have. Which means there was an idiot out there who forgot to close the gate behind him after visiting the insurgents. The accountant grabbed his head at this thought, suddenly assaulted with a migraine. It wasn't the first time he had to clean after his companions' mess.

"Who's missing?" he inquired, a long sigh escaping his mouth.

"Well, there's number 4889."

"Number 4889?"

With over five thousand slaves in the camp, it was impossible for Eddie to remember each one of them. But as the accountant, he had to go through the insurgents' files several times and he did remember number 4889.

Number 4889 was a lunatic. At a first glance, he didn't seem very dangerous. He used to only be a logger from a remote village after all. But this village was recently victim of an epidemic outbreak. And since the lord of the region refused to take action, fearing the spread of the disease, the villagers took arms. However, a few dozens of villagers with hoes naturally stood no chance against the lord's army of knights, and the rebellion was obliterated. Those who had not been killed were sold to slavery. Number 4889 was one of them. But that wasn't why Eddie remembered number 4889. The real reason he remembered him is that the same day he arrived, he attacked a group of slavers during the night, managing to kill two of them. Number 4889 was dangerous. He was used to mutiny, and clearly not afraid of death. If he managed to escape, there was no doubt he would try to take up arms once again.

Eddie clicked his tongue. They could not afford another rebellion. Not now.

"What about the other two?" he asked. "As far as I remember, number 4889 is injured. He couldn't have gone far alone."

"I'm not sure about the other two."

"What do you mean you're not sure?"

The slaver scratched his head, seemingly embarrassed.

"Well, they haven't received a number yet," he explained. "Remember the two little girls of yesterday? It's them. They were just captured yesterday so we don't have much information on them yet."

Eddie squinted his eyes. He did remember the two new insurgents of yesterday. A chosen one and a demi-human girl. And while neither of them seemed threatening, they did cause a problem the very same day they arrived. Just like number 4889. A bunch of troublemakers.

"How dangerous are they?" he asked, recalling yesterday's incident.

He had dismissed Reed's words before, but now, he was starting to get cautious.

"The chosen one is pretty harmless," the other slaver said, "but the demi-human girl on the other hand… She took out several of our men yesterday."

"That little girl? By herself?"

"From what I've heard, yes. Maybe that's because she's a mutant? Have you seen her tails? They're split in two."

That could be a possibility. But in that case, it wasn't good for them. A mutant, a lunatic and a chosen one. The risk for another uprising was real.

"We need to find those three, and fast," the accountant declared, "before the leader returns."

The slaver nodded and rushed to the entrance, ready to begin his search. However, as he was about to leave the tent, he bumped into someone.

"Who the hell-?!" he started, just before gasping, recognizing the newcomer's face. "B-Boss!"

The accountant directed his attention to the entrance, where their leader just came in.

"Who exactly do you need to find before I return?" the leader asked with a hard expression.

Eddie immediately came to greet his superior.

"Glad to see you have returned safely, boss," he bowed his head.

"Forget about that, what is this story all about?"

The accountant exchanged a worried glance with the slaver.

"It's really no big deal," the slaver tried to explain, "three insurgents escaped during the night. But it's just a matter of time before we find them!"

However, his attempt at smothering the problem didn't seem to have worked as the leader's expression remained unchanged.

"Have you interrogated the remaining rebels?" he asked.

"They… are in no condition to talk."

There was a very subtle change in the leader's expression. Obviously, he wasn't pleased to hear about this problem. He had left, a while ago, to meet with their client and finalize the deal, and the first thing he hears about upon his return is that some new problem arose in his absence. He had only left for a little while, yet, his men weren't able to maintain order in this camp. He couldn't help but be disappointed.

"Bring me the remaining insurgents," he ordered curtly.

"Yes!"

Understanding that his boss was not in a good mood, the slaver quickly disappeared outside. The leader then shifted his gaze to the accountant.

"Ed," he called out.

"Yes, boss."

"Wake the others up."

"Of course, but…" the accountant marked a pause, concern growing on his face, "what do you intend to do?"

"I'm going to show you how to deal with rebels."