"Are you sure you have time to spend with me on this? Shouldn't you be making your final preparations for the next Wave?" Rozemyne asked as her carriage was pulled through the Castle Town's streets towards her destination.
Ren sat in the seat across from her, while Raphtalia was sitting beside her.
It wasn't the fanciest of carriages, but even so, Rozemyne knew she needed to be seen as someone who kept up appearances, if she ever wanted to get into high society parties.
Did she want to get into those parties? …No. But she knew how necessary they were, even if she hated having to deal with them. Honestly, if Ferdinand was there, she'd just throw him at the problem and let him gather enough black mail material to keep the entire country under control, but she didn't have that luxury.
She had a few connections in the nobility, but not the kind she needed to actually defend herself in a political setting. Not while the Queen's faction was crippled by her absence.
She'd managed to gather a lot of information in these last three days, and understood more of the reasoning behind the King's hatred of Demihumans, and why she was being dragged into this.
Honestly, why couldn't they just let her read her books? Was that really too much to ask?
"Between your training grounds and the extra upgrade methods for the Holy Weapons, I'm well ahead of the curve. The next Wave won't be a problem." Ren said with confidence. "I'm more worried about keeping you out of trouble."
"Isn't everyone?" Rozemyne said with a chuckle.
She wasn't as well protected outside of her own city, so Ren wouldn't let her run around alone, or even with her escorts.
Well, if someone strong enough to legitimately hurt Rozemyne came along, she'd be grateful for his help. Being level 60 and boosted by many of the Holy Shield's passives and the 'Trust' system, Rozemyne's usual escorts were more than capable of handling themselves in most fights… But other than the trinkets that Rozemyne had given them for defense early on, their equipment was lacking and they had only had a few training exercises for how to deal with complex situations.
Rozemyne didn't want to risk her children against properly equipped and trained attackers.
Ren's offensive stats were even more absurd than Rozemyne's defensive ones, being that he was already level 82 and had minimaxed his upgrades far more than she had. He was a dozen levels above the other two Heroes and had a lot more weapon upgrade systems unlocked than them, so he could easily be called the strongest offensive force around.
Though Rozemyne wished he would focus more on coordination, rather than just raw power. She'd invited him and his team to one of the few combat strategy classes she had held for her children, and they didn't perform well.
"Lady Rozemyne, we've arrived." Lemon said from the front of the carriage as it came to a stop.
"Well, let's get this over with." Rozemyne sighed to herself before putting on her noble mask. No matter how unpleasant she found this, she wouldn't let it show.
The door opened and Raphtalia stepped out first, followed by Ren, who turned around to offer his hand to Rozemyne in a gentlemanly fashion. He was getting more used to putting on these displays as well.
Rozemyne took the hand and lowered herself gracefully from her carriage before raising her eyes somewhat to look at the unpleasant sight before her.
"We've been expecting you, Lady Rozemyne. Yessir." The slave trader said, the unpleasant, neckless creature dancing from foot to foot as he grinning an unnatural grin.
"I am glad to hear that you received my letter. Do you believe you can fulfill my request?" Rozemyne said, her head held high as she spoke, not giving away any of her thoughts about this 'man'.
Too bad Ren and Raphtalia's faces were speaking volumes in Rozemyne's sted.
"What Milady asks for is not something easily found in these lands. Slaves here are victims of opportunistic slave hunters that scavenge rural villages. So most are lacking in specialized skills. You are right in your assumption that if you want higher quality slaves, you will need to look outside. But I know just the man for the job." The slave trader said with a cackle.
Well, that was what they were looking for from him anyways, a reference to someone who would have what they wanted. It was better to use people who had connections, rather than going hunting for what you needed on your own, and as much as Rozemyne hated to admit it, the slave trader was a skilled merchant.
You needed to be in order to make a living with a face like that.
"But before we discuss that, there is something I want to show you, yes indeed!" The man said, turning on his heels before walking back into his tent, stopping in the opening to look back at the pair of heroes. "It is a very valuable item. Or I suppose a pair, but they are so interesting together that I don't think you would want one without the other."
Rozemyne's gut twisted at the way the man talked, thinking about what poor soul he could be referring to, but in the end, she just followed behind him.
"The villagers who sold them to me had no idea what it is they had in their possession. Blinded by a few material treasures, they overlooked the REALLY valuable find." The slave trader said as half waddled, half skipped in front of them. "Of course, I could sell it to any high noble family and make a fortune, yes sirree! But that would be such a waste. They wouldn't be able to bring out its full potential, not like you would."
He sounded like he was having an argument with himself, between the money he could make and his own dark curiosity as to what would happen if 'it' ended up in the hands of someone like Rozemyne.
They were becoming more and more skeptical that the man was talking about a person.
"And what is it exactly?" Ren demanded as they got further into the tent, passing a lot of empty cages, as the man had already sold most of his slaves to Rozemyne already.
The slave trader grinned wickedly at them, before gesturing towards one of the cages. "Look for yourself and see."
The pair of Heroes, Raphtalia and Lemon all approached to see what was in the cage and gasped.
Inside there was a small red scaled ball with tiny wings and angry and defensive eyes. "A infant flying dragon, one with pure blood parentage, and a female at that. Its pedigree is equal to that of a Royal Filolial. Those villagers couldn't even comprehend how much it is worth." The slave trader said as Rozemyne and Ren stared into the cage in horror.
But they weren't looking at the little dragon, but at the young demihuman girl who was holding tightly to it, seeming to try to shield it from them.
She was beaten, one of her ears seeming to have something torn and a messed up eye. She had scars from beatings on her body, and bandages wrapped tightly to show that she still had injuries that would bleed if she moved too much.
But even with the bruises and bandages, they still recognized her face. "Wyndia?" Ren said in shock.
The girl froze. "How… do you know that name?" She demanded after a moment's hesitation.
"We… I suppose you could say we were acquainted with your father." Rozemyne said gently as she kneeled down to have a bitter look at the girl. "What happened? Why are you in a place like this?"
"...I don't know." The girl said, tears coming to her eyes. "A few days ago, my daddy, he… he went hunting and never came back. Then the people from the village came. They started to kill all of my brothers and sisters and they took daddy's treasure. I tried to stop them but I wasn't strong enough. They beat me and then they took me and daddy's final egg and… and…"
The girl stopped, clutching tightly to the infant dragon who started to lick at her tears.
"...We'll take the girl." Ren said sharply as he looked at the slave trader, who didn't seem at all surprised by this development.
"I'm not leaving my sister!" Wyndia shouted, holding tight to the dragon.
"...We'll take both of them then." Ren said, reaching into his item space for the money.
"Thank you for your patronage!"
Because of his curiosity, the slave trader gave them a discount, bringing the price down from 10,000 gold to only 100. Even so, it would have been a healthy hit to Rozemyne's budget. Only Ren demanded to pay instead.
It ate all of the money he had made in the previous Wave, but he didn't care. He was too upset by the entire thing.
With the slave trader in tow, they teleported back to Alexandra, healed Wyndia back to perfect health and then gave her a room in the castle, telling the Library Rabbits to take care of her if she needed anything.
After that, they loaded up into Lessy and started for Zeltoble to meet the slave trader's uncle.
The flight was awkward, with Ren sitting tensed up with his arms crossed and a look of frustration and anger etched onto his face. "Those bastards. Those absolute bastards. Even after we told them to leave the dragon alone, not only did they kill it so that they could raid its treasures, but they sold Wyndia into slavery as well. Those… evil bastards. I'm make sure they pay for this."
He stopped as Rozemyne held out the magic tools to stop people from eavesdropping.
"...Ren, I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but you're being very naive." Rozemyne said, shocking the young man as he took the small tool. "What did they do? They killed a dragon in order to steal its treasure, treasure that could help stabilize and protect their poor village. Is that evil?"
"Well… but selling Wyndia into slavery."
"In times like this, it is common sense that orphans are the property of the village, with the village having to take care of them in the place of their parents. And when the child is someone like Wyndia, who holds a grudge against them, selling her to get her away from the village, where she could possibly cause harm just makes sense." Rozemyne said with a shake of her head.
"So what, are you just okay with what they did!?" Ren demanded.
"Am I okay with it? No. I hate it. I hate it with every fiber of my being. But just because I hate it, doesn't make it evil." Rozemyne said, her hands tightening on the wheel. "That was a lesson I had to have drilled into me young. That my first world view of things was naive and would cause problems if I insisted on sticking to it. So no matter how much I hate the way this world operates, I can't dismiss it as evil and punish people however I see fit. If I did, I would be the villain in their eyes. The only thing I can do is work with it to the best of my abilities to try to make decisions that won't leave me unable to sleep soundly at night."
Ren was quiet as he mauled over what Rozemyne had just said, his anger turning into a sort of misery that Rozemyne knew all too well. It was the face of a man who was in over his head and drowning. His eyes welled up with tears.
"How do you do it?" He finally asked her. "How do you adapt like this? How do you keep going without the weight of it all crushing you?"
"...Practice." Rozemyne said solemnly. "Being summoned to this world was the fifth time I had been made to leave behind everything I had ever known, thrust into a completely new situation and forced to adapt to new expectations on the fly. After so many times, I guess I'm just getting used to it."
"I don't want to get used to this."
"I'd think you weird if you did." Rozemyne said, closing her eyes. "Getting used to it is the worst part."
At this point in time, Ren is more anger with the villagers than with whoever killed the Dragon because he could see himself doing it. That will change if someone is a self-righteous ass about it.