Kaito was so disgusted that he felt physically sick.
He knew that if his family wanted to keep their important place in today's society, then slaves were essential.
But the least his family could do was pay them a bit for their troubles, right?
Wrong. Dead wrong.
He had once asked his father if they could pay their slaves and the only response that he had gotten was a slap and a harsh rebuke.
He hadn't asked again.
And the very worst part of this was that, today, there was a new batch of slaves being shipped in from where they had been caught as prisoners of war.
And, since he was now sixteen, he would have to choose his own personal slave from the batch.
He heard the echoing creak of the large front doors opening and then the sound of many jangling chains.
The slaves were here.
Kaito straightened his jacket and tie, knowing that his parents would expect him to look nothing less than perfect, he took a deep breath, and stepped out into the hall.
The second that he entered the hallway, Kaito felt his pokerface automatically slam down to hide the disgust at how malnourished and badly treated the slaves were.
He found himself wishing, not for the first time, that he could give them a much better life, like the one they deserved, rather than this sort of messed up life.
As his eyes traveled down the line, his breath hitched when he saw a boy that couldn't have been much younger than himself standing forlornly at the end of the line.
His face and eye shape were remarkably similar to Kaito's own, and, even though it was caked in mud and dirt, he was willing to bet that the boy's hair would be similar to his own too.
It was as he looked at this boy that he knew.
There was no way that he could leave this boy in the hands of his parents, for if he did then the boy would surely endure the same daily beatings as all of the other servants in the house, and what with him looking as broken as he was already, Kaito was willing to bet that if he was subject to that, then he would snap.
Kaito had already worked out that whichever slave became his personal one would only receive his parent's beatings approximately once a month, so, if he took the boy into his care, there was a much higher chance that he could make even one of the slaves have a slightly happier life than they would have.
It was at that point that Kaito swore to himself that he would do all that he could to make his slaves life as pleasant as possible without his own, sadistic parents finding out.
This idea just popped into my head when I was sleeping over a friends house one night and I decided that I just had to write it down. So I did :D Hope you had fun reading!
NekoEddo