My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem

Chapter 1241

“You’re the one who wanted to come here. You lead the way.” The pack leader told me.

“What is it exactly that we are looking for?’” Alysia asked cautiously.

“I’ll know when I see it. Keep your senses on alert.” I informed her and then headed for a spot that I hoped to get information.

That spot was none other than the inn. I knew it was cliché, but not only did information run through that building, but the innkeeper would be hard-pressed to run upon seeing us. There was another reason I wanted to go there as well. I walked into the building and was shocked to find the room was filled with foxkin. Nearly three dozen people were sitting with their backs to me, and at the front was a man who was standing up on a small table which he was using as his stage.

With Life Sense, I had seen a large gathering of people in this room. I hadn’t been certain what was going on. It appeared that I had crashed a town meeting in progress.

“Everyone relax, we do not need to flee Dioshin.” The man on the stage was saying with his hands up.

In many ways, he reminded me of our mayor. He was a portly man, although he had more hair and a thick beard as well. When he noticed me, his eyes widened as he locked onto us.

“They say there is a village to the east that accepts our kind. The lord there is a hero welcome to animalkin. He’s a great healer, maybe he can fix this.” A woman cried out.

“That place is as cursed as this place! Haven’t you heard the rumors? Those people are nuts for staying there. Plus, that’s where she came from!” A man stated.

As they were speaking, people started to follow the man I presumed was the mayor’s gaze, and the crowd quickly hushed up as more and more eyes turned my way. Behind me, The Wolf Pack entered as well. Overall, they were a bit of intimidating luck. These were all basic commoners. The best I could tell, this town didn’t even have an adventuring guild, although it did have a slaver’s guild. That would have been my second direction had it not currently looked abandoned.

Either way, a group of seasoned adventurers would be intimidating to anyone. Then again, I also probably appeared a bit intimidating, as Osterians often did.

“Don’t mind us.” I declared. “We’re just here for a drink.”

I walked over to the bar, where the only remaining seats were available, the wolves following behind me. We each sat down as everyone in the room continued to watch us.

“Give me whatever you’re best at,” I ordered, causing the man behind the bar who had been aimlessly watching us to jump before fumbling with some glasses and pouring us each a drink.

I took a glass that was full of some ale and then turned back to the crowd. They hadn’t moved or said a thing since we had entered. I glanced to the one standing on the table, raising an eyebrow.

“Well? They’re waiting.”

Chapter 1242

Addressing the leader seemed to be enough to snap him out of his stupor. He quickly straightened his coat, glancing at me suspiciously.

“I’m sorry, this meeting is a bit private.” He stated, his voice sounding a bit tight.

“You’re holding it in a public area.” I reminded him.

He stiffened slightly. “That as it may… we don’t have many large meeting areas to speak. Perhaps I can pay for your drink, and a private room.”

“These are wolfkin, do you think they won’t be able to hear a room over?”

He gave a bitter expression. “I mean, we can find you a temporary accommodation that is much more… suiting for your station.”

I lifted the ale, taking a sip. I had Poison Immunity and Disease Resistance equipped. I generally just always kept it on, so I didn’t need to worry about what I ate or drank. Well, I probably wouldn’t eat disgusting things unless I had to, but I also didn’t want to have to deal with diseases. As to why poison was called immunity, while the disease was resistance, I couldn’t guess. They functioned the same way. They had multiple levels and like many dungeon skills, the more you poured into them, the higher the resistance. Frankly, I had never needed something beyond level 1, but I supposed if there was some kind of magical poison or disease, a higher level would be good.

As I drank slowly, the mayor seemed to be waiting for my answer. The wolfkin wore expressions of indifference as if they didn’t care where they were. They casually took sips silently, taking the opportunity to relax a bit. When I finished drinking, I put the glass on the bar and then stood up. Given my size, I wasn’t much harder to see than the mayor.

“Miki,” I said.

The crowd of people all flinched. If there was any doubt that they knew something about her, or that she had any connection with what was going on, it was completely gone.

“I-I-I’m sorry, who?” The mayor spoke nervously, although he was sweating.

“You know her.” I declared. “Foxkin girl. 9-ninetails. As I understand it, they’re extremely rare. To see one born, let alone living until you could sell her off to slavery, she’d be hard to forget, I think.”

“A-ah… r-right… Miki… we sold her to a slaver. She was very sick and didn’t want to be an inconvenience to her family any longer. That was many years ago. She likely died…” His voice gained strength as he came up with a new lie so obvious I didn’t need Celeste to tell me the difference.

“Two months ago, she was about a day’s travel east of here, in the wildlands. Then, a group of animalkin came and told her that she needed to return home to help her family. Return here.” I stated, causing the mayor’s expression to turn ugly. “So, where is she?”

I was revealing a lot of what I knew, causing the wolf pack to turn to look at me with surprise. However, they weren’t that surprised. They had known that I had been sent to deal with this menace. If I didn’t have some connection to this menace, then when would their lord have depended on me? As for the rest of the crowd, their expressions were a mixture of shock, fear, and even disgust.

The mayor’s eyes narrowed. “Who is Miki to you?”

I supposed it was time to go for broke. I took a step forward and the disguise around me transformed back into my original face.

“I am Lord Deek Deekson. Miki was my slave. Now, what did you do to her?”

Chapter 1243

My true appearance definitely startled the Wolf Pack, although everyone had gasped, a silence piercing across the room for several moments as they took it in. This town wasn’t so large a town that I worried too much about what they thought. Revealing myself to be a human and a lord might have some risk elsewhere, but this was already a town of rejects.

A woman stood up and threw a finger in my direction. “It’s your fault!”

Her words startled me, but they seemed to open a floodgate for the rest. Other people began to stand up as well, shooting accusatory or hateful looks my way.

“You gave her that power!”

“You brought here!”

“She’s the reason we’re cursed!”

“Curse?” I asked, but my voice was lost to a torrid of angry shouts.

The wolfkin stood, as the crowd was quickly becoming hostile. Some people were clutching things in their hands as if they were a moment from throwing them.

“You should have let her die.”

“You’re the reason we suffer.”

“This is your responsibility!”

At that moment, someone let loose. It was a glass cup just like the one that I had been drinking out of, except that it was aimed at my head. I moved my hand, causing my sword to form. I blocked the drink with the broadside of the blade, and then I slammed it into the ground, causing a resounding thud that cut through the screaming crowds.

“Enough!” I bellowed, causing the entire group silence in an instant, and even a few to break out in tears. “I came here for answers, not for accusations. I already take it by your actions that my Miki is connected to this Lady Death. She started here. What. Did. You. Do?”

I cut off each word, and it was enough that several rage-filled eyes turned to shame, looking down to avoid my gaze.

“It seems…” The mayor’s voice arose, causing everyone to turn to him. “That it is impossible now to continue to hide our story.”

“So, you’ll speak? Good, start by answering my questions. Why are you cursed?”

“It… wasn’t us. It was the catkin who did this.”

“The catkin?” I frowned.

“It was the king’s orders. We couldn’t disobey…” He spoke helplessly like he had given up all hope.

“The king?’ The wolf pack leader spoke out in startlement. “Don’t you mean the rabbitkin?”

The mayor looked confused for a moment before shaking his head. “No, these were catkin who built it. They were the ones who were doing…”

His voice broke and he stopped talking.

“What did they build?” I demanded starting to walk toward him. “What were they doing?”

The mayor let out a sigh. “I need to show you something.”

He stepped down from the table, his head lowered in defeat, his tail down. The people remained silent as they watched him walk up to and then past me, heading to the door. I looked at the four wolfkin and then gave a nod, following behind him.

“When were you going to tell us you knew lady death?” The pack leader whispered as we left the end.

“I didn’t know.” I shrugged. “I’m sorry I kept what I knew from you, but it was safer that way.”

The wolfkin looked around at the icy and still somewhat hostile stares of the foxkin and then shuddered. “It might have been safer had you kept it in.”

“We don’t have time,” I responded. “We need to understand what happened.”

The group of us walked out of the inn, following the mayor to see what he had to show.