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Hierarchy of Boy Slave
I drag a wooden box and place it in front of a watering area. I get on that as a stand and put my tableware into the water tank on the right side. Now then, let’s roll up our sleeves. I look forward to meal time, but the cleaning up afterwards is absolutely depressing. That is especially true in winter. And unlike in my previous life, you can’t get warm water anywhere. So I have to put my hands inside ice-cold water to clean the dirt. Once I’m done washing, put the items in the water tank on the right. After that, wash them with something that looks like a cleaning agent,t and it’s done.
Only the slaves eat here, so the slaves also clean everything up afterwards. There are 31 slaves - including me - in this housing facility. I wash everyone’s dishes.
My hands feel pain from the cold, but I deliberately choose not to show any signs of pain. When I think about it, I’ve already experienced something like this a lot in my previous life, and it will only make things even more unpleasant if I don’t endure it now.
「Noor」
A voice calls me from behind. It’s a familiar, deep voice.
「Yes, master」
I stopped my work and turned around, stiffening for a moment. It’s not good to just turn your face around. I put the dish I was in the middle of washing back into the water tank, quickly wiped my hands with the towel in front of me, and carefully stepped down from the wooden box, then I turned around. I even gave him a bow as an extra.
Myluc is standing in front of me.
「So you were here」
「Yes」
He has a puzzled look on his face. He looks around left and right, as if looking to see whether there are others in the surroundings or not.
「I thought someone assigned you to do some work but.....you are the one washing the dishes?」
「Yes, that’s what was decided」
Myluc owns all the slaves for now. However, he partially assigned some of his right to order the slaves to his subordinates. Other than Jusa and Jill, there are two guards and a single instructor here. They instruct the slaves in accordance with their roles and needs. But for the actual, detailed tasks, they are left to the slaves themselves. But, that’s the tricky part.
There are no guidelines. Like, smaller children can’t be left alone holding a knife or approach a fire. But, it is generally decided by the senior slaves and the younger children have no other choice but to obey them. As a result, there are few dangers, but they are given tasks that require more effort.
「Is it, everyday?」
「Yes」
「Who was the person assigning you that task?」
I spoke vaguely on purpose.
「It’s, seniors」
Actually, they are not my seniors or anything liket that.
Wicax (ウィカクス) is currently 9 years old. A kid with freckles covering his whole face and an unbearable bully, yet he’s been appointed as the leader of the boys.
For some reason, he had been gunning for me ever since I arrived here. Maybe it’s because of that that I’ve been moved to a small room on the north side. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all if I were to sleep together with him in the shared, large room.
「……I see」
Myluc placed his hand on his temple while sighing.
Although Myluc is a slave trader, his main stocks are mostly children. It seems like this was decided based on his various experiences.
Having children has its pros and cons. First, the advantage is that they are weak and can’t go against the adults. The fact that there is no need to fear a sudden escape or revolt is a huge plus. Another one is that the price to purchase them is cheap, and that can’t be disregarded. In the situation where an adult with a special skill becomes a slave, the difference between the price to purchase and sell them will never be significant. But, children are different. Just like the Shuga village before, there are plenty of families who want to get rid of their youngest child. If you educate them and sell them with the added value, the profit margin will be large.
The cons are also few. First, children die easily. If you don’t purchase chidrens with good looks and healthy, you will just end up costing you a lot of food expense and they won’t grow properly.
And you can’t cut corners in their education either. The children's Myluc purchased are mostly between 3-4 years old. After going through 2 or 3 years of training, they can be sold off while still being young. His regular customers are nobles and wealthy merchants. A good-looking, well-disciplined, and intelligent child....of course, they are still just inexperienced laborers, but that doesn’t matter. The wealthy provide re-education to the children who have been sold. And then the young slaves will then become butlers, maids, or clerks loyal to that house.
Although I was bought for 5 gold coins, I should be able to be sold for at least 500 gold in an auction in 3 or 4 years. And Myluc is also expecting that. These figures of 500 golds are equal to the income of the middle class in the urban areas.
But, even after they exceeded that age, the slave prices generally wouldn’t jump up unless something extraordinary happened. This is also because the buyers are changing.
Young children can be molded by their owners to their liking, so they are priced higher compared to their abilities. But, once you went past 9 years old, it’s time for you to start your job training. They are going to choose skills that seem in demand, such as a merchant, farmer, blacksmith, or others. If they don’t do this, they will be of no use once they became an adult.
In that case, the next buyers will be those who are one level below the wealthy, people in positions that actually oversee the work. In terms of the company, it would be something like the head of a section or a department, instead of the company president or the manager, they would petition the higher-ups to purchase slaves with certain skills to replenish the personnel. Or a somewhat well-off farmer who might splurge and take the plunge.
Unlike children who are highly valued because of the expectation in their future, children around the age of 10 are treated as being slaves who have just begun to learn to work. Even at this stage, there are also cases where they were given important positions within the family or organization, but the chance of that happening is very low. They would be resold easily if they had a certain level of skills. But who would give them important jobs if a slave were to change hands from house to house? It is normal for them to be seen differently compared to a trueborn slave.
When it comes to slaves who went past the age of 15, it is truly a pitiful situation. If you didn’t get sold even once until that point.....although it is very rare, and if they don’t have any skills, then there is nothing left but physical labor. They are sent to work in mines and die quickly under harsh conditions. Of course, they are cheap slaves, almost as cheap as criminal slaves, so if one of his children's slaves were to become like that, then Myluc would be in a big deficit.
But if the slaves are women, then the story will be a little different. They could be sold to a brothel even if they look reasonably good. Although they too will not be bought by high-class establishments. But if they are an excellently beautiful woman and receive proper training, then they will be surrounded by wealthy men even from a young age. Well, I guess they would sell more stably compared to male slaves.
And that’s why there are some slaves in Myluc slaves’ housing facility that remain unsold. As of now, the oldest is 10 years old. That child is also aware that they are unsold, so they must be feeling unsettled internally. Despite all that, they have lived long enough here and are the seniors, so they have the authority and position and are also in charge of managing the children. In actuality, this is the only time in their long lives when they can order people. For example, even if they learn a decent professional skill, they will only drift from one worksite to another without considerable luck. They will be employed as long as they can still work, but they will be sent to the mines if they can’t and they have no dreams or hopes for the future. Naturally, their attitude becomes violent, and they begin to give unreasonable orders.
And perhaps, they also receive Myluc’s tacit approval. I guess you could say it was partly intentional. To begin with, no matter where or to whom they are sold, the master’s orders are unreasonable. So they need to get used to it quickly. However, with so many children, it is not possible to teach them by their side. And so, they purposely take a non-interference policy, thinking that it was part of their training, even with the petty leader’s insidious bullying.
Just that, it is a matter of degree. They won’t tolerate if a young child were to be put through such harsh work and get injured.
「Did you learn to write?」
「Yes, thanks to your kindness, I have finished about 80% of the textbook right now」
「Can you.....do the calculation?」
「Yes」
「I am planning to give you some other work once there are no issues with your writing and reading」
「Thank you very much」
I will be turning 3 in about 3 months, but it seems like I am considered an extraordinary child in Myluc’s eyes. While my speech was halting everything else is fine. Not only were there no problems it was actually unthinkable.
That makes sense. The child has an adult’s ability to think, has learned the basic of mathematics from his previous life, and even has experience working as a programmer for 5 years. On the other hand, the standard calculation ability of people in this world is at most limited to addition and subtraction with natural numbers. Only a small portion of people can proficiently use concepts like decimals, fractions, negative numbers, and functions.
So from Myluc’s perspective, I am a stock slave he has an expectation of. It would be a shame for such a slave to be broken in the hands of worthless slaves. To some extent, it is fine to treat them strictly to both keep them under control and as a sign to avoid being seen as showing favoritism, but there is a limit to that.
So once my reading and writing become perfect, I’m sure I will be assigned clerical work. Well, maybe I may have overdone it a bit. I mean, I thought I might receive bad treatment if I didn’t prove my worth.
「Jusa will be here soon. Study hard」
「Yes! Then, if I may be allowed to take care of the dishes first..」
Myluc took a step back while waving his hand. It meant I could get back to work. So I bowed and stood on the wooden box again.
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