Raphtalia and Keel had been relieved to see each other again, having been unaware that they were both sold off to the same slave trader after the sicko lord had been done amusing himself with them.
The pair of them looked like the hell they had just gone through and were honestly scared out of their minds as they realized they were about to be sold to another master. But confusion and wonder was added to their fears as they saw the Demihuman man who was going to buy them, dressed in golden armor and a crown, covered in blood and carrying a terrifying looking sword.
"They are a bit skinny and bruised, but that's not anything a bit of time and food won't solve." Technoblade said, doing a quick look over. "Yeah, I'll take them."
"Very good, yes." The slave trader said before quickly making the arrangements for reassigning the master of the Slave Seals to this strange man.
"Well, that should be a full party. I'll swing by next time I'm in town. Once I get myself settled somewhere. Come on, you lot, we're leaving." Technoblade said to the slave trader before heading out of the tent, the slaves and beasts following behind him.
Raphtalia and Keel had to squint against the light of the early morning sun as they finally left that tent for the first time in days. The fresh air was enough to almost fry their brains.
"Here." Technoblade said, pulling out a bag of cooked meat, made using some kind of built in crafting function within the surprisingly convenient Legendary Holy Sword. The bag had come as an 'item drop' from a monster he had killed, which was an item that magically appeared in his inventory when a monster corpse was absorbed into his sword… he didn't get it either. He shoved the back into the boy slave's hands and started to walk towards the castle. "You two can eat while we walk. Share some of it with the animals."
Raphtalia and Keel were shocked at first to see a bag full of meat, but they wasted no time starting to eat, stuffing their faces with food. Demihumans didn't normally have any table manners and were more than willing to eat with their hands even at the best of times, and the pair of kids had been starving.
"I said walk while you eat!" Techno called back to them having already started to walk. The pair were hesitant, but then went chasing after him with their short legs.
The boy had husky ears and a tail, while the girl had the ears and tail of a raccoon. Each of them looked around 10 years old and looked like hell, but that was no matter to Techno. Nor did he really care about how they had become orphans. It was probably the usual story of someone raiding their village.
Orphans weren't uncommon in the world of the SMP. It was a brutal world, full of monsters, where even three lives wasn't enough to help you live for long without enough strength to make use of them. Those who could fight did, and those who couldn't enslaved themselves to those who could. Villages could be wiped out in a single night to a raid or to the zombie skurge. If the children were lucky, they would become orphans and become the slaves of one of the stronger individuals in the SMP. If they weren't lucky… Techno once witnessed a child being eaten alive by their own zombified parent. It was pretty fucked up.
"Listen here orphans. Our main objective is going to be to grow levels. I'm going to find a place to set up a monster grinder and the three of us are going to operate it in shifts. Understood." Technoblade told the pair.
"W…What is a monster grinder?" The boy slave asked.
"Good question, Orphan #1. A monster grinder is a type of trap used to get monsters to critically injure themselves in mass so that they can be taken out for easy resources. We're going to be using it to grow levels quickly." Technoblade informed the pair. "We'll be heading out of town to do that in a bit, but first, the King promised me resources, so we are heading to the castle to grab those first."
"O…Orphan #1, hey, I have a name you know!" The boy objected, the girl grabbed his arm and shook her head, trying to signal him to shut up.
Technoblade looked at the pair with a wide grin on his pig's face, which made him look rather scary. "Do you know? Well I don't care. Until you do something that makes you worth remembering, you two are just Orphan #1 and Orphan #2 to me. Got that, Orphan #2?"
"I… I thought you said I was Orphan #1." The boy mumbled, shrinking down in fright.
"You've been demoted. Now come on. I got to get to the castle and get the stuff the King promised me. After that we'll be heading out of town towards an old mining town north of here." Technoblade told the pair.
After a not so pleasant greeting with the city guards, he had asked about nearby mines and found out there was a mine to the north that had been abandoned due to monster attacks. A perfect place to grab raw materials.
"The King!" Orphan #2 shouted in shock.
"Yeah, so stay close. I don't want to have to worry about you two getting killed if the guy decides to betray me already." Technoblade said. He then stopped as the girl orphan started to cough uncontrollably.
"Raphtalia!" The boy orphan said, panicking as he checked on her.
"Hey, you okay kid?" Techno said, squatting down and checking on the girl, placing a hand to her forehead. "Hm… You're burning up. Maybe an allergic reaction to the mildew in the tent? Kid, open your mouth."
The girl did as she was told, since the slave crest forced her to.
Technoblade looked into the girl's mouth, and even without light, his Piglin eyes could see how inflamed it was. "Nope. Some kind of infection. Looks like it's gotten pretty bad. A few days old at least." Technoblade said, pulling out a regeneration II potion from his inventory. "Drink this. Should fix you right up."
The girl did as she was told, and no sooner had the liquid entered her mouth than the pain in her throat was gone. Her bruises disappeared as well.
Didn't surprise Techno one bit. One of those potions could heal a knife through the heart instantly, and would keep mending damage for a few seconds after first taking.
"Th…Thank you, Master." The girl said, looking up at Technoblade with wonder in her eyes.
"It's no biggie. I've got, like, fifteen more of them." Technoblade said before looking towards Keel. "Hm… Maybe should give you a bit too. Can't be too careful when it comes to your health, and all that."
Keel did as he was told, and moments later, he too was back to perfect health.
"I'll make you some better clothes later, but for now we've got places to be. So come on."
""Yes! Master!"" The pair said, and followed more enthusiastically than before.
"He disappeared?" King Aultcray said as his messenger returned from checking on Technoblade's room, after the Demihuman failed to appear in the morning.
"His window was wide open, and all we found were a few empty bottles." The servant informed his majesty with a bowed head.
"So, Pigman has gone missing, huh?" Motoyasu said a little disinterested as he spun his spear in one hand.
"Maybe he left early, trying to get an early start on us." Itsuki put forward, annoyed by the idea of someone getting ahead of him.
"How does a guy that stands out as much as him manage to get out of the castle without anyone noticing?" Naofumi asked, the most reasonable of the three.
They had all gathered at the request of the King to receive their party members, a group of adventurers selected by the crown to help the chosen heroes on their quest to save the world.
Only, one of the Heroes was mysteriously absent from the line up.
Aultcray wasn't sure if he was relieved the Demihuman was gone, or worried about how he managed to walk past all of his guards undetected.
"Your majesty!" A guard shouted, running into the courtyard in desperate fear. "Your majesty, we are under attack!"
"What!?" Aultcray shouted in disbelief.
Had their plan to summon all four Legendary Holy Heroes already been met with retaliation from the other countries? Impossible! It has only been a single day!
"Hahaha, I'd say you being 'under attack' is a bit overly dramatic." The laughing voice of Technoblade said as the Piglin rounded the corner of the doorway leading into the courtyard.
The party was originally stunned to see him, standing there in full golden armor and with his weapon changed into that much more intimidating form. Behind him was a group of animals and a pair of children, who were staring at him with wide eyes.
"Ge…Get back! Do not come any closer!" The terrified guard shouted, standing between the 'intruder' and his King with sword drawn. It only drew a laugh of amusement from the Blade.
"Enough, lower your weapon." The King said to the guard. "This… man is no intruder. He is the Hero of the Sword."
"...Huh?" The guard said in disbelief.
"Yo. Sorry to keep you all waiting. The guards at the front gate just refused to let me back in." Technoblade said.
"You… You threw the entire guard of the front gate into the moat!" The guard shouted in fear.
"In self-defense! They came swinging at me first!" Technoblade objected.
"Enough. Mr… Blade. I would like you to refrain from assaulting my people in the future. I will overlook it this once as a recognition of your importance as the Hero of the Sword, but not again." The King said sternly.
"Are you just assuming I'm the guilty party!" Technoblade said, only slightly offended.
The guard had pointed his spear at Technoblade's chest, but it probably hadn't been provocation enough for him to start tossing the guys into the moat one-by-one. He just did it because it was fun.
"Take up your position with the other Heroes." The King said.
"Fine. Come on, let's get this over with." Technoblade said, signaling to his animals and slaves to follow.
"Who are the kids?" Naofumi asked, spotting the two children.
"These two? Just a couple of orphan slaves I bought this morning from a slave trader I met in town." Technoblade said.
"Slaves!?" The other three heroes said together in disbelief.
"I know, right. Usually it takes me a few weeks to get some slaves after moving to a new area, but around here, they're so cheap, they are practically giving them away." Technoblade laughed.
"Ho…How could you just laugh about that?" Itsuki said, looking a little sickened.
"What? Do you not have slaves where you come from?" Technoblade asked, curious. The three other heroes shook their heads. "But then what do you do with all your orphans?"
"We send them to orphanages!" Motoyasu shouted.
"Orphanage? Is that like a job center for orphans?" Technoblade said, scratching his head. The concept of a childhood for orphans was a foreign one to him.
In a world infested by zombies and monsters, orphan children didn't normally live very long. But as the saying goes, 'those who don't work, don't eat'. So those parentless children were put to work by those who were willing to take care of them. They would be protected, feed and also learn life skills, until they could survive on their own. If Philza hadn't been looking for someone to help him make all his dyed glass for one of his pet projects, Tubbo would have died in that ditch where Wilbur had found him.
Slavery was a means of the weak to pay for their right to survive another day.
"Enough." The King said, hoping to get away from the uncomfortable topic of slavery, as his country was in support of slavery, especially that of Demihumans. "In front of you are twelve adventurers selected by the crown to help you on your journey, but it will be up to them to decide which of you they will follow."
"Oh, so we are being given goons huh?" Technoblade said, mentally checking off another item on the list of things he would need to set himself up in this new world.
The King glared at him before sighing. "You may choose your hero."
"This is great. So, which of you wishes to work alongside the great Technoblade. No need to push." Technoblade laughed as the adventurers came forward… only for none of them to stand behind him.
While Motoyasu had 7 adventurers and Itsuki 5, none of them had chosen either Technoblade or Naofumi.
"Hagh!?" Technoblade shouted out in shock.
"Wha… But why?" Naofumi mumbled in disbelief.
"I was worried about this." The King said, pretending as though he hadn't ordered that none of the adventurers join either of these two.
"Bruuuuuuuh…." Technoblade said, dropping to his knees in shock. "Why would anyone NOT want to party with me? I'm Technoblade. The Technoblade. I have so much clout that… that… my clout." His voice went hollow as realization struck him.
In his old world, Technoblade's infamous reputation was such that any faction would do just about anything to ally with him, even if only temporarily.
Dream had sacrificed his element of surprise and declared open war against L'Manburg, all so that Technoblade would owe him just one single favor.
Technoblade was the victor of 1401 consecutive battles in the Skyblock arenas. A champion among champions. A man who was said to be worth 30 swords by himself. Hell, he and Philza had once conquered the entire world, just to prove that they could. He had more clout than anyone on the SMP.
…But that meant nothing here.
In this new world. In 'Melromarc', he had no clout at all.
"Kids, we're leaving." Technoblade said, not bothering to stick around to grab his money.
He had to fix this. He had to fix this.
First, he would need to get himself equipment. Then power. And then… Then he would reclaim his CLOUT!
The mystery egg is going to hatch into a black Filolial, which in human form will have black wings and sandy hair, which Technoblade will name Chilza, after a joke Tubbo made that Philza should have a biological child so that they could have a 'Chilza' (Since he was often referred to as Dadza and his wife Mumza).
I am still undetermined if Chilza will be a boy or a girl, but they will have a fascination with drawing and architecture.